Ever hear, “I’m gluten free” or “I have adult-onset celiac disease”? Gluten-free this, gluten-free that…for the love of god! I thought bread was a nourishing staple. When it was properly prepared, which means germinated and fermented, wheat bread was once the staff of life, providing nourishing sustenance for thousands of people. But in recent years, it’s become the cause of digestive disorders, autoimmune disease, and more. How did this happen?
Here’s how: In the 1970s, wheat producers in the US changed over to a hybridized wheat kernel, forgoing the heirloom variety that our ancestors consumed for thousands of years. This genetically engineered hybrid contains significantly higher levels of gliadin, a protein commonly found in wheat. These so-called “food producers” continue to grow it in masses. After the harvest, they fumigate it with mercury to prevent organisms from eating it while it lingers in storage for months, then refine it to remove any valuable nutrition. For good measure, they spray in a few synthetic vitamins and potassium bromate—which is toxic to the thyroid and other organs—and label any loaf of bread made from this processed flour as “enriched.” Give me a break! You feed me frankenfood with chemicals and try to con me into buying it by calling it “enriched.” That’s like me stealing $1,000 dollars from you and giving you back six monopoly dollars. Do you feel enriched?
I instruct many of my nutritional clients who have developed a gliadin (or gluten) sensitivity to avoid wheat products that are derived from hybridized wheat kernels. But I inform them if they ever travel to Europe, where the bread is still derived mainly from original heirloom wheat varieties, they will have no problems—and they almost never do. Upon returning to the US, however, some of them erroneously believe they’ve been healed of their gliadin sensitivity and try eating the bread manufactured here. Predictably, consuming the by-products linked to a mangled food industry triggers their symptoms all over again.
Honest bread makers still use the heirloom wheat kernels and prepare them the way that our ancestors consumed them—as the staff of life. You can find such bread makers through the directories listed on the Weston A. Price Foundation. These bread makers properly germinate the wheat kernels, fermenting them with naturally occurring probiotics and healthy yeast cultures. The bread is then baked under natural heating conditions to produce nourishing loaves filled with nutritional factors (minus all the toxic chemicals) our bodies crave. Such bread is simply rich. It doesn’t need to be “enriched.”
A study of wheat anatomy reveals that the wheat kernel has three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. The bran and germ portions contain the essential fatty acids, minerals, B complex and fat-soluble vitamins, including the entire vitamin E complex. We need many of these nutrients to support our bodies in the process of effectively metabolizing the endosperm, which contains the starch and gluten proteins. Many of my clients come to my clinic after having consumed refined wheat products for years. The long-term consumption of the endosperm alone means they’ve developed deficiencies of the nutrients found in the bran and germ. Dr. Royal Lee predicted that we would see the health of the American people decline due to a deficiency of those nutrients—known and unknown—found only in the bran and germ. It’s quite a remarkable achievement that he extracted the wheat germ with cold-press methods and concentrated these missing food factors into Wheat Germ Oil, as well as the various whole food formulas used by holistic health care practitioners to help their nutritionally starved patients.
Furthermore, Dr. Lee realized that if we consumed breads and other carbohydrate-rich foods without the proper preparation, the ability of our bodies to break down starches and carbohydrates would diminish, causing flatulence and other indicators of digestive distress. To overcome this challenge, he suggested that practitioners provide their patients with supplemental lactic acid in the form of Lactic Acid Yeast Wafers—known to improve the body’s ability to break down carbohydrates and restore a healthy floral pH.
You can restore or maintain your health by working with a holistic healthcare practitioner who dispenses Dr. Royal Lee’s whole food concentrates. At the same time, you can still eat your bread; just make sure it’s derived from heirloom wheat and prepared the way our ancestors did, as the staff of life. Oh, and don’t forget the butter—made from the raw milk of pastured cows, of course.
Photo from iStock/Steve Froebe
