Grains-Why Are They Slowly Killing You

You see the headline and probably think: “What in the world is she saying?Grains?Killing me? How is that even possible? Everybody is encouraging me to eat grains because they contain vitamin B and fiber!” Here I come to get you out of the confusion and solve the riddle!

First of all let’s get it straight what in the world are grains:

What should pop up in your mind when you here grains are wheat, rice, corn, rye,sorghum,  oats, millet, or barley.

The picture on the side is the visual presentation of a grain. Basically the  outside layer of the grain is called-bran. The bran has proteins, minerals and vitamins. The bran is the place where most of the lectins are. As you know most plants have defense mechanisms  so they won’t get harmed by something from the environment. Think about roses- they have thorns. Well let’s think about lectins like the thorns of grains. Lectins are proteins that we can’t digest. Thus they damage our gut, inflame our bodies, and don’t let the body to absorb nutrients from other foods. If that looks evil, sadly it is not the whole picture. We can go further and remember how I keep on telling you that our body is a pretty damn smart machine! So it found its way to cope with lectins by creating antibodies which automatically attack these intruders. So your immune system found a way to trick lectins, but did it really? Unfortunately lectins look a lot like the normal body tissue. And what happens is that your immune system attacks not only lectins but also your body tissue. I guess that I don’t need to explain further what that does to your body…

The endosperm of the grain is the inner part and contains most of the complex carbohydrate and calories. The endosperm serves to “feed” the germ. So let’s think about the germ as a baby which needs somebody to take care of it. The germ needs nutrients like the essential for the body minerals. When a baby needs something, his mama is ready to kill somebody to satisfy that need. Well that is what the grain does. It is killing you to feed the germ. Or more specific- the grain contains phytates-they help to collect the minerals I mentioned above. So the phytates are robbing your body out of its essential nutrients in order to provide “food” for the germ.

Next comes gluten! What the hell is that? Gluten is the protein component of wheat grasses (wheat and its derivatives rye, barley, durum, etc). It is made up of the proteins gliadin and glutenin and is quite the gut irritant.Gluten is a protein that a lot of grains contain.There are two main things that come out of consuming gluten- it is either Celiac’s disease or gluten intolerance.F irst, lets look  and understand Celiac’s disease.  If you are one of those people suffering from it, when you consume gluten, the body’s immune system creates specific antibodies that basically destroy the finger-like villi in the small intestines. These villi are used to absorb nutrients but are flattened if you are suffering from Celiac’s disease.  And thus your body is unable to absorb essential nutrients.

And what is gluten intolerance or also called gluten sensitivity:

In the gluten-sensitive group, the response came from innate immunity, a primitive system with which the body sets up barriers to repel invaders. The subjects with celiac disease rallied adaptive immunity, a more sophisticated system that develops specific cells to fight foreign bodies.

You can read the whole article about gluten sensitivity  here.

One reason gluten intolerance goes undetected in so many cases is that both doctors and patients mistakenly believe it only causes digestive problems. But gluten intolerance can also present with inflammation in the joints, skin, respiratory tract and brain – without any obvious gut symptoms.

Because I really don’t wanna bore you and I think that is enough information for today, we will discuss this topic further in the future. Before that if you read the text above and consider you don’t care because you do not have neither Celiac’s disease nor gluten intolerance, think twice and keep in mind that about 40% of Europeans and every 1 of three people in America suffers from gluten intolerance even if they are not aware of it! Next time you feel bloated, you feel weak, depressed, you feel joint pain or some other symptom, remember about what I told you about grains! I bet that the reason for your condition is the food you are eating, or actually the grains you are worshipping!

Somewhere I read a saying about grains that was really meaningful…so “Use your brain-stay away from grain!”