Greetings all and anyone who ventures out to read this. I hope this summer is finding you and yours in happy and healthy times.
My topic is a going to be a running topic throughout this blog, touching of this topic from time to time, and that is: Wheat - what up with that?
Wheat is, and has been, a staple in our culture as well as many others. It has its roots in human existence for thousands of years and is one of the most harvested crops today. Wheat remains at the center of the "whole grains" movement, in which we are to eat more of... But I am not so sure:
Wheat began as a grain named einkorn, thousands of years ago, and at some point bred with a goat grass to become emmer. Emmer is the wheat that was most likely referred to by Moses as mentioned in the bible. It was used by Egyptians, Summarians, and many other ancient cultures. As an approximation, sometime at about a millennium before more modern biblical times, emmer crossbred to become the more modern wheat known as 'Triticum aestivum', and this remained the wheat of humankind for centuries.
Now, before I go on with this riveting history of the origin of wheat it is important to have a very basic and limited understanding of plant breeding. When humans mate, our chromosomes un-pair and then repair with our mate's un-paired chromosomes to create new life. This means that as humans we will always have the same number of chromosomes. Plant chromosomes DO NOT un-pair, they instead accumulate to create new plants. For instance, einkorn had 14 chromosomes and when in bred with the goat grass it then became emmer which has 28 chromosomes. Emmer then mated with Triticum tauschii to become triticum aestivum, a 42 chromosome wheat.
Needless to say, a VERY different wheat from its predecessor... and as the genetics changed, so does the gluten and its interaction with the body - a story for another time...
OK! Fast forward to modern times, we humans are constantly trying to increase crop yields and we are using crossbreeding to try and promote 'more desirable' traits (not a bad idea in theory). By 1980, the efforts of humankind had produced THOUSANDS of new strains of wheat, and it was simply assumed that because the new strains remained essentially 'wheat,' human beings would be able to tolerate it.
Just so we are clear: even though we had hybridized and crossbred thousands of new strains of wheat, the first decade of genetic modification had NO ANIMAL OR HUMAN SAFETY TESTING CONDUCTED. It was assumed as the benign practice of hybridization.
A little unsettled? I hope so. If not, I recommend you do some reading up on genetics. Future entries will go into wheat and glycemic index, sugar breakdown, conversion to fat, types of fat, wheat on the psyche, addiction to wheat, etc and so on.
Thanks for your time,
Brendan Malloy, D.C.
