Is it Frankenstein’s Fault There is More Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity?

I read a refreshing article today by Kelly Dorfman at the Huffington Post that visits the concerns around the modern-day Dr. Frankenstein being responsable for the increase in Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity. I have come across this thought before but was glad to see it again as most news we come across is focused on the trend and the increased numbers being a response to the increase in Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance awareness than anything else. She suggests digging a little deeper to see if there is another cause for this that is coming perhaps from the way we manipulate our crops. I tend to go with this hypothesis as well.

Increased Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity is Dr. Frankenstein’s Fault

gluten-free and other foods free list

While companies rush to meet the consumer needs created by the new epidemic and experts argue about whether the gluten sensitivity thing is being overdone, the bigger questions are being completely overlooked. Why is wheat protein suddenly making so many more people feel bad? And more importantly, should we be putting some resources into fixing the cause rather than cleaning up the mess? It is much more convenient to label the swelling number of those claiming gluten sensitivity “hysterics” or exploit the new food market created by the swelling ranks of celiacs than to consider that there may be something wrong with the wheat. Yet, that is exactly the theory Mayo Clinic and other researchers suspect explains the climbing number of gluten reactors.

The Mayo Clinic is nothing to dismiss. What irks me is that the media and marketers hype around the gluten-free diet trend overrides any real reporting or news that may be surfacing. We as a society love the candy and quick fixes. Genetic modification the way companies like Monsanto are doing that have long term effects for food Sovereignty also impact our health. It is important for us to invest in this type of research as a safety measure as well.

Over the last 50 years we have been playing Dr. Frankenstein with our crops. And like Dr. Frankenstein, our preliminary motives may have been noble, but somewhere along the line the scientists have gone a little nuts. Noble as in Nobel Prize, which was awarded to Dr. Norman Borlaug for developing (through hybridization) a hearty strain of high protein wheat that was credited for saving millions from starvation.

But early success with controlled breeding only fed the scientific directive to fiddle more and more with the crops so that the wheat of today is significantly different than the wheat of 50 or 60 years ago. And now the modification has stepped up to include transgenic or genetically-modified grains.

This is where cynicism can enter. As the media continues to feed our obsession with what the next celebrity fashion faux pas, divorce or diet is the basics of our survival is being destroyed. Money is on the table. The noble intentions have been swept away if ever they existed. Food and water safety have to be ensured. Perhaps getting the media and celebrities to put their concerns to things other than the next fad diet would stir things up. But hey, then we would have to give up our candy for vegetables.

People are reacting in record numbers to what has been done to wheat already. In fact, allergies to all foods are steadily increasing arguably since genetically modified crops have been introduced commercially in the late ’90s. Scientists have asked and even sued the government in an attempt to require more safety testing or at least labeling of this new Frankenstein food, without success. Source << full article here

As more Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity, milk, nut, egg and wheat allergies arise along with increased Autism and many autoimmune diseases increase in the west, it is time the mainstream public make the connection and start asking why. It is time we push our governments to take our health seriously over that of the big conglomerates involved in the food and drug industry. We know that their best interests are for the shareholders and not the general public.

Please like this post on FB if you have any friends with gluten or food related illnesses. Awareness is first and then comes action.