Is gluten-free bread healthier than regular bread?

At the grocery store, the bread selection can stretch across an entire aisle. And among those amber waves of bread loaves, bagels and buns are a few gluten-free options, which can cost about twice as much as their wheat-based counterparts. Are they a more nutritious choice?

As is often the case with nutrition questions, the answer will depend on your individual circumstance, said Jerlyn Jones, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and a registered dietitian in Atlanta. But for most people, choosing a gluten-free bread instead of a wheat-based bread is not an inherently more nutritious option, she added.

Gluten is a protein found in the grains of wheat, barley and rye. In traditional bread made from wheat flour, gluten forms a protein network that makes dough cohesive and stretchy and gives bread that quintessentially satisfying, chewy texture.

But gluten or other components of wheat can cause health problems in some. For the estimated 1% of people worldwide who have celiac disease, a serious autoimmune condition triggered by eating gluten, the protein causes intestinal damage that can impair nutrient absorption and lead to symptoms like diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue, anemia and a blistery, itchy rash.

For others with milder wheat-related sensitivities, it can cause gastrointestinal discomfort and symptoms like fatigue and headache that usually go away when wheat is avoided.

If you have celiac disease, wheat sensitivity or a wheat allergy, going with a gluten-free bread is clearly the better choice.

A third, less common wheat-related condition is a wheat allergy.

If you have celiac disease, wheat sensitivity or a wheat allergy, going with a gluten-free bread is clearly the better choice. But in a 2017 survey of 1,000 people in the United States and Canada who purchased gluten-free groceries — conducted by food and beverage

ingredient supplier Ingredion — 46% said they bought those products for reasons other than a medical condition. Among their top motivations: wanting to reduce inflammation or consume fewer artificial ingredients, believing that gluten-free products were healthier or more natural, and thinking that such products would help with weight loss.

However, none of these beliefs is true, said Anne R. Lee, a registered dietitian and an assistant professor of nutritional medicine at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center.

“Typically, the gluten-free products are higher in fat, higher in sugar, higher in salt and lower in fiber and your B vitamins and iron,” she said.

AILEEN SON/NEW YORK TIMES 2021 Bread made from wheat flour has gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye that forms a network which makes dough cohesive, stretchy and gives bread a satisfying, chewy texture.