Immune System Support Series: Gluten

By Lydia Wallie, Nutrition Director

What’s the problem with gluten? What’s wrong with whole wheat? Isn’t whole grain healthy for you? I receive these questions frequently...and finally decided to provide the reasoning behind why I advocate a 100% gluten-free lifestyle. The short version is that the wheat we have now isn’t the wheat we had 100 or 1,000 years ago…

“We're no longer eating the wheat that our parents ate. In order to have the drought-resistant, bug-resistant, and faster-growing wheat that we have today, we've hybridized the grain. It's estimated that 5% of the proteins found in hybridized wheat are new proteins that were not found in either of the original wheat plants. These "new proteins" are part of the problem that has led to increased system inflammation and intolerance of gluten.” - Dr. Amy Myers, M.D.

With the adulteration of our wheat comes the consequences...

“There's not much in medicine that's an "all" or "every," but in my clinical practice, this was an "every." Every person that had hormone-related dysfunction...whether it was infertility or unexplained miscarriages, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids, low testosterone, every single person always had a sensitivity to a food that they were eating that they didn't know they were sensitive to, because they didn't get sick when they ate the food, but it was triggering a reaction in some other part of their body. And when we'd find out what that food was, it was an integral component to being successful in dealing with whatever the patient was presenting with was identifying the foods that they were eating that they may think are healthy foods but, for them, they weren't. And the most common food is wheat; most common above all others that we have found in clinical practice.” - Dr. Tom O’Bryan

In my personal experience working with a functional doctor, I would see patients go through a nutritional protocol, and oftentimes, due to lack of understanding of the incredible impact of wheat/gluten, they would end up eating wheat again. One, in particular, was recounting to me recent symptoms, a flare-up of joint pain, and I asked if she had been eating gluten. She had! This is only one of many anecdotal pieces of evidence of the inflammation that wheat/gluten creates in the body. 

How will you make the transition to 100% wheat/gluten-free? Yes, it’s 100% possible and 100% worth it! Contact me at lydia_wallie@crossfit925.com to get on track and stay on track with a sustainable nutrition plan!