thealternativedaily | Modern Wheat is an Appetite Stimulant
It is
estimated that up to 10% of the population has a sensitivity to the
protein in wheat known as gluten (some estimate it may be higher, closer
to 30%). However, the other 90% of people who consume wheat really
should not be eating it either. Here are a few reasons why:
Gluten
is a two part protein that is comprised of gliadin plus glutenin.
Glutenin has a unique elasticity that gives us the ability to stretch
our pizza or bread dough or even spin it over our heads, if we are
inclined to do so. Gliadin, the other part of the gluten protein, was
heavily studied in the 1970′s by psychiatrists who found that if they
took all of the wheat out of the diet of their patients with
schizophrenia, they improved markedly.
When they put the wheat
back, they found that the condition worsened. So the question asked was
what was in bread that led schizophrenics to hallucinate? It was traced
back to the gliadin protein which, when ingested, enters the brain and
binds to opiate receptors where it stimulates appetite.
In
addition, gliadin, acting like an opiate in the brain, has other
disastrous effects. For example, people with ADHD become hypersensitive
and have behavioral outbursts, people with schizophrenia have major
hallucinations, people who are bipolar become increasingly manic and
those with eating disorders, such as binge eating, will develop food
obsessions.
By 1985, everything at the supermarket with wheat in
it came from the prolific semi-dwarf strain or a spinoff. Interestingly
enough, if you compare what happened to America’s weight prior to and
after 1985 it is evident that there was an obesity explosion that is
still happening today shortly after the “new” wheat was introduced.
A
huge increase in the number of diabetics also followed. Although cause
and effect cannot be proven scientifically – it seems evident that we
have all been fed an appetite stimulant.
Modern Wheat Raises Blood Sugar
Two
slices of whole wheat bread raise blood sugar higher than 6 teaspoons
of table sugar. How does this happen when whole wheat is considered a
complex carbohydrate that we are encouraged to eat more of? The complex
carbohydrate of wheat is called Amylopectin A, which is highly sensitive
to amylase, which we have in our stomach and mouth. This makes it very
easy to digest and raises blood sugar rapidly. Wheat for breakfast,
wheat for lunch and wheat for snacks results in visceral fat that
encircles the intestines, heart, liver and kidneys. Repetitive high
blood sugar results in what Dr. Davis calls a “wheat belly.”
Modern Wheat Causes Inflammation
When
bacteria or a virus enters the body our immune system responds in many
ways. Plants do not have the same type of immune system, but they have
lectins which are proteins that are toxic to mold, fungi and insects.
Some lectins are benign to humans like the lectin found in spinach while
some are very toxic. The lectin in wheat (Wheat Germ Agglutinin) is a
four part complex molecule.
When this lectin is isolated and given
to rats in very small amounts, it destroys the small intestine. Average
Americans consume about 10-20 mg of the wheat lectin in a day, that’s
enough to do significant damage.
When we consume wheat the gliadin
protein unlocks the normal intestinal barrier and allows foreign
substances entry into the bloodstream – substances such as wheat lectin.
This is why people who eat wheat have autoimmune and inflammatory
distress such as joint inflammation, bowel inflammation, acid reflux,
inflammation of the brain, inflammation of the airways etc. In fact,
there is not one system that escapes the inflammatory assault of wheat.