Why Do I Need to Avoid Gluten and Dairy? (Biohacking Series 22 of 25)

If you have been around the posts talking about whether or not to avoid wheat and dairy you will see there is still much controversy over these foods that often make up a large portion of the American diet. Other countries too I imagine, but I will keep my assumptions out of this. J

When my son was born, I was concerned about his tolerance to wheat and dairy because of the congestion these foods both cause me and some other family members. But more than that was the way these foods are processed.

Wheat, if you were not aware is a GMO, that stands for genetically modified organism. Yup. The wheat seeds as our ancestors knew them are no longer being used for growing the fields of wheat for most processed foods in our stores today.

What exactly does it mean to modify a food? In the lab, with wheat anyhow, they have injected the seeds with glyphosate. Some people know this substance more commonly as “Round up”, yes, a weed killer. Scientists have made this plant resistant to bugs but I would also argue it is now resistant to humans. If a bug eats a kernel of wheat in a field, he can expect his insides to blow up. No more bug problem.

Unfortunately, you have now created a BIG problem for the humans who eat this crop. It’s interesting that at the same time this way of farming was introduced, anti-depressant use in the US skyrocketed at an alarming rate. The two can be correlated and I would say it probably is not a coincidence.

Eighty percent of your serotonin resides in your gut, if you are ingesting a high wheat diet you can bet there will be chemical changes to your intestines. Not to mention destruction of serotonin. What else gets destroyed? The microbiome and eventually the lining of the gut may be compromised. This is known as leaky gut. Now you are set up for food allergies, as tiny particles of proteins from your food will get out of the stomach and into the body in places it does not belong.

The body then thinks it is seeing an invader, so it attacks. Thus, the seemed allergy or better said, intolerance to wheat is seen. And actually, many do not see it. So, the body is put into an inflammatory state on an ongoing basis as long as these GMOs are being ingested. In addition to the modification of the seeds, there is also spraying of the crops before and after harvesting, again with the glyphosate. This produces the largest crop with the least amount of damage from pests and also makes the wheat come off the stalks easier.

The other issues that have always been true with processed wheat is the loss of the bran, or the outer fibrous coating. This is where the nutrition and fiber come from. What we are left with is a food high in gluten content that is then extra hard to digest. Gluten is the sticky part of the wheat. Gluten content has skyrocketed with the modification of the wheat, making it more unhealthy now, compared to the wheat of long ago.

Dairy is the other food that is hotly contested as to whether someone with a mucus problem, or anyone for that matter, should be ingesting. I understand it can feel impossible to eliminate it, especially when children are young, but the results are oh so worth it. Whether you think you can tell or not, dairy does cause excess mucus production and can occur without you seeing a thing until it is too late and sinus passages are blocked or ears have generated more yellow sticky fluid.

As with all my blogs, I am trying to share with you how to get the body working at its peak performance. This includes eliminating any possible sources of inflammation which can contribute to the cyclical issue of more mucus being produced and passages being blocked or slowed.

The key for me with my children was not to have these products in the house so they were not aware of other options. I’ll admit it became harder as they grew up, with all the pizza and cake at birthday parties and the school cafeteria that serves pizza as an option on a daily basis. What I would say is do your best to keep the diet free of these things but don’t make yourself crazy over it.

There are many options out there for milk, and also for wheat products, but ideally the switch would be to more natural whole foods than simply substituting one processed food for another.