section_path: As a food/Health advisories
section_name: Health advisories
paragraph_text: Health advisories
  
  Consumed worldwide by billions of people, wheat is a significant food for human nutrition, particularly in the least developed countries where wheat products are primary foods. When eaten as the whole grain, wheat supplies multiple nutrients and dietary fiber recommended for children and adults. In genetically susceptible people, wheat gluten can trigger coeliac disease. Coeliac disease affects about 1% of the general population in developed countries. The only known effective treatment is a strict lifelong gluten-free diet. While coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as a wheat allergy. Other diseases triggered by eating wheat are non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (estimated to affect 0.5% to 13% of the general population), gluten ataxia, and dermatitis herpetiformis. Certain short-chain carbohydrates present in wheat, known as FODMAPs (mainly fructose polymers), may be the cause of non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. As of 2019, reviews have concluded that FODMAPs only explain certain gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, but not the extra-digestive symptoms that people with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity may develop. Other wheat proteins, amylase-trypsin inhibitors, have been identified as the possible activator of the innate immune system in coeliac disease and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. These proteins are part of the plant's natural defense against insects and may cause intestinal inflammation in humans.