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
What were the results of the IARC evaluations?
The herbicide glyphosate and the insecticides malathion and diazinon were classified as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A).
20 March 2015
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
Being a hairdresser, having a wood fireplace in your home, and several of the compounds found in coffee are also classified as a Group 2A by iarc. Let’s not get too excited here. .
Then wouldn’t it be nice if culturally we could find a way to cut out the frivolous function of hairdressers, eliminate wood char from our home’s air (hint: solar powered heaters), and live without being dependent on coffee? Are any of these civilization “habits” worth risking cancer, when you really stop to think about it? You’re arguing in the wrong direction. “Everything causes cancer, so we shouldn’t do anything to reduce that compounded risk.” ???
I can eat huge amounts of bread from any of our local organic bakeries and I am fine, but just a few slices of supermarket bread and I am hurting.
No thanks to Monsanto for creating poisonous products that are infiltrating our food system. Big pharmaceutical companies and uneducated doctors feed off the poor health and illness created by such organizations. Monsanto just wants to monopolize the source of human life and capitalizing on it. Shame on you!
pretty scary when monsanto is sneaking into your town and nobody really knows. ya think the multimillionaires and some billionaires living in Vero Beach would be smart enough to try to keep it out of their own backyard!!! Or are they the ceos that are getting rich off it I forgot!! At the expense of their own health and their families…forget about the general public. along with florida citrus growers you think some would care that syngenta is right in their backyard and monsanto is buying them???? all kinds of experimental and secretive crap behind their doors and in our soil and runoff water in our canals.which i need to say syngenta (on 58th avenue vero beach florida) property runs right along or very close to our canals that feed into the indian river lagoon ultimately! Wow could this also have to do with the huge problem we r having with all the manatee and dolphins dying?. that they are so diligently trying to figure out. hasnt anyone thought of sygenta and monsantos huge impact on florida in general?
Why are we in a modern Homo Sapiens civilization and not a Neanderthal civilization? The answer is our cultivation and consumption of wheat. The Homo Sapiens population has exploded and
cities formed along with development of arts and sciences since cultivation of wheat about 10,000 years ago whereas the non wheat-eating Neanderthal population remained static for several 100,000 years and eventually became extinct. And we are being told wheat is harmful to us? Really? We are expected to believe such hogwash? Ludicrous. As Dr. Spock on Star Trek would say, “It does not compute”. (Goodbye, Leonard Nemoy, you will live on in our memories.)
This isn’t true. The amount of grains were eating today is way beyond what has ever been eaten. Not to mention the grains eaten up until 100 years ago was sprouted grains with the full spectrum of nutrients not artificially processed like the grains today. Pilgrims in America used to eat lots of meat and fish. In Europe with the Mediterranean diet it was lots of vegetables and fish. Asia for 1000’s of years used lots of vegetables in their cooking. No where would bread like pizza be considered a meal. It is simply empty calories now that slow down your metabolism. Promoting grains is the biggest lie in the food industry. Cereal does nothing for a morning wake up.
Tell that to the Irish (oats), Hawaiians(poi), Asians(soybeans,rice), middle east(barley, wheat, rice, couscous), Russia(rye, oat, wheat, barley, buckwheat ), etc, etc.
Sorry grains were and have been a staple in history for many cultures and not sprouted either.
It isn’t the wheat according to this article, it is the weedkiller in the wheat!
If you are insinuating a Paleo diet is healthier, that IS hogwash, depending on you location your diet would have been very different. In the arctic circle people ate mostly meat, no grains, no veg, definitely no fruit. If you lived in Australia, you would have eaten grains fruits veg and some meat or fish.
The Neanderthal population died out for many reasons, including the fact that modern humans bodies were better adapted to the new warmer climate and more importantly had dogs to help them hunt, thereby when big game was becoming more scarce, they had a very great advantage.
Did you not read the part about our present wheat in NA being sprayed with chemicals??
look bub…did you read the article?…this is since 1980!!..that it is being used in farm practices. Okay now?…get it? now go have your nap-pe-poo, like a good neanderthal.
The preposterous notion of a neanderthal species existing along side the homo sapiens is just as ludicrous as the science being settled on climate change. Both concepts are man made attempts to confuse and elicit false doctrine (science) for the benefit of secular theology.
Technocrats from within the food industry have for the past 100 years or so, prided themselves on how they can get more bang from their grain buck simply because they can. Gone is the nutritional premise for healthy living and longer life. Science and technology is man’s attempt to to bolster the bottom line and shareholder dividends. Stop playing with your food….
It is finally proven beyond doubt that Neaderthals were human. That’s right just like you. It was one of the biggest scientific hoaxes ever. Even now most people aren’t aware.
John they did not say that wheat was bad but rather the way in which it is harvest .did you not read the article or are you just a troll ?
“Agriculture: The Worst Mistake of the Human Race?”
ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html
This cites evidence that health plummeted after adoption of agriculture. Booming population says nothing about quality of life. In fact, in all booming places, you’ll see slums and misery today, too.
Chalking up the failure of Neanderthals to wheat is ignoring the myriad of other factors that could have contributed, including being outnumbered by Homo Sapien, the Campi Flegrei volcanic eruption, babies’ heads being to big to give birth to safely . . .
Glyphosate from the company that considered:
“Back in 1938 or thereabouts, when the Aroclor applications were relatively few and the customers about equally few, there was indeed the prize application of using Aroclor 1254 as a chewing gum plasticizer. The wording of our label would not be compatible with this sort of thing.” Aroclor 1254 is a OCB!!!
chemicalindustryarchives.org/dirtysecrets/annistonindepth/toxicity.asp
I posted this article on my fb. And a knowledgeable farmer’s wife wrote the following. Anyone care to respond?
“Roundup is not used as a dessicate. Also, no farmer I know dessicates wheat, because in July its so hot everything wants to dry down, just take away its water. Also…I only know of one farmer that dessicates anything…and it is peas, and that’s pointless because peas also dry down pretty evenly as long as they aren’t over watered.”
I am not by any means stating that chemicals in our food are not causing problems. I believe to some degree they probably are. Just stating that wheat isn’t dessicated. And if a farmer needed to dessicate wheat…then they surely are doing something wrong. I’m speaking as a farmers wife…nothing more.”
Wheat is desiccated all the time. The USDA charts in the post indicate such and Monsanto even states Roundup is used for this purpose. Perhaps this woman does not, but many farmers (most) do even if they don’t admit it.
I am a farmers wife as welll. Yes, wheat is being decicated, but only when it is needed. Only when it is needed, not on the regular basis as article claims. Applying round up costs us time, tear and wear on the machinery, fuel, cost of round up. We are not going to spend if do not have to. A lot depends on the region you are farming in. Example, crop maturing evenly and drying on its own. Then you have a spell of wet weather. Lots of rain. And guess what happens? Wheat and other crops perked right up, and you start seeing lots of green in the fields. Time is pushing, because you know that crop may have no time to turn around (dry on its own) anymore. You wait as long you can and if time is not allowing you will be dedicating. Or you face the real possibility to leave crop under the snow, completely loose it, or harvest in the spring downgraded crop. Here are my five cents. And by any means I am not advocating chemicals use and are against them. I think it is unfair to make farmers look greedy, and completely responsible for everything. Same reason we can’t blame construction industries for using asbestos. That what was available at the time. Now we know it is dangerous and making changes. Farmers eat bread as well and constantly on the look for better, safe product. And, by the way, are any of us willing to deal with food shortage and sky hi prices?
Ella, what your wrote seems a little sketchy. Your idiom seems a bit foreign to me. Are you certain your a farmers wife. I smell chemist! You spell poorly, your word-smithing is something like a person from the middle east might speak. I hate politicize this but, I doubt you are a farmers wife, from the US.
Chuck I read Ella’s comment over several times. I don’t see what you see. I live in the city now, but lived for years on a farm. Are you saying farmers don’t know how to write? Or nothing of politics? Or issues facing us today? Nothing could be further from the truth.
There is NO GMO wheat available for planting for production in the United States. So leave that part of it out of the discussion or you just look uneducated and like you are on a witch hunt.
Maybe you missed this in the news, but GMO wheat has been found growing in the US – it originated from “field trials” but obviously once released into the environment there is no way to completely contain it.
reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/us-usa-monsanto-wheat-idUSKCN0HL23J20140926
Great info…but at $8.04 for 16oz…most people cannot afford to eat this way. Quite a conundrum….and a situation which leaves the sick and not wealthy sicker….
Great info for me as I developed this condition and now any food I eat causes disturbance in my stomach and diarrhea in my bowels. Now I have to find out what’s going on inside. I thought it might be bacterial or viral or parasite. Now from this info it may be a ‘damaged gut’. got to find out how to heal it, as all foods cause disturbance now. thanks for a fine article.
I have the same issue as you. I am vegan and now intolerant to beans, gluten, and seemingly most foods. Could you stay in touch and we can share findings.
Thanks!
I have a booklet written in 1953 about the Old Hook Mill in East Hampton NY. The written documentation about the mill in the mid to lat 1850’s indicates that old Mr. Hedges came to the mill to get coarse ground wheat flour-it suited his system better than the store stuff. “They make white flour today so it will keep; and they take the goodness out.” The decline of good wholesome, natural food has been in decline for along time and now that that it is being deliberately tampered with I have my own fears about survival.
Unfortunately, I’m not at all surprised by what you wrote. Actually surprised it’s something as lowly as a simple, common toxin troubling the people.
THE GMO SEEDS ALSO HAVE ROUNDUP IN THEM. Industrial farms are too big and can’t manage their waste like the small farms could in the past. As RFK Jr. wrote in his book Crimes Against Nature, they’re actually taking the waste up in planes and spraying it all over the crops as well. The culprit is the huge corporations who have taken farming away from the small farmers all to make MONEY no matter how they have to do it. In order to manage they huge farms, they have to dump tons of Roundup out there because it’s easier for them, to control the insects which….by the way….are actually getting larger.
This is not even true. They do NOT have round up in them. They contain a gene which makes them RESISTANT to roundup.
Also, roundup is a HERBICIDE, it is used to control weeds, it is not an insecticide, so is therefore not used to control insects. Please sort your facts out.
Harriet yes Roundup is a herbicide but I beg to differ about the seeds. The gmo plants are resistant so that they can be sprayed with Roundup to kill the weeds between the rows and among the plants! The plants are taking up the glysophates into their systems and producing seeds which will have traces of it. Correct me if I,m wrong, but where else would Monsanto be getting their seeds? Surely from their own sprayed crops?