Wheat – It’s Good for You, Right?

I often advise people to avoid wheat – (forgive me Manitoba grain farmers!) – and the response can be one of surprise.  “But whole wheat has to be good for me?  Doesn’t it?”.  I know what we’ve been told – you need cereal products, you need fibre, and wheat which is found in virtually everything we eat, like corn, is a necessary part of the diet.  The Canada Food Guide even has pictures of wheat at the base of its pyramid.  For more information on global variations on food guides, see our nutrition video:International Food Guides

Well, the truth about wheat is that it is full of gluten – that protein which makes dough sticky and gluey.  This protein is rather large and is made more complex by numerous polysaccharides which encircle it.  The gist of all this is that gluten is very difficult to digest.  Anything which is difficult to digest can be broken down by microbes in your gut, which in turn make acidic and toxic by-products which then damage the lining of your intestines.  The end result of this can be a vicious cycle of intestinal inflammation, food allergies or sensitivities leading to all manner of diseases including auto-immunity, Celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, mineral deficiencies, depression and low energy.  Just in case you think you are not one of these unfortunate few, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that almost all normal people failed to absorb a large amount of the starch from wheat.  For more information on what happens to this unabsorbed starch, click here.

How did wheat get to be an unhealthy food?  I recall meeting a professor at the University of Manitoba many years ago – at the time, I was considering going to study Agriculture, which I later did, and  wanted to know what my options might be in this field.  This professor and researcher was very well-intentioned.  His project was increasing the protein content in wheat, in part to make it more nutritious so that when we send wheat as relief to famine-stricken and war-torn countries (this was not long after the Ethiopian famine that dismayed the world), people wouldn’t suffer protein malnutrition.  It sounded great.  What was not considered, and we can understand why, was what exact fractions of protein were increased.  The protein content of wheat more than doubled, but the gluten content, probably quadrupled.  This means, the increased protein was likely all or mostly due to gluten.  Wheat becomes less digestible and more people have a problem with it.  Or wheat may have always been troublesome and now more so than ever.  So if you want to know why now, there is your explanation.  Even worse, once your intestinal lining becomes compromised, it is more likely that you will have problems with all forms of gluten and possibly even all grains and starches.  So, while some tolerate wheat relatively well, I would advise keeping wheat consumption to a minimum to avoid a diminishing food supply.  If you want to know if you have a wheat/gluten allergy, this blood test can be ordered from any Naturopathic Doctor’s office.