Why should I consider going gluten free?
From Out of the Box lecture
Modern day wheat in the United States is mostly a monoclonal hybrid that does not have the genetic variety found in European Majestic Wheat. As we eat more and more of this mono-clonus “improved protein content” wheat, other gluten grains and MSG, the effects on the human body are accumulating and we are consequently becoming more and more sensitive and intolerant to gluten.
Grain-fed cows don’t just produce inferior gluten fed meat. They’re also pumped full of hormones and then antibiotics to counter the inflammatory grain diet they are on.
- Gluten based MSG is hydrolyzed (boiled in HCL) to make a glutamate isolate. The HCL is then neutralized with sodium making MSG.
Wheat, and some other grains like barley and rye contain a protein called gluten, which makes them rich in glutamine and proline. Proteins in these grains and their related peptides can physically damage the intestines–as in the case of Celiac disease–by stimulating transglutaminase enzymes. These gluten proteins and consequent enzyme peptides cut and damage the sensitive villi in the intestines. When the villi are damaged or destroyed, this allows unprepared foods and metabolites to move directly into the bloodstream, causing both immune system and increased insulin responses, allergies and sensitivities.
Aretaeus of Cappadocia, living in about A.D 250, described a disease he labeled “koiliakos” or “suffering in the bowels”. Aretaeus cured it with rice diet.
- Dutch pediatrician named Willem Karel Dicke documented a significant drop in child mortality that coincided with a bread and wheat shortage during WW II. Child mortality rates dropped from above 35% to nearly 0 only to return to the previous figures when bread and wheat again became available.
Diseases and problems caused by gluten:
A review in the New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten! Many of the diseases are neurological and psychiatric. Among them are depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, migraines, neuropathy, anxiety, dementia, ADHD and autism.
Here are three ways gluten can harm the brain:
1) Through inflammation: Gluten can inflame the brain and other body tissues by causing an autoimmune response. Inflammation generates C-reactive proteins which rise in response to inflammation. HDL levels go up. Statin drugs are pushed.
2) As an excitotoxin (agitates and kills neurons): Gluten and glutamate (think MSG), accelerates, activates, irritates and damages brain cells via a special “docking station” called the NMDA receptor. Also, N Methyl D Aspartate receptors cause spinal cord neurons to become hyper to touch–think fibromyalgia.
3) As morphinic or psychedelic proteins: Gluten can be broken down into strange proteins that are a lot like psychedelic drugs. These are opium-like proteins called gluteomorophins.
The cancer – gluten connection
Sugar cannot fuel cancer cells by itself. Gluten and the amino acid glutamine have been studied and found to play a critical role in causing the cancer process.
Obesity: Gluten interferes with healthy fat cells which are little metabolic factories. When things are running smoothly, your fat cells produce leptin. As a messenger hormone, leptin sends out 2 signals: One, it tells your brain you’re full–that shuts down your hunger. Two, it tells the fat inside your cells to breakdown into a kind of fat that can be burned as energy. Gluten interferes with leptin.
The University of California put people on a “Paleolithic diet” and their high blood pressure numbers dropped like a stone. So did high blood insulin levels. Their HDL (good) cholesterol went up. And they also experienced “large significant reductions” in LDL (bad) cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglycerides. And this all happened in just 10 days on the Paleo diet!
A 2006 study mentioned in the Journal of Attention Disorders took a total of 131 children with ADHD and removed gluten from their diets and all 131 children were reported to have significant improvements!
Allergy vs sensitivity
Authored by Cancer Nutritionist Craig Stellpflug NDC, CNC
Dayspring Cancer Clinic Scottsdale, AZ
Copyright 2010 Craig Stellpflug© Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute this article but only in its entirety