Genetically Modified Wheat making your belly grow

A beer belly is not just a myth. Fortunately, the beer itself is not the one responsible for your extra weight, but the GM wheat used to produce this and other industrial products.

By LISA GARBER | NATURAL SOCIETY | DECEMBER 5, 2012

Many of us are shunning wheat for lots of reasons, but we usually  cite gluten as the culprit. Cardiologist and author Dr. William Davis, however,  says it’s not gluten that makes modern wheat a “perfect, chronic poison.” It’s  the fact that genetically modified wheat has become the wheat we know today.

Davis spoke on “CBS This Morning” earlier this year about one of  agribusiness’s biggest creations—the word “creation” not used lightly.

Genetically Modified Wheat – Increased Appetite, Altered  Genome

“[Modern wheat is] an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic  research in the ‘60s and ‘70s  This thing has many new features nobody told  you about, such as there’s a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It’s not  gluten. I’m not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease.  I’m talking about everybody else because everybody else is susceptible to the  gliadin protein that is an opiate. This thing binds into the opiate receptors in  your brain and in most people stimulates appetite, such that we consume 440 more  calories per day, 365 days per year.”

Increasing hankerings and padding on pounds aren’t all genetically  modified wheat is capable of doing. A new GM wheat in development by the  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CIRO), an  Australian governmental research agency, may permanently alter the genes of the humans and animals that consume  it.

“Through ingestion,” says Professor Jack Heinemann of the  University of Canterbury Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, “these  olecules can enter human beings and potentially silence our genes.” The double  stranded RNAs present in this genetically modified wheat would also survive  cooking, digestion, and generations of life.

GM Whole Grains Like Filtered Cigarettes

But what about all the hype over whole grains? Several health  resources like the Mayo Clinic advocate ditching white wheat for less processed  varieties, but Davis claims that is like replacing unfiltered with filtered  cigarettes.

“That’s the logic of nutrition; it’s a deeply flawed logic.”

Instead of genetically modified wheat, Davis advocates eating “real  foods” like avocados, olives, olive oil, eats, and vegetables. While Davis does  tell consumers to favor food least likely to be changed by agribusiness, the CBS  source, unfortunately, does not directly address variables like  organic and small-scale farming versus conventionally raised and  pesticide-drenched vegetables or pasture-raised versus factory-farmed meats.

GM Not the Answer to Feeding the Nation

Genetically modified foods pose a threat to people (not just  consumers), animals, and the planet  Pesticides for GM corn pollute our water and often contaminate organic products. Although the issue of feeding the  world is a complex and emotional one, GM food—and the poisoning of entire  populations of people—is not the answer.