Celiac disease and early diet

In early-life, post wearing diet had a great influence in determining whether the children were likely to suffer from celiac disease.

 Potential Influence of dietary patterns

Children at age 1  who relied on prudent diet – a diet that consists of grains, vegetables and vegetables oils, were not exposed to  high chances of suffering from celiac disease autoimmunity when they reach 6 years old, with a ratio of 0.67(95% CI 0.53-0.84).

In contrast, young children whose diets constituted snacks and processed food in high percentage had a high probability (statistically insignificant) of developing celiac disease with a ratio of 1.19(95% CI 0.76-1.18) while those whose diets involved meat, cereals and dairy had a ratio of 1.18(95% CI 0.96-1.46), this is according to the online report that was published by the researchers in Gastroenterology.

In addition, the team also explained that celiac infection is currently recognized to be a common autoimmune systemic disorder that generally affects the population at approximate rate of 1% to 3%.

Supporting the concept of celiac infection to be an autoimmune disorder is the same as to confirm that gluten exposure in genetically predisposed people that results into the development of auto antibodies, more so the inflammation of the small intestines mucosa and anti-tissue transglutaminase 2 (TG2A).

Diet Has Impact on Diseases

Previous studies have shown how diet can influence diseases, without excluding the potential benefits that results from Mediterranean-like plant-based diets. These benefits are likely to prevent both the inflammatory disorders and autoimmune problems. For example, it has been suggested by the studies that some foods like red meat and saturated fatty acids have the possibility to trigger the inflammatory mediators hence resulting into systematic inflammation. It is also important to note that disturbances that occur in the gut microbiome may result into immune imbalances that in turn may lead to the development of immune-mediated disease.

But much is not known concerning the potential influence of dietary patterns in children and celiac disease development. For this reason, researchers from Generation R study have analysed the data which is known to be a population-based cohort trial that is found in Rotterdam and had been enrolling children from the year 2002 to 2006. The parents of the enrolled children had to complete a food-frequency questionnaire when these children were 1 year old by approximation. The questionnaires included about 200 food items that were commonly consumed by Dutch children who were not yet 2 years old.

The investigators were able to identify about 1,997 children whose dietary information was complete and whose TG2A status were also known.

Evaluation

Evaluation was then done on five empirical dietary patterns some of which are discussed below:

The first one was a pre-defined pattern that was based on food groups e.g. fruits, cereals vegetables, and meat. This included a diet quality score well calculated on the basis on actual and recommended consumption. This was termed as “Diet quality score pattern”.

The second one was posteriori dietary patterns. These patterns were identified through principal component analysis and were referred to as prudent diet- a diet that constitutes of savory snacks in large quantity, it also contained refined cereals and sweets and diet with predominary dairy products that contained low fat.