The stories became far too frequent to ignore. Emails from folks with allergic or digestive issues to wheat in the United States experienced no symptoms whatsoever when they tried eating pasta on vacation in Italy.
Confused parents wondering why wheat consumption sometimes triggered autoimmune reactions in their children but not at other times.
In my own home, I’ve long pondered why my husband can eat the wheat I prepare at home, but he experiences negative digestive effects eating even a single roll in a restaurant.
There is clearly something going on with wheat that is not well known by the general public. It goes far and beyond organic versus nonorganic, gluten or hybridization because even conventional wheat triggers no symptoms for some who eat wheat in other parts of the world.
What indeed is going on with wheat?
For quite some time, I secretly harbored the notion that wheat in the United States must, in fact, be genetically modified. GMO wheat secretly invading the North American food supply seemed the only thing that made sense and could account for the varied experiences I was hearing about.
I reasoned that it couldn’t be the gluten or wheat hybridization. Gluten and wheat hybrids have been consumed for thousands of years. It just didn’t make sense that this could be the reason for so many people suddenly having problems with wheat and gluten in general in the past 5-10 years.
Finally, the answer came over dinner a couple of months ago with a friend who was well versed in the wheat production process. I started researching the issue for myself, and was, quite frankly, horrified at what I discovered.
The good news is that the reason wheat has become so toxic in the United States is not that it is secretly GMO as I had feared (thank goodness!).
The bad news is that the problem lies with the manner in which wheat is grown and harvested by conventional wheat farmers.
You’re going to want to sit down for this one. I’ve had some folks burst into tears in horror when I passed along this information before.
Common wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields as the practice allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest.
Pre-harvest application of the herbicide Roundup or other herbicides containing the deadly active ingredient glyphosate to wheat and barley as a desiccant was suggested as early as 1980. It has since become routine over the past 15 years and is used as a drying agent 7-10 days before harvest within the conventional farming community.
According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT who has studied the issue in-depth and who I recently saw present on the subject at a nutritional conference in Indianapolis, desiccating non-organic wheat crops with glyphosate just before harvest came into vogue late in the 1990s with the result that most of the non-organic wheat in the United States is now contaminated with it. Seneff explains that when you expose wheat to a toxic chemical like glyphosate, it actually releases more seeds resulting in a slightly greater yield: “It ‘goes to seed’ as it dies. At its last gasp, it releases the seed” says Dr. Seneff.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, as of 2012, 99% of durum wheat, 97% of spring wheat, and 61% of winter wheat have been treated with herbicides. This is an increase from 88% for durum wheat, 91% for spring wheat and 47% for winter wheat since 1998. Note that bulgur is commonly made from durum.
Here’s what wheat farmer Keith Lewis has to say about the practice:
I have been a wheat farmer for 50 yrs and one wheat production practice that is very common is applying the herbicide Roundup (glyposate) just prior to harvest. Roundup is licensed for preharvest weed control. Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup claims that application to plants at over 30% kernel moisture result in roundup uptake by the plant into the kernels. Farmers like this practice because Roundup kills the wheat plant allowing an earlier harvest.
A wheat field often ripens unevenly, thus applying Roundup preharvest evens up the greener parts of the field with the more mature. The result is on the less mature areas Roundup is translocated into the kernels and eventually harvested as such.
This practice is not licensed. Farmers mistakenly call it “desiccation.” Consumers eating products made from wheat flour are undoubtedly consuming minute amounts of Roundup. An interesting aside, malt barley which is made into beer is not acceptable in the marketplace if it has been sprayed with preharvest Roundup. Lentils and peas are not accepted in the market place if it was sprayed with preharvest roundup….. but wheat is ok.. This farming practice greatly concerns me and it should further concern consumers of wheat products.
Here’s what wheat farmer Seth Woodland of Woodland and Wheat in Idaho had to say about the practice of using herbicides for wheat dry down:
That practice is bad . I have fellow farmers around me that do it and it is sad. Lucky for you not all of us farm that way. Being the farmer and also the president of a business, we are proud to say that we do not use round up on our wheat ever!
This practice is not just widespread in the United States either. The Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom reports that the use of Roundup as a wheat desiccant results in glyphosate residues regularly showing up in bread samples. Other European countries are waking up to the danger, however. In the Netherlands, the use of Roundup is completely banned with France likely soon to follow.
Using Roundup on wheat crops throughout the entire growing season and even as a desiccant just prior to harvest may save the farmer money and increase profits, but it is devastating to the health of the consumer who ultimately consumes the glyphosate residue laden wheat kernels.
The chart below of skyrocketing applications of glyphosate to US wheat crops since 1990 and the incidence of celiac disease is from a December 2013 study published in the Journal Interdisciplinary Toxicology examining glyphosate pathways to autoimmune disease. Remember that wheat is not currently GMO or “Roundup Ready” meaning it is not resistant to its withering effects like GMO corn or GMO soy, so the application of glyphosate to wheat would actually kill it.
While the herbicide industry maintains that glyphosate is minimally toxic to humans, research published in the Journal Entropy strongly argues otherwise by shedding light on exactly how glyphosate disrupts mammalian physiology.
Authored by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff of MIT, the paper investigates glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, an overlooked component of lethal toxicity to mammals.
The currently accepted view is that ghyphosate is not harmful to humans or any mammals. This flawed view is so pervasive in the conventional farming community that Roundup salesmen have been known to foolishly drink it during presentations!
However, just because Roundup doesn’t kill you immediately doesn’t make it nontoxic. In fact, the active ingredient in Roundup lethally disrupts the all important shikimate pathway found in beneficial gut microbes which is responsible for the synthesis of critical amino acids.
Friendly gut bacteria, also called probiotics, play a critical role in human health. Gut bacteria aid digestion, prevent permeability of the gastrointestinal tract (which discourages the development of autoimmune disease), synthesize vitamins and provide the foundation for robust immunity. In essence:
Roundup significantly disrupts the functioning of beneficial bacteria in the gut and contributes to permeability of the intestinal wall and consequent expression of autoimmune disease symptoms.
In synergy with disruption of the biosynthesis of important amino acids via the shikimate pathway, glyphosate inhibits the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes produced by the gut microbiome. CYP enzymes are critical to human biology because they detoxify the multitude of foreign chemical compounds, xenobiotics, that we are exposed to in our modern environment today.
As a result, humans exposed to glyphosate through the use of Roundup in their community or through the ingestion of its residues on industrialized food products become even more vulnerable to the damaging effects of other chemicals and environmental toxins they encounter!
What’s worse is that the negative impact of glyphosate exposure is slow and insidious over months and years as inflammation gradually gains a foothold in the cellular systems of the body.
The consequences of this systemic inflammation are most of the diseases and conditions associated with the Western lifestyle:
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Depression
- Autism
- Infertility
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- And the list goes on and on and on …
In a nutshell, Dr. Seneff’s study of Roundup’s ghastly glyphosate, which much of the wheat crop in the United States is doused with annually, uncovers the manner in which this lethal toxin harms the human body by decimating beneficial gut microbes with the tragic end result of disease, degeneration, and widespread suffering.
Got the picture yet?
Even if you think you have no trouble digesting wheat, it is still very wise to avoid conventional wheat as much as possible in your diet!
You Must Avoid Toxic Wheat No Matter What
The bottom line is that avoidance of conventional wheat in the United States is absolutely imperative even if you don’t currently have a gluten allergy or wheat sensitivity. This includes bypassing food products made with it such as the popular meat substitute seitan also called vital wheat gluten. The increase in the amount of glyphosate applied to wheat closely correlates with the rise of celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Dr. Seneff points out that the increases in these diseases are not just genetic in nature, but also have an environmental cause as not all patient symptoms are alleviated by eliminating gluten from the diet.
The effects of deadly glyphosate on your biology are so insidious that lack of symptoms today means literally nothing.
If you don’t have problems with wheat now, you will in the future if you keep eating conventionally produced, toxic wheat!
How to Eat Wheat Safely
Obviously, if you’ve already developed a sensitivity or allergy to wheat, you must avoid it. Period.
But, if you aren’t celiac or gluten sensitive and would like to consume this ancestral food safely, you can do what we do in our home. We source organic, naturally low in gluten, unhybridized Einkorn wheat for breadmaking, pancakes, cookies, etc. Please note that einkorn is not to be confused with the more general term farro, which includes emmer and spelt, which are both hybridized. You can learn more about the scientific research on the “good” gluten in einkorn in this article.
When we eat out or are purchasing food from the store, conventional wheat products are rejected without exception. This despite the fact that we have no gluten allergies whatsoever in our home – yet.
I am firmly convinced that if we did nothing, our entire family at some point would develop sensitivity to wheat or autoimmune disease in some form due to the toxic manner in which it is processed and the glyphosate residues that are contained in conventional wheat products.
What Are You Going to Do About Toxic Wheat?
How did you react to the news that US wheat farmers are using Roundup, not just to kill weeds, but to dry out the wheat plants to allow for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest and that such a practice causes absorption of toxic glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides, right into the wheat kernels themselves?
Did you feel outraged and violated as I did? How will you implement a conventional wheat-avoidance strategy going forward even if you haven’t yet developed a problem with gluten or wheat sensitivity?
What about other crops where Roundup is used as a pre-harvest desiccant such as barley, sugar cane, rice, seeds, dried beans and peas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and sugar beets? Will you only be buying these crops in organic form from now on to avoid this modern, man-made scourge?
UPDATE: The Soil Association in July 2015 called for an immediate ban on the use of glyphosate for wheat ripening and desiccation purposes. The nonprofit reports that glyphosate residues are widely found in nonorganic wheat samples and the use of the herbicide on wheat crops has increased 400% in the past two decades.
Dr. Robin Mesnage of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Kings College in London, revealed new data analysis showing Roundup, the most common brand of Glyphosate based herbicides, is 1,000 times more toxic than genotoxic glyphosate alone due to the inclusion of other toxic chemicals in its mix.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director said; “If Glyphosate ends up in bread it’s impossible for people to avoid it unless they are eating organic. On the other hand, farmers could easily choose not to use Glyphosate as a spray on wheat crops – just before they are harvested. This is why the Soil Association is calling for the immediate ending of the use of Glyphosate sprays on wheat destined for use in bread.”
References
Glyphosate now commonly found in human urine
Study: Glyphosate, Celiac and Gluten Intolerance
The Glyphosate, Celiac Disease Connection
Pre-harvest Application of Glyphosate to Wheat
Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Yield and quality of wheat seeds as a function of desiccation stages and herbicides
Wheat farmer weighs in on the use of Roundup as a wheat desiccant
More Information
Roundup: Quick Death for Weeds, Slow and Painful Death for You
Hybrid Wheat is Not the Same as GMO Wheat
The Dutch Ban Roundup, France and Brazil to Follow
How to Mix and Use Gluten Free Flour
Can Celiacs Eat Sourdough Bread?
The Dirty Little Secret About Gluten-Free
I just wanted to add a couple of details. The armpit sweating is virtually gone. I wear one shirt per day. Also, a persistent puffiness under my eyes for several years seems to be going away as well. People have actually commented. And the final thing I have noticed is that mild but chronic knee pain is for all practical purposes gone. Is this all a coincidence? I suppose it could be but it is very interesting and I am quite surprised and excited by all of these developments. Again, the only thing I did was stop eating highly processed wheat products.That’s it!
This is disgusting. I suspected exactly what this article refers to prior to reading it. Six weeks ago, following pure gut instinct, a made one single change in my life. At that point I had hyperthyroid causing me to develop eight inch sweat rings under my arms every two hours. I would go through six t-shirts every day. Also, I was only able to force my body into a very shallow sleep for two hours at a time all night long with natural sleep aids. I also had psoriasis all over my body and an eczema like rash on my arms. Needless to say, it was horrible. Six weeks ago I stopped eating all forms of mass produced garbage wheat products. I also switched to only occasional eating locally baked organic bread made from ancient grains. So I am still eating wheat! I then and added a very high quality pro biotic and lightly increased my already sizable intake of fresh organic vegetables. That is all that I did! As of now, the recently developed rash on my arms and the psoriasis that has plagued me for twenty years are about 85% diminished and fade a little more every day. And I sleep unlike I have slept in at least ten years. Nice to know that our food producers are poisoning us. This makes me sick. I mean literally, it was making me sick. Thanks farmers. Thanks Monsanto! If either of you read this comment, please wake up!!!!!!!!!
One final note I would like to make is that I have tried almost every natural approach to healing my health issues. I have tried cutting out different allergic foods very diligently on many different occasions and I have also worked with a lot of quality enzyme, mineral, and vitamin supplements, trying to address these issues. Nothing has produced the results that cutting out poisoned wheat has produced. Again, thank you Monsanto for your blind greed. I find this whole topic amazing and almost hard to believe. It is incredible that people behave like this, that they are actually willing to poison their fellow citizens at the altar of profit and power. Stunning!
Signed,
Lab Rat
I agree Lab Rat, and it is pretty much like a B grade horror movie isnt it? I can only surmise that the farmers are so poisoned themselves that they have been rendered mentaly and morally dysfunctional. The pyschopathy displayed by the monsantos directors should be curtailed by a thorough review of laws governing corporations. This will only occur with a Green government. “We get the government we deserve” , so wake up eveyone!
According to Dr Tom O’Bryan (as stated in the Functional Health Summit & on his website thedr.com) gluten IS the problem. And I agree…wheat has been hybridized to contain too much gluten. Dr O’Bryan said that we have a “cheesecloth” lining in our guts. Things that cause the “cheesecloth” to tear are gluten & lipopolysaccharides (exhaust from bacteria). Tears in the “cheesecloth” goes on, day after day, every tie you eat gluten, and your body heals, but one day, you wear out the system and the tears in the “cheesecloth” don’t heal anymore & you get an autoimmunity disease. Dr. O’Bryan also stated that Dr Alessio Fasano, Chief, division of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition & Director, Center for Celiac Research at Harvard, said that no human can digest gluten.
I agree w/you that you should get organic heirloom wheat (that has only been naturally hybridized) and soak & sprout it. Dr Weston Price has some interesting research on natural whole foods, and Sally Fallon has carried on his work.
The fact that humans have been eating grains for millennia is evidence of nothing. We’ve also been smoking tobacco for millennia. Does that mean tobacco must be good for us? Absurd.
What happened is that millions of people went on low-carb diets and discovered that, aside from weight loss, there was another effect: they felt better.
It didn’t take long to identify the culprit, and it wasn’t “carbs”. It was grains specifically. All anyone has to do to prove that grains are unhealthy and make you feel bad is to stop eating them. Just go for 3 weeks. Then, for the full effect, start eating them again.
Wheat is a multi-billion per year dollar industry. Expect that industry to try and confuse people with bogus studies and outright lies.
One of the lies I see often is that this is about “gluten sensitivity” with acute symptoms like indigestion or other ailments. For most people however, it’s really just about feeling better. All those people who went low-carb and discovered they felt better from not eating grains weren’t suffering from acute digestive problems. I, personally, never even knew wheat was making feel worse until I quit eating it.
I know now though. I know exactly what will happen if I eat wheat . I will have less energy, feel fatigued, won’t be able to think as clearly, and will even get depressed. I know because I love bread. And I miss it. But after a while I found my cravings for it tempered by my association with feeling bad.
I have found that gluten free bread has much milder symptoms. But not zero.
Totally agree about the impact of wheat on energy levels – it depletes them for many.
The issues are complex, though. There are a number of separate impacts of wheats on human physiology. It is not all gluten but, for example, the very high, very easily metabolised carbohydrates which, as William Davis chronicles in “Wheat Belly”, boost blood glucose levels faster than a spoonful of table sugar.
This obesogenicity is separate from the auto-immune associations, from Ceoliac syndromes. Never forget, either, the work of Prof F Curtis Dohan who, in the 60s and 70s so clearly described the devastating impact of wheat consumption on mental health. His wheat free regime cleared whole wards of mental hospitals as all the patients were CURED.
The people who make a loaf of “organic” bread and feed it to someone who has gluten reactions didn’t read the article. The test subject would need a gut bacteria transplant that has taken hold before this would be a valid test. Glyphosphate according to the article kills of gut bacteria that aids in the breakdown and digestion of food including wheat and gluten. Only on a person who has returned their gut bacteria makeup back to “healthy” would this be a good test.
I put “organic” in parentheses because it is a poorly chosen word by the industry. Technically it is all organic material in the stores, they chose organic as a moniker because people would be able to mentally accept the word as a description of nature, naturally grown, without chemicals. which does cause confusion to a lot of people, and unfortunately at this point can’t be changed.
You have come across a very good reason not to eat wheat, but, you haven’t got the full picture. A Neurologist David Pelmutter has done extensive research on the Neuro aspects of gluten and it appears to cause brain inflammation. Because the brain does not have pain receptors as such, you wouldn’t know that indeed this is an issue, until you do become symptomatic with related S/S. So, it does matter where you may eat your grain products, but as he clearly stated, 7000 years of grains does not make us adaptable to this food source!
Regards,
Britishcanadian
When we were in Europe for five weeks, we had been told we could eat the wheat items as they are different than in the USA. My wife tried a half of a roll and it was ok, so she started to eat anything with wheat and loved it all, in Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Germany. When we were heading home we bought sandwiches at a a train station in England and she got the runs the next day. All the way home aboard a cruise ship she stayed wheat free and has since we returned and she’s doing ok. Amazing, no problems in Europe on the continent and trouble here.
I hear this story over and over and over from readers emailing about it. US wheat farmers can deny all they want. We know what most of them are doing.
Sarah, is there a specific test to find out if you’re allergic to glyphosate? What type of Dr. would administer it?
Not that I know of at this time … glyphosate is toxic to your gut bacteria so everyone would be susceptible to its health robbing effects.
I have IBS and have found that avoiding wheat has helped me to feel so much better. The pain in my lower abdomen is gone, joint pain is gone and my hypoglycemic crashes have also disappeared. What is most interesting to me is that while I was in Cuba last month, I decided to try a roll. Knowing that Cuba’s farming is organic and learning that the wheat is grown there I thought I would give it a try on my last day there so it wouldn’t interfere with my holiday. I had no ill effects from eating that roll. My only regret was that I didn’t enjoy the bread, rolls and desserts while I had the chance.
I am Australian and have the same problems with both wheat and corn here. But we were in Italy a while back for 6 weeks and during this time I also ate anything I liked, pizza, pasta, breads etc and never had any problems at all. Then not long before we came home we were on a cruise ship for a few days, and after just two days on the ship (I was not staying off wheat or corn still), I had a bad reaction. This was the first time in all those weeks, and the cruise line was American, so you have to wonder about all this???
Do you have Celiac or gluten intolerant? I’m wondering if my daughter who has Celiac could potentially have wheat products from Europe. She is only 7 and I would wait until she is older and can tell me if it effects her or not. Right now she doesn’t get bad reacts from wheat we just know it harms her from blood tests.
Part of the picture is the horrific vaccinating of so many children and of course, older people. They put gluten as well as MSG, thimerosal, and so many other horrible chemicals and those serve to sensitize people from then on, to varying degrees. We are under assault from every direction.
I wish it were really true, because I tried einkorn wheat several times, my mom as well, and we still get the same autoimmune type response from organic einkorn.
As mentioned in the article, if you already have developed a full blown issue with gluten or have celiac, einkorn may still be a problem.
The article mentioned that sugar cane is exposed to this practice–how prevalent is that? My husband and I rarely eat wheat, but when we do, it’s always organic. We do, however, utilize a good amount of sugar, and I’m wondering if I should start buying the organic variety for that as well.
Why state “It goes far and beyond organic versus nonorganic” and then proceed to blame it all on RoundUp which is not present in organically produced wheat?
Clearly, it IS about organic vs nonorganic.
This confused me too. Seems to be very contradictory.
most organic produce and grains are contaminated with glyphosphate http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/alert-certified-organic-food-grown-in-u-s-found-contaminated-with-glyphosate-herbicide/