Ignorance is bliss

[Robbie]

I don't understand why so many people have problems with gluten, it looks like only recently? Is there something different about gluten today compared to years ago? Wasn't wheat the first domesticated grain, and people lived on bread mostly?
If I couldn't have dairy, well, I'd be devastated.

[windwalkingwolf]

100 years ago, if you couldn't digest your food, you didn't live to adulthood, period. I'm not sure food sensitivities are a new thing, just that there's more PEOPLE, and a much better understanding of how dietary choices and an excess of anything affects us in general.

[JimW]

I agree with www. I think the increased amounts of chemicals and substances in our environement are probably contributing to the increase in various sensitivities, but back in the old days we had less scientific knowledge of how various foods affect our systems, and more people just died of unknown causes.

I agree more biodegradable plasics would be good, mainly for when these plastics end up as litter. Our waste management system is not really designed to handle biodegradable products in our landfills. Our landfills are designed to be filled and then capped, when things in the landfills start to decompose they produce a potentially toxic mix of chemicals and the ground may become unstable as the garbage in the landfill decomposes.

I was on a tour of an old landfill site a few years ago, this landfill is full and closed but due to leaching of a mix of chemicals caused by the garbage decomposing around the landfill they have a system to collect the leachate liquid (dark brown awful smelling) and pump it to the city's waste water treatment plant, most likely forever.

[baronrenfrew]

William Davis M.D. wrote the book "wheat belly" and I heard him interviewed in numerous places (if you use "tunein" radio his interviews are easy to find) : basic points

Modern wheat (after 1973) is a genetically different frankenfood from old wheat varieties. The were able to microwave the seeds and they grew creating the first "dwarf" wheat. Old wheat grows 5 feet tall, dwarf 2 feet almost eliminating lodging. Lodging: where the plant falls over from wind and it is not harvestable by equipment. With a short plant you can double or triple the number of seeds on the head. Old varieties such as "emmer" and "einkorn" have been in use since ancient times and contain maybe 10% of the gluten in "modern" wheat. Modern wheat is easily crossbred with rye so same gluten properties. Modern wheat (mw) is processed by the human body differently: a slice of whole wheat toast raises your blood sugar the same as a chocolate bar (glycemic index: i just checked the g i chart)
Mw releases the same substances in your body as cocaine thus its addictiveness. Wheat is big business and the money in "fast foods and snack foods" doesn't want this widely known.
The doc looked at modern athletes: they run a marathon and still have a ring of fat around their bellies. Take wheat out of their diet (not oats or barley or corn) just wheat and they lose weight, and quickly.
Its worth checking out. "Wheat Belly" by William Davis MD