What’s the matter with wheat?

NATURAL HEALTH MATTERS with Dr. Laurell

You might be hearing more people talking about eating a wheat-free or gluten-free diet. Why are so many people finding that they feel better when they drop wheat from their diets?

Gluten can produce some uncomfortable symptoms in people who are sensitive such as bloating, poor digestion, abdominal pain and even cloudy thinking.   The most well known side effect is celiac disease, an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the gut lining when gluten containing foods are consumed.

Other people experience milder reactions to gluten. When they eat gluten containing grains, such as wheat, rye, barley, spelt, or kamut, they experience digestive or other discomforts without the extensive damage to the gastrointestinal tract that celiac disease can cause. Symptoms can vary greatly from joint pain to respiratory issues to mood and memory disturbances.

In rarer cases, some people seem to react to some different component of wheat. They might be able to eat rye or spelt without any distress. It could be that they can tolerate the lower level of gluten in these foods.

Finally, I have found some people who can only eat organically grown wheat and feel bad if they eat conventionally grown wheat that has been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. The particular problem might be RoundUp (Glyphosate), which is often sprayed on conventional wheat fields shortly before harvest to improve yields. These people might actually be chemical sensitive instead of wheat sensitive.  If this describes you, we make a product called Detox Chemicals that you may want to have a look at.

With all of these diverse reactions in mind, we formulated Gluten Detox. This unique product was created to address a range of different reactions to help people navigate the challenges of converting to a gluten-free diet.   This oral spray can be used prior to meals as a preventative to the negative effects of gluten, or at the first sign of trouble.

 

Dr. Laurell Matthews, ND has a bachelor’s in biochemistry and received her doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University.