Betty Ford's Cousin

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I gave wheat the boot from my diet and now I'm smack in the middle of detox. Let me tell you boys and girls, this is no trip to Disneyland. In a nutshell, this is painful but what keeps me going is what's on the other side. I've detoxed from dairy amidst a raging allergy, but the symptoms were nothing like what I'm experiencing now: lethargy, heavy fatigue, brain fog, Friday the migraine set in, and continua-headache since that rotates over various points of my head and makes sneezing feel like my temples are flying to adjacent provinces. Even though detox is common when cleaning up one's diet, wheat (particularly the gluten within) is special, very special.

What happens with wheat once consumed are a couple of dramatic effects. The Amylopectin-A breaks down very rapidly into glucose thereby causing a rapid intense spike in GI glucose, a dump of insulin from the pancreas to bind to the glucose and take it to the cells. However the cells are not in need of the glucose so what happens is this glucose is nicely and conveniently stored in and among one's kidneys, liver, pancreas, and abdomen thereby producing belly fat and lots of it that just does not go away despite how much cardio/weight training/physical activity one does. Here's the interesting (and addictive) part:  the gluten breaks down into gluteomorphin (a pseudo-morphine) and  binds to the opiate receptors of the brain. Now we are talking chemical/pseudo-drug addiction,which is what I am detoxing from now. The opiate receptor detox is very similar (though not as intense) as detoxing from heroin. Charming.

But wheat is the staff of life!! It's in the Bible!! And that is true, but it's THAT wheat that's the staff of life, not the mega-genetically manipulated wheat of today. Wheat has been genetically manipulated for growing seasons and conditions, mold resistance, gluten content, yield intensity, and has also been hammered with intense ammonium nitrate fertilizers to also crank up the crop yield. Oh yes and let's not forget Roundup and other such herbicides. Farmers had to fight Monsanto scientists not to put the "terminator gene" into the wheat. What we have today looks like wheat, sort of resembles wheat in baking and cooking (positive effects so it's all good, right), but when it comes down to the genetic level is a far cry from the original wheat and what can tell the difference is our bodies. What we have is a product of the Green Revolution of the 50's and the result of that product is celiac disease, gluten and wheat sensitivities and allergies (wheat dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis), as well as an alarming rate of obesity and the list is just getting started.

As I see it, the detox is worth the pain to get to yet another milestone of healthy. I recommend reading  the book "Wheat Belly" by William Davis MD (cardiologist) as it's an eye-opener.
Sherri Donohue