Autoimmune diseases and diet
Conditions in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues, and for which diet plays a variable role: central in some cases, supportive in others.
In an autoimmune disease, the immune system stops telling self from non-self and attacks the body’s own tissues. Type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease all work this way, with different targets.
The role of diet varies greatly from one disease to another, and that is the most important point to grasp. In coeliac disease, it is both the cause and the treatment: strict gluten avoidance is the therapy. In type 1 diabetes, diet is not involved in the onset but becomes central to day-to-day management. In most other conditions, it plays only a supporting role.
This is what makes “anti-autoimmune” diets problematic. Very broad elimination protocols are circulating, promising remission through diet alone. The evidence for them is weak, and they carry a double risk: real nutrient deficiencies and, above all, delaying or abandoning an effective medical treatment.
Three avenues are the subject of active research without being established recommendations: the role of the gut microbiota, that of gut barrier permeability, and vitamin D status. They justify medical follow-up, not nutritional self-treatment.