First off, let me begin by saying that we are talking about modern wheat…not the wheat that your grandparents or great grandparents ate when they were growing up. Our wheat is a completely new kind of wheat thanks to farming practices that have genetically modified our wheat to grow faster and produce a higher yield of wheat per acre, in addition to processing the harvested wheat differently. As Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly says: “this thing being sold to us called wheat—it ain’t wheat. It’s this stocky little high-yield plant, a distant relative of the wheat our mothers used to bake muffins, genetically and biochemically light-years removed from the wheat of just 40 years ago.”
Because this wheat is so vastly different than the kinds that human civilization has relied on for thousands of years, we are continuing to see an increase in health issues associated with wheat consumption. Not only are we more aware of a condition called Celiac Disease in which our body literally attacks the gluten in wheat and then itself, but we are also seeing a rise in what is called Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (or NCGS). People with this disease have negative tests when testing for Celiac Disease, but still have the same or similar symptoms after consuming gluten containing products that might include GI symptoms like gas and bloating or other seemingly unrelated issues such as brain fog, sleep disturbances, or low energy.
If you don’t fall into either of these categories…congrats! Your body might be fine with modern day wheat. However, you might want to try and test out this theory by removing gluten containing products from your diet for a few weeks to see if there are any changes in things like mood, energy, sinuses, sleep, and skin. For support in this or help identifying if any of your symptoms match gluten sensitivity, schedule an appointment with an appointment at Starkel Nutrition.
Written by Brooke Brandeberry, MS, CN, LMHCA
References
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19013359
- https://authoritynutrition.com/modern-wheat-health-nightmare/
- http://www.grainstorm.com/pages/modern-wheat
- http://www.dietdoctor.com/new-study-todays-wheat-bad