Nigerians have been warned against the dangers inherent in the consumption of wheat as part of the measures to control diabetes and hypertension.
Findings revealed that in terms of food choices, wheat is now the preferred “swallow meal” for many Nigerian families, particularly in the urban centres. Sadly, too, some rural dwellers have hooked onto the fad that wheat is a healthy food.
At homes nationwide, wheat has “upstaged” yam flour (amala) and other starchy foods that are peculiar to our culinary culture in Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is one dietary change that may prove suicidal for many people, given the inseparable linkage of diet to health or ill health.
An America based food technologist, Dr. Damilare Ajayi, says that the prevalent consumption of wheat in homes across the country has clearly shown that in the absence of knowledge, people can accept poison as a therapy. After all, wheat is the first choice food for diabetics on the strength of doctors’ advice.
Ajayi notes that though wheat, like other grains, is rich in fibre and some other nutrients, it is one food anybody that desires wellness and long life should keep at arms’ length, because there are inherent dangers in the chemistry of wheat that makes it “a classic destroyer of health.”
According to him, “Wheat contains gluten, a protein that causes inflammation, which is a systemic process that has harmful effects across all organ systems in the body, including the brain, heart, joints, eyes and digestive tract. As a matter of fact, inflammation does not only precede all degenerative diseases like diabetes, cancer, stroke, glaucoma, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, but also fuels their insidious progression.
“Early this year, a middle aged man from Ekiti State came to my office for solution to his health challenges- diabetes and high blood pressure. Upon enquiry about his diet, he said wheat was his major meal daily. According to him, virtually all the civil servants working at the state and local government levels in the state also eat wheat as their regular meal.”
Infact, he says that those that are not eating wheat, particularly in the state capital, could not afford it, but not due to knowledge of its harm to health.
“What an irony? Otherwise, how do we explain the preference for wheat against pounded yam, which the Ekiti people have been eating for good health and vitality centuries back?” he says.
A pharmacist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife, Dr. Alice Idahosa, notes that the inherent danger in the chemistry of wheat is its high glycemic index, which is a scale that ranks carbohydrate rich foods by how much they raise blood sugar level compared to low glycemic foods.
Idahosa adds that wheat has a glycemic index of 71 compared to yam and sweet potato with glycemic index pf 49 and 54, respectively, which means, invariably, eating food with the high glycemic index like wheat regularly promotes weight gain and makes diabetes intractable.
“If I may ask , what is the science behind the recommendation of wheat as a meal to fight high blood sugar when it is a high health risk? According to a review paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, there are up to 55 diseases that can be caused by eating Gluten- containing food. The diseases include osteoporosis, anemia, cancer, cancer sores, fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
The paper also linked gluten to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including depression, schizophrenia, dementia, nerve damage, epilepsy and autism. The paper concludes that there are more other diseases associated with eating foods containing gluten.
Idahosa observes that other research studies conducted years back showed that people with autism and schizophrenia have high level of peptides in their urine. These peptides, according to doctors, come from casein, a protein component in milk and other dairy products, gliadin and gluten in wheat.
“So, you can see the urgent reason why people must refrain from eating wheat. Nigerians should stop poisoning themselves and their families. To be honest, I don’t know why doctors in Nigeria are recommending wheat; that is why when giving health talks, I make sure I create awareness on this wheat matter,” he said.
