Wheat May Be Hurting You

As the human population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, modern agriculture continues to keep up. As a result, some expedited practices in food processing are showing to possibly be taking a toll on human health.

One suspect food, found in just about everything you eat, is wheat. For decades, avoiding wheat gluten has helped many enhance their health, particularly those who suffer with celiac disease. However, simply choosing wheat (yup, even non-organic raw wheat), or products that contain wheat, could be affecting your health regardless of a wheat gluten sensitivity.

Learn how eating wheat (it’s a lot more than you may think) can affect your body and some healthier alternatives you might be able to choose.

Super Wheat Saves Famine

As previously mentioned, high population and limited resources perpetuated a search for easier food that could be grown to address famine. The attempt was successful, carried out by Dr. Norman Borlaug who won a Nobel Peace prize in 1970 for creating a high yield strain of wheat. This yield enabled ten times more wheat per acre and famine was significantly decreased. Unfortunately, Dr Borloug and others didn’t realize the long term effects of this “super wheat”.

The Semi-Dwarf Toxin

In the demanding market of wheat production, it seems that any means necessarily to produce more for more profit is worth the nominal dangers that may threaten human health. It is not the fault of the wheat industry either, the wheat demand is perpetuated by advertising, one-grain production convenience, and lack of information correlating with standards and practices. The enormity of wheat consumption mitigates the threat.

One example of this is a known toxin embedded in a specific wheat strain currently in production and distribution to the general public.

Alternative Daily reported,

“There are also about a million acres of what is known as Clearfield Wheat being grown in the Pacific Northwest. It is a semi-dwarf strain of wheat that has had its seed and embryos exposed to a chemical, sodium azide, which is an industrial toxin.”

The report goes on to detail the systemic horrors this toxin can wreak on human health. However, once again, because wheat is so ubiquitous, the threat is saturated and difficult to track. In the meantime, some wheat company strategies will go to great lengths to make you believe their product is healthy.

The AD report continues,

“The makers of Clearfield wheat claim that their product is a result of “enhanced, traditional plant breeding techniques,” making a distinction between genetically modified wheat. However, although no gene splicing techniques were used, many other methods were, such as the purposeful induction of mutations using chemicals, high dose x-ray and radiation techniques to induce mutations coupled with cross breeding.”

This is one example of how the dangers of overconsumption of wheat may be affecting your health. Although it can’t yet be confirmed on a whole, small pockets of studies are continually under way to determine the potentially detrimental effects of industrialized toxins found in wheat. Anything from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) to other autoimmune diseases to various cancers may be linked to over-consuming industrialized wheat.

Other Responses to Wheat

It may be no surprise that toxins are found in wheat, they seem to be found in so many processed foods. However, just the fact that we eat so much is posing a potential problem.

To date wheat is believed by many to be the cause of a variety of health compromises including:

• Fatigue 
• Brain fog
• Allergies
• Joint pain 
• Weight gain 
• Inflammation
• Skin reaction
• Increased blood sugar
• Digestive compromises

Research of the effects of wheat on the immune system is one example of systemic threat. It is discussed in a study published in the journal ‘Gut’ by researchers at the Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center. The findings are thick but if you take your time it gives a deep description of the dangerous mechanism industrialized wheat may pose to human health.

“In summary, the results of this study on individuals with sensitivity to wheat in the absence of coeliac [aka celiac, an immune response to eating gluten] disease demonstrate significantly increased serum levels of sCD14 and LBP [binding proteins], as well as antibody reactivity to microbial antigens [toxins], indicating systemic immune activation; an elevated expression of FABP2 [fatty acid binding protein] that correlates with the systemic immune responses to bacterial products, suggesting compromised intestinal epithelial [tissue] barrier integrity and increased microbial translocation; and a significant change towards normalization in the levels of the immune activation markers, as well as FABP2 expression, in response to the restrictive diet, which is associated with improvement in symptoms. Our data establish the presence of objective markers of systemic immune activation and epithelial cell damage in the affected individuals.”

Mix It Up with Wheat Replacements

If you become mindful of your wheat consumption by reducing excessive intake and making other choices, you could feel an increase in optimal health. Particularly digestion and stamina.

Pick different grains or grain replacements. Once you begin searching you will find all sorts of wheat replacements including:

• Spelt
• Sorghum
• Oat
• Hemp
• Sesame
• Amaranth
• Buckwheat
• Millet
• Quinoa
• Teff

There are many recipes for these wheat replacements. All it takes is a little change of effort and before you know it, your taste buds and body will thank you. Immerse yourself in a world of clean, whole grain choices that doesn’t just revolve around how wheat may be hurting you. 

Sources:

https://gut.bmj.com/content/65/12/1930

Wheat Is The Perfect Chronic Poison (Hint: Stop Eating It)