by PF Louis
October 17, 2012
from
NaturalNews Website
This title is the same as a recent
GreenMedInfo. It contains a list of over 200 health problems, with
celiac disease at the top and including many more not normally
associated with
gluten intolerance.
The author and founder of GreenMedInfo, Sayer Ji, prefers the
term gluten toxicity to gluten sensitivity or
gluten intolerance...
"in order to shift the focus away
from the victim back to the aggressor, the gluten itself."
Sayer Ji's
GreenMedInfo article lists all the
disorders linked to
gluten. They are hyperlinked to articles and
abstracts of clinical studies recorded in MedLine since 1971.
Explaining the
attack on wheat and other grains
Negative reports on wheat and other grains have risen considerably
in the past decade.
The dramatic rise of
Celiac disease, a chronic gut
inflammation that destroys intestinal villi (tiny tubes) responsible
for absorbing nutrients, has been a major focus.
The gluten toxicity that brings on Celiac disease and other
autoimmune reactions is mostly from peptides contained in gluten
known as gliadin proteins, which damage the intestinal tract.
In addition to Celiac disease, which if undetected leads to
malnutrition that creates other diseases, gluten toxicity can result
in several other manifestations of poor health, including chronic
fatigue and mental disorders.
Lectins, sticky proteins common to
all plants for self defense, are a prominent feature of wheat
germ agglutinin (WGA). In addition to flattening out intestinal
villi and causing Celiac, they can penetrate gut linings and create
leaky gut.
Once lectins get into the blood stream, they can bind to
leptin
receptors, blocking the leptin sensitivity that lets you know you've
had enough to eat, creating a sluggish metabolism, and disrupting
insulin balance. In other words, it leads to obesity and diabetes.
So how did the "staff of life" become a weed of disease?
For starters, wheat is not the same today. It has been
hybrid over time to resist fungus, grow more quickly, and be more
pliable for industrial bread baking. 50 years or so ago, wheat
contained only five percent gluten. Today, it is 50 percent gluten.
The food industry's concern for production efficiency and perception
of consumer demands has focused on the bottom line with the usual
disregard to the negative health consequences of fellow humans.
Breads and other baked goods are hastily produced with additives and
short cuts that are actually toxic.
In the UK, some of Europe, and North America, slightly different
high speed methods of baking evolved over time. By adding
"improvers" with usually toxic additives and mixing the dough
violently, loaves of bread could be baked, cooled, and packaged
within a few short hours.
Agricultural resources then sped up the hybrid process for wheat to
accommodate the baking industry's mechanical requirements of pliable
proteins, leading to the 10-fold increase of wheat's gluten since
that time.
This situation has permeated almost all nations.
There are some exceptions; for instance,
most of Europe doesn't permit chemically bleaching flour to produce
white bread. They use sunlight to "bleach" wheat.
Having your
cake and eating it too
Not all of us are prepared to
go strictly Paleo and exclude all
grains and legumes (gluten-free
diet) .
Some of us still prefer not to eat
animals, and if the food supply bottom falls out, many aren't ready
and able to kill and skin deer or other animals to survive.
Grains such as rice and dried legumes are easy to hoard and use for
survival if the store shelves become empty overnight. The common
concern for rice and legumes is
phytates or phytic acid, which can block
minerals from being absorbed in our bodies.
Overnight soaking, a prerequisite for cooking dry beans, has been
known to minimize phytates, or phytic acid. Rice can be soaked
overnight as well. The process of cooking itself reduces phytic
acid.
Using sprouted wheat flour can ameliorate some of WGA's
toxicity. Baking with sourdough starters instead of normal baker's
yeast can help also, while combining both may be optimum. It appears
Whole Foods bakery does so.
Wheat's gluten toxicity is reduced by sourdough starters properly
fermented for 24 hours or more.
A University of Alberta Canadian cereal
microbiologist, Michael Gaenzle, suggests that
sourdough bread, homemade or from a
trusted bakery, may be at least a solution for gluten toxicity.
He referred to a study where recovered Celiac patients suffered no
consequences from eating fermented (sourdough) wheat bread for two
days. Those who ate regularly produced wheat bread did have a
relapse.
The demand for continuing at least a partial grain diet safely has
inspired one company, Vitamin Research Products to offer a
natural supplement called
Lectin Lock, which they claim will
help reduce WGA gummy lectins.
Chronic health issues may or may not be from WGA toxicity.
Katherine Czapp, whose WATF
article is linked below, suggests testing for Celiac disease with
Enerolab.
Sources
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