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    Grain Truth: The Real Case for and Against Wheat and Gluten
    Grain Truth: The Real Case for and Against Wheat and Gluten
    Grain Truth: The Real Case for and Against Wheat and Gluten
    Audiobook7 hours

    Grain Truth: The Real Case for and Against Wheat and Gluten

    Written by Stephen Yafa

    Narrated by Dana Hickox

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A Pollan-esque look at the truth about wheat: meal or menace?

    No topic in nutrition is more controversial than wheat. While mega-sellers like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly suggest that wheat may be the new asbestos, Stephen Yafa finds that it has been wrongly demonized. His revealing book sets the record straight, breaking down the botany of the wheat plant we've hijacked for our own use, the science of nutrition and digestion, the effects of mass production on our health, and questions about gluten and fiber-all to point us toward a better, richer diet.

    Wheat may be the most important food in human history, reaching from ancient times to General Mills. Yafa tours commercial factories where the needs of mass production trump the primacy of nutrition, and reports on the artisan grain revolution. From a Woodstock-like Kneading Conference to nutrition labs to a boutique bakery and pasta maker's workshop in Brooklyn, he also finds that there may in fact be a perfect source of wheat-based nutrition. Its name is sourdough.

    For readers of Salt Sugar Fat and The Omnivore's Dilemma, Grain of Truth smoothly blends science, history, biology, economics, and nutrition to give us back our daily bread.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAscent Audio
    Release dateSep 1, 2015
    ISBN9781469063003
    Grain Truth: The Real Case for and Against Wheat and Gluten

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    Reviews for Grain Truth

    4/5

    36 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great read. I did not expect to enjoy this nearly as much as I did, while learning so much. I had heard the premise before on a food series which presented the idea that many people who eat sourdough products with long fermentations do not have the same gluten sensitivities they do with other gluten foods. This book furthers that theory by bringing specific strains of wheat into the equation. He explains the hoax of the anti wheat people, specifically how evidence presented was taken out of context. (This happens all the time in the press about all things medical.) If you are an advocate for your own health, you really need to read this.
    • 4/5
      interesting and informative, gives you a scientific and easy to listen to knowledge about healthy bread and what to think about wheat. Recommend for bread lovers:)
    • 4/5
      With all the mixed information about wheat, I welcomed reading a balanced view. But first, I don't recommend reading this while hungry; for those walking past the candy aisle to follow that delicious bakery smell, you may find yourself reading and ready to devour a loaf of bread or five. My proclivities toward bread is the sole reason I do not own a bread machine. I'd weigh 500lbs and not because I was allergic to gluten.Personally, when someone says something is bad for you, I like to know why, why not, when, how, historic uses, common misconceptions, and effects on fads and pop culture. If in doubt, ask me anything you want to know about chocolate, stollen bread, food dye, spam, and canned cheese....I'm your girl.I appreciate Stephen Yafa's no-frills, Mary Roach-esque approach: history and science. Yafa illustrates the pros and cons, tackling wheat, gluten, grains, and how we process these before they land on the dinner table. His curious openness and research is refreshing in a society that is suddenly regarding wheat as taboo and given to a hotly debated item on both sides of the grocery aisle.I highly recommend this for those with gluten or grains intolerance, allergies, adjusting a diet, curious foodie types, or simply to kick butt at Jeopardy. "I'll take Yummy Gluten for $1000, Alex."I'm now off to make some hot cheesy spinach dip...with fresh sourdough bread. Yum.Thank you to LIbraryThing Early Reviewers and Avery Publishing for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Stephen Yafa’s style was highly readable and entertaining. I appreciated the research and the science that the book presented. As a bread-lover, this topic is particularly interesting to me, especially since so many people I know think that wheat is their new food enemy. I recommend this book to anyone interested in nutrition or food science.
    • 4/5
      I was eager to read and review this book because like almost everyone else I had been considering going gluten free.When the author’s wife decides to go gluten free, he is supportive of her decision but as a journalist he was also skeptical of the growing anti-gluten movement. He started researching gluten as a journalist, not a scientist, and this book is the result. This book has an almost perfect balance of science, history, and personal stories that make it enjoyable reading while still educating the reader on wheat and gluten. The author attempts to keep in check his up front pro wheat bias and retain an open mind to the science without giving too much weight to the anecdotal beliefs.After reading this book I am no longer planning on giving up gluten but I am going to more aware of whole wheat vs. 100% whole wheat and I am going to attempt to find more products with heirloom varieties of wheat. I am intrigued by the idea of making my own sourdough bread, but not quite brave enough…yet. I am also curious about sprouted grains and hope to experiment with that in my diet more.I highly recommend this book if you are gluten sensitive, if you bake your own bread, or if you are considering going gluten free for reasons other than celiac disease.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of this book from the Library Thing Early Reviewers.Stephen Yafa sets out to find out if wheat really is all that bad. This book, I feel at least, ended up being pretty unbiased. He gives so much information, and always in a way that I made me want to keep reading. I appreciate all the information in the appendixes, especially appendix B that lists where to find mills to buy flour from. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be better informed on the wheat and gluten debate.
    • 4/5
      This book ended up being a bit different that originally expected. The beginning did focus on the wheat / gluten issue but did not reach a conclusion until the very end of the book. The book moves into a very interesting history of grains in general and the milling process. I found this to be a nice addition to what could have been a dry book on health. I liked that writers light style of writing. I would recommend this to anyone.
    • 4/5
      Who ya gonna believe? There is so much contradictory information about eating wheat right now, that it is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Yafa starts out sounding like a spokesperson for the wheat industry, and someone who has had too much caffeine. I was skeptical.And I still am, but not as much. He does refute much of the popular Wheat Belly and Grain Brain claims. I was pretty skeptical about those, too.Celiac disease is very serious stuff but not common. Less serious is gluten sensitivity, and a little more common. And most common of all are the self-diagnosed gluten intolerant who seem to be the same who were hypoglycemic when that was the trend, fats-phobic or carbs-phobic when that is popular. People who jump on any bandwagon that is in the spotlight.The author does not blame wheat. He blames the way wheat has been modified to make it more of a commodity than a natural product and he blames the way it is processed and stripped of its natural goodness.The author has a sense of humor which occasionally shined through, and I appreciate that. My eyes did glaze over at some of the recitation of statistics, and there was some repetition in the book. The information on farmers growing the ancient wheat and the variety of wheat and wheat products once you get past the big grain conglomerates was eye-opening. Unfortunately, most of us cannot afford those products easily. The long-fermenting sourdough was interesting, too, but most people are not going to wait days for their dough to be ready to bake. His advice is good, but the solution is not an easy one. So what is the solution for most of us if we can't buy specialty wheat and make our own bread? I still don't know.While I think the author is less biased than I thought at the beginning of the book, while he does not support the big boy- and girl-conglomerates, I do wish he right out assured me he is not financially associated with the wheat industry. I need that credibility factor.There are appendices that offer information about making your own sourdough bread and offer sources for grain and flour, and that is very helpful.As a nit that amused me, the author should know that the phrase is “pedal to the metal,” not “petal to the metal.”I'm going to continue to eat wheat. As a vegetarian, I often eat seitan, a product that is essentially all wheat gluten, as well as other wheat products, and they cause me no problems. However, aside form the seitan, most of the wheat I use is whole grain, as flawed as the products themselves may be.While I don't take the book as gospel, I did find it interesting and informative, certainly food for thought.I was given an advance reader's copy of this book for review.
    • 4/5
      The author presents both sides of the gluten/wheat debate fairly, then gives the reader a list of options according to their situation. Included are individual cases that were interesting.
    • 4/5
      Fairly enjoyable read... It was very well written and kept my interest through most of the book. The research mentioned was current and presented in a non-technical manner. This book is not written just about gluten and the current fear of it. The book's subtitle "The Real Case For and Against Wheat and Gluten" is a bit misleading. This book is also about wheat - history, uses, development, people....so if you are a hellenologophobe do not despair!! Probably the biggest problem with "Grain of Truth" is in the last couple of chapters. The author tended to veer away from reviewed research and give more credit to individuals stories and personal experience.If you are interested in a little of bit of knowledge on wheat, gluten or the controversy surrounding the subject, give this book a whirl... It is worth the time.I was sent this book free as part of the LibraryThing review program.
    • 3/5
      This book started out incredibly annoying, with the author (self-proscribed Triscuit junkie) clearly going in, both barrels blasting, against "Wheat Belly" and "Grain Brain." Yet interestingly, he came to most of the same conclusions those books and their science did, e.g., the processed and genetically modified resulting product from wheat in processed foods is not good for us. He claims it could easily be all the other crap in processed food(s) and I can buy that as there is so much chemical content in processed foods, of course we feel better when we don't eat it (and do increase fruits, vegetables and nutritionally dense whole foods). However, he differs from the foregoing books in that he felt the genetically unmodified, organic whole wheat berry (and the products therefrom) is "okay" for the bulk of the population, especially with the addition of sourdough (which counteracts the difficulties some have with wheat). That said, I just kind of put the author's repetitive view of his own reactions/feelings aside (e.g., how he felt when he stopped wheat for 30 days, how his zest for eating plummeted when he omitted pasta/wheat from his diet and he felt nothing, good or bad - all he wanted to do was support his cause anyway, but it got a little amusing really), and just went with common sense and the fact that ALL humans react slightly differently to wheat, its derivatives, including gluten, sugars and mono salts. Yafa was very quick to rip on the gluten-free set as ignorant, lemming-like self-diagnosticians, which was insulting at best, as he never walked in my body, nor felt what I feel, physically and emotionally. So one has to take HIS opinions with a grain of salt throughout the book. Read the information and do what is best for you, based on all you have learned. But the history of wheat is fascinating, so was the manufacturing processes, gluten-free movement; and whole-wheat resources. Ultimately, I felt happy for the author, so he could continue to eat his pasta.