Is Modern Wheat Making You Fat?

(Courtesy of Our Health Co-Op)

We will keep returning to issues with wheat in our modern diet, as it has been shown to increase obesity around the world as much or more than it has increased crop yields. We think the picture above says it all.

When wheat was genetically modified to address world hunger, it was fattened up and made into a short, stubby dwarf species, which is vastly different from the ancient einkorn wheat mentioned in the Bible. Fattened up wheat kernels are not just carbohydrates but super carbs that our bodies never evolved to work with.

You see, modern wheat has a super starch, amylopectin A, that is rapidly digested and leads to insulin resistance in rats and humans alike. Wheat raises blood sugar faster than table sugar and leads to blood sugar swings that fuel food cravings versus weight loss. Whole grain wheat does not help much as it is this super starch that drives insulin problems and willpower issues alike.

Here’s what Dr. Davis, author of Wheat Belly, has to say about wheat and weight loss:

“Typically, people who say goodbye to wheat lose a pound a day for the first 10 days. Weight loss then slows to yield 25-30 pounds over the subsequent 3-6 months… When you remove wheat from the diet, you’ve removed a food that leads to fat deposition in the abdomen. Factor in that the gliadin protein unique to wheat that is degraded to a morphine-like compound that stimulates appetite remove it and appetite shrinks. The average daily calorie intake drops 400 calories per day—with less hunger, less cravings and food is more satisfying. This all occurs without imposing calorie limits, cutting fat grams, or limiting portion size. It all happens just by eliminating this thing called wheat.”

If you have trouble with cravings, blood sugar management, and/or weight, you just might want to experiment with going gluten-free.