If you have coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, the answer is easy: yes, you probably should. But if you just want to give the diet a spin, know this: it’s a giant pain in the butt. Giving up gluten may sound as basic as cutting out bread, but this isn’t just another version of the low-carb craze.

Because gluten makes foods thick and tasty, it is added to everything from salad dressing to soy sauce to seasonings. Plus, it’ll cost you bucks. “A strict gluten-free diet is expensive, difficult to follow and will exclude a number of tasty and nutritious foods,” says Epstein. “I never recommend a strict gluten-free diet unless the diagnosis of coeliac disease has been confirmed – this usually requires a combination of three things: blood test, biopsy of the small intestine taken during a gastroscopy test and the patient’s HLA type, a genetic test.”

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If you have gluten intolerance, be sensible and avoid the foods that upset your stomach, Epstein recommends. Besides the hassle and money, you can end up with serious nutritional deficiencies. “Gluten-free doesn’t necessarily equal healthy, especially when people yank vitamin-enriched and wholewheat foods from their diets and replace them with gluten-free brownies,” says Case. In fact, research suggests that those who forgo gluten may be more likely to miss out on important nutrients such as iron, B vitamins and fibre. This is where careful meal planning comes in, which may explain why some people feel so good when they go G-free: they’re eating real food instead of ultra-processed packaged fare.

“If you skip the gluten-free goodies and focus on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, dairy and gluten-free grains like quinoa, this can be a very healthy way of eating,” says dietician Marlisa Brown, author of Gluten-Free, Hassle Free. “But you can’t just wing it.”