When you look at biochemistry, it really is amazing that people still think of wheat as a food.
Besides lectins, phytic acid, digestive inhibitors, and various other antinutrients, wheat is mostly contaminated with mold toxins. The toxins form while the wheat is being transported or stored, but new evidence is showing they’re also common while the plant is growing.
In 2003, there was a massive outbreak of fusarium head blight (FHB) in Western Australia. FHB is a mold-causing disease that is a major problem for farmers around the world, but until this time Western Australia had been mostly unaffected. FSB and other mold outbreaks are common around the rest of the country, but this was one of the first such outbreaks in this region. This adds to the evidence that the problem of mold contamination is only getting worse around the world.
Researchers from The University of Western Australia have used samples from the 2003 outbreak to generate data for a study that was published in the Journal of Mycotoxin Research. Not only were there high levels of fusarium on a number of the samples, the researchers found other mold toxins including, “type B trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol and 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol), enniatins, chlamydosporol and zearalenone.” They also noted that this was “the first time mycotoxin profiles for WA (Western Australia) have been defined.”
This study was about Australia, but the problem exists worldwide, with a variation of species by region and depending on rainfall and other plant stresses. It’s worrying this is the first time researchers have even looked at what mold toxins are present on the crops in Western Australia. The authors of the study agreed:
“In today’s competitive export markets, the cereal export industries in WA can ill-afford to continue to leave such issues unaddressed,” said co-author of the study, Martin Barbetti.
You learned about the underestimated problem of mold toxins before in this post. This new study supports the premise that mycotoxins are spreading, and most health authorities seem to be dumbfounded about what to do. Most of the efforts thus far have focused on how to reduce mold contamination in animal feed, but little attention has been paid to the human food supply.
Luckily for you, the Bulletproof Diet is one of the few diet programs that takes mold toxins into account. Most of the paleo community gets that wheat is a suboptimal food, but they still overlook the importance of mold toxins in other things like coffee, tea, pepper, lettuce, meat, and fermented foods. The Bulletproof Diet weighs the benefits and risks of every food before it’s placed on the green, yellow, or red zone, and provides guidelines on how to pick better fresher foods.
This system allows you to decide exactly how high performance you want to be, and choose foods that support your decision. By eating the Bulletproof Diet, you can be sure that you’re not consuming many of these harmful mold toxins that are likely decreasing the performance of many of your co-workers.
For your own health, please take advantage of the free resources on our site to help you avoid these toxins. When you enter your email address into the panel to your right, you get free instant access to a PDF of the Bulletproof Diet, the Bulletproof Diet Shopping Guide, and many more tools to help you achieve the Bulletproof state of high performance.
What changes have you noticed since eliminating wheat from your diet? What was the hardest thing about letting go of wheat for you and how did you overcome it?
