Gluten-free diet may ease gas, bloating

DEAR DOCTOR K: I’m a healthy young person, but I tend to have a lot of gas, bloating and diarrhea. Could a gluten-free diet help me?

DEAR READER: Gluten-free eating is essential for people with celiac disease, which is an intolerance to the protein gluten. This protein is found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye.

About 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with celiac disease. In people with this disease, gluten provokes the immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine. It causes gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, headache, trouble concentrating and fatigue. It also leads to weight loss and malnutrition.

Given your symptoms, you should talk to your doctor about getting tested for celiac disease. If you have it, you definitely should be on a gluten-free diet.

Two million Americans follow a gluten-free diet – and that’s a lot more than have celiac disease. Many really believe it helps them, and recent studies have found that they may be right.

There now is good evidence for a condition called nonceliac gluten sensitivity. It causes gas, bloating and indigestion, but no intestinal damage. The evidence for nonceliac gluten sensitivity comes from studies of people who believe they have gluten sensitivity. The people have been chosen at random to eat foods containing gluten or not containing gluten – with neither the doctors nor the subjects in the study knowing what they were eating. Those who thought they had symptoms from gluten really did.

If you don’t have celiac disease but you have symptoms after consuming gluten, try a gluten-free diet for a brief time to see if you feel better. Many foods now are labeled as being gluten-free.

A gluten-free diet based on fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains that do not contain gluten, such as brown rice and quinoa, can be quite healthy.