Coeliac Awareness Week. Is wheat intolerance common?
Coeliac disease is a serious auto-immune disease, and all those diagnosed coeliac by blood test or jejunal biopsy must follow their doctor’s advice and avoid gluten in wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats.
There are however, many people who do not have coeliac disease, but have suspicions that wheat and gluten give them symptoms, and have as a result put themselves on a gluten–free diet.
When I test people to see which foods they react to, 99% of the people who suspect wheat / gluten are actually intolerant of something else in bread, or a filling of a sandwich, or something eaten with pasta.
Less than 1% of the people I test are intolerant of wheat or gluten.
Here are 8 foods which people are actually reacting to when they get gastric symptoms after eating bread or pasta. I emphasise again…these are people who have self diagnosed a wheat / gluten intolerance.
- Yeast is in nearly all bread. 38% of the adults whom I test have a positive reaction to yeast.
- Cheese Eaten by many people with pasta and on pizza. 39% of people whom I test have a positive reaction to cheese.
- Cow’s milk products. When used with a wheat-based cereal. 37% of adults and 82% of children whom I test have a positive reaction to cow’s milk products.
- Sunflower seeds and sunflower oil. In seeded breads. 7% of people whom I test have a positive reaction to sunflower.
- Soya flour is in nearly all bread. 3% of adults and 10% of children whom I test have a positive reaction to soya.
- Calcium proprionate E282. A preservative in many breads. 2% of people whom I test have a positive reaction to E282.
- Mono and diglycerides of fatty acids E 471/472. In many breads and margarines. 2% of people whom I test have a positive reaction to E471/2.
- In granary and malted breads. Slightly less than 1% of people whom I test have a positive reaction to malt.
Wheat …..less than 1% of people tested. Gluten……less than 0.25% of people tested.