to BE | NOT to be… GLUTEN FREE

fdm FEEL-goods: QUESTION of the moment- to eat WHEAT or NOT… since lots of us seem to get bloated after eating bread.    We as  Americans do LOVE LOVE LOVE our doughy bread and gluten gives us that consistency.  Our foreign visitors wonder just what exactly “this bread” is! hmm, they don’t make it the same way in most of Europe, New and Asia, just about everywhere, except here!by Dr. Susan Eisen,D.C on FDM : fashion + beauty +lifestyle in LUXchic.  One has to ask: Why now? Why this wheat?  Why is there a raging increase in the number of  [1 in 5 ] wheat insensitive Americans?

Answering that question adequately and with scientific certainty may not be all that easy, but it certainly can be traced. Wheat grain has been feeding and nurturing us peoples and civilizations since the beginning of time.  It is the development of GMO wheat for us dough hungry Americans has truly given us an “empty harvest” with gluten out of the roof, not to mention a variety of proteins and substances that our digestive tracts are not hardwired to recognize. This creates indigestion or inability to digest our food with a terrible irritation to the walls of our guts, with an end result of bloating, flatulence… surely a subject that can bore fashionistas to tears, but I will try to keep it simple and to the point…

a definition of Gluten ripped from the pages of Wikipedia is this:

Gluten (from Latin gluten “glue”) is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and other grains, including barley and rye. It gives the elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture. It is insoluble in water. True gluten, with gliadin and glutenin (boring proteins), is limited to certain members of the grass family. The stored proteins of corn and rice are sometimes called glutens, but their proteins differ from wheat gluten by lacking gliadin.

Celiac disease? Maybe not. But there seems to be an explosion (no pun intended) of gluten intolerance going on our country. And along with this is an explosion of overweight individuals who are on track to develop heart disease, diabetes and worse without realizing that this all starts with the Wonder-ful bread they are consuming. What is causing this is Big Farming in the USA which has whittled wheat diversity down from 25 strains to 5.

Most Americans consume a great deal of gluten containing foods and if you can recall back a few years, hardly anybody was allergic to wheat and gluten. Today, it’s 1 in 5 who are wheat and gluten insensitive. Worst of all, most Americans who are seriously overweight are unknowingly seriously allergic to wheat and gluten. These clueless individuals are also developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes without ever fingering that all these old age diseases are directly related to the severe acidity which Genetically Modified Organisms cause in our bodies.

Clearly, the average fashionista has no time to bake her own bread, so what is the answer? Well, organic quinoa, which is available almost everywhere and comes in the shape of every pasta you know, is a great start. Another little known fact is that buckwheat which comes in flour and can be made into pancakes, crepes, bread, etc. is not a grain or a grass! It is actually  gluten free! You can find buckwheat products everywhere. Buckwheat soba noodle soup is also gluten free. Keep it up with salads, fruits and veggies – no gluten there. Clean organic is the best way to go. So the answer to the proverbial questions is if you want a flat tummy YES! You must consider being gluten free or at least gluten reduced!