More and more people are shunning gluten from their diet, due to the personal realisation that it simply doesn’t agree with them. However, without the medical diagnosis of coeliac disease, their choice to have a gluten-free diet is often greeted with scepticism, both by doctors and their family and friends around them. A new rigorous study conducted at the National Institute of Health in America has now added valuable evidence that non-coeliac gluten sensitivity is a genuine condition, and requires much greater study.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial recruited 59 people claiming gluten sensitivity. Each day they were given either a pill containing gluten, or a placebo of rice starch. After only one week, those taking the gluten pill reported significantly increased intestinal pains, bloating, foggy mind, depression and stomach ulcers, compared to the placebo group.