SHOULD WE BE EATING WHEAT?
For the last 20 years I’ve been looking at why my body reacts the way it does to certain foods, and my research has uncovered many areas that previously I had never heard of. One of my more recent questions is one we should all be asking ourselves, “why are so many more people getting ill as opposed to 40 years ago?”
When I was in my late teens and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, nobody I knew had heard of it as it was so rare. Even the hospital took four months to realise what was wrong with me! Cancer was around but not like today. We used to refer to it, in a whisper, as “the big C”, as we didn’t really know what it was other than it was a killer. Today, because of scientific advances, so many more are now surviving past five years with cancer, but so many more are getting it in the first place!
Autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s, Lupus, Celiac, arthritis and diabetes are so common now that we all wither have these conditions ourselves, or at least know someone close to us that suffers. “what is going on?”
The things I have discovered in my research are eye opening to say the least, and at worst really scary. So in my next couple of newsletters I am going to share some of this information with you. I have noted at the end of this article some important sources of reference in case you would like to investigate further for yourself. I don’t want to ” throw the baby out with the bathwater” as science has moved medicine in incredible directions, and there are many who would not be alive today without it. My argument is about how we are getting sick in the first place, and what we can do to help ourselves as well as our beautiful planet earth.
So I am going to start with GLUTEN
More and more people are finding that after eating bread they feel bloated, uncomfortable and lethargic. Yet statistically only about 1 in 100 are diagnosed with Celiac disease ( a very nasty autoimmune reaction to any form of gluten, that can make people very ill indeed). But the majority of us react in a much more subtle way, and some lucky people seem to be able to eat what they like and remain symptom free,
The most common cause of inflammation and discomfort from eating gluten is “leaky gut syndrome”, or intestinal permeability. Leaky gut can affect a wide range of autoimmune responses such as mentioned above.
Gluten is a family of proteins, of which Gliadin, one of the main ones, is responsible for most of the negative health effects. Gliadin is thought to be able to cross through the mucosal barrier in our gut by widening the gap in the tight junctions. These tight junctions, along with our microvilli very tiny hair-like membranes ), are there to make sure that only digested nutrients are transported through to the bloodstream. So, once these large undigested proteins are in our bloodstream, they are immediately recognised by out immune system as enemies, and so the inflammatory response begins.
But is gluten on its own capable of wreaking such havoc? After all, there are many places in the world where a staple diet including glutens is very well tolerated.
Next time I will talk about the other factors in the story of damage and inflammation in our bodies.
References: Greenmedinfo.com, Mercola.com, draxe.com, gundrymd.com, whatswithwheat.com