What's wrong with modern wheat?

It seems clear to us that modern wheat is making people sick. More and more people are going "gluten-free" to fix long-standing digestion issues and feel better. Based on both observation and personal experience, it is our feeling that the problem isn't so much gluten per se, but modern industrial wheat, processing and food preparation that has turned a reliable food staple into indigestible junk food to be avoided.

Here's a great article written almost a decade ago that illuminates some of the "indiscretions" that are perpetrated on modern wheat, and after you read this, you'll likely shake your head and say "no wonder we can't eat it anymore".

Wheaty Indiscretions

This ancient grain [wheat] can actually be very nutritious when it is grown and prepared in the appropriate manner. Unfortunately, the indiscretions inflicted by our modern farming techniques and milling practices have dramatically reduced the quality of the commercial wheat berry and the flour it makes. You might think, "Wheat is wheat--what can they do that makes commercial varieties so bad?" Listen up, because you are in for a surprise!

Continue reading on the Weston A. Price Foundation website

About the The Weston A. Price Foundation

In their words:

A non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated non-industrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price's research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.

At GRAINSTORM we are huge believers in following the traditional whole foods diets that has sustained mankind through the ages. We encourage you to read more articles from the Weston A. Price Foundation, especially concerning animal fats, processed foods in general. Here is a page of illuminating articles on modern foods published by the Weston A. Price Foundation

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

So much has been said about Michael Pollan’s two books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food, that we can only say this: If you have any interest in gaining perspective into the modern diet and where it comes from, these are must read books. His investigative journalism is top notch, and his writing is elegant. Our GRAINSTORM philosophy has been informed in no small part by his writing.

Here’s how Publishers’ Weekly summarizes:

Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. By urging us to once again eat food, he challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach — what he calls nutritionism — and proposes an alternative way of eating that is informed by the traditions and ecology of real, well-grown, unprocessed food. Our personal health, he argues, cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part.