Some Have Gluten And Some Don’t
Here’s what you need to know about flours and gluten. Some have it, and some don’t.
The wheats have it for sure, so do barley and rye. Kamut, Spelt and Einkorn, are also in the wheat category, they are ancient wheat species.
WHEAT, BARLEY, RYE & SOME OATS
Some oat plants and flours have been cross-contaminated with other glutenous producing plants, during processing and some oat species contain peptides that cause a problem for celiacs.
Be aware of this detail as you educate yourself on gluten. Here’a great resource for Celiac Disease knowledge … http://www.celiac.com/articles/22470/1/Should-Celiacs-Eat-Oats-Depends-on-the-Oat/Page1.html.
What’s All The Fuss About Gluten
While we are on this topic, if you don’t already know, you must be asking, “What is all the yak about gluten, anyway?” … “What’s the deal with wheat? … well, it has to do with gluten sensitivity, aka wheat sensitivity, Celiac Disease, and Autism.
Dr. Sandro of Four Rivers Naturopathic Clinic in Auburn, CA, states that “Symptoms and health conditions that we have seen improve or resolve in our clinic with the elimination of wheat include:
- Fatigue
- Chronic nasal congestion
- Asthma
- Eczema and other skin rashes
- Migraine headaches
- Gallbladder attacks
- Foggy thinking
- Joint pain
- Excessive weight
- Celiac disease, abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome.”
Source: http://www.fourriversclinic.com/2013/01/whats-the-deal-with-wheat/
The current thinking is that 1 in 200 Americans are sensitive to gluten. There are persons who experience severe reactions to gluten, as they have a pronounced sensitivity to gluten, such as those with Celiac Disease, and children and adults with Autism who also report having food sensitivity reactions to gluten.
These are severe food sensitivities, as opposed to food allergies. Food sensitivities generally do not produce anaphalaxis.
ANAPHALAXIS. Definition. Anaphylaxis is a rapidly progressing, life-threatening allergic reaction. Description. Anaphylaxis is a type of allergic reaction, in which the immune system responds to otherwise harmless substances from the environment. Unlike other allergic reactions, however, anaphylaxis can kill. Reaction may begin within minutes or even seconds of exposure, and rapidly progress to cause airway constriction, skin and intestinal irritation, and altered heart rhythms. In severe cases, it can result in complete airway obstruction, shock, and death. Source: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Anaphalactic+shock
Food allergies can and do produce anaphalactic shock, but the resulting effects of food sensitivities are no less than catastrophic for the people who endure the symptoms caused by the consumption of gluten, whether they knowingly consume gluten or not.
Symptom-wise, food sensitivity and food allergy are kith and kin. The result is extreme distress for the body, in both cases, as the body cannot digest, break-down via enzymatic action, the irritating food item. The food trigger, whatever it is for each individual, must be avoided.
The symptoms of food sensitivity are constant, they progress slowly, they can be painful, low energy and chronic fatigue can produce malaise, anxiety and depression, the symptoms can be a torment for sufferers, reducing quality of life dramatically, and while they may not be instantaneously deadly, who is to say they are not a death sentence over time? Ask someone with constant, chronic IBS or a parent with an autistic child, how drastically these symptoms affect their lives.
The truth is we don’t know exactly when food sensitivity becomes food allergy, which can be instantaneously deadly.
We do know for celiacs … public enemy number one is gluten, and for the rest of us, gluten may not be such a good thing. Read Dr. Sandro’s complete article for some commentary on the book, Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, M.D.
Food sensitivity and food allergy are one of the reasons why food labelling is of paramount importance to the person seeking to avoid, at all costs, gluten. Now you know why gluten is a big deal to this particular group of people, and we are only just beginning to peel the onion on this whole gluten debate.
Are You Gluten Sensitive?
The next question is, “Are you sensitive to the gluten in wheat, barley and rye?” Hmm, you may well be, and for that perspective, I encourage you to explore Dr. D’Adamo’s book, Eat Right For Your Blood Type. What blood type are you … O, A, B, or AB?
The premise of D’Adamo’s book is very factually, and scientifically-based, as in the blood can be seen under a microscope reacting to glutens, aka proteins, aka lectins, present in a given foodstuff.
You cannot argue with the fact that the blood is reacting with the lectins. You can argue about how we interpret what this reaction in the blood means for our digestion and overall health.
Erring on the side of caution, if your blood type reacts to a certain lectin, then the simple answer is … avoid it. You can find out what you should and should not eat, based on your blood type in the D’Adamo’s book.
In the interest of connecting the dots, now that you’ve got D’Adamo’s concepts in mind, combine that knowledge with Dr. Davis’ material in Wheat Belly, and now you are really starting to see the big wheat picture.
If wheat-based gluten-rich bread is a problem, then eat brown rice bread, or any other gluten-free bread. Done, problem solved. Right?
Not Just Any Flour
Ah, hold it right there, not just any brown rice flour … not just any gluten-free grain flour … you want sprouted grain flours and or sprouted legume flours.
Source: http://www.organicsproutedflour.net/
Behold the advent of sprouted grain flours. The rest of the modern world is now catching up to the wisdom of the Essenes who ate sprouted grain bread.
You will recall hearing about Essene bread and Ezekial Bread … Essene bread being a type of bread, and Ezekial Bread being a brand name of Essene-type bread, also known as sprouted grain bread, made by the Food For Life Baking Company. It’s rather pricey at $20 bucks a loaf.
Ezekial Bread derives its meaning and name right from the good book, the Bible, via Ezekial 4:9, New International Version (NIV), verse 9, “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.
Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel+4:9-17
What’s The Deal With Wheat?
Wait a minute, as a civilized, agrarian-based society, we have been eating wheat products for centuries, what gives? Again the question, “What’s the deal with wheat?” and “Why are things different now?”
Well, this goes right back to what we learned from Dr. Sandro’s article covering Dr. Davis’ book, Wheat Belly … the wheat of today is not the wheat of yesterday.
In a word, it’s hybridized wheat. And as the Rodale article noted below, points out, it’s technically not GMO wheat, it’s hybridized wheat, the point is that neither are natural to the human body.
Einkorn wheat, an ancient wheat species, has 14 chromosomes, while the wheat commercially produced today “has 42 chromosomes, and is, therefore, much more genetically and chemically complex” Dr. Sandro comments.
It’s bastardized, manipulated, un-natural monster-wheat and our bodies are starting to react to it, and not in a good way. Because it’s frankenfood.
Dr. Davis is quite succinct when he says, “It is not my contention that it is in everyone’s best interest to cut back on wheat; it is my belief that complete elimination is in everyone’s best health interests,” says Dr. Davis, “In my view, that’s how bad this thing called ‘wheat’ has become.”
Let’s clarify this point, he, Dr. Davis is pointing the finger at hybridized commercial wheat, not necessarily ancient wheat species. And with that said, caution is still the order of the day, when consuming wheat products and or gluten.
From Rodale News, The Dark Side of “Healthy” Wheat … “Rye, barley, and oats share some of the same properties of wheat because they all contain gluten-like proteins. Dr. Davis urges his patients to opt for non-wheat grains like quinoa, buckwheat, millet, and wild rice, but in smaller quantities (less than half a cup) to avoid triggering high blood sugar.”
Source: http://www.rodalenews.com/wheat-free-diet?page=0,1
The lesson, the bottom line, the take-away, is this:
- eliminate and avoid modern commercially-grown, hybridized wheat
- avoid glutenous grains, wheat, barley, rye, and be cautious of oats
- choose bread made of sprouted flours
- eat any bread in moderate portions as you are consuming carbohydrates which affect blood sugar levels
- plant-based carbohydrates are the better choice by far
Good advice, especially for standard grain flours. There is more to this story, naturally.
Sprouted Grain Flours
The good news is we now have sources aplenty for sprouted grain flour! Good thing, because sprouted grain flour is a plant-based carbohydrate, and it is more easily digested. Why? Simple! This is mother nature at work. A grain is a seed, a seed becomes a plant when it has sprouted, and or, germinated!
Our bodies readily embrace plants as a food source. Sprouted grain flour digests more like a vegetable than a starch.
The body employs the enzymatic action of salivary alpha-amylase, which is why chewing thoroughly is vitally important, and later on in the process, pancreatic alpha-amylase. If you would but chew properly you would ease the digestive load of the pancreas.
Enzymes come in three categoies, metabolic enzymes, digestive enzymes, and food enzymes. Digestive enzymes and food enzymes can be present in the food we eat, however cooking kills most food enzymes, so once again, chewing, chewing, chewing, very important, and if you are willing to entertain the idea of taking some plant-based enzymes for better digestion, at the same time you eat a meal, good for you, it’s a smart choice, especially when you are not balancing a meal with raw foods that have their enzymes intact.
Sprouts are a highly nutritious vegetable, they are tender, baby vegetables. Vegetables are carbohydrate, they are known as complex carbohydrates, they are the good kind of carbohydrates, because they break down slowly, providing long-term fuel for the body.
Compare this with simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and starch which break down rapidly providing quick, short-term fuel for the body.
The but is … simple carbs, like sugar and starch, spike the blood sugar, and this is where you hear the lingo about low-glycemic index foods and high-glycemic index foods. Sugar and starch spike the blood sugar levels and they are known as high-glycemic index foods.
Sprouted grain flours, plant-based complex carbohydrate flours, provide the basis for making characteristically lower glycemic index foods, such as bread, pasta and crackers, that are normally a very high carbohydrate food, when made with standard grain flours.
These are the very same food items we all know and love, but now they can be made with vegetable-based sprouted grain flours!
Source: http://www.organicsproutedflour.net/sproutedflour.html
Why are sprouted grain flours more easily digested?
Simply put, as the whole grain sprouts, it begins to grow into a plant, and the body recognizes it as a vegetable. Vegetables are the easiest-to-digest foods we can eat.
The caveat here is that while the source of this flour is exceptional, and it is a step in the right direction, if we bake it, we cook it, we essentially denature or kill the enzymes that were present. So, chew well, take digestive plant-based enzymes, and do eat raw and lightly steamed vegetables.
We were meant to eat plants as a wholesome part of our diets, even Blood Type O, the meat-eater on the Paleo Diet, needs to eat his vegetables.
When it comes to your good health, it just makes sense to choose sprouted grain flour breads, cereals, and crackers! It’s as close to natural as you can get without going raw!
IMAGE CREDITS:
1. SPROUTED GRAIN FLOURS TABLE ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ http://happybunnyfoods.com/flour-to-gluten-or-not-to-gluten/ ~ CC BY-SA 3.0
2. CAPTURE – FOUR RIVERS NATUROPATHIC CLINIC ~ By Dr. Sandro ~ http://www.fourriversclinic.com/2013/01/whats-the-deal-with-wheat/ ~ Fair Use
3. WHEAT BELLY ~ By Dr. William Davis, M.D. ~ Fair Use
4. DR. D”ADAMO BOOKS ~ By Dr. D’Adamo ~ Fair Use
5. DR. DAVIS BOOKS ~ By Dr. Davis ~ Fair Use
6. CAPTURE – TO YOUR HEALTH SPROUTED FLOUR COMPANY ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ http://www.organicsproutedflour.net/ ~ Fair Use
7. EZEKIEL BREAD ~ By Food For Life Baking Company ~ Fair Use
8. CAPTURE – BIBLE GATEWAY ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel+4:9-17 ~ Fair Use
9. JUST SAY NO TO FRANKENFOOD ~ By Mikeymed/Clker.com ~ http://www.clker.com/clipart-140135.html ~ CC0 1.0
10. CAPTURE – RODALE NEWS ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ http://www.rodalenews.com/wheat-free-diet?page=0,1 ~ Fair Use
10. COMPOSITE – SEEDS-SPROUTS-FLOUR-BREAD ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ Attribution Required / No Derivative Work
a. WHEAT SEEDS (SEEDS-SPROUTS-FLOUR-BREAD) ~ By DesignByNur ~ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheat_seeds.jpg ~ CC BY-SA 3.0
b. SPROUTS (SEEDS-SPROUTS-FLOUR-BREAD) ~ By T. Maari ~ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sprouts_of_Green_Gram.jpg ~ CC BY-SA 3.0
c. SPROUTED BROWN RICE FLOUR (SEEDS-SPROUTS-FLOUR-BREAD) ~ To Your Health Flour Co. ~ href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GP34PS/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004GP34PS&linkCode=as2&tag=hapbunfoo-20″ target=”_blank”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GP34PS/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004GP34PS&linkCode=as2&tag=hapbunfoo-20 ~ CC0 1.0
d. BREAD (SEEDS-SPROUTS-FLOUR-BREAD) ~ By Sandstein ~ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mixed_bread_loaves.jpg ~ CC BY-SA 3.0
11. BEAN SPROUT CHARACTER ~ By r8crgrl/Clker.com ~ http://www.clker.com/clipart-bean-sprout-character.html ~ CC0 1.0
12. CAPTURE – TO YOUR HEALTH SPROUTED FLOUR CO. ~ By HappyBunnyFoods.com ~ http://www.organicsproutedflour.net/ ~ CC0 1.0
13. YUMMY ICON SET ~ By Icon Eden ~ http://www.iconeden.com/icon/yummy-free-icons.html ~ Attribution Required
