Gluten’s big bounceback (and what it says about wellness in 2025)

Spiralisers were the cutting-edge kitchen gadget of the moment for their ability to churn out ‘courgetti’, while you could hardly scroll Instagram without finding a recipe for flourless beetroot brownies from the likes of Deliciously Ella. Indeed, the then-budding wellness influencer – who penned the best-selling debut cookbook ever in the UK in 2015 – had sent her follower count soaring by sharing a diet devoid of gluten, among other things.

Back then, the appetite for gluten-free was clear, with the industry rising in value from £120.2 million to £462 million between 2010 and 2015. Part of the allure, muses Amber, was how it seemed like a way of life with roots in solid nutrition – not like faddy low-carb diets such as Atkins. ‘I really thought I was being the picture of health,’ she insists.

Kneads must

A decade later, however, Amber isn’t the only one having her (glutinous) cake and eating it. She is part of a collective shift back towards reintroducing gluten that has been surfacing in recent years – and it’s one that’s already got receipts.

While the gluten-free category may still take up significant space in supermarket aisles, research by Mintel suggests that recent market growth has actually been due to high levels of food inflation rather than increased demand. There has also been a 40% growth in sourdough sales at Tesco in the past year alone, and Gail’s saw sales jump by 28% in 2024 – despite stocking just one gluten-free loaf among its roster of 19, and offering zero flourless pastries.

Its return is evident in other places too – notably online, where once gluten-free conversation reigned supreme. Tagliatelle dishes go viral when spun out by Italian nonnas (see @pastagrannies and their one million fans), and tradwives baking homemade loaves are inescapable.

Mills, poster girl for the free-from lifestyle, now sells five different types of wheat-based pasta within her Plants range, available in Waitrose. Then there’s Gwyneth Paltrow, who made global headlines earlier this year when she announced she was back eating sourdough and pasta again. In short, someone requesting a gluten-free tweak as part of their restaurant order feels as stale as a Valencia filter or saying ‘hashtag’ before making a quip.

Talking of which, it was the growing faff of eating out with loved ones – rather than a single moment succumbing to the buttery waft of freshly baked croissants – that nudged Amber to rethink the contents of her plate. What should have been soul-soothing catchups with friends began to take up an inordinate amount of headspace, as she scoured menus before approving restaurants or ended up reluctantly chewing plasticky gluten-free pizza bases.

Reintroducing gluten, in a sense, gave Amber a fresh taste of freedom. She gradually added it back in over the space of six weeks and realised that any bloating and digestive discomfort she may have previously experienced were likely nothing to do with gluten. ‘I had been worrying all this time about an ingredient that I wasn’t actually allergic to,’ she notes.

This is where, experts tell WH, the confusion often lies – because some people certainly should avoid gluten. ‘Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition that means consuming it makes someone’s immune system attack the lining of the small intestine,’ says Jasmine Bliss, a registered associate nutritionist. ‘This causes inflammation and nutrient malabsorption.’ While unlikely to be fatal, the health complications can be serious.

However, according to Coeliac UK, the condition affects just 1% of the population. They attribute the 7.5% increase in diagnoses per year over the past several decades to greater awareness and an increased health-consciousness.

That being said, there is such a thing as non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) – colloquially dubbed gluten intolerance. ‘This is not an autoimmunity or an allergy,’ explains Bliss. ‘It describes symptoms triggered by gluten consumption – like bloating, fatigue, headaches and brain fog.’

Roll back

It’s worries about ‘gluten intolerance’ that arguably fuelled the rise of gluten-free in the first place. Yet it’s still unclear how many people actually suffer from it. Unlike with coeliac disease, there’s no specific test – yes, even including those kits advertised on your feed that are part of a global market valued at $15 billion (£11.4 billion) this year. ‘They can’t accurately diagnose it,’ insists Bliss – and the NHS backs her up.

Despite this, research published in the journal Gut in October showed that self-reported NCGS more than doubled over three years, with significantly more women than men claiming to have the condition. Another study by the University of Melbourne, published the same month, found that most people who believe they’re sensitive to gluten are actually reacting to other factors, like FODMAPs or brain-gut dynamics.

Indeed, they suggested that people who think they have a gluten intolerance may actually be experiencing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms like diarrhoea, bloating and constipation. It’s why sufferers are frequently recommended to try a low-FODMAP diet.

‘Often gluten gets the blame when people are actually sensitive to FODMAPs,’ notes Dr Emily Leeming, a microbiomist (didn’t come across that one in your careers sessions at school, did you?) at King’s College London and author of upcoming book Fibre Power. ‘These are types of fermentable carbohydrates that are often present in the same foods and can cause discomfort for some people.’

The advice is to remove foods for around six weeks, then reintroduce them slowly to find how much you can tolerate – rather than removing them altogether. It’s why Katrina Lander has recently started eating gluten again after years without. ‘I have IBS, so I’ve followed a low-FODMAP diet for a while,’ explains the 33-year-old from Kent. ‘The goal was never to be gluten-free forever, but reintroducing it always led to flare-ups – until I tried again earlier this year, and I’m now better able to tolerate it.’

This tracks, says Bliss, because our guts are malleable and the composition of their microbiomes can change regularly. ‘Many people with IBS find their tolerance of gluten-containing foods changes throughout their lives,’ she elaborates. ‘This means that people who once had trouble digesting bread may end up being fine with it years – or even months – later.’

That something else may be in the mix is confirmed by research. A study published in The Lancet in September examined participants who believed that gluten was behind their IBS symptoms. They were given cereal bars – containing either wheat, gluten or wheat-and-gluten-free flours, without being told which was which – at various points over several weeks. In the end, the researchers found no difference in the symptoms experienced between the bars.

‘NCGS is real, but likely for a smaller population than earlier research suggested,’ says lead researcher Caroline Seiler of McMaster University in Canada. ‘Unlike other studies, ours used a sham-controlled crossover approach – where participants received identical experimental and “sham” products to reduce bias – and found that expectations had a clinically significant effect on symptoms.’ In other words, those who believed they were eating gluten had worse self-reported symptoms, regardless of what they were actually munching on.

Flour power

That we’re not cutting out gluten unnecessarily matters because, as experts emphasise to WH, the foods it is often found in – like a loaf of spelt or wholegrain pasta – form the basis of a nourishing diet. ‘They contain fibre, vitamins, minerals and plant compounds that feed our gut microbes and support long-term health,’ points out Dr Leeming.

Additionally, while natural gluten-free options are aplenty – such as rice, quinoa, couscous and buckwheat – the hard truth is that many unnaturally gluten-free options now constitute that nutritional ick of the moment: ultra-processed foods (UPFs). ‘Many are lower in fibre and higher in sugar than the originals,’ notes Bliss, of how bread made from just flour, water and yeast is likely better for most than something with a lengthy, unpronounceable ingredients list attempting to mimic the real thing.

Avoiding restriction of entire food groups should always be the goal, insists Emilia Thompson, a nutritionist specialising in healthy relationships with food. ‘It can become more difficult to obtain sufficient nutrient-dense energy when eating gluten-free, particularly for active people, to meet fuel and recovery needs,’ she warns.

This is also key for swerving disordered eating. ‘Orthorexia can develop out of any rigid way of eating – including non-medically required gluten-free diets,’ notes Thompson, of the term for an excessive preoccupation with eating healthy food. ‘What starts with good intentions can spiral into strict rules, guilt and anxiety around eating, and these patterns can cause nutrient deficiencies, food preoccupation and shame when the rules are broken.’

Indeed, gluten-free fever may arguably have masked a more insidious diet-culture relic: carb-phobia. ‘The older women in my life would always talk about cutting them out,’ remembers Amber. ‘I think going gluten-free legitimised removing so many foods I was afraid of.’ It was this year, when she began marathon training, that she realised just how important carbs actually were to her results. ‘Bagels honestly seemed like the best pre-run option,’ she shares. ‘They were easy to digest and helped me go further.’

There is also a germinating distrust when it comes to nutritional advice shared online – such as that which originally influenced Amber. Research published last year found that 66% of social media users find it hard to tell whether health information is true or false. ‘People are suffering with information fatigue – particularly when advice is often conflicting,’ says health psychologist Joanna Rodrigez. ‘I’m seeing more people prioritise self-trust.’

The gluten renaissance also comes at a time of growing awareness of the bog-standard – for lack of a better term – movements of the digestive system. ‘It’s completely normal and natural to get bloating when we eat – our bodies will change throughout the day,’ insists Dr Leeming. ‘As well as your stomach increasing in volume to factor in food and its waste, your gut bacteria are breaking down the meals you’re eating and a by-product of that process is gas.’

Of course, for those who have coeliac disease or a confirmed gluten intolerance – something that should be approached with the support of a healthcare professional, like a doctor or dietitian – gluten remains out of bounds. For the rest of us, experts WH spoke to are unanimous that a little bit of everything is the healthiest way to eat. ‘The balance lies in not demonising foods. It’s about the overall pattern of your diet and making sure that most of what you’re consuming is fresh, varied and nutrient-dense,’ adds Bliss.

As for Amber? The voice in her head that once screamed that gluten was ‘poison’ – regurgitated from the post captions of wellness ‘gurus’ – sometimes reappears when she takes a mouthful of fusilli. ‘But, in the future, I don’t want to refuse to eat a cupcake my kid made for me at school because it contains flour,’ she reflects. ‘I just want to feel grateful that my body functions to digest gluten when I know that others can’t.’

Breaking bread?

Listen to your body
‘Any sign of digestive symptoms – including diarrhoea, bloating and stomach aches – need to be discussed with your GP to rule out coeliac disease and other conditions like colitis,’ says Bliss. ‘Other notable symptoms to be aware of include nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, weight loss and mouth ulcers.’

Cut with caution
It’s important, if you are concerned you have coeliac disease or NCGS, to talk to your doctor to be referred for tests. ‘It’s crucial people don’t remove gluten from their diets before this,’ insists Bliss. ‘This is so that any antibodies produced by the immune system in response to it are present and you don’t receive a false negative.’ Additionally, any eventual removal should be done with the support of a dietitian or registered nutritionist to avoid nutritional deficiencies.

Reintroduce slowly
If you are inviting gluten back into your life, do so with care. Bliss suggests doing this ‘blind’ – meaning you don’t know when you’re eating it, so you avoid suffering digestive symptoms as a result of worrying about the ingredient. ‘If you have a partner who cooks for you, ask them to start swapping your gluten-free spaghetti for a wheat-based one at random intervals,’ she suggests. Try to prioritise wholegrain and low-UPF options where possible.