Wheat Belly Total Health: The effortless grain-free health and weight-loss plan

Wheat Belly Total Health: The effortless grain-free health and weight-loss plan Dr William Davis The sequel to the bestselling Wheat Belly shows you how to take the advice one step further by going grain-free and discover the benefits of losing weight easily and achieving a level of radiant health and well-being you never thought possible.This sequel to the Number One bestseller Wheat Belly takes a grain-free lifestyle to the next level. Many lessons have been learned since the original Wheat Belly was released, and this book is packed with new tips and strategies that heal the damage caused by a grain-filled diet. Understanding these strategies can improve your health that much more, even if you have experienced significant improvements by eliminating wheat from your diet already.Clearing your body of wheat is the same as breaking an addiction and each body will respond differently. Wheat Belly Total Health addresses how to go grain-free and also explores the issues that arise on each person’s unique journey to optimal health. In Part I, Dr Davis exposes the hidden history of wheat production. In Part II, he dives into the nitty-gritty of how to master a grain-free lifestyle. In Part III, he shows readers how to improve their health even further, including how to achieve better energy, mental clarity, mood, metabolic health and much more. Resources, a practical shopping guide and a unique collection of recipes makes this the ultimate guide to living grain free. Copyright (#u800c1a42-5FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) Thorsons An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk) This edition published by Thorsons 2015 FIRST EDITION © William Davis 2015 Cover photograph © Getty Images Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015 A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library William Davis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. 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Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/green) Source ISBN: 9780008145859 Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 9780008145880 Version: 2015-06-18 To all the readers who have the boldness, courage and conviction to rebel against conventional dietary advice and discover what real nutrition can do for human health Contents Cover (#u800c1a42-1FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) Title Page (#u800c1a42-2FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) Copyright Dedication (#u800c1a42-4FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) Introduction Part I: No Grain is a Good Grain: Grazed, Grass-Fed and Fattened Chapter 1 Liberate Your Inner Cow: Life Ungrained Chapter 2 Let Them Eat Grass Chapter 3 The Reign of Grain Chapter 4 Your Bowels Have Been Fouled: Intestinal Indignities from Grains Chapter 5 Grains, Brains and Chest Pains Part II: Living Grainlessly: Restoring the Natural State of Human Life Chapter 6 Grainless Life: Beginnings Chapter 7 Grainless Living Day-to-Day Part III: Be a Grainless Overachiever: The Next Steps to Reclaiming Grain-Free Total Health Chapter 8 Correct Nutritional Deficiencies Caused by Grains Chapter 9 Full Recovery from Post-Traumatic Grain Gut Syndrome Chapter 10 Grainless Metabolic Mastery: Regain Control over Blood Sugar, Cholesterol, Bone Health and Inflammation Chapter 11 The Annoyed Thyroid: Booby Trap for Weight and Health Chapter 12 Endocrine Disruption: Trouble in the Gland Scheme of Things Chapter 13 End the Self-Defeat: Recovering from Autoimmunity Chapter 14 What If the Weight Doesn’t Come Off? Chapter 15 Clearer, Smarter, Faster: Grain-Free Performance Epilogue Appendix A Recipes for Total Health Appendix B Grain Pain: Watch Out for Hidden Sources of Grains Appendix C A Grain-Free Shopping List Appendix D Resources Endnotes List of Searchable Terms Acknowledgements Other Books by William Davis About the Publisher (#) Introduction (#u800c1a42-5FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) You’ve been grained. Beaten, demoralized, discouraged, your life and health have been bankrupted by ‘healthy whole grains’. The worst of the bunch is modern wheat: the Judas of dietary ‘wisdom’, despot of the breakfast bowl, tyrant of the bakery cabinet, the semi-dwarf darling of agribusiness. Your eyes were sprouting cataracts, your arteries were stiffening, your skin was wrinkling and plagued with rashes, your joints were sore and arthritic, your organs were inflamed, your belly fat was expanding, your blood sugar was climbing and man breasts may even have been sprouting. Your mind was clouded by fog, your medication list was growing and your schedule was fouled by mad scrambles for the nearest bathroom – all while you were being driven to consume more and more of the food that all official providers of nutritional advice advised you to consume . . . until you put an end to the whole mess as a result of the revelations made in Wheat Belly. You boldly removed foods that enjoy the blessings of agencies in the business of dispensing dietary advice. You defied the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its MyPlate and MyPyramid. You scoffed at the urgings of the Surgeon General’s office. You thumbed your nose at the advice of the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. You sniggered at the antics of the wheat lobby and wheat trade groups as they desperately launched wave after wave of damage control. You removed grains like a festering abscess that refused to heal until lanced, and you discovered that health and vigour began to reappear. I’ve experienced this personally. When I removed all ‘healthy whole grains’ from my life, it reversed my diabetes until I became confidently nondiabetic, I was freed from mind fog that persisted no matter how many cups of coffee I drank and I found relief from the annoying symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. My triglyceride level dropped from 350 to 42 mg/dl, my HDL increased from 27 to 97 mg/dl, and the dark thoughts and moods that I had struggled with for many years were simply erased. I did the opposite of widely accepted health advice and experienced a transformation in health. Coming to the realization that conventional nutritional advice has as much value as old chewing gum stuck on the pavement can’t help but make you sceptical about whether most sources of health advice are objective, unbiased and based on science in the first place. At best, dietary advice was driven by incomplete or misinterpreted data, an army of dietitians and ‘experts’ unwittingly doing the dirty work of distributing the information. At worst, it was advice that served the ambitions of agribusiness and other powerful interests, all working to commoditize the human diet – yes, commoditize, or derive maximal financial gain by persuading us that the human diet should be dependent on foods that are inexpensive, indifferent to quality, blind to source, traded and arbitraged on a massive scale, and hungrily desired by the masses. Yes, you were grained. When we peel back the veneer of marketing, trumped-up science, the appeal of convenience, and the yank of addiction, we find that, as a civilization, we made an enormous dietary blunder about 10,000 years ago: we mistook the seeds of grasses – first consumed in desperation – as food. We then allowed this mistake to balloon, not only perceiving this mistake as the discovery of a dietary staple, but as a food ideal for human consumption. Recognizing the ills of modern wheat in Wheat Belly was the first step, but now we can take another major step and eliminate all grains. Once that is accomplished, we proceed even further along the path towards total health by identifying and undoing all the harmful effects we’ve accumulated during our grain-consuming years and that can persist even in the aftermath of grain removal. That’s why I call this approach ‘Total Health’. In Wheat Belly Total Health, we are going to explore in greater detail why this dietary detour has caused more human disease and suffering than all the wars of the world combined. We’ll discuss why and how experts joined in on this mass hysteria, even co-opting government agencies and policies into the delusion and creating an example of collective madness larger than the Salem witch trials or the fearmongering of the Red Scare, making absurd practices such as bleeding with leeches or frontal lobotomies seem quaint. We will then take this journey of discovery further, discussing how, after you undo this grain-induced mess, you can pick up the pieces and reconstruct diet and correct weight, hormonal status and other facets of health you may have thought were out of reach. There are aspects of life that are beyond your influence – genetics, family and shoe size, for instance – but most of the factors that colour your day-to-day existence are indeed under your control. Removing grains is the courageous first step, but there are plenty more steps to climb to fully undo the years of health abuse you’ve endured. In this book, there are wonderfully empowering strategies for you to consider to heal the wounds received during your grain-consuming days and unravel the tangle of health problems that developed. Once you’re grain-free, you may be left with disruptions of bowel flora and digestive function, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic conditions like osteoporosis. These will all need to be addressed. You may find that medications previously prescribed to treat a long list of grain-related health conditions are no longer necessary. Some people take their diets on other unhealthy detours, such as by introducing gluten-free grains or unhealthy sweeteners, and discover that, while they may not be as bad off as when they consumed grains, they’re striking compromises in health that needn’t be struck. All these issues must be addressed to find your path back to total health, ungrained. Brace yourself for revelations about diet and health that you’ve probably never heard, even if you were an avid reader of the original Wheat Belly. In Wheat Belly Total Health, I follow a no-holds-barred, sacred-cows-be-damned, reach-for-the-skies attitude. My goal is not to titillate, nor to astound, but to inform without the influence of agribusiness interests or the bias of flawed epidemiology. I’m going to ask tough questions while discarding preconceived notions to get to the root of dietary wisdom. There we discover that, minus grains, not only does a long list of chronic health conditions dissolve, but you are also capable of achieving new heights of health and life performance that you had only previously imagined were possible. We relieve this emperor of his new clothes while watching his huge wheat belly and man breasts shrink, his swollen joints flex and his seborrhoeic skin clear. We observe his further health gains by dodging all other grains, then reclothe him in fabrics truly fit for a king. That king will be you, in all your noble, grain-free glory. The Grain-Free Experience: A Crowd Pleaser I could not have written Wheat Belly Total Health three years ago when the original Wheat Belly book came out. So many people have engaged in this lifestyle change, so many doctors and health-care professionals have come to embrace these concepts, so many new lessons have been learned as the worldwide rejection of the ‘healthy whole grain’ message has grown that have crowd-sourced a steady stream of new and unexpected lessons. Wheat Belly Total Health distils the wisdom gained from the millions of people who have embraced grain-free living and rediscovered what it means to be fully healthy and alive. We are collectively undoing what humans have managed to botch for 300 generations, and we are doing it while dietitians, the USDA and other defenders of the status quo harrumph, protest and cast insults as they watch their last 40 years of work crumble beneath their feet. The Information Age explodes with the empowered wisdom of crowds, shared at lightning speed and dispelling conventional ‘wisdom’ as fast as sexting can take down a congressional career. We’ve learned, for instance, that wheat intolerance really means intolerance to all grains since, after all, they are all genetically related grasses. (Yes, grasses, just like the stuff in your backyard or what’s munched on by goats and horses. We will discuss the implications of this simple biological realization in some detail.) We learned that virtually everyone benefits from reestablishing healthy bowel flora after removing grains. We learned that iodine deficiency is making a comeback and can impair weight loss and health improvement efforts. Many removed wheat and enjoyed increased energy but didn’t experience the full return of youthful vigour because synthetic perchlorate fertilizer residues and brominated flour whiteners from bagels and pizza impaired thyroid function, leaving them with less-than-perfect ability to control weight, a head of prematurely thinning hair and sluggish bowel function. As more and more people have said no to grains, we have recognized that, while grain elimination is powerful, there may be metabolic derangements that block weight loss and must therefore be addressed, no matter how meticulous the diet. We gained a better understanding that autoimmune, inflammatory and neurological conditions require additional efforts to maximize the potential for a rebound to total health. We’ve come to appreciate that the entire package of benefits from grain elimination goes beyond, say, weight loss, and adds up to an astoundingly powerful collection of health-restoring, anti-ageing, youth preserving, performance-enhancing and life-prolonging practices. Even if you’ve already enjoyed a major health success by eliminating wheat, understanding the strategies articulated in Wheat Belly Total Health and putting them to use can take your health efforts several steps further. If you are among the many people who have shed 2, 4, 8 or even more stones of wheat-induced visceral fat and reversed one or more health conditions, there are still many more steps you can take to further improve your health. Or you may be among those who, minus wheat, failed to enjoy a full return to health. You may find yourself still struggling with 4 or more stones of weight you want to shed, plus joint pains, skin rashes and other health problems; you may be left wondering if there is something you can do, short of prescription medications and procedures, to restore your health. Or perhaps you now realize just how good you feel minus wheat and are motivated to achieve total health in as many ways as possible to ensure long-term ideal health. Or you may be brand new to the wheat-free message. If so, this is your ultimate guide to going grain-free. Regardless of which category you fall into, you have come to the right place for answers. We are reminded that humans are truly adaptable, resilient, fit and vigorous, and have a natural, innate capacity to be healthy, slender and happy – provided that no grains are permitted entry into our bodies and all health disruptions are corrected in their wake. Life Ungrained: Unrestrained High Performance Despotic governments oppress their people. Burdensome health-care costs weigh down our economy. One hundred extra pounds of body fat overtax hips, knees and feet that are ill-equipped to bear such loads, and they groan, creak and erode away under the burden. Likewise, the mix of components in grains undermines human functioning from head to toe. Unload such crushing burdens and people are freed, the economy is boosted, joints are relieved and human functioning is liberated. Minus the health- and life-impairing effects of grains, we venture into discussions about performance: how well you perform emotionally, mentally, professionally and physically once the major impediments have been removed. This applies to accomplishments in school, at work, in relationships, in sports – in virtually every setting we encounter in life. It means aiming to maximize how good you feel and look to get that extra boost of mojo that can make the difference between getting through your day or blasting through your day. Total health is outwardly evident; you see it in smoother skin, a flatter tummy, freedom from leg swelling, an easy gait, and ease and vigour of motion in all directions. It’s also reflected internally through deeper sleep, less-turbulent menstrual cycles, freedom from headaches and problem-free digestion. In addition to less-disruptive menstrual cycles, women can enjoy improved fertility and reductions in perversely high oestrogen levels, and they get reacquainted with the concept of feeling good most or all of the time, rather than just once in a while or not at all. Male sexual performance improves as men enjoy lower levels of oestrogen, higher levels of testosterone and reductions of embarrassingly large breasts. Total health can, in many instances, be measured. You can aim for perfect metabolic health as it’s reflected in triglycerides and cholesterol panels, blood sugars, haemoglobin A1c (long-term blood sugar), thyroid tests, and screenings to determine levels of various nutrients. It can also be reflected in measures such as blood pressure and body fat percentage. While you may be able to walk, run or jump more easily, faster, farther and higher minus the aches, pains and energy impairment of grains, high-performance competitors enjoy similar benefits, and a growing number of professional athletes are embracing the grain-free lifestyle. In this book, we discuss how to gain an even greater competitive edge with strategies that go beyond eliminating grains. Sometimes the additional steps are wonderfully simple, such as correcting iodine and iron deficiencies; at other times the solutions are more elaborate, such as the strategies required to restore and maintain bowel health and undo the effects of endocrine disruption. But the goal is to unmask your individual potential and achieve the highest levels of performance in health and life in as many ways as reasonably possible. We aren’t trying to create a race of superhuman grain-free men and women, but we can achieve levels of life performance that we previously enjoyed only fleetingly, if at all. Many of these efforts may not have been necessary had we not been blindsided by these nutritional blunders in the first place. Had we grown up without exposure to Frankengrains with unique, health-disruptive effects, or without thyroid and sex hormone disruption from grains that are compounded by the ocean of endocrine gland–impairing industrial chemicals we swim in, things might be different. Had we also enjoyed the luxury of living outdoors in a semitropical climate and getting a full night of restorative sleep each and every night and had we not been exposed to the chronic, unrelenting stress of modern life, well, maybe we would have enjoyed peak functioning all along. But that is simply not the case for the majority of people. Thankfully, once we understand what went wrong, we can right the situation and, in most cases, fully restore your innate capacity for high levels of life performance. Achieving Ungrained Total Health in Three Steps: No More, No Less Wheat Belly Total Health is presented in three parts that are a logical and necessary sequence that must occur if your goal is total health. Like learning to crawl before you walk or studying algebra before cracking the code on calculus, total health unfolds in a natural progression. You cannot, for instance, regain health as long as grains remain a part of your diet: health cannot be perfect as long as multigrain buns, rye toast or tacos made from genetically modified cornflour remain a part of your dietary experience. You might not even be aware that grains are exerting their harmful effects while you go about your business working, sleeping, sitting in the drive-thru or watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. You might be unaware, for instance, that an abnormally increased degree of intestinal permeability is boiling away beneath the surface, waiting to eventually trigger an autoimmune condition in your body that will result, for instance, in the stumbling speech, incoordination and muscle weakness of multiple sclerosis. Or opacities may be accumulating in the lenses of your eyes, obscuring your vision with milky blurriness, waiting to be diagnosed as cataracts when you’re 53, despite the ‘balanced diet’ and exercise programme you’ve been following for the last 30 years. Or a gradual impairment of mind function may develop beneath your awareness until one day you find that you can’t remember where you parked your car, your way home or who that unfamiliar stranger is that you share your bed with. Just because you fail to perceive it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It’s there regardless of how good you feel, and it needs to be corrected before you can even begin to hope for total health. In Part I, I discuss why the elimination of all grains, wheat and otherwise, is essential if you are to begin your journey back to total health. It is essential because no amount of other healthy foods, nutritional supplements, exercise or drugs can fully overcome the health-thwarting effects of grains should they remain in your diet. Grain elimination is evolutionarily appropriate for a member of the species Homo sapiens; it is consistent with your physiology and metabolism, and it begins – but does not complete – your journey back to total health. In Part II, we deal with just how to accomplish this journey, including how you can survive the process of withdrawal from the opiates in grains – probably the most challenging hurdle to overcome in your journey back to health and the one that, if you are not properly coached and equipped, can backfire and set you back to your former grain-consuming ways. I teach you how to know when you’ve been reexposed to closely related proteins that force your body to revisit the havoc you thought you’d eliminated and threaten to undo everything you’ve accomplished. I also discuss how your body adapts to this new situation in life without grains, and why and how adaptation may not be complete until you take the reins and make it complete. In Part III, I discuss how to pursue health as far as possible once you have removed all the health destruction of grains: how to achieve new heights of energy, sleep, mental clarity, mood, bowel function, endocrine health, metabolic health, exercise and physical functioning. We’ll apply all of the lessons we’ve learned along the way as we discover that, minus grains, life and health are actually quite wonderful. Too many of us, forced to accept this mantra of ‘healthy whole grains’, have never been shown the path to easily and effortlessly accomplish total health. Once the health disruptions of grains are exorcised from your life and you recognize their purported health benefits for the fictional notions they are, everything gets so much better. Without grains, wondrous things begin to happen in just about every way. That is what ‘total health’ means. (#u800c1a42-5FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474) Chapter 1 (#) Liberate Your Inner Cow: Life Ungrained (#) Goldfish do not eat sausages. John Cleese, ‘How to Feed a Goldfish’, Monty Python’s Flying Circus Since you are reading this book, I take it that you are a member of the species Homo sapiens. You are probably not a giraffe, toad or woodpecker. Nor are you a ruminant, those taciturn creatures that graze on grass. Ruminants, such as goats and cows, and their ancient, wild counterparts, ibex and aurochs, enjoy evolutionary adaptations that allow them to consume grasses. They have continuously growing teeth to compensate for the wear generated by coarse, sandlike phytolith particles in grass blades; cows produce in excess of 100 litres of saliva per day; have four-compartment stomachs that host unique microorganisms to digest grass components, including a compartment that grinds and then regurgitates its contents up as a cud to rechew; and a long, spiral colon that’s also host to microorganisms that further digest grassy remains. In other words, ruminants have a gastrointestinal system uniquely specialized to consume grasses. You don’t look, smell or act like a ruminant. Then why would you eat like one? Those of you who have already forgone wheat do not, of course. But if you remain of the ‘healthy whole grain’-consuming persuasion, you have fallen victim to believing that grasses should be your primary source of calories. Just as Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass in your lawn are grasses from the biological family Poaceae, so are wheat, rye, barley, corn, rice, bulgur, sorghum, triticale, millet, teff and oats. You grow teeth twice in your life, then stop, leaving you to make do for a lifetime with a prepubertal set that erupted around the age of 10; produce a meagre litre of saliva per day; have three fewer stomach compartments unpopulated by foreign organisms and without grinding action; don’t chew a cud; and have a relatively uninteresting, linear, nonspiral colon. These adaptations allow you to be omnivorous – but not to consume grasses. Early members of our species found nourishment through scavenging, and then hunting, animals such as gazelles, turtles, birds and fish, and consuming the edible parts of plants, including fruit and roots, as well as mushrooms, nuts and seeds. Hungry humans instinctively regarded all of these as food. About 10,000 years ago, during a period of increasing temperature and dryness in the Fertile Crescent, humans observed the ibex and aurochs grazing on einkorn, the ancient predecessor of modern wheat. Our hungry, omnivorous ancestors asked, ‘Can we eat that, too?’ They did, and surely got sick: vomiting, cramps and diarrhoea. At the very least they simply passed wheat plants out undigested, since humans lack the ruminant digestive apparatus. Grass plants in their intact form are unquestionably unappetizing. We somehow figured out that for humans, the only edible part of the einkorn plant was the seed – not the roots, not the stem, not the leaves, not the entire seed head – just the seed, and even that was only edible after the outer husk was removed and the seed was chewed or crushed with rocks and then heated in crude pottery over fire. Only then could we consume the seeds of this grass as porridge, a practice that served us well in times of desperation when ibex meat, bird eggs and figs were in short supply. Similar grass-consuming adventures occurred with teosinte and maize (the ancestors of modern corn) in the Americas; rice from the swamps of Asia; and sorghum and millet in sub-Saharan Africa, all requiring similar manipulations to allow the edible part – the seed – to be consumed by humans. Some grasses, such as sorghum, posed other obstacles; its content of poisons (such as hydrocyanic acid, or cyanide) results in sudden death when the plant is consumed before maturity. Natural evolution of grasses led to wheat strains such as emmer, spelt and kamut as wheat exchanged genes from other wild grasses, while humans selected strains of corn with larger seeds and seed heads (cobs). What happened to those first humans, hungry and desperate, who figured out how to make this one component of grasses – the seed – edible? Incredibly, anthropologists have known this for years. The first humans to consume the grassy food of the ibex and aurochs experienced explosive tooth decay; shrinkage of the maxillary bone and mandible, resulting in tooth crowding; iron deficiency; and scurvy. They also experienced a reduction in bone diameter and length, resulting in a loss of as much as 5 inches in height for men and 3 inches for women. The deterioration of dental health is especially interesting, as dental decay was uncommon prior to the consumption of the seeds of grasses, affecting less than 1 per cent of all teeth recovered, despite the lack of toothbrushes, toothpaste, fluoridated water, dental floss and dentists. Even though they lacked any notion of dental hygiene (aside from possibly using a twig to pick the fibres of wild boar from between their teeth), dental decay was simply not a problem that beset many members of our species prior to the consumption of grains. The notion of toothless savages is all wrong; they enjoyed sturdy, intact teeth for their entire lives. It was only after humans began to resort to the seeds of grasses for calories that mouths of rotten and crooked teeth began to appear in children and adults. From that point on, decay was evident in 16 to 49 per cent of all teeth recovered, along with tooth loss and abscesses, making tooth decay as commonplace as bad hair among humans of the agricultural Neolithic Age. In short, when we started consuming the seeds of grasses 10,000 years ago, this food source may have allowed us to survive another day, week or month during times when foods we had instinctively consumed during the preceding 2.5 million years fell into short supply. But this expedient represents a dietary pattern that constitutes only 0.4 per cent – less than one-half of 1 per cent – of our time on earth. This change in dietary fortunes was accompanied by a substantial price. From the standpoint of oral health, humans remained in the Dental Dark Ages from their first taste of porridge all the way up until recent times. History is rich with descriptions of toothaches, oral abscesses, and stumbling and painful efforts to extract tainted teeth. Remember George Washington and his mouthful of wooden false teeth? It wasn’t until the 20th century that modern dental hygiene was born and we finally managed to keep most of our teeth through adulthood. Fast-forward to the 21st century: modern wheat now accounts for 20 per cent of all calories consumed by humans; the seeds of wheat, corn and rice combined make up 50 per cent. Yes, the seeds of grasses provide half of all human calories. We have become a grass seed-consuming species, a development enthusiastically applauded by agencies such as the USDA, which advises us that increasing our consumption to 60 per cent of calories or higher is a laudable dietary goal. It’s also a situation celebrated by all of those people who trade grain on an international scale, since the seeds of grasses have a prolonged shelf life (months to years) that allows transoceanic shipment, they’re easy to store, they don’t require refrigeration and they’re in demand worldwide – all the traits desirable in a commoditized version of food. The transformation of foodstuff into that of a commodity that’s tradeable on a global scale allows financial manipulations, such as buying and selling futures, hedges and complex derivative instruments – the tools of mega-commerce – to emerge. You can’t do that with organic blueberries or Atlantic salmon. Examine the anatomy of a member of the species Homo sapiens and you cannot escape the conclusion that you are not a ruminant, have none of the adaptive digestive traits of such creatures and can only consume the seeds of grasses – the food of desperation – by accepting a decline in your health. But the seeds of grasses can be used to feed the masses cheaply, quickly and on a massive scale, all while generating huge profits for those who control the flow of these commoditized foods. Mutant Ninja Grasses The seeds of grasses, known to us more familiarly as ‘grains’ or ‘cereals’, have always been a problem for us nonruminant creatures. But then busy geneticists and agribusiness got into the act. That’s when grains went from bad to worse. Readers of the original Wheat Belly know that modern wheat is no longer the 41? 2-foot-tall traditional plant we all remember; it is now an 18-inch-tall plant with a short, thick stalk; long seed head; and larger seeds. It has a much greater yield per acre than its traditional predecessors. This high-yield strain of wheat, now the darling of agribusiness, was not created through genetic modification but through repetitive hybridizations, mating wheat with nonwheat grasses to introduce new genes (wheat is a grass, after all) and through mutagenesis, the use of high-dose x-rays, gamma rays and chemicals to induce mutations. Yes: modern wheat is, to a considerable degree, a grass that contains an array of mutations, some of which have been mapped and identified, many of which have not. Such uncertainties never faze agribusiness, however. Unique mutated proteins? No problem. The USDA and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say they’re okay, too – perfectly fine for public consumption. Over the years, there have been many efforts to genetically modify wheat, such as by using gene-splicing technology to insert or delete a gene. However, public resistance has dampened efforts to bring genetically modified (GM) wheat to market, so no wheat currently sold is, in the terminology of genetics, ‘genetically modified’. (There have been recent industry rumblings, however, that make the prospect of true GM wheat a probable reality in the near future.) All of the changes introduced into modern wheat are the results of methods that pre-date the technology to create GM foods. This does not mean that the methods used to change wheat were benign; in fact, the crude and imprecise methods used to change wheat, such as chemical mutagenesis, have the potential to be worse than genetic modification, yielding a greater number of unanticipated changes in genetic code than the handful introduced through gene-splicing. Corn and rice, on the other hand, have been genetically modified, in addition to undergoing other changes. For instance, scientists introduced genes to make corn resistant to the herbicide glyphosate and to express Bacillus thurigiensis (Bt), a toxin that kills insects, while rice has been genetically modified to make it resistant to the herbicide glufosinate and to express beta-carotene (a variety called Golden Rice). Problem: while, in theory, the notion of just inserting one silly gene seems simple and straightforward, it is anything but. The methods of gene insertion remain crude. The site of insertion – which chromosome, within or alongside other genes, within or without various control elements – not to mention disruption of epigenetic effects that control gene expression, cannot be controlled with current technology. And it’s misleading to say that only one gene is inserted, as the methods used usually require several genes to be inserted. (We discuss the nature of specific changes in GM grains in Chapter 2 (#u800c1a42-9FFF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474).) The wheat, corn and rice that make up 50 per cent of the human diet in the 21st century are not the wheat, corn and rice of the 20th century. They’re not the wheat, corn and rice of the Middle Ages, nor of the Bible, nor of the Egyptian empire. And they are definitely not the same wheat, corn and rice that were harvested by those early hungry humans. They are what I call ‘Frankengrains’: hybridized, mutated, genetically modified to suit the desires of agribusiness, and now available at a supermarket, convenience store or school near you. Wheat: What Changed . . . and Why Are the Changes So Bad? All strains of wheat, including traditional strains like spelt and emmer, are problems for nonruminant humans who consume them. But modern wheat is the worst. Modern wheat looks different: shorter, thicker shaft, larger seeds. The reduction in height is due to mutations in Rh (reduced height) genes that code for the protein gibberellin, which controls stalk length. This one mutant gene is accompanied by other mutations. Changes in Rh genes are thereby accompanied by other changes in the genetic code of the wheat plant. There’s more here than meets the eye. Gliadin While gluten is often fingered as the source of wheat’s problems, it’s really gliadin, a protein within gluten, that is the culprit behind many destructive health effects of modern wheat. There are more than 200 forms of gliadin proteins, all incompletely digestible. One important change that has emerged over the past 50 years, for example, is increased expression of a gene called Glia?9, which yields a gliadin protein that is the most potent trigger for coeliac disease. While the Glia-?9 gene was absent from most strains of wheat from the early 20th century, it is now present in nearly all modern varieties, probably accounting for the 400 per cent increase in coeliac disease witnessed since 1948. New gliadin variants are partially digested into small peptides that enter the bloodstream and then bind to opiate receptors in the human brain – the same receptors activated by heroin and morphine. Researchers call these peptides ‘exorphins’, or exogenous morphine-like compounds. Gliadin-derived peptides, however, generate no ‘high’, but they do trigger increased appetite and increased calorie consumption, with studies demonstrating consistent increases of 400 calories per day, mostly from carbohydrates. Gluten Gluten (gliadin + glutenins) is the stuff that confers the stretchiness unique to wheat dough. Gluten is a popular additive in processed foods such as sauces, instant soups and frozen foods, which means the average person ingests between 15 and 20 grams (g) per day. Gluten has been genetically manipulated to improve the baking characteristics of its glutenin. Geneticists have therefore crossbred wheat strains repeatedly, bred wheat with nonwheat grasses to introduce new genes, and used chemicals and radiation to induce mutations. Breeding methods used to alter gluten quality do not result in predictable changes. Hybridizing two different wheat plants yields as many as 14 unique glutenin proteins never before encountered by humans. Wheat Germ Agglutinin The genetic changes inflicted on wheat have altered the structure of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a protein in wheat that provides protection against moulds and insects. The structure of WGA in modern wheat, for instance, differs from that of ancient wheat strains. WGA is indigestible and toxic, resistant to any breakdown in the human body, and unchanged by cooking, baking and sourdough fermentation. Unlike gluten and gliadin, which require genetic susceptibility to exert some of their negative effects, WGA does its damage directly. WGA alone is sufficient to generate coeliac disease-like intestinal damage by disrupting microvilli, the absorptive ‘hairs’ of intestinal cells. Phytates Phytic acid (phytates) is a storage form of phosphorus in whin-breeding efforts over the past 50 years have eat and other grains. Because phytates also provide resistance to pests, graselected strains with increased phytate content. Modern wheat, maize and millet, for instance, each contain 800 milligrams (mg) of phytates per 100 g (31?2 ounces) of flour. Phytate content increases with fibre content, so advice to increase fibre in your diet by consuming more ‘healthy whole grains’ also increases the phytate content of your diet. As little as 50 mg of phytates can turn off absorption of minerals, especially iron and zinc. Children who consume grains ingest 600 to 1,900 mg of phytates per day, while enthusiastic grain-consuming cultures, such as modern Mexicans, ingest 4,000 to 5,000 mg of phytates per day. These levels are associated with nutrient deficiencies. Alpha-Amylase Inhibitors and Other Allergens Wheat allergies are becoming more prevalent. Numerous allergens have been identified in modern wheat that are not present in ancient or traditional forms of the plant. The most common are alpha-amylase inhibitors, which are responsible for causing hives, asthma, cramps, diarrhoea and eczema. Compared with older strains, the structure of modern alpha-amylase inhibitors differs by 10 per cent, meaning it may have as many as several dozen amino acid differences. As any allergist will tell you, just a few amino acids can spell the difference between no allergic reaction and a severe allergic reaction, or even anaphylactic shock. People in the baking industry frequently develop a condition called baker’s asthma. There is also a peculiar condition called wheat-derived exercise-induced anaphylaxis (WDEIA), a severe and life-threatening allergy induced by exercising after eating wheat. Both conditions are caused by an allergy to gliadin proteins. Many other proteins have undergone changes over the last 40 years: lipid transfer proteins, omega-gliadins, gamma-gliadins, trypsin inhibitors, serpins and glutenins. All trigger allergic reactions. Life Outside the Grain Mooovement The start of grain consumption for humans coincides with the dawn of the domestication of livestock. We learned that some herbivorous species, such as aurochs and ibex, when confined and allowed to reproduce in captivity, could be put into the service of the human diet. While we were domesticating these creatures into cows and goats, they showed us that their diet of grasses was also something we could try to mimic. They also contributed to human diseases by giving us smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and rhinoviruses that cause the common cold. While much of the world followed the lead of grazing ruminants and adopted a diet increasingly reliant on the seeds of grasses, not all cultures took this 10,000-year dietary detour. A number of hunter-gatherer socie­ties throughout the world never embraced grains, relying instead on traditional omnivorous menus. The diets followed by such societies therefore largely reflect the diets of pre-Neolithic humans, i.e., diets that pre-date the development of agriculture. The modern world has, over the past few hundred years, encroached on these primitive societies, particularly if their land or other resources were prized. (Think Native Americans and Canadians of the Pacific Northwest or Aboriginal populations of Australia.) Each instance provides a virtual laboratory to observe what happens to health when there is a shift from a traditional grain-free to a modern grain-filled diet. We have cultural anthropologists and field-working doctors to thank for such insights. Scientists have studied, for instance, the San of southern Africa, Kitavan Islanders of Papua New Guinea and the Xingu peoples of the Brazilian rainforest, all of whom consume foods obtained from their unique habitats. None consume modern processed foods, of course, meaning no grains, no added sugars, no hydrogenated oils, no preservatives and no artificial food colouring. People following their ancestral diets consistently demonstrate low body weight and body mass index (BMI); freedom from obesity; normal blood pressure; normal blood sugar and insulin responses; lower leptin levels (the hormone of satiety); and better bone health. Body mass index, reflecting a ratio of weight to height, is typically 22 or less, compared with our growing ranks of people with BMIs of 30 or more, with 30 representing the widely accepted cutoff for obesity. The average blood pressure of a Xingu woman is 102/66 mmHg, compared with our typical blood pressures of 130/80 or higher. The Xingu experience less osteoporosis and fewer fractures. The Hadza of northern Tanzania are a good example of a hunter-gatherer society that, despite contact with Westerners, has clung to traditional methods of procuring food. The women dig for roots and gather edible parts of plants, while the men hunt with bows and poison-tipped arrows and gather honey from bees. The average BMI of this population? Around 20, with vigour maintained into later life, as grandparents help rear grandchildren while mothers gather and prepare food. Despite a lifestyle that appears physically demanding on the surface, the total energy expenditure of the Hadza is no different to that of modern people – not greater or less than, say, an average accountant or schoolteacher. Activity is parcelled a bit differently, of course, with hunter-gatherers tending to experience bursts of intense activity, followed by prolonged rest, and modern cultures gradually playing out activity throughout the day, but detailed analyses of energy expenditure among primitive people show virtually no difference. This challenges the notion that modern excess weight gain can be blamed on increasingly sedentary lifestyles. (Note that this is not true for all hunter-gatherer cultures; the Luo and Kamba of rural Kenya, for instance, exhibit high levels of energy expenditure. The point is that differences in weight are not solely explained by differences in energy expenditure.) Humans are adaptable creatures, as the wide variety of diets consumed worldwide attests. Some rely almost exclusively on the flesh, organs and fat of animals, such as the traditional Inuits of the northernmost Pacific Northwest of North America. Some diets are high in starches from roots (such as yams, sweet potatoes, taro and tapioca) and fruit, as with the Kitavans of Papua New Guinea or the Yanomami of the Brazilian rain-forest. The incorporation of foods from the mammary glands of bovines has provoked expression of a lactase-persistence gene that allows some adults to consume milk, cheese and other products that contain the sugar lactase after the first few years of life – an advantage for survival. The seminomadic Maasai people of central Africa are a notable example. Largely herders of goats, sheep and cattle, they traditionally consume plentiful raw meat and the blood of cows mixed with milk, and they’ve done so for thousands of years. This lifestyle allows them to enjoy freedom from cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and excess weight. This is the recurring theme throughout primitive societies: A traditional diet, varied in composition and high in nutrient content but containing no grains or added sugars, allows people to enjoy freedom from all the chronic ‘diseases of affluence’. Even cancer is rare. This is not to say that people following traditional lifestyles don’t succumb to disease; of course they do. But the range of ailments is entirely different. They suffer infections such as malaria, dengue fever and nematode infestations of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as traumatic injuries from falls, battles with humans and animals, and lacerations, reflecting the hazards of living without modern tools, conveniences, central governments or modern health care. What happens when a culture that has avoided the adoption of agriculture and grain consumption is confronted with modern breads, biscuits and crisps? This invasion by modern foods has played out countless times on a worldwide stage, with the same results each and every time: weight gain and obesity to an astounding degree, tooth decay, gingivitis and periodontitis, tooth loss, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and depression and other psychiatric conditions – all the modern diseases of affluence. Like a broken record, this same refrain has played over and over again in varied populations, on every continent. It has been observed in Pima Indians of the American Southwest, where 40 to 50 per cent of adults are obese and diabetic, many toothless. It has been observed in native tribes of Arizona, Oklahoma and the Dakotas, resulting in 54 to 67 per cent of the population being overweight or obese. Peoples inhabiting circumpolar regions of Canada and Greenland have all experienced dramatic increases in obesity and diabetes. In Pacific Islanders, such as the Micronesian Nauru, 40 per cent of adults are obese with diabetes. Modernized diets have put Australian Aboriginal populations in especially desperate health straits, with 22 times the risk of complications of diabetes, 8 times higher cardiovascular mortality, and 6 times greater mortality from stroke compared with non-Aboriginal Australians. Until recently, the Maasai of central Africa, Samburu of Kenya and Fulani of Nigeria showed virtually no overweight or obesity, no hypertension and low total cholesterol values (125 mg/dl). When relocated to urban settings, hypertension and obesity explode, with 55 per cent overweight or obese. Former hunter-gatherers develop iron deficiency anaemia and folate deficiency as they transition away from hunting game and gathering wild vegetation and rely on purchased foods, especially corn. Dr Roberto Baruzzi, a Brazilian doctor, studied hunter-gatherers of the Xingu region of Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s and found slender people with no discernible excess body fat, no diabetes, no cardiovascular disease, no ulcers and no appendicitis. A repeat survey in 2009, following 30 years of contact with modern food, found 46 per cent of the people overweight or obese, 25 per cent of the men hypertensive, and most with abnormalities of cholesterol panels (such as low HDL cholesterol or high triglycerides) and rampant dental decay. Another recent assessment of Aru?k natives of the Xingu region documented 66.8 per cent of men and women as overweight or obese, 52.1 per cent of women with abdominal obesity and 37.7 per cent of men with hypertension. All of these groups represent humans who have not developed the partial tolerances agricultural societies evolved over 10,000 years that allow them to consume the seeds of grasses. Consequently they, more so than us, show exaggerated responses to consumption of grains and sugars. The diseases of modernization are unfortunately intertwined with the diseases of poverty, given the disrupted and marginalized lives indigenous people often endure at the heavy-handed ways of modern society. Typically, an overreliance on cheap grains and sugars characterizes the diets of these latecomers to the modern world, replacing gathered vegetation, for instance, with flours, convenience foods and sweets. And if Western aid is required due to starvation and maldistribution (which is common when former hunter-gatherers are disconnected from their traditional lifestyles), do we fly in beef, salmon, coconuts or cucumbers? Nope: we send in the grain – wheat, maize, rice – which feeds humans as well as their livestock. Type 2 diabetes, in particular, is the defining disease acquired when hunter-gatherer populations join the modern world in dietary and health habits – so much so that anthropologists have labelled diabetes ‘the price of civilization’. And, of course, all of us modern humans, being hunter-gatherers at our genetic core, are experiencing diabetes at an unprecedented rate. This modern disease is expected to afflict a third of all adults in coming years, as well as a growing proportion of children and teenagers. The world of humans now obtains 50 per cent of its calories from the seeds of grasses and is increasing consumption of sucrose and fructose. Meanwhile, we’re being urged to further increase our reliance on ‘healthy whole grains’ in the developed world while we resort to cheap, accessible grains of any sort in the less-developed world. Under these circumstances, we can expect no relief from this global man-made pandemic – unless we reject the notion of consuming the seeds of grasses outright. Dr Weston Price: Snapshots of Westernization Dr Weston Price was a dentist practising in Cleveland, Ohio, during the early 20th century. He was troubled by the amount of tooth decay he witnessed in his patients, particularly children, and intrigued by reports that ‘savages’ (people living in primitive settings) were virtually free of tooth problems. So Dr Price did something extraordinary: he left his home and, along with his wife, Florence, began a 10-year worldwide journey to chronicle the dietary habits of primitive cultures, documenting his findings with careful examinations of teeth, facial structure and more than 15,000 photographs. His efforts provide a remarkable visual record of what primitive cultures looked like and what happens to primitive humans when they begin to consume modern foods. His travels took him to the Inuits of Alaska, the native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and central Canada, Melanesians and Polynesians, Aborigines of Australia, the Maori of New Zealand, descendants of the ancient Chim? culture in coastal Peru, and tribes of Africa, including Maasai, Kikuyu, Wakamba, Jalou, Muhima, Pygmies, Baitu and Dinkas. In each locale, he examined and photographed teeth, faces and other features he found interesting. In short, Dr Price produced a fascinating record of people living their traditional lifestyles at a moment in time when it was all about to end. In every culture of the dozens he studied – without exception – he found tooth decay, tooth loss and dental abscesses or infections to be uncommon, typically affecting no more than 1 to 3 per cent (and sometimes none) of the teeth he examined. He also noted the absence of gingivitis and periodontitis, and few to no crooked or crowded teeth. While a keeper of meticulous records, he also observed that facial structure was different, with primitive people enjoying what he called ‘fully formed facial and dental arches’ and a lack of narrowed nasal passages. Even more remarkably, Dr Price specifically sought out members of these cultures who had recently transitioned to consuming ‘white man’s food’ – people who were bartering for the breads, pastries and sweets of Westerners visiting or bordering their land. In every instance, he observed an astounding increase in tooth decay, affecting 25 to 50 per cent of teeth examined, along with gingivitis, periodontitis, tooth loss, infectious abscesses, crooked and crowded teeth, and reductions in the size of the maxillary (midfacial) bone and mandible (jawbone). Nearly toothless mouths in teenagers and young adults were not uncommon. The traditional diets of these societies were typically fish, shellfish and kelp among coastal cultures, and animal flesh and organs, raw dairy products, edible plants, nuts, mushrooms and insects among inland cultures. With only two exceptions (the L?tschental Valley Swiss, isolated by the Alps, who consumed a coarse rye bread, and the Gaelic people of the islands of the Outer Hebrides, who consumed crude oats), grains, sugars and processed foods were notably absent. (The Swiss had an intermediate number of dental caries, more than other cultures studied, while the Gaelic population did not.) What is even more startling about Dr Price’s observations of the rarity of tooth decay and deformity is that none of these cultures practised any sort of dental hygiene: no toothbrushes, no toothpaste, no fluoridated water, no dental floss and no dentists or orthodontists. While Dr Price’s observations cannot be used to precisely pinpoint the nutritional distinctions between modern and traditional cultures, they nonetheless make a powerful point. Anyone wishing to read Dr Price’s account can find it reproduced in a recent reprint. This social ‘experiment’ has also occurred in the opposite direction: a return to traditional diet and lifestyle after a period of Westernization. In 1980, Dr Kerin O’Dea, while at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, conducted an extraordinary experiment: she asked 10 diabetic, overweight Aboriginal individuals living Western lifestyles, all of whom retained memories of prior lifestyles, to move back to their origins in the wilds of northwestern Australia and follow their previous hunter-gatherer diet of kangaroo, freshwater fish and yams. They began their adventure with high blood glucose levels of (on average) 209 mg/dl, high triglycerides of 357 mg/dl, as well as abnormal insulin levels. After seven weeks of living in the wild, killing animals and eating familiar gathered foods, the 10 lost an average of 17.6 pounds of body weight and dropped their blood glucose to 119 mg/dl and triglycerides to 106 mg/dl. Of the original 10, five returned nondiabetic. In a 2005 lecture, Dr O’Dea remarked: ‘I was struck by the change in people when they were back in their own country: they were confident and assertive, and proud of their local knowledge and skills. At the time we were not able to measure markers of psychosocial state, however observation suggested a very positive change.’ Search the four corners of the earth today and you will find that the only surviving hunter-gatherer population that’s untouched by modern diet is the Sentinelese of the North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean. Because their language is strikingly different from all languages in neighbouring lands, it is thought that the Sentinelese have been isolated since anatomically modern humans first migrated to this part of the world 60,000 years ago. Attempts to visit their island have been met with volleys of arrows, spears and rocks, so observations are limited. From what has been observed, however, they are lean and healthy, hunting, fishing and gathering foods without the ‘benefit’ of agriculture. We have to be careful not to regard the life of the hunter-gatherer human as idyllic or problem-free: they had plenty of problems. While it is widely believed that stress is a modern phenomenon, this is absurd. Which is more stressful: struggling to pay your bills or having a marauding, bloodthirsty tribe of humans slaughter your friends, seize the women and enslave the children? We need to observe some of the practices of primitive cultures, such as head shrinking by the Jivaro Indians of the Amazon or cannibalism by the Carib of the Lesser Antilles and Venezuela, to remind ourselves that the world of humans can be an inhospitable place. Violence inflicted by and upon humans has characterized our existence from the start. While violence is certainly still a part of modern life, legal and political constraints that became necessary as human populations developed greater reliance on the practice of agriculture make it far less a part of day-to-day life than it was, say, 50,000 years ago. Yes, there is a bright side to agriculture and civilization. The development of civilization and the cultivation of the seeds of grasses: two processes that ran parallel over the past 10,000 years that led to concepts such as sedentary non-nomadic life, land ownership, centralized government and many other phenomena we now accept as part of modern life. But when we observe what happens to cultures unexposed to the seeds of grasses who are then compelled to consume them, we observe an exaggerated microcosm of what the rest of the world is now experiencing. Eat Like an Egyptian Tooth decay, dental infections, crooked teeth, iron and folate deficiencies, diabetes, degenerated joints, weight gain, obesity: I’ve just described the average modern person. Take a member of a primitive culture following their traditional diet and feed them the processed foods of modern man – complete with the enticing products of the seeds of grasses – and within a few years, we’ve given them all the same problems we have, or worse. Yes, without ‘modern civilization’ they might succumb to the greedy ambitions of a violent neighbouring clan, but with grain in their lives they’ll have to engage in battle while sporting a 44-inch waist, two bad knees and a mouth that’s missing half its teeth. While obesity and the diseases associated with it are virtually absent from hunter-gatherer cultures, neither are they entirely new. Diseases of affluence developed even before geneticists introduced changes into grains. Hippocrates, a Greek doctor in the 3rd century BC, and Galen, a Roman doctor of the 2nd century AD, both made detailed studies of obese people. William Wadd, an early-19th-century London doctor and a lifelong observer of the ‘corpulent’, made this observation after the autopsy of an obese man: The heart itself was a mass of fat. The omentum [a component of the intestines] was a thick fat apron. The whole of the intestinal canal was imbedded in fat, as if melted tallow had been poured into the cavity of the abdomen; and the diaphragm and the parietes [walls of organs] of the abdomen must have been strained to their very utmost extent, to have sustained the extreme and constant pressure of such a weighty mass. So great was the mechanical obstruction to the functions of an organ essential to life, that the wonder is, not that he should die, but that he should live. What is new is that overweight and obesity have been transformed from that of curiosity to that of epidemic. The situation we confront in the 21st century is all the more astounding because modern epidemiologists and health officials declare that the causes of the epidemic of overweight, obesity and their accompanying diseases are either unclear or that the burden of blame should be placed on the gluttonous and sedentary shoulders of the public. But the answers can be discerned through observations of primitive societies plagued by none of the issues plaguing us. More than the presence of grains distinguishes primitive from modern life, of course. Hunter-gatherers also drank no soft drinks; consumed no processed foods laced with hydrogenated fats, food preservatives or food colourings; and consumed no high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose. They were not exposed to endocrine-disruptive chemicals released by industry into our groundwater and soil, and which taint our food. The civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and of 19th-century Europe also did not consume these components of the modern diet (except for increasing consumption of sucrose beginning in the 19th century). No Coca-Cola, hydrogenated fats, brightly coloured sweets lit up by FD&C Red No. 3 (E127) or polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-laced water graced their tables. But they did consume the seeds of grasses. So just how much can we blame on the adoption of the seeds of grasses into the human diet? Let’s consider that question next. Each variety of seeds of grasses poses its own unique set of challenges to nonruminants who consume them. Before we get under way in our discussion of regaining health in the absence of grains, let’s talk about just how they ruin the health of every human who allows them to adorn his or her plate. Chapter 2 (#) Let Them Eat Grass (#) I asked the waiter, ‘Is this milk fresh?’ He said, ‘Lady, three hours ago it was grass.’ Phyllis Diller Grasses are everywhere. They grow on mountains, along rivers and lakes, in valleys, vast steppes, savannahs, prairies, golf courses and your garden. And they now reign supreme in the human diet. Grasses are wonderfully successful life forms. They are geographically diverse, inhabiting every continent, including Antarctica. They are a study in how life can adapt to extremes, from the tundra to the tropics. Grasses are prolific and hardy, and they evolve rapidly to survive. Even with the explosive growth of the human population, worldwide expansion of cities and suburbs, and tarmac spanning the US coast-to-coast, grasses still cover 20 per cent of the earth’s surface area. Just as insects are the most successful form of animal life on the planet, grasses are among the most successful of plants. Given their ubiquity, perhaps it’s not unexpected that we would try to eat them. Humans have experimented with feasting on just about every plant and creature that ever inhabited the earth. After all, we are creatures who make food out of tarantulas and poisonous puffer fish. While grasses have served as food for many creatures (they’ve even been recovered from fossilized dinosaur faeces), they were not a food item on our dietary menu during our millions of years of adaptation to life on this planet. Pre-Homo hominids, chimpanzee-like australopithecines that date back more than 4 million years, did not consume grasses in any form or variety, nor has any species of Homo prior to sapiens. Grasses were simply not instinctively regarded as food. Much as you’d never spot an herbivorous giraffe eating the carcass of a hyena or a great white shark munching on sea kelp, humans did not consume any part of this group of plants, no matter how evolutionarily successful, until the relatively recent past. The seeds of grasses are a form of ‘food’ added just a moment ago in archaeological time. For the first 2,390,000 years of our existence on earth, or about 8,000 generations, we consumed things that hungry humans instinctively regarded as food. Then, 10,000 years or just over 300 generations ago, in times of desperation, we turned to those darned seeds of grasses. They were something we hoped could serve as food, since they were growing from every conceivable environmental nook and cranny. So let us consider what this stuff is, the grasses that have populated our world, as common as ants and earthworms, and been subverted into the service of the human diet. Not all grasses, of course, have come to grace your dinner plate – you don’t save and eat the clippings from cutting your lawn, do you? – so we’ll confine our discussion to the grasses and seeds that humans have chosen to include on our dinner plates. I discuss this issue at some length, because it’s important for you to understand that consumption of the seeds of grasses underlies a substantial proportion of the chronic problems of human health. Accordingly, removing them yields unexpected and often astounding relief from these issues and is therefore an absolutely necessary first step towards regaining health, the ultimate goal of this book. We will spend a lot of time talking about how recovering full health as a non-grass-consuming Homo sapiens of the 21st century – that means you – also means having to compensate for all of the destruction that has occurred in your body during your unwitting grain-consuming years. You’ve consumed what amounts to a dietary poison for 20, 30 or 50 years, a habit that your non-grain-accustomed body partially – but never completely – adapts to, endures or succumbs to. You then remove that poison and, much as a chronic alcoholic needs to recover and heal his liver, heart, brain and emotional health after the flow of alcohol ceases, so your body needs a bit of help to readjust and regain health minus the destructive seeds of grasses. So what makes the grasses of the world a food appropriate for the ruminants of the earth, but not Homo sapiens? There is no single factor within grains responsible for its wide array of bowel-destroying effects – there is an arsenal. Non-Wheat Grains: You Might As Well Eat Jelly Beans There is no question that, in this barrel of rotten apples, wheat is the rottenest. But you still may not want to make cider with those other apples. What I call ‘non-wheat grains’, such as oats, barley, rye, millet, teff, sorghum, corn and rice, are nonetheless seeds of grasses with potential for curious effects in nonruminant creatures not adapted to their consumption. I would classify non-wheat grains as less bad than the worst – modern wheat – but less bad is not necessarily good. (That extraordinarily simple insight – that less bad is not necessarily good – is one that will serve you well over and over as you learn to question conventional nutritional advice. You will realize that much of what we have been told by the dietary community, the food industry and even government agencies violates this basic principle of logic again and again.) Less bad can mean that a variety of undesirable health effects can still occur with that seed’s consumption – those effects will just not be as bad as those provoked by modern wheat. So what’s the problem with the seeds of non-wheat grasses? While none achieve the nastiness of the seeds of modern wheat, they each have their own unique issues. For starters, they’re all high in carbohydrates. Typically, 60 to 85 per cent of the calories from the seeds of grasses are in the form of carbohydrates. This makes sense, since the carbohydrate stored in the seed was meant to provide nutrition to the sprouting plant as it germinates. But the carbohydrate in seeds, called amylopectin A, is rapidly digested by humans and raises blood sugar, gram for gram, higher than table sugar does. For instance, a 125 g (4? oz) serving of cooked organic, stoneground oatmeal has nearly 50 grams of net carbohydrates (total carbohydrates minus fibre, which we subtract because it has no glycaemic potential), or the equivalent of slightly more than 11 teaspoons of sugar, representing 61 per cent of the calories in oatmeal. This gives it a glycaemic index (GI, an index of blood sugar-raising potential) of 55, which is enough to send blood sugar through the roof and provoke all the phenomena of glycation, i.e., glucose modification of proteins that essentially acts as biological debris in various organs. This irreversible process leads to conditions such as cataracts, hypertension, the destruction of joint cartilage that results in arthritis, kidney disease, heart disease and dementia. (Note that a glycaemic index of 55 falls into what dietitians call the ‘low’ glycaemic index range, despite the potential to generate high blood sugars. We discuss this common fallacy in Chapter 5 (#u800c1a42-12FF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474).) All non-wheat grasses, without exception, raise blood sugar and provoke glycation to similar degrees. Human manipulation makes it worse. If corn is not consumed as intact kernels but instead is pulverized into fine cornflour, the surface area for digestion increases exponentially and accounts for the highest blood sugars possible from any food. This is why the glycaemic index of cornflour is 90 to 100, compared with 60 for corn on the cob and 59 to 65 for sucrose or table sugar. For years, we’ve been told that ‘complex’ carbohydrates are better for us than ‘simple’ sugars because the lengthy carbohydrate molecules of amylopectin A and amylose in grains don’t raise blood sugar as high as sugars with one or two sugar molecules, such as glucose (one sugar) or sucrose (two sugars: glucose and fructose), do. But this is simply wrong, and this silly distinction is therefore being abandoned: the GI of complex carbohydrates is the same as or higher than that of simple sugars. The GI of whole wheat bread: 72; the GI of millet as a hot cereal: 67. Neither are any better than the GI of sucrose: 59 to 65. (Similar relationships hold for the glycaemic load, a value that factors in typical portion size.) The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have both advised dropping the complex versus simple distinction, and rightly so, as grains, from a blood sugar viewpoint, are the same as or worse than sugar. And the problems with non-wheat grains don’t end with blood sugar issues. Lectins: Good Enough for the KGB The lectin proteins of grains are, by design, toxins. Lectins discourage creatures, such as moulds, fungi and insects, from eating the seeds of a plant by sickening or killing them. After all, the seed is the means by which plants continue their species. When we consume plants, we consume defensive lectins. Lectin proteins’ effects on humans vary widely, from harmless to fatal. Most plant lectins are benign, such as those in spinach and white mushrooms, which cause no adverse effects when consumed as a spinach salad. The lectin of castor beans is an entirely different story; its lectin, ricin, is highly toxic and is fatal even in small quantities. Ricin has been used by terrorists around the world. Gyorgy Markov, Bulgarian dissident and critic of the Soviet government, was murdered by KGB agents in 1978 when he was poked with the tip of an umbrella laced with ricin. The lectin of the seed of wheat is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). It is neither as benign as the lectin of spinach nor as toxic as the lectin of ricin; it is somewhere in between. WGA wreaks ill effects on everyone, regardless of whether you have coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity or no digestive issues at all. The lectins of rye, barley and rice are structurally identical to WGA and share all of its properties and are also called ‘WGA’. (The only substantial difference is that rye, barley and rice express a single form of lectin, while genetically more complex wheat expresses up to three different forms.) Interestingly, 21 per cent of the amino acid structure of WGA lectins overlaps with ricin, including the active site responsible for shutting down protein synthesis, the site that accounts for ricin’s exceptional toxicity. Lectin proteins have the specific ability to recognize glycoproteins (proteins with a sugar side chain). This makes plant lectins effective in recognizing common glycoproteins on, say, the surface of a fungal cell. But that same process can occur in humans. When a minute quantity, such as 1 milligram, of WGA is purified and intestinal tissue is exposed to it, intestinal glycoproteins are bound and severe damage that resembles the effects of coeliac disease results. We also know that WGA compounds the destructive intestinal effects of coeliac disease started by gliadin and other grain prolamin proteins. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease, grain lectins intensify the inflammation, making cramps, diarrhoea, bleeding and poor nutrient absorption worse. WGA is oddly indestructible. It is unaffected by cooking, boiling, baking or frying. WGA is also untouched by stomach acid. Though the acid produced in the human stomach is powerfully corrosive (dip your finger in a glass full of stomach acid and you won’t have a finger for very long), WGA is impervious to it, entering the stomach and passing through the entire gastrointestinal tract unscathed, undigested and free to do what it likes to any glycoproteins exposed along the way. While most WGA remains confined to the intestine, doing its damage along the 30-foot length of this organ, we know that a small quantity gets into your bloodstream. (We know this because people commonly develop antibodies to this protein.) Once WGA enters the bloodstream, odd things happen: red blood cells clump (or ‘agglutinate’, the basis for WGA’s name), which can, under certain circumstances (obesity, smoking, sedentary living, dehydration, etc.), increase the tendency of blood to clot – the process that leads to heart attack and stroke. WGA is often called a mitogen because it activates cell division, or mitosis (a concept familiar to anyone who studies cancer, a disease characterized by unrestrained mitosis). WGA has indeed been demonstrated to cause mitosis in lymphocytes (immune system cells) and cells lining the intestine. We know that such phenomena underlie cancer, such as the intestinal lymphoma that afflicts people with coeliac disease. WGA also mimics the effects of insulin on fat cells. When WGA encounters a fat cell, it acts just as if it were insulin, inhibiting activation of fat release and blocking weight loss while making the body more reliant on sugar sources for energy. WGA also blocks the hormone leptin, which is meant to shut off appetite when the physical need to eat has been satisfied. In the presence of WGA, appetite is not suppressed, even when you’re full. All in all, grain lectins are part of a potent collection of inflammatory factors. Indigestible or only partially digestible, they fool receptors and thwart hormonal signals after gaining entry to our bodies through the seeds of grasses. VIP: Very Important Peptide The lectin found in wheat, rye, barley and rice (WGA) also blocks the action of another very important hormone called vasoactive intestinal peptide, or VIP. While studies have been confined mostly to experimental models, not humans, the blocking of VIP has the potential to explain many of the peculiar phenomena that develop in people who consume grains but do not have coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity. VIP plays a role in dozens of processes. It is partly responsible for: • Activating the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands • Modulating immune defences against bacteria and parasites in the intestine • Protecting against the immune destruction of multiple sclerosis • Reducing phenomena that can lead to asthma and pulmonary hypertension (increased pressure in the lungs) • Maintaining healthy balance of the immune system that prevents inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis • Promoting sleep and maintaining circadian rhythms (day–night cycles) • Participating in determining taste in the tongue • Modulating the immune and inflammatory response in skin that protects us from psoriasis In other words, the diseases that are at least partially explained by blocking VIP sure look and sound like the collection of conditions that we witness, day in, day out, in wheat-consuming people: low cortisol levels responsible for low energy, worsening of asthma and pulmonary hypertension, worsening of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, disruption of sleep, distortions of taste such as the reduced sensitivity to sweetness (meaning you need more sugar for sweetness) and psoriasis. The VIP pathway may prove to be one of the important means by which grains disrupt numerous aspects of health. Grains and a Mouthful of Bacteria Grains affect the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies. These microbiota live on your skin and in your mouth, vagina and gastrointestinal tract. Over the last few years, there has been a new scientific appreciation for the composition of human microbiota. We know, for instance, that experimental animals raised in an artificial sterile environment and thereby raised with a gastrointestinal tract that contains no microorganisms have impaired immunity, are prone to infections, are less efficient at digestion and even develop structural changes of the gastrointestinal tract that differ from creatures that harbour plentiful microorganisms. The microorganisms that inhabit our bodies are not only helpful; they are essential for health. The bacteria that share in this symbiotic relationship with our bodies today are not the same as those carried by our ancestors. Human microorganisms underwent a shift 10,000 years ago when we began to consume the seeds of grasses. DNA analyses of dental plaque from ancient human teeth demonstrate that oral flora of primitive non-grain-consuming humans was different from that of later grain-consuming humans. Alan Cooper, PhD, of the University of Adelaide Centre for Ancient DNA, and Keith Dobney, PhD, of the University of Aberdeen, analysed bacterial DNA from teeth of hunter-gatherers before grains. They then compared it with early grain-adopting humans and later Neolithic, Bronze Age and medieval populations – periods when agriculture flourished. Pre-grain hunter-gatherers demonstrated wide diversity of oral bacterial species, predominant in species unassociated with dental decay. Grain-consuming humans, in contrast, demonstrated reduced diversity, with what the researchers called a ‘more disease causing configuration’, a pattern that worsened the longer humans consumed grains. Mouth bacteria underwent another substantial shift 150 years ago during the Industrial Revolution, with the proliferation of even greater disease-causing species, such as Streptococcus mutans, coinciding perfectly with the mechanical milling of flours. Disease-causing species of oral flora are now ubiquitous and dominate the mouths of modern humans, sustained by modern ­consumption of grains and sugars. Dr Dobney comments: ‘Over the past few hundred years, our mouths have clearly become a substantially less diverse ecosystem, reducing our resilience to invasions by disease-causing bacteria.’ This study rounds out what anthropologists have been telling us for years: when humans first incorporated grains into our diets, we experienced an explosion of tooth decay, tooth loss and tooth abscesses. We now know that grains, from einkorn and barley to maize and millet, were responsible for this marked shift in dental health, because they caused disturbances in oral microorganisms. Insights into oral flora do not necessarily tell us what happened to bowel flora, though there is some overlap. Even though we all begin our lives with sterile gastrointestinal tracts ripe to be populated with organisms provided at birth from the vaginal canals of our mothers, many events occur during our development that lead to divergences between the organisms in our mouths and those in our bowels – such as the appearance of teeth, stomach acidification, the hormonal surge of puberty and antibiotics. Nonetheless, we can still take some lessons about human diet and bowel flora by studying . . . The Science of Scatology In addition to knowing that the oral flora of humans changed once we chose to consume grains, we also know that primitive humans had different bowel flora than modern humans. The ancient remains of human faeces, or coprolites, have been recovered from caves and other locations where humans congregated, ate, slept, died and, of course, moved their bowels. Though we have to make allowances for the inevitable degeneration of faecal material over time, we can make observations on the varieties of bacterial species present in coprolites and thereby primitive human intestinal tracts. We know, for instance, that some Treponema, a species of bacteria important for digestion of fibrous foods and anti-inflammatory effects, are widely present in coprolites of pre-grain cultures but are nearly absent from modern humans. These observations are important because we know that abnormal conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, such as irritable bowel syndrome, peptic ulcers and ulcerative colitis, are associated with changes in bowel flora composition. We may uncover a connection between these changes in flora and autoimmune diseases, weight control, cancer and other conditions. We don’t know how many of these changes are due to diet and how many are due to the diseases themselves, but we do know with certainty that the composition of human oral and bowel flora underwent changes over time. And the facts are clear: when humans began to consume the seeds of grasses, the microorganisms cohabiting our bodies changed, and they changed in ways that affect our health. Let’s now discuss each non-wheat grain individually and explain why, like wheat, they do your health no favours. Maybe We’ll Chew a Cud: Adaptations to Consuming the Seeds of Grasses It would be wrong to argue that no human adaptations have evolved over the several thousand years we’ve consumed the seeds of grasses. There have indeed been several changes in the human genetic code that have developed in grain-consuming societies and that are thereby notably absent in non-agricultural native North and South American, South Pacific and Australian populations. • Genes for increased expression of the salivary enzyme amylase, determined by the AMY1 gene, allow increased digestion of the amylopectin starches of grains. • The gene for haemochromatosis, a condition of excessive iron storage that increases the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream, is believed to be an adaptation to iron deficiency that developed in grain-consuming humans. Because it is a relatively recent mutation, genes for enhanced iron absorption are carried by less than 10 per cent of people of northern European descent. • Variations in genes that determine diabetes susceptibility are believed to have evolved with the consumption of the seeds of grasses, with recent variants providing partial protection from the disease. Judging by the worldwide explosion of diabetes, though, these attempts at genetic adaptation are inadequate. Yes, as a species, we are trying to adapt to a diet dominated by the seeds of grasses and their adverse health effects, but such adaptations are not enough. We haven’t had sufficient time to adapt to the many effects of prolamin proteins, lectins, and changes in oral and bowel flora, or the mental, emotional or autoimmune effects of grain consumption (all of which I discuss in later chapters). These continue at a high level across all populations that enthusiastically consume the seeds of grasses. Perhaps, in another few hundred thousand years, we will fully adapt and thrive without disease while consuming the seeds of grasses. The Homo sapiens of a grain-dominated future may chew a cud, grow some extra stomach compartments and add ‘moo’ to the dictionary. 50 Shades of Grain This man, whom I once thought of as a romantic hero, a brave shining white knight – or the dark knight, as he said. He’s not a hero; he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark. E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey All of the grains that fill the modern diet to bursting are grasses. Ground, baked, roasted, toasted and popped, they come in an astounding variety of forms, colours and flavours, as they are among the most popular ingredients in modern processed food. Who would have guessed that popcorn and pretzels are closely related, or that tortillas and Danish pastries are kissing cousins? Beneath those comforting smells and flavours, however, are buried dark secrets, undisclosed confidences and demons ready to engulf you in their embrace, enfolding your mind and body in their effects. As wheat is a grass, its bewitching effects are shared to various degrees by the seeds of other grasses. The problems posed by the tortured relationship between wheat and humans are largely shared by other wheat-derived grains, including triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), bulgur and traditional strains of wheat such as spelt and kamut. When discussing ‘wheat’, I therefore am referring to all the closely related grains in the wheat family. Let’s consider several of the most popular non-wheat grains in all their lurid glory. Rye The history of rye consumption dates back to the early days of wheat consumption, when humans first experimented with consuming einkorn. Rye, another grass, grew as a weed in fields of wheat, an example of Vavilovian mimicry, or the ability of a weed to mimic a cultivated plant. This weed came to be recognized by humans as yet another seed of a grass that could be consumed, and farmers often harvested both wheat and rye with the same sickle or thresher without bothering to separate them. Rye has gained some blessings in nutritional circles because compared with wheat, it has less potential to trigger insulin, despite identical potential for raising blood sugar. (To be fair, just about anything compared with Triticum aestivum, our favourite grain to bash, comes up smelling like roses.) Rye and wheat share a high content of gliadin protein, with all its potentially toxic effects. (Rye gliadin is called secalin, although the structures are nearly identical.) The secalin protein has similar potential to do bad things as its gliadin counterpart. Likewise, the lectin of rye is nearly identical to wheat’s destructive lectin, wheat germ agglutinin, and therefore shares its potential for causing intestinal toxicity, clumping red blood cells, provoking abnormal growth of immune system lymphocytes and mimicking insulin. Rye shares with wheat a peculiar and only recently recognized phenomenon: the formation of acrylamide, a compound believed to be a carcinogen and neurotoxin. Rye and wheat contain a high content of the amino acid asparagine, which, when heated at high temperatures during baking or deep-frying, reacts with the plentiful carbohydrates present to form acrylamide. (It also forms in chips.) Modern reliance on nitrogen-rich synthetic fertilizers also boosts the asparagine content of rye and wheat, increasing acrylamide formation further. For all practical purposes, given the crossbreeding that has occurred via natural Vavilovian means as well as the breeding efforts of humans, the differences are minor, meaning that they are virtually one and the same. Being wheat-free should also mean being rye-free. Rye and the Work of the Devil Rye has the unique potential to be infected with a parasitic fungus, Claviceps purpurea, that produces a human toxin called ergotamine. When ingested in, say, a loaf of rye bread, it exerts a range of hallucinogenic effects on humans, partly because it is converted to lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD. History is filled with fascinating and terrifying stories of humans exposed to rye and ergotamine. Because some victims afflicted with contaminated rye experienced an intense dermatitis (skin inflammation), the condition became known as St Anthony’s Fire, named after the early 11th-century sanctuary operated by monks to treat victims of ergot poisoning. During the Middle Ages, writers described hysterical outbursts afflicting previously normal people, including thrashing and writhing while shouting, ‘I’m burning!’ The afflicted would eventually collapse, after which their bodies would blacken. And at least one observer has ascribed the madness of the Salem witch trials to ergotamine poisoning after determining that many of the 19 young women accused of being witches lived near a rye field. A ‘witch cake’ made of rye flour was fed to a dog to confirm a ‘bewitching’ effect. The rye itself was, of course, entirely innocent, since it was the common parasitic infestation of the grass that was to blame. But, as with so many other matters surrounding the relationship between the seeds of grasses and the hapless humans who try to consume them, it should come as no surprise that it is a relationship fraught with danger. Barley The origins of barley consumption parallel that of einkorn and emmer wheat in the Fertile Crescent, which is now Iraq, Iran and Turkey. For many years, barley was the preferred grain among ancient people of Greece and Egypt, spreading to Europe 7,000 years ago. Barley has largely been demoted to animal fodder, with most human exposure nowadays coming in the form of the barley malt used to make beer. As with rye, barley also shares many characteristics with its close grass relative, wheat. People with coeliac disease, for instance, who avoid wheat because it’s a source of gluten (and thereby gliadin), must also avoid barley due to gliadin’s similarities with barley’s equivalent protein, hordein. Gliadin and hordein overlap extensively, suggesting that the peculiar human effects of wheat are shared by barley. The lectin of barley is also virtually identical to wheat germ agglutinin, thereby sharing its potential for gastrointestinal toxicity. Barley’s allergic effects also overlap with those of wheat, meaning that the same asthma, sinus drainage and congestion, skin rashes and gastrointestinal distress provoked by a wheat allergy can also be provoked by barley. Corn After modern wheat and its problematic closest brethren, rye, barley, bulgur and triticale, corn is the next problem grass. (For the sake of clarity, I will call maize by its North American colloquial name, ‘corn’. While corn outside the United States and Canada can mean wheat or be a nonspecific term for any grain, here it will be used to refer to maize.) Like einkorn wheat, corn is among the oldest of cultivated grains, dating back 10,000 years to pre-Mayan times in South America, but corn didn’t make it onto European menus until 1493, when Christopher Columbus brought seeds to Spain. Corn was rapidly embraced, largely replacing barley and millet due to its spectacular yield per acre. Widespread, habitual consumption of cornbread and polenta resulted in deficiencies of niacin (vitamin B ) and the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, causing widespread epidemics of pellagra, evidenced as what doctors of the age called ‘The Four Ds’: dermatitis, diarrhoea, dementia and death. Even today, pellagra is a significant public health issue in rural South America, Africa and China. Meanwhile, in coastal Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and the Andes mountain highlands, increased corn consumption led to increased tooth decay, tooth loss, anaemia and iron deficiency, as well as loss of height in children and adults. Today, farmers fatten livestock by feeding them intact corn kernels. But much of the corn consumed by humans is in the form of cornflour, or derivatives of corn such as high-fructose corn syrup. This concentrated source of fructose is a form of sugar that fails to signal satiety – you don’t know when to stop. Corn and wheat jockey for inclusion in just about every processed food, many of which contain both. Corn in some form is therefore found in obvious sources, such as corn chips, cornbread, breakfast cereals, soft drinks with high-fructose corn syrup, tacos and tortillas, but also in some not-so-obvious foods, including hamburger meat, ketchup, salad dressings, yoghurt, soup mixes, sweets, seasoning mixes, mayonnaise, marinara sauce, fruit drinks and peanut butter. Corn strains with the highest proportion of rapidly digested amylopectin, rather than the less efficiently digested amylose, are chosen to grind into cornflour. Given the exponential increase in surface area that results when corn is reduced to granules or powder, these products are responsible for extravagant rises in blood sugar. With a glycaemic index of 90 to 100, the highest of any food, they are perfectly crafted to contribute to diabetes. Corn allergies are on the rise, probably due to changes in alpha-amylase inhibitor proteins, lipid transfer proteins and others. Because the various grasses that we call ‘grains’ are genetically related, there can be overlapping grain allergies in humans exposed to them. Repeated and prolonged exposure to corn proteins, as in people who work in agriculture, food production or the pharmaceutical industry (cornflour is found in pills and capsules), can lead to as many as 90 per cent of workers developing a corn allergy. Such extravagant levels of allergy development do not occur in people working with apples, beef, kale or olives – only grains. The zein protein of corn triggers antibodies reactive to wheat gliadin, which can lead to gastrointestinal distress, diarrhoea, bloating, bowel urgency and acid reflux after corn consumption. The immune response responsible for the destruction of the small intestine that occurs in people with coeliac disease can also be triggered, though less severely, by the zein protein of corn. Nevertheless, cornflour is – wrongly – used in gluten-free foods. Though they look quite different and the modern processed products that emerge from them look, smell and taste quite different, wheat and corn are too closely related for comfort. Minimal to no exposure is the desired strategy for non-ruminant Homo sapiens. Genetic Modification: Don’t Look, Don’t Tell Since gene-splicing technology made it possible to insert or remove specific genes in plants and animals, we have been reassured repeatedly by the FDA, the USDA and by agribusiness that the products of this technology are safe for the environment and for human consumption. And they have 90-day animal testing data to prove it. While wheat was manipulated with methods that pre-date genetic modification and therefore didn’t raise many eyebrows, other genetically modified (GM) grains, especially corn and rice, have somehow escaped public scrutiny, and strains have made it onto supermarket shelves in North America and other parts of the world. Recent studies have raised questions about the safety of GM crops, as well as the herbicides and pesticides that go with them. One French research group, for instance, obtained internal proprietary research data from Monsanto that were used to justify claims of safety for both glyphosate-resistant corn and Bt toxin corn, the two most prevalent GM crops. (This information was not relinquished voluntarily, but rather was obtained by a court order.) When they tried to reproduce the Monsanto data but applied more detailed tissue analyses, they failed to reproduce the same benign findings, instead reporting evidence for kidney, liver, heart, spleen and adrenal toxicity with both forms of GM corn. The first effort to extend the period of observation beyond 90 days raised more disturbing questions. Over two years of observation, increased mortality, breast tumours, liver damage and pituitary disruption from both glyphosate-resistant corn and glyphosate itself were reported, in contrast to Monsanto’s benign 90-day findings. Further questions have been raised regarding the safety of Bt toxin corn. This strain of corn has a gene for a protein that’s toxic to insects inserted right into it, so it kills pests who try to eat the plant. While Bt toxin-expressing bacteria have been sprayed on crops by organic farmers for 40 years with apparent safety, critics have pointed out that GM corn now expresses Bt toxin within the seed (the corn kernels) directly ingested by consumers. One study in mice demonstrated toxic effects on blood cell formation, while another observed prediabetic patterns. Genetically modified rice has also been demonstrated to change the composition of bowel flora in mice, with decreased healthy Lactobacillus and increased unhealthy Escherichia coli species. Glyphosate itself, the world’s most widely used herbicide, is applied to glyphosate-resistant corn. Various studies suggest it has oestrogenic activity, promoting the growth of breast cancer cells; disrupts male fertility; and disrupts endocrine function in a number of other ways. There is also the issue of the environmental impact of glyphosate on wildlife, including aquatic bacteria and amphibians, such as frogs, which experience toxic effects. Interestingly, one strain of rice – Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to express beta-carotene to alleviate the vitamin A deficiency that plagues rice-consuming societies – has been at the forefront of the biotechnology effort to paint genetic modification as something beautiful to behold and safe for consumption. Agribusiness giant Syngenta has been promoting Golden Rice as an example of what the science of genetic modification can accomplish, despite the vigorous opposition of many farmers who wish to avoid using GM grains. Critics have also accused its promoters of trying to capitalize on a common nutrient deficiency by a more profitable route than, say, just having vitamin A-deficient populations eat an occasional sweet potato, which would match or exceed the benefits provided by Golden Rice. (But you can’t trademark a regular, nutritious sweet potato.) Much of the science purporting to explore the safety of GM crops reads more like marketing than science, with researchers gushing about the safety and nutrition of the crop, herbicide or pesticide in question, rather than impartially reporting the science. This brings us to the fundamental problem when deep-pocketed influences such as agribusiness or the pharmaceutical industry are involved: How much can we believe when much of the positive ‘science’ is generated by those who stand to benefit from it? Rice Despite sharing a genetic heritage with other grasses, rice is among the more benign of grains, though it’s far from harmless. Viewed from the perspective of the ancient human experience that reveals the destructive health effects of other grasses, ancient rice is the only grain that was not associated with effects such as increased tooth decay, facial malformations and iron deficiency. The less-harmful nature of rice can be partly explained by the very low content (less than 1 per cent) of prolamin proteins in rice. The history of rice as yet another seed of grasses consumed by humans dates back 8,000 years to the foothills of the Himalayas, followed by evidence for human cultivation in southern China 4,000 years ago. Rice is the ideal commodity food, as it can be stored for many years without degrading. Health problems from rice, unlike other grains, are less common. Nonetheless, overreliance on rice with the husk removed (i.e., white or polished rice) led to widespread problems with beriberi, a condition that results in partial paralysis and heart failure due to a lack of the B vitamin thiamin – conditions that, I believe you would agree, are beriberi bad. This condition can develop within a few weeks, and it became a problem that plagued Asian sailors and soldiers given rations largely consisting of rice. As with the seeds of all other grasses, rice shares the potential for excessive glycaemic effects. Carbs account for 85 per cent of the calories in rice, among the highest of all seeds of grasses. Rice-consuming cultures, for instance, can still experience plenty of diabetes. But the comforting notion that rice is among the most benign of grains is being challenged, as it has been the recipient of extensive genetic modification. This includes efforts to make it glyphosate resistant and able to express the Bt toxin, posing the same safety questions as for glyphosate-resistant and Bt toxin-containing corn. And there’s another issue looming over this particular seed of a grass: rice is unique among grasses in its natural ability to concentrate inorganic arsenic from soil and water. (We can’t blame agribusiness for this effect.) Rice has a high arsenic content, according to reports confirmed by FDA analyses, though the FDA reassures us that no acute toxicity develops from such exposure. Substantial research, however, has associated chronic arsenic exposure with multiple forms of cancer, as well as cardiovascular and neurological diseases. In Bangladesh, where arsenic exposure is a major public health problem, increasing chronic arsenic exposure, starting at low levels, is associated with premalignant skin lesions, high blood pressure, neurological dysfunction and increased mortality. This analysis suggests that adverse health effects can manifest with chronic exposure provided by as little as one serving (approximately 185 g (6? oz) cooked) of rice per day. The FDA had previously established an upper limit for arsenic in apple juice of 10 parts per billion; analyses of rice have found many rice products approaching or exceeding this cutoff. The data that already exist linking low-level exposure of arsenic-­contaminated water with increases in many chronic diseases is, in my mind, all the information we need. Makes you shudder to think about the old Rice Diet. Although at the more benign end of the spectrum as far as seeds of grasses go, enthusiastic consumption of rice in any form (white, brown or wild) is clearly not a good idea for health. Occasional consumption of small quantities (around 50 g (2 oz)) is probably all a healthy human can tolerate before triggering such concerns. Oats Oats are relative newcomers to the human dietary grass experience, having been first consumed only about 3,000 years ago. Few cultures embraced this grain, often regarding it as fodder for livestock or the food of barbarians, until the Welsh and Scots became avid oat consumers. Yet another close relative of wheat and member of the grass family, its gliadin-like protein, avenin, shares less overlap in its structure than its counterparts in rye and barley do. For this reason, the role of oats in the diet of people with coeliac disease has been debated for 50 years. The avenin protein is clearly more benign, though some oat varieties can mimic the immune effects of gliadin. (The notion of ‘gluten-free oats’ is therefore a fiction, as they still have a protein that can overlap in structure and effect.) Oats lack a lectin protein, so they do not contribute to the intestinal damage and inflammation inflicted by wheat germ agglutinin. This focus on the relatively benign nature of oats in comparison with the worst grain of all, though, falsely lulls people into thinking that just because it doesn’t have gluten-like properties, it must be good for you. Once again, overly simplistic nutritional thinking can get us into trouble. There is plenty of talk about oats being ‘heart healthy’ and a rich source of soluble fibre, referring to the beta-glucan in oats that has been shown to reduce total and LDL cholesterol. All of that is true – except for the heart-healthy part. Although the beta-glucan fibre does indeed have some healthy effects on cholesterol values, the plentiful amylopectin starch of oats raises blood sugar to high levels and therefore provokes extravagant glycation – the irreversible process of modifying proteins when blood glucose rises. Oats provide an example of something that contains a mixture of good things and bad. The good effects are transient, such as the beta-glucan allowing healthier bowel movements and lower LDL cholesterol, or the B vitamins providing nutrition. But the bad effects are irreversible, especially those of glycation. Consumption of oats, like rice, is best kept to a minimum. Sorghum Sorghum was, until sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup became dominant, a popular source for sugar. Until the early 20th century, sorghum syrup was poured over pancakes and used to make sweets. Like all grains, sorghum is largely carbohydrate, with approximately 75 per cent of its calories coming from starch, triggering glycation as enthusiastically as the starchy seed of any other grass. It remains popular as fodder for livestock because it’s as useful for rapid fattening as wheat and corn are. Sorghum is an especially interesting grass, as it is toxic, and even fatal, when consumed before it’s fully mature; its high cyanide content has been known to decimate herds of livestock, causing death by cardiac arrest. This grass grows wild in much of Africa and is believed to have been first domesticated in the savannahs around 4,000 years ago. While it is a ‘true grass’ from the family Poaceae, sorghum is less closely related to the grasses discussed above. The gliadin protein counterpart in sorghum, kafirin, is only distantly related and therefore does not trigger coeliac or other undesirable gliadin responses. Despite the more benign nature of kafirin proteins, sorghum is still the seed of a grass and is therefore largely indigestible. Accordingly, the proteins in sorghum are poorly digested; about half of them pass right through the human gastrointestinal tract undisturbed. This has prompted manipulations to increase digestibility, including mutating the plant’s genetics with gamma radiation and chemicals, genetically modifying it by inserting genes for more digestible proteins, and mechanically or enzymatically processing the flour, all to enhance digestibility. It is not clear what would happen to humans who relied too much on sorghum as a calorie source. But given its problematic indigestible proteins and high starch content, it is worth minimizing exposure, as with rice and oats. There’s a Snake in the Grass To complete our discussion of the seeds of grasses, I should mention that bulgur is simply a combination of different strains of wheat, though often of the durum variety, such as that used in pasta. But it is still wheat, with virtually all the same problems. Triticale is the result of mating wheat with rye; as you would predict, it also shares all of the same issues due to its parentage. Millet, teff and amaranth, all added to our diets over the last few thousand years, are among several other less-common seeds of grasses that humans consume. None cause the range of health difficulties that wheat, rye, barley, corn, bulgur, triticale or sorghum are responsible for, nor have they been the recipients of enthusiastic genetic modification. However, they’re still high in carbohydrates given their amylopectin content. In France, ortolan songbirds made morbidly obese on a diet of millet and oats, then drowned in Armagnac, set on fire, and consumed whole were considered a delicacy that was savoured for its rich, dripping fat. (This is now outlawed.) Just like corn and wheat, grains whose only known problem is their amylopectin starch are still quite effective at fattening up pigs, cows, songbirds and humans. Some people feel that they can consume a small quantity of these glycaemically challenging grains now and then without paying a health price, but bear in mind that each time you consume these starchy seeds you invite greater and greater health compromises, just as you do when you eat a bag of jelly beans. The Human Diet: A Grass-Free Zone You may want your beef to be grass-fed, but you shouldn’t be that way. You may have come to recognize that the deeper we dig into this thing called grains or, more properly, the seeds of grasses, the worse it gets. We uncover more and more reasons why non-ruminant Homo sapiens is just not equipped to handle the components of these plants: lectins in wheat, rye, barley and rice; the prolamin proteins gliadin, secalin, hordein, zein and kafirin; acrylamides; cyanide; and arsenic – not to mention that we suffer deficiencies like pellagra and beriberi when we come to overrely on these seeds. Ironically, the world’s calories are most concentrated in the calories of the most destructive grains – wheat and corn – and some serious questions have now been raised about the safety of rice. Funny how this just doesn’t happen with broccoli, celery, walnuts, olives, eggs or salmon – foods we can consume ad lib and digest easily, without triggering blood sugar, glycation, autoimmunity, dementia or other disease-related effects. As you might predict from the stories I’ve related so far, eliminating the seeds of grasses that were not on the instinctive menu for Homo sapiens frees us of many of the health conditions that plague modern humans, including rampant tooth decay, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and a wide range of neurological and gastrointestinal disorders – conditions notably absent or rare in humans following traditional diets. So I urge you to release your inner ruminant; recognize grains for the indigestible, often toxic seeds of grasses that they are; and allow your struggling Homo sapiens to fully express itself. I predict that you will rediscover health at a level you may not have known was possible. In the next chapter, we consider just why – beyond desperation, beyond convenience, beyond appeal – grains have managed to dominate the human diet over a relatively short period of time. Why have grains gone from an occasional food of hungry, desperate humans, to the dominant food supply for mankind? Chapter 3 (#) The Reign of Grain (#) It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it. Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Acts ‘Healthy whole grains’. It’s the dietary battle cry of the 21st century, echoed by all official providers of nutritional advice, the dietary community and a trillion-pound food industry. It’s the guiding principle of academic curricula in nutrition, embraced by makers of processed food who produce, along with sugar, mind-boggling quantities of foods from wheat, corn and rice. Is it all based on the purported health benefits of grains – or are there other motivations at work? Remember family farms, those places idealized or satirized by TV shows such as The Big Valley, The Waltons and Green Acres? It was only 60 years ago that, in the United States, we had more than 6 million of them, mostly near small towns like Walton’s Mountain or Hooterville. These were places where a family typically owned a few dozen acres to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, along with some chickens, pigs and a cow or two. They grew food for themselves and sold the surplus. Today, small family farms, along with John-Boy and Arnold Ziffel, are largely relics of the past, with the few that remain run by ageing part-time farmers whose primary jobs are off the farm. The food on your table is much more likely to come from a large operation of thousands of acres growing huge tracts of single crops (a farming method called monoculture) like wheat and corn. Parallel transformations from small farm to big business have occurred in the dairy and meat industries. Farmers, family and otherwise, are stepping up to meet the demands of a worldwide public that has made grains 50 per cent of their calories. That’s direct human consumption of grains. Grains, now favoured in place of forage and grass, are also the preferred feed for livestock. This trend began in the 1960s, and livestock now consume the bulk of the grain produced in the world, outstripping human consumption sevenfold. And we haven’t even discussed how much corn is cultivated for ethanol. Grains are, by anyone’s definition, big business. Whenever there’s a peculiar situation, we have to ask: Who benefits? Is agribusiness simply responding to consumer demand by providing, for instance, ?200 billion in snacks worldwide? Or are there forces at work that quietly cultivate this situation for other reasons? Answering these questions takes us a bit off course from the discussion of why and how forgoing grains gets you closer to total health. But I’m going to ask you to indulge this digression, as understanding this irksome situation will arm you better in the fight against reliance on the seeds of grasses for nutrition. So let us digress. The Art of the Commodity Pretend you are a businessman with ambitions to create a system that will generate millions, or perhaps billions, of pounds. And say you’d like to accomplish it through the world of food, rather than crude oil, iron ore or gold. You’re not all that concerned with environmental issues, long-term sustainability or the health of the consuming public. Your goals are elegantly simple: you’d like to conduct your venture on a worldwide scale for maximum profit. You certainly cannot achieve such ambitious goals by doing something as pedestrian as growing kale or cultivating an organic farm. You can’t do it by selling fresh foods to a local market: too small, too little room for growth, too much darned hard work. Conquering the world shouldn’t be so hard! Throw me a frickin’ bone here, people. How about manufacturing processed foods on a large scale using low-cost inputs, such as high-fructose corn syrup, cornflour, wheat flour, sucrose and the odd food colouring or two, and then creating the illusion of value-added convenience, health, weight management and sexiness? Well, now we’re talking, Mr Bigglesworth! But food can be hard work and dirty business. Moreover, most foods, such as eggs, pork, and fruit and vegetables, have finite shelf lives measured in just days – a shipping delay of just a few days could mean that your entire inventory becomes a worthless pile of rot. Lots of foods require refrigeration, adding another layer of cost and risk. Then you have to meet all sorts of regulatory requirements issued by agencies such as – in the US – the FDA, USDA, and federal, state, county and local health departments. What if you are the sort of businessman who doesn’t care to get his hands dirty? You don’t want to actually handle the food; you just want to make large transactions on paper or electronically. Buy low, sell high, bank your profit. No dirty hands, no messy, rotten food. You therefore want to transact millions or billions of dollars worth of food, but you don’t want to touch the stuff, deal with logistics, worry about risks or contend with endless regulatory hassles. In other words, you want to arbitrage your way to profits, i.e., take advantage of the different prices paid for a product in wide demand from every level of society and that sells as easily in Spokane as it does in London or Brisbane. And you want to do it with something that passes for food and enjoys extended, perhaps limitless, shelf life and can be transported over long distances to take maximum advantage of worldwide price differentials. What we’re talking about buying and selling is called a commodity. This is a good or collection of goods – whether iron ore, crude oil, gold, tin or aluminium – that is relatively indistinguishable from source to source and by different consumers. Commodities leave little or no room for variety, for boutique versions, for uniqueness. It’s all the same everywhere, for everyone. Grains are on the short list of foods consumed by humans that conform perfectly to a commodity market. (Coffee beans, tea, sugar and soyabeans are among the handful of others.) You won’t find heirloom tomatoes, radishes, garlic or grass-fed beef on any commodity exchange. Karl Marx observed that, ‘From the taste of wheat it is not possible to tell who produced it: a Russian serf, a French peasant, or an English capitalist.’ When a loaf of multigrain bread is purchased, how many people are concerned with whether the wheat flour, oats, millet or rye came from Iowa, East Anglia or the Ukraine? There is little difference between corn from Brazil and corn from Kansas, and the consumer can’t tell the difference. Of course, you can pretend that there is some enticing appeal to your San Francisco sourdough bread or ‘authentic’ Mexican tortillas. But it’s all created from the same commodity: grains. Food: The Ultimate Commodity Exchange Beginning in the late 19th century and for many years afterward, high-volume grains – wheat, corn and rice – were handled as commodities, all under the control of relatively few individuals and private companies. In the United States, the Kansas City Board of Trade and the Chicago Board of Trade were founded to facilitate the trading of futures contracts for wheat, corn and oats in the 1870s. These were the very first products to trade on a commodities market, preceding even crude oil and iron ore. This was not about grain farmers labouring to grow their crops, then carting them to the mill and hoping to sell for a favourable price. This was about a financial system with rules written by a select few who were intent on trading and profiting from large transactions that are only possible with foods that can be traded as commodities on a worldwide scale. More recently, large companies that trade in grain contracts have found it even more profitable to extend their businesses outside of just paper transactions and have worked towards vertical integration, getting their hands dirty in the messy business of the grains themselves. Today, companies that trade grains are also likely to own grain storage facilities, milling operations, trucking and railroad companies, and myriad other operations involved in the production, distribution, shipping, milling and sale of grains. Large-scale demand, long shelf life, long-distance transportability and worldwide price differences: these are the criteria that must be met to allow a grain trader to purchase a million tonnes of hard winter wheat from a grain cooperative in Kansas and ship it by train, and then ocean tanker, to a port in Vladivostok. That wheat will serve a population that desires the product due to a poorer-than-usual yield – a situation that increased the price per bushel to a level the trader finds desirable. That single transaction can net many millions of dollars. Commodity traders also prefer to deal in markets that are growing, not stagnant or shrinking. Although people enlightened by books like Wheat Belly, as well as those who are jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon, have caused a drop in grain sales for food production, the net effect will likely be increased grain sales, since grains are also used to feed the livestock that will provide calories increasingly obtained from beef, pork, poultry, eggs and farmed seafood. For every tonne of grain consumed by humans in the United States, 7 tonnes are consumed by livestock. From the perspective of the grain trade, this is called a win-win situation. Welcome to the world of Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), Louis Dreyfus, Bunge and Continental Grain Company: multibillion-pound companies that make the grain world go round, trading, arbitraging and cashing in on the millions of tonnes of grains the world’s consumers now demand. In the world of large grain trades, not a lot has changed in the 35 years since journalist Dan Morgan, a 30-year veteran of the Washington Post, wrote his detailed expos? of the grain-trading industry, Merchants of Grain: ‘[T]here they are, in the late 1970s, one of the most remarkable phenomenons in the whole business world: the Hirsches, Borns, Louis-Dreyfuses, Andr?s, Fribourgs, Cargills and MacMillans, all survivors and all still in control . . . [I]n no other major industry in the world are all the leading companies private, family-owned, family-operated concerns right down to the last few issues of voting stock.’ Despite the enormity of their economic sway over world markets, most of these companies were, until recently, private corporations that did not have an obligation to publicly disclose their financial dealings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. (ADM is an exception, having been publicly traded since the mid-20th century; Bunge became a publicly traded company as recently as 2001, after 183 years of operating privately.) As a result, the billions of dollars of grain trading that occurred during much of the 20th century operated largely in the shadows of business – elusive, mysterious and often represented by large paper trades made before any actual grain was shipped or changed hands. Although the dealings of these companies are generally outside the radar of public scrutiny, federal agencies are indeed aware. In the United States, the federal government relied on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to track the dealings of grain traders, as well as grain production and agricultural policy in places such as the former Soviet Union – issues they viewed as important to the health of US agribusiness and food security. (Due to the recent push for transparency from the federal government in the United States, such redacted reports are available for anyone to read online from the CIA’s files at http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/princeton-collection (http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/princeton-collection).) While this near monopoly on food commodities prevailed throughout the 20th century, it continues to a substantial degree in our era. The worldwide grain market is still dominated by a handful of commodity traders, all intent on gaining a larger and larger stake in the diet of the world, human or otherwise. Of course, their intent is not to cultivate locally grown vegetables or humanely raised, pasture-fed beef grazing on clover and grass, nor is it to follow sustainable practices that generate the smallest carbon footprint while making their fortunes. It is, as much as possible, to convert the diets of humans and livestock into a commodity-dominated process, with maximum reliance on products with a long shelf-life that are open to price variation worldwide. This creates the perfect situation for profiting from the inequities of an expanding marketplace. Yes: expanding profits on a massive scale underlie much of the push for increased human consumption of grains. Over the last nearly 20 years, we’ve also witnessed the increasing push towards genetically modified grains, which now provide the added financial advantage of patent protection: seeds must be purchased from the patent holder (Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences or Syngenta) every year, since farmers are prohibited from saving seed, as they have done every year since the dawn of agriculture 10,000 years ago. While wheat has not yet been converted to genetically modified strains, corn, rice and other crops have. But GM wheat is surely coming, public outcry be damned. The seed market now stands at around $22 billion worldwide. Agribusiness sees this as a great opportunity to cash in on the world’s diet by selling GM seed and then strictly and aggressively enforcing patents. We’ve already seen this in Monsanto’s courtroom tactics in prosecuting the ‘unauthorized’ use of GM seed that inadvertently gets mixed into a field of non-GM crops. The enemy of large-scale, commoditized grains-as-food is small-scale, locally produced food, since such relatively tiny and disparate operations cannot be controlled by one centralized corporate entity and are beyond the financial reach of the big players. If domination of the world market for food is your goal, then the seeds of grasses are your game. The Blurred Line Between Government and Agribusiness The agribusiness multinationals of our time that control the flow of commodity crops around the world wield an astonishing amount of clout in government circles. Staggering sums are spent, year in and year out, by agribusiness companies to influence public policy in their favour. Recent efforts to oppose labelling of GM foods show us just how badly these companies want to keep the public in the dark about which foods contain GM ingredients. Opposition to Proposition 37 in California, which would have required labels on products containing GM foods, drew $45 million in financial support from Monsanto, Syngenta, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kraft, Nestle, the Corn Refiners Association and the American Bakers Association – a virtual Who’s Who in agribusiness and food processing. Those who opposed the bill outspent proponents (mostly supporters of organic farming) five to one, resulting in defeat of the legislation in 2012. One typical tactic of agribusiness over the past century has been to employ players who know how to play both sides of the game, as regulators and as the regulated. Consequently, high-level executives and attorneys have seamlessly bounced between, for instance, a post at the USDA, an executive position at Cargill and another post at the USDA. To a surprising degree, the roll call of key personnel in government regulatory agencies and that of key personnel in agribusiness overlap over time. I believe there is a saying about foxes and henhouses that applies to this sort of situation. There is some logical justification for such ‘golden revolving doors’, as they are known, between government and industry. After all, these are experts in specific fields that often require deep knowledge that’s held by relatively few people. But with virtually no checks and balances over the process, it also means that such appointments can potentially be used to manipulate policy. The list of questionable appointments is too long to recount in full, but among the many agribusiness executives who’ve held high-level positions in government was Charles Conner, appointed by President George W. Bush. Conner, former head of the Corn Refiners Association, was appointed Special Assistant to the President for Agriculture, Trade, and Food Assistance and then, in 2005, became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. In an especially notorious instance of these ‘henhouse’ appointments, Michael R. Taylor, an attorney for agribusiness giant Monsanto and the firm’s vice president for public policy, became the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Policy and helped draft the FDA’s policy for bovine growth hormone, the Monsanto product given to cows to stimulate milk production. This policy not only paved the way for unrestricted use of the drug, but also prohibited any producer from labelling dairy products as not containing bovine growth hormone. And in one of the most recent golden revolving door exchanges, Carol Browner, who led the EPA under President Bill Clinton and then served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy under President Barack Obama, left her post for a high-level position at Bunge, a company whose history has been marred over the years by allegations of environmental crimes. Lobbyists on the agribusiness payroll working at the federal and state government levels supplement the golden revolving door of agribusiness-friendly key executives. The agribusiness lobby is among the most powerful and well-funded of all lobbying groups, making the motor and education industries look like mom-and-pop businesses. Agribusiness rivals the spending of lobbying giants that include oil, gas, defence and communications. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that in 2012, agribusiness spent $139,726,313 on its lobbying efforts – nearly double the amount spent a decade earlier. Similar sums are spent year in, year out, to wine, dine and curry favour with politicians and policymakers to make sure that government policy remains friendly to agribusiness. One hundred million dollars can buy an awful lot of favourable treatment. Similar vigorous lobbying efforts are focused on the USDA, which is among the most lobbied of government agencies. The USDA receives more than three times the lobbying aimed at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and more than 20 times that aimed at the Social Security Administration. Political contributions are another way agribusiness influences policy, donating millions of dollars every year to congressmen, senators and other elected politicians friendly to the agribusiness agenda. In 2011, agribusiness contributed nearly $92 million. In 2012, more than $60 million was donated to the 435 members of Congress alone. Perhaps all of this should come as no surprise, given the impressive size of these companies: Syngenta’s 2012 revenue was $14.2 billion, Monsanto’s was $13.5 billion and General Mills’s was $17.8 billion. Other operations of similar magnitude populate the agribusiness and processed food landscape, as well, commanding considerable financial power that can be used to muscle public opinion, legislation and marketing in their favour. Grains are therefore the darlings of agribusiness, as they are the favourites of government agencies that provide dietary advice, such as the USDA, which emphasizes grains in its MyPlate and (previously) MyPyramid recommendations. ‘Eat more healthy whole grains’ is therefore not just advice purported to increase health, but advice that increases the commoditization of the human diet. Combine this with the growing worldwide appetite for inexpensive meat that is increasingly a grain-derived product, and you understand how the human diet has become a virtual grainfest. Your Ass is Grass When viewed from the perspective of governments and big agribusiness, the current dietary status quo makes perfect sense: this is how to make a lot of money on a gargantuan scale by shifting the worldwide diet towards high-yield, commoditized grain products, while ensuring that the government will offer advice and policies favourable to this system. So what’s wrong with a situation that allows more people to eat, reduces starvation and happens to allow some enterprising companies to profit, all while allowing congressmen to have an occasional nice dinner or all-expenses-paid weekend in Barbados? Well, what’s wrong is that it ruins your health. Let’s shift our discussion towards that line of thinking. In Chapter 4 (#u800c1a42-11FF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474), we’ll talk about what happens to humans who have been encouraged to obtain 50 per cent or more of their calories from the seeds of grasses. Chapter 4 (#) Your Bowels Have Been Fouled: Intestinal Indignities from Grains (#) There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe If you’re like most people, you were persuaded that grains, in all their processed or whole grain glory – flaked, puffed, dried, sugar-coated, sprouted or crisped – were perfect human foods. Like a widget on a factory production line, you and your life have been assembled, stamped, approved and moulded by forces that stand to profit from the commoditization of the human diet. But you weren’t given the whole story. You were told that ‘healthy whole grains’ were the ticket to nutritional heaven, not the most destructive choices on your plate. You weren’t informed that this cheap, convenient way of eating was also the most expedient way to feed the world’s booming population while profiting those who are properly positioned to benefit. The ‘healthy whole grains’ yarn enjoys the company of other marketing fictions, such as ‘children in Third World countries will be healthier on soy infant formula than on breast milk’. It didn’t start as deception. It began as an act of desperation, when humans first consumed the seeds of grasses strictly because they needed the calories. But desperation took a detour when taste and the physiology of grain-derived opiates took over, revealing the unexpected appeal of tasty foods crafted from the seeds of grasses. Our acute need caused us to ignore chronic consequences, even while our teeth rotted and fell out. From the 20th century on, though, economic opportunism and dietary misinterpretation have been largely responsible for establishing the current grains-as-food-for-every-meal lifestyle. But before we get to all the ways you can regain health by removing grains from your diet, let’s discuss how to recognize what the destruction of health from grains looks like. This will help you understand what can be blamed on grains and what should not. While we might be able to blame grains, for instance, for a tumultuous marriage plagued by irrational behaviour that ends badly, or for years of unexplained diarrhoea prompting repeated unnecessary endoscopies and colonoscopies and bewildered, glazed looks from doctors, we should not blame grains for the chronic health impact of Lyme disease acquired from a tick bite 12 years ago or the despair caused by chronic lead exposure. Understanding these issues will help you more capably craft a programme for health, avoid unrealistic expectations (although expectations should indeed be high) and better recognize related problems when they appear. But I can assure you that there is probably no aspect of life, physical or emotional, untouched by your consumption of grains. In Wheat Belly, I was guilty of oversimplification. I knew that just persuading the world that modern wheat was not the dietary angel it was portrayed to be, but rather the most awful Frankengrain, was a huge enough undertaking for one book. For readers of the original Wheat Belly, I will cover some familiar ground in this and the next chapter, but I will expand the discussion, relate new lessons and include the latest science. When you read what happens to typical grain-consuming people, you can’t help but be struck by the realization that we are describing nearly everyone around us. The range of destructive health effects wrought by grain consumption is so far-reaching that, by the end of this chapter, and certainly by the end of this book, you will come to understand that the wide-ranging and myriad chronic health conditions that afflict humans can, to an astounding degree, be blamed on grain consumption. Accordingly, when we remove this collection of things called ‘healthy whole grains’, we regain health in ways that, even today, continue to astound all of us engaged in this adventure. I’ll begin the discussion of the adverse health effects of grains at the first place your body has waged its battle against grains. This is dietary ground zero: your gastrointestinal tract. Grains wreak an astonishing array of digestive havoc. People struggle for years, dealing with the turmoil of bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, many of them eventually ending up in the emergency room, endoscoped top and bottom, typically with no cause identified, only to be prescribed one of the few catchall drugs: acid-suppressing medication, laxatives or antibiotics. A particularly common complaint of the grain consumer is disruptive and embarrassing bowel urgency that keeps people from leaving their homes or travelling, or that forces them to dash to the toilet with barely a warning. Some of the worst constipation you could imagine, called obstipation, with bowel movements happening as infrequently as every several weeks, is silently endured, as fibre and laxatives are ineffective against it. The range and frequency of bowel disruption by grains is all the more astounding when we hear just how much they are supposed to be good for gastrointestinal health. Grains are not only not good for gastrointestinal health, but they are actually poisonous when consumed chronically. Diarrhoea, constipation, obstipation, malabsorption and inflammatory bowel disease should come as no surprise to those who consume the collection of toxins contained in the seeds of grasses. Let’s quickly map out the digestive system to give you a greater appreciation for just how grains upset the entire system and to help you understand why additional efforts are often required to regain health after grains are removed. It Starts with a Gulp Digestion is the miraculous process of converting things ingested, animate or inanimate, into the components of your body. The human gastrointestinal tract starts at your lips and teeth, which begin the process of tearing food into fragments. Your tongue and sense of smell serve testing functions, distinguishing the distasteful and foul-smelling (and thereby potentially unsafe) from the tasty (which is our main criterion for determining what should or should not be eaten). Salivary glands provide lubricant and are the first source of digestive enzymes. The oropharynx at the back of your throat divides and protects your respiratory from your digestive system and is lined with lymph tissue to respond to foreign invaders. Then comes your oesophagus, the muscular passageway to your stomach. In your stomach, powerful hydrochloric acid degrades food and provides an environment inhospitable to microorganisms. Protein breakdown is initiated by the stomach enzymes pepsin and gastric lipase, followed by a soup of digestive enzymes (including pancreatic lipase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, collagenase and others) released by your pancreas to further digest proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Your liver then joins the process by producing bile, a green-coloured liquid synthesized from discarded haemoglobin from aged red blood cells – an example of the incredible efficiency of nature. Bile is stored in your gallbladder, neutralizes the acidity from your stomach acid and is secreted into your small intestine to further digest fats. Your liver also receives nutrients absorbed via your small intestine, converting them into forms transportable through the bloodstream and usable by various organs. Partially digested food and liquids proceed through your duodenum, then jejunum and ileum, segments of the small intestine responsible for nutrient absorption. Though labelled ‘small’ because of its narrow diameter, your small intestine is the longest part of your gastrointestinal tract, typically measuring 24 feet in length. This adaptation makes us efficient digesters of protein compared with ruminants, who have shorter small intestines. After passing through your small intestine, food finally gets to your colon, the organ charged with the function of completing unfinished digestion. It does so by housing trillions of microorganisms that digest any remaining polysaccharides, even those indigestible by humans, and absorbing any residual nutrients while also helping maintain hydration by absorbing water from its semi-liquid contents and converting those contents into semisolid form. Lower down, your rectum serves a storage function that allows the elimination of its contents to occur at opportune moments, rather than in the middle of a business meeting or when doing star jumps. I recount this amazingly elaborate process to highlight just how many steps along the way can be disrupted. In fact, given its complexity, it almost seems a wonder that digestion ever occurs smoothly. Safety mechanisms and redundancies built into the system through evolutionary adaptation maximize the likelihood that what you’ve ingested will be safely converted into the nutrients you require, while the undigested remains will be passed out quietly and without fanfare. The complexity of your digestive system is part of its beauty, but also part of its vulnerability. Disruption of this multistep process can come in many forms, including pinpoint disruption of intestinal permeability by poisons such as cholera toxin, autoimmune attacks against layers of small intestinal tissue characteristic of Crohn’s disease and factors that alter the composition of microorganisms. Grains: A Disemboweling Experience Let’s put it all together and describe what happens when us non-ruminants choose to eat the seeds of grasses in multigrain bread, cornflour, puffed rice in a rice cake or a bowl of oatmeal. It should come as no surprise that disruptions of this otherwise marvellous system develop. We don’t fatally succumb to our first or second bite, of course, but over an extended period of time our health declines and we wonder why, though we’re eating what we thought were healthy foods in moderation, exercising and heeding conventional health advice, we end up with disastrous health consequences. These are the gastrointestinal effects of consuming the seeds of grasses. Acid Reflux and Reflux Oesophagitis Millions of people are plagued by the discomfort of acid reflux and oesophageal inflammation and are prescribed acid-suppressing medications such as Prilosec, Prevacid, Pepcid and Protonix, which they take every day for years. Treatment for acid reflux and reflux oesophagitis has proven to be enormously profitable. Annual revenues for these drugs for one company alone, AstraZeneca, exceeded ?15 billion in 2011. More than one billion people – one out of every seven people on the planet – have been prescribed these drugs since their appearance on the market 35 years ago. These drugs are not without health consequences. They have been associated with vitamin B and magnesium deficiency; impaired calcium absorption, osteoporosis and increased bone fracture risk; and increased risk of pneumonia. Use of such prescription drugs has been associated with changes in bowel flora resulting in dysbiosis (disrupted bowel flora) and increased potential for intestinal infection with Clostridium difficile. The dysbiosis provoked by such drugs is believed by some to explain the deterioration of multiple sclerosis symptoms that often develops with their use. Because the drugs are often ineffective and result in their own collection of health problems, doctors increasingly advise patients to undergo surgical procedures, such as fundoplication (surgically wrapping the stomach around the oesophagus) to avoid using the drugs. But for the majority of people taking these drugs for acid reflux and reflux oesophagitis, the real solution is as simple as saying ‘no’ to all grains. Bowel Urgency and Irritable Bowel Syndrome I am astounded by the number of people who relate tales of explosive bowel urgency, often with just seconds of warning, that cause their lives to be filled with anxiety during social situations, travel or a simple trip to the shops. While grains are commonly painted as good for bowel health because of the fibre they contain, the other components of grains create feelings of urgency, the symptoms of which are often labelled irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Gliadin and related prolamins, glutenins, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), alpha amylase and trypsin inhibitors are bowel toxins, and bowel urgency is your body’s way of telling you that it is trying to get rid of some toxin causing irritation. It is wise to listen to your bowels, and they are saying, ‘stop the grains’. IBS, particularly if diarrhoea is present, is also proving to be more coeliac disease-like than previously suspected in that it is associated with increased intestinal permeability and a high likelihood of dysbiosis. IBS and/or ‘gluten sensitivity’ are therefore not as benign as previously advertised, given that increased intestinal permeability has the potential to initiate autoimmune processes, among other issues. Dysbiosis Grains and other factors cause changes in bowel flora, allowing unhealthy species of bacteria to proliferate while suppressing or entirely knocking off healthy species, a condition called dysbiosis or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Abnormal bacteria can also migrate into the upper small intestine and stomach, where they don’t belong, rather than being confined to the lowest end of the small intestine and the large intestine. In its most severe form, dysbiosis is experienced as nausea, abdominal distress, diarrhoea or constipation (typically diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome), fatigue and low energy, inflammation of the skin and joints, diffuse muscle pain (often called fibromyalgia), nutrient deficiencies and autoimmune diseases. One of the ways grains can trigger dysbiosis involves your gallbladder and pancreas, which are normally part of a wonderfully orchestrated system. When oils or fats are sensed in the duodenum, the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) is released, stimulating the gallbladder to release bile and the pancreas to release a mix of digestive enzymes, all of which work to digest food. Funny thing, though: CCK receptors in the gallbladder and pancreas are glycoproteins, the kind of protein that WGA loves to bind. This blocks the CCK signal received by the gallbladder to release bile and the pancreas to release digestive enzymes. The result is inefficient, incomplete digestion. Undigested food ferments and decays in the presence of bacteria, effects you experience as bloating, gas and changes in stool character, including lighter colour and floating (due to undigested oils and fats). Over time, dysbiosis sets in, as the rotting food encourages growth of decay-causing bacteria. To top it all off, the failed release of bile by the gallbladder leads to bile stasis, which allows formation of gallstones. Dysbiosis can also exacerbate existing conditions. Some people, genetically predisposed, develop inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease after exposure to the bowel toxins of grains. Should dysbiosis develop, these conditions are made even worse, as sufferers may experience diarrhoea, bleeding in the stool, poor nutrient absorption, pain and a long-term risk for complications, such as colon cancer for those with ulcerative colitis or small intestinal lymphoma and fissures for those with Crohn’s disease. Constipation A condition as pedestrian as constipation serves to perfectly illustrate many of the ways in which grains mess with normal body functions, as well as just how wrong conventional ‘solutions’ can be. Constipation remedies are like the Keystone Kops of health: they stumble, fumble and bump into each other, but never quite put out the fire. Drop a rock from the top of a building and it predictably hits the ground – not sometimes, not half the time, but every time. That’s how the bowels are programmed to work, as well: Put food in your mouth, and it should come out the other end, preferably that same day and certainly no later than the following day. People living primitive lives without grains, sugars and soft drinks enjoy such predictable bowel behaviour: eat some turtle, fish, clams, mushrooms, coconut or mongongo nuts for breakfast, and out it all comes that afternoon or evening – large, steamy, filled with undigested remains and prolific quantities of bacteria, no straining, laxatives or stack of magazines required. Live a modern life and have pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, instead. You’ll be lucky to pass that out by tomorrow or the next day. Or perhaps you will be constipated, not passing out your pancakes and syrup for days or passing it incompletely in hard, painful bits and pieces. In constipation’s most extreme forms, the remains of pancakes can stay in your colon for weeks. The combined effects of impaired CCK signalling, reduced bile release, insufficient pancreatic enzymes and changes in bowel flora disrupt the orderly passage of digested foods. We are given advice to include more fibre, especially insoluble cellulose (wood) fibres from grains, in our diets. We then eat breakfast cereals or other grain-based foods rich in cellulose fibres and, lo and behold, it does work for some, as indigestible cellulose fibres, undigested by our own digestive apparatus as well as undigested by bowel flora, yield bulk that people mistake for a healthy bowel movement. Never mind that all of the other disruptions of digestion, from your mouth on down, are not addressed by loading up your diet with wood fibres. What if sluggish bowel movements prove unresponsive to such fibres? That’s when health care comes to the rescue with laxatives in a variety of forms, some irritative (phenolphthalein and senna), some lubricating (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), some osmotic (polyethylene glycol), some no different than spraying you down with a hose (enemas). The methods of modern health care build on the problem. Perhaps you develop iron deficiency from grain phytates, necessitating prescription iron tablets that cause constipation. You also develop high blood pressure and are prescribed thiazide diuretics and beta-blockers, both of which increase constipation. Autoimmune thyroid disruption that can develop from prolamin proteins of grains also slows bowel function. When joints hurt from grain consumption, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are taken, resulting in slowed stool passage. If you’re emotionally depressed due to grain consumption, antidepressants are prescribed that slow normal bowel reflexes that maintain motility. The constant message is to get more fibre, drink more fluids, take a laxative. The longer stool-in-progress stays in the lower small intestine and colon, the longer it has to putrefy. Just as food sitting out in the open air rots, so can stool sitting too long in the bacteria-rich environment of the intestinal tract. Slowed passage of putrefied stool has been linked to increased cancer risk, especially of the rectum. Over time, constipation and the straining it causes lead to haemorrhoids; anal fissures; prolapse of the uterus, vagina and rectum; and even bowel obstruction, a surgical emergency. Once again, the health-care system, with its enthusiasm for procedures, has solutions. As banal, uninspiring and ordinary as it is, constipation has a world of important lessons to teach us about our relationship with the seeds of grasses. Yes, there is order and justice in the digestive world, but you won’t find it in that box of fibre-rich cereal. Note that I barely mention coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, as most of the gastrointestinal disruptions caused by grains are of neither variety. When those diseases are removed from the discussion, you can appreciate just how much gastrointestinal distress and disruption is due to the various toxic components of grains. You can also appreciate why defenders of grains, such as the Whole Grains Council, try to minimize the problem by arguing that gluten is the only problem component in grains and that gluten is a problem for a relative few. Nope: grains are simply the innocent seeds of grasses, incompletely digestible just like the rest of grass plants. This indigestibility allows toxins to persist, intact and ready to block, irritate and inflame the gastrointestinal tract of Homo sapiens who never should have eaten the stuff in the first place. This results in insufficient bile and pancreatic enzymes, impaired digestion, gallstones and dysbiosis, coupled with intestinal inflammation – the human gastrointestinal tract doesn’t stand a chance. The Coeliac Concession and the Clash over Gluten Sensitivity Defenders of grains would have us believe that the only problem with consuming the seeds of grasses is coeliac disease, the destruction of the lining of the small intestine that occurs in people with genetic susceptibility from carrying HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 genes, coupled with positive tests for transglutaminase or endomysial antibodies and an abnormal biopsy of the small intestine. Coeliac disease affects around 1 per cent of the population and the gliadin, secalin and hordein proteins of wheat, rye and barley are issues only for these people, they argue. Just a few years ago, this represented a major concession from the defenders of grains. More recently, this notion has crumbled like stale bread as consensus has grown for the idea that there is another form of intolerance to these same proteins. Labelled non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), it is believed to cause many of the same symptoms experienced by coeliac sufferers. Bloating, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fatigue and headaches are experienced by these people in the absence of the markers for coeliac disease, yet they have symptoms reliably triggered by reexposure to grains. Because of differences in how this condition is defined, anywhere from a few per cent to 30 per cent of the population are estimated to have NCGS. Some coeliac disease experts have proposed that irritable bowel syndrome, a condition that affects 25 per cent of the population, should be regarded as the same condition as NCGS. People with NCGS have a greater likelihood of antibodies to gliadin; 56 per cent showed such antibodies in one analysis, suggesting that an autoimmune process is at work. The possibility that NCGS represents reactions to other components of grains, such as WGA or trypsin or amylase inhibitors, has not yet been fully explored. Nonetheless, the expanding world of grain intolerances has kept grain’s defenders busy, and they’ve had to concede that there may indeed be problems with grain consumption in more than the 1 per cent of people with coeliac disease. I don’t envy those in the position of having to defend grains. More recently, they have tried to put a positive spin on ‘gluten-free grains’, such as amaranth, rice and millet, hoping to maintain their market presence but deflect growing antigluten criticism. Defend the seeds of grasses as a dietary staple, and it should come as no surprise that you find yourself in an increasingly lonely corner. Fortification: Not Good Enough It should come as no surprise that, given the gastrointestinal disruption caused by grains, nutrient absorption can be impaired enough to create several common deficiencies. Of course, this is contrary to what we’re told will happen if we consume more ‘healthy whole grains’. Grains like wholemeal bread, stoneground oatmeal and multigrain muffins do indeed have a respectable profile of B vitamins, fibre and phytonutrients. But the nutrients of grains are accompanied by factors that impair the absorption of nutrients, which then cause nutritional deficiencies. This vicious cycle only ends when you remove grains from your diet and seek other sources of nutrients. IRON DEFICIENCY began when early humans first consumed the seeds of grasses. Iron deficiency can impair the ability to run, hunt, gather food or tolerate weather extremes, so it has a potential impact on survival. Because of this, it has exerted an evolutionary pressure over the last 10,000 years that led to the appearance of the gene for haemochromatosis, which partially counteracts the iron-impairing effects of grains. All grains contain high quantities of phytates, the component of grains responsible for impaired iron absorption. Ironically, many grain breeders select high-phytate strains of grains because they have improved pest resistance. Whole wheat, corn and millet, for instance, contain 800 milligrams (mg) of phytates per 100 grams (approximately 3? ounces) of flour. It takes as little as 50 mg of phytates to slash iron absorption by 80 to 90 per cent. Because phytates essentially turn off the human capacity for iron absorption and most of us do not have haemochromatosis, consumption of grains is the most common explanation for iron deficiency anaemia in situations in which blood loss is not the cause. Iron deficiency is a worldwide problem; it’s the most common cause of anaemia. In Egypt, for example, iron deficiency doubled between 2000 and 2005 as grain consumption of baladi bread increased. The ‘solution’? Fortify the bread with iron. It should come as no surprise that 46 per cent of people with coeliac disease show decreased iron stores (low ferritin levels) and anaemia from iron deficiency, though, because the effect is not mediated by gluten but by phytates, and grain-induced iron deficiency is exceptionally common in those who don’t have coeliac disease, as well. People who have Crohn’s disease, malabsorption and dysbiosis are also more prone to iron deficiency. Grains cause iron-deficiency anaemia with its associated symptoms of fatigue, light-headedness and breathlessness. Grains contain iron, but it is the less well-absorbed ‘non-haem’ form, rather than the more efficiently absorbed ‘haem’ form found in haemoglobin and myoglobin from animal products. Despite the fact that grains contain iron, the net effect of grain consumption is reduced iron status. Iron deficiency is therefore a common health price we pay when we consume the seeds of grasses. ZINC DEFICIENCY also develops in populations dependent on grain consumption. Deficiency of zinc was thought to be rare until 1958, when a severe case was diagnosed in an Iranian man who appeared to be around 10 years old at the age of 22. He had an enlarged liver and spleen, heart failure and an appetite for eating dirt. Characteristic of his culture, 50 to 90 per cent of his diet consisted of unleavened tanok bread, along with potatoes, fruit, vegetables and occasional meat. Zinc supplementation corrected his health problems. The component in wheat responsible for the deficiency was not clear, however, until chickens and pigs were diagnosed with zinc deficiency due to the phytate content of wheat fed to them. Zinc deficiency has since proven to be widespread. The phytates that block iron absorption are also responsible for blocking zinc absorption. The phytates contained in just 2 ounces of grain flour are sufficient to nearly completely block intestinal zinc absorption. And in the seemingly endless string of breeding blunders, here’s one more: modern breeding efforts have selected plants with higher quantities of phytates because of their pest resistance. The ever-resourceful grain industry has, not unexpectedly, manipulated grain crops to increase zinc content to compensate. (One method includes using fertilizers supplemented with zinc.) Zinc deficiency correlates with grain consumption: the more that’s consumed, the more likely zinc deficiency is to develop. This is a nutritional problem of growing worldwide significance, as increasing reliance on grains, especially wheat, corn and rice, has worsened zinc status in an estimated two billion people. Between 35 and 45 per cent of older adults are zinc deficient, and 67 per cent of people with untreated coeliac disease have zinc deficiency. Because zinc is essential for hundreds of different body processes, deficiency can manifest in varied ways. Mild deficiency typically shows as rashes, diarrhoea and hair loss. Vegans, vegetarians and people who limit consumption of animal products are especially prone to zinc deficiency, since plant products contain minimal zinc compared with the higher zinc content of meats, poultry, shellfish and organ meats. Combine the poor zinc content of plant products with the impaired absorption caused by grain phytates, and it’s not uncommon for vegans and vegetarians to develop difficulties even mounting a normal immune response. Additionally, fertility and reproduction are adversely impacted, children and adolescents can experience impaired growth, and neurological maturation is impaired, among other diverse effects of moderate to severe zinc deficiency. For this reason, the Institute of Medicine has estimated that vegans and vegetarians require 50 per cent more zinc than omnivores. Removing grains from the diet improves zinc status, and if lost grain calories are compensated for with an increase in zinc-rich foods, such as meats, there is a net increase in zinc intake and absorption. (Also, see here (#) for more information on how to correct zinc deficiency.) VITAMIN B DEFICIENCY is also common, affecting 19 per cent of people with coeliac disease and 16.6 per cent of people without coeliac disease. B deficiency is another signature deficiency of grain consumption, as several grain components collaborate to impair its absorption. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) blocks the intrinsic factor protein produced in the stomach and essential for B absorption in the small intestine, the means by which 60 per cent of all B is absorbed. Grain consumption can also trigger antibodies against the intrinsic factor or against the stomach parietal cells that produce intrinsic factor. Severe B deficiency has serious implications, including pernicious anaemia (fatal if untreated) or macrocytic anaemia, describing the abnormally large red blood cells that develop as a result of this condition. Abdominal pain, an enlarged liver and a characteristic cherry red tongue develop with B deficiency. Lesser degrees of deficiency have health and performance implications, too, as they can lead to diminished concentration and learning ability. Typical of the silliness of modern nutritional thinking, the solution often offered is increased B supplementation in grains to compensate for these effects. Because dietary B is obtained mostly from animal-sourced products, such as meat, liver and eggs, vegans and vegetarians who consume grains are especially likely to develop a deficiency. People with inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) are also especially prone to vitamin B deficiency. FOLATE DEFICIENCY is less common than deficiencies of iron, zinc and vitamin B . It is, however, known to occur in people with coeliac disease and gluten intolerance. People with inflammatory bowel diseases also suffer from impaired folate absorption sufficient to cause deficiency. Also, situations in which greater folate needs develop, especially pregnancy, can magnify the severity of deficiency. In all these situations, assessment of folate levels should be performed and supplementation instituted. (See here (#) for more information.) Folate deficiency has serious implications, including birth defects in children born from folate-deficient mothers and increased potential for gastrointestinal cancers. Many of the same phenomena that develop with vitamin B deficiency are caused by folate deficiency, since folate and B participate in many similar processes. Folate is the form that occurs naturally in foods, while folic acid is the synthetic form added to foods or taken in supplement form. Because modern diets dependent on processed grains and sugar are potentially deficient in folate, manufacturers in the United States and Canada have been required to add synthetic folic acid to grain products since 1998 to decrease the incidence of birth defects. This has indeed improved the folate status of most people, but it is proving to be a double-edged sword: Folate levels increased more than intended, and increased reliance on synthetic folic acid has also been associated with increased colon and prostate cancers. VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY is a widespread phenomenon with significant implications for health. Vitamin D deficiency is the rule, rather than the exception. While we can blame more severe cases of deficiency on grains, it also commonly occurs independent of grain consumption. Various other modern habits have served to worsen our vitamin D status, including inhabiting cold climates deprived of year-round sunlight, wearing clothes that cover skin surface area (since vitamin D is activated in our skin by sunlight), increasingly indoor lifestyles, aversion to organ consumption, especially liver (they contain vitamin D), and ageing, which is associated with a progressive loss of the ability to activate vitamin D in the skin. Living in the tropics is no guarantee of adequate vitamin D status, though; a recent assessment of elderly males living in a tropical climate, for instance, revealed that 66.7 per cent were deficient. Vitamin D status is such a crucial factor for health that we discuss it at greater length later in the book (see here (#)). People with coeliac disease are especially prone to vitamin D deficiency, which also contributes to low bone mineral density. In one clinical study, only 25 per cent of people showed normal bone density at the time of their coeliac disease diagnosis. Bone demineralization (loss of calcium) that weakens bones is also worsened by the impaired calcium absorption characteristic of coeliac disease. Gut Flora: Don’t Get Your Bowels in an Uproar You can view bacterial flora that inhabit the intestinal tract like a garden: if you fertilize it properly, provide sufficient water and nutrients, and avoid herbicides and pesticides that disrupt the natural balance, your garden will yield a bounty of vigorous, healthy crops. If you fail to water or fertilize it properly, you will probably have a lousy yield of stunted crops, not to mention lots of weeds. Bowel flora operate on similar principles. We know that diet plays an important role in shaping the composition of bowel flora, even in the absence of disease. For example, bowel flora of children living in rural Africa and eating traditional diets, when compared with European children eating a modern diet, demonstrate striking differences. The African children have higher than expected numbers of Bacteroidetes, an adaptation theorized to enhance efficiency in digesting plant matter. I’ve discussed how the adoption of grains changed the composition of mouth and gut flora in humans. Changes in oral flora have clear implications for dental disease; changes in gastrointestinal flora have less clear implications, but it should come as no surprise that there could be such changes, given the toxic effects grains have on the intestines. The composition of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, concentrated in the colon, varies from individual to individual, shifts with age and hormonal status, and is modified by exposure to antibiotics and components of diet. When factors that allow healthy bacteria to survive are altered, bowel flora species change and microorganisms can extend above the normal furthest segment of the small intestine, a situation called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO. That’s when nasty things can happen: bloating, diarrhoea, nutritional deficiencies and inflammation. (See ‘Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth: The Case of the Human Petri Dish (#)’.) It is estimated that more than 1,000 different species of bacteria dwell in our intestines. Unfortunately, most of our understanding of the composition of bowel flora involves comparing people with various diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, to people without the same disease. It is not clear whether the changes in bowel flora composition are part of the cause or simply a consequence of the disease. People without disease are also assumed to be normal, but this may not be true, since ‘normal’ ignores potentially disruptive factors such as prior antibiotic use, emotional stress and unnatural distortions of diet, such as grain and sugar consumption. Nobody quite knows what normal or ideal bowel flora look like yet. A number of health conditions have been associated with changes of bowel flora, including multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, diabetes (both type 1 and type 2), irritable bowel syndrome, gallstones, acid reflux and oesophagitis, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and food allergies. Funny thing: each and every one of these conditions has also been associated with grain consumption, especially consumption of wheat, rye and barley. Changes in the composition of our bacteria develop as quickly as days to weeks after a change in diet. Right now, our understanding of bowel flora remains limited, but it is rapidly yielding to study. I believe that in the next few years we will know with confidence how to assess an individual’s bowel flora status and how to know when it has been fully corrected. In the meantime, the steps required to reestablish what we currently believe represents an ideal composition of bowel flora will be discussed in Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo). Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth: The Case of the Human Petri Dish Put a petri dish out in the open air and, over just a few days, it will be ripe with bacteria and fungi. Likewise, mess up the health of the human intestine by allowing undesirable bacteria and fungi to gain an advantage and reducing normal bacterial species, and you have the equivalent of a human petri dish. Such a situation is common, and it’s called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), or dysbiosis, an abnormal overabundance of bacteria in the normally sparsely populated upper small intestine, or jejunum, along with changed species in other parts of the intestinal tract. (Changed bowel flora also occurs in the large intestine and even the stomach and duodenum, but a SIBO or dysbiosis diagnosis is often made by sampling the contents of the jejunum of the small intestine, which is why we have the somewhat misleading ‘small intestine’ label of the condition.) SIBO has been associated with a number of conditions, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and anatomical distortions introduced by prior bowel surgery. SIBO is common in people with coeliac disease, and when ‘normal’ people are assessed for SIBO, up to 35 per cent demonstrate evidence for abnormal intestinal infestations, even if no symptoms are present. When SIBO is diagnosed in people with bothersome symptoms, the conventional treatment is to prescribe an antibiotic, such as rifaximin, to wipe out bowel flora, both good and bad. And it works, though it ignores the question of why the SIBO developed in the first place. And, of course, wiping out bowel flora does not guarantee that your intestines will repopulate with healthy bacteria, particularly if the cause of the SIBO remains uncorrected. The Difficulties of C. difficile One disturbing trend in the world of SIBO is the increasing incidence of infection by Clostridium difficile, a strain of bacteria capable of inflicting severe damage on the colon. Called pseudomembranous colitis, in its worst form it can involve sepsis (entry of bacteria into the bloodstream) and death. Ordinarily, C. difficile quietly inhabits the colons of healthy people (or at least what is commonly regarded as healthy) in low numbers, as it competes with other bacteria for nutrients and is suppressed by factors expressed by other species. We know that C. difficile can emerge following the use of antibiotics that indiscriminately knock off bowel flora, good and bad, which of course requires even more antibiotics. More recently, though, C. difficile has proven to be a source of trouble even without a preceding course of antibiotics. Drugs that are widely prescribed to suppress stomach acid, such as Prilosec, Protonix and Prevacid, have been associated with distortions of bowel flora that allow populations of C. difficile to thrive. But the reasons why this organism is becoming increasingly aggressive are unclear. Might the distortions of bowel flora caused by grains, changed by agribusiness, play a role? There are no answers at present, but it sure would add up as cleanly as 2 + 2 = 4. Your Gut is Leaking Leakiness is a condition that plagues roofs and bathroom taps or is suffered by spy agencies when errant contractors leak classified US security information, but hopefully your seafaring ship, microwave and intestinal tract are free from leaks. For many years, it has been suspected that an abnormally increased degree of intestinal permeability is responsible for triggering diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis and coeliac disease. Every day, your gastrointestinal tract must contend with bacteria, fungi and other organisms, bacterial toxins and even larger critters, such as protozoa and insects. It must therefore make millions of ‘decisions’ every day, with each and every meal: What should be allowed passage into the lymph system and bloodstream? What should not? This tightly controlled system can go haywire. Fragments of gliadin and related prolamin proteins exert direct toxic inflammatory effects on the intestinal lining in anyone foolish enough to ingest grains – effects that can result in abnormally increased intestinal permeability. No genetic susceptibility is required for this effect; all testing for coeliac disease or ‘gluten sensitivity’ may be negative in those with intestinal permeability. In addition to these direct effects, gliadin can also indirectly increase intestinal permeability. While at the University of Maryland, Dr Alessio Fasano discovered that the zonulin protein in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract is a target for the gliadin protein of wheat. Once activated, the zonulin protein triggers increased leakiness of the barriers (‘tight junctions’) between intestinal cells, permitting molecules that should be confined within the intestinal tract to gain access to the rest of the body. While the intensity of the effect is variable (depending on the genetically determined form of zonulin), everyone is subject to this effect to one degree or another. Given their structural similarities, the prolamin proteins of other grains exert similar effects. The implications of Dr Fasano’s work are huge. His findings mean that the abnormally increased intestinal permeability induced by gliadin and related proteins is the first step leading to autoimmunity, as the body’s immune system is tricked into attacking its own organs in those with genetic susceptibility. In other words, even if you have a genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis, joint swelling, inflammation and disfigurement may never show unless the process is initiated by consumption of grain proteins. Or, if you have a genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis, fatigue, numbness, incoordination and bladder or bowel dysfunction may never appear unless grain proteins cause increased intestinal permeability that allows the genetic susceptibility to manifest. We discuss this distinct pathway that relates autoimmune diseases with grain consumption in Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo). Venomous, Debauched, and Depraved If, at the end of this discussion of the gastrointestinal effects of grains, you conclude that grains are not only harmful for bowel health and nutrition but are also a dreadful, nasty, trouble-making collection of bowel toxins, you are empowered with the key to understanding why so many people are plagued by chronic gastrointestinal complaints, regardless of how ‘balanced’ their diet, how vigorously they exercise or how many nutritional supplements they take. While the gastrointestinal system is ground zero for the human body’s battle against grains, it is by no means the only battleground. We’ll discuss the rest of the battered, barren, land mine-strewn health landscape in Chapter 5 (#u800c1a42-12FF-11e9-9e03-0cc47a520474). Chapter 5 (#) Grains, Brains and Chest Pains (#) I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder. Stephen Wright In the confrontation between grains and the human body, the gastrointestinal tract is directly in the line of fire – but the war certainly doesn’t end there. Let’s penetrate deeper and examine the wounds and scars left by grains as they disrupt, agitate and discombobulate the finely balanced machinations of the human body – joints, skin, glands, respiratory system and brain – leaving no organ untouched. It’s a long chapter with lots of detail meant to show you the astounding scope and frightening severity of the unhealthy human experience that exists because, as a species, we made this terrible decision to consume the seeds of grasses. Grains and Autoimmunity: Dastardly Duo Mutt and Jeff. Abbott and Costello. Cheech and Chong. Garlic and bad breath. Where you find one, you find the other, and so it is with grains and autoimmune conditions in humans. When the human immune system is unable to distinguish proteins in your colon, thyroid gland, pancreas or brain from foreign organisms invading your body, it recruits B and T lymphocytes into an army to wage war on your own organs. We call this autoimmunity. It’s a process that, in an astounding proportion of cases, begins with the muffins you have for breakfast or the slice of pizza you ate for dinner. The complex pathways worked out by Dr Alessio Fasano of the University of Maryland and his colleagues (see here (#)) open up an entirely new perspective on diseases that involve autoimmunity. Recall that the gliadin protein of wheat and the nearly identical proteins of rye and barley can remain undigested. Intact gliadin proteins provoke increased permeability of the intestinal tract, which allows foreign substances access to the bloodstream. The misrecognition process of autoimmunity can begin with a bacterial protein that gets into the bloodstream, but it can also start with a grain protein. The gliadin protein and the transglutaminase enzyme of the liver or pancreas bear a strong resemblance to one another, so the presence of gliadin in the bloodstream can trick the immune system into causing autoimmune hepatitis or autoimmune pancreatitis. This is big. This is as big as identifying and capturing the Mafia don responsible for dozens of gangland-style murders and millions of dollars of contraband, convicting him and putting him away for life. It means that we now have a direct path linking gliadin and related grain prolamin proteins with autoimmune conditions. This sequence of events is not limited to people with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity; this applies to everyone. Susceptibility will vary based on genetic factors, but it is separate and distinct from the gastrointestinal disruption caused by coeliac disease. It means that a person with no abdominal symptoms from wheat consumption – no heartburn, bowel urgency, colitis, etc. – and who tests negative for coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity can still develop the joint deformity of rheumatoid arthritis years later or the neurological impairment of multiple sclerosis at the age of 45. Prolamins and Transglutaminase: Dead Ringers Remember the 1964 Bette Davis film Dead Ringer, in which one sister, Edith, estranged and angered with her twin, Margaret, shoots her in the head and then covers up her crime by assuming the killed twin’s identity? I don’t think any better allegorical description for autoimmunity could be crafted, right down to Ms Davis’s talent for portraying unpopular characters. The human body relies on a class of enzymes called transglutaminases, which are found in the intestinal lining, pancreas, joints, brain, skin and other organs. Transglutaminase enzymes are responsible for the simple task of removing a nitrogen-containing (amine) group from the amino acid glutamine in the proteins that you consume. In an odd twist of fate, human transglutaminase enzymes resemble the gliadin protein of wheat, as well as the related prolamin proteins of rye, barley, corn and oats. In other words, if their structures are laid out side-by-side, there is an eerie overlap in sequence among all of them, such that the body’s immune response can’t tell the difference: they are immune dead ringers. This has been called ‘molecular mimicry’: two unrelated and different proteins with different purposes, but with sections of shared structure that fool the immune system. Antibodies expressed against grain prolamins – and thereby against transglutaminase – are associated with inflammatory bowel diseases, ­pancreatitis, joint and muscle inflammation, skin rashes and other autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. This explains how and why grain consumption causes so many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases other than coeliac disease. For example, children with type 1 diabetes (an autoimmune condition of the pancreas) are more likely to express antibodies against the transglutaminase enzyme, also associated with increased potential for autoimmune conditions outside of the pancreas. It is as unsettling as one twin shooting the other, this relationship between something plant and something human that’s close enough to fool even the finely tuned discriminating powers of the human immune system. But such is the unnatural relationship between humans and the seeds of grasses. Even before the details of increased intestinal permeability were sorted out by Dr Fasano’s team, it had been known for many years that the list of autoimmune conditions attributable to wheat, rye and barley is formidable. These dangerous and sometimes fatal conditions are enough to make you spit out your last bite of raisin bread. Addison’s disease Alopecia areata Ankylosing spondylitis Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome Autoimmune haemolytic anaemia Autoimmune hepatitis Autoimmune inner ear disease Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome Autoimmune thrombocytopaenic purpura Beh?et’s disease Bullous pemphigoid Cardiomyopathy (dilated, or congestive) Chronic fatigue syndrome Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy Coeliac disease Cold agglutinin disease CREST syndrome Crohn’s disease Dermatomyositis Discoid lupus Essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome Graves’ disease Guillain–Barr? syndrome Hashimoto’s thyroiditis Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis Idiopathic thrombocytopaenic purpura IgA nephropathy Insulin-dependent diabetes (type I) Juvenile arthritis M?ni?re’s disease Mixed connective tissue disease Multiple sclerosis Myasthaenia gravis Myocarditis Pemphigus vulgaris Pernicious anaemia Polyarteritis nodosa Polychondritis Polyglandular syndromes Polymyalgia rheumatica Polymyositis dermatomyositis Primary agammaglobulinaemia Primary biliary cirrhosis Psoriasis Raynaud’s syndrome Reiter’s syndrome Rheumatoid arthritis Sarcoidosis Scleroderma Sj?gren’s syndrome Systemic lupus erythematosus Takayasu’s arteritis Temporal arteritis Ulcerative colitis Uveitis Vasculitis Vitiligo Wegener’s granulomatosis This list shows that the misrecognition process that leads to autoimmunity can involve the joints (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus arthritis), pancreas (autoimmune pancreatitis), small intestine (Crohn’s disease), cerebellum (cerebellar ataxia), nerves of the legs and pelvis (peripheral neuropathy), thyroid (Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis), skin (psoriasis, alopecia areata), liver (autoimmune hepatitis) and arteries (polyarteritis nodosa) – and it doesn’t end there. There’s no organ that has not been associated with autoimmune attack triggered by grains. This is not to say that every case of, say, autoimmune pancreatitis can be blamed on grains, as other factors may trigger a similar immune response gone awry in susceptible people. But these are all conditions triggered or unmasked by a component of diet, specifically a component of diet that we are urged to eat in greater quantities. Corn and oats have been associated with a more limited panel of autoimmune conditions. Corn, for instance, has been associated with increased potential for type 1 diabetes. Rice causes a dangerous condition in infants called food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome, a disordered immune condition that results in lethargy, diarrhoea, malnutrition and dehydration that disappears completely with rice avoidance. No other food or food group has such a list of diseases, autoimmune or otherwise, associated with its consumption – not sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, soft drinks or poisonous toadstools. Only grains, the largely indigestible seeds of grasses, are associated with such a frightening list of ways to misguide your immune system. Type 1 Diabetes: A Disease of Grains? It’s pretty easy to argue that plentiful consumption of the amylopectin A from grains is associated with increased blood sugars and thereby increased potential for type 2 diabetes. But how about type 1 diabetes, in which delicate insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are destroyed for a lifetime? There are several lines of evidence that strongly link grain consumption and the changes that lead to type 1 diabetes in genetically susceptible children and adults. Some of the evidence originates with experimental animal models, some comes from observations in humans. • In experimental mouse and rat models, 64 per cent of mice fed wheat-containing chow develop type 1 diabetes, compared with 15 per cent of mice fed wheat-free chow. Likewise, feeding corn to diabetes-prone mice increases the percentage that develops type 1 diabetes from 37 to 57 per cent. • Children with coeliac disease triggered by the gliadin proteins of wheat, rye and barley are 10 times more likely to develop type 1 diabetes than children without coeliac disease. • Children with type 1 diabetes are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop coeliac disease and/or antibodies to wheat components than children without diabetes. • Children with type 1 diabetes launch an abnormal (T-lymphocyte) immune response when exposed to gliadin. I’ve discussed how gliadin increases intestinal damage and permeability that can lead to increased autoimmunity, but don’t forget that grain lectins also damage intestinal tissue, as do partially digested gliadin-derived peptides. And don’t forget to throw in a little pancreatic beta cell glucotoxicity (irreversible damage to beta cells caused by the high blood sugars resulting from amylopectin A in grains). In other words, when grains are consumed, the stage is set for an onslaught of autoimmunity and pancreatic damage, which appear to be closely related to intestinal diseases of gliadin proteins, such as coeliac disease. And the situation appears to be getting worse. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-sponsored SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study has documented that the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children has been increasing 2.7 per cent per year since 1978. This observation has been demonstrated by registries in other countries, as well. What we lack is a clinical trial in infants, half of whom start eating grains early in life, half of whom avoid grains from birth; this would, once and for all, clinch the direct connection between grains and type 1 diabetes. You can imagine the difficulties in conducting such a trial, though, so don’t hold your breath waiting for such data. In the meantime, we’ve got a smoking gun, fingerprints, motive and opportunity – enough to bring grain up on charges. Do we have enough to convict? I say hang the bastard. Hypothyroidism: Autoimmunity at Work You may have noticed that two thyroid conditions were on the list of autoimmune conditions associated with grain consumption. Of all the various forms of misdirected immunity ignited by grains, thyroid dysfunction is by far the most common. Let’s start with describing what thyroid dysfunction looks like. The thyroid gland, positioned like a bow tie on the front of your neck, is the gland that regulates metabolic rate. When it’s overactive, or hyperthyroid, your metabolism is excessively high and you have high levels of the thyroid hormones T4 and T3, rapid heart rate, anxiety and weight loss. When it’s underactive, or hypothyroid, your metabolism is slowed, you have reduced levels of T4 and T3, and higher levels of the pituitary hormone thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), a response intended to prod the thyroid to work harder and release more T4 and T3. By far the most common situation is hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is therefore a state of slowed metabolism that causes symptoms such as low energy; feeling inappropriately cold, especially in the hands and feet (due to low body temperature); constipation; hair loss; and dry skin. Failure to lose weight after grain elimination is a common signal of hypothyroidism. While grain elimination is indeed a powerful strategy for weight loss, it alone cannot overcome the effects of hypothyroidism, which must be specifically addressed. Autoimmune destruction of the thyroid gland is called Graves’ disease or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Gliadin antibodies can occur in 50 per cent or more of people with thyroid disease, making it the most common expression of grain-induced autoimmunity. Some people, especially those with Graves’ disease, initially experience a period of hyperthyroidism due to inflammation and destruction of thyroid tissue, which causes excessive quantities of thyroid hormone to be released. With or without this period of hyperthyroidism, though, hypothyroidism develops over time, reflecting injury to thyroid tissue and causing the symptoms of hypothyroidism as production of T4 and T3 hormones wanes. Hypothyroidism is underdiagnosed. In common practice, you often have to be miserable before your doctor makes the diagnosis of an underactive thyroid. Some doctors, for instance, will not consider testing or treatment even if you have depression, weight gain, high cholesterol values and increased cardiovascular risk attributable to this situation. I believe this is wrong and should not be tolerated. Because thyroid issues are so common, so neglected and so important to overall health and weight, they will be discussed at greater length in Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo). Cortisol: A Difference of Night and Day Cortisol is the primary hormone produced by your adrenal glands, the two little glands that sit atop your kidneys. Cortisol plays a crucial physiologic role in many bodily processes, and it does so in a predictable pattern called a ‘circadian rhythm’, an adaptation to life on earth and its 24-hour cycle of day and night. Once again, grains enter the picture and disrupt this normal cycle of life. Antibodies triggered by gliadin proteins can damage the adrenal glands, resulting in reduced production of adrenal hormones. Disruption of vasoactive intestinal peptide (or VIP; see here (#)) by the lectins of wheat, rye, barley and rice is another means by which adrenal gland function can be impaired. Most commonly, cortisol disruption results in feelings of low energy in the morning, depression, inappropriate surges in nighttime energy, insomnia, cravings for salt, inability to lose weight, low blood pressure and light-headedness. One of the difficulties with identifying adrenal dysfunction is that the adrenal glands produce more than cortisol; they also produce hormones such as aldosterone (responsible for sodium and potassium status and blood pressure control); adrenaline (responsible for arousal, energy and metabolism); and adrenal androgens that overlap with the effects of testosterone. One or all adrenal hormones can be disrupted, though the dominant effect is usually determined by disruptions of cortisol. Disruptions at the hypothalamic and pituitary levels that result in cortisol disruption can be caused by obesity (via the inflammatory phenomena of visceral fat), diabetes, depression, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other conditions. New neuroendocrine research is also uncovering potential glucocorticoid resistance, or impaired responsiveness to cortisol, in people showing normal or high cortisol blood levels. This may be related to issues with rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, depression, PTSD and chronic stress. Note that most of the conditions listed get their start with grain consumption. While other endocrine glands are also capable of all degrees of dysfunction, from subtle to severe, conventionally minded endocrinologists deny this, arguing that the adrenal gland is the only endocrine gland that is either entirely normal or severely dysfunctional enough to threaten life, causing Addison’s disease when underactive and Cushing’s disease when overactive. They believe it’s all or nothing, with no grey area in between. I reject conventional ‘wisdom’ and follow common sense: adrenal dysfunction can occur to any degree and may involve one or more adrenal gland hormones, or it can occur at the hypothalamic or pituitary level. Besides, the emerging neuroendocrine scientific and clinical literature strongly argues that such disruptions short of life threatening are not only possible, but are common. You can appreciate that the issues are complex and tangled, involving several hormones and organs. Thankfully, the majority of issues surrounding cortisol and adrenal dysfunction can be reduced to disrupted cortisol circadian patterns due to (1) damage to the adrenal gland from grain consumption, and (2) disruption of pituitary signalling to the adrenal gland due to inflammation and chronic stress, exaggerated by the presence of visceral fat. Later in the book we consider ways to identify, then correct, cortisol disruptions, which can help you feel more energetic, provide relief from depression, restore the normal day-night cycle of energy and sleep, and help break a weight-loss plateau. Matter Over Mind The effects of grains on the human brain and nervous system, like those in the gastrointestinal tract, are varied and destructive. Neurologist Dr David Perlmutter has written a book called Grain Brain, which is devoted to the effects of grains on brain health (particularly dementia). It’s recommended reading for anyone interested in an extensive discussion of brain health impairment developing due to grain consumption. In the film The Matrix, Morpheus explains to Neo that, ‘The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth,’ when describing the computer-simulated world injected into the minds of people to keep them from knowing that machines control everything. While the world of grains is hardly as visually arresting or imaginative as the one in this film, both worlds are all about mind control. In the film, human minds are controlled by computers; in the world we live in, our minds have been under the influence of the mind-active components of grains. The effects of the gliadin and related prolamin proteins on the human brain fall into two categories: (1) reversible effects exerted on the mind via gliadin-derived opiates and (2) autoimmune inflammatory effects, sometimes reversible, sometimes irreversible, on brain and nervous system tissue. The mind and brain effects of grains are largely due to wheat, rye and barley, which share the same gliadin protein. Other non-wheat grains also have brain health implications, but they only work through high blood sugars that lead to dementia. It’s Not Your Imagination: Reversible Mind and Brain Effects of Grains Reversible mind effects begin with the gliadin proteins of wheat, rye and barley that undergo digestion to smaller 4- or 5-amino-acid-long peptides, which are small enough to penetrate the brain and bind to opiate receptors. The effects of these peptides, dubbed exorphins, or exogenously derived morphine-like compounds, vary depending on individual susceptibility. In some conditions, a reversible autoimmune process has also been documented (positive gliadin antibody). Because structural damage has not been associated with these phenomena, these conditions, despite their potential severity and destructiveness, are reversible with grain elimination. There are several conditions that fall into this category. APPETITE STIMULATION. Grain-derived exorphins trigger the grain consumer to take in 400 more calories per day, every day. This is an average value; some people consume more, others less. At worst, it can cause calorie intake to be 1,000 or more calories per day and higher, and trigger food obsessions or other addictive food behaviours. With grain consumption, your appetite is specifically stimulated for carbohydrates, such as pretzels, corn chips and biscuits, and it’s stimulated to a lesser degree for fat. The effect tends to be addictive, with cyclic and recurring desire for such foods driving dietary habits and even dominating thoughts and fantasies. Rid yourself of gliadin-derived opiates and calorie intake drops by 400 calories per day. Food obsessions and addictive food relationships are also typically reduced or completely eliminated. BINGE EATING DISORDER AND BULIMIA. People with binge eating disorder tend to eat in large binges well beyond their need. They are unresponsive to signals that turn off appetite and feel ashamed at their lack of restraint. Bulimia is a similar condition, with binges typically followed by ‘purging’ the excessive quantity of food by vomiting. People with these eating disorders describe intrusive, 24-hour-a-day food obsessions that occur even after finishing a large meal or during the night, triggering nighttime binges. Both conditions are socially incapacitating, ruin relationships and are associated with low self-esteem. Additionally, the bulimic sufferer who puts a finger in the back of her throat to bring up food exposes her tooth enamel to corrosive stomach acid, rotting her teeth over time. Both conditions represent exaggerated appetite-stimulating responses to gliadin-derived opiates. MIND FOG. Disrupted concentration, inability to focus, impaired learning, impaired decision-making ability and sleepiness are exceptionally common after consuming wheat, rye and barley. Gliadin-derived opiates are the most likely culprits behind these effects, given their known ability to affect the mind. It’s also likely that the blood sugar fluctuations caused by all grains contribute, especially the low blood sugar of hypoglycaemia. ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER and autistic spectrum disorder. While these disorders are unrelated, they share a similar response to gliadin-derived opiates. Children and adults with these conditions experience behavioural outbursts, such as temper tantrums or emotional ‘storms’ without reason, and they have an impaired capacity to sustain attention. Kids with these conditions already have an impaired ability to learn and pay attention for more than a few seconds or minutes; grain-derived opiates just make it worse. A recent analysis demonstrated that kids with autism lack the markers for coeliac disease (such as transglutaminase antibody), but they do have increased levels of antibodies to gliadin, especially if gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhoea are present. PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA. The worsening of paranoia, auditory hallucinations (hearing voices and receiving warnings or commands) and social disengagement were among the first observations made when researchers started studying the effects of wheat consumption on brain health, attributable to the gliadin protein-derived opiates. This effect may be confined to schizophrenics who express an autoimmune response to the gliadin protein, the group most likely to improve with wheat, rye and barley avoidance. BIPOLAR ILLNESS. We know that people with bipolar illness express higher levels of antibodies in response to the gliadin protein, similar to the phenomenon observed in schizophrenics. Gliadin-derived opiate peptides likely also play a role in generating the distortions in judgement and reality experienced with this condition. DEPRESSION. If there is predisposition for depression, grains – especially wheat, rye, barley and corn – can magnify or unmask that tendency. Depression due to the gliadin- and prolamin protein-derived opiates can be mild, resulting in a pervasive feeling of unhappiness and lack of interest, or it can be incapacitating and life threatening, complete with obsessive thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Both wheat and corn are also responsible for reductions in brain serotonin, which regulates mood. OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER. A person who has obsessive-compulsive disorder helplessly gives in to the impulse to obsessively and compulsively perform some action or engage in some thought – behaviours that have been associated with wheat consumption. It might be compulsive hand washing, or housecleaning, or checking and rechecking (and rechecking and rechecking) figures in a ledger. Being locked into such behavioural loops can be debilitating for the sufferer, as these rituals can dominate her thoughts and behaviours, as well as sabotage success at school and work and disrupt the health of relationships. A world of research still needs to be performed to explore these mind-altering phenomena that develop in people who follow the standard advice to consume more grains. MRI, PET and other brain-imaging modalities may reveal why and how schizophrenics tend to suffer more auditory hallucinations with grain consumption or why kids with autistic spectrum disorder experience impaired attention span. Notably, while some of these effects are associated with an immune response against one or more grain proteins, many are not. But remember: if you know that grains can worsen or cause deterioration in mental conditions, it also means that you know how to undo or lessen the severity of all these effects or, as one of Keanu Reeves’s fellow rebels in the Matrix remarks, ‘Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye.’ Brain Drain: Not-So-Reversible Brain Effects of Grains I discussed how gliadin proteins contribute to the mania of bipolar illness, the paranoia and auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia, and the impaired learning and behavioural outbursts of children with attention deficit disorder and autistic spectrum disorder, phenomena that are reversible or lessened simply by removing grains from the diet. Let’s now discuss how grains can also lead to neurological processes that are more difficult, if not impossible, to reverse, though the reasons for their irreversibility are not yet clear. Intact gliadin initiates a sequence of events that leads to an immune response against brain tissue (for more information, see here (#)). Some researchers propose that this represents a form of molecular mimicry in which the immune system confuses a foreign protein (gliadin) with a similarly constructed protein of the body, in this case the synapsin 1 protein of brain tissue. The part of the brain or nervous system involved determines the way in which the damage manifests. For instance, if the cerebellum is affected, the part of the brain responsible for coordination of movement and control over bladder and bowels, a condition called cerebellar ataxia develops. Sufferers stumble while walking and lose control over urine and stool, and an MRI or CT scan of the brain reveals a shrunken, atrophied cerebellum. People become incapacitated with this condition, typically ending up with Zimmer frames or in wheelchairs. Eliminating all gliadin-containing proteins from grains will slowly or incompletely reverse cerebellar ataxia, given the slow and often incomplete capacity of neurological tissue to heal. A condition called peripheral neuropathy, which affects the nerves to the legs, can also develop. Sufferers lose feeling or develop constant leg pain, which ascends higher up the body and worsens over time, eventually resulting in a total loss of feeling and progressive debilitation. It can also involve the internal nervous system of the circulatory and digestive systems. If the vagus nerve to the stomach is affected, for instance, it results in a condition called gastroparesis, in which the stomach loses its capacity to propel food forward. While this might seem like an advantage, in that a single meal yields satiety for many hours, it is actually quite destructive because food that sits in the stomach is subject to putrefaction (rotting), causing distress, excessive belching, foul breath and distortions of bowel flora. (A parallel situation called diabetic gastroparesis can develop in people with advanced diabetes.) If the nerves to the heart are affected, there is a loss of control over heart rate. This leads to a higher resting heart rate and potential for abnormal heart rhythms, such as premature atrial contractions, supraventricular arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation. Grains, especially wheat, rye and barley, can cause seizures. The most common form are temporal lobe seizures (originating in the temporal lobe of the brain) that involve feelings of d?j? vu (familiarity), jamais vu (unfamiliarity), amnesia, inappropriate emotions or pointless repetitive behaviours or tics. Less commonly, generalized or grand mal seizures can also occur due to grain-induced changes in the brain. Lastly, dementia can result from the consumption of all grains. Wheat, rye and barley, as usual, are the worst, as recent research has identified antibodies to gluten proteins in the cerebral cortex of the brains of deceased dementia victims. For this reason, Mayo Clinic researchers named this condition gluten encephalopathy: dementia from gluten-containing grains. Dementia is much more common, however, as a result of chronic and repeatedly high blood sugars. These are characteristic of all grains, and are also irreversible. The deterioration of grey matter characteristic of dementia is visible on brain imaging as shrinkage of brain volume and loss of the characteristic furrows (called sulci) of healthy human brains, signalling atrophy. We know that diabetics with chronically high blood sugar have a greater risk for dementia. More recent studies demonstrate that blood sugars at the upper end of ‘normal’ are also associated with greater risk for dementia, which is seen on brain imaging as atrophy of the frontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Accordingly, foods that raise blood sugar the most are associated with the brain atrophy of dementia. Wholemeal and white flour products raise blood sugar to high levels – even higher than table sugar. Intact corn kernels raise blood sugar to moderately high levels, while cornflour raises blood sugar to sky-high levels. Grains such as oats, rice, millet, teff, sorghum, rye and barley raise blood sugar to intermediate to high levels. While they are often described as having a low glycaemic index, they would more properly be described as having a less high glycaemic index, since blood sugars typically rise to the 130 to 200 mg/dl range in nondiabetics (ranges incredibly regarded as ‘normal’ by most health-care practitioners). According to the latest research findings, blood sugars above 100 mg/dl are sufficient to increase the potential for dementia. Because the world is experiencing a massive rise in blood sugars, evidenced by the staggering numbers of people with prediabetes and diabetes, we should anticipate an increase in the number of people with dementia, and we should expect to see it develop earlier in life. This is yet another awful aspect of the widely embraced notion of ‘healthy whole grains’. Grains, for Crying Out Loud Irrational fear, anxiousness over the littlest things, anger that bubbles over – all are provoked by the mind-active components of grains. While we know that big, heavy brain issues, such as major depression, bipolar illness and schizophrenia, are influenced by grains, we see many lesser, though still quite troublesome, emotions and moods caused or amplified by them. These include: • Aggression • Anger • Anxiety • Inattention • Indecisiveness • Insomnia • Phobias • Poor impulse control • Sleep disruption • Sleepiness • Suicidal thoughts • Unhappiness This means that many people have been plagued by such emotions and thoughts for years, all the while blaming themselves for being weak or flawed. Many resort to prescription antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills, drugs for attention deficit disorder, etc., most of which are only partially effective and have substantial side effects. Many have undergone counselling, psychoanalysis or cognitive behavioural therapy and have endured, cried, felt defeated, lashed out at others or turned to alcohol and drugs to dull the suffering. Some of the most illustrative stories of the power of grains come from people who have struggled with suicidal thoughts for years, fighting off the impulse to drive a car into oncoming traffic or swallow a bottle of sleeping pills – thoughts that miraculously disappeared within five days of having no grains and then abruptly and powerfully returned with any reexposure. On again, off again; on again, off again – incontrovertible proof of individual cause and effect. There are several ways grains cause mood and emotional effects. While prolamin protein-derived opiates are the culprits in most of these situations, disruption of neuroendocrine hormones, such as vasoactive intestinal peptide, probably plays a role as well. In addition, the gluten proteins of wheat, rye and barley and the zein protein of corn have been shown to reduce brain levels of tryptophan, the amino acid that leads to serotonin. Low brain levels of serotonin are associated with depression. The next time you find yourself yelling at your spouse or kids, feeling unaccountably anxious over a minor problem, struggling to sleep normally or experiencing some emotional response out of proportion to the situation, question whether the emotionally disruptive effects of grains are at work. A Big Bellyful of Grains: Why Grains Make us Fat Feed your dog or cat grains in their pet food, and they get fat. Feed your cows and chickens wheat and corn, and they get fat. Feed humans wheat, corn, rice and other grains, and they get fat. This ain’t rocket science. Nonetheless, conventionally minded nutritionists insist that whole grains cause weight loss. Not true. What the data really show is that white flour products cause people to gain weight, and whole grain products cause people to gain a little less weight than white flour does. Whole grains don’t make you lose weight any more than drinking a little less vodka makes an alcoholic a little less alcoholic. The pathways by which grain consumption leads to weight gain, particularly visceral fat of the abdomen, are manifold. GLIADIN-DERIVED OPIATES STIMULATE APPETITE. Specifically, they stimulate appetite for more grains and sugars: crisps, biscuits, cupcakes, breads, bagels, pizza. They drive hunger that is physiologically inappropriate, causing you to eat more than your body needs, more frequently and in larger quantities than is necessary for sustenance. In rats administered gliadin-derived fragments, weight increased by 20 per cent over three months. Block gliadin-derived opiates with opiate-blocking drugs, and calorie intake drops by 400 calories per day, whether or not you have an eating disorder. Although obesity in China is not as advanced as in the Western world, wheat-consuming Chinese are fatter than Chinese who don’t consume wheat. The way this works in rats is the way it works in humans, regardless of ethnic origin, colour or political persuasion. Susceptibility to this effect can vary from individual to individual. It can range from no effect at all to wild, 24-hour-a-day food obsessions, as experienced by some people with bulimia. The effect is most prominent in response to the opiates that derive from wheat, rye and barley, though corn seems to achieve a similar, though less intense, effect in many people. AMYLOPECTIN CARBOHYDRATES OF GRAINS RAISE BLOOD SUGAR TO HIGH LEVELS. Anything made of wheat, of course, raises blood sugar to high levels. While wholemeal bread has a GI of 72 (and sucrose has a GI of 59 to 65), there is nothing higher than the GI of cornflour and rice flour: 90 to 100. High blood sugars are also followed by low blood sugars, a response to the release of insulin. Low blood sugars 90 to 120 minutes after consuming grains are experienced as anxiousness, mental cloudiness, irritability and hunger. The blood sugar highs of grains therefore set you up for an inevitable blood sugar low, a two-hour cycle of satiety and hunger that sends you back out on a quest to find more food. High blood sugars also result in high insulin responses, which provoke resistance to insulin, higher blood sugars, higher insulin – around and around in a vicious cycle. This leads to a build-up of visceral fat, the sort of fat that is inflammatory and exudes inflammatory proteins into the bloodstream, adding further to poor insulin response. Grains are among the most potent dietary triggers for growth of visceral fat. That’s why I’ve called it a ‘wheat belly’, but we can also call it a ‘grain belly’. Visceral fat cells also express higher levels of cortisol within each fat cell, a situation that mimics that of people with Cushing’s disease or who are taking the drug prednisone, both of which are associated with extravagant weight gain. GRAIN LECTINS BLOCK LEPTIN. Leptin, the hormone of satiety, which is meant to signal us to stop eating after a meal, is blocked by the lectin of wheat, rye, barley and rice. Humans, or any other animal, for that matter, should experience satiety once physiological needs have been met. But if grain lectins are in the vicinity, they block the signal to stop. Can you think of any other food that contains opiates that drive appetite, turns off satiety signals, and causes extravagant hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia? If you’re wondering why, after cutting fat and eating more ‘healthy whole grains’, you feel like you can’t eat enough, have to knock over the other customers in the queue at the canteen or gain weight by doing everything ‘right’, well, you now understand: whole, white, sprouted, organic, fresh or stale, grains make you fat. Diabetes and Prediabetes: Anatomy of a Blunder Grains cause diabetes. All the flours and products created from the seeds of grasses play major roles in creating the blood sugar disasters that define diabetes and prediabetes. I’m sure you have heard all the painful statistics about how Americans and the rest of the world are experiencing an epidemic of diabetes: 26 million in the United States have diabetes, and 35 per cent of adults over 20 years old have prediabetes. At this rate, one in three Americans are predicted to be diabetic by 2050. It is an epidemic that dwarfs all other epidemics. The International Diabetes Federation reports that 382 million people had diabetes worldwide in 2013, and that number is expected to increase to 592 million by 2035, numbers that make the 1918 flu pandemic and the bubonic plague seem like minor public health nuisances. But unlike the flu and plague, which involved contagious, infectious organisms, the diabetes epidemic is man-made: it was not created by rapidly evolving viruses or nasty vermin, but by human blundering. Public health officials lay blame on the public, of course, claiming that we simply eat too much and move too little. They say that the nearly 500 per cent increase in the number of diabetics in the United States, from 5.6 million in 1980 to 26 million in 2011, happened because modern Americans, and now much of the rest of the world, are the most gluttonous and lazy populations that ever walked the earth. We’re more gluttonous and lazy than we were in 1980, 1990 or 2000, and we’ve become worse every year since. I don’t think so. Take a look at the graph from National Health Survey data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showing the number of diagnosed diabetics in the United States. Note that the number of diabetics (represented by vertical bars) began to increase, almost imperceptibly, between 1983 and 1985. This coincides quite nicely with a number of developments. 1. The release of the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1977. Although released in 1977, it took several years of public education before Americans began to adopt advice to cut fat and eat more ‘healthy whole grains’. 2. High-yield, semi-dwarf strains of wheat, genetically altered by geneticists and agribusiness, were embraced enthusiastically by farmers between 1980 and 1985. By 1985, all wheat products originated with these genetically altered wheats, complete with new gliadin proteins that stimulate appetite. These drove the desire for more food. By the late 1980s, average calorie intake increased by 400 calories per person per day, mostly from snacks and sugary drinks. 3. High-fructose corn syrup, another product of grains, began appearing in processed foods, including many low-fat products. 4. Supermarkets, rather than small neighbourhood shops, became the prime retailers of food, particularly products with national brand recognition. Supermarkets stocked shelves with processed foods made with low-cost, commoditized ingredients: wheat flour, cornflour, high-fructose corn syrup and sugar. The number of products carried on supermarket shelves in the US ballooned from less than 10,000 before 1980 to 60,000 today. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, delivered to us as the USDA MyPyramid and now as MyPlate, tell us that whole grains should comprise a substantial part of our diet, replacing at least half of the processed grains we eat. Based on the flawed notion that replacing something bad (processed white flour products) with something less bad (whole grains) must be good, the essence of their advice is to replace at least some white flour products with whole grains. Of course, not factored into this equation are the high glycaemic indexes of both white and whole grain products, the changes introduced by agribusiness, and the many people who suffer brain, psychological and health effects from grain consumption. When I was in 2nd grade, I started gaining weight. It wasn’t very long before I was the fattest girl in my class. As I got older, I gained more weight. I soon began to hide my eating. I would gulp down big spoonfuls of food out of the pan after I had already eaten the food on my plate. It was a vicious cycle of shame and guilt. As I reached adulthood, I tried to lose weight. Low-fat, Nutrisystem, a weight-loss clinic: nothing worked for me because I was starving all the time. I was addicted to wheat- and sugar-based products. Nothing gave me joy like biting into banana nut bread or a doughnut. But then the guilt of not being able to stick with the diet set in. That only made me want to eat more. Fast-forward to December of 2010. I was 38 years old and I weighed 23 stones. I had been diabetic since at least 2006. I had the early symptoms of neuropathy. I had hypothyroidism (later diagnosed as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis). I had high blood pressure. My face was beet red. People would actually ask me if I was sunburnt. I knew that if I didn’t do something to fix me I would be dead before I turned 40. Every time I felt a shooting pain in my head or neck, I thought to myself, ‘Am I getting ready to stroke out? Is this it?’ I knew it was coming. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». 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