When Wheat Isn’t Your Friend

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and wheat-like grains, including spelt, kamut, barley and rye. Oats are sometimes considered a gluten grain. Oats do not contain gluten, but are often processed using the same equipment as gluten type grains.

Gluten gives dough elasticity, helping it to rise, resulting in light and fluffy bread.

When a person is said to be ‘gluten intolerant’, the cause of the problem is normally an inability to digest a sub-protein of gluten called gliadin. Other grains have various gliadins, but here we will focus on wheat.

History of wheat

This grain we call wheat has been around for thousands of years – but not in the form you would recognize today. Here’s a quick summary of the natural cultivation of the wheat of yesteryear:

• First wild, then cultivated, Einkorn was the great-granddaddy of all subsequent wheat. Einkorn has the simplest genetic code of all wheat, containing only 14 chromosomes.
• Not long after Einkorn was cultivated, it naturally hybridized (mated) with goatgrass. Goatgrass added its genetic code to that of the Einkorn, resulting in the more complex 28-chromosome Emmer wheat. (Emmer wheat is believed to be the unleavened bread of the Passover Feast before the Israelites fled Egypt).
• Once again Emmer wheat mated naturally with another grass, now yielding a wheat with 42 chromosomes, called Triticum aestivum. It is genetically closest to what we now call wheat.

It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!

In recent years, the four foot tall amber waves of grain have been manipulated by hybridization to a mere one to two feet. This shorter ‘dwarf’ wheat produces a greater yield and is easier to harvest.

But one of the downsides is that this modern wheat requires and relies on nitrate fertilizers and pest control just to survive!

Another result of laboratory engineered hybrid ‘dwarf’ wheat is an increase in new gluten proteins that are associated with autoimmune diseases such as Celiac Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, and others. In fact the New England Journal of Medicine has listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten.

All that from wheat?

Gluten is difficult for some humans (as well as pets) to digest. Sprouting the grains helps to break down the gluten. If you are one of approximately 3 million people in America with Celiac Disease, the only ‘cure’ is to avoid gluten. Others may benefit from going on a gluten free diet. As reported in a recent Mayo Clinic article, “1.6 million people in the United States are on a gluten free diet even though they haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease…”

Ready-made gluten free breads

If you’ve tried some of the gluten free breads on the market, you’ll know that most are made with inferior ingredients. Really good, tasty gluten free bread is not easy to find. And if you’ve tried to make your own gluten free bread, you may have been disappointed in the results.

We’re proud to offer you our delicious range of organic gluten free bread, baked by Manna Organics. Manna Bread® is the only GFCO certified gluten free bread available that is also certified organic.

These organic gluten free breads come in five great flavors and contain only wholesome ingredients such as brown rice flour, sprouted seeds, starches, and sunflower oil, all certified organic. We deliver them right to your door, frozen and ready sliced!

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Information provided in this article is not designed to and does not provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment, or services to you or to any other individual. This is general information for educational purposes only. The information provided is not a substitute for medical or professional care, and you should not use the information in place of a visit, call, consultation, or the advice of your physician or other healthcare provider. Wise Choice Marketing Inc is not liable or responsible for any advice, course of treatment, diagnosis, or any other information, services, or product you obtain through Wise Choice Marketing Inc.