First and foremost, celiac disease is a very real disease. People diagnosed with the condition are unable to digest gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, rye, and barley, and can suffer serious side effects when they ingest food containing these ingredients. Many people that are not diagnosed with celiac disease believe that going “gluten-free” helps alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms. According to a new study though, non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) may not be a real condition, Real Clear Science reports.
Peter Gibson, a professor of gastroenterology at Monash University in Australia, conducted an experiment in 2011 that concluded that NCGS was real. This study helped kick off a “gluten-free” craze -but Gibson wasn’t satisfied with his results.
So he decided to re do the experiment with “ a level of rigor lacking in most nutritional research.” Gibson provided every single meal for his experiment, made sure that all other potential dietary triggers were removed, and collected nine days worth of urine and fecal matter from his subjects. He also made sure each person was confirmed not to have celiac disease but believed their gastrointestinal symptoms improved on a gluten-free diet.
The results of his new stricter experiment? “In contrast to our first study…we could find absolutely no specific response to gluten.”
Read more: Real Clear Science