Eating gluten from pasta and bread during pregnancy could increase children's risk of diabetes, study finds

Women who eat foods containing gluten such as pasta and bread during pregnancy could increase the risk of their child suffering from diabetes, new research suggests.

A study of 63,500 women found that the more gluten they ate during pregnancy, the higher the chance their child would develop type 1 diabetes by the age of 16.

The researchers from Denmark, Iceland and the US stressed they had not proved the link and that more studies were needed before women should change their eating habits.

But the study revealed that children of women with the highest gluten intake, of 20g or more a day, were twice as likely to develop the autoimmune disease by their mid-teens as those with the lowest gluten intake of under 7g per day.

The risk appeared to increase gradually in line with increased consumption.

While type 2 diabetes is linked to lifestyle, the causes of type 1 remain unclear. It affects around 400,000 people in Britain, including Prime Minister Theresa May.

Type 1 causes the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood to become too high and occurs when the body cannot produce enough of the hormone insulin which controls blood glucose.

Those with type 1 diabetes need daily injections of insulin to keep blood glucose levels under control and is not linked with age or being overweight unlike type 2.

Scientists believed type one diabetes was an unavoidable condition that has more to do with genetics than environmental factors.

Since the latest findings that show a mother’s behaviour could contribute to the development of type 1 diabetes is a controversial idea, the scientists of the study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, said it should be further investigated.

“The safety of substituting gluten-containing foods for other foods and nutrients should be investigated as well as the possibility of obtaining a larger effect by adherence to a completely gluten-free diet,” the team, led by the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, wrote.

Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye and barley and helps foods maintain their shape – acting as a glue that holds it together.

It can be found in many items of food such as baked goods, cereals, sauces and even salad dressings.

Gluten-free diets have become increasingly popular in recent years, despite experts saying there is no need for most people who don’t suffer from coeliac disease to avoid it.

The risks from the study remained small, with only 0.52 per cent of women with the highest consumption having a child with type 1 diabetes.

Lucy Trelfa, research communications officer at Diabetes UK, said: "Finding a link between eating more gluten during pregnancy and a higher risk of type 1 diabetes in babies is interesting, but importantly, this research does not show that gluten causes type 1 diabetes.

“It's also far too early to say just how big a player gluten is.”

Dr Jenny Myers, of the University of Manchester, added: 'What we lack are mechanistic studies which can explain the biology of these observations – only then can we begin to design dietary interventions and be able to advise pregnant women properly.'