Gluten intake during early childhood linked to increased risk of Type 1 diabetes

The authors conclude: "This study suggests that the child's gluten intake at 18 months of age, and not the maternal intake during pregnancy, could increase the risk of type 1 diabetes in the child. Our observations may motivate future interventional studies with reduced gluten intake to establish whether there is a true causal association between amount of gluten intake in the child's early diet and type 1 diabetes in susceptible individuals."

The authors discuss some possible reasons for the findings, saying: "There is some evidence that gluten intake may influence the gut microbiota and induce inflammation in so-called 'leaky gut' (increased absorption of dietary antigens and/or gut infections). These are plausible mechanisms, but the exact mechanism explaining our findings is not known. If anything, we believe that gluten works in combination with another environmental factors such as virus infections in predisposed children."

They say: "We need confirmation from further studies, and ideally a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to determine any relationship between gluten intake and type 1 diabetes with certainty. Since our findings show the highest risk of developing T1D is in the group with the highest gluten consumption, it could be that simply reducing gluten intake would be enough to reduce risk and this is easier to achieve than complete avoidance. Based on experiences from patients with celiac disease, complete avoidance of gluten is hard but manageable, but this would probably not be necessary.."