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EventsNew study: is today’s wheat bad for you?
Today’s wheat is not the same wheat that your grandmother ate when she was young. Not even close.
Today’s wheat is greatly genetically modified to grow faster and provide a higher yield of wheat per acre. More food to the starving poor was a blessing, but could there be disadvantages with the modern super wheat?
Could it be bad for our health? Could it, for example, lead to severe digestive issues for many people?
Cardiologist William Davis argued this in his best selling book Wheat Belly. Davis got criticized for exaggerating the scientific support for his theories – which he did. But a lack of good evidence doesn’t mean that a theory must be incorrect.
A new high quality study, published in British Journal of Nutrition, tests one of Dr. Davis’ speculations, with dramatic results.
Afifah’s blog: New Study Vindicates William Davis: Modern Wheat is more Toxic than Ancient Varieties
The Study
In the study, twenty participants with common digestive issues (IBS) were put on two different diets for six weeks each:
- Modern wheat products (for example wheat bread)
- Identical products but made from an ancient variety of wheat, that hasn’t undergone modern plant breeding.
The participants didn’t know which one of the diets they were put on, and the order in which they were assigned to a diet was randomized. Not even the researchers themselves knew which person ate which diet during the period (a double-blind study). Thus, this is a high quality study, a randomized, double-blind crossover trial, where potential differences should be caused by wheat itself, and not be caused by imagination or expectations.
The difference was clear-cut. When participants with digestive issues consumed modern wheat they felt like they usually did, they suffered from their usual digestive issues. But when for six weeks they ate the ancient wheat their symptoms improved with significantly less abdominal pain, less abdominal bloating and an improved quality of life.
The improvements were so great that they could hardly be a coincidence. In addition, reduced levels of inflammatory substances in the blood were recorded in people who avoided modern wheat.
In conclusion Dr. Davis seems to be right at on least one point. Modern wheat seems to be pure poison for people with common digestive issues. It could also – perhaps – be a problem for people with inflammatory diseases (arthritis, asthma, eczema).
Have you noticed any difference from avoiding wheat?
PS
Can you get ancient wheat today? No, at least not in grocery stores. If you know where to get some, please leave a comment.
Oh brother. I love clueless people who think they're being skeptical.
I followed up on some of the research that Dr. Davis mentioned on his blog back before his book came out. He'd done his research.
They know exactly what proteins cause problems in celiac, and exactly where in the wheat genome those problematic proteins come from, and which hybridization introduced that part of the genome.
It's hardly a secret, the scientific literature is full of evidence, and easily accessible.
I did the research because after multiple hospitalizations and a colon resection I discovered by accident that I am severely gluten intolerant. Now I can reproduce my symptoms on demand, whenever I ingest wheat by mistake.
"Alpha-gliadin genes from the A, B, and D genomes of wheat contain different sets of celiac disease epitopes"
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/7/1
You seem to be implying those who clam health improvements from eliminating modern wheat are delusional.
After reading Wheat Belly and checking some of the research, I got an audiobook version and played it for my wife in the car. As a result, a year ago she stopped eating wheat. For the 20 years I had known her, she had worsening headaches year over year. It had gotten to the point she was having headaches five days per week and migraines a few times a month, missing an average of one day of work per week because of headaches. She had seen the leading headache specialist in the country, which did not help, other than to get stronger medication. However, within a day of stopping wheat the headaches stopped entirely and she was headache free for 42 days. She had not gone more than a week without a headache since I had met her. Then on day 42 the kids baked some cookies and she felt obliged to have one. (Oh, one won't hurt.) Migraine the next day. Same pattern throughout the year. Sometimes a flour-containing dessert is just "to die for" and she will have some and, sure enough, get a headache, but at least she has a choice to enjoy the dessert and pay the tax.
So if my wife is delusional, it is a happy delusion--all hail the placebo effect,
And here is a cool bonus to the apparent placebo effect. Since I met her she has had summer allergies, especially pollen from fruit trees. We had to move from the city where we met as she could no longer function there because of all the fruit trees. She still suffered allergies here, but they were much less intense, although they were getting a little worse each year. Then this last year, in October, I remarked, how come I didn't have to buy you Reactine or other allergy medications in bulk at Costco all summer this year? She said, you know, I didn't have allergies this summer; I've had allergies every previous summer since I was a child. The only evident change was elimination of wheat.
I have never heard of a placebo effect working where the patient is told the medication will eliminate condition X and the placebo effect works for condition Y. All hail the unwitting placebo effect.
Guaranteed, in 5 or 10 years my wife will still be worrying about wheat. Her placebo effects depend on it.