How can wheat contaminate food?

Between 2003 and 2008, cases of food contamination involving melamine were reported worldwide. Melamine, a plastic, is added to wheat gluten to make food appear higher in protein. It is also found in livestock and fish feeds, vegetable and milk powders, binding agents, and various commodities. Melamine can cause acute renal failure, uremia, anorexia, anuria, polydipsia, lethargy, vomiting, and eventually death in cats, dogs, poultry, and pigs.

Atrazine, an herbicide used to control weeds, is applied to crops like corn, cauliflower, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat fallow. It can cause skin rash, erythema, blisters, edema, ocular irritation, chest pains, a feeling of tightness in the chest, nausea, and dizziness.

Aflatoxins are produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus molds, which grow on peanuts, corn, rice, wheat, and milo stored under humid conditions. Aflatoxins are hepatotoxic and carcinogenic in rodents, trout, ducks, rhesus monkeys, and humans. They can cause hemorrhages and abortions, cross both the rodent and human placenta, and are excreted in the milk of rats, sheep, cattle, and humans. Prenatal and neonatal exposures can increase liver tumors later in life.

Zearalenone is a potent estrogen produced by fungi that thrive on barley, maize, wheat, soybeans, rice, oats, and other grains stored under hot and humid conditions. Zearalenone resists degradation during cooking or milling, and its residues accumulate in bread, pizza, breakfast cereals, beer, and other foods. When ingested, it is almost completely absorbed. Feeding contaminated feed to cattle, mink, sheep, and swine induces ovarian follicular and testicular atrophy, vulvovaginitis, endometritis, prolonged estrus, anestrus, prolapsed uterus and rectum, reduced conception, reduced fetal body weight, and increased prenatal and neonatal death.

Chronic exposure to chlorophenoxy herbicides like 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (also known as Agent Orange) can potentially damage the nervous system, kidneys, and liver, causing immune system suppression, endocrine disruption, and birth defects. These herbicides are commonly used in wheat production.

Disulfoton is a highly toxic pesticide used to protect crops like cotton, tobacco, beets, corn, peanuts, wheat, cereal grains, and potatoes. Exposure to disulfoton causes headache, fatigue, blurred vision, dizziness, salivation, lacrimation, sweating, defecation, urination, fluid accumulation in the respiratory tract, convulsions, coma, and in high doses, even death. In 2010, it was registered for use in Australia and South Africa.

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What is WHEAT?

Identification name: Triticum aestivum L.

Family: Poaceae

Habitat: native to southwestern Asia

Medicinal part: whole grain

Key chemical constituents: albumin, globulin, gluten composed of gliadin and glutenin, vitamins, minerals. Specifically: vitamin B1 is antioxidant; vitamin B2 is anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, photosensitizing; vitamin B3 is antidote, antilipemic, vasodilator; B5 is antioxidant; B6 is antitumour, antioxidant; vitamin E is antioxidant; folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, protein, magnesium, iron, manganese, fiber.

Properties and uses: unextracted whole wheat is nutritious, but the wheat flour that makes pasta, noodles, breads, and cookies undergoes a process in which 60% of the wheat grain is removed. The 40% lost are the most nutritious part of the wheat: the bran and the germ. As a result, more than half of the B vitamins, folic acid, zinc, copper, phosphorus, calcium, and iron are removed. Wheat flour without its bran, produces more mucus in a person than that made from the whole wheat flour. Unextracted whole wheat reduces the risk of diverticular disease, colon cancer, breast cancer; decrease blood estrogen; promotes regular bowel function.

Curiosity: the largest producer of wheat is USA. Other countries producing it are Australia, Canada, China, India, Russia. Wheat is the best grain to make bread because it has high gluten content. Gluten gives wheat flour elasticity and strength. After kneading, gluten traps the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast or other chemical leavening agent, resulting in the expansion and rising of the dough.

Caution: symptoms of allergic reaction to modern wheat are chronic gastrointestinal disturbances; ear and bladder infections; asthma, sinusitis, eczema, skin rash, acne, hives; bursitis and joint pains; fatigue, headache, migraine; hyperactivity, depression, and insomnia. Since wheat contains moderate to large amounts of oxalate, individuals with a history of kidney stones containing calcium oxalate should limit consumption of wheat products.

References Chemistry from PubChem.

De Vries, John, ed. Food safety and toxicity. CRC press, 1997.

Hildegard, Saint. Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: the complete English translation of her classic work on health and healing. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co, 1998.

Murray, Michael T., and Joseph Pizzorno. The encyclopedia of healing foods. Atria Books, 2005.Wexler, Philip, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of toxicology. Vol. 1. Academic Press, 2014.Wexler, Philip, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of toxicology. Vol. 2. Academic Press, 2014.