Grains
Are They Really a Health Food?
Grains and legumes typically contain very high levels of a substance known as phytic acid. Phytic acid actively binds minerals and eliminates them from the body, which results, with increased grain consumption, in widespread deficiencies of minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. Legumes typically contain 60 percent starch and only relatively small amounts of incomplete protein, and they also contain potent protease inhibitors, which can damage one's ability to properly digest and use dietary protein and can also potentially damage the pancreas over time, when one is overly dependent on them as a source of calories.
Grains and legumes also contain goitrogens, or thyroid-inhibiting substances, as well as "foreign proteins" like gluten and gliadin, and they are an extremely common source of allergies and sensitivities that can lead to both physical and mental or emotional disorders, even when the best preparation methods are used.
One additional hypothesis suggests that the lack of the essential amino acid L-tryptophan in grains, which are now an unnatural and primary food source for commercially raised beef and poultry (not to mention humans), may help account for rampant serotonin deficiencies, clinical depression, anxiety, and some forms of ADD/ADHD in our populations.
Chronic carbohydrate consumption, in general, ultimately depletes serotonin stores and greatly depletes the B vitamins required to convert amino acids into many needed neurotransmitters.
Careful preparation by presoaking, sprouting, or fermenting these foods can minimize or even eliminate phytic acid and certain other anti-nutrients. Nonetheless, they remain a very-big carbobydrate food source. Many grains are also a source of an extremely damaging protein that has increasingly become a source of serious health problems for millions of people: gluten.
Since there is no human dietary grain requirement and since the consumption of grains causes so many known health problems due to their gluten content, antinutrient content, poor L-tryptophan profile, high omega-6 fat levels, and mainly starch-based content as well as their allergy and sensitivity potential, there is little reason to include grains in the diet of anyone seeking optimal health.
In fact, the fewer grains consumed, the better. Zero is by far the best.
The Weston A. Price Foundation, with whom I am proudly affiliated by membership, maintains that grains are okay since many more traditional post-agricultural societies were seemingly able to incorporate them healthfully as long as they were "properly prepared" (that is, pre- soaked, fermented, or sprouted). But rapid changes in the genetic robustness of our species (in our culture, particularly), especially as a result of poor prenatal diets over the last generation or two, have rendered many in today's world—particularly our children—much more vulnerable to and much more intolerant of grains, legumes, starch, milk, sugar especially, and other post-agricultural and processed foods in any form. These are also very-high-carbohydrate foods.
{Notice that she here criticizes Weston Price for saying grains were "okay if properly prepared" but then points out that grains today aren't what they used to be and should not be eaten. I think the same applies to about all vegetables.}
Our genetic resilience has changed and is continuing to change for the worse at an alarming rate. Health in this country is declining rapidly; many degenerative processes and illnesses once thought to affect only our aging population are now afflicting the young—and sometimes the very young. {...}
Gluten: A "Cereal Killer"
Just What Is Gluten, Anyway?
Gluten (from the Latin word for "glue") is a substance found in numerous grains such as wheat (e.g., durum, semolina, graham, spelt, kamut, and triticale), rye, and barley. It is typically present in oats, too, due mainly to modern processing methods. Small amounts of gliadin and related compounds are also present in corn products and cornstarch. All foods with a high content of prolamin (a plant storage protein) should be considered suspect. This includes all cereal grains, such as wheat (which contains gliadin, see list of wheat types above), rye (which contains secalin), barley (which contains hordein), corn (which contains zein), and oats (which contain avenin). Gluten is actually made up of two proteins: gliadin (consisting of twelve different fractions) and glutenin, which make up at least 80 percent of the protein content in most grains. Used in baking, it gives bread dough its elasticity and baked goods their fluffiness and chewiness. It is also used as an additive and stabilizing agent in innumerable processed foods and personal-care products. Insanely, gluten is almost everywhere. Laws do not require its labeling on all products, so consumers are left to judge for themselves whether gluten may be an additive. I personally don't trust any product that isn't clearly labeled "gluten-free."
For us humans, who have spent nearly all of the past 2.6 million years as hunter-gatherers, gluten (and its closely related compounds) is a very new inclusion to the diet and is very difficult for us to digest. To say that gluten can add complications to your health is putting things mildly. Problems with gluten are becoming epidemic, and although public awareness about this issue is certainly growing, there is more that is poorly understood by most people (including those in the medical fields) than not.
The weight of the scientific evidence supporting concerns associated with gluten is suffocating (with only the most minute smattering of scientific evidence actually presented here), while it is oddly and rather inexplicably ignored or even absurdly disputed by those in mainstream medicine.
In light of the overwhelming evidence from innumerable solid studies, it is quite clear that the consequences of gluten sensitivity (diagnosed or undiagnosed) can be lethal. And, no, I am not being extreme when I say this. The consequences are far broader than most suspect and very real. Gluten can ruin your life.
Although it is commonly associated with celiac disease, many people do not appreciate gluten's potentially incredible and very broad impact on the health of countless individuals or the commonality with which people are afflicted with nonceliac "gluten sensitivity," which is every bit as lethal as celiac disease. In fact, celiac disease is in actuality only one form of gluten sensitivity. It can be said that all celiac disease is a form of gluten sensitivity but not all gluten sensitivity is celiac disease.
Celiac disease, incidentally, is diagnosable rather narrowly as a state of what is termed "total villous atrophy of the small intestine." Villi (and microvilli) may be likened to what looks like shag carpeting that lines the inside of your small intestinal wall. The "shags" add necessary surface area to facilitate proper absorption of nutrients from the diet. If the villi are only partially worn down, no diagnosis of celiac disease is given. One is "awarded" the actual diagnosis only if your villi are completely destroyed and your shag carpeting has been transformed to flat Berber carpeting. It's the equivalent of being told you can be diagnosed with heart disease only if you've actually suffered a heart attack. The diagnostic criteria, as well as the testing available to diagnose the condition, have been woefully lacking, to put it kindly.
The result of celiac disease is severe chronic malabsorption of nutrients, leading commonly to other disease states and degenerative processes. An article in the journal Lancet Neurology stated, "Coeliac disease, or gluten sensitive enteropathy, is only one aspect of a range of possible manifestations of gluten sensitivity" (Hadjivassiliou et al. 2010).
Gluten is undoubtedly the silent root of a great many of the health challenges that millions of people face today, both physical and mental. It is rarely suspected as the underlying culprit in most instances, however, even by supposed medical authorities. Furthermore, the inherent presence of the morphine-like compounds called exorphins in grains makes gluten containing grains quite addictive and leaves many in frank denial of the havoc that gluten can wreak. Ignorance of gluten sensitivity and resistance to the awareness of what it is really all about are pervasive. The need for awareness and concern is very, very real. It is for this reason that the treatment of this particular subject here is so exhaustive. You really need to get this.
Allow me to elaborate.
Celiac disease (CD) and gluten sensitivity are generally defined as states of heightened immunologic responsiveness to ingested gluten proteins in genetically predisposed individuals. All celiac disease is a form of gluten sensitivity but not all gluten sensitivity is celiac disease. They are differentiated by their genetic markers—though the presence of genetic markers is not essential for gluten-induced enteropathy (intestinal damage) or "silent celiac disease" to occur, nor is the absence of these markers somehow "proof" that gluten isn't a problem.
It was once believed the genetic markers were necessary. Current studies have refuted this assumption, however. Also, the primary form of damage in celiac disease has been recognized as villous atrophy within the small intestine, though additional forms of damage may be found elsewhere in the body and may affect many other systems, including the brain.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed, had a significantly higher risk of death, particularly from heart disease and cancer (Ludvigsson et al. 2009J. It has been estimated (conservatively) that one in every two hundred people has full-blown celiac disease ("full-blown" being the only manner by which it is actually diagnosed), a devastating consequence of gluten consumption. Some researchers have recently hypothesized that this number may be closer to one in thirty—or perhaps even a great deal more common. In an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the authors wrote, "Celiac Disease is a much greater problem than has previously been appreciated" (Fasano et al. 2003). In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the author wrote, "Celiac Disease is one of the most common lifelong disorders in both Europe and the US" (Fasano 2003). And in an article in Pediatrics, the authors stated, "In the past 7 years, 1 in 4 children was diagnosed as having celiac disease in southern Alberta as a result of case-finding of associated conditions, consistent with data from the United Kingdom" (McGowan et al. 2009).
Gluten sensitivity (as opposed to celiac disease, not included in these same statistics) is considerably more common than full-blown celiac disease and is currently almost epidemic, if not ubiquitous in its scope.
The effects of and the markedly increased mortality risks associated with both full-blown celiac disease and gluten sensitivity happen to be virtually identical. Both are autoimmune conditions that create inflammation and immune system effects throughout the body.
Gluten can affect all organ systems (including your brain, heart, and kidneys), your extended nervous system, your moods, your immunological functioning, your digestive system, and even your musculoskeletal system—truly almost all of you, from your hair follicles down to your toenails and everything in between.
When it comes to the effects of gluten in the brain, exposure to gluten in a sensitive individual essentially shuts down blood flow to the frontal and prefrontal cortex (a process called cerebralfrontal/prefrontal hypoperfusion). This is the part of our brain that allows us to focus, to manage emotional states, to plan and organize, to consider the consequences of our actions, and to exercise our short-term memory. Over time, this can result in the generation of actual brain lesions, which in turn result in chronically impaired neurological functioning.
{One wonders if there is a type of "gluten mediated psychopathy"? Also, one has to consider the effects of gluten on the normal human and their capacity for empathy.}
In an article in Pediatrics, the authors stated, "The lesions in the brain may be the result of a decreased blood supply (hypoperfusion) caused by inflammation" (Kleslich et al. 2001). Note that hypoperfusion to the frontal and prefrontal cortex is additionally powerfully associated with cognitive impairment and conditions such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Know anyone with cognitive, emotional, psychiatric, or attentional issues? The frontal and prefrontal cortex is our brain's "executive function" control center and is the part of our brain that basically makes us the most human.
The inflammatory response invoked by gluten exposure additionally activates the brain's inflammatory microglial cells, which have no built-in inhibitory mechanisms and do not readily wind themselves down again. It can take many months for a brain-based inflammatory response to an antigen such as gluten to subside. The damage and neural degeneration this can cause over time, together with the effect of generating over-arousal of the sympathetic nervous system (the "fight-or-flight" response), can be significant.
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Opening the Floodgates
Gluten can also be looked upon as a "gateway food sensitivity." It is known to increase the levels of an enzyme in the body known as zonulin, which controls intestinal permeability. Elevated zonulin levels in the presence of gluten can also serve to allow other types of undigested proteins to slip past what would otherwise be more selectively permeable barriers and cause additional immunological reactions to other foods.
In an article in the medical journal Diabetes, the authors wrote, "We have recently reported a novel protein, zonulin, that modulates intestinal permeability by disassembling the intercellular tight junctions" (Sapone et al. 2006). They went on to say, "This protein, when upregulated, appears to play a key role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders." It is gliadin that activates the zonulin signaling pathway.
The authors of an article in the Journal of Immunology said, "Gliadin and its peptides interact with the intestinal epithelium increasing intestinal permeability through the release of zonulin that, in turn, enables paracellular translocation of gliadin and its subsequent interaction with macrophages within the intestinal submucosa" (Thomas et al. 2006). This is basically, in plain language, a total setup for autoimmune disorders.
Currently, as a collective whole, autoimmune disorders are the number three killer, behind heart disease and cancer, in the United States. Note that gluten is certainly not always the underlying cause of all autoimmune disorders. The most common causes are food sensitivities (particularly gluten sensitivity), environmental triggers, viruses, excess estrogen exposure, and heavy-metal toxicity. This said, even where gluten is not the primary cause of an autoimmune illness, it can almost always be suspected as an exacerbative factor. Let's just say it never helps.
An article in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences stated that "autoimmune disorders occur 10 times more commonly in celiac disease than in the general population" (Green et al. 2005). Of course, this is not even counting those people merely identified as gluten sensitive or those with less than full-blown celiac disease.
Despite the overwhelming association with autoimmune disorders, an article in the Journal of the America Medical Association stated, "Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death in celiac disease, followed by malignancy" (Ludvigsson et al. 2009). {Which of course makes one wonder how many people with cancer and heart problems are really just gluten sensitive and might never have become ill in its absence?} Is that piece of bread really worth the risk, especially considering the fact that only 1 percent of those people with celiac disease (or gluten sensitivity) have ever been properly diagnosed?
I'm taking lots of magnesium and potassium, have recently increased the amount of salt I'm eating, including it in my water. I also rubbed magnesium oil on both calves yesterday morning and this morning. I can't figure out why this happened to me. Anyone have any ideas? Can leg cramps happen from low calcium? I haven't been taking any calcium, although I did powder some egg shells recently and started putting a pinch in my water. Maybe it's time to start supplementing it more earnestly?
