Gluten is a protein that can be found in some cerals. People who have intolerance to this protein suffer from celiac disease and the intake of gluten produces them the atrophy of the intestinal villi, which affects the capacity to absorb food nutrients.

People diagnosed must eliminate gluten completely from their diets for life.  Nevertheless, they may keep enjoying the healthy benefits and the pleasures of the Mediterranean diet taking into account these four basic principles:

1 . Eliminate any products containing wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut or triticale.

2 . Consume fresh and minimally processed foods.

3 . Read food nutrition labels carefully to verify they not contain gluten and avoid unlabelled unpackaged products.

4 . Make sure the food ordered in restaurants, in schools or company catering services does not contain flour of cereals with gluten and that it has not been prepared using the same containers that may have been used to prepare other foods which contain gluten.

The list of ingredients which usually appears on the labelling of foodstuffs that contain or may contain gluten are: Gluten, cereals, flour, modified starches (E-1404, E-1410, E-1412, E-1413, E-1414, E-1420, E-1422, E1440, E-1442, E-1450), starch products, fibre, thickening agents, semolina, protein, vegetable protein,  protein hydrolisate, malt, malt extract, yeast, yeast extract, spices and aromas.