We didn’t have so many issues with food sensitivity and allergies in our parents and grandparents times. It wasn’t nearly as bad or as common a problem as it is now, so what has changed?
Our food has changed. How we grow, harvest, store and prepare food, what we add to it and what we take out of it has changed. This certainly applies to wheat and wheat products of today, a staple in the Western world.
Modern wheat seems far worse for health than earlier strains like spelt and emmer. Natural mutations, cross breeding with other grasses, and selective breeding specifically to increase grain yields and gluten content, have had consequences. These are becoming more and more obvious in general health, emotional behavior, and mental functioning of grain eaters around the world. But wheat and other grains contain many components that are unfriendly to the body, and gluten is coming up as the worst of these.
Gluten in wheat is an important protein in bread making.
Gluten forms when water is added to flour and mixed into a gluey, stretchy dough.
Gluten swells up and forms cross-linked fibres that trap gas during baking and causes the bread to rise, and maybe your tummy to rise too.
Gluten is recognized as an inflammatory agent and is behind many health issues, including leaky gut and irritable bowel problems.
Gluten is a family of proteins found in grains and is highest in wheat.
The two main proteins in gluten are gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin causes the most trouble. When gluten arrives in the digestive tract the immune system may label it as a foreign invader, like it does a bacteria, and can attack it causing inflammation. and a stack of symptoms. This is a gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance.
In celiac’s disease, the immune system attacks the gluten proteins, and also attacks an enzyme called tissue transglutaminase in the cells that form the walls of the intestinal tract. This is an autoimmune disease.
Many studies have found strong statistical associations between celiac disease and other autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Type 1 Diabetes, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Multiple sclerosis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Cancer, and others.
In non-celiac gluten sensitivity there is no attack on the body’s own tissue. However, many of the symptoms are similar to those in celiac disease, and can create physical, mental, emotional, and nutritional havoc. Inflammation caused by gluten can cause Anemia, Anxiety, Arthritis, Ataxia, Autism, Bone density loss, Candida overgrowth, Chronic Fatigue, Cognitive impairment, Depression, Dermatitis … and the list goes on.
Physical Symptoms: Even without a gluten sensitivity and no gluten antibodies in the blood, there can still be problems like irritable bowel syndrome and leaky gut, both related to inflammation, that improve markedly on a gluten free diet, according to results of studies with randomized groups. Bloating, cramping, muscle and joint pain, bowel inconsistency, and fatigue, are common symptoms that subside when gluten is eliminated from your diet.
Neurological Disturbance: Beyond the effects in the gut, gluten can cause severe problems in the brain. In as study of patients with neurological illness of an unknown cause 30 of 53 patients (57%) had antibodies against gluten in the blood.
Cerebellar ataxia is an inability to coordinate muscles for balance, movements, walking, even talking, and is linked to gluten. It’s even labeled gluten ataxia and the damage to the cerebellum, part of the brain important in motor control, is considered irreversible. But patients improve significantly on a gluten free diet.
According to reports and studies several disorders of the brain responded well to a gluten-free diet, including schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, as well as cerebellar ataxia. How many of our unsteady elderly folk live on toast and biscuits daily?
“Brain dysfunction starts in your daily bread,” says Dr David Perlmutter in his book, Grain Brain. “Brain disease can be largely prevented through the choices you make in life,” he adds. “Food is a powerful epigenetic modulator, meaning it can change our DNA for better or worse… food actually regulates the expression of many of our genes. And we have only just begun to understand the damaging consequences of wheat consumption from this perspective.” (more on this in a future article.)
Addiction: Endorphins are:
– morphine like narcotics,
– that are made by your brain and body
– and bind to other proteins, the opiate receptors.
When gluten is broken down into short chains of amino acid, the peptides formed can activate opioid receptors in the brain.
Gluten exorphins:
– are a group of opoid peptides
– formed during digestion of the gluten protein
– and have been found in the blood of celiac patients.
Your self-made endorphins:
– can reduce pain,
– can sedate you and
– affect your emotions.
– They can also stimulate pleasure response
– the reward pathways in the brain
– setting up an addiction,
– so you crave more of the same.
We are pleasure seekers, and do what feels pleasurable.
Exorphins in grains (and dairy) can act just like natural endorphins, BUT, they are not self-made by your body. Exorphins are introduced from outside your body via food. They bind to your brain opiate receptor sites so you think your body is telling you to eat more of that, when actually it is your food that is telling you to eat more of that food.
Your brain also uses the exorphins instead of neurotransmitters which can impair your learning and memory, writes Dr Al Sears. Gluten appears to be the most common exorphin producer, with 5 different opioids that produce a wide variety of symptoms according to Dr Norman Shealy.
No wonder many people can’t give up their morning toast, or sandwiches for lunch, or their afternoon biscuits and cake, and pasta at night. Gluten ensures they crave it and come back for more. Surely just one biscuit can’t hurt, can it?
It’s essential we learn how to determine which food is good for us and which is detrimental. Kinesiology muscle monitoring is a tool to discover the impact of various foods on your body and brain, your health and behavior, your learning and creativity, your moods and productivity. Kinesiology is a gentle and safe skill well worth learning. Touch For Health 1 workshop is due 10 & 11 February.
Food testing is part of Food: Friend or Foe workshop due 3rd February.
Discover how to determine the best foods for your wellbeing.
Email me for more details: Anna@annamcrobert.com.au