A gluten-free diet has no effect on performance

Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. Gluten gives bread its elasticity and helps to give cereal products their firm texture. Gluten is an important source of protein worldwide and a significant protein supplement. Around one or two percent of the population suffer from celiac disease and are allergic to wheat. Symptoms of this allergy can include a range of sometimes serious gastrointestinal disorders.

Some dietary fanatics have extrapolated the gluten problems of people suffering from celiac disease to the entire population, which is ridiculous. In response, many manufacturers are producing gluten-free foods to appease this hysteria. Gluten-free foods have no positive effects on people who do not suffer from celiac disease.

Dana Lis and colleagues from the University of Tasmania in Australia have found that a gluten-free diet has no effect on performance, gastrointestinal symptoms, well-being or inflammatory markers in healthy athletes.

Gluten is an important nutritional component in people who do not suffer from celiac disease.

(Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 47: 2563 - 2570, 2015)