preface

Part 1: Wheat: The Unhealthy Whole Grain
01 What is belly fat?
02 Not Your Grandmother's Muffin: The Birth of Modern Wheat
03 Wheat Analysis

Part 2: Wheat that makes you healthy from head to toe
04 Want to buy Exorphin?: The Addictive Properties of Wheat
05 The Relationship Between Wheat and Obesity
06 Hey Jang, It's Me: Wheat and Celiac Disease
07 Diabetes Country: Wheat and Insulin Resistance
08 Lowering Acidity: The Great pH Disruptor Wheat
09 Cataracts, Wrinkles, and Crooked Eyes: Wheat and the Aging Effects
10 My Particles Are Bigger Than Yours: Wheat and Heart Disease
11 Everything in My Head: Wheat and Brain
12 Bagel Face: The Destructive Power of Wheat on Your Skin

Part 3: Farewell to Wheat
13 Goodbye, Wheat: A Tasty and Healthy Life Free from Wheat

Conclusion
Appendix A: Finding Wheat in Unexpected Places
Appendix B: Healthy Recipes for Losing Flour Belly
Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
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Member Reviews

The reality of modern wheat is truly astonishing!
This book, written by a renowned cardiologist, draws on scientifically proven data and his own clinical experience to reveal the true nature of so-called "modern wheat" and its harmful effects on our health in a stark and compelling way.

? Published on August 30, 2011, it immediately rose to #1 on Amazon's comprehensive bestseller list, and still hovers around the 30th to 50th place, with 364 book reviews (as of June 22, 2012).

1.
The birth of modern wheat

“My wife is a triathlete and coach, so I get to witness this extreme sport unfold every year.
Triathletes train intensively for months or even years to complete a 1.6 to 4 kilometer swim, a 90 to 180 kilometer bike ride, and a 21 to 42 kilometer marathon.
The race requires up to thousands of kilocalories of energy and incredible endurance, so completing it is an achievement in itself.
As a result, triathletes insist on eating habits that are very good for their health.
So why are a third of these dedicated athletes, both male and female, overweight? I find them admirable, even carrying 15, 20, or 25 kilograms on top of their weight.
Why do they remain overweight despite continuing to exercise at extreme levels and undergoing rigorous training schedules?
Conventional wisdom suggests that overweight triathletes will need to exercise more or eat less to lose weight.
I find this common sense truly pathetic.
The health and food problems I'm about to address for most Americans aren't related to fat or sugar, or the rise of the Internet or the demise of the agricultural lifestyle.
I want to talk about wheat, or rather, the grain we buy and eat called 'wheat.'
What the author is saying here is that the increased consumption of the grain called "modern wheat" is what made the difference between the lean, sedentary people of the 1950s and the overweight, even triathletes of the 21st century.
Just as it is claimed that chimpanzees resemble humans, modern wheat cannot be said to resemble true wheat.
Although chimpanzees and humans share 99 percent of their genes, chimpanzees have longer arms, are covered in hair, and are less likely to win Jeopardy.
In other words, modern wheat is not that close to its ancestor from 40 years ago.
Even though 'modern wheat' is significantly genetically modified, it has not undergone any safety testing.
In other words, the world's most destructive grain has become the most popular food ingredient.

The Reality of Modern Wheat: It's Different from Your Grandmother's Wheat
All evolution in the world takes place gradually.
Density is no exception.
It is genetically modified to increase production per unit area.
The 'golden waves' we used to proudly see in the fields are gone, and this is reflected in the fact that they have been replaced by wheat that is about half a meter long (shorter stems promote rapid growth).
This type of wheat became popular about 40 years ago, around 1980, which coincides with the sharp rise in obesity in the United States and the general consensus from the USDA, the Whole Grains Council, the Whole Wheat Council, the American Dietetic Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association that we should eat less fat and more "healthy whole grains."
The history of wheat (pp. 33-51) is covered in relatively detail in this book, but here we will briefly examine the circumstances that led to the emergence of genetically modified wheat.
In other words, let's just look at the reality of modern wheat.
For nearly 10,000 years, wheat was an important part of people's diets, and at that time, the wheat was of the Einkorn variety.
From emmer wheat to modern wheat, wheat has changed very slowly.
17th-century wheat was 18th-century wheat, and 18th-century wheat remained similar through the 19th century and into the mid-20th century.
But all this came to an end in the mid-20th century with the advent of hybridization techniques to alter wheat.
Human intervention occurred.
Most of the wheat supplied worldwide today is descended from lines developed by the International Maize and Wheat Breeding Center (IMWIC), located at the foot of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range east of Mexico City. IMWIC began its agricultural research program in 1943 in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican government to help Mexico achieve food self-sufficiency.
Mexico's climate, which allows for cross-cropping, cuts the time required for hybridization in half, making it an ideal location for efficiently testing the results of cross-breeding.
The new wheat varieties developed here were distributed worldwide.
In particular, geneticist Norman Borlaug, who studied at the University of Minnesota and worked at IMWIC, succeeded in developing a "dwarf wheat" that was exceptionally productive, but also short and sturdy, allowing the plant to remain upright and withstand large ears without falling over.
This success earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
Not only does this dwarf wheat account for more than 99% of the wheat grown worldwide today, its productivity is amply demonstrated by the eightfold increase in wheat yields in China between 1961 and 1999.


Modern Wheat Is Dangerous - Genetically Modified Wheat
The problem is that, despite the dramatic changes in the genetic makeup of newly developed wheat and other grains, no safety tests have been conducted on animals or humans for these newly developed genetic lines.
It seems that humans are not affected by changes in the gluten content and structure of wheat, changes in other enzymes or proteins, or susceptibility or resistance to various plant diseases.
However, when comparing the proteins expressed in the wheat hybrids and their parents, about 95 percent of the proteins were identical to the offspring, but 5 percent were not found in either parent.
In particular, wheat gluten proteins have undergone significant structural changes during the crossbreeding process.
In one crossbreeding experiment, fourteen new gluten proteins were identified in the offspring wheat that were not present in the parental generation.
Moreover, compared to wheat strains from a century ago, modern Triticum aestivum strains express a large number of the gluten protein genes that cause celiac disease. (Pages 46-47 contain the author's own experiments on various symptoms after eating Einkorn bread and regular modern organic bread.)
Modern wheat really shows shocking results.)
During the first decade of genetic engineering, no one required animal testing or safety testing on genetically modified plants.
Because genetic manipulation was considered no different from crossbreeding.
Only recently, due to pressure from all walks of life, have official agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begun requiring testing of genetically modified foods before they are released on the market.
But thanks to long-standing critics of genetic modification, the concept of safety testing for genetically modified plants was introduced, and there were calls from all walks of life for guidelines to be developed by organizations like the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which the international agricultural community, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), convened in 2003 to help determine what safety testing should be required for new genetically modified crops, what types of testing should be conducted, and what should be measured.
Yet, modern wheat, which has undergone hundreds of genetic modifications to achieve specific, genetically determined characteristics, is supplied as food worldwide without any doubt as to its suitability for human consumption.

Analysis of modern wheat
We cannot make modern wheat foods from ancient wheat dough.
Modern Triticum aestivum flour consists, on average, of 70 percent by weight carbohydrates, 10 to 15 percent protein, and 10 to 15 percent indigestible fiber.
The rest is mostly fat, such as phospholipids and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Seventy-five percent of the complex carbohydrates in wheat are amylopectin, which is a branched chain of glucose molecules, and 25 percent are amylose, which is a straight chain of glucose molecules.
In the human gastrointestinal tract, saliva and the enzyme amylase digest amylopectin and amylose, the multiple carbohydrates being digested very efficiently and rapidly converted to glucose, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream.
This is the main reason why wheat affects blood sugar levels.
Of course, there are many types of amylopectin, but the B found in beans, bananas, and potatoes is digested more slowly than the A found in wheat flour.
So, as A digests quickly, its blood sugar level also increases rapidly.

But what's shocking here is that whole wheat bread, which health authorities so strongly recommend, raises blood sugar levels even higher than sucrose.
In 1981, a research team at the University of Toronto created the concept of the glycemic index (GI), which is a scale that compares the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar. If a food raises blood sugar compared to glucose after eating it, the GI value is said to be high.
In the original study, the GI of white bread was 69, whole-grain bread 72, shredded wheat cereal 67, and sucrose 59.
The problem was that for diabetics, their blood sugar levels rose by 70 to 129 mg/dl after eating whole wheat bread, compared to 30 mg/dl for those who didn't eat the bread.

In this way, wheat products raise blood sugar levels significantly higher than other carbohydrates, from beans to candy bars.
Since glucose cannot avoid its association with insulin, this has important implications for body weight.
In other words, the higher the blood glucose level after a meal, the higher the insulin level and the more fat is stored.


Gluten: The protein in wheat that makes wheat wheat.
In other words, gluten is the unique ingredient that makes wheat flour dough 'dough-like'.
This accounts for 80 percent of the protein in wheat flour.
Gluten is composed of two main families of proteins: gliadin and glutenin.
Gliadin, the group of proteins that most strongly triggers the immune response in celiac disease, has three subtypes: alpha/beta gliadins, gamma gliadins, and omega gliadins.
The structure of gluten varies depending on the type of wheat.
Aestivum wheat, a modern wheat, has 46 chromosomes with a, b, and d genomes, and over the past 50 years, the d genome has been manipulated to enhance the flour's baking and dough-forming properties.
In fact, a gene located in the d genome has been identified as the source of gluten, which triggers celiac disease.
This simply indicates that the d genome is the hidden source of various health problems experienced by humans who consume wheat.
Of course, wheat contains many other ingredients as well (pp. 62-64).

2.
Wheat, which is harmful to your health from head to toe

The addictive properties of wheat
Wheat has been linked to mental illnesses such as addiction, withdrawal, delusions, and hallucinations.
Similar to heroin addiction, cutting out wheat can improve mood, reduce mood swings, improve concentration, and help you sleep better.
Also, about 30 percent of people who give up wheat-based foods experience withdrawal symptoms.
Wheat has also been linked to schizophrenia, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (pp. 70–73).
But what's the link between wheat and insanity? Gluten, when exposed to pepsin and hydrochloric acid, breaks down into a mixture of polypeptides.
When the dominant polypeptide was isolated and administered to laboratory mice, it was found to have the unique ability to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, blocking blood flow out of the brain.
Here's why this barrier is there:
That is, the brain is very sensitive to a wide variety of substances that enter the bloodstream, some of which may have unexpected effects, and so barriers exist across the amygdala, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and other brain regions.
Once in the brain, wheat polypeptides bind to morphine receptors in the brain, the same receptors that hallucinogens bind to.
Those who performed these experiments call the polypeptides 'exorphins', short for exogenous morphine-like compounds (pp. 73-74).
What's important, however, is that the brain effects of gluten-derived polypeptides can be blocked by administering naloxone, a drug that inhibits the activity of opioid-like substances.
This suggests that the same drug that blocks the effects of other hallucinogens, such as heroin, can also block the effects of wheat-derived exorphins in the brain.
Therefore, it clearly explains the relationship between wheat and various mental illnesses mentioned above.

From withdrawal symptoms to hallucinations in psychotic patients, wheat has been linked to several unusual neurological phenomena.
To summarize, it is as follows.

?In terms of digestion, common wheat produces polypeptides that have the ability to cross into the brain and bind to hallucinogenic receptors.
The action of so-called 'exorphins', which are composed of polypeptides produced from wheat, glutenmorphines, etc., conflicts with the action of the hallucinogenic blocking drugs naloxone and naltrexone.
?Administering hallucinogenic drugs to normal or appetite-controlling individuals reduces depressed mood, appetite, cravings, and calorie intake, and the effect is particularly pronounced for foods containing wheat.


In this way, wheat is almost unique as a food that affects the central nervous system.
Wheat is a 'food promoter'.
Flour Belly, Waist Fat, Man Boobs, and 'Food Babies' - Diabetes, Wheat, and Insulin Resistance
The advice to cut down on fat and eat more "healthy whole grains" has been proven to be a blatant lie.
The important thing here is that wheat is the main cause of weight gain for the majority of people who are health conscious and do not indulge in behaviors that lead to weight gain.
Eliminating wheat reduces blood sugar spikes and eliminates exorphins, which trigger the urge to eat.
Appetite also disappears.
In fact, the astonishing financial windfall that the spread of wheat in the United States has brought to food and pharmaceutical companies makes us wonder to what extent this "perfect storm" is a human creation.
In 1955, influential people attending Howard Hughes's secret conference cleverly promoted the mass production of high-yield, low-cost dwarf wheat and the government's recommendation to eat "healthy whole grains."
So, it allows big food companies to sell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of processed wheat products. (Of course, obesity has created the "need" for billions of dollars worth of diabetes, heart disease, and various obesity-related drugs.) The truth?
The truth is that weight gain has been accelerating since the mid-1980s, when the USDA and other experts began advising Americans to eat less.

Several studies conducted in the 1980s showed that replacing processed white flour foods with whole-grain flour foods led to a decrease in colon cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
This result is truly true and cannot be refuted.
This logic is the same as saying that cigarettes with high tar content are harmful and cigarettes with low tar content are less harmful, when replacing harmful foods with less harmful ones.
This is a case that shows a flaw in the logical basis.

So the nutrition guidelines from the USDA, the American Heart Association, the American College of Nutrition, and the American Diabetes Association were, “Eat more whole grains.”
This is why weight has been soaring since the mid-1980s.


?Let's get rid of that extra flab: Wheat triggers an insulin-driven satiety-hunger cycle.
Add to this the euphoria and withdrawal symptoms that lead our bodies to fat storage, neurological dysfunction, and addictive effects.
Extreme cycles of blood sugar and insulin cause fat gain, especially visceral fat.
As the cycle repeats itself countless times, visceral fat accumulates, creating a visible potbelly, fatty liver, two fatty kidneys, a fatty pancreas, and fatty colon and small intestine.
Even though you can't see it, fat accumulates even in your heart.
The problem is that visceral fat causes inflammation.
Visceral fat, which fills and surrounds the abdomen of a wheat-colored potbelly, is a peculiar metabolic factory that runs 24 hours a day, every day, producing inflammatory signals, which are intercellular hormone molecules. The more visceral fat you have, the more abnormal signals it sends into the bloodstream.
All body fat produces adiponectin, a type of cytokine (a peptide substance that mediates cellular responses between immune cells), a protective molecule that reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
However, as visceral fat increases, the production of protective adiponectin decreases.
The combination of adiponectin deficiency and elevated leptin, tumor necrosis factor, and other byproducts of inflammation increases the risk of abnormal insulin responses, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Today, the list of diseases caused by visceral fat also includes dementia, rheumatoid arthritis, and colon cancer.


?Insulin Raising: Hyperglycemia is essential for the growth of a wheat-colored potbelly.
Hyperglycemia causes hyperinsulinemia.
High insulin stimulates visceral fat accumulation.
As visceral fat accumulates, it floods the body with inflammatory signals, making tissues like muscles and liver less responsive to insulin.
This is called 'insulin resistance', which means that the pancreas must continually increase the amount of insulin needed to metabolize sugar.
Increased insulin resistance leads to increased insulin production, which in turn leads to increased visceral fat accumulation, creating a vicious cycle in which insulin resistance increases again.

Wheat increases blood sugar levels much more than sugar.
The glycemic index is the degree to which blood sugar levels rise 90 to 120 minutes after eating food. Whole wheat bread has an index of 72, while regular granulated sugar has an index of 59.


?Excess estrogen produced by visceral fat significantly increases the risk of breast cancer.
Additionally, it promotes the growth of male breast tissue and milk secretion.


Celiac disease and immune-mediated gluten intolerance
The disruptor that destroys the harmonious digestive system is wheat gluten.
The most compelling evidence of Homo sapiens' failure to adapt to wheat is celiac disease, in which wheat gluten damages the health of the small intestine.
This disease is the prototype of wheat intolerance and is the most severe of all wheat-related diseases.
The problem is that this disease is growing at a fairly rapid rate.
It has quadrupled over the past 50 years.
A more serious problem is that celiac disease is manifesting in new ways beyond just destroying gut function.
Currently, more than 2 million people in the United States are diagnosed with this disease.
About half of these people experience typical cramps, diarrhea, and gradual weight loss, while the other half experience a variety of symptoms that may seem unrelated to celiac disease at first glance, such as anemia, migraines, arthritis, neuropathy, infertility, poor growth (in children), depression, and chronic fatigue.
Additionally, some people do not show any symptoms and later develop neurological defects, incontinence, dementia, or stomach cancer.
So, whereas in the past, people who complained of weight loss, diarrhea, and abdominal pain were often diagnosed with celiac disease, in the 21st century, anyone can have celiac disease, whether they're overweight and constipated or slim and of average weight.

One of the most frustrating things about celiac disease is that you may not have any symptoms of celiac disease.
In other words, people with celiac disease may experience neurological disorders such as loss of balance or dementia without developing the intestinal disease that characterizes celiac disease.
This means that it is almost impossible to make an accurate diagnosis.
These cases are called immune-mediated gluten intolerance and can present with symptoms such as dermatitis herpetiformis, liver disease, autoimmune disease, insulin-dependent diabetes, neuropathy, and nutritional deficiencies (pp. 119-120).
The problem here is that people with celiac disease are exposed to various cancers at a rate that is 40 times higher than people without celiac disease (results from various countries, pp. 122-123).
However, after eliminating gluten, it returns to its original state after about 5 years, but it is said that patients with celiac disease who were not successful in eliminating gluten had a 77 times higher risk of lymphoma and a 22 times higher risk of oral cancer, throat cancer, and esophageal cancer.

Wheat increases the acidity of our bodies—causing osteoporosis or fractures.
Wheat is the richest source of sulfur, containing more sulfur per gram than any other meat.
Sulfuric acid is very dangerous, causing severe burns if it comes into contact with your hands and blindness if it gets into your eyes.
It is clear that the sulfuric acid produced by wheat consumption is in a diluted state.
However, even in a diluted state, no matter how small the amount, it immediately neutralizes alkali and becomes an overwhelmingly strong acid.
But what makes acidification of our body dangerous is that it weakens bone health above all else.
The problem arises when we habitually consume acidic foods, which continually draw out calcium until the acid is neutralized.
No matter how much calcium is stored in the bones, it cannot be supplied endlessly.
Bones eventually become demineralized and calcium is eventually depleted.
Osteopenia, then osteoporosis, and finally bone softening or fractures.


Wheat reduction is an anti-aging remedy
AGE is an acronym for advanced glycation end products, and AGEs are substances that cause various diseases commonly found in humans, such as atherosclerosis, which stiffens arteries, cataracts, which cloud the lens of the eye, and dementia, which damages the brain's nerve connections.
But where glucose goes, AGEs follow.
As blood sugar levels rise, AGEs accumulate and the aging process accelerates.
In other words, glycation accelerates aging.
We already know that wheat outperforms almost all other foods, including sugar, in terms of raising blood sugar levels.
Therefore, wheat removal is a treatment that directly prevents aging.
Cataracts, kidney disease, wrinkles, arthritis, atherosclerosis, and other glycated conditions that plague humans, i.e., symptoms associated with wheat consumption, will be significantly reduced.


Wheat and Heart Disease/Wheat and the Brain
If wheat is the main cause of diabetes, it is also naturally the main cause of heart disease (the relationship between wheat and heart disease is on pages 189-212).
Wheat also has a major impact on the brain.
I briefly mentioned the addictive nature of wheat earlier.
However, this phenomenon disappears over time.
But the shocking truth is that wheat exerts its power on the brain tissue itself.
Wheat affects the cerebellum, causing a condition called cerebellar ataxia, which causes us to lose control of our balance and coordination (see pages 214-217 for wheat and cerebellar health).
Cerebellar ataxia is also caused by a wheat-induced immune response in the brain, and a similar condition can occur in the nerves of the legs, pelvis, and other organs, called peripheral neuropathy.
However, the most common cause of this disease is diabetes.
Over the years, high blood sugar levels can lead to a number of neurological disorders that can become uncontrollable.
For example, if the nerves in the legs are damaged, sensation may be dulled, blood pressure and heart rate may be reduced, or bowel emptying may be slowed (see pp. 217-219 for information on wheat and peripheral neuropathy).
Research is still in its early stages on how wheat affects the brain, but it is clear that it has a significant impact.
However, 13 patients recently diagnosed with celiac disease were also diagnosed with dementia.
What is clear is that these are clearly related to exposure to wheat gluten.

Rashes and skin symptoms associated with wheat gluten
Of course, acne has a huge link to wheat gluten.
Other skin symptoms associated with wheat gluten include:

?Mouth ulcers: Red, inflamed tongue (glossitis), angular cheilitis (painful bumps at the corners of the mouth), and mouth burning are common oral rashes associated with wheat gluten.

?Cutaneous vasculitis: Skin lesions such as swelling or bruising are caused by inflammation of blood vessels.
It is determined by tissue examination.
?Acanthosis nigricans: The skin, mainly on the back of the neck, armpits, elbows, and knees, becomes velvety and black.
Acanthosis nigricans is surprisingly common in adults and children at risk for diabetes.21
?Erythema nodosum: Shiny red, stinging, painful lesions measuring 2.5 to 5 centimeters in size, usually appearing on the shins but can occur anywhere.
Erythema nodosum is caused by inflammation of the fat layer of the skin.
Brown scars remain during treatment.
?Psoriasis: A red, scaly rash that appears mainly on the elbows, knees, and scalp, but sometimes all over the body.
Eating a wheat- and gluten-free diet for several months may improve your condition.
Vitiligo: Usually painless, pigmentless (white) spots appear.
Once you have vitiligo, eliminating wheat gluten can have different reactions in different people.
Behcet's disease: Ulcers appear in the mouth and genitals and mainly affect teenagers and young adults.
Behcet's disease makes normal life difficult due to fatigue and arthritis, and can manifest in various forms, including mental disorders due to brain invasion.

?Dermatomyositis: A red, raised rash with muscle weakness and blood vessel inflammation.
?Ichthyosiform dermatosis: A strange, scaly rash (ichthyosiform means 'fish-like') usually appears on the mouth and tongue area.
?Pyoderma gangrenosum: Severe, disfiguring ulcers develop on the face and limbs, and the wounds may become deep or chronic.
Treatment is with steroids and immunosuppressants such as cyclosporine.
It can lead to gangrene, amputation of limbs, and death.

All of these conditions have been linked to exposure to wheat gluten, and some have been improved or cured by eliminating wheat.
Because wheat gluten is not usually considered the cause, it is not known how much of these conditions are due to wheat gluten and how much to other factors, but without identifying the cause, they are blindly treated with creams and similar drugs similar to steroid creams.

Wheat is also a cause of hair loss.
While hair loss can be an inevitable side effect of toxic drugs or dangerous illnesses, wheat can also be the cause.
On page 237 of this book, the story of Mr. Gordon, the owner of a pastry shop, overcoming hair loss is depicted in an interesting way.
After three weeks of giving up bread, Mr. Gordon confesses that his hair started growing.


3.
A firm farewell to wheat

Now it's time to say goodbye to wheat.
However, simply saying goodbye to flour does not mean eliminating wheat.
Wheat is everywhere around us.
In particular, you should avoid processed foods containing wheat.
To food companies, wheat is like nicotine to cigarettes because adding it continually stimulates the appetite.
We also need to break away from the convenience of wheat foods.
Packaged foods like sandwiches are convenient to carry, store, and eat in your hand.
With these things in mind, eliminating wheat completely will yield simple yet tremendous benefits.
People who habitually eat wheat foods become irritable and fatigued after a couple of hours.
So, they desperately look for breadcrumbs or snacks to ease the pain.
So, if you give up wheat, you're doing more than just giving up one food.
Because it eliminates the powerful appetite stimulants that so often ruthlessly control our actions and impulses in life.

Beyond this, the book also includes tips for overcoming withdrawal symptoms after eliminating wheat, as well as recommendations and recipes for various foods to ensure complete success with wheat foods.