Sorghum another solution for coeliacs?

Sorghum, a cereal grain, has been considered a 'safe' food for those with coeliac disease for some time, even though no actual testing of its tolerability by coeliac patients has been carried out.

This assumption was based on the knowledge that sorghum is more closely related to maize than it is to wheat, rye or barley (grains that contain gluten proteins that trigger a reaction in those with coeliac disease).

But recent research in Europe, involving both in vitro and in vivo testing with sorghum, has added more backing to the view that sorghum is safe for those with coeliac disease.

The researchers performed in vitro testing, using intestinal tissue samples from eight patients with coeliac disease and four non-coeliac controls. These tissue samples were cultured with wheat, sorghum or nothing and the immune response checked.

While the wheat triggered an immune response in the tissue from coeliac patients, the sorghum did not!

So, in vivo testing followed; for this stage of the study, two female coeliac patients ate sorghum products (bread, biscuits and cakes) for five days. The patients reported gastro-intestinal and non-gastro-intestinal symptoms and had blood tests to check for antibodies – no adverse reactions were found or reported.

These results suggest that sorghum may indeed be safe for people with coeliac disease – but further research is still required to check the long-term safety of sorghum for those with coeliac disease.

Source: Clinical Nutrition, August 2007