When I first found out that a friend of mine had gone gluten-free, I thought she had gone nuts. It was in the early 2000’s, and I did not know about GMOs, glyphosate, or the government's failings in food regulation. I thought I could buy anything on the grocery store shelves and that my family would be fine as long as I kept our sugar intake to a low roar. But suddenly, not just one but then two and three friends were gluten intolerant or had Celiac. What a nightmare, I thought. It's literal hell on earth for me. No pizza? Croissants? French bread at restaurants? I scoffed at the preposterous concept and dismissed it completely. They were crazy. It was not for me.

Fast forward a few years, after my three young sons had stopped waking me up in the middle of the night. I was supposed to be rising from bed rested, yet I still had extreme fatigue. I was napping every day, had eczema, off-the-charts irritability after meals (which seemed to last all day), and my marriage was on the rocks. I finally got diagnosed with gluten sensitivity - to the modern protein gliadin that is in hybridized wheat. When I found out, I felt the kind of impact one feels when their dog had just died. That’s how much I loved bread. But I went gluten-free because I loved my family, our relationships, and my ability to stay awake, be a pleasant mom and wife, and be a productive citizen.

I immediately felt better. Within 2 weeks, I felt like a new person. Within 6 weeks, I had lost 16 pounds and had no exercise. After three babies, my waistline curved inward, and I felt I could wear a bikini and feel good. I still ate occasional gluten-free cookies but not dairy, so I felt clear-headed, happier, and more energetic.

Millions of people in America today can probably relate to this story in one form or another. Twenty million eat gluten-free, and probably tens of millions more don’t know it but are reacting to eating modern wheat and should be eating gluten-free. Over six hundred million people around the world eat gluten-free. Some report that 40% of women over 40 are gluten intolerant, and most don’t know it.

What is happening? How can we fix this?

First of all - why could human beings eat wheat for thousands of years, but all of a sudden, they are rashing out, gaining weight, becoming extremely fatigued and highly irritable, and then getting divorced after eating a muffin?

Well, times have changed. More specifically, farming has.

In addition to wheat being hybridized to contain a modern protein called gliadin, which many people are testing to be intolerant to, there has also been a huge shift in farming technologies. GMOs were introduced into the food supply in the late 1990s, and although GMO wheat was not approved, spraying tens of thousands of acres at a time with agrochemicals became common.

Farmers discovered that spraying an entire field of non-GMO wheat, peas, beans, legumes, oats, or other grains dries out the crop quickly, allowing them to harvest more to their liking and not be beholden to Mother Nature’s fickle ways. Soon, farmers were spraying 280 million pounds of glyphosate on GMO crops AND using it as a drying agent on grain crops. Glyphosate does not wash, dry, or cook-off. The residues are absorbed into and remain in the food we consume. At this time, a huge spike in Celiac disease was beginning to be recorded.

Autoimmune diseases and allergies skyrocketed. People with eczema, fatigue, irritability, and pre-arthritis began flooding doctors' offices. Doctors were baffled but did the best they could - they diagnosed them with MS, IBS, PCOS, extreme fatigue ( what is that called) syndrome, depression, and anxiety and put them on dozens of medications. It was a hay day for big pharma companies like Astra Zenaca, which conveniently happened to be the sister of big ag companies like Syngenta. Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, and Bayer all have divisions or sister companies that make the pharmaceutical drugs that make us “better” but also sell the chemicals that give us the symptoms and make us unwell in the first place. One would be naive if they didn’t start becoming suspicious of their motives. One thing we know for sure - it’s a perfect profit circle for them.

Several years after the introduction of GMO and glyphosate-sprayed foods, and wheat was a highly reactive ingredient for millions, gluten-free foods became in high demand, and more and more showed up on grocery store shelves. The ingredients contained soy, corn, rice, peas, beans, lentils, and legumes. Unfortunately, these crops are also sprayed with glyphosate as a drying agent. According to the Celiac Foundation, 50% of people who eat gluten-free still have reactions. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine to surmise that gluten-free food may have glyphosate in it and could be contributing to the health issues of people with Celiac and gluten intolerances. When our dear friends and supporters asked us, “I am eating organic food and gluten-free bread, and yet I still have gut dysbiosis, anxiety, fatigue, and irritability. Why is this? What can I do?” We told them we suspected glyphosate was in the products, maybe even gluten. We realized that the FDA was not addressing this, we needed to take matters into our own hands.

Moms Across America sent popular gluten-free foods to be tested by an accredited laboratory. We found that 44 out of 46 samples contained glyphosate. We found pesticides, low minerals, and even levels of gluten that exceed FDA limits in 4 products. Over 95% contained glyphosate levels that, according to our 60-year plant pathologist advisor, Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus at Purdue University, are harmful and should be avoided. This was extremely disappointing and frustrating. I eat most of these foods, chosen by a survey of our MAA members, every week. EWG also recently tested and found high levels of glyphosate in hummus and in chickpeas, which is one of my favorites. What the heck was I going to eat now?

The dilemma is real. We all have to eat something, and poison is not partisan. No matter our political background, race, or religion, we all need to eat. No matter our budgets, we all need to eat—and even apparently, the highly wealthy are being poisoned by expensive, gluten-free foods, and even some organic foods contain low levels of glyphosate.

The solution?

1. Avoid highly processed foods as much as possible. Do we really need to eat muffins, pop tarts, or cereals for breakfast, whether they are gluten-free or not? How about an avocado, two eggs, and a handful of berries instead?
   
   
2. Choose the foods that tested the lowest for contamination on our list.
   
   
3. Send a message by social media to @Banza and the other companies to #CleanUp! Their food products and make their products #glyphosatefree. Remind them that we don’t want them to allow their suppliers to switch to some other poison, so also post #toxinfree. Tag your Senators and Representatives, too!
   
   
4. Detox daily. Seek a doctor for medical advice. Some options to discuss with them are sweating, jumping to flush lymph nodes, consuming bentonite clay, cilantro, or chlorella in smoothies, activated charcoal, and using a bowel mover to flush out the toxins.
   
   
5. Moms Across America has a heavy metal and pesticide detoxer by BioRay called Primary Detox that tastes good and can be squirted into your/your child’s mouth daily. We also have a Gluten-Away supplement by Thrive that supports the gut if you accidentally eat gluten.

Note: Contrary to some statements by the opposition, Moms Across America does not conduct the testing we do so that we can then “make money off selling supplements”. We do the testing we do because it fulfills our mission to educate and empower mothers and others with actions they can take (better choices in the grocery store) and we sell health solutions as a fundraiser for our programs so we can continue doing our work to create healthy communities. We have been repeatedly asked not just to share the problem but also to share a solution. We “make” very little money selling the supplements, and it all goes back to being able to expose the truth and empower people more. We share the information about them mostly to show that, until our government does its job to regulate and clean up the food supply, there are solutions to support your health. You have choices, you can still be empowered.

We wish to thank Centner Academy and many supporters for supporting the gluten-free testing. To help Moms Across America test more foods, please donate at moms. Moms Across America is a 501c3, and your donation may be tax deductible.