Emails from folks with allergic or
digestive issues to wheat in the United States experienced no symptoms
whatsoever when they tried eating pasta on vacation in Italy.
Confused parents wondering why wheat
consumption sometimes triggered autoimmune reactions in their children but not
at other times.
In my own home, I’ve long pondered why
my husband can eat the wheat
I prepare at home, but he experiences negative digestive
effects eating even a single roll in a restaurant.
There is clearly something going on
with wheat that is not well known by the general public. It goes far and beyond
organic versus nonorganic, gluten or hybridization because even conventional
wheat triggers no symptoms for some who eat wheat in other parts of the world.
What indeed is going on with wheat?
For quite some time, I secretly
harbored the notion that wheat in the United States must, in fact, be
genetically modified. GMO wheat secretly invading the North American food
supply seemed the only thing that made sense and could account for the
varied experiences I was hearing about.
I reasoned that it couldn’t be the
gluten or wheat hybridization. Gluten and wheat hybrids have been consumed for
thousands of years. It just didn’t make sense that this could be the reason for
so many people suddenly having problems with wheat and gluten in general in the
past 5-10 years.
Finally, the answer came over dinner a
couple of months ago with a friend who was well versed in the wheat production
process. I started researching the issue for myself, and was, quite frankly,
horrified at what I discovered.
The good news is that the reason wheat
has become so toxic in the United States is not because it is secretly GMO as I
had feared (thank goodness!).
The bad news is that the problem lies
with the manner in which wheat is grown and harvested by conventional wheat
farmers.
You’re going to want to sit down for
this one. I’ve had some folks burst into tears in horror when I passed
along this information before.
Common
wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with
Roundup several days before the
combine harvesters work through the fields as
the practice allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest
Pre-harvest application of the
herbicide Roundup or other herbicides containing the deadly active ingredient
glyphosate to wheat and barley as a desiccant was suggested as early as 1980.
It has since become routine over the past 15 years and is used as a
drying agent 7-10 days before harvest within the conventional farming
community.According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff of
MIT who has studied
the issue in depth and who I recently saw present on the subject at a
nutritional Conference in Indianapolis, desiccating non-organic wheat
crops with glyphosate just before harvest came into vogue late in the 1990′s with the result that most of the
non-organic wheat in the United States is now contaminated with it.
Seneff explains that when you
expose wheat to a toxic chemical like glyphosate, it actually releases more
seeds resulting in a slightly greater yield: “It ‘goes to seed’ as it dies. At its
last gasp, it releases the seed” says Dr. Seneff.
According to the US Department of
Agriculture, as of 2012, 99% of durum wheat, 97% of spring wheat, and 61% of
winter wheat has been treated with herbicides. This is an increase from 88% for
durum wheat, 91% for spring wheat and 47% for winter wheat since 1998.
Here’s what wheat
farmer Keith Lewis has to say about the practice:
I have been a wheat farmer for 50 yrs
and one wheat production practice that is very common is applying the herbicide
Roundup (glyposate) just prior to harvest. Roundup is licensed for preharvest
weed control. Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup claims that application to
plants at over 30% kernel moisture result in roundup uptake by the plant into
the kernels. Farmers like this practice because Roundup kills the wheat plant
allowing an earlier harvest.
A wheat field often ripens unevenly,
thus applying Roundup preharvest evens up the greener parts of the field with
the more mature. The result is on the less mature areas Roundup is translocated
into the kernels and eventually harvested as such.
This
practice is not licensed. Farmers mistakenly call it
“dessication.” Consumers eating products made from wheat flour are undoubtedly
consuming minute amounts of Roundup. An interesting aside, malt barley which is
made into beer is not acceptable in the marketplace if it has been sprayed with
preharvest Roundup. Lentils and peas are not accepted in the market place if it
was sprayed with preharvest roundup….. but wheat is ok.. This farming practice
greatly concerns me and it should further concern consumers of wheat products.
Here’s what wheat farmer Seth Woodland
of Woodland and Wheat in Idaho had to
say about the practice of using herbicides for wheat dry down:
That practice is bad . I have fellow
farmers around me that do it and it is sad. Lucky for you not all of us
farm that way. Being the farmer and also the president of a business, we are
proud to say that we do not use round up on our wheat ever!
This practice is not just widespread in
the United States either. The Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom
reports that use of Roundup as a wheat desiccant results in glyphosate
residues regularly showing
up in bread samples. Other European countries are waking up to to the danger,
however. In the Netherlands, use of Roundup is completely banned with France
likely soon to follow.
Using Roundup on wheat crops throughout
the entire growing season and even as a desiccant just prior to harvest may
save the farmer money and increase profits, but it is devastating to the health
of the consumer who ultimately consumes the glyphosate residue laden wheat
kernels.
The chart below of skyrocketing
applications of glyphosate to US wheat crops since 1990 and the incidence of
celiac disease is from a December 2013 study published
in the Journal Interdisciplinary
Toxicology examining glyphosate pathways to autoimmune disease.
While the herbicide industry maintains
that glyphosate is minimally toxic to humans, research
published in the Journal Entropy strongly
argues otherwise by shedding light on exactly how glyphosate disrupts mammalian
physiology.
Authored by Anthony Samsel and
Stephanie Seneff of MIT, the paper investigates glyphosate’s inhibition of
cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, an overlooked component of lethal toxicity to
mammals.
The currently accepted view is that
ghyphosate is not harmful to humans or any mammals. This flawed view is
so pervasive in the conventional farming community that Roundup salesmen have
been known to foolishly drink it during presentations!
However, just because Roundup doesn’t
kill you immediately doesn’t make it nontoxic. In fact, the active
ingredient in Roundup lethally disrupts the all important shikimate pathway
found in beneficial gut microbes which is responsible for synthesis of critical
amino acids.
Friendly gut bacteria, also called
probiotics, play a critical role in human health. Gut bacteria aid digestion,
prevent permeability of the gastointestinal tract (which discourages the
development of autoimmune disease), synthesize vitamins and provide the
foundation for robust immunity. In essence:
Roundup
significantly disrupts the functioning of beneficial bacteria in the gut and
contributes to permeability of the intestinal wall and consequent expression of
autoimmune disease symptoms
In synergy with disruption of the
biosynthesis of important amino acids via the shikimate pathway, glyphosate
inhibits the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes produced by the gut microbiome.
CYP enzymes are critical to human biology because they detoxify the
multitude of foreign chemical compounds, xenobiotics, that we are exposed to in
our modern environment today.
As a result, humans exposed to
glyphosate through use of Roundup in their community or through ingestion of
its residues on industrialized food products become even more vulnerable to the
damaging effects of other chemicals and environmental toxins they encounter!
What’s worse is that the negative
impact of glyphosate exposure is slow and insidious over months and years as
inflammation gradually gains a foothold in the cellular systems of the
body.
The consequences of this systemic
inflammation are most of the diseases and conditions associated with the
Western lifestyle:
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Depression
- Autism
- Infertility
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- And the list goes on and on and on …
In a
nutshell, Dr. Seneff’s study of Roundup’s ghastly glyphosate which the wheat
crop in the United States is doused with uncovers the manner in which this
lethal toxin harms the human body by decimating beneficial gut microbes with
the tragic end result of disease, degeneration, and widespread suffering
Got the picture yet?
Even if you think you have no trouble
digesting wheat, it is still very wise to avoid conventional wheat as much as
possible in your diet!
You Must Avoid Toxic Wheat No Matter What
The bottom line is that avoidance of
conventional wheat in the United States is absolutely imperative even if you
don’t currently have a gluten allergy or wheat sensitivity. The increase
in the amount of glyphosate applied to wheat closely correlates with the rise
of celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Dr. Seneff points out that the
increases in these diseases are not just genetic in nature, but also have an
environmental cause as not all patient symptoms are alleviated by eliminating
gluten from the diet.
The effects of deadly glyphosate on
your biology are so insidious that lack of symptoms today means literally
nothing.
If you don’t have problems with wheat
now, you will in the future if you keep eating conventionally produced, toxic
wheat!
How to Eat Wheat Safely
Obviously, if you’ve already developed
a sensitivity or allergy to wheat, you must avoid it. Period.
But, if you aren’t celiac or gluten
sensitive and would like to consume this ancestral food safely, you can do what
we do in our home. We only source organic, preferably low gluten, unhybridized
Einkorn wheat for breadmaking, pancakes, cookies etc. But,
when we eat out or are purchasing food from the store, conventional wheat
products are rejected without exception. This despite the fact that we
have no gluten allergies whatsoever in our home – yet.
I am firmly convinced that if we did nothing,
our entire family at some point would develop sensitivity to wheat or
autoimmune disease in some form due to the toxic manner in which it is
processed and the glyphosate residues that are contained in conventional wheat
products.
What Are You Going to Do About Toxic Wheat?
How did you react to the news that US
wheat farmers are using Roundup, not just to kill weeds, but to dry out the
wheat plants to allow for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest and that such a
practice causes absorption of toxic glyphosate, the active ingredient in
Roundup and other herbicides, right into the wheat kernels themselves?
Did you feel outraged and violated like
I did? How will you implement a conventional wheat-avoidance strategy going
forward even if you haven’t yet developed a problem with gluten or wheat
sensitivity?
What about other crops where Roundup is
used as a pre-harvest dessicant such as barley, sugar cane, rice, seeds,
dried beans and peas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and sugar beets? Will
you only be buying these crops in organic form from now on to avoid this
modern, man-made scourge?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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Comments (550)
DazedandConfused November
18, 2014 at 12:44 pm
As an ordinary
citizen just trying to eat well, I am increasingly confused. GMO is bad, GMO is
fine. Gluten is the root of all evil. It’s not gluten, it’s wheat. Blah blah
blah. I don’t know what to believe anymore. What I do know for sure is that we
are getting fatter and sicker as a society. Probably it’s a combination of
factors – too much fat, sugar, salt and depletion of nutrients caused by
industrial food production. I personally have been trying to determine the root
cause of my increasingly frequent migraines, which could be linked to any
number of environmental toxins in my food supply, or nothing at all. It would
be nice to have regulatory bodies that are impartial and aren’t stacked with
ex-Big Food company executives and lobbyists. Feeling very hopeless…
This explains
why I developed such a strong debilitating reaction to wheat so soon in my
life. I ate A LOT of conventional wheat as a child. I was born in the late 80s,
so most of my childhood glyphosate use was on the rise. We had toast with
breakfast, bagels for treats when we went out, wheat-based cereal often as a
snack, bread with dinner, and so on.
Unfortunately,
removing wheat was NOT ENOUGH to recover. My stomach had several
life-threatening holes in it by the time I was sixteen. I had to change my
entire diet and lifestyle to save my life. Because of this experience, I’ve
dedicated much of the past ten years to developing recipes and meal plans that
are not only wheat-free, but also are delicious and *healing* for those who
have already developed digestive concerns.
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