If you’re thinking of going on a gluten-free diet, think again. A new report by Harvard University’s Department of Nutrition suggests a diet low in gluten may increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Their study, which analyzed almost 200,000 people from three long-term studies and 4.24 million person-years of follow-up from 1984–1990 to 2010–2013, showed that those in the highest 20% of gluten consumption had a 13% lower risk of diabetes than those with the lowest daily amount eaten, which was less than 4 grams.
Huffington Post reports:
The researchers found that those who ate less gluten also ate less cereal fibre, which is found in many of the foods containing gluten such as bread and pasta — an important preventative factor for developing diabetes. However, even after accounting for this, there was still a higher diabetes risk. The 20 percent of participants who ate the most amount of gluten in the study had a 13 percent lower risk of going on to develop Type 2 diabetes.
Read more here.