There has been much debate in this community about the health value (or lack thereof) of grains, especially wheat. I thought this article was worth posting. I for one was VERY happy to see these things being talked about on a mainstream site such as CBS news... it's inspiring that the word is really starting to spread about this.
"(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."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57505149/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/
I couldn't agree more with everything he had to say, and I love the fact that he didn't try to cater to people who don't want to change their diets. I loved what he said about the smoking and about eliminating grains being a way to transform health. This is just awesome to see.
Ps. There is a video on the site with more of his interview if you're interested. 
About being "manstream", it doesn't get more "mainstream" than Dr. Oz.
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/gluten-sensitivity-self-test
The Dr. Oz show last Thursday was about Gluten.
Unfortunetly, people just blow this off as some "talk show nonsense".
It's really sad that people are waiting for their Doctors to tell them that their Food Allergies are making them ill. Could you imagine no more Gastic Bypass surgeries or Diabetes? No more dependence on Medications or trips to many different "specialists"? It's ALL possible.
Doctor's are not into cures, there's no money in it. Tests, pills, & more vists until you need surgery, that's it.
I saw that article and considered posting it.
Going back to Non GMO Wheat (Gluten) would "help". BUT wide spread chronic illness began about a 11,000 years ago. The same time humans went from "hunter/gathers" to "farmers". GMO's just grossly increase the damage.
Many things changed about that time that caused illness, such as living close together in cities, near or with livestock, a class system where poorer people didnt have access to adequate nutrition. And specialized labor that may not involve the natural level of physical activity and circadian cycle. Blaming it all on grains is goofy. Especially since people ate the grains before the switch to agriculture. They would not have learned to cultivate grains if they didn't eat them and consider them valuable.
Sorry, I'm meant "chronic Illness". Not to include Communical Disease. Do you really think anyone thinks humans never tried eating grains before they started cultivating them? Didn't think I had to mention that part.
I saw that article and considered posting it.
Going back to Non GMO Wheat (Gluten) would "help". BUT wide spread chronic illness began about a 11,000 years ago. The same time humans went from "hunter/gathers" to "farmers". GMO's just grossly increase the damage.
Many things changed about that time that caused illness, such as living close together in cities, near or with livestock, a class system where poorer people didnt have access to adequate nutrition. And specialized labor that may not involve the natural level of physical activity and circadian cycle. Blaming it all on grains is goofy. Especially since people ate the grains before the switch to agriculture. They would not have learned to cultivate grains if they didn't eat them and consider them valuable.
Sorry, I'm meant "chronic Illness". Not to include Communical Disease. Do you really think anyone thinks humans never tried eating grains before they started cultivating them? Didn't think I had to mention that part.
Yes. Paleo fanatics constantly claim humans hardly ate them before agriculture because they couldn't possibly gather enough for them to be a significant part of the diet. I've disputed that claim in response to others posts several dozens of times in this forum alone. And it's crazy because you can head up to Minnesota today and watch the Ojibwe gather wild rice, something not cultivated but gathered wild, that's so important to them they consider it sacred.
And my list of changes included many things that would affect health in more ways than the number of communicable diseases. for one, the lower classes would be more likely to consume nearly nothing but cheap grains and get none of the nutrients from other foods that reduce or repair harm from the antinutrients.
Also, in addition to avoiding GMOd grains, going back to traditional long fermentation methods helps tremendously.
Wheat containing products (bread, rolls, cereal, cakes etc). Wheat contains one of the most well-known lectins: gluten which is associated with pretty much every autoimmune condition there is. Lectins like gluten can damage the gut lining and influence the structure and function of the intestines. One major problem they can cause is increased gut permeability also known as leaky gut. Leaky gut is associated with both metabolic syndrome and autoimmune disease, and causes systemic inflammation which is at the root of various disorders. Gut dysfunction also impairs the digestion and absorption of nutrients from food and affects intestinal bacteria. Lectins can pass through the gut lining intact and reach the blood stream where some - like gluten - have the potential to interfere with the bodys normal hormonal balance, metabolism and health