Can Scientists Find Acceptance for GMO Gluten-Free Wheat?

Once again, I have to point out the overwhelming ignorance of "scientists". Dr. Tom O'Bryan has switched from talking about "gluten sensitivity" to "wheat sensitivity" after researchers at Columbia University have identified five more categories of proteins in wheat that celiacs react to, in addition to prolamins and glutelins as gliadin and glutenin. My diagnosing physician has told me that someone born with celiac disease but not diagnosed until late in adulthood will react to every part of wheat and many things that the patient ate with wheat. She said that there is a "Pavlov's dog" effect on the immune system. And in view of the mistake at the General Mills factory of using wheat flour in Cheerios, how can anybody trust that gluten-free wheat will be used instead of regular wheat. And how can you think that gluten-free wheat will not be cross-pollinated by regular wheat? And what good will gluten-free wheat be to anyone? It will just be gross cardboard dust.

My father was a chemist and one of my brother's worked with scientists who were developing GMO grains 30 years ago. I don't have the 'GMOs are dangerous and scary' mindset. I am totally in favor of science finding solutions to my health issues. It is true that "gluten sensitivity", "gluten allergy", and "wheat sensitivity" are different things, so this particular breakthrough may not help every gluten sensitive person, but I believe that it is a step in the right direction.

Thanks for this article. I think we're wasting the potential of GMO foods on things like Roundup Ready Corn. I would be in favor of gluten-free wheat, but this article says it reduces the response by 85%. That may not be enough for those who already have it. It might be better as a preventative to reduce the incidence of celiac disease in those who haven't developed it yet. If it were adopted as the wheat used in processed foods, then it could potentially do a world of good to everyone by not exposing them and not sensitizing them in the first place. I think that for me, I am too far gone to be helped, but I'd love to imagine a future for my family in which they have never heard of celiac. To do that, it will also be necessary to make gluten-free barley and rye, and possibly oats. Oats are still in the gray area of gluten-free because some people react to avenin. If embraced, this could really give us a better future.

And what exactly would be the use of gluten-free wheat? Without gluten, it won't be any better in making bread and pastry than any other naturally gluten-free grains. Try making bread with wheat strains that only contain 3% of gluten and you will see for yourself, and I assume that is still way more gluten than the gluten-free would have. Another issue will be to keep the crop uncontaminated because it will probably look the same as regular wheat, maybe adding a gene to make it resistant to some herbicide will solve that? Yummy. Not worth the effort.