Wheat is murder? WTH?

Arkayik

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It doesn't seem logical that such a prevalent food source could be so toxic to the human being... Yet, there seems to be a great deal of "information" floating around the weeb about how evil wheat is to our health...

Is this a case of where there is smoke there is fire, or is it just wheat being the simple scapegoat?

One suggestion I've seen is that bread companies have promoted a lower starch wheat cultivar which increases the amount of gluten in the bread which increases our potential for gluten allergies...

So, do we run screaming in fear from wheat products?

Is the occurrence of Ceoliac disease increasing or just more often diagnosed/recognized?



from: http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/2011/03/wheat-and-malnutrition.html:

"We have recently completed a screening project on school children in Cairo City, Egypt. Blood samples were obtained from 1,500 children attending school in Cairo City between October 2001 and June 2004... The prevalence of [celiac disease] in this sample of Egyptian students was 53% (95% CI 0.17-0.89). This estimate may be low, as more CD cases could be diagnosed at the follow-up, e.g. in the group currently showing a positive tTG IgA and a negative EMA [partial CD symptoms]."

53% of the kids!? That's incredible. This is from the region where wheat cultivation has gone on the longest, mind you. (Alessio Fasano is the leading researcher on celiac disease.)
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Wiki on Coeliac Disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease
 
Well, it's a genetic disorder, so maybe it has more to do with the fact that if people have it, they're more likely to spread it to their children, who then have it and also spread it to their children.
 
The cultivation of wheat changed the course of human history. Where would we be without it? Yes we have other staples (predominantly rice, which is gluten-free), but scare-mongering about something we've been eating for 10,000 years sounds like prime woo to me.
 
I expected this to be about how baby wheat kernels are put into the grinder alive-- they'd scream if they could!
 
It is interesting; when I was younger we all ate wheat and wheat products by the bushelsfull..."Wheaties", the "Breakfast of Champions" and Shredded wheat and wheat chex and bread (Wonder bread builds strong bodies 9 different ways!)
and so forth. I never heard of Celiac disease or gluten intolerance or anything else along those lines until fairly recently.
Is this another of those "fashionable" conditions to have?

They had two allergy physicians on NPR's Science Friday a couple of weeks ago; they said that rather a small percentage of the people they see complaining of these things actually have them, and that people who do suffer from food allergies find them to be very serious indeed.
 
dudalb said:
There are people, very serously, who think that Agriculture is evil and we need to go back to being hunter/gatherers..........
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Romantic notions that would soon disappear when they realised that grubs and rodents would have to be on the menu.
 
Bikewer said:
I never heard of Celiac disease or gluten intolerance or anything else along those lines until fairly recently.
Is this another of those "fashionable" conditions to have?

They had two allergy physicians on NPR's Science Friday a couple of weeks ago; they said that rather a small percentage of the people they see complaining of these things actually have them, and that people who do suffer from food allergies find them to be very serious indeed.
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Based on the experiences of a close relative, Celiac disease is not easy to diagnose. Symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue aren't specific to it, and their onset can be gradual. All diagnostic tests require you to eat gluten for weeks or months before the tests. In other words, if you have the disease but you have by yourself found a diet that minimizes your symptoms (and I bet we've always had people among us who say that this or that does "not agree with them") , to get diagnosed you need to scratch that and stick with a diet that makes you sick for weeks.

That is not to say that people who just want to make a number out of themselves don't use imaginary food allergies for that. A friend who is a waiter at one of the better restaurants in town says that whenever there's a documentary on Celiac disease on national TV, the number of clients who make a big fuss about getting gluten-free food increases dramatically for a few days. What's more, many of these people order a regular beer with their carefully-picked gluten-free meal... :rolleyes:
 
Sideroxylon said:
Romantic notions that would soon disappear when they realised that grubs and rodents would have to be on the menu.
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More so after they had finished off all the meat that requires large scale agriculture and began to realize how few people hunter/gathering can actually support. Though as long as those pushing it are first to starve - and there is time to switch back.....:D:D:D:jaw-dropp
 
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23_Tauri said:
The cultivation of wheat changed the course of human history. Where would we be without it? Yes we have other staples (predominantly rice, which is gluten-free), but scare-mongering about something we've been eating for 10,000 years sounds like prime woo to me.
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You think this is nuts? Google "Salad, the Silent Killer".
 
One rationalization for the gluten-free/casein-free diet is that evolutionarily wheat and dairy are the newest foods to humankind. It seems at least plausible that people will experience sensitivities/allergies to these foods more than others because we've had the least amount of time to adapt.

As far as I know, it hasn't been tested extensively beyond a small study on autistic kids that showed no effect. But it's at least plausible in certain conditions. For example, schizophrenia. Perhaps the kind of glucose the body is able to make from wheat is hard on some people's brains and bodies.

Are there millions of people on a gluten-free diet because of the placebo effect? Probably. Are there any truths to the wheat allergy/sensitivity? Almost certainly, but we don't have enough research on it to say for sure. AFAIK
 
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