,,Wheat revolution” and the health aspects of consuming
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/HERB.2025.006Keywords
wheat, gluten, celiac diseaseAbstract
Wheat is one of the most widely grown crops in the world and is a major and renewable source of food, feed and industrial raw materials. Over the centuries, as a result of the domestication of ancient grain varieties and the genetic engineering procedures used to improve the crop’s fertility and resistance to unfavorable growing conditions, both the phenotype and genotype of most crops have been altered. Today, wheat cultivation is at a very high level on a large scale, as the volume of the crop in 2022/2023 was about 800 million tons, of which about 95% of the wheat produced is Triticum aestivum – the species usually referred to as ordinary “bread” or
“soft” wheat. Although some 25,000 varieties of wheat dominate the fields today, there is a return to organic farming based on ancient varieties such as flatbread, semolina and spelt. They seem to be beneficial for improving the nutritional composition and quality of wheat plant products consumed by consumers. In addition to protein, wheat contains fat, carbohydrates and dietary fiber in the form of resistant starch, as well as vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals such as polyphenols. Wheat starch itself is considered an important ingredient in the commercial cultivation of this grain, while the primary one in terms of value and usefulness in food production is wheat gluten. The purpose of this paper is to collect scientic literature answering the frequently asked question for health reasons: do we need to reduce or completely eliminate grain products, or do we go back to the old varieties of cereals, known for several thousand years and organic farming?
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