If lunch was a pantomime, bread would be the bad guy. Enter stage left: a sandwich…. boo hissss! Widow Twankey comes dressed as a salad; but everyone is looking for a hero who will come to the rescue wearing a wheat-free wrap.

It’s a stupid-sounding story, but according to celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, gluten-containing foods are inherently bad for us. They are said to sap energy levels, cause many digestive ailments and prevent you from getting a ‘beach ready’ body. Gluten is a combination of proteins found in everything contain wheat, barley or rye and has formed part of our diet for thousands of years. For a small percentage of people, gluten and wheat can cause digestive problems, yet recent surveys show that one in five women think they are intolerant of it. Having caught whiff of this trend, supermarkets now offer more ‘free-from’ products than ever before and sales of gluten-free foods have skyrocketed in the past two years – rising faster than any freshly proved loaf.

Cutting down on high calorie cakes and pastries may be a healthy option, but going totally gluten-free on a whim may be unwise. Abdominal gripes are incredibly common: a third of have some kind of tummy trouble right now – be it in the form of bloating, indigestion or aches. Recent experiments show that it gluten isn’t always the cause – even in people who think it is. Going on a gluten-free diet can be quite drastic and involves cutting out all bread, pasta, pastries and crackers (unless labelled gluten-free), plus a host of other foods that often contain wheat-based ingredients, such as burgers, beer, cooking sauces, hams, flavoured snacks and many breakfast cereals. Gluten-free breads are often more highly processed than their wheat-containing equivalents and research shows that many gluten-free eaters lack dietary fibre and may be deficient in iron, B vitamins and folate.

Perhaps the biggest danger of cutting out gluten without medical supervision is that doing so could mask a very real disorder: coeliac disease. Next week is coeliac awareness week, and charity Coeliac UK say that over half a million people in the UK live with the condition without realising. It causes in bloating, diarrhoea, indigestion, mouth ulcers, wind, fatigue, and weight loss after eating gluten. Coeliac disease is an ‘autoimmune’ condition that sees the body’s own immune system attacking the inner lining of the gut and can lead to serious long-term complications. Thankfully, straightforward medical tests are available through your doctor that can diagnose it – but not if you try to cut out gluten before getting tested.

Coeliac UK are calling upon those who suffer a funny tummy (or the other symptoms above) to ask the question ‘Is it Coeliac Disease?’. Before even considering cutting out wheat, they suggest a visit to the website isitcoeliacdisease.org.uk for a quick online assessment to find out whether you are at risk of coeliac disease. It only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s far better than believing fairy tales.