It may seem that allergies and sensitivities to wheat are cropping up all over the place (pun intended) and you might be wondering if this is just another diet fad, but this is something that has been happening in the west for a while, how can it be so? Haven't humans been subsisting off of grains since the beginning of agriculture, for thousands of years? How can people suddenly be sensitive to wheat or gluten? There are quite a few reasons why we are developing autoimmune disorders linked to grains like wheat in this modern age, and a lot of research to show this is not just diet fad fantasy.
Agriculture was not Good for our Health
The development of agriculture was a turning point in human history, and around it formed civilization, eventually cities that became thriving metropolises developing technologies and expounding philosophies that spread around the world. It is easy to correlate the rise of human culture with agriculture and the rise of human health, but the fossil record tells a different story. Our transition from hunter gatherer to agricultural societies came with a heavy price, a shorter life span, reduction in height, and less healthy bones and teeth. We would like to think that evolution favors the healthy, but it doesn't. Evolution favors babies, and if those babies live long enough to procreate, even if they are less healthy, then nature has done its job. Hunter gatherers can usually only take care of one child at a time, as children are too difficult for nomads to care for in numbers, but farms are excellent environments for children and they are a much needed source of labor even, if they don't tend to live past 40. It is only with the development and improvement of modern medicine that the human lifespan has increased again in developed areas, although it is currently going back down again in America.
Ancestry has Something to do With it
Wheat seems to be behind the very development of humanity and society, at least if you ask a westerner, so how could it be bad for you? It is true that cultures in the middle east, the fertile crescent, and Southern Europe have thrived off of wheat since civilization began in those places, but it is too cold in Northern Europe for wheat to be used with any great frequency. Ancient Scandinavians for instance did not eat bread, there simply was not enough wheat grown in these colder areas to make it, and was usually eaten as a cereal. Many people whose ancestors came from Northern Europe, The British Isles, and Ireland have a disposition toward wheat sensitivity, and in South East Asia the grain that supports civilization has been rice, not wheat.
The Grains our Ancestors ate are not the Same
Many people are suspicious of genetically modified foods, but humans have been modifying foods for thousands of years. The crops your ancestors ate are not the same as what you eat today. They have been selectively bred for drought and insect resistance, ease of cultivation, and today even appearances. Wheat like most grains is a grass, and these grasses have mildly toxic properties to protect them from being eaten. It is no wonder that people wind up sensitive to them, but we make use of them like we have historically made use of everything we could. The truth is most of us can handle plant mild plant toxins it until our gut health begins to suffer, and then the problems start.
A Healthy gut Could Handle it
Despite the fact that wheat and other grains have toxic properties, people have been able to make use of them through preparation like removing the husk, soaking, and or grinding into flour, but the most important preparation for processing these substances is done in the gut. A well functioning gut means a healthy and diverse gut biome, with a large variety of species that can feed off of various fibers and prepare nutrients properly before they are absorbed into the blood stream. If the layer of cells lining the gut becomes permeable (leaky gut), and some of these substances enter the blood stream unprocessed, the body can recognize a substance as a foreign invader and release an auto immune reaction that triggers inflammation. So if you eat wheat and other grains and your digestion seems good and you don't have any signs of an auto immune disease, then you probably have a healthy gut biome, good for you!
Everything is Sprayed With Poison
This may seem like an exaggeration, but if you live in America it is probably true that every grain you eat is sprayed with some sort of toxic pesticide along with fertilizers and many other things. This is usually true even if it is labeled as organic. The most notorious pesticide currently, Round Up, is a known carcinogen with many harmful properties that people with food sensitivities will often experience an autoimmune reaction to. This has been established by research long ago, and because of this is banned in most modern countries, most of Europe for example. It was set to be banned in the U.S.A but aggressive lobbying changed that so welcome to capitalism, we are eating poison! The best way to avoid eating round up is to stop eating American grains, so many people have gotten a grip on their autoimmune disease by eating controversial diets like Paleo, Keto, or even total Carnivore.
There have been many books addressing these issues based on exciting new fields of gut science with many studies to back up their claims, this blog is simply meant to bring up some of these ideas that you can further explore on your own. I would suggest going to some leading experts on these studies to understand the science behind them, read their books or find a physician or a nutritionist who has been exploring these topics. I am a manual therapist with some background in Ayurveda, so although these ideas fascinate me, I am no authority. I can recommend a few books to start with below:
Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind: A Powerful Plan to Improve Mood, Overcome Anxiety, and Protect Memory for a Lifetime of Optimal Mental Health Dr. Georgia Ede MD
Gut Check: Unleash the Power of Your Microbiome to Reverse Disease and Transform Your Mental, Physical, and Emotional Health By Dr. Steven R Gundry MD
The Keystone Approach: Healing Arthritis and Psoriasis by Restoring the Microbiome
By Rebecca Fett
good read and informative
Very interesting!