– We’ve seen in previous studies that the amount of gluten you eat plays a role in the risk of getting sick. In GRAIN, we want to see if we can prevent the onset of the disease by simply consuming less gluten than current recommendations during the first years of life, says Daniel Agardh, a physician at Skåne University Hospital and Adjunct Professor at Lund University, who is responsible for the study.
Two percent of the population
In Sweden, up to two per cent of the population is estimated to have coeliac disease. The disease is to some extent hereditary and to develop the disease at all, one must inherit specific risk genes. A person who is a carrier of one of these risk genes, is at significantly higher risk of developing coeliac disease. If one has a close relative (mother, father or sibling) with celiac disease, the risk of developing the disease increases further. The children participating in GRAIN participated at birth in the ASTR1D screening (which maps the children’s genetic risk of developing type 1 diabetes and celiac disease) and were found to carry one of the genes.
Limited gluten consumption
Half of the participants will maintain a gluten-reduced diet up to the age of five. Following a gluten-reduced diet means that the daily consumption of flour-based foods (containing gluten) will be limited. Examples of these foods include all kinds of bread, buns, biscuits, porridge, gruel, pancakes/waffles and pasta. The other half of the children will eat as usual.
After that, the children will be followed up to the age of ten, when all of them will start eating a "”normal diet”, i.e., the food that the family would have eaten anyway.
– By avoiding large amounts of gluten in the first few years of life, we believe that it is possible to slowly train the child’s own immune system to tolerate gluten later in life, says Daniel Agardh.
