People with celiac disease are hypersensitive to gluten, ingestion of which can cause difficulty in digesting food.
Families of children diagnosed with celiac disease may have to adopt a special diet to make sure that the children are served with food that have been stripped of gut-damaging gluten.
Unfortunately, a growing number of parents whose children do not have the medical necessity to eliminate the protein, commonly found in wheat and other grains, give their kids gluten-free diet in the belief that they are giving their kids a healthier alternative.
"Out of concern for their children's health, parents sometimes place their children on a gluten-free diet in the belief that it relieves symptoms, can prevent CD, or is a healthy alternative without prior testing for CD or consultation with a dietitian," said Norelle Reilly, from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
While gluten-free food products are strongly advised for children with celiac disease, these are not at all healthier for children who do not have the condition.
Gluten-free food, for instance, may contain more fat, sugar or sodium, which can lead to unwanted weight gain. Gluten adds food texture and flavor to food so products that eliminate it may compensate by adding more of these fattening ingredients.
Reilly noted that gluten-free food products are less likely to be fortified with vitamins and minerals, so children given gluten-free diet likely lose a lot of fiber, iron and B vitamins.
"Gluten-free packaged foods frequently contain a greater density of fat and sugar than their gluten-containing counterparts," Reilly wrote in her commentary published in the Journal of Pediatrics on May 13.
"Increased fat and calorie intake have been identified in individuals after a GFD. Obesity, overweight, and new-onset insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome have been identified after initiation of a GFD."
A 2014 analysis conducted by Consumer Reports also revealed that many of gluten-free foods contain rice-based ingredients.
Rice contains higher levels of inorganic arsenic compared with other food partly because, as the rice plant grows, it tends to absorb arsenic more readily compared with other food crops. Inorganic arsenic has long been associated with cancer.
