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Originally posted by Dr. Davis on 2015-08-13 on the Wheat Belly Blog, sourced from and currently found at: Infinite Health Blog. PCM forum Index of WB Blog articles.
I want to take this issue head on, since popular “wisdom” is that problems with consumption of wheat and related grains begins and ends with celiac disease. The Wheat Lobby, for instance, frequently argues that, if you do not have celiac disease, you have no business avoiding wheat and related grains.
Defenders of wheat, such as those cited in this New York Times article, argue that celiac disease affects 1% of the human population, but that the other 99% of people not only can consume wheat with impunity, but can actually do so and obtain health benefits due to fiber and B vitamin content. They say that eliminating wheat and grains is therefore unnecessary, unhealthy, even dangerous.
Let’s therefore examine what health conditions can develop in the 99% of people who do not have celiac disease:
I could go on, as there are literally hundreds of other conditions caused by consumption of wheat and grains in people without celiac disease, all documented in the scientific literature (many references listed in the Wheat Belly Total Health book)—it is not a short list. You can begin to appreciate how patently absurd this “gluten-free is only for people with celiac disease” argument truly is. Wheat and related grains (especially rye, barley, and corn) have far-ranging effects on the brain, thyroid, skin, airways and sinuses, joints, pancreas, breasts, stomach, etc. not just the small intestine. Understand this basic principle, recognize that the Wheat Lobby is defending a flawed collection of food products with misleading smokescreens—reminiscent of the tactics used by Big Tobacco a few years back to defend cigarettes—and you have found the key to an astoundingly powerful return to health: eat no wheat or grains.