Dave and I spent Saturday at Whole Foods in Jenkintown. They have a program in the summers where they invite local vendors in to basically sell directly to their customers. This year we were invited back and that felt pretty good. Last summer, I was confronted on a fairly regular basis by the, is-there-gluten-in-this-crowd. This summer, not so much. And those that bring it up seemed willing to listen to our spiel about naturally-leavened and sprouting and how these processes dramatically impact the digestibility of bread and/or wheat. Gluten clearly poses an issue with celiacs and their sensitivity to intestinal permeability but theres more science coming out that (aside from diagnosed celiacs) gluten may have very little to do with the so-called leaky gut syndrome. What does appear to be the major contributing factor to this issue and to most problems attributable to our food supply is the industrial nature of how we grow and process our foods that do NOT take into account nutritional density nor digestibility but have everything to do with crop yield, shelf-life and share-holder value. Industrialization clearly includes GMOs and the question that I see lately is what are these genetic distortions in our food supply doing to the health of our gut flora? And isnt this a far more dangerous and likely risk than gluten which has been a part of our agricultural based diet for thousands of years. But it doesnt stop with GMO. Industrial food processors are now adding nano food particles to a whole array of processed foods for purposes of shelf stability, consistency, color, etc. Since these particles are not required to be labeled, they are turning up in more and more products but identifying which ones and what impact they might pose to our health is obviously difficult. And the lists of risks goes on with an array of additives that do not belong in food. Period. Until we get some kind of sane and rational food policy in this country, the only real solution is to source what you can locally from trusted farmers thru local markets and CSAs. In some ways, this works better than backyard gardens because it builds a local economy and strengthens the sustainability of our land and makes us that much more aware of threats to our land by, for example, fracking. And, if youre going to buy bread, just make sure theres a baker involved. If you know your farmer then by all means get to know your baker. And verify that he or she uses natural leavens. This promotes bacterial fermentation - a process that takes time and therefore does not lend itself to industrialization but it really makes all the difference. Doug
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:53:29 +0000
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