LONDON, Ont. — A few Canadians should worry about eating wheat. For everyone else, it’s simply a good part of healthy eating.
That was the core message that a U.S. nutritionist delivered to the recent Grain Farmers of Ontario conference.
“About six percent, maximum, should be avoiding gluten-rich food. For the rest of us, eat whole grain foods to protect our health,” Dr. Julie Miller Jones said.
Celiac disease, an immune re-sponse to the gluten in wheat, is a reality for about one out of every 133 North Americans, Miller Jones said.
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Non-gluten celiac sensitivity, which is similar to celiac disease, may affect another five percent. It’s said to be related to abdominal pain, fatigue, diarrhea and depression, but Miller Jones said the jury is still out as to whether the condition is real,.
Miller Jones took a two-pronged approach to defending wheat and other gluten-rich food.
One was to counter claims made by cardiologist Dr. William Davis, who wrote Wheat Belly, and other wheat detractors.
She said Davis cherry picked much of the scientific data he uses to back up his theories, which include the idea that cutting wheat from diets can lead to weight loss, that the gliadin content of wheat is addictive and that cereal fibre is not needed in diets.
Miller Jones said Davis also points to the genetic manipulation of today’s high-yielding, semi-dwarf varieties.
“The distance modern wheat has drifted exceeds the difference be-tween chimpanzees and humans. What a genetic different once percent can make,” says the www.wheatbellyblog.com website.
Countered Miller Jones: “The gene for the seed-head size is different from the gene for straw length.”
She also talked about the science that supports the nutritional benefits of wheat and other whole grains, which include reducing disease and obesity — the exact opposite of Davis’s position — and the dramatic reduction of birth defects linked to folate-enriched grain.
She said whole grain has been linked to a 25 percent reduction in the development of Type 2 diabetes and a reduction in the incidence of pre-diabetes.
Miller Jones does agree with Davis’s statement that wheat protein is allergenic but disputes the emphasis he places on it.
“All proteins from absolutely everything have the potential to cause allergic reactions,” she said.
“Wheat is just one of them.”
Miller Jones said the best advice for Canadians is to follow the Canada Food Guide in making dietary choices. It recommends six to eight servings of grain products for people 14 to 50, seven to 10 servings of vegetables and fruit, two to four servings of milk or alternatives (more for teenagers) and two to three servings of meat or alternatives.
“It’s all about balance and that’s hard,” she said.
“People want simple solutions and that sells books.”
Miller Jones is the author of an article in Cereal Foods World examining statements made by Davis’s Wheat Belly and is professor emeritus at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also sits on the Healthy Grains Institute’s Scientific Advisory Council.
The institute is a Canadian initiative launched in 2012 to counter what its director, Christine Lowry, refers to as the “war on wheat.”
