Grain Brain

What’s in wheat? I recently did a story about who do you believe when it comes to wheat. There was the TV doctor side and then there was the wheat producers side. Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson and I had a chat. “Wheat has been taking a hit from all of these Dr. Ozs and his associates, with the whole gluten-free and wheat belly and now a book comes out called the ‘Grain Brain’. What do you make of all of that? There are a lot of people who want to sell books. We just encourage the consumer to make sure that any decisions that they are making is based on good science. With wheat belly and ‘Grain Brain’ we haven’t seen any good science yet behind their claims that are being made. You also have people saying that wheat has changed from what it was 100 years ago or 200 years ago and that is really not true. Wheat is still wheat. We have some fascinating information that we provide to anybody that is interested in the specifics of it but those claims that are being made are not based on good science. So I can continue to eat my chicken salad sandwich on wheat? (Laughter) absolutely. I do. I try to eat as healthy as I can and I have not found anything in wheat that would cause me to eat less of it. We do encourage, just like the USDA encourages people to make it whole wheat or whole grain and I am eating more of the whole grain and less of the refined wheat. Okay, so Orowheat and not Wonder Bread.”