Spelt and wheat bread tolerance in suspected wheat sensitivity
What it found
In 24 adults with suspected non-celiac wheat sensitivity, blinded wheat and spelt bread caused similar gut symptoms.
The authors say this points to a strong nocebo effect for wheat and a placebo effect for spelt.
What they found
Studies in people
Wheat vs spelt symptoms
After eating spelt bread, symptom scores were higher than the participants expected. After wheat bread, scores were lower than expected. There was no difference in tolerance between wheat and spelt bread.
Expectations vs reality
Before the study, participants expected moderate symptoms from wheat and only mild symptoms from spelt. When they ate the breads without knowing which was which, the wheat bread caused fewer symptoms than expected and the spelt bread caused more.
FODMAP-enriched bread
The gluten-free bread with added oligosaccharides was better tolerated than both traditionally made breads and equally well tolerated as the current-recipe breads and the gluten-added bread.
Inflammation and barrier markers
No signs of inflammation or markers of intestinal barrier integrity were changed by the breads. One barrier marker, zonulin, rose slightly after traditionally made wheat bread but stayed mostly within the normal range.
Gut bacteria metabolite
After two weeks of wheat bread, levels of one short-chain fatty acid, isocaproic acid, increased in stool. The authors suggest this may be linked to Clostridium difficile and the low-FODMAP diet followed during the study.
What the authors conclude
“Our data do not confirm, on an objective basis, the differences in expected symptoms resulting from wheat and spelt products, suggesting a strong nocebo effect for wheat and a placebo effect for spelt.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that there is no objective difference between wheat and spelt bread in triggering gut symptoms in people with suspected non-celiac wheat sensitivity.
- They say that psychological effects may play an important role in how this group perceives symptoms.
- They also state that a bread rich in oligosaccharides had a positive influence on gut symptoms and warrants further investigation.
How it was done
People with suspected non-celiac wheat sensitivity often report that they tolerate spelt better than wheat, but this experience had not been tested or explained.
Twenty-four adults with a history of non-celiac wheat sensitivity but suspected spelt tolerance ate six different study breads, each at 300 g per day for 4 days, with 3-day washout phases in between, over six weeks. The breads were wheat and spelt made by traditional or current recipes, plus a gluten-free bread with added oligosaccharides and one with added wheat gluten.
What it can’t tell you
- The study only included people who were willing to eat wheat bread, so those with more severe wheat reactions may have been left out.
- The challenge periods were only 4 days long, which may not reflect longer-term eating habits.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- University of Hohenheim, Germany
The paper
- Title
- No Difference in Tolerance between Wheat and Spelt Bread in Patients with Suspected Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Zimmermann J, Longin FH, Schweinlin A, Basrai M, Bischoff SC (2022). No Difference in Tolerance between Wheat and Spelt Bread in Patients with Suspected Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu14142800Free full textPubMed 35889757DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error