What is gluten and why you should avoid it

Despite my Wheat Belly series of books having been read by millions of people in nearly 40 countries, many people still think that a grain-based diet is healthy. Many also confuse this message with being "gluten-free."

Let's think about this issue more clearly so that you understand the power you have in your hands to assume control over health and weight by being smarter and better informed than the misguided masses following dietary guidelines or are victims of an exploitative food industry. 

Transcript

Why Wheat Belly Still Matters

William Davis, MD 0:00

You know, the wheat belly book I wrote was released in 2011, and since then millions of copies have been sold and read by people, and it's been sold in nearly 40 countries. So you'd think by now that the idea would be clear-cut in the public's mind. Unfortunately, the trillion-dollar wheat industry would like you to not understand these issues. So there's a great campaign, a push to keep you in the dark about these kinds of things. So let's talk about what is gluten. Now, anybody who's read my books, Wheat Belly and all the books that followed that are related, would know that this is not about a book about being gluten-free, even though many reviewers said that. I was always surprised, by the way, way back in 2011, 12, etc., how many reviewers claim to have reviewed the book, but Clee did not read the book because they would say things like, This is just another gluten-free book, which of course it was not. But there is a discussion about gluten, but there's also discussion about all the other components in modern wheat. I make that distinction. Modern wheat, because modern wheat is very, very different from traditional wheat. Not to say traditional wheat, not without problems, but a lot of the problems are amplified by the creation, the genetics creation called modern wheat, modern high-yield semi-dwarf wheat. That's what modern wheat is. It is a 42 chromosome plant. I point that out because traditional wheat is a 14 chromosome plant. You know, you're a human being, right? I don't believe any raccoons or moose are on this on this channel. So you have 46 chromosomes. Your neighbors have 46 chromosomes. Your children have 46 chromosomes. Your partner, your co-workers all have 46 chromosomes. While modern wheat is a 42 chromosome plant, traditional wheat is a 14 chromosome plant. Now, those 42 chromosomes in modern wheat are really three sets of the 14 chromosomes, but it gives you an idea that there's a lot more potential for variation. A lot of the variation is introduced by geneticists and agricultural scientists using a variety of takes techniques, including, most of all, a method called chemical mutagenesis and all that means. This is a method that predates genetic modification, that is, the insertion or deletion of a gene. Chemical mutagenesis is the purposeful induction of mutations. You could use x-ray, high-dose x-ray, could use gamma rays, could use chemicals. In this case, they use chemical mutagenesis to induce mutations. Now, most mutations in a plant, or animal for that matter, will die. They're not viable. But sometimes you get a viable product. And if it has characteristics you desire, it could be some kind of resistance to a pest, it could be some growth characteristic, whatever. So modern wheat is the product of chemical, or many strains of modern wheat are the product of chemical mutagenesis. Methods that are far less precise and worse than genetic modification. That's kind of funny. It's ironic because genetic modification gets a lot of bad press, deservedly so, like Roundup ready corn or soy, for instance, where a gene was inserted to make this plant tolerant to the herbicide Roundup or glyphosate, and therefore spraying that herbicide will kill weeds, but not the corn or the soy plant. So modern wheat is not the product of that method. It's the product of methods that are far worse, less precise, with more mutations than you would incur just with genetic modification, with the improved methods of genetic modification. But anyway, so gluten is a protein within wheat. It's also a protein in the class called prolamins, because those prolimin proteins are rich in proline, and those sequences of proline with other amino acids are largely indigestible by humans. We don't have the digestive enzymes to break down the gluten protein fully. And that's true also for the other proteins and other grains, like the hoardine in barley, or the xine in corn, or the avinine in oats. We can't break those uh proteins down into single amino acids as we would with other proteins from, say, a piece of beef or an egg. So we consume the gluten. Well, gluten is a two-part molecule. And this has been worked out for many years by agricultural scientists, etc. It has two parts. The glutenin protein, which is a long-chain polymeric structure. That's the thing that gives dough, for instance, wheat flour dough, its stretchability. That's the thing that allows a pizza maker, for instance, to toss dough in the air and twirl it and make a pizza crust, or to stretch it and mold it. That's due to glutenin in gluten. There's another protein, a globular protein called gliodin. And gliadin is the source of most of the problems attributed to gluten. And the gliodin protein has undergone dramatic change over the centuries, but even more so in the last few decades, because of those efforts to change the wheat plant. Now, the wheat plant was not changed for evil purpose. It was changed to increase mostly yield per acre. So there was an effort back in the 1960s and 70s to increase yield per acre. A lot of this science was performed, oddly, east of Mexico City, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, by the U.S. government and Mexican government, as an effort to feed the poor, the hungry of the world. So there was a research effort, an agricultural research effort, to modify wheat, corn, and soy, and some other crops to increase yield per acre. Took many years, took many genetics experiments and those efforts like chemical mutagenesis and other methods to produce mutations to increase yield per acre. And they finally succeeded with the wheat plant, such that yield per acre went up four to eightfold typically more. So that was a great boon to farmers who the same effort would yield much greater amount of wheat seeds. That's what they harvest the wheat seeds, not the husk, not the stalk, not the roots, but the wheat seeds is what they're looking for. That's what they dry and grind into flour. Well, it's the gliden protein that's been changed dramatically over the years, and it's become more immunogenic. That is, it's more likely to stimulate an immune response. That's why there's been an increase, a significant increase in celiac disease. This is not about celiac disease, but celiac disease is one of the problems associated with the gliden protein. People say gluten, but it's really the gliden protein within gluten. So there's been an increase in celiac disease because the structure of the gliden protein was changed, making it more likely to provoke celiac disease. You know what else makes the gliden protein worse and more likely to be immunogenic? Sourdough fermentation, which is ironic, isn't it? Because many people think that sourdough fermentation somehow is safer and makes the wheat uh less harmful. That's not true. It actually increases its immunogenicity and has other problems as well. But the gliden protein is a source for stimulating the immune response in celiac disease and in other conditions. We now know that the gliden protein is also the prime principal stimulant, initiator of the autoimmune process. It's not quite clear just how many autoimmune conditions are caused. We know, for instance, that type 1 diabetes in children and adults and rheumatoid arthritis, at the very least, those two we know with confidence now. That's the researcher, Dr. Alessio Fasano, when he was at the University of Maryland, now at Harvard, and he did incredibly detailed work to show. It's the gliden protein within gluten that initiates the process that causes autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. You know, not all those diseases have been studied from the perspective of the gliden protein, so we don't know how far-reaching this is, but it's likely that most, not all perhaps, but most autoimmune conditions are initiated by consumption of the gliden protein. Another effect of the gliden protein is it increases intestinal permeability. And that's not good because we don't want microbial breakdown products in the gastrointestinal tract to enter the bloodstream. That's called endotoxemia. If you've been following my conversations, you already know that many people, about half the U.S. population, has this problem called SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, a situation in which fecal microbial species from the colon have been allowed to over-proliferate because of our exposure to antibiotics and other factors. Fecal microbes have over-proliferated and then ascended into the small intestine. Small intestine is very permeable to begin with because that's where we absorb nutrients. But the presence of fecal microbes in the 24 feet of small intestine increases its permeability even further. So it's a real lethal combination for health? A combination of consuming wheat products that contain the gliadin protein and SIBO, with colonization of the 24 feet of small intestine by fecal microbes. So you have a major uptick in intestinal permeability, a marked increase in endotoxemia. Now, of course, endotoxemia, you'll recall, is the process, the bloodstream-borne process, that drives a consequence in other parts of the body, such as weight gain in the abdomen, insulin resistance that leads to heart disease and dementia and risk for cancers like breast cancer. So we don't want increased endotoxemia. And a combination of the SIBO with consumption of wheat, the gliden protein of wheat, is a lethal combination for endotoxemia. So the gliden protein is really the seat of real problems with gluten. But there's more to the gliden protein. So because of those proline sequences and that prolamin protein called gliden, we know that you can't break down the gliden protein to single amino acids. We break them down into four or five amino acid long peptide fragments. Well, those peptide fragments are very odd, very unique, and they remain intact and travel to your brain where they bind to the opioid receptors where they stimulate appetite. So the gliden protein, especially of modern wheat, the altered form of glidein in modern wheat, is a very potent appetite stimulant. You'll see this effect play out in people who go wheat-free. And they'll say, first of all, there's a mild withdrawal syndrome, fatigue, depression, disrupted sleep, joint aches. For the first maybe five days or so, it varies. And then you feel great. And one of the consequences after five days or so, that after the withdrawal process, is that you're no longer hungry. Hunger is completely different. It's not the gnawing, desperate feeling you had in your wheat consuming days. Now it's a very soft reminder that you might eat something. You'll even forget to eat meals often. You'll go extended periods without eating very comfortably. So this idea of time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting becomes much easier because you're not being exposed to this flagrant and potent appetite stimulant called gliden-derived opioid peptides. So gliden within gluten, big problem. Now recall, gluten and gliden are not the only problems with wheat. That was among the major topics in my Wheatbelly series of books. That is, there's amylopectin A. That's the carbohydrate unique to wheat and grains that rots your teeth, triggers formation of small LDL particles that leads to cardiovascular disease, the real cause of heart disease, not this ridiculous notion of LDL cholesterol that should have been discarded as outdated 40 years ago. It's the small LDL particle provoked by consumption of the amylopectin A of wheat and grains, as well as sugars. It's also about the phytates. Phytates bind minerals, positively charged minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. And you poop them out in the toilet. That's why there's a lot of iron deficiency anemia in people who consume wheat. That's why it's so hard to replace magnesium, people who consume wheat, because that those phytates bind the magnesium and you pass them out in the toilet. So it's very difficult to maintain mineral, healthy mineral levels when you consume the phytates of wheat and grains. There's also wheat germ agglutinin. It sounds like gluten, but it's unrelated. It's agglutinin. We're referring to the ability of this protein, this indigestible protein, to coagulate blood, to cause a blood clot, agglutination of red blood cells. So wheat germ agglutinin, completely indigestible. It's 200 plus amino acids long. When it goes in, when you swallow it, it comes out intact in the toilet. But in its passage through the entire gastrointestinal tract, it's highly toxic. If you give a milligram, there's a speck to a laboratory rat, its entire gastrointestinal tract is denuded, we say. It rips off all the lining hairs of the intestinal tract and causes inflammation like colitis. Well, it's not quite as bad in humans, but it does, it's similar. It's a toxin to the gastrointestinal tract. That's a partial list. There's more. The only problem with wheat is not just gluten, but gluten, but especially gliden within gluten, changed by the efforts of agribusiness and genesis, they are real serious problems. So if you if you get this, if you get your arms around this, you start to realize well, a path to a lot of recovery and health, freedom from stimulating the autoimmune process, high blood glucose, insulin resistance that causes expansion of abdominal fat, appetite stimulation, gastrointestinal toxicity, loss of minerals from phytates. You start to realize, well, if you don't eat wheat and grains, so many health problems go away. And it's easier to lose weight and it falls off of you most of the time when you go wheat and grain free. Now, that's not to say that you'll never have pizza or a nice slice of birthday cake or pumpkin pie or all those goodies you may you may think you have to give up. You don't have to give them up, but we're going to make them with different ingredients. We're not going to use wheat flour, for instance, to make your cupcakes or your muffins or your cookies. We're going to use alternative flours that don't have all these effects. Almond flour, coconut flour, ground golden flaxseed. There's a whole long list of alternative flours we use. We don't use sugar, of course. We use alternative sweeteners. We don't use synthetic sweeteners. We use naturally occurring non-caloric or minimally caloric sweeteners, such as erythritol or mung fruit or allulose, stevia. There's been some bad press against erythritol lately, but that's another conversation altogether. Know that sometimes research is generated for the sake of headlines, not necessarily for the sake of science. So that's a whole nother conversation. But know that you can recreate nearly all the foods that you used to make with wheat or sugar. You can recreate them. That was the purpose of a lot of my books, including the two cookbooks I wrote for a wheat and grain-free diet, the Wheat Belly Cookbook, Wheat Belly 30 Minutes or Less Cookbook, as well as recipes and fortunately every book I've written. So it's all meant to get started on this process of being wheat and grain free. Yeah, gluten-free. Now, here's a crazy thing about being gluten-free. You know, sadly, every time a message comes out, there's somebody who wants to make money from a lot of money. And unfortunately, the talk about being gluten-free led to the boom in gluten-free processed foods. Those are foods like baking mixes, cupcakes, muffins, cakes, bagels, pancakes, etc., made with rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, or cornstarch. Now the problem with those starches, so wheat, because of the amylopectin A raises blood glucose and thereby insulin resistant, worse than almost all other foods. Are there any foods worse than wheat? Yes. Cornstarch, tapioca starch, rice flour, and potato starch. The primary ingredients in gluten-free processed foods. That's why people who thought they knew what the wheat belly books were about, they say they come to me and say, hey, I went gluten-free and I've eaten gluten-free foods, and I gained 18 pounds all in my belly. I'm now a type 2 diabetic and I have cataracts. Or some other health problem. Because they ate the gluten-free foods. When you use those alternative gluten-free flours, finely pulverized, you increase the surface area of the carbohydrate, the starch, and it raises blood glucose extravagantly, even worse than the amylopectin A of wheat. And that kind of starch also triggers formation of the small LVL particles. Those gluten-free processed foods are extravagant causes of heart disease, heart attacks, sudden cardiac death. So it's a serious matter, right? What they lack, though, is the gliadin protein. So in that regard, they're good. They don't have the appetite-stimulating immunogenic protein called gliadin. They have problems, though, with the extravagant glycemic index of the starches in those. So don't resort to gluten-free processed foods. Naturally gluten-free foods are fine. An egg is naturally gluten-free. An avocado is naturally gluten-free. A piece of salmon or beef is naturally gluten-free. Those are fine. It's the processed gluten-free alternative flour-based products that are a real problem. Now, if this interests you on the full rationale, the full history of what wheat has been through, the logic behind the chromosomal changes, all that stuff. Those are all, of course, my wheat belly books, which are still available. I also do summarize them in my more recent books, like Super Gut and Superbody. And also note, in my most recent programs, like the one I articulate in Superbody, it starts with this idea of wheat and grain elimination, because you really can't accomplish a whole lot if all you do is address the microbiome, say, or address your degree of musculature as we do in superbody, if you continue to beat up your body and s and disrupt its metabolism by consuming wheat, grains, and of course sugars.