In his book, Wheat Belly, Dr. William Davis promotes a new fad diet that is devoid of wheat to overcome obesity.
While Davis’s concerns about the obesity epidemic are laudable, his targeting of wheat as the cause is misguided at best and false and misleading at worst.
Davis derides present-day high-yielding dwarf wheat types as being somehow inferior to earlier varieties that grew shoulder high.
However, these dwarf varieties have been the major cause of in-creased wheat yields, which have saved hundreds of millions of people from starvation and death.
Read Also
Cow-calf returns improve dramatically; herd expansion limited
Gross returns for cow-calf producers have outpaced the grain sector in recent years.
These highly productive varieties, now grown around the world, have more than tripled global wheat production from 230 million tonnes in 1960 to 704 million tonnes in 2011.
This success was achieved by identifying natural genetic variation or creating it by processes such as gamma irradiation and treating a small sample of seeds with chemicals such as sodium azide.
Davis correctly identifies this chemical as a toxin, but his claim that this constitutes a hazard in the grain we eat is false.
These physical treatments and chemicals are transitory. Gamma radiation does not persist, and any chemicals used are washed away. Certainly, there is no possibility of transferring them to the progeny of treated wheat seeds.
As well, Davis’ statement that hybridized wheat plants have altered proteins and are therefore harmful is illogical.
All of our agricultural commodities have been hybridized over hundreds of years to improve yield and quality. Would he have us stop consuming all of them?
Cereal grains store captured solar energy in the form of starch granules, which are the most compact form of glucose. This form of sugar is the fuel for every cell in all living organisms and hence the major source of energy for the survival of our civilization.
Advances in wheat genetics and production technology have created ways to stave off hunger and starvation in calorie deficient and underprivileged developing countries. The downside, if it can be called that, is that we now have an abundance of inexpensive food in developed countries.
In the face of such abundance, some of us eat too much or choose unbalanced diets, and we now face an epidemic of obesity. There are many reasons for this, among them socioeconomic status, nutrition education and self control.
However, Davis blames it all on wheat rather than the people who are inflicting their dietary choices on themselves.
This situation is analogous to North America’s addiction to gasoline, which encourages us to avoid exercise and contributes to the obesity epidemic.
Shall we then abandon the internal combustion engine and go back to a previous age when people walked to their destinations and did not have the luxury of driving a block to get a loaf of bread?
It would make as much sense as Davis’s suggestion that we should go back to cultivating ancient wheat varieties because we would also have to accept drastic reductions in grain yield and higher food prices.
Doubling or tripling the price of a loaf of bread might be affordable for Davis, but it surely would not be welcomed by the poorest among us, who already struggle to put sufficient calories on the table.
The Healthy Grains Institute was created in November 2012 in re-sponse to ongoing public misinformation to help inform Canadians about the health and nutrition benefits of whole grains.
This not-for-profit institute will study current research and direct Canadians to science-based information on the role of whole grains in their diets, particularly as it relates to weight management and chronic disease prevention.
