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Plantidote of the Day 2012-08-01

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 7:30am
Tags: 
Food
diet
plantidote
wheat
frankenfood
wheat belly
william davis
gluten
celiac
digestion
gmo
genetically modified organism

wheat belly

Wheat Belly by William Davis, M.D.

Move over, high fructose corn syrup. Wheat is the new bad boy of the food world, and not just for people with celiac disease. Davis and other doctors are concerned about the fact that genetic modification created by decades of hybridization has turned wheat into a far less healthy food than most people realize. Example: Two slices of whole wheat bread raises blood sugar higher than pure sugar, making wheat a likely suspect in the ever-expanding obesity crisis.

But...but... whole grains are good for us, aren't they? Until I read this book, I thought so. Not any more. Fifty years (!!) of hybridization with no safety testing has altered wheat to the point that it no longer resembles the ancient einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum) that humans ate for centuries. The new wheat, known as dwarf or semi-dwarf wheat or Triticum aestivum, produces far more wheat per acre, which was one of the goals of hybridization. But it is also quite different from ancient wheat. Dwarf wheat not only contains more gluten than its predecessor, but also has new, never-before-seen gluten proteins that our bodies don't recognize. In addition, modern dwarf wheat must be cultivated by humans. Left to grow on its own in the wild, it dies.

And those are just a few things cited by Davis about what's wrong with wheat. Consider that more than 99 percent of all wheat grown on the planet is now the "new, improved" variety -- and that wheat is in everything, including pet food and cosmetics! -- and you can see why it could be a problem. On top of that, researchers are now discovering that there are far more people than originally thought with celiac disease (most of them undiagnosed), as well as millions of others with gluten intolerance and sensitivity.

What do you do about it? Well, you could grow your own old-school, einkorn wheat or buy flour made from it. Or you can go wheat-free, which is not as hard as it sounds. Some doctors are now recommending people give up wheat for a month and see how they feel without it. I've done it, and I would never go back. Something to think about ....

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coyotecreek's picture
Submitted by coyotecreek on

Can you explain what changes you have experienced since your started losing the wheat?

I'm trying to make improvement to my eating, but just can't do everything (I'd starve, I'm sure!), so would like to make intelligent decisions based on my likes, dislikes and ability (or lack of ability) to change.

Thanks!

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

so I was just humoring him -- at first. But I noticed much improved digestion, concentration (yeah!), and more stable energy levels (not wanting to nap after lunch). Other people say they have fewer allergies, and less of all kinds of chronic, nagging health conditions, like joint pain.

Plus, without any effort on our part, we both lost weight and it was all (as far as I can tell) tummy fat, that couple of pounds that just sits on your stomach no matter how many crunches you do or how hard you work out. We are not overweight and absolutely hate "diets" so this was pretty remarkable!

You've probably seen all the warnings about gaining weight around the middle and how it increases the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, etc. So I was pretty impressed by that. And it's not that hard to swap wheat pasta for the brown rice version. Giving up bread was harder, but we got used to it.

Davis suggests avoiding all the prepared "gluten-free" products -- he doesn't like the ingredients, which is a whole other story. But you can still eat real food -- brown rice, potatoes, etc. And you'll probably notice the difference quickly enough to make you want to continue. Or, if not, you can always go back to wheat. But I was hooked after about two days.

Kathryn's picture
Submitted by Kathryn on

I'm with twig on this one. I ran into this a few years ago when I was trying to figure out why my great-grandmother's devil's food cake didn't bake up like it should... and wound up in the science of food, particularly of flour.

That research led me to the same kind of conclusions, although a slightly different outcome. I found Arrowhead Mills, which you can usually find at regular stores in limited versions, and in larger variety at whole foods stores.

But I began to experiment with the ancient/specialty flours and some of the different organic/non-gmo wheat flours of different protein contents.

http://www.arrowheadmills.com/category/a....

That said, I have largely given up breads particularly and flour in general, and treat it as a rare, special "homemade" event. I did get grandma's cake to work out although that took an organic cake flour and a different kind of baking soda, and whole milk from the farm.

K.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

So you use non-GMO wheat flour for baking? Is it a 1-to-1 substitution or do you have to reconfigure the recipe?

wuming's picture
Submitted by wuming on

It doesn't bake like the wheat of 50 or 60 years ago?! Why is that?

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

but in the book, Dr. Davis points to the different composition of modern wheat compared to ancient wheat, and he notes that you could not make a doughnut, for example, or any of today's modern baked goods with ancient wheat -- they would not hold together or feel or taste the same.

As he explains it, modern wheat flour is about 70 percent carbohydrate by weight, with protein and indigestible fiber each making up 10 to 15 percent, and the rest fat. Ancient wheat, though, contained much more protein, more in the neighborhood of 28 percent. So those differences affect the baking process. Or at least that's what I got from the book. There could be other factors involved.

Submitted by ubetchaiam on

As a bread and bagel lover(though I've given up the bagels as part of a weight loss program), you piqued my curiosity, especially the claims by that doctor. So off I go 'researching' and come across this: "Currently no transgenic wheat is used commercially in the United States."

Other digging turned up:
Properties of Wheat Flour

But there are also other flours as I've noted on the ingredients of other breads I've bought so I looked up flours. Which brought this shocking fact to my attention: "Current information from Pillsbury is that their bleached flours are treated both with benzoyl peroxide (banned in the EU) and chlorine gas. Gold Medal states that their bleached flour is either treated with benzoyl peroxide OR it's treated with chlorine gas, but there is no way to tell which process has been used when you buy the flour at the grocery store."

So if one is going to 'bake at home' I'd look for a store or other source that provides King Arthur flours or Arrowhead Mills.

As towards the Doctors analysis of current wheat flours; his 'fats' percentage is way off.

And while one might like cornbread, practically all corn in the U.S. is GMO.

I suppose the 'good news' is that pizza is made from 'soft flour'. ;->) Oh,I I read on this 'sprouted wheat' bread I just bought that it has 'cultured wheat flour' in it (they played classical music while it was growing?) so I had to look that up as well; cultured wheat flour'.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

I'm not sure how anyone could say no transgenic wheat is used in the US, since that's pretty much all that's used. Maybe they're defining "transgenic" so narrowly that the GMO wheat is somehow excluded from that category.

The fat content Dr Davis cites is in regard to wheat itself, not wheat flour, which is why the two figures are different.

Yes, I'm waiting for the "Corn Belly" book to hit any day now. Pretty soon there won't be anything left to eat that doesn't somehow compromise your health. Actually, we're probably already there.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

when Davis talks about genetically modified wheat, he's referring to modern, dwarf wheat that has been hybridized thousands of times during the past 50 or so years. The genetic modification is via hybridization, not by scientists inserting genes. So you are right about wheat not being GMO in that sense.

As for the pdf on wheat's nutritional analysis, you can find a study to support almost anything. I'm not saying it isn't true, but one study isn't the whole story.

A lot of research is financed by professional groups and corporations who are buying legitimacy or who want a result that will cast enough doubt on the issue to confuse people. Climate change research is loaded with this sort of thing, and so is nutrition. Lots of studies "proving" that high fructose corn syrup or sugar or red meat are perfectly healthy. Maybe so, but I'd like to see those results coming from a study that wasn't financed by Pepsi, McDonald's or the Cattlemen's Association.

Big Pharma buys this type of research all the time. And the other side does it, too. The whole pomegranate craze is largely based on research paid for by wealthy pomegranate growers. So it's really tough to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

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