The gluten free diet movement has now become a multibillion dollar food business extending from the United States to the entire world. Gluten almost seems to be the worst food danger, more negatively portrayed than meat. Whole sections of natural food stores may be gluten free. Certain items like milk, corn or potatoes that never had gluten may now be advertised as gluten free. There are gluten free bakeries and gluten free varieties of every sort of cake and pastry.
Yet wheat has been the most widely used primary food item for the world for several thousands of years from the beginning of agriculture, from Europe and North Africa through the Middle East and India to China. It has long been central in the diet of North America as well. Barley and rye, also widely used grains, contain some gluten also and are sometimes rejected along with wheat, greatly reducing in our diet the traditional grains most commonly used.
Today many people do suffer from food allergies or intolerances that are increasing, with health problems from candida to irritable bowel syndrome and leaky gut that can be quite serious. Modern medicine has proved the importance of a healthy biome in the gut for proper digestion and vitality.
There are certainly many hard to digest food items from junk food and fast food, with foods cooked with poor quality cooking oils, too much fried food, heavy sweets and overeating. On top of this are the complications of factory farming, GMO crops and poor quality soils. Our stressful ways of life and lack of cooking our own food contribute to the problem.
Many people not surprisingly have trouble with a number of food items that are heavy in their qualities and so can be slower to digest. These include dairy, wheat, soy, meat, fish, eggs, peanuts or nuts in general, and many more.
Certainly white flour and items made with it easily become harmful and should be avoided. In addition GMO and modern factory farming growing of wheat may be producing an inferior type of wheat. So some cautions about wheat are indeed valid.
Ayurvedic Recommendation of Wheat
Wheat remains an important food item widely used in Ayurveda. It is particularly recommended for airy Vata and fiery Pitta types owing to its nutritive nature that provides more protein than rice and is better for colder climates or seasons. Yet wheat should generally be avoided by watery Kapha types, who tend towards overweight and sluggish digestion.
Ayurveda always adjusts diet according to individual constitution and relative to one’s digestive power or digestive fire, Jatharagni, which is responsible for digesting the food that we take in.
Agni tends to be low in watery Kapha types, irregular in airy Vata types and too high in fiery Pitta types. Imbalanced Agni can make any food hard to digest, particularly any heavy food items, which includes wheat.So the question arises, is the food like wheat or dairy always the problem, or is it our low or weak Agni? Treatment may do better with spices to increase the digestive fire than simply avoiding heavy foods. Such Agni-promoting spices include ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, basil, cardamom and dozens of others, including hot spices at times like chilies, black pepper and mustard. In fact all culinary herbs and spices have their value here.
In other words the foods are not always the cause or the enemy, our own digestive weakness may be the real problem. While temporarily avoiding hard to digest food items may be helpful, more important in the long run is strengthening your own digestive fire.
