After the much evident link between Celiac, a genetic autoimmune disease with a medical picture of patients that looks underweight, and malnourished, recent studies are in a bid to discover that obesity and a high BMI (Body Mass Index) may also be prominent in celiac patients.

New researchers are initiated to determine BMI changes after initiation of a gluten-free diet, prompting the importance of consuming gluten free after being diagnosed with celiac disease.

Doctors at the Celiac Disease Center of Columbia University analyzed the BMI of 369 patients accumulated via biopsy to have celiac disease, spanning from 1981 to 2007.

Men and women were evaluated separately and the test patients were classified as "classical" meaning diarrhea prominent, or "atypical" meaning they had no diarrhea at the time of celiac diagnosis.

BMI was then divided into four groups on the basis of the World Health Organization criteria.

The study revealed that patients classified as "classical" celiac, female, and with severe villous atrophy, were all discovered as predictors for low BMI.

Also, it revealed that most dramatic changes in BMI rates were in underweight females with celiac disease.