For some people in
Nigeria nowadays, Wheat is now the
most common swallow meal for them particularly in most cities. Unfortunately,
there are few people in rural areas too that have joined this fad that wheat is
“healthy” food. But the findings have made it clear that some people have developed
diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure as a result of making wheat
their major or regular meals/diet. Some now prefer wheat to pounded yam and
amala (grounded yam flour) which is more healthier than so called “wheat diet”.
The rampant consumption
of wheat in many part of the country has shown that in the absence of knowledge,
people can accept poison as therapy. Afterall wheat is the first choice diet
for those that suffer diabetes on the strength of doctors’ advice. Ignorantly,
wheat has overshadowed other starchy foods that we are known with in Nigeria. Having
said that, one needs to be careful because this dietary change may prove suicidal
for many people given the inseparable linkage of diet to health or ill health. Though
wheat like other grains, is reach in fibre and some other nutrients, it is one
food anybody that desires wellness and long life should avoid. Why must you avoid it? There are 3 inherent
dangers in the chemistry of wheat that make it a classic destroyer of health. They
are the disadvantages of wheat.
1. Wheat contains gluten – a protein that causes
inflammation, a systemic process that has harmful effect across all the organ
systems in the body including the brain, heart, joints, eyes and digestive
tract. It is a fact that inflammation precede all degenerative diseases like
diabetes, cancer, stroke, glaucoma, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, it also
fuels their spreading progression. A review paper in the New England Journal of
Medicine listed 55 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten-containing
foods. The diseases include osteoporosis, anaemia, cancer, canker sores,
fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The paper also linked
gluten to many psychiatric and neurological disease including depression, schizophrenia,
dementia, nerve damage, epilepsy and autism. The paper concluded that are 120
or more diseases associated with eating foods that contain gluten.
Dr. Joseph A. Murray,
MD states that he is surprised how often
gluten affects the brain. Another study by Dr. J. Robert Cade, MD of the
University of Florida showed that people with autism and schizophrenia have
high level of peptides in their urine. These peptides, according to Dr. Cade,
come from casein (protein in milk and other diary products) and gliadin and
gluten in wheat, barley, oats and rye.
Another study of 30,000
patients analysed from 1969-2008 reported in the journal of the American
Medical Association found that people diagnosed with gluten-sensitivity had a
higher risk of death from cancer and heart disease than the normal population.
The worse part is that
the bulk of wheat being consumed in the country is the American hybrid strain,
which has much higher gluten content than the European wheat.
The second inherent
danger in the chemistry of wheat is its high Glycemic Index GI. Glycemic Index
is a scale that ranks carbohydrate rich foods by how much they raise blood
sugar level compared to low glycemic foods. Wheat has GI of 71 compared to yam
and sweet potato with GI of 49 and 54 respectively. Invariably, eating food
with high GI like wheat regularly promotes weight gain and makes diabetes
intractable.
According to Dr. Mark
Hyman, MD, “wheat is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, cancer,
dementia, depression and many modern ills”. If one may ask, what is the science
behind the recommendation of wheat as a meal to fight high blood sugar?
In addition, many
people do not know that wheat, which is being promoted as “healthy” food, is
one of the most acid-forming foods. What are the health implications of eating
acid forming foods? Wheat and other acid-forming foods lower the body PH and deplete
oxygen level in the cells and tissues, which is the primary cause of all
diseases. In other words, if wheat causes low PH that triggers diseases, eating
wheat and its products is akin to adding fuel to fire for people battling with
one health challenge or the other. What are physiological effects of low PH on
the body organs? Eyes are the first victims of degenerating effects of low PH
and its consequences include cataract, glaucoma and other forms of visual
impairment. Also, low body PH makes the heart overwork by robbing the blood of
proper oxygenation and causing irregular heart beat and systemic degeneration
of the heart muscle and blood vessels, which can ultimately lead to heart
attack and stroke.
The brain and nerves
also malfunction when the body PH is low (acidic PH). Also acidic PH undermines
the vital functions of the pancreas – production of insulin for glucose
metabolism and digestive enzymes for synthesis of protein. Yet, the dysfunction
of the pancreas triggers diabetes and cancer, with former setting stage for the
latter. A joint report by the American Cancer Society and the American diabetes
Association noted that people with type 2 diabetes have high risk of developing
cancers of liver, pancreas, colon and bladder. Acidic PH causes clogging of the
colon with acid wastes resulting in chronic constipation, which makes healing
of any health challenge impossible.