GLUTEN
Malnutrition is often considered as the underlying cause of numerous illnesses. Nowadays, many people tend to prioritize their physical appearance over their gut health, which can have detrimental effects on their overall well-being. The consumption of processed foods on a daily basis has become the norm, with the belief that as long as the calories are balanced, it doesn’t matter what is being consumed. However, a damaged gut microbiome should not be considered a normal occurrence.
This guide aims to provide a gluten-free approach to bodybuilding and strength training, enabling individuals to gain muscle, lose fat and improve their overall health. By following the guidelines, one can ensure that their body is receiving the necessary nutrients to function at its best without compromising their gut health.
Grains
Grains are essentially plant seeds, which can be obtained from a crop consisting of several plants. Food grains are broadly categorized into two main groups: cereals and legumes.
- Cereals are a type of grass, and some of the most commonly consumed cereals include wheat, rice, maize (corn), barley, and oats.
- Legumes, on the other hand, comprise beans, lentils, peas, and peanuts. Although peanuts are not classified as nuts, they offer similar nutritional benefits.
There are a lot of epidemiological studies showing that people that eat more whole grains are healthier and leaner. The problem in concluding anything from this is that whole grain foods are traditionally regarded as a health food, so whole grain eaters are generally very health conscious.
Are Grains Healthy?
Although it is possible to statistically control for certain variables, doing so may not always be reliable because of the significant number of confounding factors. Additionally, researchers can only control and measure what is available in their dataset. The primary sources of energy for the average person include processed grain products and soda. Therefore, it is not surprising that consuming less of these processed foods and more whole grains is associated with improved health outcomes. Moreover, consuming more protein and fiber is linked to greater satiety, which can lead to a natural decrease in energy intake and ultimately result in weight loss.
To put it differently, the average person’s diet is often characterized by highly processed and unhealthy foods. In contrast, whole grains are marketed as a “major health food” due to their superior nutritional composition, especially when compared to the processed foods that are commonly consumed.
There are two main issues with many studies on grains:
- Firstly, they often use processed grains as the control group for whole grain consumption, which means these studies cannot provide insights into the health benefits of avoiding grains altogether. These studies only demonstrate that eating whole grains is likely better for one’s health than consuming processed grains.
- Secondly, most studies are funded by the grain industry lobby, leading to a significant funding bias. Such studies often use selection bias and cherry-picking methods to present grains in a positive light. It is worth noting that grains are relatively inexpensive to produce and highly profitable.
Randomized controlled trials are demonstrating only mixed support of the epidemiological literature [1], therefore it cannot be said that science strongly supports the recommendation to base your diet around whole grains, especially wheat.
Anti-Nutrients
Natural or synthetic compounds that interfere with nutrient absorption are referred to as anti-nutrients. To increase nutrient bioavailability, humans have bred crops to minimize anti-nutrients, and cooking methods have been developed to eliminate them from raw food materials. Many plants produce defense mechanisms to protect their seeds from being consumed by animals, including the production of anti-nutrients, which render the seed’s nutrients indigestible or unpleasant for animals. Anti-nutrients are particularly concentrated in grains.
While some of these anti-nutrients may have beneficial health effects in humans, such as reducing inflammation caused by high iron intake, in general they are considered detrimental as they significantly reduce the absorption of minerals. Ironically, grains are often marketed for their high mineral content, but their absorption and micronutrient content is significantly lower than that of animal foods, most vegetables, or organ meat, when compared calorie for calorie. For instance, only 13% of magnesium in bread with phytic acid is absorbed by the body and iron uptake from bread can be as low as 3.8%. Phytic acid not only binds to minerals but also to protein. Additionally, several anti-nutrients inhibit trypsin and pepsin, which are enzymes needed by the body to digest protein.
Very little research has been done regarding the effect of anti-nutrients on protein balance in humans. Some things that we know include:
- Mexican diets with more anti-nutrients resulted in a 23% lower digestibility of protein, several fold lower nitrogen balance and several fold lower digestibility of minerals.
- Soybeans are loaded with anti-nutrients, which explains why soy has a poor ability to stimulate protein synthesis or inhibit protein breakdown.
- Brown rice consumption results in significantly lower nitrogen balance than white rice due to the anti-nutrients found in whole rice. Anti-nutrients reside mostly in the bran, so white rice does not have many anti-nutrients left, since they are removed along with most of the nutrients.
Rice contains far fewer anti-nutrients than most other grains. Rice contains over 3 times less phytic acid than wheat, one of the anti-nutrients most well-known to make protein indigestible. Wheat is likely far more detrimental to your protein balance than rice, especially white rice.
Anti-nutrients affect not just the digestibility of the protein you eat, but they also affect the protein that’s already in the body. During digestion, a significant portion of the nitrogen and amino acids in the digestive tract originate from the own body’s constant turnover of protein to assist with digestion. Under normal conditions these amino acids are going to be reabsorbed into the body, but anti-nutrients can inhibit this process, resulting in a loss of these amino acids from the body.
There are several traditional methods however, like soaking legumes and rice, fermenting, sprouting and souring, that not only eliminate many anti-nutrients, but also degrade the gluten and FODMAPs in wheat. Since all these methods have been traditionally used for thousands of years, it’s easy to understand that many cultures learned from experience about the negative effects wheat can have on the gut.
Wheat
In addition to the anti-nutrients, there are more concerns with wheat specifically than with other grains. These concerns are:
- Wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors
- Lectins (WGA)
- Gluten
- Low-fermentable, poorly-absorbed, short-chain carbohydrates (= FODMAPs: fermentable, oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols.)
Gluten
Gluten is a type of protein that is naturally present in certain grains like wheat, barley, and rye. Although the term “gluten” technically refers only to wheat proteins, in the medical literature it encompasses a combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins that are found in all grains and have been shown to trigger celiac disease. This includes various species of wheat like common wheat, durum, spelt, khorasan, emmer, and einkorn, as well as barley, rye, certain oat cultivars, and cross hybrids of these grains (such as triticale). In bread wheat, gluten makes up about 75-85% of the total protein content.
Gluten is highly valued in both food and non-food industries due to its unique viscoelastic and adhesive properties, particularly in Triticeae glutens. These properties are responsible for giving dough its elasticity, helping it rise, and maintaining its shape, resulting in the desired chewy texture of the final product. Additionally, gluten is relatively inexpensive, which adds to its value.
Wheat gluten consists primarily of two types of proteins: glutenins and gliadins. These proteins can be further subdivided into high molecular and low molecular glutenins, and α/β, γ, and Ω gliadins. Similar seed storage proteins in barley are called hordeins, in rye they are called secalins, and in oats, they are called avenins. Together, these protein classes are commonly referred to as “gluten”. While the storage proteins in other grains like maize and rice are sometimes referred to as gluten, they do not cause harmful effects in individuals with celiac disease.
Bread produced from wheat grains contains gluten. Gluten can trigger adverse inflammatory, immunological and autoimmune reactions in some people. The spectrum of gluten related disorders includes celiac disease in 1–2% of the general population, non-celiac gluten sensitivity in 0.5–13% of the general population, as well as dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten ataxia and other neurological disorders [1, 2]. These disorders are treated by a gluten-free diet.
Celiac Disease
Many “evidence-based” nutritionists (without clients) argue that gluten is perfectly fine if you don’t have celiac disease.
When suffering from celiac, feeding with gluten will break down the lining of the small intestine, leading to cramping, diarrhea, and yellow-colored stools that float in the toilet bowl because of undigested fats. If this is allowed to progress over years, the celiac sufferer becomes unable to absorb nutrients, loses weight and develops nutritional deficiencies, such as deficiencies of protein, fatty acids, vitamins B12 , D, E, K, folate, iron, and zinc.
The broken-down intestinal lining allows various components of wheat to gain entry to places that they don’t belong, such as the bloodstream, a phenomenon that is used to diagnose the condition. Antibodies against wheat gliadin, one of the components of gluten, can be found in the blood. It also causes the body to generate antibodies against components of the disrupted intestinal lining itself, such as transglutaminase and endomysium, two proteins of intestinal muscle that also provide the basis for the two other antibody tests for diagnosis of celiac, transglutaminase and endomysium antibodies. Additionally, otherwise “friendly” bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tract are also permitted to send their products into the bloodstream, initiating another range of abnormal inflammatory and immune responses.
Until a few years ago, celiac was believed to be rare, affecting only one per several thousand people. As the means to diagnose the disease have improved, the number of people with it has expanded to 1 per 133. Immediate relatives of people with celiac disease have a 4.5% likelihood of also developing it. Those with suggestive intestinal symptoms have as high as 17% likelihood.
Improved diagnostic testing has led to the discovery of more cases of celiac disease, and there has been an increase in its incidence. However, despite the fact that 1 in 133 people in the United States have celiac disease (equivalent to over two million individuals), less than 10% of them are aware of it.
While 50% will experience the classic cramping, diarrhea, and weight loss over time, the other half show anemia, migraine headaches, arthritis, neurological symptoms, infertility, short stature (in children), depression, chronic fatigue, or a variety of other symptoms and disorders that, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with celiac disease. In others, it may cause no symptoms whatsoever but shows up later in life as neurological impairment, incontinence, dementia, or gastrointestinal cancer.
While 50% will experience the classic cramping, diarrhea, and weight loss over time, the other half show anemia, migraine headaches, arthritis, neurological symptoms, infertility, short stature (in children), depression, chronic fatigue, or a variety of other symptoms and disorders that, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with celiac disease. In others, it may cause no symptoms whatsoever but shows up later in life as neurological impairment, incontinence, dementia, or gastrointestinal cancer.
The ways that celiac disease shows itself are also changing. Until the mid-80s, children were usually diagnosed with symptoms of ”failure to thrive” (weight loss, poor growth), diarrhea, and abdominal distention before age two. More recently, children are more likely to be diagnosed because of anemia, chronic abdominal pain, or with no symptoms at all, and not until age eight or older [1], [2].
In one large clinical study at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, the number of children diagnosed with celiac disease
increased eleven-fold from 1998 to 2007. Interestingly enough, 53% of children at the hospital who were diagnosed with antibody testing yet displayed no symptoms of celiac nonetheless reported feeling better with gluten elimination.
Parallel changes in celiac have been observed in adults, with fewer complaining of “classic” symptoms of diarrhea and abdominal pain, more being diagnosed with anemia, more complaining of skin rashes such as dermatitis herpetiformis and allergies, and more showing no symptoms at all.
A study performed at the Mayo Clinic provides a unique snapshot of celiac incidence in US residents from half a century ago The researchers acquired blood samples drawn fifty years ago for a streptococcal infection study, and kept frozen since. The frozen samples were collected during the period from 1948 to 1954 from more than 9,000 male recruits at Warren Air Force Base (WAFB) in Wyoming. After establishing the reliability of the long-frozen samples, they tested them for celiac markers (transglutaminase and endomysium antibodies) and compared results to samples from two modern groups. A modern “control” group was chosen that consisted of 5,500 men with similar birth years to the military recruits, with samples obtained starting in 2006 (mean age 70 years). A second modern control group consisted of 7,200 men of similar age (mean age 37 years) at the time of the blood draw of the Air Force recruits.
While abnormal celiac antibody markers were identified in 0.2% of the WAFB recruits, 0.8% of men with similar birth ages and 0.9% of modern young men had abnormal celiac markers. It suggests that **the incidence of celiac increased fourfold since 1948** in men as they age, and has increased fourfold in modern young men. Recruits with positive celiac markers were also four times more likely to die, usually from cancer, over the fifty years since providing blood samples.
A similarly constructed study was conducted in Finland. 7,200 male and female Finns over age 30 provided blood samples for celiac markers from 1978 to 1980. Twenty years later, in 2000-01, another 6,700 male and female Finns, also over 30, provided blood samples. Measuring transglutaminase and endomysial antibody levels in both groups, the frequency of abnormal celiac markers increased from 1.05% in the earlier participants to 1.99%, a near doubling.
This latest increase in celiac disease has been paralleled by an increase in type 1 diabetes, autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, and allergies.
Gluten Intolerance
Regrettably, because those with celiac disease make up only 1-2% of the general population, wheat and gluten are frequently disregarded as a concern. Some physicians may even advise consuming gluten and whole grains because they are believed to be “healthy.” However, many of these charlatans fail to recognize (due to biased teaching since their medical education) that a significant proportion of the population, estimated by some doctors to be up to 33%, have some level of sensitivity to wheat.
Gluten sensitivity is often the real cause of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). IBS is basically a diagnosis-by-exclusion problem. Doctors say that a patient has IBS if the patient has digestive problems but the doctor can’t find a cause for them. IBS can often be treated by excluding certain FODMAPs from the diet, strongly suggesting that a large part of the population has an intolerance to certain FODMAPs.
To entirely disregard the harmful components of wheat just because a small fraction of the population has a severe gluten allergy is a foolish act. However, instead of acknowledging this fact, some people would rather see you unwell or convince you that consuming wheat in large amounts is beneficial so that they can profit financially.
The primary symptoms of wheat sensitivity include bloating, gas, mild stomach cramps, and fatigue. It is important to note that the positive effects of gluten withdrawal cannot always be attributed to a placebo effect, especially in cases of non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study found that NCGS patients experienced IBS-like symptoms more frequently when treated with gluten (68%) compared to those on placebo (40%). Another study found no significant differences between celiac disease and NCGS patients in terms of personality traits, somatization levels, quality of life, anxiety, or symptoms of depression. In fact, both diseases had low levels of somatization. Furthermore, NCGS patients’ symptom increase after a gluten challenge was not associated with personality.
A double-blind placebo controlled study confirms the physiological reality of gluten sensitivity, although the nocebo effect may still play a role for some individuals. The cause of wheat sensitivity is still debated, with some researchers suggesting that it may be due to FODMAPs rather than gluten. Additionally, studies have found that modern wheat expresses celiac-triggering gluten proteins at higher levels while expressing fewer non-celiac-triggering proteins.
This makes perfect sense, as the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries work hand in hand in order to increase their profits.
Studies have also showed that modern wheat is not the same as the wheat of the past: “The selection of wheat varieties with higher gluten content has been a continuous process during the last 10,000 years, with changes dictated more by technological rather than nutritional reasons. Wheat varieties grown for thousands of years and mostly used for human nutrition up to the Middle Ages, such as Triticum monococcum and T. dicoccum, contain less quantities of the highly toxic 33-mer gluten peptide”, as well as that the effect of ancient vs. modern wheat on your digestion is significantly different.
How Wheat Harms Digestion
Gliadin, a component of gluten, increases intestinal permeability, more commonly known as ‘leaky gut syndrome’. Gluten’s damage to the lining of the gut is most severe in people with a deficient immune system and people with a bowel disorder, but an immune system response also occurs in healthy individuals without either disorder.
This means that gluten causes your gut to leak, whether you think you’re sensitive to gluten or not.
Leaky gut can cause chronic inflammation, not only in the gut but also in the rest of your body, particularly your joints, so wheat can make you more susceptible to injury as well as hinder muscle growth due to inflammation.
Even though some studies suggest that markers of chronic, whole-body inflammation only increase in relation to whole grain intake in individuals with poor carb tolerance, other research has directly linked gluten intake to chronic inflammation even in people without celiac disease.
A statistical significance is not reached in all studies, however processed grains in particular seem to increase chronic inflammation levels. This may be the case because the comparison is often with other dense carbohydrate sources, which are also inherently inflammatory themselves.
Compared to diets with a similar glycemic index and fiber content, whole grain based diets are less effective at reducing inflammation, suggesting that the fiber and the antioxidants in whole grains are protective against the inflammatory effect of gluten and WGA, however the overall net effect is generally neutral for whole grains, not positive like for fruit and vegetables.
Contrary to popular belief, going gluten-free does not harm your gut microbiome. The studies cited often replaced wheat products with gluten-free substitutes, which are typically highly processed. However, these studies also showed that even when refined flour replaced wheat, inflammation decreased. Therefore, gluten-free products, even the subpar ones found in supermarkets, are still better for your gut than modern wheat.
When it comes to anabolic hormone levels, gluten may have negative effects if you have some degree of intolerance. In people with celiac disease, gluten consumption increases prolactin levels. Prolactin decreases anabolic sex hormone levels and libido in both genders.
Another problematic protein found in wheat is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). WGA is a lectin. “Lectins are present in a variety of plants, especially in seeds, where they serve as defense mechanisms against other plants and fungi. Because of their ability to bind to virtually all cell types and cause damage to several organs, lectins are widely recognized as anti-nutrients within food“. Most lectins are resistant to heat and the effects of digestive enzymes, and are able to bind to several tissues and organs.
WGA in particular causes inflammation in human gut and immune cells and humans produce antibodies against WGA. The result is that WGA increases intestinal permeability creating a ‘leaky gut’.
There is some speculation that lectins may contribute to leptin resistance. Leptin is known as “the satiety hormone,” and if it is impaired, it can lead to increased appetite over time. It should be noted, however, that cooking or boiling food can almost entirely disable lectin activity. Therefore, human trials have not shown that lectins affect relevant health markers. However, lectins in bread may still be potentially harmful.
In addition to lectins and gluten, wheat also contains wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors (ATIs). ATIs interact with gliadin causing an immune response and creating inflammation in the gut.
A whole grain diet has been found to be no more effective for fat loss than a processed grain diet [1], [2]. It seems that whole grains may indeed cause a slight disadvantage to fat loss, enough to cancel out the benefits of fiber and protein. Any small metabolic effect is likely related to the inflammatory effect of wheat on the digestive system, which can significantly impact energy expenditure, energy loss in stool, and nutrient partitioning [1].
During resistance training, the detrimental effect of wheat may be even more severe, since the decreased protein digestion and the inflammatory blunting of muscle growth can worsen nutrient partitioning as well as energy expenditure much further.
How Wheat & Gluten Destroy Your Health
The archaeological record and observations of modern hunter-gatherer societies suggest that humans almost never developed diabetes nor died of diabetic complications before grains were present in the diet. [1] The adoption of grains into the human diet was followed by archaeological evidence of increased infections, bone diseases such as osteoporosis, increased infant mortality, and reduction in life span, as well as diabetes. Additionally, some diabetic children show evidence for celiac disease when diabetes is first diagnosed, more will show celiac signs over the ensuing years.
Wheat is among the most potent sources of sulfuric acid, yielding more sulfuric acid per gram than any meat. (Wheat is surpassed only by oats in quantity of sulfuric acid produced.) Even in a diet limited to 35% of calories from animal products, adding wheat shifts the diet from net alkaline to strongly net acid.
When wheat is removed from the modern diet and the lost calories are replaced with other plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts, the pH balance shifts back into the alkaline range, mimicking the hunter-gatherer pH experience.
Wheat products also cause LDL particles to shrink to 23 or 24 nm. Small LDL particles have more time to cause atherosclerotic plaque, lasting an average of five days compared to the three days of large LDL. When exposed to an oxidizing environment, small LDL particles are 25 percent more likely to oxidize than large LDL particles. When oxidized, LDL particles are more likely to cause atherosclerosis. Compared to large particles, small LDL particles are also eightfold more susceptible to endogenous glycation; glycated small LDL particles, like oxidized LDL, are more potent contributors to atherosclerotic plaque.
The antigliadin antibodies triggered by gluten can bind to Purkinje cells of the brain, cells unique to the cerebellum. Brain tissue such as Purkinje cells do not have the capacity to regenerate. Once damaged, they are gone forever. In addition to loss of balance and coordination, wheat-induced cerebellar ataxia can show such odd phenomena as, in the arcane language of neurology, nystagmus (lateral involuntary twitching of the eyeballs), myoclonus (involuntary muscle twitching), and chorea (chaotic involuntary jerking motions of the limbs).
One study of 104 people with cerebellar ataxia also revealed impaired memory and verbal abilities, suggesting that wheat-induced destruction may involve cerebral tissue, the seat of higher thought and memory. Only limited recovery of neurological function occurs with wheat gluten elimination due to the poor capacity of brain tissue to regenerate. Most people simply stop getting worse once the flow of gluten stops. In one study of thirty-five gluten-sensitive patients with peripheral neuropathy who were positive for the antigliadin antibody, the 25 participants on a wheat and gluten-free diet improved over 1 year, while the 10 control participants who did not remove wheat and gluten deteriorated.
The effect of wheat on the brain is more than just influence over mood, energy, and sleep. Actual brain damage is possible, as seen in cerebellar ataxia. But the cerebral cortex, the center of memory and higher thinking, the storehouse of you and your unique personality and memories, the brain’s “gray matter,” can also be pulled into the immune battle with wheat, resulting in encephalopathy, or brain disease. Gluten encephalopathy shows itself as migraine headaches and stroke-like symptoms, such as loss of control over one arm or leg, difficulty speaking, or visual difficulties.
One British research group has diagnosed 61 cases of encephalopathy, including dementia, due to wheat gluten.
When it comes to other neurological disorders, 1 to 5.5% of celiac sufferers can be expected to be diagnosed with seizures] [1]. Temporal lobe seizures triggered by wheat gluten are improved after gluten elimination [1]. Epileptics who experience the much more serious generalized (grand mal) seizures are twice as likely to have gluten sensitivity in the form of increased levels of antigliadin antibodies without celiac disease.
Cultures without acne consume little to no wheat, sugar, or dairy products. Cultures that rely only on foods provided by their unique location and climate allow us to observe the effects of foods added or subtracted to the diet. Acne-free populations such as the Kitavans of New Guinea exist on a hunter-gatherer diet of vegetables, fruits, tubers, coconuts, and fish. The Paraguayan Aché huntergatherers follow a similar diet, along with adding land animals and cultivated manioc, peanuts, rice, and maize, and are also spared completely from acne.
Japanese Okinawans, probably the most long-lived group on planet earth, until the 1980s consumed a diet rich in an incredible array of vegetables, sweet potatoes, soy, pork, and fish. Acne was virtually unknown among them.
The diets of African Bantus and Zulus differ according to season and terrain, but are rich in indigenous wild plants such as guava, mangoes, and tomatoes, in addition to the fish and wild game they catch. Once again, acne is absent.
As Western influence introduced processed starches such as wheat and sugars into groups such as the Okinawans, Inuits, and Zulus, acne promptly followed.
Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist that published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration in 1939, detailed his global travels studying the diets and nutrition of various cultures. The book concluded that aspects of a modern Western diet (particularly flour, sugar, and modern processed vegetable fats) cause nutritional deficiencies that are a cause of many dental issues and health problems. The dental issues he observed include the proper development of the facial structure (to avoid overcrowding of the teeth) in addition to dental caries.
As a side note, a badly designed and misinterpreted study compared the effects of a chocolate bar versus a “placebo” candy bar, concluding that there was no difference in acne observed among the sixty-five participants regardless of which bar they consumed—except that the placebo bar was virtually the same as the chocolate bar in calories, sugar, and fat content, just minus the cocoa. This gave birth to the myth that chocolate promotes acne.
Dermatitis herpetiformis is yet another way that an immune reaction to wheat gluten can show itself outside of the intestinal tract. Most DH sufferers do not experience intestinal symptoms of celiac disease, but most still show intestinal inflammation and destruction characteristic of celiac. People with DH are therefore subject to all the potential complications shared by people with typical celiac disease if they continue to consume wheat gluten, including intestinal lymphoma, autoimmune inflammatory diseases, and diabetes. An incredible range of conditions beyond DH, like oral ulcers, cutaneous vasculitis, acanthosis nigricans, erythema nodosum, psoriasis, vitiligo, Behçet’s disease, dermatomyositis, Icthyosiform dermatoses and Pyoderma gangrenosum, are also triggered by wheat gluten, some associated with increased levels of celiac antibodies, others not.
Wheat consumption also causes alopecia areata due to a celiac-like inflammation of the skin.
Practical Applications
Stop eating gluten. Wheat and gluten containing products offer no nutritional advantage. Avoid them like the plague.
Wheat is a widely used ingredient in packaged foods primarily due to its low cost of production, which allows manufacturers to make significant profits at the expense of consumers’ health. Additionally, the popularity of wheat-based products is driven by the convenience and laziness of consumers who prefer cheap and readily available options.
Follow an ancestral diet that’s rich in red meat protein sources, fish, low FODMAP vegetables, fermented foods like sauerkraut and goat kefir, fruits, raw honey, eggs, butter, quality raw dairy, potatoes and white rice.
Practical Applications
Stop eating gluten. Wheat and gluten containing products offer no nutritional advantage. Avoid them like the plague.
Wheat is a widely used ingredient in packaged foods primarily due to its low cost of production, which allows manufacturers to make significant profits at the expense of consumers’ health. Additionally, the popularity of wheat-based products is driven by the convenience and laziness of consumers who prefer cheap and readily available options.
Follow an ancestral diet that’s rich in red meat protein sources, fish, low FODMAP vegetables, fermented foods like sauerkraut and goat kefir, fruits, raw honey, eggs, butter, quality raw dairy, potatoes and white rice.
Summary
Tldr; Malnutrition is the root cause of all disease. Eating refined foods on a daily basis will lead to a destroyed gut microbiome.
Grains are seeds derived from plants. Grains are divided into 2 main groups: Cereals (wheat, rice, maize/corn, barley and oats), and Legumes (beans, lentils, peas and peanuts).
The average person’s diet is so shit and unhealthy, whereas whole grains are labelled and marketed as a major health food, at least when compared to all the processed foods the average person eats.
Most studies use processed grains as the control group of whole grain consumption, so the only thing they can tell us is that it’s probably “healthier” to eat whole grains over processed grains, and since the funding for most, if not all studies, comes from the grain industry lobby, it makes sense that the studies will rule to their favor. There is use of blatant selection bias and cherry-picking, in order to put a positive spin on everything related to grains. Don’t forget that grains are extremely cheap to produce and highly profitable.
There is only mixed support of the epidemiological literature, therefore it cannot be said that science strongly supports the recommendation to base your diet around whole grains, especially wheat.
Anti-nutrients are natural or synthetic compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients. Many plants have evolved defense mechanisms in order to protect their seeds from being eaten by animals. One of these mechanisms is the production of anti-nutrients making the seed’s nutrients impossible or uncomfortable to digest by animals. These anti-nutrients are particularly highly concentrated in grains.
Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in some grains including wheat, barley, and rye.
Many “evidence-based” nutritionists (without clients) argue that gluten is perfectly fine if you don’t have celiac disease.
People suffering with celiac disease are only about 1-2% of the general population, so wheat and gluten are often dismissed as something that you don’t have to worry about. Doctors will even tell you that you should eat gluten and whole grains because they’re “healthy”.
Gliadin, a component of gluten, increases intestinal permeability, more commonly known as ‘leaky gut syndrome’. Gluten’s damage to the lining of the gut is most severe in people with a deficient immune system and people with a bowel disorder, but an immune system response also occurs in healthy individuals without either disorder.
This means that gluten causes your gut to leak, whether you think you’re sensitive to gluten or not. You can also become celiac or develop an intolerance at any age.
Leaky gut can cause chronic inflammation, not only in the gut but also in the rest of your body, particularly your joints, so wheat can make you more susceptible to injury as well as hinder muscle growth due to inflammation.
The archaeological record and observations of modern hunter-gatherer societies suggest that the adoption of grains into the human diet was followed by archaeological evidence of increased infections, bone diseases such as osteoporosis, increased infant mortality, and reduction in life span, as well as diabetes.
Wheat is among the most potent sources of sulfuric acid and destroys the body’s pH balance. Wheat and gluten consumption are associated with neurological disorders, acne, dental cavities and a variety of dermatological conditions. These disorders are treated by a gluten-free diet.
Wheat and gluten containing products offer no nutritional advantage. Avoid them like the plague.
Follow an ancestral diet that’s rich in meat protein, healthy fats, and some low FODMAP fermented foods, fruits and vegetables.
