WSU: Researchers Develop Wheat That Fights Celiac Disease

More than two million Americans suffer from celiac disease.  Researchers at Washington State University have created a new genetically distance wheat variety that’s safer for people with celiac disease.  WSU’s Sachin Rustgi said this this opens the door for new treatments and healing potential for the staple grain.

He says often those with celiac disease cut wheat from their diet, but he noted there are long term concerns on that diet.  Specifically when it comes to the bacteria found in your guy that can be altered on a gluten free diet.

“And that actually has long-lasting side effects.  So, if you keep going on a gluten free diet, you will alter your gut bio microbiomes significantly, and eventually introduce problems like colon cancer, or even like metabolic syndromes like you could go into diabetic problems.”

Rustgi said the benefits don’t end with those suffering for celiac.  He said altering grains in this fashion could offer greater benefits into the future.  Allowing missing nutrients and vitamins to be added to the wheat’s genes, which would be a huge benefit for the poorest counties where balanced foods are difficult to come by.

“These altered grains would be available to general public, so you wouldn’t need any medicine from the outside, it would already be packaged in the grain, so it would be available and assessable to even the poorest in the world.”

Scientists at WSU worked with Clemson University, partner institutions in Chile, China and France to develop this new genotype of wheat.

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