Wheat Today Is Not the Same As Wheat Used to Be

Controversial US cardiologist William Davis, author of several books that advocate eliminating wheat from our diets, vehemently believes that wheat is an “unhealthy whole grain.” He also dubs the wheat grown today as “a good grain gone bad.” That’s because wheat has been hybridized and badly bred. He also warns that the “science of genetic modification has the potential to change wheat even further.”

Sayer Ji, author of a paper titled The Dark Side of Wheat warns that including wheat in what we eat results in a “biologically inappropriate diet,” largely because of its gluten content. He links most “diseases of affluence” including cancer, coronary heart disease and diabetes to grain-based diets, which (as we all know) include secondary sources that we don’t always acknowledge. These include grain-fed poultry, cows, and even factory-farmed fish. He also points out that the once rare celiac disease now affects one in every 133 people in the USA.

Like Davis, Ji has labeled wheat as “an exceptionally unwholesome grain.”

It’s a complicated topic, and one that can easily boggle the mind, particularly when it focuses on genetic modification (GM).

GM Foods and Wheat

The nonprofit consumer advocacy group, Whole Grains Council (WGC) argues that whole grains (as opposed to those that are refined) have health benefits. The organization defines whole grains (including the three pseudo-grains amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa) as those where the entire seed is still present, even if it has been processed in some way, for instance cracked or crushed. WGC also states that whole wheat is whole grain, except in Canada and other countries where some of the kernel might be missing (and they still call it whole grain!).

WGC maintains that Dr William “Wheat Belly” Davis is perpetuating a myth that US wheat has been genetically modified. US farmers have resisted the idea of GMO wheat they say, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise. Of course they maintain many other things too, but the GM argument is one that cannot be ignored. But what is quite extraordinary is the fact that there is total denial that wheat has been genetically modified in the USA.

GM and Biotechnology – Are They Different?

In September 2014 Monsanto published a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report that they said vindicated them from accusations that they were selling GM wheat seed and grain. The irony though is that they reckon (in black and white on their website) that “almost everything you’ve eaten in your entire life was genetically modified.” This, they explain is because humans have selectively bred animals and plants for more than 10,000 years.

READ GMO Causes Cancer And Large Tumors

Monsanto is, of course, a long-standing (founded in 1901) multinational “agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation” responsible for GM maize (corn), rice, soybeans, and canola. They also specialize in producing crops that with withstand their poisonous glyphosate-rich Roundup herbicide the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found to cause cancer.

While Monsanto denies genetically modifying wheat, the company boasts about its biotechnology successes and plant breeding. Monsanto also explains how this is done – by identifying genetic markers in the DNA of plants that link to things like yield, drought resistance, disease resistance, nutrition, taste and so on. Then they use these genetic markers to make better plants.

The WHO explains that GM foods are the result of modifying the genetic material (DNA) of organisms in “a way that does not occur naturally.” Further, they say that most of the GM crops being grown today have been developed to:

• Improve yield
• And this is done by making them:
  • Resistant to plant diseases
  • More tolerant to herbicides

And in spite of the USDA 2014 report, numerous registration documents out of their offices for new wheat cultivars indicate that these have both increased yields and improved resistance to diseases and chemicals.

The question is how are these not GM? And, if plants have been genetically modified for centuries, and all is okay, why the denial?

What Published Research About Wheat Tells Us

There has been a tremendous amount of research relating to wheat and the results are both good and bad. For example:

• A study on food allergies and migraine published in The Lancet in 1979 showed that wheat was the most common food to cause an allergic reaction and headaches (78 percent).
• A US study on wheat allergy published in 2006 found that delaying babies’ introduction to cereals grains would not protect against food allergies. A total of 1,612 babies were involved in the study and only 1 percent were found to have an allergy to wheat.
• A US study published in 2013 looked specifically at the alarming increase in celiac disease and gluten intolerance coupled with exposure to glyphosate (as in Monsanto’s Roundup) exposure. Their findings were horrific and ultimately called for new legislation to restrict the usage of this chemical which is commonly used to desiccate wheat and other crops prior to harvest. 
• A European study that looked at the effects of other grains and how they can lead to chronic inflammation within the body as well as autoimmune diseases. While they reported that adverse reactions are “clinically apparent” researchers felt that additional studies should be done to learn more.
• An Italian study published in 2014 considered problems relating to wheat and gluten and the effects they had on people without celiac disease or known wheat allergies. They found that this was a “new” disease that they called non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) and advised that more research be carried out to define and understand it more thoroughly.

At the end of the day it is clear that a large number of people develop health problems as a result of eating wheat. At the same time many people live a healthy life eating wheat products. However it’s impossible to compare case histories and know whether one is comparing wheat with wheat (as in apples with apples). There are just too many variables worldwide and too much denial in terms GM and food quality.

The only answer is to assess how your body responds to wheat and then decide whether you should eat it or eliminate it from your diet.