Why is Wheat Bad for You? — 3 Good Reasons to Delete the Wheat

[suramo]

This article originally was published on intoxicatedonlife.com/why-i... by Trisha Gilkerson.

Is wheat bad for you? That’s a complicated question. It’s not as cut-and-dry as a quick trip to the doctor for a test for celiac disease. In fact, tests for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity are notoriously imprecise.

I’ve challenged individuals to try giving up wheat for a few months to see if it helps with their…

inflammation

achey joints

psoriasis

PMS

…and the list goes on and on!

Often what I hear in response is, “BUT I don’t have any stomach problems.”

Friends, problems with wheat, especially modern wheat, goes further than tummy aches! So why should you consider deleting the wheat?

The vast majority of individuals who are sensitive to wheat do not exhibit any intestinal problems. Yet when they cut wheat out of their diets, they experience improvement: better mood, less PMS, clearer skin, less fatigue, clearer thinking.

Those who struggle with autoimmune diseases or mental disorders often see improvement, migraines subside, eczema and psoriasis improve, joint pain decreases, and the list of improvements goes on and on.

Looking for gluten-free resources? This Everything Gluten Free page is a library of everything gluten free we’ve worked on.

Why Wheat Is Bad for You: Anti-Nutrients in Wheat

There are several anti-nutrients that are found in wheat. What are anti-nutrients? Anti-nutrients are any substance, synthetic or natural, which disrupts and interferes with proper nutrient absorption.

1. Lectins: Causing Leaky Gut

Lectins are mild toxins which are found in wheat. They’re basically like a plants built-in pesticide—one of the ways a plant protects itself. Lectins aren’t broken down in your gastro-intestinal system but bind to receptors in your intestinal walls.1 This allows the lectins and also undigested food particles to leech into your blood stream (i.e. “leaky gut”). Yes. Poop gets into your blood.

When undigested particles are entering your blood stream, this is bad, as you might guess. Really bad. Why? Because your immune system mounts up an attack. These attacks can eventually be, at least partially, responsible for the development of autoimmune disease.2

On top of this, lectins are also implicated in causing leptin resistance which leads to weight gain, sleep disturbances, and a host of other problems.3 Now, you’re not probably going to be able to completely eliminate lectins from your diet. They are present in a lot (and I mean a lot) of foods, but you can decrease your consumption of them by cutting the biggest offenders (i.e. those with massive quantities of lectin), wheat being one of them.

2. Gluten: Not Just a Celiac Problem

Another reason for why is wheat bad for you revolves around gluten. Gluten has become quite a buzz word lately. Gluten is made up of the two proteins: gliadin and glutenin. It’s the glue that holds your bread together and gives it it’s elastic properties. For the 1% of individuals in the United States which have celiac disease, this is the protein that causes a major problem.Celiac disease is just one outcome of being intolerant of gluten, however.

It used to be that doctors would only admit gluten was causing a problem if you had a positive biopsy showing damaged intestinal villi. The problem with this is a biopsy is only examining a very small part of the intestines. There very likely may be intestinal damage which is not in the area which was not biopsied.

Celiac disease is on the rise—a 400% increase in just 50 years.5 We don’t really know how many people suffer from non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but it’s likely a high number. Some doctors and researchers say they suspect everyone suffers from at least a small degree of gluten sensitivity.

Why is gluten a problem for most (or all people)? Because gliadin (one of the gluten proteins) universally (in everyone) causes zonulin to be released. Now you’re thinking, “What in the world is zonulin?” Zonulin is what regulates how permeable our intestinal wall is. The more zonulin present, the more permeable your intestinal wall becomes.

In other words, both lectins and gluten can cause problems with leaky gut. It’s imperative that individuals suffering from celiac disease avoid gluten. But it’s also important that those who suffer from non-celiac gluten sensitivity also avoid gluten (yeah, that means probably most everyone).

3. Phytates: Robbing You of Vitamins and Minerals

Last, but not least, are phytates. Phytates cause minerals to be bio-unavailable. That means, when phytates are around, it makes it much more difficult for your body to utilize the vitamins and minerals that are present.

They do this in two ways, they binds up minerals and prevent them from being properly absorbed. Another interesting tidbit, is that phytates are also associated with increased tooth decay. So much so that anthropologists use the level of tooth decay to determine whether a society was agricultural or a hunter/gatherer society.

[barani19 Administrator]

But Long wheat works very well to me at least

[soni1 in reply to barani19]

right, the whole wheat is really good and causes no harm, only thing is we should buy the whole grain and flour it.

[sandybrown]

What is bad for us humans.!! The air is not pure, the water is not pure.?

Any food that is processed is bad for human.

[soni1 in reply to sandybrown]

well said sandy brown...eat things within limits is the goal of life.

[rgbbhat]

Good Post. I am Type 2 DM and for the past 3 months Cut down on Wheat and Bread , Have 2 Eggs with Sugarless Tea for breakfast 5 days a week and Walk at least 5 Kms daily. Other things remaining constant my HB1AC has reduced from 7.1 to 6.5. Checked Lipid and slight increase in TGL. Will monitor the same. I used to have a lot of issues when chapati was consumed but now it is not that bad. My view is that we need to identify what works well with your constitution and adjust. I do eat rice ( being a south indian ) but reduced the portions.

[suramo Star in reply to rgbbhat]

Great going, but you need to cut off carbs as much as possible. Also, you need to practice IF.

[barani19 Administrator in reply to suramo]

suramo ,Could you share your experience on LCHF?

Cheers.

[suramo Star in reply to barani19]

Very good experience. Lchf is not a treatment but i should be the way of eating for all. It's healthy eating.

[makarim]

Very good topic and for me my experience suggest that leaving wheat and rice from my diet has left me free of drugs.I have switched to millet instead of wheat.I congratulate for nice posting.

[sandybrown in reply to makarim]

My plan for this afternoon was to make putto with ragi flour, the fresh coconut was not that fresh therefore I end up making ediappam for this evening to have it with white fish curry.

Getting there slowly!!!

Take care.

[makarim]

Sir, I am pretty sure you will succeed .Actually the wheat culture was not there with our aboriginal.They were on ragi,maize,soghum,pearl millet and working very hard.with our sedentary life style and switching to high card low fat diet has given us all the diseases.I again wish you a reversal of diabetes in near future.with regards.

[rgbbhat in reply to makarim]

Yes agree will work on that in a phased manner. I realise that i will get bored of it if i jump in too fast😃

[sandybrown]

I came across good information:

healthline.com/nutrition/gr...

When is science going to leave nature product alone?

Who benefits from modified grains?

Take care.