Gluten-free bread, cake mixes and bourbon biscuits are also available to people with coeliac disease, an auto-immune disease, which is triggered by eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye.

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Only last week, actress Gwyneth Paltrow provoked the wrath of the dietetic establishment while she was promoting her new low-carb, gluten-free cookbook, by saying she avoids feeding her children bread, rice and pasta.

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