The following article was written by cardiologist Dr. William Davis, author of the Wheat Belly, and explains how modern wheat has been altered and in its modern form in unhealthy for humans. Highly recommended reading!
Wheat Belly is, first and foremost, about the changes introduced into modern wheat by the work of geneticists during the 1960s and 1970s, the same kind of research that led to the creation of Agent Orange, DDT, and other “better health through chemistry” types of efforts.
The failure of agricultural geneticists and agribusiness to ask questions about the suitability of a genetically unique crop means they unleashed a foodstuff on a public . . . with no understanding of its effects on humans who consume it.
Among the changes introduced into wheat by geneticists:
–Enrichment in the glia-alpha-9 genetic sequence that provokes celiac disease. Nearly absent from the wheat of 1950, nearly all modern semi-dwarf wheat contains this genetic sequence. Is it any wonder why the incidence of celiac disease has quadrupled?
–Gliadin is a more powerful opiate–The changes introduced into the gliadin gene/protein make it a more potent opiate. While the digestive byproducts of gliadin bind to the opiate receptors of the brain, they lack the pain-relieving and euphoric effects of heroin and morphine, but “only” provoke addictive eating behavior and appetite stimulation. People who consume wheat consume, on average, 440 more calories per day, 365 days per year.
–Changes in the lectin unique to wheat, wheat germ agglutinin, that is responsible for 1) direct intestinal damamge, and 2) a Trojan horse effect of helping foreign substances gain entry into the bloodstream. This is likely at least part of the reason why wheat-eaters experience more lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis, type 1 diabetes in children, worse ulcerative colitis and Crohns, more Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: Foreign proteins gain entry to the various organs of the body and result in “autoinflammation.” Changes in wheat lectin may have also led to more effective blocking of the hormone of satiety, leptin.
–Changes in alpha amylase inhibitors–These are the most common sources of wheat allergies, e.g., wheat allergy in kids.
Eliminating wheat is about undoing all these effects, effects that have broad implications for human health across an astounding number of health conditions.
Wheat Belly is an exposure of the destructive changes introduced into wheat by unwitting geneticists during an age when such things were unquestioningly viewed as scientific progress. It is an accusation that Big Food, likely aware of these phenomena for 25 years or more, has quietly put these effects to use, especially appetite-stimulation, to increase revenues. And it is an exposure of the incredible ignorance (collusion?) of official government agencies, such as the USDA, FDA, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who tell us to eat more “healthy whole grains,” then watch healthcare expenditures and American waistlines explode . . . then blame the disaster on our gluttony and sloth.
