Should You Avoid Eating Wheat?
Should you avoid eating wheat? It seems like everyone is avoiding wheat these days, yet this grain is packed with nutrition and should be a part of your diet, unless you have known sensitivities.
According to several popular diet books, such as “Wheat Belly” and “The Paleo Diet,” wheat is an unhealthful food, responsible for all manner of problems, including obesity, autoimmune disorders, and even autism. Such diets claim that if you eliminate wheat from your diet, you’ll lose weight and “cure” many conditions, such as diabetes and rashes. This wheat-free diet trend is in lockstep with the current gluten-free fad, which finds healthy people avoiding gluten because they believe it will bring them better health. Gluten is a component of wheat and other related grains—such as spelt, kamut, rye, triticale and barley—and is harmful for people with celiac disease. But is there any science to support that wheat is a “bad” food you should avoid?
Check out this video I took live on a wheat harvest in Kansas.
Should You Avoid Eating Wheat?
Julie Miller Jones, Ph.D., Distinguished Scholar and Professor Emerita of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, believes that wheat has become today’s diet scapegoat. Jones, who is an expert in the field of grain science, says, “There is no evidence that wheat is bad for you, with the caveat that you eat the right amounts as recommended, and make half of your grain servings whole grain. There is a staple grain or starchy tuber in every culture—in our culture it’s wheat. We’ve been cultivating and eating wheat for centuries, and perhaps the only bad thing about it is that for the last 50 years of eating wheat, we’ve been sitting down too much and not cultivating it ourselves. So, we’re attacking the wrong demons.”
Growing Wheat
One popular notion is that wheat has been genetically altered by humans to the degree that it is no longer good for us. However, Jones explains that the common plant foods you eat every day—lettuce, tomatoes, corn—have been modified countless times over the years through traditional cross-breeding methods, which farmers use in order to bring out the best attributes of crops. “Your grandmother and grandfather were seed savers—they saved the biggest, sweetest seeds and planted them the following year,” adds Jones. She dispels the myth that genetically modified wheat has given rise to “unique proteins” that are hazardous to health, and reports that there are no breeds of genetically modified wheat on the market, and no “unique proteins” found in wheat as a result of plant breeding. In fact, there is no scientific evidence to link today’s modern wheat varieties to health risk.
Wheat and Weight
Perhaps the most popular concern over wheat centers upon weight. Wheat-free proponents suggest that avoiding it can help you lose weight—if you eliminate wheat, you’re essentially on a low-carb diet. But do you have to avoid eating wheat to lose weight?
According to Jones, “Studies show that low-carb diets can cause rapid weight loss in the first six months, but that people weigh more in two to three years, indicating that these diets are very hard to follow.” Any time you restrict your diet significantly by eliminating a major food group, such as wheat or dairy, calories typically drop and weight loss occurs. And so it shouldn’t be a surprise that wheat-free dieters report—anecdotally, without published scientific findings—that they have lost weight.
Yet, a number of studies have found that people who eat more whole grains, including whole wheat, maintain a healthier weight. In a Tufts University study of more than 400 adults, whole grain and cereal fiber intake was strongly linked to lower BMI (body mass index), lower total percent body fat and lower abdominal fat (Journal of Nutrition, 2009). However, if you eat too many servings of wheat or too many high-calorie products that combine wheat with fat and sugar (think donuts and chocolate chip cookies), it’s entirely possible to put on pounds.
Wheat and Disease
Wheat-free diets claim that before the cultivation of wheat humans were healthy, and that wheat is to blame for many health conditions, from diabetes to heart disease. But Jones reports, “Most of chronic diseases didn’t occur in early times, because life span was only in the 30s. If anything, you could say that diets with grains have enabled a longer life. In the beginning of the 1900s, our lifespan was in the 50s and we were eating a lot of wheat. Our lifespan has continued to increase. This has to do with many factors, including diet.”
Furthermore, a body of science indicates consumption of whole grains is associated with many health benefits, including decreased mortality and lower risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and certain types of cancer. Since wheat comprises about 94 percent of our grain intake in the U.S., you can link these health attributes with whole wheat consumption, according to Jones.
Look no further than the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), a dietary pattern with years of documented, proven health benefits, including weight loss, elimination of hypertension, and reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, and certain types of cancer. The DASH diet is a nutritionally balanced diet that includes six to eight servings of grains daily, mostly in their whole grain form.
The Bottom Line: Should You Avoid Eating Wheat?
“Unless you have a food allergy, if any diet tells you to eliminate a whole food group or category of foods, or promises what seems too good to be true, stay clear of it,” advises Jones. “What you want is variety; eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables and all kinds of grains.” The secret to eating wheat healthfully is to focus on minimally processed foods, such as whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread and crackers, and cooked wheat, such as wheat berries, kamut and spelt. Limit grain treats, like cake, cookies and butter crackers, to “occasionally.” And remember to pay attention to portion sizes; today’s restaurants can dish up six to eight servings of pasta on your plate, and that’s just too much for everyone.
How Much Grain Should You Eat?*
| Age | Women | Men |
| 19 – 30 years | 6 servings | 8 servings |
| 31 – 50 years | 6 servings | 7 servings |
| 51 and older | 5 servings | 6 servings |
*At least half of all grains eaten should be whole grains
Source: USDA
What Counts as a Grain Serving?
1 mini-bagel
1 small (2” biscuit)
1 slice bread
1 small slice French bread
1 small slice (2 ½” x 1 ¼”) cornbread
½ cup cooked grains, such as bulgur, barley, oats and rice
7 square or round crackers
½ English muffin
1 cup ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, flakes
3 cups popped popcorn
½ cup cooked pasta
1 small (6”) tortilla
1 (4-1/2”) pancake
Source: USDA
For other resources on eating whole grains, check out:
Fill Your Whole Grains Gap
Whole Grains, Good for Your Health and Wallet
Whole Grain Consumption May Increase Longevity
Written by Sharon Palmer, MSFS, RDN on September 2, 2013; Updated on June 22, 2020.
Image: Spelt and Red Cabbage Salad from Plant-Powered for Life, Sharon Palmer, MSFS, RDN