Wheat Belly Cookbook: 150 delicious wheat-free recipes for effortless weight loss and optimum health. Dr Davis William
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and unique gliadin, glutenin and other proteins have resulted, none of which were tested for suitability for human consumption prior to their introduction into your food – they are just produced and sold, no questions asked.
Lectins
Lectins are a class of protective molecules found in plants. Lacking such things as cellular immunity and antibodies like we higher mammals have, plants instead rely on proteins called lectins to protect themselves from moulds, insects and other would-be predators. Because it is an effective defence against pests, geneticists have genetically engineered the gene for wheat lectin, wheat germ agglutinin, into other plants, such as corn, as an insecticide, given its lethal effects on the larvae of a pest known as the European corn borer.
The lectin of wheat, wheat germ agglutinin, is toxic. Found at highest concentration in wheat germ that many people regard as especially healthy, it has peculiar effects at many levels in wheat predators such as humans. Unlike gluten and gliadin, whose toxic potential is amplified in the genetically susceptible through HLA DQ genes, wheat germ agglutinin can do its damage directly, no genetic assistance required. It binds to the lining of the intestinal tract, disrupting cellular structure and microvilli, the short absorptive ‘hairs’ on intestinal cells, and causing ‘hyperplasia’, i.e., abnormal cell growth, of the small intestinal lining. These phenomena increase intestinal permeability, suspected to explain why foreign substances are able to gain entry into the bloodstream in the presence of wheat germ agglutinin. Wheat germ agglutinin is unique in that it is resistant to digestion in the human gastrointestinal tract, as well as to cooking, baking, sprouting the seeds or sourdough fermentation. Because of its relatively small size, in addition to allowing other intruding compounds into the bloodstream, it is itself readily able to penetrate the intestinal lining and gain access to the bloodstream, with many people expressing antibodies against wheat germ agglutinin.
Once it gains entry into the bloodstream, wheat germ agglutinin has the capacity to exert an entire range of peculiar and unhealthy effects, including amplifying the effects of insulin on fat cells (increasing fat storage) and stimulation of abnormal immune responses such as that underlying rheumatoid arthritis. Wheat germ agglutinin is believed to worsen coeliac disease; studies suggest that wheat germ agglutinin alone is sufficient to generate coeliac disease–like intestinal damage.
Oddly, wheat germ agglutinin resembles the protein hevein, the lectin from rubber plants responsible for latex allergy. The three variants of wheat germ agglutinin in modern wheat, isolectins A, B and D, all contain eight copies of the hevein sequence. The full implications of this peculiar juxtaposition have not been explored in humans, though it has potential for allergic and immune consequences, given the frequency and severity of latex allergy.
The genetic changes inflicted on wheat have potential for expressing altered forms of wheat germ agglutinin. The structure of this protein in modern wheat is different by several amino acids from that of the ancient wheat strains emmer and einkorn. Unfortunately, what is not clear, given the general lack of interest among agricultural scientists and the recent development of technology able to make such distinctions among molecules, is whether new forms of lectins created over the last 50 years are more harmful than older forms. (It might turn out, for instance, that wheat lectins are bad for humans no matter what form they take.)
Rht Genes
Nearly all of the world’s wheat is the semi-dwarf variety, a high-yield 1½ to 2-foot-tall plant. Dwarfism is controlled by reduced height, or Rht, genes that reduce the production of the protein gibberellin, which stimulates growth of the stalk. Genes for dwarfism were originally obtained during the flurry of genetics research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s through repeated crossings with the mutant Norin 10 strain from Japan.
As with many mutations, one ‘defective’ (or, in this case, desirable) gene is often accompanied by other genetic changes. Changes in Rht genes are accompanied by other changes in the genetic code of the wheat plant. Reduced height is also associated with thicker shafts, greater nutrient uptake in the seedheads (which are ground to produce flour), yielding larger and an increased number of seeds, and variations in other proteins expressed, such as alpha amylase inhibitors. As with much of the research of this age, some of the characteristics created were desirable to agricultural scientists, some not, but most were not even identified nor outwardly expressed or visible to the eye since the nature of the methods used did not seek to identify each and every change, just the obvious ones. (Imagine, for instance, I provoke a mutation for height in a chimpanzee. A 1-foot-tall chimpanzee dwarf might also have mental impairment, odd hair texture and colour, endocrine abnormalities, etc., some of which are apparent to the eye, many of which are not.)
What consequences do these unique genes and proteins have for humans consuming various Rht mutants with their accompanying changes? Nobody knows, since the question was never asked.
Alpha Amylase Inhibitors and Other Allergens
Allergy to wheat is on the increase (along with allergies to peanuts, dairy and other foods). This means that more people generate an IgE (immunoglobulin E) antibody response to various protein triggers, or ‘allergens’, in wheat. Eighteen per cent more children today have various dietary allergies, including wheat, than children did as recently as 1997.
Clearfield Wheat: Product of ‘Traditional Breeding Methods’
Clearfield wheat is a strain of patented semi-dwarf wheat, the product of ‘hybridization’ research at BASF, the world’s largest chemical manufacturer.
Hybridization is a loosely used term. In common usage, of course, hybridization simply means mating two plants or animals to generate a unique offspring. Mate a red apple with a yellow apple, and you get a happy red-yellow hybrid. There is a presumption of safety with hybridization: The FDA doesn’t come knocking at your door asking for your animal or human test data. Hybridize to your heart’s content and you can just sell your unique vegetable or fruit, no questions asked.
Clearfield wheat is resistant to the herbicide imazamox, also known as Beyond. Imazamox resistance is conferred by an alteration in the acetohydroxyacid synthase gene. The promotional literature to farmers proudly proclaims that imazamox resistance in Clearfield wheat is not the product of genetic modification: Clearfield wheat is non-GMO, unlike Roundup-resistant corn and soya. Clearfield brand wheat seed is sold to farmers in the northwestern United States. Farmers in Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Washington and other states are now planting nearly one million acres of Clearfield wheat.
So how did chemical company BASF (with the collaboration of Oregon State University), which holds the patent on Clearfield and sells the seed, create this genetic variant?
Clearfield wheat was created through a process called chemical mutagenesis. Developers exposed wheat seeds to the chemical sodium azide, NaN3. Sodium azide is highly toxic to animals, bacteria and humans, with human ingestion of small quantities yielding effects similar to those of cyanide. With accidental ingestion, for instance, the CDC recommends not performing CPR on the victim (in effect, just letting the victim die), since the CPR provider could be fatally exposed along with the victim. The CDC also advises not to dispose of any vomit into a sink, since it can explode (and this has actually happened).
In addition to methods of chemical mutagenesis, gamma and x-ray radiation are also used on seeds and plant embryos to induce mutations. These methods of inducing purposeful, though unpredictable, mutations all fall under the umbrella of ‘traditional breeding methods’.
So plants subjected to all manner of chemical- and radiation-based hybridization techniques are unleashed on the unwitting public, all presumed to be safe for human consumption, without safety testing in animals, just . . . used to create your foods.
There are some efforts made to analyse carbohydrate content, fibre content and other crude measures of compositional change. Oh, you’ll be happy to know that they also did test for its ability to yield cohesive biscuits and light sponge cake.
Numerous allergens have been identified in modern wheat that were not present in ancient forms like einkorn. Wheat contains alpha amylase inhibitors, probably the most common among proteins responsible for wheat allergy in children (usually resulting in hives and/or asthma, cramps