Social media and lifestyle magazines have turned gluten – a protein in wheat, rye, and barley – into a dietary villain.

Athletes and celebrities have promoted gluten-free eating as the secret to better health and performance.

But our review in The Lancet , published today, challenges that idea.

By examining decades of research, we found that for most people who think they react to gluten, gluten itself is rarely the cause.

Symptoms but not coeliac

Coeliac disease is when the body's immune system attacks itself when someone eats gluten, leading to inflammation and damage to the gut.

But people with gut or other symptoms after eating foods containing gluten can test negative for coeliac disease or wheat allergy. They are said to have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.

We wanted to

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