Grains and Inflammation

You may have heard of Paleo or me harping on about a natural diet as nature intended – which is really what paleo is all about. Do you know why those practicing paleo avoid grains? Well, they’re pretty harmful, or at least can be. Firstly they are high glycemic which triggers an insulin spike and over time, this can lead to insulin tolerance and even Type 2 Diabetes and obesity, and of course plummeting testosterone levels. Secondly, grains contain anti-nutrients – and we don’t like those as they cause inflammation – the underlying cause of most chronic illnesses. In fact, insulin resistance also leads to inflammation so that’s a double whammy of inflammation. Here’s an excerpt from paleoleap.com that I thought you’d find really interesting:

Gluten

Gluten is, arguably, the worst offender. You can find gluten in wheat, rye and barley. Don’t forget that wheat is absolutely everywhere today. You probably already know that those who have Celiac disease can’t have even a tiny bit of it or else they’re in for big trouble.

What you might not know though is that 30% of the population has noticeable amounts of anti-gliadin in their stools. Anti-gliadin are antibodies secreted when the body sees gliadin, one of gluten’s constituent, as an intruder. Having the antibody in your stools means that your body is actively fighting an intruder and that you already have a low level of chronic inflammation, the source of all modern diseases.

Gluten also has this weird ability to mimic certain proteins and to make its way into your cells, wreaking havoc and making you develop autoimmune diseases where the body attacks itself (Crohn’s disease is an example).

Lectins

Lectins are other toxins present in all grains that cause their load of problems. First, they damage the gut lining and a damaged gut lining is an inflamed gut lining that will have difficulty absorbing nutrients. This also leads the way to colon cancer. Lectins also causes leptin resistance, which means that your hunger signal is suppressed and that you’ll be hungry even when your body has had more than enough calories.

Phytates

This other set of toxins, also found in lesser quantities in nuts and seeds, bind to nutrients and robs them from your body. You can then think twice when you think that eating grains will feed you loads of nutrients. Phytates do a good job of making them less bio-available. The list of nutrients on a bag of sliced bread is only a small portion of what your body will really be able to get.

Do you think that grains can beat any vegetable or fruit nutrition wise or that you’ll find some nutrients only in them? The answer is NO!

Read full article on PaleoLeap.com