History of Wheat in Canada - The Canadian Encyclopedia

In Canada, wheat probably was first grown at PORT-ROYAL in about 1605; the first exports were made in 1654. Although personnel at some HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY posts experimented with wheat, and the settlers at the RED RIVER COLONY had some success in 1815, the early years in western Canada were precarious ones for wheat farmers. Many cultivars from Europe were tried: some were winter wheats that could not survive Canada's severe winters; others were spring wheats that matured too late for the short growing season.
The cultivar Red Fife, developed in Ontario, became very popular because of its good yield and excellent milling and baking qualities. By about 1870 Red Fife was very popular on the prairies but it, too, froze in the fields in years with early frosts. Later investigations have revealed that Red Fife is actually the central European cultivar Galician.
William SAUNDERS, first director of the Dominion Experimental Farms, was interested in plant breeding. His son, Sir Charles SAUNDERS, took over the wheat-breeding work in 1903 and developed the cultivar Marquis (see MARQUIS WHEAT) from a cross, made some years earlier, between Hard Red Calcutta and Red Fife. He had a small increase plot (12 plants) of Marquis in 1904, but it took several years to verify that it matured earlier than Red Fife and had excellent yield and superior milling and baking qualities. It was distributed in the spring of 1909 and quickly became very popular throughout Canada. Western wheat production was increasing rapidly at this time: 2 million t, 1904; 3.7 million t, 1906; 7.7 million t, 1913. Red Fife and Marquis made Canada famous for its high-quality hard red spring wheat. Marquis was later adopted as the statutory standard of quality for this class of wheat, a position it held until 1987.

Years ago when we lived temporarily in Japan and the United States I missed the excellent quality of  Canadian-grown wheat, most particularly for yeast baking. The quality of the flours available in both Japan and the United States simply did not match that of Canadian-grown wheat, and the baking products that came out of my oven was inferior in comparison to what I regularly baked in Canada. On our return to Canada after years abroad, my impression was validated once I resumed baking in my own kitchen.

And now, wheat and wheat products with their high-gluten properties have been accused of compromising the health of humans. The theory being, according to the increasingly popular Wheat Belly, written by Dr. William Davis - a cardiologist who has focused on high gluten content contained in wheat products as the major culprit in swift rises in blood sugar and the human body's reaction - is deleterious to those with diabetes, and to others in the general population as well.

It is precisely the high gluten properties of Canadian-grown wheat that make it so suitable for yeast-raised bread products. Home-baked yeast goods are far superior in quality and content to commercially produced breads with their cotton-batten texture and questionable preservative qualities that the consuming public has become so accustomed to. But it is all uses, domestic and commercial, of gluten-full wheats that have been placed in Dr. Davis's condemnatory cross-hairs.

Who contends that the wheat currently grown, milled and placed in the marketplace of human consumption bears little resemblance to the types of wheat that our forbears were accustomed to, more 'natural' types of wheat, not contaminated with agricultural scientists' interfering research. Research that resulted from the need to give wheat a longer shelf life, and to produce a type of wheat that bore greater yields to feed a hungry planet with its growing population base.

Wheat was transformed from its traditional natural guise to a Franken-grain, Dr. Davis contends, injurious to human health, and responsible for the growth of celiac disease within the general population, and other consumers' discomfort and weight-gain as the body attempts to process and draw nutrition from products that are less nutritious and challenge the human body to adjust to the differences in the newer product with the wheat germ and bran removed.

Evidence is mounting, he claims, that new strains of wheat are straining the human metabolism; hybridized/genetically modified what protein - gluten - represents a completely new challenge for the human body to properly digest. "Celiac disease is the canary in the coal mine", Dr. Davis warns, concerning wheat consumption. Bread containing gluten has a whopping big glycemic index; table sugar has a GI of 59; a slice of whole grain bread, a GI of 72.

Spikes in blood sugar wear out the body. Resulting, eventually, in glucose-protein combinations that are glycation end-products; end-wastes that may lead to cataracts, dementia, wrinkles, coronary artery disease, cancer, arthritis. These developments may occur as a result of blood glucose-increasing effects eventually leading to this overload on the human body and destruction of normal body tissues and function. According to Dr. Davis.

A lot of people are convinced by his arguments; his theory intersects with scientific research that seems to corroborate to some degree his thesis. Using non-gluten products to replace ordinary wheat to produce baked goods that we have become accustomed to and rely upon to form the basis of much of our human diet, is not particularly rewarding. Finding those replacements has become easier than ever, but the end-product of their use is disappointing; texture and taste are dismal.

Perhaps the solution to the dilemma now being posed by more people than ever becoming alert to their nutritional health and the possible consequences of consuming wheat products is the moderating influence of awareness of over-consumption. Which is to say over-consumption of any food stuffs. Which brings us to the Golden Mean and the understanding that moderation is the key to all of life's successes.

I'll stay with ordinary wheat products. I've seen and tried and tasted the 'best' recipes for wheat replacements and have not been impressed one little bit. Food should be appealing, it should taste good and challenge our sensory appetites. Eating gluten-free food is a necessity for those unfortunates among us diagnosed with celiac disease, it is not an imperative for those with normal digestive systems.

Eating modestly and appreciating the food eaten may be the key to remaining healthy; a disciplined modicum of awareness required.