Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis
Common Myths and Misconceptions About Wheat
Despite having written 7 books in the Wheat Belly series pointing out the harms that this “food” has inflicted on people, harms that doctors nearly always misdiagnose as an opportunity to “treat” with pharmaceuticals and procedures, questions and ideas to the contrary continue to crop up. Some of these ideas are simply due to the barrage of advertising that comes from Big Food and Big Agribusiness, industries that continue to make a lot of money by propagating fictitious claims that grains are healthy. Some of it is due to the continued repeated urgings by the U.S. government, insisting that grains should remain a staple of the American diet. Dietitians stick to their argument that all foods fit into a healthy diet, including sugary soft drinks, candy bars, and grains, provided it’s all consumed “in moderation” and in the context of a “balanced diet.” And sometimes it’s just that some people are looking for novelty, the newest and shiniest thing to titillate their dietary habits. And make no mistake: the grain industry is extremely well funded, keeping many dietitians, nutritionists, publicists, etc. on the payroll to repeat the same misconceptions over and over again: “There is no evidence that wheat is bad for you, with the caveat that you eat the right amounts as recommended.”
So let me dispel common myths and misconceptions that continue to swirl and threaten to derail you off the path of health and slenderness. (As in my books, my use of the term “wheat” encapsulates all forms of grains, as they share numerous characteristics.)
So, in this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, let’s take apart some of these commonly held myths and misconceptions surrounding wheat and grains to protect you from the flood of misinformation and disinformation.
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Despite having written seven books in the Webelly series pointing out the harms that this food has inflicted on people harms that doctors nearly always misdiagnose as an opportunity to treat with pharmaceuticals and procedures, questions and ideas to the contrary continue to crop up. Some of these ideas are simply due to the barrage of advertising that comes from big food and big agribusiness industries that continue to make a lot of money by propagating fictitious claims that grains are healthy. Some of it is due to the continued, repeated urgings by the US government insisting that grains should remain a staple of the American diet. Dietitians stick to their argument that all foods fit into a healthy diet, including sugary soft drinks, candy bars and grains, provided it's all consumed in moderation and in the context of a balanced diet. And sometimes it's just that some people are looking for novelty, the newest and shiniest thing to titillate their dietary habits. And make no mistake, the grain industry is extremely well-funded, keeping many dietitians, nutritionists, publicists, etc. On the payroll to repeat the same misconceptions over and over again, such as there's no evidence that wheat is bad for you, with the caveat that you eat the right amounts, as recommended. So let me dispel common myths and misconceptions that continue to swirl and threaten to derail you off the path of health and slenderness, as in my books, my use of the term wheat encapsulates all forms of grains as they share numerous genetic and outward characteristics.
William Davis, MD:So in this episode of the Defiant Health Podcast, let's dispel some of these commonly held myths and misconceptions surrounding wheat and grains to protect you from the flood of misinformation and disinformation. Later in the podcast, let's talk about Defiant Health sponsors Paleo Valley, our preferred provider for many excellent organic and grass-fed food products, and BioDequest, my number one choice for probiotics that are scientifically formulated, unlike most of the other commercial probiotic products available today. You know, in helping to dispel any of the myths and misconceptions that surround wheat and related grains, it helps to understand that a lot of this misinformation is intentional. That is, there are companies, there are industries, there are many people involved in that, in promoting the idea of consuming grains, including grains in the diet, that they purposely propagate half-truths or untruths for the sake of money, for revenue, for profit. So that it really helps understand this is not all innocent scientific meanderings. These are intentional pieces of misinformation that are meant to sell you things, to encourage you to continue to buy their products.
William Davis, MD:So the first myth or misconception is that modern wheat is unhealthy for you. They do give us that, but traditional wheat is perfectly fine. Is that true? Of course it's not true. So all wheat are grasses, that is, seeds of grasses. Whether it's einkorn, kamut, red fife, mori, emmer spelt, they're all forms of wheat.
William Davis, MD:So what happened to the first humans? That gives us some perspective on what happened to the first humans who consumed wheat that grew wild in the Fertile Crescent, what is now Israel and Syria? Well, those first humans who consumed wild-growing einkorn wheat had explosive tooth decay. So it's a very telling fact that prior to the consumption of wheat and grains, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, tooth decay was uncommon. That is, people who did not brush their teeth, did not have fluoridated toothpaste, did not have dental floss, did not have dentists, of course, but just ate their food and maybe at most had a stick or twig and to pry some loose fragments of food from between their teeth. But the concept of dental hygiene had not yet emerged. But despite that, tooth decay was unknown. That is, cavities, misalignment, tooth loss, abscess all the things that can go wrong with teeth was uncommon. So of all the teeth recovered from that period prior to the consumption of grains. Only one to three percent of all teeth recovered shows some kind of defect.
William Davis, MD:When grains were added, whether it was einkorn wheat in the Fertile Crescent, or millet in Sub-Saharan Africa, or maize or teosint, the forerunner of corn in Central America, there was an explosion of tooth decay. 16-49% of all teeth recovered showed cavity formation, abscess formation, tooth loss, misalignment. There was also a marked increase in arthritis. You know, these are the things that are preserved in the fossil record and the remnants of things like bones and teeth, because liver and intestines and brain are not preserved right, but bones and teeth are. So there was an explosion in arthritis, especially of the knee, with the consumption of grains.
William Davis, MD:There's also the appearance of evidence for nutrient deficiencies, especially iron. There's changes in the bony structure when people become iron deficient because there's an increase, or we say hyperplasia, a growth of bone marrow leaves an effect in the bony record and that's evidence for iron deficiency and that is due to the consumption of phytates in grains that bind iron as well as other positively charged minerals like zinc and calcium and magnesium. That makes them unavailable for absorption and so if you eat something made of wheat or grains, the phytates bind these minerals and you pass them out unabsorbed into the toilet, and so it causes deficiencies of these multiple minerals. Now, all forms of wheat modern wheat, high-yield, semi-dwarf wheat, ancient wheat, emmer spelt, einkorn, all those different forms these are all grasses. They all have phytates that bind minerals and cause mineral deficiencies. They all have a form of the gliadin protein. The most modern form of gliadin protein that comes from high-yield, semi-dwarf wheat is probably the worst, but all these forms of wheat have the gliadin protein that we know initiates the steps that lead to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or type 1 diabetes. They increase intestinal permeability. Very few things increase intestinal permeability and the gliadin protein of wheat and related proteins in other grains, like the zeon in corn, the secalin in rye these all increase intestinal permeability and that leads to changes in bowel flora composition. It leads to the process that leads to autoimmune diseases. It leads to body wide inflammation. All these forms of wheat also contain the amylopectin A supercarbohydrate. I call it supercarbohydrate because it raises blood glucose higher than nearly all other foods, including table sugar.
William Davis, MD:All forms of wheat also contain the lectin wheat germ agglutinin. Wheat germ agglutinin is completely impervious to digestion, so it's ingested intact. It passes through all 30 feet of the gastrointestinal tract intact and it's then passed out into the toilet intact. Why is that harmful? Well, wheat germaglutinin is a very potent bowel toxin. It tends to inflame and denude or eliminate the absorptive villi, the hair-like projections that line the intestinal tract that help absorb nutrients. Wheat germaglutinin is very toxic to those villi and to the intestinal wall, and so anything that contains wheat germ agglutinin and that includes all forms of wheat, ancient and modern, have these toxic effects.
William Davis, MD:Another reason is that that gliadin protein, mentioned earlier, not only initiates inflammation and the autoimmune process. Although wheat germ and gluten is completely indigestible, the gliadin protein is partially digestible. So when you eat any kind of protein, whether it's an egg or a piece of beef, your body's digestive processes break those proteins down into single amino acids. That's how it's supposed to happen, and those single amino acids go towards manufacturing other body parts that require protein, like the liver or skin or muscle. When you consume the gliadin protein of wheat, it's broken down into four or five amino acid-long peptide fragments, and these have unique properties, including going to the brain. They cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to opioid receptors, but they don't make you high like other opioids. They stimulate appetite, and so anybody who consumes the gliadin protein of wheat and thereby gliadin-derived opioid peptides, experiences a marked increase in appetite. You can see this in its most extreme form in people who have tendency towards bulimia and binge eating disorder. These are the people who you can often find sitting in front of their refrigerator at 3 am binging, and then they go to the toilet, put a finger down their throat and vomit, binging and purging. These people have 24-hour-a-day obsessions with food that often go away with getting rid of all sources of gliadin-derived opioid peptides. Most of us who don't have those conditions, of course, don't have it to that extreme, but you can still have dramatic amplification increase in appetite when exposed to gliadin-derived opioid peptides, and this is true for all forms of wheat because they all have the gliadin protein.
William Davis, MD:Another common myth and misconception is that, consumed in moderation, wheat fits into a healthy diet. This, of course, is not true for the reasons I cited in the first myth, but there's some additional reasons. The amylopectin, a carbohydrate of wheat, not only raises blood glucose and thereby insulin causes insulin resistance. It's also a potent trigger for the small LDL particles. Those are the particles that are the real causes of heart disease and heart attack, not LDL cholesterol.
William Davis, MD:Ldl cholesterol is an invention of the 1960s when it was used as a means to guesstimate how many of these particles were actually in the bloodstream causing heart disease. In other words, they used cholesterol as an indirect marker for the particles, the lipoproteins, the fat-carrying proteins that actually cause heart disease. Well, even though your doctor obsesses about a cholesterol panel, you can actually measure the particles that really do cause heart disease. One method, for instance, is NMR nuclear magnetic resonance. Lipoprotein analysis I've been doing for over 30 years. It's been around, it's been validated and it is quite clear. The science is crystal clear on this.
William Davis, MD:The driver of cardiovascular risk heart attack, sudden cardiac death, etc is an excess of the small LDL particle. Not LDL cholesterol that's an indirect marker for these particles, but the actual particles themselves. So the amylopectin A of all forms of wheat, whether it's kamut or spelt or red fife, doesn't matter, they all have the amylopectin A that triggers formation of the small LDL particle. That is the real cause for coronary disease, for heart disease.
William Davis, MD:Small LDL particles are very persistent. A large LDL particle, provoked, say, by eating bacon or other fats and oils, is rapidly cleared by the liver because the liver recognizes the large LDL particle. The small LDL particle is not well recognized by the liver because the recognition protein on its surface, called apoprotein B. Because of the small size of the particle, that apoproteinB is partially concealed and the liver does not recognize that particle very easily and it circulates around and around for about five to seven days, allowing lots of opportunity for that small LDL particle to interact with the arterial wall, like in your heart's arteries or coronary arteries, and add to growth of expansion, of atherosclerotic plaque. The small LDL particle is also very adherent to structural tissues in the walls of arteries. It's much more prone to oxidation. It's much more prone to glycation, glucose modification. So you can see it's a double whammy. You consume the amylopectin A of any form of wheat and it causes formation of small LDL particles. That is in turn more susceptible to glycation, which makes it more, we say, atherogenic, more likely to cause atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries. And small LDL particles are much more likely to be able to penetrate into the walls of arteries because they're smaller and they're much more potent in provoking the inflammatory process. So small LDL particles, the real cause for heart disease, are perfectly crafted to give you heart disease. And it's provoked extravagantly by the amylopectin A of all forms of wheat, ancient and modern.
William Davis, MD:What about glyphosate? Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the Roundup herbicide. Millions and millions of tons of this stuff is sprayed all around the globe. It becomes so ubiquitous that even organic foods have some traces of glyphosate and virtually all modern humans have glyphosate at measurable levels in their bloodstream. Why is that important? Well, at measurable levels in their bloodstream. Why is that important? Well, glyphosate used as both an herbicide as well as a desiccant to dry out and prevent mold growth in wheat that's been harvested.
William Davis, MD:Glyphosate is an antibiotic. That is when Monsanto first applied for its patents for glyphosate as an herbicide. They also filed patents for glyphosate as an antibiotic. But it became clear that glyphosate is a lousy antibiotic because it kills beneficial microbes. These are species like lactobacillus species or bifidobacteria species, but it's ineffective in killing what are called proteobacteria. These are fecal microbes like E coli, salmonella. In other words, glyphosate essentially selects for unhealthy microbial species and thereby we need better evidence. But the evidence is pointing towards glyphosate being a major driver of dysbiosis in the colon and SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Glyphosate is also known to be a carcinogen, specifically for increasing risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
William Davis, MD:You know it takes very little of the gliadin protein to initiate that appetite stimulating effect through gliadin-derived opioid peptides. So my original Wheat Belly book I called that chapter Beware the Mighty Breadcrumb trying to make the point that it takes very little to set that appetite stimulating effect in motion. I also called it the I ate one cookie and gained 30 pounds effect. Of course no one gains 30 pounds just by eating one cookie. But what I meant by that is someone will, let's say, be wheat and grain free. They're in full control of their appetite. But then they have an indulgence. Maybe it's an office party or a neighborhood party where they're serving some kind of food that has wheat in it and you say to yourself you know, just one won't hurt, I'll exercise an extra 30 minutes this weekend or something like that. You know how people justify these kinds of behaviors. So you eat it and appetite is hugely amplified and you find that you can't control yourself and before you know it you've gained 20 to 30 pounds over a month because of the appetite stimuli effects of glide and drive opioid peptides. That is very difficult to turn off once you were wheat or grain free. So be aware of that effect. So, consumed in moderation, wheat fills into a healthy diet? Of course not. It is horrible. Some of the effects are so powerful that you can't help yourself. So, consumed not in moderation, consumed not at all is a better approach.
William Davis, MD:Another common myth or misconception. Another common misconception is that sprouted or fermented grains, such as sourdough, are healthy and lack the harmful ingredients of unsprouted or non-fermented grains. This, of course, is not true. The process of sprouting the seeds or fermenting bread does reduce some of the components, some of the undesired components. It reduces the lectin a little bit, wheat germagglutinin. It does reduce some of the amylopectin A content. It converts it, by the way, from the complex carbohydrate amylopectin A to simple sugars. They still contain phytates, reduced a little bit by those processes, but still there. In other words, all the adverse, all the unhealthy and harmful components of wheat and grains are present, regardless of whether you sprouted or fermented. And, of course, if you made sourdough bread, you're going to bake it and when you bake it, all the microbes that may have been beneficial are now killed by the process of baking. So sprouted, fermented grains yes, slightly less harmful, but still harmful. Just because something is less bad does not necessarily make it good.
William Davis, MD:Now let me take a Paleo Valley and BioDequest. When we come back, let's discuss further other myths and misconceptions that surround consumption of grains. The Defiant Health Podcast is sponsored by Paleo Valley. Makers of delicious grass-fed beef sticks, healthy snack bars and other products insist that any product we consider contains no junk ingredients like carrageenan, carboxymethyl cellulose, sucralose or added sugars and, of course, no gluten nor grains. One of the habits I urge everyone to get into is to include several servings of fermented foods every day in your diet, part of an effort to cultivate a healthy gastrointestinal microbiome. Unlike nearly all other meat sticks available, paleo Valley grass-fed beef, pork and chicken sticks are naturally fermented, meaning they contain probiotic bacterial species. Paleo Valley has also launched a number of interesting new products, including extra virgin olive oil, spice mixes, organic coffee, strawberry lemonade, super greens and essential electrolytes in a variety of flavors. And if you haven't already tried it, you've got to try their chocolate flavored bone broth protein that makes delicious hot chocolate and brownies. See the recipes for the brownies in my dr davis infinite healthcom blog. Listeners to the defiant health podcast receive a 15 discount by going to paleo valleycom. Backward slash defiant health.
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William Davis, MD:Another common myth or misconception surrounding wheat and related grains is that we're often told that whole grains help control weight. Of course that's complete nonsense. In fact, the opposite is true. Recall that gliadin-derived opioid peptides increase appetite significantly and the amylopectin, a supercarbohydrate, raises blood glucose, thereby blood insulin that causes weight gain, especially in abdominal visceral fat that is inflammatory fat that drives risk for heart disease, diabetes and other conditions. So whole grains cause weight gain. They don't help control weight.
William Davis, MD:That fiction comes from a series of studies that were epidemiologic studies, where people's eating habits were assessed and the weight of people who consume more white flour processed products were compared to people who consume more whole grains. So, for instance, in one of the nurses' health studies, in which about 47,000 nurses were tracked and asked about their eating habits, the nurses who ate more white flour products gained 12 pounds over several years, while the nurses who ate more white flour products gained 12 pounds over several years, while the nurses who ate more whole grains gained 11 pounds. The conclusion of the study whole grains are part of an effort to control weight. Well, I think you can see the problem here. I think a better statement of the conclusion is that white flour products cause weight gain and whole grains cause weight gain also just a little bit less than white flour products. So when you hear that whole grains are part of an effort to control weight, this is, of course, a complete fiction.
William Davis, MD:Another common myth or misconception is that American wheat may be problematic, but European wheat, such as that in France or Italy, is not, once again, only incomplete thinking, in that if you go to, say, france and you consume some French bread and you don't get bloating or diarrhea. You still have provocation of small LDL particles. You still have glycation of various proteins around the body, that is, glucose modification of proteins from the rise in blood glucose from the amylopectin A. You still have gliadin-initiated autoimmune diseases. You still have wheat germ agglutinin and its toxic effects on the GI tract. You still have phytates that bind minerals like iron, zinc and magnesium that cause you to pass them out to the toilet and make them unavailable for absorption. In other words, all the other components are still there, even though you didn't get the gastrointestinal or other symptoms provoked by consuming it. Recognize that there are about 200 different strains of wheat. They're going to differ somewhat in their overt symptoms the overt symptoms that they cause but the basic ingredients are still there and you still experience risk for heart disease, diabetes and all those other conditions, even if you didn't have some gastrointestinal intolerance.
William Davis, MD:Another common myth is that intolerance to wheat products is really intolerance to FODMAPs, that is, fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols essentially, fibers and sugars. So this evidence came out of Australia, where this group who has tried to propagate this idea of people with irritable bowel syndrome should avoid these FODMAPs, fibers and sugars. And they do indeed. People with IBS do indeed experience a reduction in bloating and diarrhea, but they've argued that people who have wheat intolerance really have intolerance to FODMAPs. There's a lot of unclear thinking going on here. One of the problems here is that intolerance to FODMAPs is really SIBO small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And this is true, by the way, of virtually all food intolerances, whether it's FODMAPs or nightshades like tomatoes and eggplant, or histamine-containing foods like cheese and wine, tomatoes and eggplant, or histamine-containing foods like cheese and wine, or nuts or eggs, or all the other forms of food intolerances. These are almost all forms of SIBO, that is, an overgrowth of fecal.
William Davis, MD:Microbial species like E coli and salmonella in the small intestine really don't belong. Those microbes are supposed to stay in the colon, which is well suited to having fecal microbes, but the 24 feet of small intestine is not well equipped to deal with fecal microbes. When that happens 24 feet of small intestine infested by fecal microbes that live and die rapidly, trillions of them. They release their toxic compounds. It's very inflammatory at the intestinal wall and they also release the endotoxin from their cell walls into the bloodstream. And that's how you get conditions like fibromyalgia, weight gain, visceral fat, fatty liver, depression, anxiety, rheumatoid arthritis, et cetera, all from microbes in the gastrointestinal tract.
William Davis, MD:So when somebody with SIBO which is, by the way, about half the US population there's a reason I say half the US population that's a topic for another day. Or see my blog, my drdavidsinfinitehealthcom blog, or my Super Gut book or other episodes of this Divine Health podcast where I detail why I argue that half the US population has this problem. So if you have SIBO 24 feet of small intestine populated by fecal microbes and you consume FODMAPs, you're going to get sick. You're going to have bloating, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, symptoms like anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts. The problem is not the food, the problem is the SIBO, and so, whether it's triggered by FODMAPs or triggered by the fibers in wheat, like the arabinoxylan and the amylose, those are the fibers in wheat that will also trigger symptoms in someone with SIBO and all those other food intolerances. So we got to be clearer in our thinking. It's not that wheat is just a vehicle for FODMAPs, it's that people who have SIBO will be intolerant to all kinds of things, fodmaps, wheat and grains included.
William Davis, MD:Another common myth or misconception is that wheat and grains are essential for human health because they provide fiber, b vitamins and other nutrients. Well, that's also unclear thinking. It is indeed true. If you were to replace wheat and grains with soft drinks and sodas and candy bars and other junk foods, you will indeed lack fiber and other nutrients. But what if you instead replace those lost calories with real whole foods like avocados, lettuce, nuts, salmon, beef? Your intake of fiber and nutrients actually goes up, not down. And, of course, when you eliminate wheat and grains, also eliminate the phytates that would have bound up all the minerals that you would pass out into the toilet. And if you go further and cultivate a healthy gastrointestinal microbiome, as we do in my programs, you'll find that many microbes produce vitamins B1, b2, b3, b5, b6, b9, and B12, as well as K2, that you have an apparent need for, not because you lack them in your diet, but because you have a disrupted gastrointestinal microbiome, lacking the speech that produce these nutrients. In truth, if you follow a healthy diet, there is no nutrient deficiency that develops.
William Davis, MD:We also, by the way, reject a lot of other conventional dietary advice.
William Davis, MD:We never limit saturated fat or total fat.
William Davis, MD:We never limit calories. The only thing we limit our exposure to is carbohydrates, outside of grains, of course, because about 70% of all the people who start on my programs already have insulin resistance and have higher blood sugar, higher blood glucose. You can accelerate your success by limiting your exposure to carbohydrates, and that's why we follow a very simple rule of consuming no more than 15 grams of net carbs per meal, net carbs referring to total carbohydrates minus fiber, because fiber, while it's biochemically a carbohydrate, is not metabolized by humans as a carbohydrate. So it really helps to put aside these myths and misconceptions about wheat and grains, even though you're going to hear arguments to the contrary every day from food manufacturers, from the US Department of Health and Human Services or the USDA, or dieticians or other people, many of whom have a stake in keeping you misinformed and consuming grains. Now, by knowing all this, you are now freed from the tyranny of misinformation that comes from these sources and you now have an open door to regaining control over health, shape and body composition. Thanks for listening.
