As a refresher, gluten is a protein composite found in foods
processed from wheat and related grain species including, barley, rye, and
malts. It is also used as a food
additive in the form of flavoring, stabilizing, and/or thickening agents. It’s in everything, especially the food
that is currently touted as “whole-grain.”
In the simplest terms, gluten is one of the single largest
food allergens. The way it
manifests itself is not necessarily what most people would associate with an
allergic reaction i.e. sneezing, rash, etc. It manifests itself in a much worse way. It causes damage to the lining of the
digestive tract, which can lead to systemic inflammation. This can cause a whole host of
diseases and conditions, including but not limited to infertility, diabetes,
depression, rheumatoid arthritis, narcolepsy, and hypothyroidism. (*). I am not saying these diseases and
conditions are caused by gluten. I
am, however, saying research shows there is a relationship between these diseases and
gluten.
Additionally, grains, particularly the gluten-containing
grains, contain molecules that fit into the opiate receptors in your
brain. These are the same
receptors that work with heroine, morphine, etc (*). Now I know why I am having such a hard time letting go of my
cupcakes. I am legitimately addicted!
Finally, grains are not nutritionally dense when compared
with other plant matter i.e. fruits and vegetables. You can get more fiber from a serving of broccoli than you
can from any product marketed as “whole grain”. Not to mention most “whole grain” products are highly
processed and full of unnecessary sugar.
Sorry to pee in your Cheerios.
The above information is fact, not fiction. For more information, go to http://robbwolf.com/, http://thepaleodiet.com/, and/ or http://www.marksdailyapple.com/. As a side note, I have met Robb Wolf
and attended several of his seminars.
He is a legitimate scientist, researcher, athlete, and New York Times
best selling author.
(*) Wolf, Robb.
The Paleo Solution; The Original Human Diet. Las
Vegas, NV: Victory Belt Publishing, 2010.
Print.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJMV provides an interesting prospective that I don't necessarily disagree with. If you look on my blog, no where will you find me advocating eating lots of anything. I could regurgitate something I recently read, but I know that wouldn't be good enough. So I am sending you directly to the source. Check out this blog post: http://robbwolf.com/2011/09/29/what-is-the-paleo-diet/.
DeleteAlso, you are right, 10,000 years ago, I would have eaten something sweet for a quick burst of energy. However, Little Debbie didn't enter the US marketplace until 1960, so I probably would have eaten berries, honey, or something else found in nature. :)
here is the gist of Kell was replying to...
DeleteSorry but eating lots of meat is also bad for you. There are legitimate scientists and researchers and athletes who disagree with Wolf. The actual original human diet (anthropologically) rarely contained meat because it was hard to catch and kill animals (picture yourself with a spear made with a stick and a sharpened rock (maybe) and no refrigerator...come on!). Ancient humans ate plants (because they are everywhere and don't run). Granted they didn't eat wheat flour. Recall the number 1 killer of people is heart disease and that is closely linked to changes in diet and exercise (namely a sharp spike in consumption of meat and a sharp decline in activity since WWII). Yes you are addicted to sugar because 10,000 years ago if you got your hands on something sweet you would eat it because it would have provided quick energy to your system if you needed it or could be stored for later. Also you would have eaten it until you couldn't eat anymore - because you didn't know when your next meal was coming. The problem with food today generally is that it is every where and we are still programed to try to conserve energy and store fat for when the food runs out - that just never happens to most of us in the US anymore.
I think no food or type of food can be strictly labeled bad or good for you. Anything is bad for you if you eat too much of it. The human body has the amazing ability to take almost anything and turn it into usable energy for our cells to live on - so we have the ability eat whatever is available. In nature this would give us a strong advantage for surviving harsh conditions but that strength can be a problem in the context of the modern US market place where food is cheap and every where and there are no commercials for broccoli.
ReplyDelete1. There are a few problems with your assertions JMV. First is that heart disease increases with an increase in meat consumption. Some epidemiologists have suggested this, but there are a few problems with their studies. Far too many of these studies are not done very well. For instance the latest “meat will kill you” study that was done (http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1134845) uses a food questionnaire to gather data from participants. The data was gathered over many years. Just as an experiment, I would like each of you reading this to write down the number of ounces of meat that you consume over the next decade, per sitting. Seems a bit impractical to me. Also as an aside, the Inuit of the Arctic region have very little heart disease and their daily food intake consists mainly of meat and fat.
ReplyDelete2. The idea that our original diet consisted of vegetable matter is somewhat of a moot point. The digestion of plant matter is somewhat arduous on the digestive system; therefore, it was quite the blessing that hominids started scavenging, then hunting, for the much more calorically dense meat, organs, and fat. We can thank them for starting the snowball rolling several million years ago. Thanks to those pioneers, a lot has happened. We have developed a much larger brain, a wonderful ability to use tools, and now top the food chain. Professors at UC Berkeley suggest that meat was quite important for human evolution. "I disagree with those who say meat may have been only a marginal food for early humans," said Milton. "I have come to believe that the incorporation of animal matter into the diet played an absolutely essential role in human evolution." http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/6-14-1999a.html
3. Increased meat consumption, post WWII = increased heart disease in the US. This notion largely comes from one man, Ancel Keyes. A research project of his, “The Seven Countries Study” examined heart disease rates in dozens of countries looking for support of his hypothesis that saturated fat intake correlated positively with heart disease mortality. He was able to put together a group of 7 countries that fit the bill, but only after discounting and excluding data from the 14 other nations that showed little to no correlation.
Great Discussion!
I agree with you Anon. there are problems with my assertions - but I feel the same is said for the assertions of people who tote their diet as the best diet of/for humans. The vast complexity of all the factors that contributed to the evolutionary success of modern human ancestors cannot be overstated. I think scavenging is a good word to use - animals do that when they are hungry and likely our pre-hominid ancestors were good scavengers. And you certainly don't need a well developed brain to know that life is better when you have plenty of food and if a good food source is found it should be maximally exploited. Increased nutrition in general allowed for hominid success - hunting would contribute to this but additional factors would be the beginnings of plant and animal domestication.... which would lead us to dairy products which Kell has just posted on. :)
Delete