Choosing Foods Wisely - watch out for too much grain consumption!

[Guest guest]

Good overall advice, but I would be careful about relying too much on

grains. Here an article I found at the Mercola site (I realize that

not everyone is a fan of Dr. Mercola, and I do not always agree with

him, but he does have some excellent health information and this

particular article was written by someone other than Mercola at any rate):

 

The Awful Truth About Eating Grains

 

Written by Dr. Del Thiessen and sent by Barbara Kravets

 

At the University of Minnesota, epidemiologist David R. Jacobs has

found that those who ate whole-grain products daily had about a 15

percent to 25 percent reduction in death from all causes, including

heart disease and cancer (The Washington Post: 8-4-99). This finding

is in keeping with guidelines by the American Heart Association, the

American Cancer Society, the National Institutes of Health, and the

American Society for Clinical Nutrition, who would all like to see an

increased consumption of whole-grain foods to at least three servings

per day.

 

Current dietary guidelines recommend that consumers eat six to 11

servings of grain products daily, including at least three whole-grain

foods. A draft of health goals published by the Department of Health

and Human Services calls for 75 percent of Americans to meet this

intake by the year 2010. The fact is that most Americans fall short of

those goals, with only 7 percent eating three or more whole-grain

foods daily, according to the latest U.S. department of Agriculture

consumption figures. Whole-grain foods contain higher amounts of

fiber. But research suggests that it's the whole-grain that delivers

abundant amounts of antioxidant vitamins and phytochemicals that

appear to act together to provide protective effects.

 

Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is allowing whole-grain

products to carry a new health claim that touts their potential to

help reduce the risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. Under

the new claim, foods that contain 51 percent or more of whole-grain

ingredients by weight may say on their labels " Diets rich in

whole-grain foods and other plant foods and low in total fat,

saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease and

certain cancers. " Whole Grain Total and Wheaties are just two cereals

that fall in this category. Look for more of this type of advertising

on whole-grain products.

 

The Other Side Of The Story

 

Very few people know that there are strong arguments against eating a

lot of whole-grain products, and that researchers don't agree on their

value. Those interested in a natural " Darwinian " diet may be in the

minority, still, the arguments are strong that whole-grain products

may have their health costs.

 

One individual who has researched this problem extensively is Dr.

Loren Cordain, Professor of Exercise Physiology at Colorado State

University in Ft. Collins, Colorado, 80523.Dr. Cordain is a well-known

expert in the area of Paleolithic nutrition. This newsletter features

some of his work on grain and grain products. Readers are referred to

a recent interview of Dr. Cordain in Life Service Supplement News of

July 26, 1999 and an exhaustive recent chapter, Cereal Grains:

Humanity's Double-Edged Sword, A.P. Simopoulos (Ed.), (1999),

Evolutionary aspects of nutrition and health: Diet, exercise, genetics

and chronic disease. Basel: Karger, pp 19-73. Unfortunately this

remarkable book chapter will likely be buried along with the book,

which costs about $187 with tax.

 

Building The Evidence

 

Approximately 17 plants species provides 90 percent of the world's

food supply. The top 10 are: wheat, maize, rice, barley, soybean, cane

sugar, sorghum, potato, oats, and cassava. Without these plants there

is no way that the world could support the existing 6 billion people

and the anticipated 12 to 15 billion people expected during the next

century. If agriculture gave us anything, it was an easily grown mass

diet that was calorically dense that could be stored, shipped, and

processed in hundreds of different ways.

 

Around 20,000 to 10,000 years ago there was a mass extinction of large

mammals throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. The environment

was exploited until other forms of hunting and gathering was demanded.

Birds and waterfowl appeared more frequently in the fossil record, and

for the first time grindstones and crude mortars appeared in the

archaeological record in the near east. This was the beginning of

humanity's use of cereal grains for food.

 

Hunters and gatherers derived most of their calories from about

100-200 different species of wild animal fruits and vegetables. But

with the advent of agriculture man became dependent upon a few staple

cereal foods, 3-5 domesticated meat species, and 15-20 other plant

foods. Many populations got up to 80 percent of their calories from a

single cereal staple.

 

This was the turning point in human evolution. We abandoned the

typical hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with its dependence on wild meat,

fruits, vegetables, and nuts and took up dietary and activity patterns

that were entirely new to us. We had evolved to adapt to the life of

hunters and gatherers and now accepted a life that was incompatible

with our adaptive qualities. The consequences were evident in a

reduction in body size, from which we have only recently recovered,

and in the appearance of diseases of sedentary and agricultural

populations, such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, high

blood pressure, and bone diseases.

 

Many of our current problems can be blamed on our current nutritional

and activity differences from our early hunter-gatherer existence.

Agriculture may have launched civilizations, with all their

advantages, but it also led to disease, wars, and a restructuring of

social organizations. This is why Dr. Cordain refers to the

development of agriculture as a two-edge sword.

 

So What's The Problem With Cereal Grains?

All grains have nutritional deficiencies. Moreover, as we eat more and

more grain products we tend to eliminate other nutritional meats,

fruits, and vegetables. In half the world, bread provides more than 50

percent of the total caloric intake, and in a few countries of

Southern Asia, Central America and the Far East and Africa cereal

products comprise up to 80 percent or more of the total caloric intake.

 

Think about your own intake of grain products. In a month's time, most

of us will have eaten several slices of bread, several bowls of cereal

with milk, pasta, rice, bagels, rolls, muffins, crackers, cookies,

pastries, corn or other forms of chips, and tortillas. Most of these

are refined and lack many important nutrients. Cereal grains contain

undetectable amounts of vitamin C, B12, carotenoids, and other

vitamins and minerals, and they tend to displace foods rich in these

substances that are associated with a decreased risk of heart disease

and many forms of common cancers. Moreover, cereal grains may actually

inhibit the metabolism of these nutrients and cause autoimmune reactions.

 

Where Have The Vitamins And Minerals Gone?

 

Diets based primarily on plant foods tend to be low or deficient in

vitamin B12. This nutrient is found exclusively in animal products.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is related to megaloblastic anemia that results

in cognitive dysfunction, and it increases the risk for arterial

vascular disease and thrombosis. Obviously a diet based primarily on

grains will be deficient in vitamin B12, including strict vegetarian

diets. We were not evolved to eat plants exclusively.

 

Not only are cereal grains deficient in vitamins but many contain

substances that decrease the intestinal absorption of many other

important nutrients. Both wheat and sorghum are not only low in biotin

but seem to have elements within them that elicit a depression of

biotin metabolism. Vitamin D utilization by the body can be inhibited

by an excessive consumption of cereal grains.

 

Cereal grains are good sources of phosphorous, potassium, and

magnesium, but are poor sources of sodium and calcium. The high

phytate content of whole grain cereals forms insoluble complexes with

calcium, so that the net effect is a low Ca/P ratio. Phytate is a salt

or ester of phytic acid that is capable of forming insoluble complexes

with calcium, zinc, iron, and other nutrients and interfering with

their absorption by the body. Thus a high phytate content frequently

induces bone mineral pathologies in populations dependent upon cereal

grains as a primary food source.

 

Iron metabolism is affected negatively by a diet high in phytate and

fiber. Iron deficiency is the most prevalent nutritional problem in

the world today. An iron deficiency has been associated with an

irreversible impairment of a child's learning capabilities. The

bioavailability of zinc, copper, and magnesium in cereal grains is

generally low. The absorption of manganese, chromium, and selenium

does not seem impaired. Zinc deficiency can result in hypogonadal

dwarfism in which there is arrested growth. In countries with high

cereal grain intake and hence low zinc absorption, hypogonadal

dwarfism is nearly 3 percent and skeletal growth may be limited. The

bioavailability of zinc from meat is four times higher than that from

cereals.

 

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA)

 

Increased consumption of n-3 fatty acids (omega-3 acids), particularly

eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) decreases triglycerides, decreases

thrombotic tendencies, and reduces symptoms of many inflammatory and

autoimmune diseases including arthritis and inflammatory bowel

disease. In addition, n-3 fatty acids are associated with reduced

mortality from coronary heart disease. N-3 fatty acids are found in

meat and especially oily fish.

 

Cereal grains are low in fats, including the omega-3 fatty acids,

including EPA and docasahexaenoic acid (DHA). Vegetarian diets based

primarily upon cereals, legumes, and plant products have a high n-6

(omega-6) to n-3 ratio. Infants deprived of DHA show both visual and

neural cortical abnormalities. In pregnant women with low DHA levels,

duration of gestation is about 5.6 days shorter than for meat-eating

controls. In these women emergency cesarean section were more common,

and birth weight, head circumference, and body length were lower in

the infants born to the vegetarian women.

 

Dr. Cordain concludes from these studies that, " Human dietary lipid

requirements were shaped eons ago, long before the agricultural

revolution, and long before humanity's adoption of cereal grains as

staple foods. Hence, the lipid composition of diets based upon cereal

grains, legumes, vegetable oils and other plant products is vastly at

odds with that found in wild game meat and organs, the primary,

evolutionary source of lipids to which the human genetic constitution

is optimally adapted. " (p 36)

 

Protein Loss In Grain Diets

 

Cereal diets lead to inadequate growth because of a reduction of

protein and amino acids, compared to meat-supplemented diets. The

fossil record shows a characteristic reduction in stature with the

adoption of cereal-based diets. Further, vegan and vegetarian children

often fail to grow as well as their omnivorous cohorts. The associated

deficiencies include energy, protein, zinc, iron, copper, calcium,

vitamin D, vitamin B12, and vitamin A. Just looking at protein

content, the content of protein in cereal grains is about 12 percent,

whereas in lean beef it is about 22 percent. Inadequate protein intake

in cereals depending on cereal grains, and especially in the elderly

who have difficulties with plant-only diets, is probably quite common.

 

Antinutrients In Cereal Grains

 

Plants produce chemicals to defend against predators, such as insects

and birds. These secondary metabolites may protect the plants but they

can have negative effects on human metabolism. Without naming all of

these chemicals, it is clear that some can cause slower growth in

mammals either by depressing growth directly or by depressing

appetite. Some of these plant chemicals can act as allergens.

Alpha-amylase inhibitor proteins are responsible for bakers'

allergenic reaction to cereal flours, and can result in

hypersensitivity reactions following wheat ingestion in children.

 

Lectins, which are proteins that are widespread in the plant kingdom,

are recognized as major antinutrients of food. Cereal grain lectins

are wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). It can interfere with

digestive/absorptive activities and can shift the balance in bacterial

flora shown to cause problems with normal gut metabolism. The

potential to disrupt human health is high.

 

Autoimmune Diseases And Cereal Grain Consumption

 

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body loses the ability to

distinguish invading proteins from self-proteins that make up the

body. The loss results in destruction of self-tissues by the immune

system. These diseases are thought to result from a combined influence

of environmental and genetic influences.

 

Dietary cereal grains are noted to be causative agents for celiac

disease and dermatitis herpetiformis, both autoimmune diseases. While

the incidence of celiac disease is only about 2 percent of the

population exposed to cereal grains the consequences can be severe.

There are a number of diseases that may occur simultaneously with

celiac disease, including Addison's disease, asthma, autoimmune

thyroid disease, dental enamel defects, epilepsy, liver disease, and

rheumatoid arthritis. Withdrawal of gluten-containing cereals from the

diet can ameliorate symptoms of celiac disease and herpetiformis.

 

The form of protein believed to be associated with celiac disease in

gliadin, but since at least 40 different protein components occur in a

single variety of wheat it is unlikely that a single gliadin protein

causes the disease. Other autoimmune diseases may be related to a high

intake of cereal grains, including insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

(IDDM), rheumatoid arthritis, nephropathy, aphthous stomatitis (canker

sores), and even multiple sclerosis. A myelin basic protein (MBP) is a

suspected target antigen in multiple sclerosis. There are

epidemiological reports that link both wheat and milk consumption to

the incidence of MS. And there are reports showing remission of MS on

gluten-free diets.

 

Beyond this, many neurological complications may be associated with

immune reactivity to antigens found in cereal grains. It is suspected

that autoimmune processes are involved. Even autism and schizophrenia

show susceptibilities to grain glutens that aggravate (or even cause)

the conditions. There are clinical studies indicating that there is a

rapid remission of schizophrenic symptoms by introducing gluten-free

diets.

 

What All Of This Means For You

 

If you have digestive problems or suffer some of the classic

autoimmune reactions (e.g. allergies) consider the possibilities that

grains may be problematical. Look at your family members and your

family history for clues about dietary problems. Adjust the ratio of

cereal grains to meat, vegetables, and fruits and see if the

adjustment has physiological and psychological effects. In my opinion

one should supplement with vitamins, minerals, protein, and free fatty

acids. Above all, eat a varied diet and not too much of one thing.

And, finally, exercise regularly and with vigor. Put it all together

and you have the " Darwinian " diet and exercise program.

 

http://www.mercola.com/1999/archive/truth_about_eating_grains.htm

 

 

 

, robert-blau wrote:

>

> Good stuff . . .

>

> [NHIS ]

>

> Choosing Foods Wisely

> ��������Posted by: " The SHAE Institute "

> nicole.venter nixv2004 � Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:13 am

> ((PDT))

> *Choosing Foods Wisely*

> *by Michael Rossoff**, L.Ac.**

> © Michael Rossoff, 1997 *