A non-profit organization dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the American diet, the board members of WAP have never been fans of the gluten-free "craze." But a recent study and testing by the Canadian government have just given them two more reasons not to like gluten-free foods: heavy metals and glyphosate.
Heavy Metals
A recent study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that people on gluten-free diets had significantly higher levels of arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium in their bodies.
Out of nearly 4000 participants the 32 participants adhering to a strict gluten free diet had twice as much arsenic in their urine and 70 percent more mercury in their blood than those eating a standard diet.
The Weston A Price Foundation's board members believe this is primarily because of the standard gluten-free dieter is heavily dependent upon rice. Even if they aren't steaming it up every night, many of the packaged gluten-free baked goods use rice flour as a primary ingredient.
Consumer Reports and other groups have studied rice and shown that it is heavily contaminated with arsenic and mercury. Even organic rice contains arsenic and mercury because rice is partial to these minerals, and because U.S. agriculture was dependent on pesticides, herbicides and animal feed additives that contained arsenic for many decades, leaving it in high levels in the nation's waters and soils.
"The findings about arsenic and mercury are especially troubling for pregnant and nursing mothers who are eating gluten-free foods and food mixes," writes WAP board member John Moody. "They are also disturbing for young children, who are more vulnerable to heavy metals because of body weight and their developmental stage."
Glyphosate
While "gluten-free" marketing leads many consumers to believe they are making the "healthy" or "natural choice" - most non-organic gluten-free products are actually higher in glyphosate (the main ingredient in Monsanto's infamous RoundUp herbicide) than non-organic wheat products.
A citizen blogger in Canada, Tony Mitra, has obtained and examined thousands of records of foods tested for glyphosate by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
After making his way through 800 of them he found 130 products from the United States and 99 products from Canada labeled "gluten-free."
The average glyphosate reading for US-produced gluten free products was 248 ppb and that for Canada was 286 ppb.
Those numbers are between 200% and 300% higher than the conventional non-gluten-free products he looked at, which are already dangerously high.
Is it gluten or glyphosate making you sick?
This information is all the more disturbing considering several reports have come out in the last couple of years suggesting it is glyphosate, not gluten, making people sick.
The wheat industry (and now we know the whole grain industry) has been secretly and illegally drenching the grain in RoundUp right before it's harvested to shock the plant into going to seed, thus creating a higher yield.
It is now suspected by many health professionals that it is glyphosate, not gluten, destroying people's gut flora and linings. This 2013 study published in Entropy links glyphosate to everything from gastrointestinal disorders to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
So the very people who are avoiding wheat because they believe they are allergic or sensitive to gluten, now may be getting twice or three times as much of the chemical that was actually responsible for making them ill.
WAP-recommended alternatives
- Cut back on grains altogether
- Buy only organic grains
- Avoid rice, substitute with quinoa or millet
- Arrowroot powder and garbanzo bean flour are safe, nutritious substitutes for gluten-free baking.
- Prepare your grains properly by soaking, sprouting and/or souring them
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