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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Friday, December 14, 2012

The negative effects of wheat

A few weeks ago I had been reading a thread on Homesteading Today about wheat. I learned a lot and decided to do a trial run without wheat. Over the past several weeks we have eaten very little wheat and I have eaten practically none. I actually was feeling pretty good. I didn't have that terrible crash in the afternoon, I wasn't stiff with sore joints and muscles (outside of overuse of my left arm while tanning a hide)and in general I felt pretty good. Well yesterday I fixed a big pot of chili and my favorite thing to eat with chili is bread and butter. I even made goat butter for the occasion. I figured one meal with wheat wouldn't be so bad. Well, guess what? A huge difference those couple of pieces of bread made. Thirty minutes after eating I was asleep and slept hard for 3 solid hours. Then I felt awful when I woke up, like I had a hangover (yes I remember what those feel like). My whole body was stiff and sore and still is this morning. I can hardly move. And the worst was...well this is embarrassing...the gas. Let's just say it is awful and leave it at that. And it wasn't just me that was affected. My husband got a headache(he ate crackers) and my little one(ate bread with butter) was bouncing off the walls. She spent the whole afternoon getting in trouble. The oldest who only ate the chili and nothing else was unaffected. You see what I discovered from that thread is that all modern wheat grown in the US is short stemmed wheat that was introduced in the 1960s. Because of its nature of growth the gliadin is concentrated and doesn't break down causing an allergic reaction. This isn't the same as Celiac's or gluten intolerance. Although the symptoms are similar and both can be an issue, not just one or the other. There are heirloom variety seeds available for long stem (therefore longer growing season) varieties of wheat availabe. They are very expensive, typically 25 seeds for about 7.00. However, I love bread and I can't foresee giving up wheat altogether. I love my bread with my chili and on occasion absolutely love biscuits and gravy. So I have decided to buy some of these seeds and working on building a seed supple from my 25 seeds. It might take me a few years to do that and I can keep wheat intake to a minimum during that time. I don't relish the idea. I have grown a small patch of wheat, threshed, cleaned and ground it. It is hard work and not something I wanted to do on a regular basis, but I guess now it will become part of the farm routine. My body simply can't tolerate modern day wheat and I wonder how long I will take to recuperate for yesterday's bread and butter consumption. I still haven't gotten around to starting a sourdough culture and I really need to do that. I believe that Weston Price says that the fermentation helps to break down not only the gluten but the gliadin as well. So we will see. I will try to do that soon and let you know how it turns out. Blessings, Kat

4 comments:

kckmom3 said...

Hi,Kat! We are low income enough to get WIC and everything is "whole wheat" this or that--this is supposed to be better for you but if it's not then I wonder why the gov't insists on this stuff?

Kat said...

The government is not concerned with what is good for you. It is only concerned about what is good for them and the money they get from the Wheat Council is good for them...at your expense. The government is not your friend nor is it on your side. Boy will I get flagged for saying that!!

living from glory to glory said...

Hi Kate, Just trying to catch up with some post tonight. I have seen many people start to build a resistance to wheat in the last couple of years.
May you be able to stay off wheat and recover and get your strentth back. Merry Christmas
Roxy

living from glory to glory said...

Sorry kate I spelled strength wrong, kinda tired myself tonight. Sundays always make me feel really sleepy after church and eating :)