Can you live without wheat?

Have you ever considered not having wheat for a week. No? Try it, it's an interesting experiment. How about we try it together in a sort of virtual mental exercise. Lets pretend that every time you eat wheat products it causes some immediate and violent stomach reaction. Add to that a severe case of crippling constipation. So you are determined to not have any. Who needs wheat anyways, this is the developed world, we've got plenty of foods. Never ending choices in the grocery stores. Good for you. I like your determination, lets start.

It's Monday and you've got to head to work. 7 am you're ready for breakfast. Do You feel that little buzz in your stomach, yes your getting hungry. Open up the fridge door, poor yourself some orange juice and start scouting for food.

Okay, not the raisin bread, not the bagels, chocolate croissants is out of the question of course. No problem, just move over from the fridge to the pantry. You've got choice, this is the free world. Hum, lets see, we've got the pancake mix, the microwave oatmeal or the choco pop cereals. Buzz, buzz, your stomach is calling. Now wait a minute is that a box of Rice Crispies? There you go, that's breakfast. Sorry to disappoint you but not really. Read the labels, they managed to add wheat in that box too. Beside, we all know that a bowl of Rice Crispies can hardly be called a decent breakfast. Personally, I can never make it enough no matter how much strawberry and banana I put into it. Alright, alright I'll help a little! Here's my suggestion. Have the eggs the bacon and the potatoes, lots of potatoes since you'll be skipping the toast. How about tomorrow. Well, I guess you have the rest of the day to figure that out.

That exercise was hard wasn't it? Specially considering the fact that you've got two more meals to go, not including the all important snacks. How many carrot sticks do you need to replace the 4 o clock snack bar carving? What's for lunch or dinner? Not pasta, not pizza, not the quick macaroni and cheese. Don't even think of the nuggets and the fish and chips, you know that stuff is breaded. Oh, and while you're at it, start considering what fruit is best suited for desert. No McCain Delite for you this week.

Point made, wheat is everywhere. Hard to get around it.

Most of us don't feel the harmful effect of wheat on our bodies, but they are very present even in people that are not officially diagnosed as Celiacs, or gluten intolerant. If you've been diagnosed, then you've got a bad case of it. But for the rest of us, it's still killing us softly. You've got serious acid reflux or ongoing headaches. Chronic fatigue, weakness, dizziness, asthma? Consider switching to a gluten free lifestyle. So many of the bodily discomforts and common diseases are symptoms of wheat over consumption. North americans really do consume too much of it. Think about it. To you it might be a muffin a cereal bar, a chocolate cake, a plate of spaghetti or a an all dressed pizza, very different meals. To your stomach however, it gluten, gluten and gluten all over again. My common sense tells me that this cannot be right.

Is your pocket more important then your health? Then consider this. The price of wheat is soaring, we use wheat for everything from feeding animals to feeding our cars not to mention feeding ourselves. It takes 2 kg of wheat and corn to produce 1kg of chicken. We are increasingly exporting our way of life and our eating habits to the rest of the world. Economically the model doesn't make sense anymore. The price of wheat is soaring and we'll soon have to find alternatives. Countries such as Mexico and Italy have already started to feel the pinch. Can you imagine Italy without pasta. Well guess what, there is a movement afoot. In September 2007 Italians held a national strike to complain about the rising price of this essential food item.  Even they are stating to rethink the wheat thing.  Eventually we will all have to start examining the real price of our eating dependencies. 

There are actually other forms of flours out there. People in Okinawa don't have boxed cereals for breakfast yet they eat every morning. Why Okinawa? Because Okinawa is a little Japanese island where you can find the largest population of centenarians in the world. They don't eat much gluten and they don't seam to mind one bit. Japan is already known to have one of the lowest rates of colon and prostate cancer in the world, yet the island of Okinawa has a rate many times lower then the rest of Japan. Scientist from all over the world are presently working on cracking the code and bottling the formula for you and me in North America. Whatch for it, their probably already working on the marketting phases. Do we really need the pharmaceutical industry to lead the way? How about we just cut on the wheat a little!   Instead of exporting our ways, it's time we acquired some healthy knowledge from the rest of world.