Wheat Flour is a dangerous substitute for Garri, Amala and Pounded Yam. The prevalent consumption of wheat across the country has already shown that in the absence of knowledge, people can accept poison as therapy.
After all, wheat is the first choice for diabetics on the strength of doctor’s advice.
Nationwide, wheat has over shadowed yam flour and other starchy foods that are peculiar to our culinary culture in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, this dietary change may prove suicide for many people, given the inseparable linkage of diet to health or ill health.
Though, wheat, like other grains, is rich in fibre and some other nutrient, it is one food anybody that desires wellness and long life should keep at arm’s length. Why? There are three inherent dangers in the chemistry of wheat that make it a classic destroyer of health. I call them the downsides of wheat wealth.
Wheat contains gluten-a protein that cause inflammation, a systemic process that has harmful effects across all the organ systems in the body including the brain, heart, joints, eyes and digestive tract.
As a matter of fact, inflammation does not only precede all degenerative diseases like diabetics, cancer, stroke, glaucoma, notaries and Parkinson’s disease, but also fuel progression.
A review paper in the New England Journal of medicine listed 55 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten-containing foods. Among these diseases are osteoporosis, anemia, cancer, cancer sores, fatigue, rheumatoid notaries and multiple sclerosis.
The paper also linked gluten to many psychiatric and neurological diseases including depression, schizophrenia, dementia, nerve damage, epilepsy and autism. The paper concluded that there are 120 or more disease associated with eating wheat that contains gluten.
Dr. Joseph A Murray, MD, state that he is surprised how gluten affects the brain. Another study by Dr. J. Robert Cade, MD of the University of Florida shows that people with autism and schizophrenia have high level of peptides in their urine.
These peptides, according to Dr. Cade, come from casein (protein in milk and other dairy products) and gladden and gluten-sensitivity in wheat, barley, oats. Another study of 30,000 patients, analyzed from 1969-2008 and reported in the Journal of American Medical Association, found that people diagnosed with gluten sensitivity had a higher risk of death from cancer and heart disease than the normal population.
Worse still, the bulk of wheat consumed in the country is the American hybrid strain, which has high gluten contents than the European wheat.
The second inherent danger in the chemistry of wheat is its high glycerin index G1.
Glycerin index is a scale that ranks carbohydrate-rich food by how much they raise blood sugar level compared to low glycerin food. Wheat has G1 of 71 compared to yam and sweet potato with G1 of 49 and 54 respectively.
Invariably, eating food high in G1 like wheat regularly promotes weight gain and makes diabetes intractable.
According to Dr. Mark Hyman, MD, “Wheat is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, cancer, dementia, depression and many modern ills. If one may ask, what is the science behind the recommendation of wheat as a meal to fight high blood sugar?
Also many people do not know that wheat, which is being promoted as a “healthy food,” is one of the most acid-forming foods. What are the implications of eating acid-forming foods?
Wheat and other acid-forming foods lower the body PH and deplete oxygen level in the cells and tissues, which is the primary cause of all diseases. In other words, if wheat causes low PH that trigger diseases, eating wheat and its product is akin to adding fuel to fire for people battling health with one health challenge or the other.
What are the physiological effects of low PH on the body organs? Eyes are the first victims of degenerating effect of low PH and its consequences include contract, glaucoma and other forms of visual impairment.
Also, low body PH makes the heart over work by robbing the blood of proper oxygenation, causing irregular heart beat and systemic degeneration of the heart and stroke. The brain and the nerves also malfunction when the body PH is low (acidic PH).
Furthermore, acidic PH undermines the vital functions of the pancreas, production of insulin for glucose metabolism and digestive enzyme for synthesis of protein. Yet, the dysfunction of the pancreas triggers diabetes and cancer, with the former setting the stage for the latter. A joint report by the American cancer society and the American diabetes association noted that the people with type 2 diabetes have high risk of developing cancers of the liver, colon and bladder.
Acidic PH causes clogging of the colon with acid wastes, resulting in chronic constipation, which makes healing of any health challenge impossible.