Your Gluten-Free Diet Won't Decrease Your Heart Disease Risk

Gluten-free diets have received less than positive attention among critics, and a new study could add fuel to their opinions.

The study found that dietary gluten – a protein found in wheat, grain and barley – is not linked to heart disease risk for those without celiac disease and also found that in a limited gluten diet for non-celiacs, reducing whole grain intake could actually mean higher heart disease risk. Celiac disease, which affects approximately 1 in 100 Americans, is an autoimmune condition caused when gluten leads to inflammation of the small intestine after consumption.

Researchers examined data from more than 100,000 men and women for the study, spearheaded by Columbia University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School researchers and published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal.

Data for the study came from U.S. health professionals: 65,000 women and 45,000 men respectively, who for more than two decades answered diet questionnaires every four years.

As for the study's limitations, it couldn't account for non-celiacs who had a very low-gluten or gluten-free diet. "We did not specifically ask about the intake of gluten-free substitute foods, and participants were not asked about whether they specifically adhered to a gluten-free diet," according to the study.

Going forward, researchers want to see how consuming gluten affects conditions like cancer and autoimmune disease.

"Even those with the lowest amount of gluten consumption experienced the same rate of heart disease as those who were consuming the most gluten," study author and Harvard Medical School associate professor Dr. Andrew Chan said in a statement. "Based on our data, recommending a low-gluten diet solely for the promotion of hearth health does not appear warranted."

That said, Chan told Live Science that people with gluten sensitivity (i.e. non-celiacs who experience trouble eating gluten) can limit their gluten consumption, but warned of precautions.

"It is important to make sure that this [gluten restriction] is balanced with the intake of non-gluten containing whole grains, since these are associated with a lower risk of heart disease," Chan told Live Science.