The History Of Wheat

[Canadian Karen]

I thought I would post this for those who have joined recently. I can remember when I read it, it made me understand alot more how this disease works.....

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WHEAT

The Roman Empire was built on Egyptian wheat, which they called "korn". It was Einkorn, which is the ancestor of modern wheats. (In Latin, this was the earliest form of Triticum, not to be confused with what we call "corn", which is Zea.)

It had two sets of chromosomes like human beings and is described as 2N or diploid. There were also some naturally occurring wheat that had four sets of chromosomes, or 4N or tetraploid. This was the wheat that the Roman Emperor, Eqyptian pharoahs and Christ were eating.

But what is on our table has been selectively bred over time to increase the gluten content for baking or pasta-making. Most are hexaploid, octoploid, double hexaploid, or hexaploid-octoploid hybrids. This means that they have 6, 8, 12, or more sets of chromosomes. Some of this extra DNA is coding for amino acid sequences that human beings cannot break down, including a 33-amino acid sequence named 33-MER. This 33-MER is what is causing the problem for celiac. Our immune systems are attacking this chain as though it were an invader or parasite. But this sequence is also similar to human tissue, and this inflammation can progress into an auto-immune disease. This auto-immune phase is really damaging, and largely incurable. Control is the only treatment, and life-long gluten free diet is the only control.

And also this:

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[Fiddle-Faddle]

Fascinating--thanks for posting!

My husband's response is, wouldn't genetically engineering wheat without the 33-MER sequence solve the problem? (He's a chemist...)

[tom]

Verrrrrrrrrry interesting!!

[Ridgewalker]

This very interesting info. I had read before that today's wheat has been engineered for a higher gluten content, but this post was more detailed and clear.

I'm with Fiddle-Faddle's husband. If it was engineered to be that way, scientists should be able to engineer it right back out!

-Sarah

[codetalker]

Here is a link to info in Wikipedia. Sounds like the original form is available on a very limited basis.

Open Original Shared Link

[trents]

Canadian Karen,

Where did that quote from "The Natural History of Wheat" come from. I would like to have the original source.

Thanks, Steve

[Canadian Karen]

Hi! It was in a thread waaaay back in 2005. Here is the link to the original thread:

Open Original Shared Link

It was a post by Claire. There is a weblink there too, I think.......

Karen

[trents]

Hi! It was in a thread waaaay back in 2005. Here is the link to the original thread:

Open Original Shared Link

It was a post by Claire. There is a weblink there too, I think.......

Karen

Rats! I found the thread but the server it was stored on is no longer active.

Steve