Grant To Develop Wheat Free Of Harmful Gluten Proteins

[ENF]

April 24, 2008

Washington State University researcher receives NIH grant to develop wheat free of harmful gluten proteins

PULLMAN, WA - Washington State University researcher Diter von Wettstein has been awarded a four-year, $837,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his work on developing wheat varieties safe to eat for people who have Celiac disease.

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[home-based-mom]

April 24, 2008

Washington State University researcher receives NIH grant to develop wheat free of harmful gluten proteins

PULLMAN, WA - Washington State University researcher Diter von Wettstein has been awarded a four-year, $837,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his work on developing wheat varieties safe to eat for people who have Celiac disease.

Rest of article here:

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I can hear The Hallelujah Chorus! This is great, not only for us, but for others because maybe they will never develop this condition and never have to be as sick as some of you have been.

[celiac-mommy]

Couldn't be a more perfect place (because that's where I went ) Ironic... the school is surrounded by miles and miles of wheat fields!!

[Aleshia]

Couldn't be a more perfect place (because that's where I went ) Ironic... the school is surrounded by miles and miles of wheat fields!!

you said you went to washington state university... can I ask you who you went to ? I'm in washington trying to find a doctor who is knowledgeable about celiac disease and won't just say "you don't have it cause you don't have diarhea and you aren't losing weight"....

[Aleshia]

Couldn't be a more perfect place (because that's where I went ) Ironic... the school is surrounded by miles and miles of wheat fields!!

you said you went to washington state university... can I ask you who you went to ? I'm in washington trying to find a doctor who is knowledgeable about celiac disease and won't just say "you don't have it cause you don't have diarhea and you aren't losing weight"....

[celiac-mommy]

you said you went to washington state university... can I ask you who you went to ? I'm in washington trying to find a doctor who is knowledgeable about celiac disease and won't just say "you don't have it cause you don't have diarhea and you aren't losing weight"....

Sorry, I meant I went to college there (and I met my dh there on the 2nd day of school!) The dr I see is Char Glenn in Portland OR. She specializes in Celiac dz and nutrition. She's WONDERFUL.

[RiceGuy]

The thing is, even if they do develop it, there's still the problem of producing it commercially. All attempts to grow the original varieties of wheat on a commercial scale failed because of pollen drifting in from other fields growing the modern hybrids. Seems to me they'll have the same trouble here. Getting all the current wheat fields to grow the "safe" variety in a given area, without any of the stuff being grown now lingering around to mess up the genetics of the new one will be quite a task.

Anyway, I'm not so sure I'd even try eating it though. Seems like every time man plays around with genetics, there are unpredictable consequences.

[Guhlia]

I would have to say I agree whole heartedly with RiceGuy. I would be terrified to even try the stuff. I may be in the minority, but I'm perfectly happy with my gluten free replacement products. They may be pricey, but they taste better to me and my family than the gluteny version did.

[ravenwoodglass]

I agree with Guhlia and Riceguy. This is something I just don't see as being of any real value. For one thing man has spent quite a while increasing the level of gluten in wheat to give it more of the qualities that make wheat, wheat. Even ancient forms of wheat like spelt are not tolerated by us and I am not even really sure that it is just the gluten in the wheat the we react to. Doctor after doctor will tell us that wheat germ oil is fine and so is wheat derived alcohol and vinagers. Many of us can heartily say that this is not so. I am perfectly happy without this toxin and think we would be better served by them creating other nongluten additives so they can get it out of food that it is not meant to be in in the first place. We shouldn't have to check stuff like orange juice for example.

[home-based-mom]

To RiceGuy, Guhlia, and ravenwoodglass: Points well taken.

However *IF* the new variety became the norm (note the big *IF*) then perhaps others in the future would not ever become as sick as you have been. It may be too late for you but perhaps, hopefully, not for others. The issue here (as I see it) is not how tasty your food is, not how well you have adjusted to the gluten-free lifestyle, but how sick your great grandchildren will never get.

[Takala]

Color me skeptical that the end result would be positive.

It would require the entire world using this variety, which apparently would be genetically engineered. (I looked at the site, which is a sort of information clearinghouse for many bio engineering type companies) This is when you take genes from one plant (or animal) and insert them into another plant.

It would take at least a generation (30 years) to see what the actual results of humans eating this variety of wheat would experience. (how do "normal" people react long term to the modified wheat, anyway? ) And what about farm animals ? They eat wheat byproducts, too.

As the other poster(s) have said, the problem with genetically engineered grains is that they cannot control the pollen in the fields, it then cross contaminates everything.

There have been cases where these biotech companies do this deliberately with other grains, plant next to other fields, and then actually have sued the neighboring farmers for trying to save the seed they grew to replant, instead of purchasing the seed from the company, because of patent protection.

Other times, it just destroys the genetic uniqueness of heirloom crops, either way, it decreases the amount of actual diversity, which is not a good thing.

At least with the alternatives right now such as rice and corn, one can tell they ARE rice and corn, not wheat, and it makes it easier to determine just what does and does not have gluten.

I don't see them doing this out of medical concern so much as for the ability to patent more grains and control the patent rights thru farmers having to pay royalties. There is still no real reason whatsoever to be using anonymous grain byproducts in almost all manufactured foods other than to make them cheaper to manufacture, not healthier to eat.

See the problem: grain, more expensive to grow, being used as fill in food to make it cheaper to manufacture but to sell for more because it would be "special" food.

There are a lot of companies right now wanting to tinker with grain genetics, they want to develop varieties of rice which is needing less fertilizer, for instance, by inserting barley genes into it, then have it be raised in China, which would then pay the farmers to grow it by getting carbon - cap payments for using less petroleum fuels and fertilizer, at least that is the theory.

You can now see why I am not going to embrace this idea of a Brave New Grain World without wanting some oversight.

All we need right now to be healthy is :

earlier diagnoses and information awareness of gluten intolerance and the health problems

foods accurately labeled

foods not accidently cross contaminated

foods not full of wierd things (why is wheat in any ice cream? etc )

medications not full of hidden gluten and unknown sourced products

And what do we have ? Society is still not providing these things.

[gfjayhawk]

I'm skeptical about this as well. The problems of cross-pollination and contamination with gluten-containing wheat will be very hard to solve. Also, wheat has been bred to develop high levels of gluten because of gluten's special characteristics. Cooking with gluten free wheat would be an entirely different experience, and I'm not sure that people who don't have a pressing medical need to go gluten free will be happy about that.