NOW that the new season of The Voice is well underway and Tessannemania has subsided, I can voice my displeasure with bread and butter. This staple of Jamaican snacking is not the healthiest option one can have if you need a quick bite. The bread we eat today is far different from the daily bread in the Bible, and can result in the development of obesity and its related chronic diseases such as diabetes.

We are all familiar with the harmful effects of the fats and cholesterol found in butter. But what is so bad about bread?

Wheat has changed.The wheat that makes the flour we consume is genetically modified to grow faster and produce more starch and proteins. This sounded good to the persons who developed this plant but these traits have had a negative impact on our health. The new wheat is loaded with a type of starch, amylopectin-A, which raises some people’s blood sugar levels as fast as if they were eating a candy bar.

When our blood sugar levels rise rapidly, insulin is released in large amounts as our body tries to lower the levels back to normal. The insulin partly acts by storing the available sugar as fat, leading to weight gain. It is believed that the pressure put on the pancreas to rapidly release large amounts of insulin in a short time results in burnout as well as insulin resistance, leading to diabetes.

Not only does new wheat have a super bad starch, it has many different types of proteins that trigger inflammation all over the body. You may have heard of gluten and gluten free diets before. Well gluten is the protein found in wheat which makes it sticky and able to form dough when kneaded. The problem with gluten is that it triggers inflammation in our gut leading to a breakdown of the gut barrier. Once the gut barrier is broken down, different types of proteins from food attach to our immune system cells leading to inflammation all over the body. Inflammation all over the body can lead to heart attacks, diabetes, nerve problems and more.

New wheat also contains a protein which attaches to the same parts of the brain as heroin. These protein ‘drugs’ are not strong enough to make us high but does stimulate us to eat more and crave bad foods. This results in an addiction and can lead to binge eating. This food addiction leads to obesity and its associated diseases. The only way to stop and reverse this process of disease development is to wean ourselves off wheat.

The alternatives

You are probably thinking that this article only applies to white bread. After all we have been told that whole wheat or brown bread is healthy, right? Not true.

To be eligible for the whole wheat label the baker only needs to add 51 per cent whole wheat flour, the rest being regular refined flour. So whole wheat and multigrain does not mean healthy. All wheat flour contains the same bad starch, proteins and drug-protein that lead to weight gain, inflammation and food addiction. In fact, two slices of whole wheat bread raises your blood sugar higher than two tablespoons of sugar! Gluten free foods which substitute wheat with a lot of starch such as corn starch are not much better as they raise your blood sugars just as fast as wheat.

Eating staples such as yams, sweet potatoes and bananas are a much better alternative to consuming wheat or gluten free foods. Of course one of the best substitutes is a diet high rich in vegetables. It is difficult to reduce or cease your intake of wheat but if you do you may be surprised with the results. Go ahead, quit breading!

Dr Alfred Dawes is a consultant general, laparoscopic and obesity surgeon at Premier Heart and Surgery Centre, and managing director, Mahogany Health and Fitness. Contact him at alfred.dawes@gmail.com.