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- 🌿 W O R S T F O O D
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- Bread
- Gluten Brain
- Extreme Dangers
- Food for Faster Aging
- Is Wheat Poison?
- Is Quinoa Gluten Free?
- Is Corn Gluten-Free?
- Leaky Guts Syndrome
- Mental Health / Gluten
- No Starch for Infants
- Rice / High in Arsenic
- Wheat Belly
- Wheat’s Dark Side
- Worst Food # 1
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| The Dangers of Eating Grains |
The Dangers of Eating Grains
Written by Dr. Douglas N. Graham
“There is NOT ONE example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours
that consumes grain.
Nature is our only Example
Nature has seen fit to provide the ideal food for every creatures on Earth, and all creatures of similar type eat similarly. For example, horses – and all creatures that look like horses (zebras, donkeys and mules) – eat from essentially the same category of foods – those for which their biological systems were designed.
Do not let anyone tell you that humans are the one exception to this rule (called the law of similar) in all of the animal kingdom, for there are no exceptions: Cows eat grass, leopards eat meat, and hummingbirds eat nectar. There is simply no need to complicate this simple program, presented in perfection by nature in thousands of examples.
All of the creatures that are anatomically and physiologically like us known as the anthropoid primates. Gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos (previously called the pygmy or dwarf chimpanzee) thrive exclusively on a low-fat diet that is predominated by fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
There is not one example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours that consumes grain.
99% of their diets consist of plant. Their caloronutrient ratios is:
80/10/10 (80% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 10% fat).
Bonobos, our closest genetic “cousins,” are considered the most intelligent (after humans). They consume mostly fruit and eat about 5 % of their calories as vegetable matter. The anthropoids that are farthest from us are mountain and lowland gorillas, rely mostly on vegetation and eat approximately 70% of fruit as they have limited access because their great weight makes it impossible to climb the skinny branches of trees to procure fruit. In zoos, they eat a diet predominated by fruit. Although many people are surprised to hear it, that anthropoid primates in the wild eat a diet that is made up primarily of fruits and vegetables. We have never heard that chimpanzees or orangutans – which are typically five times stronger than humans, pound for pound – need more protein than the amount they get from their plant – based diet.
Are We Starch Eaters?
Starches can be divided into three general categories: roots, tubers, legumes, and grains (grass seeds).
Starchy Roots and Tubers
Without tools, humans are very poor diggers. Food below ground that, in their natural state, very few exist that our digestive systems can even handle. Some roots, notably turnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, yams, beets, carrots, parsnips, and salsify can be eaten raw, though in practice today, next to none are eaten this way.
Legumes
Very few creatures other than birds and pigs readily consume legumes, as legumes in their mature state are indigestible or toxic to most mammals. For humans, raw mature legumes are
not just unpalatable, they are quit toxic. We simple have no capacity for consuming them in their natural state. While young legumes are edible and nontoxic, one must question their nutritional makeup. Legumes are touted as excellent sources of protein, and their protein content is generally quite high.
High protein levels are not necessarily a good thing, however, especially for humans, who seem to thrive best on a diet composed of less than 10% of calories from protein. As it is in flesh, diary, and eggs, the protein in legumes is rich in the amino acid methionine, which contains high amounts of the acidic mineral sulfur.
Carbohydrate levels of legumes are also high enough to make them difficult to digest due to the high protein levels. The lack of vitamin C, an essential nutrient for humans, also makes legumes a very poor food choice.
Vegetables
Humans do consume green leafy plants such as lettuce, celery, spinach and the like, as well as the tougher cruciferous vegetables (beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale, and others). Eaten plain, as they occur in nature, these tough vegetables are high in insoluble fiber and therefore difficult for us to digest.
All vegetables yield proteins, some essential fatty acids, mineral matter, vitamins, and some simple sugars. But if we get enough of these nutrients from our natural foods, then these are not needed from plants that we do not eat raw with keen relish. Though we include vegetables in our diets, we’re not primarily vegetable eaters by nature.
Written by Dr. Douglas N. Graham
“There is NOT ONE example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours
that consumes grain.
Nature is our only Example
Nature has seen fit to provide the ideal food for every creatures on Earth, and all creatures of similar type eat similarly. For example, horses – and all creatures that look like horses (zebras, donkeys and mules) – eat from essentially the same category of foods – those for which their biological systems were designed.
Do not let anyone tell you that humans are the one exception to this rule (called the law of similar) in all of the animal kingdom, for there are no exceptions: Cows eat grass, leopards eat meat, and hummingbirds eat nectar. There is simply no need to complicate this simple program, presented in perfection by nature in thousands of examples.
All of the creatures that are anatomically and physiologically like us known as the anthropoid primates. Gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos (previously called the pygmy or dwarf chimpanzee) thrive exclusively on a low-fat diet that is predominated by fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
There is not one example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours that consumes grain.
99% of their diets consist of plant. Their caloronutrient ratios is:
80/10/10 (80% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 10% fat).
Bonobos, our closest genetic “cousins,” are considered the most intelligent (after humans). They consume mostly fruit and eat about 5 % of their calories as vegetable matter. The anthropoids that are farthest from us are mountain and lowland gorillas, rely mostly on vegetation and eat approximately 70% of fruit as they have limited access because their great weight makes it impossible to climb the skinny branches of trees to procure fruit. In zoos, they eat a diet predominated by fruit. Although many people are surprised to hear it, that anthropoid primates in the wild eat a diet that is made up primarily of fruits and vegetables. We have never heard that chimpanzees or orangutans – which are typically five times stronger than humans, pound for pound – need more protein than the amount they get from their plant – based diet.
Are We Starch Eaters?
Starches can be divided into three general categories: roots, tubers, legumes, and grains (grass seeds).
Starchy Roots and Tubers
Without tools, humans are very poor diggers. Food below ground that, in their natural state, very few exist that our digestive systems can even handle. Some roots, notably turnips, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, yams, beets, carrots, parsnips, and salsify can be eaten raw, though in practice today, next to none are eaten this way.
Legumes
Very few creatures other than birds and pigs readily consume legumes, as legumes in their mature state are indigestible or toxic to most mammals. For humans, raw mature legumes are
not just unpalatable, they are quit toxic. We simple have no capacity for consuming them in their natural state. While young legumes are edible and nontoxic, one must question their nutritional makeup. Legumes are touted as excellent sources of protein, and their protein content is generally quite high.
High protein levels are not necessarily a good thing, however, especially for humans, who seem to thrive best on a diet composed of less than 10% of calories from protein. As it is in flesh, diary, and eggs, the protein in legumes is rich in the amino acid methionine, which contains high amounts of the acidic mineral sulfur.
Carbohydrate levels of legumes are also high enough to make them difficult to digest due to the high protein levels. The lack of vitamin C, an essential nutrient for humans, also makes legumes a very poor food choice.
Vegetables
Humans do consume green leafy plants such as lettuce, celery, spinach and the like, as well as the tougher cruciferous vegetables (beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale, and others). Eaten plain, as they occur in nature, these tough vegetables are high in insoluble fiber and therefore difficult for us to digest.
All vegetables yield proteins, some essential fatty acids, mineral matter, vitamins, and some simple sugars. But if we get enough of these nutrients from our natural foods, then these are not needed from plants that we do not eat raw with keen relish. Though we include vegetables in our diets, we’re not primarily vegetable eaters by nature.
“The Staff of Death”
There is NOT ONE example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours that consumes grain.
Creatures that naturally eat grains, which are the seeds of gras-ses, are called “granivores.”
Grain-eating birds possess a “crop,” a pouch in their throats or gullets, where the grains they swallow whole are allowed to germinate, thereby becoming digestible. Grains are indigestible raw, but even cooked, the complex carbohydrates in them require great digestive effort to break down.
Most of the human race presently consumes grains and starches, we can reject them as natural human fare. The fact that grass seeds neither attract these complex-carbohydrate foods in their natural state are a torture some affair. To fully digest starchy foods – grains, roots and tubers, and legumes – an animal must produce large quantities of starch-digesting enzymes (amylases).
The human body produces salivary amylase (also called ptyalin) of extremely limited strength and in relatively low amounts, sufficient only to break down small amounts of starch, such as would be found in fruit that is not fully ripened. The body also produces small quantities of pancreatic amylase for somewhat limited starch digestion in the intestines.
After Harvesting
Grains lose nutritive value once harvested, and they lose even more when milled to flour. In storage, grains are subject to infestations of insects, rodents, and molds. To prevent these problems and provide us with grains year around, farmers and food processors resort to the use of an array of toxic chemicals and preservatives.
Toxic Chemicals in the Grains
Modern grain farming has resulted in the loss of almost all of our topsoil. What was six to sixteen feet of topsoil a century ago, it has been reduced to six inches or less on most of our farms. In a world where potable water has become a commodity, over half of the total water used in the United States goes to watering livestock or feed for livestock.
The following is a partial list of toxic chemicals used in the processing of grain. How much residue from these chemicals remains in the grain itself, versus how much is simply dumped in concentrated form onto our soil is of little consequence.
Mercury
Cyanide
Ammonium salts
Chlorine
(Each of the above, in high enough doses, can cause insanity or even death.)
Fluorine - Mineral oil - Aluminium
(These are high-potency toxins)
The toxins of war – including chemical weapons such as chlorine, mustard, and the organophosphates, explosives such as nitrates, and radioactive waste – have all been incorporated into the human diet.
Listing of Grains
Barley
Oats
Tritical (a hybrid of wheat and rye)
Rye
Wheat
Wheat has several names and varieties. Bulgur, semolina, spelt, frumento, durum (also spelled duram), kamut, einkorn, farina, couscous, seitan, matzoh, matzah and matzo.
Alternative grains: These are the grains (they’re not really all grains, but people call them that).
Amaranth – Buckwheat – Mesquite – Millet – Montina
Quinoa – Sorghum – Teff – Rice – Wild Rice
“The Staff of Life”
We have learned since childhood that grains are the “staff of life.” What, really, is a “staff”? It is a stick, pole, or rod traditionally used as a support or crutch. Grains, like any crutch, become detrimental to us when we rely on them constantly, three meals per day. Instead of thriving, we are weakened by their continual usage. Is it possible that our beloved grains are actually crippling us?
Does Grain Eating Come Naturally?
People are experiencing severe cravings for refined grain products. When starches are consumed, people wake up the next day and go through unpleasant periods of feeling foggy, hung over, or sedated. Should they stop consuming grains, symptoms of detoxification and withdrawal emerge. It is best to avoid substances that result in such powerful dependencies, whether we choose to call them drugs or food.
The consumption of grains, and any other foods that do not suit our design, is a serious step down nutritionally. Coupled with the habit of cooking, a food adulteration not practiced by any other species, the outcome is nutritionally bankruptcy.
Jared Diamond notes what wheat, rice, and corn alone provide most of the calories consumed by humans today, and that each of these is lacking in certain vital nutrients we need to exist.
“The Staff of Death”
Cereals, breads, pastries, pastas, pretzels, pizza crust, and other grain-based foods lose much of their original food value during refinement and other processing to make the grains edible.
Even cooking a food counts as a refining process, as not only are the nutrients compromised, but antinutrients are created and water is driven off. No cooked food is a whole food. Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and phytonutrients are damaged, deranged, or destroyed by the heat of cooking.
What does remain after cooking are the calories. Therefore, when we eat starches, we consume the maximum number of calories with the minimum amount of nutrients. Dr. Emmet Densmore, author of How Nature Cures, one of the first to speak out against grains, pointed out that humans are frutarian and declared bread to be “the staff of death.”
A substance known as phytic acid, found in raw cereal grains, is well known for its tendency to bind with calcium and interfere with its absorption. Grains also contain substantial quantities of acid-forming minerals, such as phosphorus.
During the process of digestion, the body must yield up calcium from the bones, a powerful alkaline mineral, in order to neutralize the acidity of grains. Eventually, people on a high-grain diet run predictably low on calcium, often resulting in a common bone-thinning condition known as osteoporosis.
Grains contain very little calcium, and they are also low in sodium, choline, iodine, sulfur, and other alkaline minerals. On the other hand, fruits and vegetables contain from ten to one hundred times as much calcium and other alkaline minerals as do grains, when measured in terms of calories.
Does it ever seem peculiar to you that dog and cat food commercials stress the fact that optimum nutrition gives your pet the best chance of growing well and living healthfully?
Why, do you ask, are children’s foods marketed instead of their colors, shapes, and exciting flavors, but rarely for their nutrient quality? Why are adult foods promoted for their convenience, but seldom for their health - building qualities? Why are these food commercials invariably followed by commercials for anti-acids? Do you ever wonder?
Fiber
The fiber in grains must be considered a health destroyer. Humans have delicate digestive systems. Just look at the number of people with digestive problems: nine out of ten in the United States. Our digestive systems require the soft, soluble fiber found in fruits and tender vegetables. Grain’s fiber, however, is coarse and sharp like finely ground glass.
Nutritionists refer to it as insoluble fiber. It acts as an irritant in our system. Irritation of the mucosa of the intestine is considered a risk factor in many different diseases, including ulcers, diverticulosis, spastic colon, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and colon cancer.
The presence of insoluble fiber in the intestines causes food to move through the bowels more rapidly than normal, reducing nutrient absorption. Coupled with the irritating quality of insoluble fiber, this rapid movement of foods leads to malabsorption syndromes, nutritional deficiencies, and overall loss of health. In the production of refined flour, bran is left over. This flavorless and bowel-irritating waste product is then sold, at an inflated price, as if it were a health food.
Digestion
The human digestive system is complex, sophisticated, and highly sensitive. Food must be broken down into simpler molecules to be absorbed; this is digestion.
Chemical digestion, directed by the brain, happens in three major areas; the mouth, the stomach, and the small intestine. This digestive action is dependent upon receptors that send messages to the brain, telling it which type of food is being worked upon.
The brain then responds accordingly, sequentially utilizing a barrage of water, digestive enzymes, enzyme precursors, coenzymes, electrolytes, acids, bases, buffer salts, hormones, extrinsic (vitamin B12) and intrinsic (mucoprotein) factors, and other secretions far beyond the capabilities of our greatest chemists to understand.
Chemical digestion begins in the mouth with the secretion of amylase, a starch-splitting enzyme. Stomach acid neutralizes the amylase and effectively stops starch digestion. It resumes in the small intestine. Protein digestion is purely mechanical in the mouth and nonexistent in the intestines. Proteins are broken down from long to short chains in the stomach, in the presence of hydrochloric acid.
When starches are consumed without proteins, the acidity of the stomach approaches neutral, allowing starch digestion to continue. When proteins are consumed with starches, the acidity of the stomach becomes as strong as is humanly possible, thus fostering proteolysis. The pH of the mouth and intestines are also capable of varying from mildly alkaline to mildly acidic, though predominantly alkaline, at about 7.4, is considered healthiest.
Herein lays the problem: when proteins and starches are consumed at one meal, the body is asked to provide two opposing chemistries in the same place at the same time. This cannot work, because they effectively cancel each other out. The result is impaired or partial starch digestion and impaired or partial protein digestion. The digestion process takes longer than it would to digest either substance on its own, and it requires considerably more energy to do so.
Since animal protein contains no fiber, they pass through the digestive system more slowly than other foods. At one hundred degrees, in a dark, wet environment, undigested meat will go bad (rot) rather rapidly. The partial digestion of meat that occurs when it is eaten with grains very often accounts for the putrefaction so obvious when feces are expelled. Grains do not tend to putrefy. They do, however, ferment. Fermentation results from the mixture of sugar and starch, for example, in a raisin bagel, fruit pie, or dessert after a starchy meal.
Two products result from the fermentation of grain: alcohol and gas. Alcohol quickly penetrates the gut lining and becomes blood alcohol, giving rise to the phrase “food drunk”. Drivers have actually failed Breathalyzer tests for blood alcohol simply from the alcohol produced in their digestive tracts!
Alcohol is a protoplasmic poison, meaning that it destroys every cell with which it comes into contact (the lining of the mouth and digestive tract are spared this fate, because they are coated by a protective mucosal layer). The production of alcohol within the gut is never a good thing, as it is absorbed into the bloodstream where is does its usual damage.
Energy
Upon consuming your starch meal, your body must perform many complex processes to utilize what is left after cooking, which is, primarily, only the calories. Before cooking, we refer to these calories as complex carbohydrates, an indigestible form of sugar made palatable through the application of heat.
During cooking, chemically referred to as caramelization, some starches are broken down into simpler sugars. The digestion of starch, however, is energy intensive and make take anywhere from thirty-six to seventy-two hours.
This immediate, high energy demand, coupled with delayed energy return, explains why so many people feel lethargic after a starch meal. All available energy is being used for digestion.
Starches are touted as low-calorie foods. If we subtract the calories requires during the processes of digestion, the net energy gain is low. It is the fat we put on our starches that provide the really big calories, exactly the opposite of what more people desire.
The digestion of fruit is a relatively simple process. What we refer to as “ripening” is actually the fruit converting starchy, complex carbohydrates into sweet-tasting, simple carbohydrates.
In effect, the fruit is digesting itself for us. The digestion of fruit demands considerably less energy than the digestion of starches, freeing energy for other processes such as organ and muscle functioning.
Fruit, which must be worked upon for minutes in your stomach and eighteen hours in you intestines, yields more energy per calorie consumed than starches, which can require as many as twelve hours in you stomach and three days in your system.
Health Problems
The list of health problems associated with eating grains is long. Asthma, allergies, celiac disease gluten intolerance, digestive disturbances, mucous and congestive conditions, yeast infections, several types of arthritis, several types of autoimmune disease, and even chronic overeating are all linked to the consumption of grains.
Congestion, asthma, and allergies are of special concern to us. They hinder breathing, alter the clarity and tone of the voice, cause us to quickly become tired, and interfere with social interactions. Many sufferers of nasal congestion, asthma, and allergies are pleased to discover that their symptoms are relived once they embark upon a starch-free diet.
Cooked grains have little flavor on their own. Commonly, we add flavoring agents such as salt, heated fats or oils, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners like aspartame (a known neurotoxin that causes cancer, brain damage, neurodegenerative diseases, and birth defects) or powerful spices to make grains more palatable. These condiments are health destroyers and bring with them to the table an array of health problems.
Gluten Sensitivity
Many research studies link diets high in complex carbohydrates to negative health conditions.
The gluten-containing grains primarily wheat,
but also rye, barley, and oats, contain at least fifteen opioid sequences, which are strongly addictive, morphine-like substances that have potent psychoactive properties and produce serious neurological disorders, nausea, constipation, urinary retention, vomiting, cough suppression, and other symptoms.
Gluten intolerance (celiac disease) contributes to or causes a wide range of other diseases, including asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue, Crohn’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, depression, eczema, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, lymphoma, and gastrointestinal cancer.
Gluten intolerance may also be linked to autism, schizophrenia, and several autoimmune disorders.
https://www.enterolab.com/default.aspx /
Enterolab writes:
“Gluten, a protein found in many grain products, has been named as a causative factor in psychoses and neurological disorders. It has been proven to chemically contain fifteen different opioid sequences, or morphine-like molecules. Opioids that come from outside the body are called “exorphins.” It is called by scientists addictive and neurotoxic.
Since the mid-1960s, scientists have repeatedly linked gluten consumption to learning disorders and schizophrenia. More info. www. drritamarie. com
Physical effects of opioid consumption include nausea, sedation, truncal rigidity, euphoria, dysphoria, and miosis (papillary contraction).
Opioids are known to interfere with our neurotransmitter chemistry, cause various types of epilepsy, and result in digestive disturbances such as constipation, urinary retention, biliary spasm, reduced production of ADH (an antidiuretic hormone that results in reduced urine production), slowed gastric emptying, and slowed digestion.”
Are Grains Addictive?
Some addictions are easier to spot than others. People with eating disorders say they experience problems with starches, and especially the starches we call sweets or pastries.
Could most of us be “starchaholics”? With a belly full of starch, most people are capable of no more than lying down and falling asleep in front of the television. It is common for people to become torpid after a holiday meal, sometimes falling into a stupor, full of breads, stuffing, potatoes, and a pastry or two. These reactions to a heavy starch meal are the typical reactions experienced by “users” to narcotics.
Most Americans eat starch a minimum of three times daily at meals, and another two or three or more times as snacks. We were trained to eat starch as infants, since before we developed the enzymes to digest it.
Athletic Performance
A major issue of concern for athletes is acid/alkaline balance. In health, our bloodstream always remains alkaline, maintained at approximately 7.4. If the pH of the blood changes even two-tenths of a point, you will likely die. The minerals in starchy foods, however, are acidic: chlorine, sulfur, and phosphorus. Consumption of starches drains our alkaline reserves, resulting in lowered performance possibilities.
One starchy food leaves the digestive system and enters your bloodstream, acids enter the blood. Fortunately, your body maintains a reserve of calcium, its most alkaline mineral, plus several buffer systems to neutralize the acids in the event that the lungs, liver, and kidneys fail to keep pace with your acid creation and/or intake.
The phenomenon of bicarbonate flowing into your bloodstream to neutralize acidity after meals is referred to as the “alkaline tide.”
Most doctors consider the alkaline tide to be normal to our physiology, the flip side of the intense acid production needed from our stomach in a vain effort to digest animal protein.
Since animal proteins are also dense with acid minerals, normal metabolism must be delayed while the emergency threat to the blood pH is addressed. This delay results in a reduction of performance potential with each occurrence.
A Weighty Issue
Your blood sugar rises, gently and almost instantaneously, upon eating fruit, supplying your every cell with its only source of fuel: simple sugar.
The brain monitors blood sugar, and when blood sugar rises, appetite drops. It is almost impossible to overeat on fruit.
Many people comment that they feel satisfied and full, often for the first time in years, after eating a relatively small quantity of fruit.
Our bodies convert any extra complex carbohydrate calories to fat. Starch consumption, however, does not result in loss of appetite. On the contrary, it is easy to over eat them. We over eat pizza or pasta every time.
Since blood sugar does not rise, the only way one feels satiated is to eat until stuffed. It is likely there would be no obesity problems if the people of the world ate fruit instead of grains.
Sprouted Grains
What about sprouted grains? They are raw, so do they still count as grains?” Yes, sprouted grains still count as grains.
They lack of vitamin C complex, a predominance of acid minerals, extremely low levels of the soluble fiber we need, a high concentration of complex carbohydrates, and so forth.
Sprouted grains are exceptionally quick to grow mold. The only thing that sprouted grains have going for them is that they are not cooked.
Increasing the percentage of whole, fresh, ripe, raw, organic foods in your diet will yield you huge health and performance benefits.
And as an added bonus, you will find yourself less dependent on grains. It is easy to see that the grain-free diet is not radical; It is truly ultraconservative.
Instead of grain try to eat fruit. Be next person to go against the grain and reap the harvest of health.
Grains for the Birds
In brief, the objections to grains and grain products as foods suitable to the human system are
They are deficient in a number of important nutrients.
They contain substances to some degree poisonous to the system.
They must be cooked in order to be digested which process further depletes their value and increases their pathological effect.
They place strain on the digestive system causing hypertrophy of the pancreas and unnecessary depletion of enzyme reserves while at the same time resulting in flatulence.
They are capable of damaging the intestinal villi, causing them to atrophy.
They are acid-forming in the body, often to the extent of causing them to atrophy.
They are capable of causing allergy reactions such as dry skin, subcutaneous cysts, exacerbation of multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
They are antagonistic to the body’s immune system and increase susceptibility to head colds and other infections.
They are the worst causative factor in tooth decay due to their tendency to readily ferment between the teeth, so producing the acid which destroys tooth enamel.
They are totally unsuitable for infants, causing in some cases permanent damage to their digestive organs.
Of all foodstuffs, they contain the highest levels of calcareous salts which gradually accumulate in the tissues and cells, including the arteries, to accelerate the process of aging.
Apart from antagonizing the digestive system and providing inadequate nutrition, they are absolutel tasteless and unappealing to the senses, being rendered edible only by cooking and artificial flavor.
There is NOT ONE example of an animal with anatomy and physiology similar to ours that consumes grain.
Creatures that naturally eat grains, which are the seeds of gras-ses, are called “granivores.”
Grain-eating birds possess a “crop,” a pouch in their throats or gullets, where the grains they swallow whole are allowed to germinate, thereby becoming digestible. Grains are indigestible raw, but even cooked, the complex carbohydrates in them require great digestive effort to break down.
Most of the human race presently consumes grains and starches, we can reject them as natural human fare. The fact that grass seeds neither attract these complex-carbohydrate foods in their natural state are a torture some affair. To fully digest starchy foods – grains, roots and tubers, and legumes – an animal must produce large quantities of starch-digesting enzymes (amylases).
The human body produces salivary amylase (also called ptyalin) of extremely limited strength and in relatively low amounts, sufficient only to break down small amounts of starch, such as would be found in fruit that is not fully ripened. The body also produces small quantities of pancreatic amylase for somewhat limited starch digestion in the intestines.
After Harvesting
Grains lose nutritive value once harvested, and they lose even more when milled to flour. In storage, grains are subject to infestations of insects, rodents, and molds. To prevent these problems and provide us with grains year around, farmers and food processors resort to the use of an array of toxic chemicals and preservatives.
Toxic Chemicals in the Grains
Modern grain farming has resulted in the loss of almost all of our topsoil. What was six to sixteen feet of topsoil a century ago, it has been reduced to six inches or less on most of our farms. In a world where potable water has become a commodity, over half of the total water used in the United States goes to watering livestock or feed for livestock.
The following is a partial list of toxic chemicals used in the processing of grain. How much residue from these chemicals remains in the grain itself, versus how much is simply dumped in concentrated form onto our soil is of little consequence.
Mercury
Cyanide
Ammonium salts
Chlorine
(Each of the above, in high enough doses, can cause insanity or even death.)
Fluorine - Mineral oil - Aluminium
(These are high-potency toxins)
The toxins of war – including chemical weapons such as chlorine, mustard, and the organophosphates, explosives such as nitrates, and radioactive waste – have all been incorporated into the human diet.
Listing of Grains
Barley
Oats
Tritical (a hybrid of wheat and rye)
Rye
Wheat
Wheat has several names and varieties. Bulgur, semolina, spelt, frumento, durum (also spelled duram), kamut, einkorn, farina, couscous, seitan, matzoh, matzah and matzo.
Alternative grains: These are the grains (they’re not really all grains, but people call them that).
Amaranth – Buckwheat – Mesquite – Millet – Montina
Quinoa – Sorghum – Teff – Rice – Wild Rice
“The Staff of Life”
We have learned since childhood that grains are the “staff of life.” What, really, is a “staff”? It is a stick, pole, or rod traditionally used as a support or crutch. Grains, like any crutch, become detrimental to us when we rely on them constantly, three meals per day. Instead of thriving, we are weakened by their continual usage. Is it possible that our beloved grains are actually crippling us?
Does Grain Eating Come Naturally?
People are experiencing severe cravings for refined grain products. When starches are consumed, people wake up the next day and go through unpleasant periods of feeling foggy, hung over, or sedated. Should they stop consuming grains, symptoms of detoxification and withdrawal emerge. It is best to avoid substances that result in such powerful dependencies, whether we choose to call them drugs or food.
The consumption of grains, and any other foods that do not suit our design, is a serious step down nutritionally. Coupled with the habit of cooking, a food adulteration not practiced by any other species, the outcome is nutritionally bankruptcy.
Jared Diamond notes what wheat, rice, and corn alone provide most of the calories consumed by humans today, and that each of these is lacking in certain vital nutrients we need to exist.
“The Staff of Death”
Cereals, breads, pastries, pastas, pretzels, pizza crust, and other grain-based foods lose much of their original food value during refinement and other processing to make the grains edible.
Even cooking a food counts as a refining process, as not only are the nutrients compromised, but antinutrients are created and water is driven off. No cooked food is a whole food. Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and phytonutrients are damaged, deranged, or destroyed by the heat of cooking.
What does remain after cooking are the calories. Therefore, when we eat starches, we consume the maximum number of calories with the minimum amount of nutrients. Dr. Emmet Densmore, author of How Nature Cures, one of the first to speak out against grains, pointed out that humans are frutarian and declared bread to be “the staff of death.”
A substance known as phytic acid, found in raw cereal grains, is well known for its tendency to bind with calcium and interfere with its absorption. Grains also contain substantial quantities of acid-forming minerals, such as phosphorus.
During the process of digestion, the body must yield up calcium from the bones, a powerful alkaline mineral, in order to neutralize the acidity of grains. Eventually, people on a high-grain diet run predictably low on calcium, often resulting in a common bone-thinning condition known as osteoporosis.
Grains contain very little calcium, and they are also low in sodium, choline, iodine, sulfur, and other alkaline minerals. On the other hand, fruits and vegetables contain from ten to one hundred times as much calcium and other alkaline minerals as do grains, when measured in terms of calories.
Does it ever seem peculiar to you that dog and cat food commercials stress the fact that optimum nutrition gives your pet the best chance of growing well and living healthfully?
Why, do you ask, are children’s foods marketed instead of their colors, shapes, and exciting flavors, but rarely for their nutrient quality? Why are adult foods promoted for their convenience, but seldom for their health - building qualities? Why are these food commercials invariably followed by commercials for anti-acids? Do you ever wonder?
Fiber
The fiber in grains must be considered a health destroyer. Humans have delicate digestive systems. Just look at the number of people with digestive problems: nine out of ten in the United States. Our digestive systems require the soft, soluble fiber found in fruits and tender vegetables. Grain’s fiber, however, is coarse and sharp like finely ground glass.
Nutritionists refer to it as insoluble fiber. It acts as an irritant in our system. Irritation of the mucosa of the intestine is considered a risk factor in many different diseases, including ulcers, diverticulosis, spastic colon, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and colon cancer.
The presence of insoluble fiber in the intestines causes food to move through the bowels more rapidly than normal, reducing nutrient absorption. Coupled with the irritating quality of insoluble fiber, this rapid movement of foods leads to malabsorption syndromes, nutritional deficiencies, and overall loss of health. In the production of refined flour, bran is left over. This flavorless and bowel-irritating waste product is then sold, at an inflated price, as if it were a health food.
Digestion
The human digestive system is complex, sophisticated, and highly sensitive. Food must be broken down into simpler molecules to be absorbed; this is digestion.
Chemical digestion, directed by the brain, happens in three major areas; the mouth, the stomach, and the small intestine. This digestive action is dependent upon receptors that send messages to the brain, telling it which type of food is being worked upon.
The brain then responds accordingly, sequentially utilizing a barrage of water, digestive enzymes, enzyme precursors, coenzymes, electrolytes, acids, bases, buffer salts, hormones, extrinsic (vitamin B12) and intrinsic (mucoprotein) factors, and other secretions far beyond the capabilities of our greatest chemists to understand.
Chemical digestion begins in the mouth with the secretion of amylase, a starch-splitting enzyme. Stomach acid neutralizes the amylase and effectively stops starch digestion. It resumes in the small intestine. Protein digestion is purely mechanical in the mouth and nonexistent in the intestines. Proteins are broken down from long to short chains in the stomach, in the presence of hydrochloric acid.
When starches are consumed without proteins, the acidity of the stomach approaches neutral, allowing starch digestion to continue. When proteins are consumed with starches, the acidity of the stomach becomes as strong as is humanly possible, thus fostering proteolysis. The pH of the mouth and intestines are also capable of varying from mildly alkaline to mildly acidic, though predominantly alkaline, at about 7.4, is considered healthiest.
Herein lays the problem: when proteins and starches are consumed at one meal, the body is asked to provide two opposing chemistries in the same place at the same time. This cannot work, because they effectively cancel each other out. The result is impaired or partial starch digestion and impaired or partial protein digestion. The digestion process takes longer than it would to digest either substance on its own, and it requires considerably more energy to do so.
Since animal protein contains no fiber, they pass through the digestive system more slowly than other foods. At one hundred degrees, in a dark, wet environment, undigested meat will go bad (rot) rather rapidly. The partial digestion of meat that occurs when it is eaten with grains very often accounts for the putrefaction so obvious when feces are expelled. Grains do not tend to putrefy. They do, however, ferment. Fermentation results from the mixture of sugar and starch, for example, in a raisin bagel, fruit pie, or dessert after a starchy meal.
Two products result from the fermentation of grain: alcohol and gas. Alcohol quickly penetrates the gut lining and becomes blood alcohol, giving rise to the phrase “food drunk”. Drivers have actually failed Breathalyzer tests for blood alcohol simply from the alcohol produced in their digestive tracts!
Alcohol is a protoplasmic poison, meaning that it destroys every cell with which it comes into contact (the lining of the mouth and digestive tract are spared this fate, because they are coated by a protective mucosal layer). The production of alcohol within the gut is never a good thing, as it is absorbed into the bloodstream where is does its usual damage.
Energy
Upon consuming your starch meal, your body must perform many complex processes to utilize what is left after cooking, which is, primarily, only the calories. Before cooking, we refer to these calories as complex carbohydrates, an indigestible form of sugar made palatable through the application of heat.
During cooking, chemically referred to as caramelization, some starches are broken down into simpler sugars. The digestion of starch, however, is energy intensive and make take anywhere from thirty-six to seventy-two hours.
This immediate, high energy demand, coupled with delayed energy return, explains why so many people feel lethargic after a starch meal. All available energy is being used for digestion.
Starches are touted as low-calorie foods. If we subtract the calories requires during the processes of digestion, the net energy gain is low. It is the fat we put on our starches that provide the really big calories, exactly the opposite of what more people desire.
The digestion of fruit is a relatively simple process. What we refer to as “ripening” is actually the fruit converting starchy, complex carbohydrates into sweet-tasting, simple carbohydrates.
In effect, the fruit is digesting itself for us. The digestion of fruit demands considerably less energy than the digestion of starches, freeing energy for other processes such as organ and muscle functioning.
Fruit, which must be worked upon for minutes in your stomach and eighteen hours in you intestines, yields more energy per calorie consumed than starches, which can require as many as twelve hours in you stomach and three days in your system.
Health Problems
The list of health problems associated with eating grains is long. Asthma, allergies, celiac disease gluten intolerance, digestive disturbances, mucous and congestive conditions, yeast infections, several types of arthritis, several types of autoimmune disease, and even chronic overeating are all linked to the consumption of grains.
Congestion, asthma, and allergies are of special concern to us. They hinder breathing, alter the clarity and tone of the voice, cause us to quickly become tired, and interfere with social interactions. Many sufferers of nasal congestion, asthma, and allergies are pleased to discover that their symptoms are relived once they embark upon a starch-free diet.
Cooked grains have little flavor on their own. Commonly, we add flavoring agents such as salt, heated fats or oils, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners like aspartame (a known neurotoxin that causes cancer, brain damage, neurodegenerative diseases, and birth defects) or powerful spices to make grains more palatable. These condiments are health destroyers and bring with them to the table an array of health problems.
Gluten Sensitivity
Many research studies link diets high in complex carbohydrates to negative health conditions.
The gluten-containing grains primarily wheat,
but also rye, barley, and oats, contain at least fifteen opioid sequences, which are strongly addictive, morphine-like substances that have potent psychoactive properties and produce serious neurological disorders, nausea, constipation, urinary retention, vomiting, cough suppression, and other symptoms.
Gluten intolerance (celiac disease) contributes to or causes a wide range of other diseases, including asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue, Crohn’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, depression, eczema, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, lymphoma, and gastrointestinal cancer.
Gluten intolerance may also be linked to autism, schizophrenia, and several autoimmune disorders.
https://www.enterolab.com/default.aspx /
Enterolab writes:
“Gluten, a protein found in many grain products, has been named as a causative factor in psychoses and neurological disorders. It has been proven to chemically contain fifteen different opioid sequences, or morphine-like molecules. Opioids that come from outside the body are called “exorphins.” It is called by scientists addictive and neurotoxic.
Since the mid-1960s, scientists have repeatedly linked gluten consumption to learning disorders and schizophrenia. More info. www. drritamarie. com
Physical effects of opioid consumption include nausea, sedation, truncal rigidity, euphoria, dysphoria, and miosis (papillary contraction).
Opioids are known to interfere with our neurotransmitter chemistry, cause various types of epilepsy, and result in digestive disturbances such as constipation, urinary retention, biliary spasm, reduced production of ADH (an antidiuretic hormone that results in reduced urine production), slowed gastric emptying, and slowed digestion.”
Are Grains Addictive?
Some addictions are easier to spot than others. People with eating disorders say they experience problems with starches, and especially the starches we call sweets or pastries.
Could most of us be “starchaholics”? With a belly full of starch, most people are capable of no more than lying down and falling asleep in front of the television. It is common for people to become torpid after a holiday meal, sometimes falling into a stupor, full of breads, stuffing, potatoes, and a pastry or two. These reactions to a heavy starch meal are the typical reactions experienced by “users” to narcotics.
Most Americans eat starch a minimum of three times daily at meals, and another two or three or more times as snacks. We were trained to eat starch as infants, since before we developed the enzymes to digest it.
Athletic Performance
A major issue of concern for athletes is acid/alkaline balance. In health, our bloodstream always remains alkaline, maintained at approximately 7.4. If the pH of the blood changes even two-tenths of a point, you will likely die. The minerals in starchy foods, however, are acidic: chlorine, sulfur, and phosphorus. Consumption of starches drains our alkaline reserves, resulting in lowered performance possibilities.
One starchy food leaves the digestive system and enters your bloodstream, acids enter the blood. Fortunately, your body maintains a reserve of calcium, its most alkaline mineral, plus several buffer systems to neutralize the acids in the event that the lungs, liver, and kidneys fail to keep pace with your acid creation and/or intake.
The phenomenon of bicarbonate flowing into your bloodstream to neutralize acidity after meals is referred to as the “alkaline tide.”
Most doctors consider the alkaline tide to be normal to our physiology, the flip side of the intense acid production needed from our stomach in a vain effort to digest animal protein.
Since animal proteins are also dense with acid minerals, normal metabolism must be delayed while the emergency threat to the blood pH is addressed. This delay results in a reduction of performance potential with each occurrence.
A Weighty Issue
Your blood sugar rises, gently and almost instantaneously, upon eating fruit, supplying your every cell with its only source of fuel: simple sugar.
The brain monitors blood sugar, and when blood sugar rises, appetite drops. It is almost impossible to overeat on fruit.
Many people comment that they feel satisfied and full, often for the first time in years, after eating a relatively small quantity of fruit.
Our bodies convert any extra complex carbohydrate calories to fat. Starch consumption, however, does not result in loss of appetite. On the contrary, it is easy to over eat them. We over eat pizza or pasta every time.
Since blood sugar does not rise, the only way one feels satiated is to eat until stuffed. It is likely there would be no obesity problems if the people of the world ate fruit instead of grains.
Sprouted Grains
What about sprouted grains? They are raw, so do they still count as grains?” Yes, sprouted grains still count as grains.
They lack of vitamin C complex, a predominance of acid minerals, extremely low levels of the soluble fiber we need, a high concentration of complex carbohydrates, and so forth.
Sprouted grains are exceptionally quick to grow mold. The only thing that sprouted grains have going for them is that they are not cooked.
Increasing the percentage of whole, fresh, ripe, raw, organic foods in your diet will yield you huge health and performance benefits.
And as an added bonus, you will find yourself less dependent on grains. It is easy to see that the grain-free diet is not radical; It is truly ultraconservative.
Instead of grain try to eat fruit. Be next person to go against the grain and reap the harvest of health.
Grains for the Birds
In brief, the objections to grains and grain products as foods suitable to the human system are
They are deficient in a number of important nutrients.
They contain substances to some degree poisonous to the system.
They must be cooked in order to be digested which process further depletes their value and increases their pathological effect.
They place strain on the digestive system causing hypertrophy of the pancreas and unnecessary depletion of enzyme reserves while at the same time resulting in flatulence.
They are capable of damaging the intestinal villi, causing them to atrophy.
They are acid-forming in the body, often to the extent of causing them to atrophy.
They are capable of causing allergy reactions such as dry skin, subcutaneous cysts, exacerbation of multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
They are antagonistic to the body’s immune system and increase susceptibility to head colds and other infections.
They are the worst causative factor in tooth decay due to their tendency to readily ferment between the teeth, so producing the acid which destroys tooth enamel.
They are totally unsuitable for infants, causing in some cases permanent damage to their digestive organs.
Of all foodstuffs, they contain the highest levels of calcareous salts which gradually accumulate in the tissues and cells, including the arteries, to accelerate the process of aging.
Apart from antagonizing the digestive system and providing inadequate nutrition, they are absolutel tasteless and unappealing to the senses, being rendered edible only by cooking and artificial flavor.