In New York, a study of more than 100,000 men and women led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School revealed that dietary gluten is not associated with heart disease risk in people without celiac disease. The findings suggest that limiting whole grains as part of a low-gluten diet may increase the risk of heart disease in people who do not have celiac disease.
Researchers analyzed diet and coronary heart disease data on 65,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 45,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, excluding anyone who had been diagnosed with celiac disease. Each participant filled out detailed diet questionnaires every four years, from 1986 to 2010. The participants were divided into five levels of estimated gluten consumption.
The researchers found no association between gluten intake and risk of coronary heart disease, defined as fatal or non-fatal heart attacks.