You are what you (Wh)eat

Amber waves of grain (Image source: www.pageresource.com)

Wheat, the staff of life, the world’s most consumed product, it has been getting a bad rap lately.

Is the downgrading of wheat, if you still want to call it that, deserved?

I can hear you all shouting at your computer screens right now, “Wheat is wheat!” “What does she mean, if we still want to call it that?”

Well, by the time you’ve finished reading this post, a brief snippet of information that I have garnered in the course of only three chapters of Doctor William Davis’ book Wheat Belly, you too will be wondering what this substance called “wheat” really is today.

Seed Head Wheat (Image Source: www.islandgrains.com)

Why mess with nature’s bounty? Well, what if you could make wheat more manageable for bakers, say,… less sticky? Would you modify its genetics?

And what if you could genetically modify wheat to make it produce more seeds and hardier against tougher climates? But that modification to make more seeds grow on the head would force the shaft/stem to buckle, making it almost impossible to harvest the seeds.

Then you’d have to modify the shaft or stem length genetically to make it shorter and sturdier, so that the heavier seed head wouldn’t cause bulking, or the bending of the shaft/stem. Right? All sounds good so far? Yeah, I thought so too.

According to Dr. Davis, the wheat that we consume today is a hybridized dwarf wheat that was introduced onto the market in the 1960’s and the scientist behind the genetic modification of this new wheat, Norman Borlaug, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Huh? I suppose it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Then Doctor Davis tells me that this new hybridized “dwarf” wheat which had a heavier seed head was never tested on humans. It was just consumed, by us, without us ever really knowing what it could do to our digestive systems, and beyond.

The problems start the minute we put that wheat into our mouths. It can cause skin rashes, acid reflux, stomach cramps, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, colon cancer, bloating (the least of our worries here) cardiac problems, diabetes, coeliac disease, gluten intolerance, insomnia and increases visceral fat, which is apparent in weight gain.

Thanks to Gifsoup.com for those fantastic animations! If you didn’t get the visual of “you are what you (wh)eat” at the beginning of this blog post, you sure as heck have a visual now.

Even the folks over at Grainstorm.com agree, wheat today is not the wheat of 50 plus years ago. Even worse, all the good stuff gets taken out during milling!  And the good people over at Authority Nutrition are backing them up on that! So all wheat is not created equally.

Beware of the bread! (Image source: Authority Nutrition)

And don’t be fooled into thinking “I live on an island in the middle of nowhere and this GMO wheat won’t effect me!”

99% of the world’s wheat is this new hybridized dwarf wheat according to Doctor Davis. So, hey, yeah! That means you are most certainly consuming this stuff.

And it isn’t just in bread! It is hidden in a lot of different foods. Here’s a very quick list from a great blog called 3FC

• Breads.
• Baked Goods. Cakes, cookies, pastries.
• Pasta. Pasta, unless it states that it is made from rice or quinoa.
• Pizza. Pizza is also made from flour and unless it has a special label stating that it is gluten free.
• Breaded and Battered Foods.
• Cereals.
• Canned Soups.
• Vegetables. Frozen or canned vegetables prepared in a sauce, as well as creamed vegetables.
• Sauces, commercially prepared sauces, such as soy sauce, Worcestershire, teriyaki, and horseradish sauce.
• Dip and Gravy Mixes.
• Ground Spices contain a wheat agent that prevents them from clumping.
• Instant Drinks.
• Deserts. Ice cream, ice cream cones, sherbet, icings, meringues and puddings.
• Condiments. Ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard.
• Salad Dressings.
• Meats. Sausages, luncheon, and prepared meat patties.
• Imitation and Synthetic Cheeses. Pasteurized cheese spreads, cottage cheese containing modified or wheat starches, blue cheese and veined cheeses like Roquefort.
• Beer.
• Sweets. Licorice, chocolate, candy with cereal extract, and chewing gum.

Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis (Image Source: Amazon.com)

According to Doctor William Davis, wheat is poison, modern wheat is a “perfect chronic poison,” he says in a CBS interview. You can watch the interview below and then decide for yourself,… is my symptom/symptoms the result of consumption of dwarf wheat? The only way you can find out is to eliminate wheat from your diet.

Look for labels that say Wheat Free, or Gluten free. I can tell you this, I did wheat free for 5 days and slept like a baby. The night I had bread and half a bag of M&Ms, I woke up every hour on the hour with vivid dreams, another symptom of wheat sensitivity.

This is week 2 of my 10 week wheat free challenge. So far, two falls, the night I ate bread, and the night I had pasta. I’ll keep trying, reading labels and paying attention to what I (wh)eat.

 

 

 

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