Heirloom wheats

Edition: 2014-12-06

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Einkorn, spelt, emmer, durum, kamut, farro. Avoid as you would semi-dwarf hybrid.
See on WBB: Upper Crust and Should you eat kamut?

All of the heirlooms are gluten-bearing grains. Emmer has more gluten than modern wheat. If you are celiac or in the 5% of acutely reactive non-celiac, this stuff is a very prompt poison, as it has always been.

All of the heirlooms are high glycemic carbs. If you are aiming at the WB targets of 15 net grams of carbs per meal or 6-hour interval, this allows for no reasonable portion size of these wheats, even if that's all you eat.

The IBS study referenced by Dr. Davis concluded: “... significant improvements in both IBS symptoms and the inflammatory profile were reported after the ingestion of ancient wheat products.” Note that the study only tested for IBS, and did not test a no-wheat cohort, probably due to the reported funding source, a Kamut advocacy organization. They got just the result they paid for.

Keep in mind that a major factor in the semi-dwarf hybrid wheat problem is that it's cheap, and has become a pervasive filler in most processed foods. If we were to consume heirloom wheats at the same level as the modern mutant menace, odds are the health consequences would be only slightly less severe.

Heirlooms are expensive. Spend your money on foods with fewer issues (or no issues).

And is the supposed heirloom really as claimed? Can the seller provide credible genetic analysis, or does their product merely have the morphology of (looks like) an heirloom?

Although just one data point (an anecdote), we have curious case of Ötzi the Iceman, who we've known for some time was eating truly ancient grains and had bad teeth as a likely direct result. We also lately learned that this post-paleo dude also had heart disease (and a genetic predisposition for that). His robust early neolithic lifestyle was not enough to compensate for those convenient grains.

Eat heirloom grains. Get heirloom ailments.

Often seen: Should I grow heirloom?
Here's what I said on WBB in 2012:

• Heirloom seed is more expensive, often astronomically.
• It's not as disease/pest/drought/wind-resistant.
• Your crop can still get cross-contaminated by patented horror strains, some with lawyers attached.
• The yields are dramatically lower.
• It's not a commodity (the local elevator has no storage for it).
• There's no ready commodities trading market.
• The consumers demanding heirloom wheat are making a mistake, often temporary, as heirloom is only slightly less toxic than modern techno-wheat. The market is therefore highly risky.

Those growing and selling heirloom are doing so for reasons, often laudable, that are other than basic agro economics.

Speaking as someone who owns what would be wheat ground, switching to flax or almond makes much more sense, as does native grass with critters on it.

Our household got distracted by einkorn for about 10 days, before deciding to entirely ditch wheat, of any vintage, and all related gluten-bearing grains, in all disguises. This implies that buyers seeking heirloom are not reliable repeat customers.

Eating wheat, barley and rye (and grains generally, really) is a 10,000 year-old error. Mutant runt goatgrass (usually sold as semi-dwarf hybrid wheat) just finally made the problems more apparent.

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Bob Niland [disclosures] [topics]