In the Experience Life magazine I leisurely browsed through
a discussion on advantages of vegan and paleo diets (Paleo Vs. Vegan). Frankly,
both diets seem a bit extreme to me. When you live long enough you eventually see
many fads disappoint and their enthusiasts impacted in regretful way.
However one remark caught my attention. It was by Mark Hyman, MD, a family physician, the author of four New York Times bestsellers, and
chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine,
‘I think the Paleo argument of no grains is interesting and has some merit.
If you go with traditional grains, such as buckwheat, quinoa and millet, which
have been around for 10,000 years, you’re better off. But gluten-containing
refined grains, and modern dwarf wheat full of super-starch and super-gluten,
can be problematic.’
Mentioning of dwarf wheat and its properties struck me in correlation
with gluten-intolerance epidemic that I hear about all too often lately. My parents (and grandparents) had no such concept. There
is another new and mysterious diagnosis out there – the Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). This one becomes popular in cases when a digestion problem is not exactly
understood.
Though we are fairly informed on the controversy
of genetically modified (GM) grain, no one seems connecting the dots:
We are sensitive (allergic,
intolerant…) not to wheat per se, but to its genetic mutants that bring havoc
into our bodies.
I say ‘we’ because stats indicate 30% of gluten-related
diagnoses, and they are on the rise; also because, we still recognize very few effects of GM foods besides the most immediate.
Meanwhile mainstream media is comfortably
dwelling on the absence of clear evidence against GM grains – i.e., they are
safe. |
| ‘A scientist examines a GM crop’ (this is the original comment from a pro-GM article) |
My first afterthought was: well, I try to protect my family by buying mostly organic wheat products. How safe are we?
To assess the level of our vulnerability, I started researching
the issue and here are my findings:
First of all the impact of mutated wheat is not limited to
compromised digestion. As Dr. Mark Hyman said in ‘Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes
You Fat’:
…The first major difference of this
dwarf wheat is that it contains very high levels of a super starch called amylopectin
A…
… We know that foods with a high
glycemic index make people store belly fat, trigger hidden fires of
inflammation in the body, and give you a fatty liver leading the whole cascade
of obesity, pre-diabetes and diabetes.
…Not only does this dwarf,
FrankenWheat, contain the super starch, but it also contains super gluten which
is much more likely to create inflammation in the body…
… wheat products, not just gluten
(along with sugar in all its forms) is the major contributor to obesity,
diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern
ills.
http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/02/13/three-hidden-ways-wheat-makes-you-fat/
And did you know that GM wheat already ousted the real one IN MOST PARTS OF THE WORLD?
Frankly, I didn’t.
For the vast expansion of GM wheat we have to thank, in
particular, Norman Ernest Borlaug, an American agronomist, humanitarian, and
Nobel laureate.
Borlaug received his Ph.D. in plant
pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an
agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf,
high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. Borlaug led the introduction of
these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production
techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India.
As a result, Mexico became a net
exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled
in Pakistan and India. Later in his
life, he helped apply these methods of increasing food production to Asia and
Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
The scientist had
great intentions to feed the starving world. It worked short-term but also
contaminated farming lands making them barren; destroyed traditional agricultural
communities and made people sick.
As a result the
old-fashioned –i.e. real wheat became an exotic rarity. And therefore today,
many nutritionists recommend to exclude gluten-containing
products altogether without even explaining to their patients that the problem is not with the
food staple but with its industrial imposter.
This
simplification agrees perfectly with GM seed producers: they are not afraid to
lose customers because not too many people are capable of rejecting wheat
entirely.
I looked through several discussions on going gluten-free. Among a steam of enthusiastic confessions I noticed quite a few laments
on difficulty adjusting to such a diet. The reasons are objective:
The modern dwarf mutant variant of Triticum aestivum (that our USDA urges
us to eat more of) contains greater proportions of gluten proteins compared to
wheat pre-1970.
Glutens are the source of wheat-derived exorphins. Beyond removing an
exceptionally digestible carbohydrate that yields blood sugar rises higher than
nearly any other known food (due to the unique amylopectin structure of
wheat-derived carbohydrate), wheat withdrawal is a form of opiate withdrawal,
somewhat like stopping heroin, Oxycontin, and other opiates. Stop eating whole
wheat toast for breakfast, whole grain sandwiches for lunch, or whole grain
pasta for dinner, and the flow of exorphins, i.e., exogenous morphine-like
compounds, stops. You experience dysphoria (sadness, unhappiness), mental
"fog," inability to concentrate, fatigue, and decreased capacity to
exercise.
http://www.medpedia.com/news_analysis/68-The-Heart-Scan-Blog/entries/62642-Heroin-Oxycontin-and-a-whole-wheat-bagel
So, mutant wheat makes us specifically addictive to it,
which justifies the title of the above article 100%.
The information regarding genetic status of organic wheat
that is now available on the market is quite confusing as well. Some experts say
that often wheat is called organic, but it is the same mutant (because
old-fashioned grain is hard to find), just grown without pesticides.
The only reassurance I found on the following site:
http://www.worc.org/userfiles/OrganicWheatProduction8-04.pdf
They say:
In order to advertise their crops
as (USDA) certified organic, farmers must show that their crops are free of
chemicals and genetically modified material.
My relief was unfortunately short-lived, because they also say:
Complete segregation of GM crops
from conventional and organic crops cannot be guaranteed, so the introduction
of a new GM crop could contaminate the organic food supply.
So, here we are:
- Organic farmers straggle to give us wholesome food
- Industrial giants make it difficult in ways more than one. Even if you plant organic, your crop can be contaminated by neighboring ‘conventional’ fields.
The entire situation reminds me of science fiction stories I read in my
youth (Ray Bradbury? Isaac Asimov?) : An elite group of world rulers have
captured all the real food and keep it away from the rest of the population.
These less fortunate are fed artificially created synthetic products. To avoid unrest
the rulers convince people that synthetic food was totally superior to the dirty,
rotting and stinking natural produce.
By the way, Norman Borlaug’s contribution to the world food supply was
called ‘Green Revolution’.
I wish it was fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment