The Law of Unintended Consequences

  I’m bringing back a Wheat Belly Blog classic from several years ago, updated to today’s sensibilities and context. The creation of high-yield semi-dwarf wheat, intended to feed the world’s hungry, is a perfect illustration of the Law of Unintended Consequences on a massive worldwide scale.   It’s 1961. Jack Kennedy has been inaugurated as President, the Cuban missile crisis dominates headlines, and Hostess cupcakes and Twinkies are the rage in school kid’s lunch boxes. I was 4 years old, playing with toys on the floor while my mother ironed shirts, Divorce Court droning on the television, the scent of bread baking in the oven wafts through the living room. Let’s try and recast this common domestic scene in 2021. Well, I might be surfing on my computer going to battle against Facebook misinformation, the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic news on the TV in the background. New faces, new technology. But, beneath the surface, human life hasn’t changed all that much in 50 years. But if bread baking remained part of the picture, it would yield something different than the stuff our mothers used to make. The bread would look much the same with brown crust on the outside, the same alluring scent, the same texture, though ours might be a darker, heavier, fiber-rich variety than mom’s white flour product. But probe beneath the surface and you will find something entirely different than mom’s proud loaves. How different? In the late 1960...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Open wheat wheat belly Source Type: blogs