by PF Louis
January 16, 2013
The case against gluten seems to have been closed with recent
research from a Brazilian research team that published a report in
the January 2013 Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
It seems to have put an exclamation
point on the wheat belly controversy.
Lacking scientific data confirming the mechanics of how gluten may
or may not affect obesity, the study was set up to examine the
differences in specific genetic and biochemical markers between rats
fed gluten and rats that were kept gluten free.
The "wheat belly" syndrome and how it leads to other health issues
was the purpose of their research. The research team chose
biological markers that could indicate the onset of obesity and
metabolic syndrome, precursors to diabetes and cardiac issues.
Both groups of rats were fed high fat diets. But one group was
gluten free and the other group's diet was 4.5 percent gluten.
Even without tracing their predetermined
markers, it was obvious the gluten free mice exhibited weight loss
without any trace of lipid (fat) excretion.
An analysis of
Sayer Ji of GreenmedInfo.com proposed this analysis:
"...the weight gain associated with
wheat consumption has little to do with caloric content per se;
rather, the gluten proteins... disrupt endocrine and exocrine
processes within the body, as well as directly modulating
nuclear gene expression... to alter mamalian metabolism in the
direction of weight gain."
This study report, according to Sayer Ji
proves that the major factor of obesity is gluten, not calories.
Considering that both groups of mice
were fed high fat diets and the gluten free mice lost weight without
excreting lipids also implies that fat free diets for losing weight
are bogus. This has been suspected by other nutritional experts
who've abandoned matrix thinking.
Sayer Ji recommends that those who are overweight, pre-diabetic,
experiencing metabolic syndrome, or suffering from irritable bowel
syndrome try avoiding gluten grains, especially wheat, to determine
from experience if gluten is the underlying cause.
There is evidence that gluten can be a factor in gut and psychology
and even autism.
So how did
wheat, "the staff of life," become a weed of disease
Wheat is not the same today.
It has been agriculturally hybrid, not
genetically lab engineered over some decades to resist fungus, grow
more quickly, and be more pliable for industrial bread baking. As a
consequence, 50-60 years ago wheat containing only five percent
gluten has become 50 percent gluten today.
Agricultural resources used the hybrid process for wheat to
accommodate the baking industry's mechanical requirements of pliable
proteins, leading to the 10-fold increase of wheat's gluten.
The processed food industry's concern for production efficiency and
perception of consumer demands has focused on the bottom line with
the usual disregard to negative health consequences.
Slightly different high speed methods of baking evolved over time.
By artificially bleaching flour and adding "improvers" with often
toxic additives and mixing the dough violently, loaves of bread
could be baked, cooled, and packaged within a few, short hours.
Cheap, unhealthy foods for many with massive profits for a few.
This is beginning to change with measures that seem to offset
gluten's damage for some.
For example, Whole Foods has
their own bakery providing fresh breads daily without bromides,
which can displace the thyroid gland's iodine contents and create
Other local bakeries may provide sprouted grain and real sourdough
breads, which even some celiac sufferers manage to consume without
If you wish to cut out wheat products completely, beware of gluten
high glycemic substitutes