Celiac Disease vs. 'Gluten-Sensitive' Dec. 12, 2013 -- It’s not unusual for people to say they feel much better after dropping gluten from their diets, even though they don't have celiac disease, digestive experts report.

What these people describe has come to be called “non-celiac gluten sensitivity,” or NCGS. It's a little-studied diagnosis that has contributed to the growing market for gluten-free products, expected to surpass $6.2 billion worldwide by 2018, according to one estimate.

NCGS is “a wildly popular topic on the Internet,” says Douglas Seidner, MD. “There’s a lot of discussion, a bit of confusion.”

Seidner is director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Vanderbilt University. He spoke about the gluten controversy last Saturday at a meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

In celiac disease, eating a protein in wheat, rye, and barley called gluten triggers inflammation in the small intestines.

The problem is that little is known about NCGS, from how much gluten is needed to trigger symptoms to whether gluten is even the culprit, Seidner says. Meanwhile, he says, many people are eliminating gluten from their diets because they think it will improve their health, even if they don’t have celiac disease.

Gluten helps bread rise and gives bread, pasta, noodles, and other wheat products elasticity and appealing texture.

Gluten-Free Diet: Getting Started