Wheat-Free Diet for Asthma
There are many reasons for why someone has asthma, but there are also many strategies you can use to start impacting your asthma. One of them is to cut out wheat from your diet.
Why pick on wheat when it’s such a staple of the American diet? Primarily the answer is that 99% of all wheat on the market now is genetically modified. The new wheat plant contains not only more gluten than the original wheat plant but also other proteins and enzymes that total more than 1000. Here’s a partial list:
- Agglutinins
- Peroxidases
- Alpha-amylases
- Serpins
- Acyl-CoA oxidases
- Prolamins
- Globulins
- Albumins
- Starch synthases
- Thioredoxin
- Glycerinaldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase
- Beta-purothionin
- Puroindolines a and b
Alpha-gliadin, one of the proteins containing gluten, causes an immune reaction in the intestines. In the list above, there are three of the ingredients of wheat that trigger asthma and exercise-induced asthma. Thus, it makes sense to avoid wheat and give the body a rest from these powerful immune reactions.
How to Start a Wheat-Free Diet for Asthma
How do you give the body a rest from wheat? Here are five steps to the process:
- Understand that wheat and gluten go together, and therefore, anything that contains gluten may be something that you are reacting to when you have asthma. You must cut out all grains from the diet. Instead of eating wheat pancakes, breads, muffins, and other foods, switch to almond flour. There are some good almond flour cookbooks available on Amazon. Coconut flour is also another excellent flour to use as a substitute.
- Start reading labels. Any food that contains any grains, wheat or wheat protein must be discarded. The little bit that you save – and the bite of a food that you eat could be the reason for your next trip to the emergency room when you have asthma. Don’t take a chance.
- Start focusing more on protein foods and non-starchy vegetables in the diet. For example, when meal planning, use the protein as the primary food that you plan all the other foods around. If you’re having a buffalo burger, add yams shaped like French fries, add a salad and a few other vegetables. Vegetables are the #1 food that most people are lacking when they have asthma or any other degenerative disease.
- Don’t forget to add some nuts, seeds, healthy oils (olive, coconut), and fruits.
- Monitor your progress. What will happen when you’re improving is that your asthma episodes will become fewer and fewer. Look for this.
Let’s face it, all the asthma medications you’re already on have not improved your disease much. You still have it. Now it’s time to dig down deep to the real cause of the asthma and make changes.