Don't you mean "gluten-free"????

Don't you mean "gluten-free"? Nope! While gluten is present in wheat, it is also in other grains. This site is dedicated to learning how to eat a healthy, balanced diet without wheat. Besides the obvious breads and cereals where we expect to find wheat, it is also an ingredient in many processed foods....  and it's even found in chewing gum and chocolate bars! Who knew??? (Resources here may be a great help to people looking to be gluten-free to find replacements for many common wheat-containing foods, and I will attempt to label any recipes containing gluten as such.)

But wait!!! Don't we need fiber???? and all that "whole-grain" goodness?????

We absolutely need fiber in our diets...  but there are countless other sources of fiber. All of the wonderful fruits and vegetables available today are LOADED with fiber! Nuts, seeds, beans, and other grains like oats, barley, rye, millet, amaranth....  the possibilities are endless. So how did we get "stuck" on wheat? Look no further than modern agriculture and the USDA/FDA.

Do you remember a time when there were no ads telling you to eat wheat??

I don't! Maybe in my childhood, when television was only 3-4 channels and ad space was limited. Back in the 1960's, wheat was still unaltered by modern science. The USDA was (and still is) campaigning in the interests of the major farming conglomerates under the guise of educating the people of the US on their food choices. By the 1970's, supermarkets were popping up everywhere, filling their shelves with the "convenience foods" of the time. Major food manufacturers were learning how to make foods last longer without spoiling. Television was becoming more popular, and advertising was a booming new business. This was the beginning of our society shifting from a culture that prepared their own foods from whole food sources to a culture dependent on manufactured foods filled with artificial ingredients. By the 1980's, agricultural engineering began to further adulterate our food sources by genetically altering many of our food staples. Between the USDA promoting the agriculture industries and the food manufacturers promoting their processed "foods", we have been inundated with advertisements promoting wheat consumption over the last 30 years. 

So what are we consuming today?

The wheat you eat today is not the same wheat of our heritage. It is perhaps so far removed from the original that our bodies don't know what to do with it! Not only does the human body treat these unnatural foods as invaders, launching an inflammatory immune response, they may also be addictive causing us to consume many time more of these foods than mere hunger would. The result is an epidemic of health problems in our society, especially diabetes and obesity.