Who among us doesn't love the smell of freshly baked bread?

Most of us crave wheat nearly as much as sugar. Unfortunately, large numbers of people, perhaps even the majority of the populaton, are negatively affected by the major protein in wheat called gluten. And most of them are not affected by the bowel as in classic celiac disease.

My last two girlfriends had severe problems with wheat that were quite debilitating. One would develop very dry skin, while in the other one it affected her brain. She would become extremely fatigued after eating wheat and felt as if she had taken a sleeping pill.

Yes, wheat can affect many parts of your body so you need to be careful. If you never realized it was a possiblity (like most physicians) you would not even be aware that it could cause these types of symptoms.

Last year, I wrote about the needless treatments that children were given in a British hospital for severe and unexplained abdominal pains. Back then, I warned that the abdominal problems were probably the result of gluten intolerance.

The high incidence of gluten intolerance is a microcosm of conventional medicine's inability to recognize the real problem right in front of them. As a result, that very same scenario is playing out all over America, too.

The informative USA Today article linked above describes the frustrating plight of a number of families whose children were misdiagnosed for years, including one severe case in which one sibling stopped growing and the other suffered from asthma and anemia and couldn't gain weight normally.

Based on my experience, gluten intolerance is a common problem that can be treated very easily by eliminating gluten and most grains from your daily diet.

The responses I received in regard to this article when I posted it in my blog anecdotally bear out both the high incidence of celiac disease, the frequency with which doctors fail to diagnose it, and the effectiveness of a grain- and gluten-free diet. One person wrote:

"I have had asthma, multiple drug allergies.  Less then 2 days into [a gluten-free] Diet my tummy woes (an embarrassing and uncontrollable amount of flatulence) had ended (as if a switch had been turned to "off,") and my energy level soared?

Heartburn, osteoporosis, arthritis, early-onset Alzheimer's, pancreatitis, macular degeneration, stubborn obesity and low energy levels, depression, mood disorders, how many of these suffers are primarily suffering from Celiac Disease!"

Another noted, "I was diagnosed with this condition when I was 32 years old -- I am now 39."

The prevalence of celiac disease is yet more evidence that contemporary humans simply have not evolved mechanisms to incorporate starch- and sugar-rich foods, which are relatively new in the human diet, at least at the scale they are eaten. In short, we are consuming far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn (a grain, not a vegetable), rice, potatoes and Little Debbie snack cakes, with very grave consequences to our health.

A diet high in grains causes far more problems than this dangerous autoimmune response. That 65 percent of Americans are overweight, and 27 percent clinically obese, in a nation addicted to sesame seed buns for that hamburger, with a side of French fries and a Coke, is no coincidence.

It is not the fat in the foods we eat but, far more, the excess carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-loaded diet that is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes.