Easy Eats - March/April 2012

Celiac disease researchers have proposed that these changes in the genetic and biochemical code of modern industrial wheat underlie the quadrupling of celiac disease witnessed over the past 40 years. Humans haven’t changed—the wheat has changed. Even small changes in the protein and amino acid structure of modern wheat are more than enough to amplify or reduce the immune and inflammatory responses in susceptible individuals.

Can you explain how wheat wreaks havoc on blood sugar? Why is this so dangerous?

» Amylopectin A is the so-called “complex” carbohydrate of wheat. Unlike other forms of amylopectin, such as those found in beans and rice, the amylopectin A branching structure is highly digestible, explaining why wheat products increase blood sugar faster and higher than nearly all other foods.

Repetitive blood sugar highs followed by high insulin is the process that leads to insulin resistance and visceral fat accumulation, the signature wheat belly. But there’s more to it. High blood glucose provokes the process of glycation, or glucose-modification of the proteins of the body. If we glycate the cartilage cells in our cartilage, the cartilage becomes brittle, degrades and leads to arthritis. If we glycate the cells lining our arteries, we get stiff arteries, hypertension and atherosclerosis (heart attacks and stroke). In other words, glycation is a fundamental unhealthy process that underlies multiple health conditions as well as aging.

So any food consumed repeatedly that increases blood sugar to high levels will add to this irreversible process of glycation. Eating more “healthy whole grains” is one such repetitive process since most people do so several times per day, seven days a week.