The Frankenstein Food - revisited
A 50-Year-Old Disaster
Helping to solve global hunger is a commendable goal, and the hybridization of wheat in the 1950s and 1960s was a solid step in the right direction. The success of the effort was so amazing, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the inventor. This new grain strain should have been called super-wheat because it boosted productivity by up to eightfold. But nutrition and safety were never considered in its development.
By the 1970s, this new and unique grain strain (so different we should change the name) came to dominate our bread, crackers, bagels, pasta, snacks, cereals, and much more. Because of the unintended consequences discovered since then, it is a monster with an uncontrollable, deadly impact on our health.
How did this happen? It started about ten to fourteen thousand years ago, when our ancestors mistakenly thought it was a clever idea to nibble on the grains of wild wheat. Our digestive systems were not built to handle grass or grass seeds any more than tree bark or branches.
Because this grain prevented starvation in a time when life expectancy was 40 years or less, the longer-term health issues of wheat went unrecognized. And the health impacts were also more modest than any wheat strain grown today.
Mad Science Gone Awry
In the last half of the 20th century, our ability to create new plants from old strains expanded dramatically thanks to science and technology. Our manipulation of nature this way has sometimes helped agriculture but went awry in this case.
Wheat is unique in the complex and unexpected way that dozens of strains can be transformed into a new plant with unknown properties completely different than those in any parent. Because those doing the hybridization were blind to this possibility, a monster was created that is light-years away from the wheat your ancestors or even your grandparents used! These modern strains of wheat (dwarf or semi-dwarf) have never been tested to determine their suitability for human consumption. It should not be called wheat, but Franken-wheat.
Franken-Wheat
The result of the wheat-like grain hybridization process was a toxic, addictive substance that damages our bodies and creates metabolic dysfunction in multiple systems, leading to an epidemic of chronic disease. And yet, Franken-wheat pervades our food supply, makes up a major portion of the calories we consume, and is even promoted by business and government as "healthy.”
I suspect you are feeling a little or a lot of disbelief. But it is true! It might be difficult to believe that such an integral part of our culture can poison our bodies, but the latest science is clear. Read Wheat Belly or Undoctored by Dr. William Davis, Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter, or some of the hundreds of research papers that demonstrate the pernicious effect of modern wheat on our health.
Many nationally known functional medicine doctors (MDs with special training that look for root causes) have treated thousands of patients just by having them eliminate wheat from their diet. The patients frequently regain their health and often have multiple chronic conditions disappear! This phenomenon explains why our hunter-gatherer ancestors who never ate wheat did not experience the chronic conditions that are rampant in our culture, including diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.
Short-Term Effects
Consumption of Franken-wheat leads to long-term and short-term damage. Some of the short-term effects include:
Addiction - The digestion of wheat produces chemicals that connect with opiate receptors in our brain in a comparable way to heroin or other addictive drugs. The effect varies with the individual, but wheat is one of the few foods that causes addictive behavior.
Cravings and overeating – Wheat, like sugar, disrupts the satiety hormones that tell your body when to eat and stop eating, creating cravings and overeating, which often lead to weight gain and obesity.
Blood glucose spikes – Wheat has a super starch, amylopectin A, which produces higher blood glucose spikes than refined sugar. These spikes produce mental fog and fatigue resulting from the spikes and crashes of blood sugar, and worse, the long-term effects noted below.
Digestive problems – Remember how your body was not designed to handle wheat? Wheat degrades the healthy gut bugs in your microbiome, one of the most important “organs” in your body (watch for an upcoming post on this topic). Most elements of wheat, besides amylopectin A, are not digestible and can create havoc inside you. For instance, attempts to increase the pest resistance of modern wheat have increased WGA (wheat germ agglutinin), a completely toxic, yet indigestible protein that can cause celiac-like symptoms. Franken-wheat can trigger abdominal pain, constipation, bowel urgency, bloating, or diarrhea.
Long-Term Effects
The list of downstream effects is long and interrelated because wheat leads to metabolic dysfunction, which leads to all sorts of chronic diseases, shortening our health span and killing us before our time. Some key examples:
Insulin resistance – The blood sugar spikes caused by Franken-wheat, one of the most glycemic foods in our diet, cause your cells to become increasingly resistant to higher amounts of insulin, causing “insulin resistance,” a classic cause of many kinds of chronic disease. This can lead to high blood pressure, depression, sexual dysfunction, inflammation (see below) and diabetes, which often leads, in turn, to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.
Inflammation – Wheat is one of the most inflammatory foods, and chronic inflammation is a primary cause of most chronic illness, including arthritis, heart disease, MS, cancer, Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.
Leaky gut – Franken-wheat includes much higher levels of gluten than previous strains, producing inflammation in the gut that causes leaks in the single-cell intestinal wall. This allows gut bacteria and undigested food to leak into the blood stream and other areas, causing allergies and autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and lupus.
Poor nutrient absorption – Modern wheat is rich in phytates, which block absorption of iron and zinc, causing deficiencies that can lead to weakness, skin problems, diarrhea, and more.
Calcium loss from bones – The mix of alkaline vegetables, fruits and nuts we eat is supposed to balance the acidic meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and alcohol in your diet. But the acidic nature of wheat tips the balance, forcing the body to do anything to maintain a slightly alkaline pH of 7.4, including taking calcium from bones.
Wheat and Grain-Free = Body Healing
Removing monster wheat from your diet will go a long way toward preventing chronic disease and healing your body. Franken-wheat is the worst grain for your health and by far the most consumed grain in the U.S., but other grains have similar problems, just not as bad. This includes all the seeds of grass: triticale, oats, teff, millet, sorghum, barley, rye, rice, and corn.
Wheat is everywhere, so it will require a little effort to avoid it, but the rewards will be immense! Eliminate bread, bagels, muffins, biscuits, pizza, cookies, crackers, noodles, pastry, chips, and cereals with wheat from your diet. But read labels, too. You will find wheat in some packaged soup, ketchup, salad dressing, chewing gum, candy, beer, processed meats, nutritional supplements, and even medications. Do not try to be “moderate” and eliminate some of the poison; it will not be healing unless you eliminate all wheat.
In most cases, you will be able to find non-wheat or non-grain substitutes. If not, substitute other healthy foods, like whole, fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, greens, or tree nuts. Be diligent—you can eliminate wheat from your diet!
Not Just About Gluten
But don’t just look for “gluten free” and think you are safe. Check labels to make sure any packaged food (which you should avoid anyway) with that label doesn’t contain high glycemic substitutes like sugar, cornstarch, rice starch, tapioca starch, or potato starch.
What About “Healthy Whole Grain?”
First, whole grains really aren’t “whole grains.” The FDA says you can call it “whole grain” if the endosperm, germ, and bran are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact grain, even though it is no longer “whole,” but cracked, ground, refined, etc. This destroys most of the few benefits of whole grains. You cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Second, whole grain wheat is not healthy! It might have a tiny bit more fiber and a slightly reduced glycemic effect, but 10% less poison is still poison. A “whole” grain will still cause the pain and suffering of 10–20 years of chronic disease.
The staff of life…or death?
Yes, it really is that bad. Remember, the flour-based stuff you consume was never meant by God (or nature) to be food for our bodies. We are not ruminants. But instead of using technology to replace it, we doubled down to make modern wheat even more available and more toxic. Do not eat it!