Only 16 per cent of the people on the blind challenge had their symptoms reproduced when given gluten again, it found.
"Regarding the prevalence of this condition, it is likely that only a small proportion of Australians who associate adverse symptoms with gluten ingestion are truly sensitive to gluten or wheat," the review published today found.
Coeliac disease was once considered rare but one in 100 Australians were now estimated to be affected by it and many more limited their intake despite having no formal diagnosis, the report's authors said.
"An Australia-wide cross-sectional survey found that 7.3 per of the population [with suspected and confirmed coeliac disease excluded] report adverse effects associated with gluten ingestion."
But they warned against adhering to a gluten-free diet if it was not necessary because it was more expensive and had potentially adverse effects on health.
The report cited an Australian study which found eating gluten-free was 5.8 per cent to 16.7 per cent more expensive than a regular diet.
Several studies had also found gluten-free diets did not provide adequate amounts of trace elements and vitamins like calcium, vitamin D, folate, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. A gluten-free diet could also be higher in sugars and saturated fats and negatively affect cardiovascular risk factors, it said.
Dunedin School of Medicine senior lecturer Dr Kristin Kenrick, who specialises in coeliac disease, said her main concern with large numbers of people putting themselves on a gluten-free diet was that many of them would have undiagnosed coeliac disease.
"One of the reasons this is important is that, for coeliac disease, the gluten-free diet needs to be really strict to avoid damage to the gut, and risk of long term health consequences such as bone disease and other autoimmune diseases," she said.
She agreed there were risks to a gluten-free diet and anyone considering taking it up should only do so with advice and input from a dietician.
Kenrick said it was difficult to know how many people were sensitive to wheat or gluten but agreed with report authors who stated it could potentially affect a "significant proportion of the population".
However, the report concluded there were likely to be many who incorrectly attributed their symptoms to gluten when it may be something else causing the problem.