What Doctors Don't Tell YouCeliac disease is a growing problem, and nutritionists reckon it’s something to do with our growing intolerance of industrialized foods. But new research also believes that it is associated to the time we were introduced to wheat, barley or rye.
Babies who are first given one of the three foods before the age of three months are more likely to develop celiac disease than those who were introduced to the foods between 4 and 6 months. Inexplicably, the second major risk group is those who first had cereals later than 7 months.
These findings are based on a study of 1,560 children who displayed a higher than average risk of developing celiac disease or diabetes. Of these 51 children developed celiac disease and a further 25 had the disease confirmed by small bowel biopsy.
Until more research is done, researchers recommend that cereals are not allowed into the diet until after 3 months – but then we have the problem of babies who are aged over 7 months.
Of course we could always breastfeed our babies, we suppose, but nobody mentioned that as an option.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
