Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health
Eating grain products – breads, cakes, cereals – have long been consider a healthy choice. If you look at the RDA recommendations, grains, at the bottom of the pyramid, are what you should be eating the most of to maintain a healthy body.
In medical and alternative medicine circles, celiac disease is well known for being the cause of numerous detrimental body conditions. In its basic form, celiac disease is the damage of the intestinal lining by gluten proteins, which come from grains – the bottom of the pyramid. Let’s get technical for a moment and say that the specific proteins in gluten that damage the intestine are called "gliadin."
What you need to know about gliadin is that when you eat it, it acts like an invading substance, which activates your body’s immune system to destroy and eliminate the invader – your favorite food bread and cereals. Eating an excess of gluten causes celiac disease. Where is gluten found? It is found in products made from wheat, rye, barley, kamut, triticale, oats, and spelt.
It is now well established in medicine that 1 in approximately 100 have celiac disease. Many have the disease without having any symptoms. The continual use of and eating of detrimental grains will eventually bring on symptoms. People with celiac disease can expect to have illnesses associated or connected with:
* cancer
* schizophrenia
* epilepsy
* attention deficit disorders
* auto immune diseases
* osteoporosis
* brain disorders
* neurological diseases
* premature death
* premature births
* chronic liver diseases
* gastrointestinal problems
* food allergies
* chronic fatigue
* malnutrition
* and the list goes on and on
When the intestinal lining is damage by gluten, your overall health is damaged. Your immune system is activated to prevent further intestinal damage causing your overall response to other body crisis to diminish. Your ability to fight off other diseases is diminished. Your ability to absorb nutrients from your food is reduced leading to nutritional deficiencies.
How does gluten create so many problems in the body? As gluten moves into the intestine, it is digested and broken down into small protein molecules – peptides (which consist of 2-3 amino acids bound together) and free amino acids. Amino acids are the basic building blocks the make up protein. Once digestion is complete, peptides and free amino acids easily move into the intestinal wall cell structure and then into your blood stream. This is what happens in a healthy person.
Over many years of eating gluten, the intestinal cell structure deteriorates. Digested protein no longer passes through the cells walls but passes between cells and into the blood. These holes in the intestinal walls is what is know as "leaky gut syndrome"
Because of the existence of these tiny holes in the intestinal wall, harmful substances can pass into the blood and settle into your organs and cells causing irritations and damage. Your intestinal wall is no longer a barrier keeping out unwanted substances from your blood and body.
Undigested foods can now enter your body creating food allergies. Toxins from various foods – dyes, preservatives, food additives, artificial flavors – can now enter you blood stream. Pathogens such as bacteria, worms, fungus and viruses can also enter your body and invade your organs. When this happens, you will slowly come down with a variety of symptoms and illnesses that you cannot attribute to anything specific. Absorption of undigested proteins is a major threat to the health of your organs and to your immune system.
It is estimated that up to 40% of all people have some intestinal damage from eating gluten and are passing undigested proteins into their blood stream.
There are some of you that do not have the enzymes to digest gluten. Those of you have what is called "gluten sensitivity." Those of you that have the enzymes to digest gluten are not as prone to celiac disease and have less damage to your intestinal wall.
So what are the foods that you should be eliminating from your eating habits?
* wheat starch, wheat grass, wheat germ oil, wheat triticum
* bread flour, brewer’s yeast, bran, brown flour
* oats, oat straw,
* baking powder, edible starch, germ, gum base, dextrin
* malt, rice malt,
* rye, spelt, kamut, wheat, bleached flour, couscous, pearl barley, bulgar
*soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, shoyu, miso
* durum wheat, semolina
* blue cheese (all cheese, actually, cow’s milk is NOT good for humans!)
Not all is known about the effects of gluten on your body and how it creates illness. What is known is that gluten is responsible for celiac disease and many other diseases that result from having celiac. Don’t always believe what the government says about food. Their interest is in economics and not in your health.
A Quick Review of the Fats That Make Up Your Body
All food fats are a blend of the different types, saturated and unsaturated. Unsaturated fats include poly- and monounsaturated fats. omega-3s and 6s are types of polyunsaturated fats, called essential because we have to get them from food, our bodies can’t manufacture them from other fats.
The Story on the the Good Fats and Bad Fats
Whereas cellular proteins are genetically determined, the polyunsaturated fatty acids composition of all cell membranes is to a great extent dependent on the dietary intake.
There are many kinds of fats in the body. Some of the most crucial fats are in the list of compounds that make up the cell walls for all of the body’s cells.
After isolating these fats scientific experiments determined that if the ratio of omega 6 fats to omega 3 fats exceeds 4:1, people have more health problems. This is especially meaningful since grain-fed beef can have ratios that exceed 20:1 whereby grass-fed beef is down around 3:1.
Similar ratios are also found in all grain-fed versus grass-fed livestock products.
Grass-fed products are rich in all the fats now proven to be health-enhancing, but low in the fats that have been linked with disease.
Why are Omega 3 Fatty Acids Important For Your Health?
Omega 3 fatty acids are essential for normal growth and may play an important role in the prevention and treatment of:
- coronary artery disease
- hypertension
- arthritis
- cancer
- other inflammatory and autoimmune disorders
Your Body Can’t Make These Fats So You Have to Get Them From Your Diet
Omega 3 and omega 6 fats are not interconvertible in your body and are important components of practically all cell membranes.
Whereas the proteins in your cell are genetically determined, the unsaturated fats of all your cell membranes is to a great extent determined on what you eat.
Therefore you need sufficient amounts of dietary omega 6 and omega 3 fats and they need to be balanced for normal development.
Your Diet Has Evolved From Your Ancient Ancestors
On the basis of estimates from studies in Paleolithic nutrition and modern-day hunter-gatherer populations, humans evolved on a diet that was much lower in saturated fatty acids than is today’s diet. Furthermore, the diet contained small but roughly equal amounts of omega 6 and omega 3 fats.
Plant Fat Ratios
In the past 100 years there has been a rapid and unprecedented change in our diet. The modern vegetable oil industry was developed, and it is based on oil from seeds rich in omega 6 fats. Modern agriculture increased production by emphasizing grain feeds for domestic livestock, and grains are rich in omega 6 fats. Therefore, aggressive, industrialized agricultural management techniques have decreased the omega 3 fat content in many foods: green leafy vegetables, animal meats, eggs, and even fish.
This imbalance where omega 6 fats levels exceed omega 3 levels can be seen by comparing wild edible plants and wild animals and birds with products of modern agriculture. Products of modern agriculture frequently have drastically lower omega 3 levels. It is estimated that man evolved with a omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of one to one from both meat and vegetable sources.
Today the vegetable sources have an estimated omega 6:3 ratio of 10 to one. The modern diet of meat, fish, chicken, and vegetable oils has a ratio estimated to be 20 or 25 to one.
Eggs and Beef Fat Ratios
Chickens that eat vegetables high in omega 3 fats, along with insects and lots of fresh green grass, supplemented with fresh and dried fruit, and small amounts of corn
Range fed eggs have an omega 6:3 ratio of 1.5 to one whereas the "supermarket egg"has a ratio of 20 to one.
Modern agriculture’s emphasis on increased production has led to the development of chicken feed that is being reflected in the out-of-balance ratio of fatty acids in the "supermarket egg."
North Dakota State University conducted a study on the nutritional differences between grass-fed and grain-fed bison. The results of that study closely followed that of the egg studies. The grass-fed bison had omega 6 to omega 3 ratios of 4.0 to one, and the grain-fed bison had ratios of 21 to one.
Additional studies by others clearly show that the longer cattle are fed grain, the greater the fatty acid imbalance. For instance, after 200 days in the feedlot grain-fed cattle have omega 6 to omega 3 ratios that exceed 20 to one. Many cattle are fed 200 days or more in the United States.
With the scientific data that has been published concerning omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids, we must assume grass-fed beef is far better for human nutrition than grain-fed beef. If so, then having access to grass-fed beef can be very beneficial for one’s health.
And since REAL Beef has been raised naturally, without hormones, and without having been fed antibiotics during the final phase of their lives, they have added benefits.
Why Not Get Your Omega 3 Fats From Fish?
Fish, while generally a leaner food choice than beef, is heavily promoted as a good source of the omega-3 fats.
The problem with fish is that over half of the US burns coal to generate electricity and 80,000 pounds of mercury is dumped into the oceans every year as a result.
Nearly all fish are contaminated with mercury. It has gotten so bad that even the conservative US government warns pregnant women to avoid eating fish. Additionally, it is my recommendation to eat cold water fish only once a week, unless you are absolutely certain that it has been tested in a laboratory and shown not to contain detectable levels of mercury and other toxins.
REAL Beef is Grass Fed Beef and a Major Source of Omega 3 fats
When we switch from grainfed to grassfed meat, then, we are simply returning to the diet of our long-ago ancestors, the diet that is most in harmony with our physiology. Every cell and every system of our bodies will function better when we eat products from animals raised on grass.
Grass-fed beef is naturally leaner than grain-fed beef.
Omega 3s in beef that feed on grass is 7% of the total fat content, compared to 1% in grain-only fed beef.
Grass-fed beef has the recommended ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats (3:1.)
Grass-fed beef is loaded with other natural minerals and vitamins, plus it’s a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders.
Beef, in its natural grass-fed state, is a health food of the highest order.
Here’s one of my favorite ways to serve it. Remember that when eating grass fed meat, you need to eat the pan dripping, and learn the art of making meat stocks, which is the best source of calcium there is!
Pan Seared Steak with Cognac and Mustard Pan Sauce
serves 2
2 T. minced shallots
1/2 t. organic sugar
2 T. cognac
1/3 cup chicken stock (I roast a chicken once a week, use bones to make stock)
1/2 lemon
1 1/2 t. Dijon mustard
1/2 t.Dijon mustard
1 t. tarragon (1/2 t. dried)
kosher salt and pepper to taste
Pan-Sear Steaks to desired temp (I like 140). To same skillet used to cook steaks (do not clean skillet or discard accumulated fat), add shallots and sugar off heat; using pan’s residual heat, cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are slightly softened and browned and sugar is melted, about 45 seconds. Return skillet to high heat, add cognac and broth; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits on pan bottom with wooden spoon.
Boil until liquid is reduced to 1/3 cup, about 4 minutes. Add lemon juice and mustard; cook to blend flavors, about 1 minute longer. Off heat, whisk in butter until melted and sauce is thickened and glossy. Add tarragon and season to taste with salt and pepper; spoon over steaks and serve immediately.
BOTH! If you can get it, if not choose grass fed; here’s why?
Article from Eat Wild;
By Jo Robinson
Organic meat, poultry, and dairy products are now available at your supermarket, which is a change for the better. When you see the organic label, you know the food is going to be free of pesticide residues, synthetic hormones, genetically modified organisms, and a long list of questionable additives. You also have the satisfaction of knowing that raising animals organically causes less harm to the environment. But when it comes to animal production, organic is not enough. We need to be raising animals on their species-appropriate diets.
Few consumers realize that many producers of "organic" or "naturally raised" animal products, raise their animals in confinement and feed them grain—just like the operators of conventional feedlots. Feeding large amounts of grain to a grazing animal decreases the nutritional value of its products whether the grain is organic or conventionally raised. The reason is simple. Compared with grass, grain has far fewer omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E. Therefore, grainfed animals have fewer of these important nutrients in their meat and dairy products. Grainfeeding also interferes with the creation of a cancer-fighting fight called conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. I A test by an independent lab determined that milk from one of the largest organic grain-fed dairies had no more omega-3 fatty acids or CLA than milk from ordinary dairies. Similarly, meat from organic grain-fed beef has the same nutritional profile as meat from the largest Kansas feedlot.
The same story holds true for organic but confinement-raised poultry. Their meat and eggs have no more omega-3s or vitamin E than the products you find in the supermarket. (Unless the birds are given special supplements along with the grain.)
For many consumers, food safety is an even bigger concern than nutrition. Once again, grass feeding offers an important advantage. It has been known for decades that grain feeding makes a cow’s digestive tract more acid. Now we know that this acidic environment speeds the growth of potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria and, even worse, makes the bugs more acid-resistant. Alarmingly, these acid-resistant bacteria are much more likely to survive the cleansing acidity of our own digestive juices and make us ill.
Depriving our livestock of fresh greens and vastly increasing their consumption of grain has jeopardized our health in ways people never imagined. Although feeding organically raised grain reduces our reliance on pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, it does not provide the food that nature intended us to eat.
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