By Oluwole Ajagbe:
“Wheat is now the preferred swallow meal for many Nigerian families particularly in the urban centres. Sadly too, some rural dwellers have hooked onto the fad that
wheat is a “healthy” food.
Early this year, a middle-aged man from Ekiti State came to my office for solution to his health challenges – diabetes and high blood pressure. Upon enquiry on his
diet, he said wheat was his major meal
daily. According to him, virtually all the
civil servants working at the state and
local governments in Ekiti State also eat
wheat as their regular meal. In fact, he
said those that are not eating wheat
particularly in the state capital could not
afford it, but not due to knowledge of its
harm to health.
What an irony? Otherwise, how do we
explain the preference of wheat to
pounded yam, which the Ekiti people
have been eating for good health and
vitality centuries back?
The prevalent consumption of wheat
across the country has clearly shown that
in the absence of knowledge, people can accept poison as therapy. After all, wheat is the first choice food for diabetics on the
strength of doctors’ advice. Nationwide,
wheat has overshadowed yam flour and other starchy foods that are peculiar to our culinary culture in Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is one dietary change
that may prove suicidal for many people given the inseparable linkage of diet to health or ill health. Though wheat, like other grains, is rich in fibre and some
other nutrients, it is one food anybody
that desires wellness and long life should
be kept at arm’s length. Why? There are three inherent dangers in the chemistry of wheat that make it a classic destroyer of health. I call them the downsides of
wheat.
Wheat contains gluten – a protein that
causes inflammation, a systemic process
that has harmful effects across all the
organ systems in the body including the
brain, heart, joints, eyes and digestive
tract. As a matter of fact, inflammation
does not only precede all degenerative
diseases like diabetes, cancer, stroke,
glaucoma, arthritis and Parkinson’s
disease, but also fuels their insidious
progression. A review paper in the New
England Journal of Medicine listed 55
diseases that can be caused by eating
gluten-containing foods. The diseases
include osteoporosis, anemia, cancer,
canker sores, fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis
and multiple sclerosis. The paper also
linked gluten to many psychiatric and
neurological diseases including depression, schizophrenia, dementia, nerve damage, epilepsy and autism. The paper concluded that there are 120 or more diseases associated with eating foods that contain gluten. Dr. Joseph A. Murray, MD states that he is surprised how often gluten affects the brain.
Another study by Dr .J. Robert Cade, MD
of the University of Florida showed that
people with autism and schizophrenia
have high level of peptides in their urine. These peptides, according to Dr. Cade,
come from casein (protein in milk and
other dairy products) and gliadin and
gluten in wheat, barley, oats and rye.
Another study of 30,000 patients
analyzed from 1969 – 2008 reported in
the journal of the American Medical
Association found that people diagnosed
with gluten-sensitivity had a higher risk of
death from cancer and heart disease than the normal population. Worse still, the bulk of wheat being consumed in the country is the American hybrid strain, which has much higher gluten content than the European wheat.
The second inherent danger in the chemistry of wheat is its high Glycemic
Index GI. Glycemic Index is a scale that
ranks carbohydrate rich foods by how
much they raise blood sugar level
compared to low glycemic foods. Wheat
has GI of 71 compared to yam and sweet potato with GI of 49 and 54 respectively.
Invariably, eating food with high GI like
wheat regularly promotes weight gain and makes diabetes intractable.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, MD “wheat is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, cancer, dementia, depression and many modern ills.” If one may ask, what is the science behind the recommendation of wheat as a meal to fight high blood sugar?
Also, many people do not know that wheat, which is being promoted as a
“healthy” food, is one of the most acid-
forming foods. What are the health
implications of eating acid forming foods?
Wheat and other acid-forming foods lower
the body pH and deplete oxygen level in the cells and tissues, which is the primary cause of all diseases. In other words, if wheat causes low pH that triggers diseases, eating wheat and its products is akin to adding fuel to fire for people battling with one health challenge or the other.
What are the physiological effects of low pH on the body organs? Eyes are the first victims of degenerating effects of low pH and its consequences include
cataract, glaucoma and other forms of
visual impairment. Also, low body pH
makes the heart overwork by robbing the blood of proper oxygenation and causing irregular heart beat and systemic degeneration of the heart muscle and
blood vessels, which can ultimately lead
to heart attack and stroke. The brain and nerves also malfunction
when the body pH is low (acidic pH).
Furthermore, acidic pH undermines the
vital functions of the pancreas –production of insulin for glucose
metabolism and digestive enzymes for
synthesis of protein. Yet, the dysfunction
of the pancreas triggers diabetes and
cancer, with the former setting the stage for the latter. A joint report by the
American Cancer Society and the
American Diabetes Association noted that
people with type 2 diabetes have high
risk of developing cancers of the liver,
pancreas, colon and bladder. Acidic pH
causes clogging of the colon with acid wastes resulting in chronic constipation,
which makes healing of any health challenge impossible.
TIPS
Healthy alternatives to wheat
• Yam & yam flour
• Unpolished rice
• Sweet potato.
Have [truncated by WhatsApp]”
AMALA IN THE OCEAN OF GBEGIRI.
