Of all grains, wheat is most widely cultivated worldwide. Wheat is third among all cereals, behind maize and rice, in total global production and wheat supplies up to 20% of the energy intake of the global population. The demand for wheat for human consumption is also increasing globally, including in countries, which are climatically unsuited for wheat production, due to the adoption of western-style diets.

Several popular and trending diets, such as the Paleolithic diet (low carb), the wheat avoidance advice proposed by Davis, in “Wheat Belly” and Perlmutter in “Grain Brain, have suggested that wheat consumption has adverse health effects leading to numerous chronic diseases. Globally many (social) media statements followed that gluten and wheat disease, thus should be avoided. Along these developments, a new commercial ‘Free From products’ trend (Free from gluten, Free from Fodmaps) developed, based on marketing that wheat related compounds should be avoided, which amplifies the public perceptions of the social media concerns. As a result, a worldwide “avoid gluten and wheat” trend has developed over the recent years.

However, there appear to be many misinterpretations, selective citations and non facts based conclusions that have fuelled many communicators to show the public primarily negative aspects of consuming grains while not giving balanced views related to specific target groups such as celiac disease patients, vs. the population as a whole. In this respect, there is a need to have available fact based and easy language communications that can help consumers to make well informed choices.

With the research questions that are being addressed by the project WoW it is aimed to deliver answers to a number of questions that are related to concerns about the health effects of grains, especially modern wheat types vs. ancient wheat types.
The WoW - universities research consortium, aligned with ‘Health Grain Forum’ will act as a trustful data source and aims to help communicate evidence based, news about grains, especially the various wheat types and health.