[What do celiac children eat? Dietary analysis of a group of children with celiac disease on a diet].

A diagnosis of Coeliac Disease (CD) indicates a lifelong compliance to a gluten-free diet (GFD), which implies a change in deeply ingrained dietary habits and may cause dietary imbalances. We studied the dietary intake in a group of children with CD on GFD. CD was diagnosed according to Espgan criteria. Strict compliance to GFD was ascertained by Hydrogen breath-test. For each patient a thorough dietary history was obtained; the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) 1986/1987--Istituto Nazionale della Nutrizione were used as reference measurements. 71.3% of our patients had a daily calorie intake lower than recommended (mean +/- 1SD = -110 +/- 389 kcal/day). Calorie deficiency was mainly due to a low carbohydrate intake (50.2 +/- 7% of daily calorie intake vs. 59% RDA; difference = -4.7 +/- 7%). Fast absorbed simple carbohydrates exceeded by 46% the recommended 10% ratio to complex carbohydrates. Daily fat intake was higher than RDA (+7.7%) in 94.1% of our patients, who obtained from fat 35.7 +/- 5.2% of their daily calorie intake vs 28% recommended. Saturated to unsaturated fat ratio was unbalanced towards saturated fat intake (2.3 +/- 1.1 vs 0.33 recommended). Coeliac children on a GFD have low caloric and carbohydrate intakes and a high fat intake. An unbalance towards simple sugar and saturated fat ingestion was detected. A lifelong protraction of these dietary habits may favour the onset of metabolic diseases in mature age.