The Story on Wheat

I’ve known for many years that I could never be best friends or even buddies with wheat. We just never got along...and as a clingy companion, wheat forced attention and literally made me sick. 

But did I eat it?  Of course.  Grilled cheese sandwiches and Grape-Nuts were childhood staples. I lived on crackers with cheese or peanut butter in college.  As a young mother, I dutifully stretched the meat with noodle casseroles. In my 40’s, I literally lived on broken cookies and cake tops as a bakery owner.  But all this at a price.

I felt ill, and craved more of what made me unwell.  Sometimes my heart raced.  Other times my head seemed in a fog. 

In the last decade or so, I’ve suspected reasons for my wheat intolerance, but only discovered the real underlying culprit a couple of days ago.  Simply stated, modern hybridized wheat + liberal consumption = compounding toxicity.

I need to make a point, here.  We think we’re doing ourselves a favor to eat lots of wheat, right?  After all, it’s on the bottom of the USDA Food Pyramid. (This thanks to the grain growers on the committee.) 100% whole wheat is even better for us, we think.  Mmmmm, we do love our bread, pasta, crackers, cookies and more!  And why shouldn’t so many processed foods contain wheat in one form or another?  It’s the staff of life.  The good stuff.

But I have news.

A wheat berry grown in our country since around 1960, with its 40-some chromosomes, is nothing like the simpler, significantly more nutritious, less glutinous ancient wheat grains originating in the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent with genetic make-ups of half as many chromosomes.  Agribusiness growers in this country, motivated primarily by financial gain, have hybridized wheat – inserted goat grass through genetic tinkering, for one thing. The hybrid has produced much higher yields of a nutritionally inferior grain that requires more fertilizers and pesticides (another knotty issue) and is notorious for more complex gluten that is hard for human physiology to digest and use.  As a result, gluten-related epidemics have emerged in full swing.  For example, hybridized gluten crosses the blood-brain barrier and ends up playing havoc with neurology - yuck.

There’s so much more to this story, but allow me to summarize the main point with a true-to-life testimony.  Our daughter’s friend travels extensively because of her work.  She is severely gluten intolerant at home in the States, but in other parts of the world is not troubled by wheat at all and enjoys bread with no problem.  Bingo.  Proof.

I’ve been in research mode the last few days, and have discovered there are still several places in the US and Canada where ancient wheat is being grown.  It goes by several names: einkorn, kamut, or simply Turkey Red.  Collectively, these wheat varieties may be referred to as “heritage wheat.” Yes, they're all expensive.  But for some people, they represent the only wheat worth eating. 

In closing, I should add that these wheat varieties are not the solution for celiac patients since they still contain gluten - although much less, and of a friendlier kind.  But they could be of great help to many Americans: one source suggests 30% of us don’t tolerate modern wheat well, and another estimates 50%.  The thing is, those with wheat intolerance get used to feeling a certain way (decent, if not perfect) and assume that to be their normal state.  Only when gluten is eliminated, or at least severely reduced, do they notice significant changes – perhaps an impressive lessening of symptoms like bloating, exhaustion, tingling, pain, depression, and/or irritability. 

Could it be true for you?