Here are two articles, both interesting in their own right, but both become even more interesting in how they contradict one another.

Article #1, based on the research and findings of cardiologist Dr. William Davis, discusses how modern wheat, a monster of genetic research and the most popular grain on earth, essentially makes you more hungry causing you to eat more, and offers a number of other unfortunate health-related side effects, such as leg swelling, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, depression. And so on…

Article #2 (posted beneath Article #1), based on reports from the  UN Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) and research from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center  discusses modern wheat as being a promising solution to widespread starvation and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

After reading these two articles I am left somewhat conflicted… Read below for yourself. Any thoughts/feedback from readers would be interesting.

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Article #1

Modern wheat is a perfect, chronic poison

(From CBS news) Modern wheat is a “perfect, chronic poison,” according to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist who has published a book all about the world’s most popular grain.

Davis said that the wheat we eat these days isn’t the wheat your grandma had: “It’s an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the ’60s and ’70s,” he said on “CBS This Morning.” “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.”

Asked if the farming industry could change back to the grain it formerly produced, Davis said it could, but it would not be economically feasible because it yields less per acre. However, Davis said a movement has begun with people turning away from wheat – and dropping substantial weight.

“If three people lost eight pounds, big deal,” he said. “But we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of people losing 30, 80, 150 pounds. Diabetics become no longer diabetic; people with arthritis having dramatic relief. People losing leg swelling, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, and on and on every day.”

To avoid these wheat-oriented products, Davis suggests eating “real food,” such as avocados, olives, olive oil, meats, and vegetables. “(It’s) the stuff that is least likely to have been changed by agribusiness,” he said. “Certainly not grains. When I say grains, of course, over 90 percent of all grains we eat will be wheat, it’s not barley… or flax. It’s going to be wheat.

“It’s really a wheat issue.”

Some health resources, such as the Mayo Clinic, advocate a more balanced diet that does include wheat. But Davis said on “CTM” they’re just offering a poor alternative.

“All that literature says is to replace something bad, white enriched products with something less bad, whole grains, and there’s an apparent health benefit – ‘Let’s eat a whole bunch of less bad things.’ So I take…unfiltered cigarettes and replace with Salem filtered cigarettes, you should smoke the Salems. That’s the logic of nutrition, it’s a deeply flawed logic. What if I take it to the next level, and we say, ‘Let’s eliminate all grains,’ what happens then?

“That’s when you see, not improvements in health, that’s when you see transformations in health.”

Click here for article link and full video interview with Dr. William Davis on CBS news…

Article #2

Hungry Africa’s breadbasket needs to grow wheat

(From New Scientist) Home-grown wheat could be the solution to a growing hunger problem in sub-Saharan Africa. The region is one of the few in which the number of undernourished people is rising, bucking a global trend. But a new analysis suggests wheat production there falls a long way short of what’s possible.

A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concludes that the number of chronically undernourished people in the world has dropped in the last four years. Africa is the only region where the number has actually risen – by 20 million over the same period. The FAO says that agricultural growth there is essential.

Wheat could be the answer, say researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. At a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week they presented an analysis of 12 sub-Saharan countries. They conclude that in areas where conditions favour wheat growing, the yields are only hitting 10 to 25 per cent of their potential.

“[Extra wheat] would free locals from dependence on markets, where the price can rise by 50 per cent in a few months,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, head of the centre’s global wheat programme. Braun says African ministers have contacted him saying they want to grow wheat. The FAO report gives broad-brush guidance on where this might be feasible.

Article link to New Scientist…