Dr. Christopher Thoma - What Happened to Modern Wheat?

Functional health practitioner Dr. Christopher Thoma joins Lars to discuss how wheat has changed over the past 50 years. Could changes to one of America’s most basic foods be affecting what it does to our bodies? 

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SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. How many times have you heard the comment from somebody saying, why is it that everybody seems to be gluten intolerant these days? That wasn't a thing back when I was a kid or when I was a young adult. Well, the bread you eat today may not be the same wheat that your parent grandparents were eating. So what changed and could modern wheat be changing what it does to our bodies? I thought we'd talk about that with Dr. Christopher Toma, who is a functional health practitioner and the author most recently of Eat to Restore. Dr. Toma, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Is the wheat that we're eating these days dramatically different from the wheat that we were consuming back in the what seventies, eighties, nineties?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, over the last sixty years, we have changed the protein content that is in our wheat. So it is digested much slower as it goes through our body, and that has detrimental effects on our gut, causing leaky gut, causing us to be inflamed, and have a myriad of health problems that go with it. Why do we do that? Uh we we tried to make wheat so that we could have a harder kernel, so insects wouldn't eat it, so that it would last longer in the grain bins, and so that we could have shelf lives that were much larger than what we had before.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Okay, so in other words, we did it as a matter of choice, but it was more to make it what easier to grow, easier to transport, easier to store. Do we still have that need today?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I I really think we do. Uh we probably need to find a different way to do it. But when we look at the population growing around the world, when we look at uh farmers are becoming more isolated in smaller parts of like the middle US, uh Ukraine, Argentina, we have to transport that food longer ways. So it was a necessity, uh, but I think we really need to find uh better ways of doing it. Uh Europe has not made the same changes that we've had made. And you can find if you ask anybody who travels Europe, they can eat the pasta, they can eat the bread. They don't have the same uh effects on your body that our American wheat does. So yes, I believe it's true that we had to have grains last longer to keep the pest out of it, but we're probably doing it the wrong way.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Well, in fact, Dr. Toma, I've heard that comment from people saying, Oh, you know, I've I'm I haven't done a lot of international traveling, but there are friends of mine who have who say, yeah, we went to Italy and and we're just fine eating the pasta, then we come back home and uh and again, uh, you know, it doesn't doesn't settle well in your gut. So how do we get it to change back? And how much of it is about making the wheat hardy when it's on you know on the stock versus once it's in the grain silo when we have better ways to protect those things today, to package wheat and and that sort of thing? Or do we still need that harder uh wheat kernel?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, well, we actually grow a harder wheat kernel because of the bread that we make in the United States. We we liked having the long shelf life on the bread. So when I was in the Netherlands, every day at the bakery they baked fresh bread, they fed the old bread out to the pigeons. And when talking to them, that's their way of life. And here we have bread that is actually made months in advance. Sometimes the buns that you eat for 4th of July are actually made at the end of March. And so I think really that's an exact story. Uh that sounds pretty disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I'm sorry, Doctor, but that does sound disgusting, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah. We have uh engineers here, bread engineers, and their point is to make bread so far ahead of time that they can store it for special occasions for the Super Bowl, for 4th of July, for the holidays, and uh it's not fresh. So that's something different here than in Europe for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Okay, so how do we then move back in the right direction?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Well, I think there's there's a couple things to know ahead of time. Once you become gluten sensitive, it is extremely hard to reverse that. So even once you become gluten-sensitive in the United States and you go to Europe, maybe you feel better, but you're still having that reaction. Once you've made an antibody, which is your body's defense against gluten, uh, it tends to stay with you because it begins to react with other things. People who get gluten sensitivities will soon have either brain fog or memory issues from what it does to the neurological tissue. They will also begin to have thyroid issues like Hashimoto's, and then also pancreatic issues. So those are some of the downstream things that happen. And just because you take out gluten doesn't mean you've gotten rid of those antibodies and then you can put gluten back in again. So I think we have to look forward to our children, our great-grandchildren, and begin to come back to wheat that is consumable so that we can have a future to bring it back. I I it's bad to say, but the individuals who are already sensitive are probably gonna live with that the rest of their life, and avoidance is the biggest way to manage that. But for our future, coming back and changing the grain that we're putting in the ground. But if your neighbor is still growing modified wheat or wheat that has been uh changed, that pollen is gonna come over on your field and change yours too. So we're gonna have to have a rule or laws that change for a whole area, not just one farmer at a time. It's gonna have to be a big change.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

I'm talking to Dr. Christopher Toma, who's a functional health practitioner and the author of a book called Eat to Restore. So, because we could easily get more seed from Western Europe if we chose to go that direction, couldn't we? But then you'd have to take an entire region and change it over all at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Correct. Because you have individuals doing that now. They're growing wheat that they get in from Europe and from Italy, and uh they're advertising it as wheat that we're raised here from Italy. The problem is when you go and analyze that wheat, it is being hybridized from the fields 30, 40 miles away. Uh wind carries it, uh the insects carry the pollen over to the new field. And so it would have to be a regional change to make that difference.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Okay, so what's your suggestion in the short run? What should people do to accommodate the fact that we're eating uh this this uh, I guess, long shelf life bread that doesn't sound like it's all that necessarily better for us, and in fact, in some ways, it's not better for us.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

That's correct. Looking for breads that have, you know, very few ingredients would be the first way to go, knowing that most of our bread made in the United States, they actually come back and even add more gluten to it. So they'll put in so much wheat and then they add actually gluten to it to make it have a longer shelf life. So when you see a bread that's on the shelf uh, you know, in modern stores, it's probably not gonna be healthy for you. Finding local baked breads or break baking your own, finding that local bakery who says, yes, this is fresh bread today, is gonna be a lot better for your health than any other bread you're gonna go get off the store. Uh that's that's significant.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Hey, Dr. Toma, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thanks so much for the time.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Thank you, sir. You have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

And you as well. That's Dr. Christopher Toma. He's the author of Eat to Restore. Hey, there's a free report that I want you to get your hands on, and it's called The Secret War on Cash. It explores the financial trends that could affect your savings, your purchasing power, and the way you use money in the years ahead. Now, most Americans won't recognize those changes until they're already affecting your everyday lives. And that's exactly why Swiss America decided to create the report called The Secret War on Cash. For more than 40 years, Swiss America has helped Americans understand the forces shaping our economy and their financial future. They believe the information in this report is simply too important to ignore. Read it and decide for yourself. But don't wait. Call or text 800-289-2646 or visit the website SwissAmerica.com slash Lars and ask for your copy of that free report. Do it today. Again, call or text 800-289-2646 or visit SwissAmerica.com slash Lars. Don't wait. Request your free report of the secret war on cash today. Tell them Lars sent you. Message and data rates may apply. Again, the site, SwissAmerica.com slash Lars, or call 800-289-2646. Glad to be with you and glad to take your calls at 866-HLARS. Send emails to talk at LarsLarson.com. Check out my feed on Instagram, and you can always tell Alexa to play the Lars Larsen show.