Why is Wheat Such a Problem? Part I

Dr. Hyman, a practicing physician and ten-time #1 New York times bestselling author, international speaker and educator in the field of functional medicine, makes no apologies for stating worldwide that our “tsunami of chronic illness is increasingly caused by eating our beloved diet staple… bread. The history of wheat and all its changes totally parallels the history of chronic disease and obesity across the entire world.

We have to understand that today’s wheat is not the same wheat your grandmother used to use to make bread, cakes and other goodies. It truly is Franken Wheat (as Dr. Hyman calls it) – which is a scientifically-engineered food product developed over the last 50 years.

Our present-day modern wheat looks the same as old wheat, but it is different in three ways – all of which drive chronic health conditions. First of all, it contains something known as Super Starch – also known as amylopectin A – a highly fattening starch. It is the product of genetic manipulation and hybridization meant to create a short, stubby, hearty, wheat plant that provides a much higher yield.

It has a greater amount of starch and gluten in it, as well as many more chromosome (or DNA) coding's for all sorts of new, odd proteins. Unfortunately, there are other effects of this bioengineering, as well.

Our wheat contains high levels of this super starch. Just two slices of today’s whole wheat bread can now raise your blood sugar more than two tablespoons of table sugar. It’s very high-glycemic.

Today’s wheat causes weight gain and diabetes via its Super Gluten, which also drives inflammation. The older Einkorn wheat contains 14 DNA wheat codes for the small number of gluten proteins it contains. These DNA chromosomes are the least likely to trigger celiac disease (an autoimmune disease the gut) and/or inflammation. But the new dwarf wheat contains 28 chromosomes – Actually, twice the number, and produces a large variety of gluten proteins, including the ones most likely to cause celiac disease.

Gluten can trigger inflammation, obesity and chronic disease in 5 major ways, according to Dr. Hyman. First of all, once the super gluten has caused celiac disease, it triggers body-wide inflammation that triggers insulin resistance. That resulting inflammation can also trigger over 55 conditions, including more autoimmune diseases, irritable bowel, reflux, cancer, depression, osteoporosis and much more.

Secondly, even the low-level inflammation reactions to gluten can trigger the same problems – even if you don’t have full-blown celiac disease but just have elevated antibodies (which is about 7% of our population or 21 million Americans).

Thirdly, new research is actually showing that adverse immune reactions to gluten may result from problems in an altogether different area of the immune system than those in celiac. People can suffer unfavorable reactions without having celiac disease or gluten antibodies and still experience inflammation and many other symptoms.

The fourth concern about wheat is from something called a non-gluten lectin, which is a combination of sugar and protein found in wheat. It is found in the highest concentrations in whole wheat but are also found in beans and other grains. They can also cause whole body inflammation. It is not an autoimmune reaction, but it can be just as dangerous. Lectins can cause digestive distress in some people, because the body cannot digest them.

Next Week we will continue our study as to how/why wheat can cause inflammation that can lead to heart disease, dementia, cancer, diabetes, etc.