TV news Gluten free segment

[Peppermint Orange]

ABC Australia ran a segment on the pros and cons of following a gluten free diet. I found it interesting viewing. Thought to share. The broadcast can be seen at ~

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4358631.htm

Gluten is the new dietary enemy. Millions of people around the world are giving up gluten in pursuit of better health.
The believers say it can cure a wide range of diseases like arthritis, depression, even autism. But is this unprecedented uptake of the diet justified? Many doctors say that if you don't have coeliac disease, you don't need to avoid gluten.
Emerging evidence is now challenging this belief.
In this special investigation, Dr Maryanne Demasi cuts through the hype of the gluten-free diet. Should we all get on board or is it just another fad?

 

[miss-a]

ABC Australia ran a segment on the pros and cons of following a gluten free diet. I found it interesting viewing. Thought to share. The broadcast can be seen at ~

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4358631.htm

Gluten is the new dietary enemy. Millions of people around the world are giving up gluten in pursuit of better health.
The believers say it can cure a wide range of diseases like arthritis, depression, even autism. But is this unprecedented uptake of the diet justified? Many doctors say that if you don't have coeliac disease, you don't need to avoid gluten.
Emerging evidence is now challenging this belief.
In this special investigation, Dr Maryanne Demasi cuts through the hype of the gluten-free diet. Should we all get on board or is it just another fad?

Gluten is in general fine, except for the segment of the population who are truly gluten intolerant. Having said that, there are related issues we all need to consider. Most of the gluten consumed by the American public comes from wheat. Wheat is often genetically modified. Genetic modifiers tend to hide the fact that they are modifying the crops, and when someone is hiding something, there's usually a reason for that. Therefore, the rest of us need to be careful about wheat and keep our wheat consumption at best restricted to organically produced wheat, and at least wheat products that are marked clearly non-gmo. Additionally, wheat should not be our only grain. This is a problem here in the U.S. as well, the lack of variety, which also causes health issues. Therefore, for most of us, excluding those with true gluten intolerance, a diet that includes a variety of whole organic and non-gmo grains will produce a lower gluten diet, a better array of nutrients, fewer food intolerences, and better health.

 

[Joyous Song]

Gluten in wheat has changed. Back when our ancestors made bread gluten was at 2% to 4% in the wheat. Today it over 50%. That why many people are finding they are heather not eating wheat! So yes, there is a fad out there but there is just as much misinformation on the other side. That side, just like gluten Intolerance, gluten sensitivity can be confirmed by a blood test. You have to eat gluten before about a month before you take the test, but if one really wants to know if they are following a fad or seeing a fact, getting that blood test will give you the facts.

 

[FireDragon76]

It's good to eat a variety of grains and not lean too heavily on one type of grain.

I prefer whole grains... as in real whole grains. You can eat relatively unprocessed wheat grains, like farro or bulgar wheat. I even sometimes soak farro for a few hours and it really helps the digestibility. You can soak grains just like you would beans.

 

[trophy33]

Grains can contain a variety of allergens aside from gluten. The 14 major food allergens that are required to be declared by food law include cereals containing gluten, such as wheat, barley, and oats, along with other allergens such as celery, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, and tree nuts.

Among grains, wheat and soybean are the most frequent and well-characterized allergenic foods, with soybean allergens contributing to immediate-type allergic reactions in children.

UpToDate

www.uptodate.com

Allergenic Foods and their Allergens, with links to Informall | FARRP | Nebraska

farrp.unl.edu

Grain and legume allergy - PubMed

Among grains and legumes, wheat and soybean are the most frequent and well-characterized allergenic foods. Wheat proteins are divided into water/salt-soluble and water/salt-insoluble (gluten) fractions. The most dominant allergen in the former is α-amylase/trypsin inhibitor, which acts as an...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Allergy to Wheat and Other Cereal Grains

Cereal grains like wheat, corn, barley, and rye can cause allergic reactions in some people. Learn the signs of a grain allergy, diagnosis and treatment options.

www.verywellhealth.com

14 Allergens: The different Cereals containing Gluten

Your guide to the subcategories of Cereals containing Gluten, one of the 14 major food allergens…

erudus.com

Sadly, there are also many of other molecules we do not know what they do in human body, in grains, so eating them is a bit of a gamble with our health.

 

[FireDragon76]

Grains can contain a variety of allergens aside from gluten. The 14 major food allergens that are required to be declared by food law include cereals containing gluten, such as wheat, barley, and oats, along with other allergens such as celery, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, and tree nuts.

Among grains, wheat and soybean are the most frequent and well-characterized allergenic foods, with soybean allergens contributing to immediate-type allergic reactions in children.

UpToDate

www.uptodate.com

Allergenic Foods and their Allergens, with links to Informall | FARRP | Nebraska

farrp.unl.edu

Grain and legume allergy - PubMed

Among grains and legumes, wheat and soybean are the most frequent and well-characterized allergenic foods. Wheat proteins are divided into water/salt-soluble and water/salt-insoluble (gluten) fractions. The most dominant allergen in the former is α-amylase/trypsin inhibitor, which acts as an...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Allergy to Wheat and Other Cereal Grains

Cereal grains like wheat, corn, barley, and rye can cause allergic reactions in some people. Learn the signs of a grain allergy, diagnosis and treatment options.

www.verywellhealth.com

14 Allergens: The different Cereals containing Gluten

Your guide to the subcategories of Cereals containing Gluten, one of the 14 major food allergens…

erudus.com

Sadly, there are also many of other molecules we do not know what they do in human body, in grains, so eating them is a bit of a gamble with our health.

Being a potential allergen doesn't mean a food is unhealthy, or that it should necessarily be avoided in general.

 

[trophy33]

Being a potential allergen doesn't mean a food is unhealthy, or that it should necessarily be avoided in general.

Its a gamble. Maybe you will be OK eating a plethora of allergenic food with various poisons and foreign chemicals (foreign for our body, chemicals originated in plant processes, not designed for mammal bodies), but nobody knows if and for how long.

Almost everybody in our society has some health problem with some plant food. Its hardly still just coincidence. Sugars, seed oils, allergens, oxalates, pesticides, herbicides, fiber, caffeine, heavy metals ... Its frequently hard to pinpoint the specific substance, because plants are a cocktail of many risky things.

So far it seems that most people get rid of various pains and other problems when they stop eating grains and related products (like pasta, pastry, cereals) and drinking milk. Those two seem to be the most spread allergens today. However, many people have also problems because of nuts, veggies, fruit, coffee/tea/cocoa, herbs, spice...

 

[FireDragon76]

Its a gamble. Maybe you will be OK eating a plethora of allergenic food with various poisons and foreign chemicals (foreign for our body, chemicals originated in plant processes, not designed for mammal bodies), but nobody knows if and for how long.

If you had a genuine food allergy, you'ld most likely know it.

Almost everybody in our society has some health problem with some plant food. Its hardly still just coincidence. Sugars, seed oils, allergens, oxalates, pesticides, herbicides, fiber, caffeine, heavy metals ... Its frequently hard to pinpoint the specific substance, because plants are a cocktail of many risky things.

Nobody I know personally has allergies to any plant foods.

 

[trophy33]

If you had a genuine food allergy, you'ld most likely know it.

Nobody I know personally has allergies to any plant foods.

I am not sure if this is true. I guess those chemical compounds may be harmful or burdensome even if somebody does not feel immediate pain or does not see immediate rash.

When people smoke, they also do not have visibly damaged health immediately. With grains, milk, nuts etc people may also not connect the dots, to realize causality, because they think "everybody is eating that, so it can not be this thing".

 

[FireDragon76]

I am not sure if this is true. I guess those chemical compounds may be harmful or burdensome even if somebody does not feel immediate pain or does not see immediate rash.

When people smoke, they also do not have visibly damaged health immediately. With grains, milk, nuts etc people may also not connect the dots, to realize causality.

The difference is there's no epidemiological evidence showing that consuming fruits or vegetables is harmful. Quite the contrary. This isn't the case for tobacco smoking.

 

[trophy33]

The difference is there's no epidemiological evidence showing that consuming fruits or vegetables is harmful. Quite the contrary. This isn't the case for tobacco smoking.

Epidemiological evidence cannot show causality.

However, there are known chemical compounds in grains, nuts, fruit or vegetables (or milk) that are known to be harmful, their mechanisms of harm are known. Like with smoking.

There are also thousands of plant chemicals we daily eat or drink and we have no idea what they do in our body. Just because we do not fall dead immediately after eating does not mean its safe to consume.

And people commonly do not connect the dots. Somebody can have poor sleep quality, be nervous, have depression, anxiety or be sleepy during the day, have a bad quality of teeth.. and will not realize its connected to something he eats or drinks, until he stops consuming it.

 

[GDL]

FWIW, at about 40 years, in good physical shape, hardly ever sick, on no meds, I ended up in the emergency room one night with about 30% lung capacity with very labored breathing to put it mildly. The best specialist in the area diagnosed me with adult-onset asthma. So began the regimen of pills and inhalers for life according to him.

None of this made any sense to me and doing some reading I came across a book that talked about food allergies and a supplement that could help. Bought some at my local health-food store for a few $. Within a week, no more meds.

End of the story narrowed it down to a wheat allergy. More studies & experimenting over the years shows it's probably the processed garbage in the US. After detoxing from the stuff and keeping away from it for a few decades or so, my sensitivity is much less to almost non-existent. I also notice a positive difference if I eat some of the more natural products in Europe.

 

[timewerx]

I've been eating food products made from wheat and oats my whole life and I make my own snacks from refined wheat flour and oats. I'm perfectly healthy and fairly athletic at the age of 42 but I also exercise plenty and do intermittent fasting.

Although I don't live in the USA and our wheat doesn't come from USA.

 

[GDL]

I've been eating food products made from wheat and oats my whole life and I make my own snacks from refined wheat flour and oats. I'm perfectly healthy and fairly athletic at the age of 42 but I also exercise plenty and do intermittent fasting.

Although I don't live in the USA and our wheat doesn't come from USA.

Sounds like me at that age and then all of a sudden, I wasn't healthy even though I was very fit and always had been.

I watched a series here about growing and harvesting wheat naturally. After it's harvested it was left in the field for a time and the night dampness and day sun fermented it and broke down the glutens to make them digestible (or something like that process I'm saying from recall). And it retains all its nutritional value.

In the US all I recall from the quarter century ago that I had the problems, was the chemically controlled growth process, mechanized process of harvesting & immediate processing and then adding back in all the supposed nutrients that were lost in the process. It's really not even food and although people are getting [empty] calories, they're not getting nutrients, and after some time, which is different for different bodies, the organs begin to break down from lack of nutrition. Add to this the fact that the sugar industry has gotten processed sugar into almost everything in the US supermarkets, and then watch in amazement how the "experts" can't figure out why there is an epidemic of obesity and poor health. Then watch how the US medical industry is mainly built to push chemical "cures" and most here are on drugs for various reasons (like the "expert" who initially diagnosed my problem promoted to control my so-called disease). If I go to a Dr. today in the US, most seem confused when I tell them (at 70+) that I'm not taking any medications. It's actually very sad to watch but I learned several decades ago that trying to tell people their eating habits are going to destroy their health is most of the time a waste of time and energy. Most are addicted to their tastes and because the degenerative process is slow in most, they have no sense that they are slowly poisoning themselves.

One of the things my very fit wife did in recent years is take up a study program in naturopathic health. She instituted a sugar detox program for those who attend her exercise studio to teach them some basics about diet. She teaches them to read labels (something I've been doing for about 40 years now) and takes them through a 3-week process of removing processed sugars from their diets. The comments and results are interesting (although for me not unexpected as my detox 40 years ago was mind-boggling). Part of the way through the 3 weeks weight losses of up to 10 pounds or so, stabilized moods, better concentration, more energy, some lessening of typical joints aches and pains, not to mention being mentally staggered about the processed sugars in nearly everything they normally buy and eat.

And then we can talk about what the US FDA allows to be classified as "natural flavors", and so on...

As I said, very sad.

 

[trophy33]

Sounds like me at that age and then all of a sudden, I wasn't healthy even though I was very fit and always had been.

I was fine eating a lot of wheat products, my whole life. When I was over 30 (not sure about the exact year), I began to have sharp pains in the abdomen. Not knowing what it is, it came and went, but sometimes it lasted even for days.

It took me years to realize I have none when I do not eat wheat products. Either something in the wheat here changed, or the allergy (or whatever it is) was developing silently for years, before it manifested itself.

However, I experienced also a lot of stress in that time, so it may be interconnected.

 

[timewerx]

In the US all I recall from the quarter century ago that I had the problems, was the chemically controlled growth process, mechanized process of harvesting & immediate processing and then adding back in all the supposed nutrients that were lost in the process. It's really not even food and although people are getting [empty] calories, they're not getting nutrients, and after some time, which is different for different bodies, the organs begin to break down from lack of nutrition. Add to this the fact that the sugar industry has gotten processed sugar into almost everything in the US supermarkets, and then watch in amazement how the "experts" can't figure out why there is an epidemic of obesity and poor health.

Most of the food I eat like meat and vegetables comes from the wet market not the supermarket nor grocery store. So these are whole foods, not frozen, nor processed but freshly butchered meat or freshly harvested vegetables.

No sweets (cookies, ice cream, cakes, fudge, sweet pastries, etc), no junk food, no fast food for me either.

I do have the physique of a marathon runner and can run a "half marathon" at a good pace and working through making a full marathon run.

 

[GDL]

However, I experienced also a lot of stress in that time, so it may be interconnected.

It's all interconnected IMO and stress is a huge factor. When we're young we think we can power through just about anything and to a degree it's true. But at some point, time will begin to reveal what we've been doing. Most are not in tune enough to have any realization of the harm they have done or are still doing. And, as a race, we're not as smart as we think we are. Most don't even know they're sick and getting sicker and don't realize just how much harm they're doing daily by relying on others to sell them what is "good" for them. I came to realize a long time ago that until we experience something, like good health, we really don't understand what it is and that we actually were sick. At least in the theological realm some of us come to realize the more we know, the more we know how much we don't know.

 

[GDL]

Most of the food I eat like meat and vegetables comes from the wet market not the supermarket nor grocery store. So these are whole foods, not frozen, nor processed but freshly butchered meat or freshly harvested vegetables.

No sweets (cookies, ice cream, cakes, fudge, sweet pastries, etc), no junk food, no fast food for me either.

I do have the physique of a marathon runner and can run a "half marathon" at a good pace and working through making a full marathon run.

Sounds like you've got a handle on about the best we can be doing apart from being the actual producers which there seems to be a resurgence of to some degree.

I haven't been to a fast-food place & haven't been into the sweets for 40+ years. I mentioned a detox I went through. In my twenties I was extremely fit but living on a typical American diet and beginning to notice a few issues. Long story short I met someone who convinced me to try a diet that had cured her of some substantial health problems. Not thinking I was sickly but due to other motivations I agreed to a detox diet and 2-3 weeks into it I had to sleep on towels and change them 2-3 times per night due to the extreme sweating I was experiencing. This plus some other things might make an observer think I was coming off of heavy drugs. It was unreal. 3 weeks in I woke in another real foul mood and was served a breakfast with some maple syrup which I in a foul way questioned but was told to just eat a bit. 15 minutes later I was in a good mood and was asked how I felt. Kind of realizing I had been set up, I admitted I felt much better. I was then told I had been given a sugar fix - like a junkie given drugs. An experiential lesson I never forgot. Let's just say at the end of the detox process I had been taught how much harm I had been doing for years eating what was advertised as good. I woke up one day and literally was amazed that I could feel as good as I did. A whole new world as they say. With the sugar and chemicals out of my system I began to notice that any processed sugar I might ingest not knowing it was in some food would burn my tongue a bit and reveal itself. It would also give me a slight and fairly immediate headache. Most have no clue that they truly don't feel well and that they don't have to feel that way. After the detox the lifestyle was mainly different grains, beans, all kinds of vegetables, chicken, fish and such for me red meats were a rarity for many years. I was never into alcohol after some youthful stupidity.

I don't know your age, but FWIW and even though it sounds like you don't need to hear it, I will tell you to stay the course. Certain industries won't like you since they can't lock you into their routines, but that's their problem. If the running ever causes any issues, again, FWIW, my wife was into the mini-triathlons and did at least one marathon in HI that I recall. After years of various athletics, she discovered Barre and swears by it as the best exercise she's ever experienced. She has gotten deep into it and trained in the original method which is quite different from the commercialized versions. Male or female, fit or not, within a few minutes she can show most that they're not as fit and strong as they think they are.

 

[timewerx]

Sounds like you've got a handle on about the best we can be doing apart from being the actual producers which there seems to be a resurgence of to some degree.

I haven't been to a fast-food place & haven't been into the sweets for 40+ years. I mentioned a detox I went through. In my twenties I was extremely fit but living on a typical American diet and beginning to notice a few issues. Long story short I met someone who convinced me to try a diet that had cured her of some substantial health problems. Not thinking I was sickly but due to other motivations I agreed to a detox diet and 2-3 weeks into it I had to sleep on towels and change them 2-3 times per night due to the extreme sweating I was experiencing. This plus some other things might make an observer think I was coming off of heavy drugs. It was unreal. 3 weeks in I woke in another real foul mood and was served a breakfast with some maple syrup which I in a foul way questioned but was told to just eat a bit. 15 minutes later I was in a good mood and was asked how I felt. Kind of realizing I had been set up, I admitted I felt much better. I was then told I had been given a sugar fix - like a junkie given drugs. An experiential lesson I never forgot. Let's just say at the end of the detox process I had been taught how much harm I had been doing for years eating what was advertised as good. I woke up one day and literally was amazed that I could feel as good as I did. A whole new world as they say. With the sugar and chemicals out of my system I began to notice that any processed sugar I might ingest not knowing it was in some food would burn my tongue a bit and reveal itself. It would also give me a slight and fairly immediate headache. Most have no clue that they truly don't feel well and that they don't have to feel that way. After the detox the lifestyle was mainly different grains, beans, all kinds of vegetables, chicken, fish and such for me red meats were a rarity for many years. I was never into alcohol after some youthful stupidity.

I don't know your age, but FWIW and even though it sounds like you don't need to hear it, I will tell you to stay the course. Certain industries won't like you since they can't lock you into their routines, but that's their problem. If the running ever causes any issues, again,

Thanks. I'm 42. I still use refined sugar as sweetener. Otherwise, the vast majority of things are sourced directly from farmers because they're actually cheaper than buying food from the grocery or supermarket.

I've never detoxed but I suppose I get them anyway from daily Intermittent Fasting (IF) where I'm also exercising during the fasting window.

FWIW, my wife was into the mini-triathlons and did at least one marathon in HI that I recall. After years of various athletics, she discovered Barre and swears by it as the best exercise she's ever experienced. She has gotten deep into it and trained in the original method which is quite different from the commercialized versions. Male or female, fit or not, within a few minutes she can show most that they're not as fit and strong as they think they are.

Great! I do cycling and running but recently increased my running volume. My cycling sessions are very long and often just under 6 hrs in the mountain without stopping (except for few traffic stops) once every weekend. I also do power-lift workouts and calisthenics.

When I increased my running volume, my leg muscles and joints started to hurt. Fortunately, I adapted quickly in just 3 weeks and now experimenting with different running techniques.

When my legs still hurt, I switch to stairs workout (literally using the fire exit stairwell in our apartment) and fast walking because of the lower impact. My goal this year is to be able to run a marathon distance regularly like each week.