|
The Trouble with Gluten Aside from celiac disease, there is a spectrum of adverse reactions to gluten grains. The consequences in sensitive individuals include such far-flung complaints as: * fatigue
* depression
* digestive pain
* allergies
* inflammatory conditions, like arthritis
* food cravings
An estimated 30% of people of European ancestry carry the gene for celiac disease, which increases the likelihood that they will have health problems related to gluten, if not full blown celiac disease. Oddly, considering how prevalent wheat problems are, we do not readily test for wheat sensitivity. It is also highly controversial and scientists are not in agreement about what's going on. This is probably in large part because it's a relatively recent problem.
Is it an allergy? a sensitivity? an intolerance? an addiction? and which other grains, besides wheat, have to be avoided?
Let's look first at gluten itself. Gluten refers to a family of proteins found primarily in wheat, rye, barley and, to a lesser extent, in oats. (Oats have no Gliadin, the "worst" protein.) As its name suggests, gluten is glue-like, a thick protein that is prized for the texture it gives bread and pastry. The trouble comes when people lack the ability to break these proteins down into amino acids so they can be digested. If the proteins don't get broken down fully by digestive juices, the immune system identifies them as foreign matter, launching an immune response. One result is a formation of peptides that have a structure similar to heroin; hence the comforting effect of baked goods, particularly in combination with dairy, which also produces opiate-like peptides. If the lining of the gut has been compromised, the peptides are absorbed into the blood stream resulting in an interference with brain function and also immune function.
The ultimate outcome in the gut is the abrasive degrading of the gut lining, setting a person up for digestive pain, allergies, and the myriad health problems related to poor absorption of nutrients.
There are two general places to investigate how we got into this mess. One is changes in the grain itself, the other is changes in the people who eat the grain.
Wheat in America is said by some to be particularly problematic because we have engineered it to contain ever-higher amounts of gluten. It's great for the food manufacturers and consumers who like Wonder bread and fluffy biscuits, but it's causing havoc on the national gut.
As for the changes in the people who eat it, there is strong evidence to suggest that human digestive capacity has been seriously compromised in the Western world. Foods, beverages, antibiotics, sugar, lack of breast-feeding and other influences have unfavorably changed the balance of the microorganisms that inhabit our guts.
This is a relatively new problem, and most reactions to gluten go unidentified as being related to gluten because we know them by a host of other names (depression, allergies, et cetera). But the problems all start in the gut. There is a somewhat predictable progression of problems that unfold as gluten erodes the wall of the intestine and brings about immune reactions.
These include: 1. Development of other food intolerances. Dairy in particular becomes a problem as the enzymes that digest lactose in milk are the first to be compromised. A stuffy nose after eating dairy foods is sometimes a sign that the villi (tiny, finger-like projections) lining the intestine have eroded. Villi produce enzymes, and enzymes are like catalysts - they make things like digestion happen.
2. Low blood sugar or glucose intolerance may develop as the gut loses the ability to produce enzymes that digest sugar.
3. Skin problems like psoriasis can crop up as the eroded gut allows large proteins to escape or leak from the gut.
4. A drug-like relationship with gluten foods like bread, pasta and cookies may develop as undigested proteins that mimic morphine escape the gut.
5. Fatigue and even exhaustion set in as adrenal glands wear out from the constant need to manage inflammation. When adrenal glands are exhausted, what follows may include more allergies, weight gain and unremitting fatigue.
Addictive Quality
Gluten has drug like effects on some people for a number of reasons. The most compelling may be that - when incompletely broken down - the partially broken down proteins occupy the same receptor sites in our brains as heroin or morphine. These are called "gluteomorphines". If your body can't fully digest it, you're likely to get a high or a comfort response after eating it, followed by a crash and a new wave of craving. When you self-medicate for cravings or fatigue, the cycle begins again: you eat the cookies or pizza, experience temporary relief, then withdrawal or discomfort, then eat for comfort again....
Flour products also have drug-like effects because of their ability to rapidly raise blood sugar. In some people, flour products have an effect as dramatic as sweets, generating a rapid rise in blood sugar followed, of course, by a crash when insulin production overcompensates and lowers blood sugar too much.
If you are one of the individuals who experiences an allergic reaction, you may be doubly affected by the drug-like effect of endorphin activity to comfort you while experiencing allergic irritation. Endorphins are chemicals produced in your brain that are like opiates; they raise your pain threshold as part of a stress response, including an allergic response.
Julia Ross and blood type researcher Peter D'Adamo find the effects particularly strong in people with blood type O. That's our experience at the Suppers programs, too. Blood type O people with depression and food cravings have dramatic improvement once they go gluten free.
None of these problems is always caused by gluten intolerance, but all of them are sometimes caused by gluten intolerance. At Suppers, we've seen examples of all of these problems being resolved in individuals once they removed the gluten and other confounding foods from their diets.
more info: This document was prepared by Dorothy Mullen, Founder, The Suppers Programs, Dor@TheSuppersPrograms.org. or www.thesuppersprogram.org
|