Gluten free diets and gluten allergies have become drastically more prominent in general populations within the United Sates in recent years due to weight loss, metabolic syndromes, and intestinal symptoms. This protein is present in wheat, barley, and rye which is a major component in Western diets. In recent cases and studies on celiac disease in particular, there has been correlation between neuropsychiatric symptoms (cognitive impairment, mental health diagnostics, etc.) and the immune response when gluten is ingested. Researchers from JAMA Network are now questioning whether individuals, specifically women, who are not celiac, but have been intaking gluten on a daily basis have the same effect in cognitive function and impairment.
To test this theory, researchers examined 13,494 women from Nurses’ Health Study II who roughly have the same diet/exercise patterns and who have passed and completed a cognitive assessment to ensure no prior diagnoses. Each of the individuals in the study were roughly ingesting 6.3 (g/day) of gluten from various sources however there was a lower quintile ingesting 4.3 (g/day) and a higher quintile ingesting 8.6 (g/day). The age, BMI, diet, and exercise were very similar throughout the range of quintiles; however, there were higher percentages of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia in the lower quintile. In the higher quintile there were higher percentages of mental disorders such as depression. The research throughout this study also showed that there was a trivial increase in learning and working memory scores in both the high and low quintiles. Even though, there was this increase, there was no statistically significant difference in psychomotor speed and attention score, and the global cognition score.
As a result of these studies throughout the general populations, there was no evidence of any consequential connection between long-term and even short-term gluten intake and cognitive function. These results now show that FAD diets, precisely a gluten free diet for someone who is not celiac, are not necessary from a cognitive standpoint. This key protein and nutrient does not have a significant effect in this function that is starting to become more prominent in individuals with celiac disease.
Wang Y, Lebwohl B, Mehta R, et al. Long-term Intake of Gluten and Cognitive Function Among US Women. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(5):e2113020. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13020
Hello Cassidy! Thank you for your post. I often feel the desire to cut gluten out of my diet, simply because media tends to make it out tot be an evil thing that causes acne, weight gain, etc. I think this would fall under the FAD diets you mention at the end of your post (unless I do eventually find out that I am gluten intolerant). A couple of preliminary questions that came up when reading your post were:
ReplyDelete1.) You say at the beginning of your post that " Gluten free diets and gluten allergies have become drastically more prominent in general populations within the United Sates in recent years due to weight loss, metabolic syndromes, and intestinal symptoms. " I was wondering if it is more likely that diagnoses of gluten allergies have become more prominent? Like this issue has always existed and people just did not know about it, they thought they had other health issues? Just an thought I had as I was reading.
2.) I was also wondering about the overall health affects of gluten on the general population. As you mentioned in your post, the cognitive function of individuals without a gluten allergy is not affected by gluten consumption. I wondered if there were any adverse affects physically when its comes to consuming gluten in general. In an review article from Harvard, the author states that there is no connection found between heart disease and long-term gluten consumption. In fact they found that non celiac individuals who avoid gluten may actually have an increased potential for heart disease because of the reduced consumption of whole grain foods. It was also suggested that gluten may even act as a prebiotic in the gut. To add to that, many of the health issues you cited the lower quintile of the study having (hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia) are shown to be connected with a non gluten intolerant person avoiding gluten. So, overall, it seems gluten is not bad for the average individual, which is good to know.
I found your post to be very interesting and thought provoking. I definitely will be eating bread without guilt from here on out :)
Here is the link to the article I was reading:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/gluten/
Hello, I like your post and I did some additional research that I think you might interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor individuals without any gluten sensitivity, not only are gluten free diets not beneficial from a cognitive standpoint, but it can actually be harmful physiologically. Gluten free diets can increase a persons risk for hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, coronary artery disease, and malnutrition.
With that being said, surprisingly, a gluten-free diet *can* be beneficial to certain non-celiac individuals. For example, people with endometriosis have been shown to have a reduction in pain when gluten was removed from their diet.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866307/