The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7185 p197-203
16 February 2002

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Oats safe for coeliac disease patients

Patients with coeliac disease can safely include moderate amounts of oats in their diets, say researchers from Finland.

The researchers studied biopsies from the small intestines of 28 patients on a gluten-free and oat-free diet and 35 patients on a gluten-free diet that included oats. After five years, no differences between the groups was found. They suggest that patients with coeliac disease can tolerate oats because of structural differences between proteins found in oats, wheat, barley and rye.

"Removal of oats from the list of forbidden cereals in the coeliac diet could increase compliance with a gluten-free diet by giving more choices," they add (Gut 2002;50:332).

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