Wheat has been a staple food in many societies for millennia. People were used to eating a lot of wheat in the form of bread, biscuits, pasta, etc. Some populations, like in many states of north India, had diets based on wheat (in the form of chapatis and rotis) and not much more. Still, until the 1950s people were relatively healthy, with few cases of diabetes, gluten intolerance, and cancer. This changed in the last few decades. 

The fact is that the wheat we eat changed radically in the last century. The first modification was an aggressive process of selection and hybridization of the wheat seeds. The plants became much shorter and the grains much bigger. While this resulted in great productivity gains (leading to the so-called green revolution), the resulting grains became very different from what people were eating in the previous centuries. The wheat became very rich in simple starches and the gluten content skyrocketed. At the same time, the content of vitamins and minerals became much lower. 

Few are going to disagree that sugar is bad for our health. Apart from being high-glycemic and favoring weight gain, another problem with sugar is that the body needs a lot of different minerals and other nutrients to metabolize it (it’s quite a complex process executed by the liver). Natural sources of sugar, like sugarcane and dates, are also rich in minerals, as well as fibers, therefore the body gets what it needs. When the sugar is refined, such nutrients are lost, and the body has to sacrifice its own stock of nutrients to metabolize the sugar, which leads to different problems. In other words, nature created fruits and vegetables rich in sugar as a package that contains what the body needs to metabolize it. The problems start when we dismantle the package and take only the sugar. 

In the 19th century, the US had a serious ecological crisis: after extracting the fibers, cotton planters were throwing the seeds in the rivers, creating pollution. As a response, the government passed a law prohibiting the practice. This became a problem for the planters, as the cotton seeds started to accumulate in their properties. For every 100 kilos of cotton fiber that one can get from the plants, there are 162 kilos of cotton seeds, so we can just imagine the huge piles of cotton seeds sitting in the farms.

Some intelligent man developed a technique to extract oil from the seeds, using chemical solvents. This oil was not considered edible, therefore it was sold as lamp oil. Since this oil was essentially made out of garbage, it was cheap to produce and therefore his company was able to make a good profit. 

Later, cheaper kerosene oil made from petroleum pushed him out of business. He had then one of these crazy ideas: Maybe instead of selling his oil as lamp oil, he could make people eat it! After perfecting the production of the cottonseed oil, and adding a hydrogenating process, he came up with something that could be used in place of butter or lard. This led to the creation of a product called Crisco, that made millions of dollars to the people involved.

Almost everything in excess can become bad. For example, water is essential for life and therefore the general recommendation is to drink plenty of water. However, even water in excess can be harmful. In certain conditions (like serious dehydration), people can even die if they drink too much water!

Another example: selenium is an essential mineral that plays a critical role in metabolism and thyroid function, helping also to protect the body from oxidative stress damage. Lack of selenium can cause a multitude of problems, including even a higher risk of cancer. However, too much selenium can also cause problems, like hair loss, nail brittleness, nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, fatigue, irritability, and so on. Similarly, many other nutrients can become toxic if the dose is too high. Thus we can understand that a balance is necessary. 

Of all the different health problems we face nowadays, three are especially significant. In fact, most other health conditions are caused or accentuated by these three. By solving these three problems we become less susceptible to all kinds of diseases, from flu to cancer. Incidentally, all three of them are connected with our eating habits.

One interesting point about health is to understand how disease is cured and how damage to the body is healed. Let’s imagine that someone broke a leg and went to the hospital to fix it. The doctor takes an X-ray to see how bad it is, does some manipulation to put the bone in its proper place, uses plaster to immobilize it, and sends the patient back home with the recommendation to rest and drink plenty of milk.

We can see that the doctor can’t directly fix the bone. All he can do is to create the necessary conditions so the body can heal it, by immobilizing the leg and giving it calcium and other nutrients, so the body has the necessary raw materials to heal it. In any case, all the healing is done by the body. The doctor can just adjust the conditions so the body can heal itself. We can observe that in most other conditions.

The Ayurveda, as well as most other systems of traditional medicine, are based exactly on restoring the equilibrium of the body, so it can heal itself. The most basic condition for this to happen is that the body has the proper raw materials and the proper conditions. That is precisely what our modern lifestyle negates.

There are two essential factors for good health: we need to do exercise, and we need to eat well, maintaining a proper diet. The exercise part is relatively simple: anything that makes one move, like walking, yoga, cycling, or even doing house chores will help. However, when we come into diet and eating habits, things become more complicated. There is so much contradictory advice around that one will have a hard time reaching any kind of conclusion. 

I did a lot of research on this area in the past and reached some interesting conclusions, supported both on the Ayurveda and by modern studies. These are rules of the thumb that you can use to maintain or to regain your health and of your family. 

Actually, having a proper diet is even more essential than exercise. If one can keep a healthy diet, he can prevent many different health problems, keep the immune system working properly, and increase the longevity of the body, without having to spend time and money on different treatments.