Since we have been discussing the shift from changing works to more modern practices of mass production farming techniques throughout the past week, I find it fitting to post about a pretty significant impact modern farming has had on our population. This past summer I read the book Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD. Dr. Davis' argument is that if people were to eliminate ALL wheat from their diet, we would witness permanent weight loss as well as relief from a wide range of health and digestive problems (such as celiac disease, diabetes, LDL counts, and overall cholesterol). His findings are quite profound and as soon as I began reading his book, I couldn't stop until I had finished.
The first wild wheat plant known to man was einkorn wheat which contains the simplest genetic code of any wheat plant at 14-chromosomes. Einkorn wheat eventually crossed with a wild grass (goatgrass) in the wild and was first discovered in the Middle East. When einkorn combined with goatgrass it created a wheat plant known as emmer wheat that contained 28-chromosomes due to polyploidy (accumulation of chromosomes). To get ahold of einkorn or emmer wheat today you have to find regions in the Middle East, southern France, and northern Italy where is grown sparingly. Modern wheat species are hundreds and possibly thousands of genes apart from the original strands of einkorn and emmer wheat. Modern hybridized wheat contains 42-chromosomes.
Today, wheat is exceeded only by corn in acreage of farmland planted and has led to the financial success of some of the largest food manufacturers in the world. The reason that wheat is seen by Dr. Davis as being so dangerous to humans is the fact that it has been hybridized, crossbred, and introgressed (combining genetic material derived from a similar species) over the past 50 years by scientists. These genetic modifications to the wheat plant have allowed an increased yield per acre (which is more than tenfold higher than farms a century ago). The stereotypical image people have of wheat fields being chest high is not accurate anymore. Modern wheat (dwarf and semi-dwarf wheat) stands only 18-inches tall and comprises of more than 99% of all wheat grown today according to Allan Fritz, PhD (professor of wheat breeding at Kansas State University). Needless to say, the wheat people consume today is entirely different than the wheat most of our grandparents consumed throughout most of their lives.
As tests were being conducted to create wheat plants that maximized potential yield for farmers, it was assumed that because these genetically modified plants were essentially still "wheat" it wasn't questioned whether it was fit for human consumption. It seems that modern people are in fact the guinea pigs for this experiment. One can only imagine the numerous amount of change that has happened to the wheat plant and how dramatically intricate structures such as gluten content, protein structure, and enzymes have been modified. Not to mention the health risks that come with consuming a plant that can't survive in the wild without the use of toxic fertilizer and pesticides as Dr. Davis points out.
Today, single genes can be inserted or removed to create wheat strains bred for pesticide resistance, disease resistance, and even cold or drought tolerance. You can imagine how profitable this is for agribusiness and chemical producers like infamous Monsanto and I'm sure farmers aren't complaining about their increased yields either.
I could write about Dr. Davis' book for hours because his findings are truly remarkable. A couple more interesting facts I will share from the book are:
1) The composition of modern wheat allows it to cross into membranes in the brain and bind to receptors that drugs such as heroin bind to (which makes it addicting)
2) 2 slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar can
To add to the real impact Dr. Davis' findings can potentially have, I got on my own father about his eating habits to the point where he stopped eating all food containing modern wheat. It was challenging for him at first because his body was clearly addicted to wheat. When I was home over the summer I made sure he stuck to it and I ended up seeing him last weekend when he came down from Syracuse to visit last Saturday. My father has had a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol. It has been about a month and a half since my father started this lifestyle change and when he went to the doctor' office for a visit a couple weeks ago, the doctor was amazed at his numbers and he is now off of his blood pressure medication he used to get sent to him in bulk through the mail for years. He has also lost a little over 10 pounds and he wasn't too overweight to begin with. Dr. Davis has plenty of examples like this throughout his book and I never thought I would see the results he wrote about firsthand.
The link below is a link to the Wheat Belly blog and website. This particular link offers a modern wheat farmers insight on the growing process.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/01/a-wheat-farmer-weighs-in-on-wheat-belly/
My mother and grandmother were both recently (officially) diagnosed with celiac disease. Wanting to learn more about the "enemy," wheat, they both read this book about a month ago.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading some of the book here and there since they recommended it, but have not made it very far. Regardless, I also found some of the facts alarming. I remember when white Wonder Bread was "the enemy." The enemy has shifted, yet again, to wheat in general. Dr. Davis explains that human intervention has increased wheat to have more than 25,000 varieties! Some varieties of wheat have been modified so much that they cannot survive without our intervention with nitrate fertilization and pest control, among others.
When my family first started buying whole gain bread instead of white, I thought we were making healthier eating choices. Little did I know that a true healthy switch in our diets would have been to eliminate bread entirely...