There is so much information out there now about what is and isn't good for you. So it's no wonder why so many people that are trying to regain health and lose the kilos end up giving in and getting over whelmed. I mean, on a day to day basis, the amount of information we are bombarded with is absolutely astounding. On top of this, majority of it is conflicting... It has caused a lot of people to take charge of their health and search for their own answers, but it means a lot of people have been left sitting and wondering what on earth to do when it comes to their health. As individuals we will all browse hundreds of articles scouring for the information we seek, but at the end of the day, we take away from what we read - what we WANT to take away from it. In fact, we can believe in things that have no science behind the reasons WHY we believe in it, and yet, if we see something that goes against that belief, even if it is founded and backed by solid science, we disregard it as incorrect. This is because we don't WANT to take any information from it because it differs from what we already think we know. This is why I am going to try and give you the most unbiased information relative to Gluten and it's effects on our bodies and in what forms it should be avoided, so you can weigh up the information provided and make a decision that is right for you.
Now most people will cite their information when writing an article like this. However, I have been studying for nearing four long years now, and to cite all the information that I know, will take me a lifetime. And quite frankly, most of you won't read it anyway. So I'm not going to do that and waste my time. What I am going to do though is tell you in advance that you can find this information through Kathy Ashton (amongst other sources if you get your investigative hats on) who is a medicinal nutritionist (as I am not yet qualified). While I knew the way gluten somewhat reacted in the body in regards to Thyroid Disease, I was not 100% on all the specifics of it until I met Kathy at the last Mind Body Spirit festival in Melbourne. I sat in on one of her seminars that she gave, and the explanations were understandable, in depth and really explanatory as to why it effects us the way it does. To make things even better, this information was then confirmed by my lecturers at Uni and it just so happens that I jumped the gun as we will be studying the process more in depth at a later date.
So what I am trying to do here for you all, is to write an unbiased article on Gluten, what is it, the way it reacts in the body and most importantly WHY it has become a bigger issue now that it has ever been. I hope to shed some light on the question "Why is intolerance and Celiac disease on the rise?" which is a question I get asked SO much these days and hopefully put your mind at ease when it comes to the food related information we now see on the news. I'm not going to say my real thoughts on the information that is provided to the public by the Dieticians Association of Australia (DAA) because I was always taught if you have nothing nice to say then don't say it at all.... The information they provide is usually the information we often see on the news with the headline "Going Gluten Free could be bad for your health!" and then this causes mass debate amongst the people that choose to believe any information they are fed, and then those like my self that study and research the metabolic effects of certain things. So without going into huge detail and attempting to change your mind (when most likely you already have your mind made up about the DAA) I will just say I am 100% skeptical of an organisation that is funded by the very companies that are contributing to making us all sick... *cough cough Amatil cough cough*. If you want to look into the DAA further and actually see the types of companies that fund their research, you can click HERE where you will see that its comprised of companies like Nestle and Campbells. So if you're not yet a skeptic of the information they provide, ask yourself this: Would Nestle, fund a company to advise AGAINST consuming products of Nestle? In Short, No.
So anyhow... moving onto what we are here to talk about and what you are interested to learn about - The truth of the matter is, Gluten is bad for you. However Wheat, is not necessarily bad for you.
Now stay with me because I know you are reading that and thinking "Well that doesn't even make sense you crazy beast!" - so stick with me through the next few paragraphs and let me show you the difference between those two statements.
First, we need to differentiate between the two. Wheat is a grain, and in its whole form is comprised of a Kernel, Bran, Germ and Endosperm. Gluten, is a small part of wheat, found in the endosperm which is the inner part of the grain. Wheat is a whole product comprised of an inner endosperm (where the gluten proteins are), Germ (Where the nutrients are), Bran (Where the fibre is) and the Kernel (The case of it all, which also contains fibre). Here is a basic picture of a grain of wheat to help you understand where everything sits and how the grain is constructed. *Picture Courtesy of Singaporecoeliacs.com*
As you can see, one grain of wheat is made from Several parts and the truth is the Bran and Kernel are filled to the brim with Fibre, and while the Germ also contains fibre, the germ is where the nutrients of wheat are found. This leaves the endosperm in the centre, comprised of Gluten. This is what we don't want. So I feel like some of your brains are going "How can half of a single grain of wheat be good and the other half be bad?" and the short answer to that is : Fibre. Plain and Simple. Fibre.
Fibre is the helpful friend we all rely on to pull indigestible matter and excess food through our bowel and out the colon. Fibre is our friend and without Fibre, well... no toilets would be being bashed. As my dad used to say " If you don't eat, you don't shit and if you don't shit, you'll die".... as charming as that is, it's true... when it comes to fibre.
Gluten (as you can possibly tell by it's name) is a very sticky substance. It is made up of Glutenin and Gliadin. These are the two proteins that make up Gluten as a whole and they hold onto each other. When we knead dough... it is these proteins that stretch to make dough elastic-like, and it is these proteins that are what is wreaking havoc when it comes to our health. Like the name suggests, these proteins resemble glue, and they're sticky.
Now that we have explored Wheat as a whole and you now know what gluten is and what it is made of, we can start to put the bigger picture into play.
Providing we have adequate fibre in our diets, almost anything can pass through our digestion. However, through evolution and the years of manufacturing and processing of foods, we have begun to make 'things' 'Edilble' that aren't necessarily food. The reason why I call what humans have manufactured and processed 'Things' is because the definition of Food is: "Any Nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth". Therefore, a lot of the things we now see lining our super market shelves can't even be classified as 'Food' because they don't hold nutritious value to sustain life.... that's why we are all getting Overfed and Undernourished. And breads, Pastas and Cookies are ALL on this list.
Before mass production took over, and your great Nonna's Mum was baking bread in her kitchen, the only thing she had to use was Wheat. Wheat as a whole. Wheat that contained in itself enough fibre to carry the gluten like substance through the bowel and out the colon causing no issues. The evolution of bread stems from here. Bread was dense. Dry. And tough to eat. So mankind thought - "lets make a change to wheat to make it softer and more pleasurable to eat" and he took the wheat and the germ from the endosperm and kept them separate. Now we have two products, Endosperm (White Flour) (Gluten) and Wheat Bran & Germ and we started to manufacture white bread that was soooooo soft and fluffy and was a complete pleasure to eat! For some, this was great. But like with all things, humans get bored and we want and demand more variety! So we thought - "We will add back some of the Bran to make 'Wholemeal Bread'. HEALTH AFICIONADOS OF THE WORLD REJOICE! A HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE TO BREAD! ...... sad to say.... nope. And this is the way bread processing has stayed.
Now bakers buy White Flour, and Wheat Bran SEPARATELY, and dependent on the type of bread thats being made will depend on the amount of bran that is added back into the milled white flour. Seems harmless right? Wrong! A big fat WRONG! God, or Mother Nature (whom ever you believe in) made things on this earth perfect... they way they were intended. This means that Mother Nature provided an adequate amount of bran and fibre per grain of wheat to be able to efficiently and safely carry the endosperm and it's gluten through the bowel and out the colon. Now when we manufacture bread, we put only a % of the fibre back to the white flour which still doesn't ensure adequate fibre to aid in the digestion of the gluten proteins.
This isn't just bread. This is the same now with Pasta, Cookies, Pastries, Rolls - you name it. It all starts from White flour now, and even when you buy Wholemeal Flour to make 'wholemeal cookies' you are getting majority white flour with a percentage of bran added back to classify it as wholewheat... however it couldn't be further from being 'whole'.
So the next time someone says to you "Well back in my day we never had these issues with Gluten and Bread and it didn't affect people like it does today" - here is your answer. As man kind progresses, so do our manufacturing processes and our human desire for more variety means we keep messing with the structures of Wholefood's. This is why Gluten sensitivity is on the rise and why Coeliacs are becoming more and more common. Without Adequate fibre to carry the glutenous bi product of wheat through our system, it is left in our small intestine to rot.
Completely aside from the rise in gluten intolerance and celiac disease, we also note the rise in inflammatory diseases, cancers, skin conditions, breathing and respiratory conditions and disease and a range of syndromes. We have processed a near perfect product to the point where it IS hurting our health, and the company that is supposed to be advising us what to eat and how much, is funded by the very companies that make these products in the first place. It is no wonder we are so mislead when it comes to our health.
We now know the reason why gluten never used to be an issue and why it is more common now, but lets look at what actually happens when we eat gluten, in the form it is so readily available today.
As mentioned above, Gluten is Sticky like Glue, and without adequate fibre to carry the sticky proteins through the bowel it sits in the small intestine. Once consumed and indigested, it sits in the intestine awaiting a way to be expelled from the body. However because the bowel can't move the proteins along without fibre, it's stuck. The Digestion can't do anything. But the body is smart. Too smart! Or is it?
When the body can't move something through the bowel, it releases a hormone called Zonulin. The lining of some of our major organs like our lungs, skin, bowel etc are comprised of cells called Enterocells. Enterocells hold onto each other with little fingers. To get a good idea of what im taking about, place your hands in front of you with both your palms facing you. Move your hands horizontal so your fingers are pointing to each other, and then entwine your fingers together with your palms still facing you. This is a good example of Enterocells. Imagine your palms are the cells, and your fingers are the little fingers that each cell holds onto the next with. The hormone Zonulin causes the fingers holding each cell together to become loose. To envision this, place your hands back where they were with your fingers entwined. Now loosen your fingers, without completely letting go, so you can see little gaps between where your fingers are connected. This is what Zonulin does and this is called 'Permeable Intestine' or the more commonly known, 'Leaky Gut'.
When normal foods are being digested, enzymes in the small intestine break down the food particles into their nutrients which are then absorbed through the Full EnteroCell (not the gaps) and are packaged up and sent around the body via the blood. There is not one human on this earth that has an enzyme to break down gluten protein. Not one. No where. Not anyone. So while other foods can be broken down small enough into things like Amino Acids etc, gluten remains in its larger form that can't be broken down which is why it needs to escape through the gaps in the intestine, instead of being absorbed into the cells.
So for us not good, but for your digestion this is awesome, because there is now a place for the gluten to go! So thanks to the hormone Zonulin, our small intestine now has minuscule gaps in it that the gluten can pass through, into the blood stream. It now hitches a ride on all of your blood cells and sticks to them, and then that blood runs through your organs and the gluten sticks to your organs until eventually enough time has passed that the blood goes through the liver and kidneys and then the gluten gets excreted as waste.
BUT WAIT, THERES MORE!
That was breakfast.. it's now lunch time and you have more bread, so this process happens all over again!
This is a prime example of how these proteins build up in the body and cause issues. Sticking to our cells, our blood, our organs, waiting to be processed and be excreted as waste and THIS is why it causes issues. You see, once gluten is in the blood stream, the Immune system goes "WOAHHHH got some foreign matter here dudes" and it sends out its Army to attack the foreign proteins that are hitching a ride on our cells without paying cab fair. The immune system therefore has to attack organs as well to rid the proteins from them. This is where disease, conditions and syndromes start and all get their name dependent on the part of the body being attacked by your own immune system because it has foreign particles stuck to it. The continuous build up of these proteins is why it can take up to six months for your body to rid itself of all gluten once embarking on a gluten free diet, and why you need to stick to being Gluten Free for at least 3 months before deciding if it has made a difference to how you feel, or any symptoms you may have.
Sadly, this isn't just limited to Gluten. We now live in extremely toxic environments, which get into our blood streams and does the same thing... waiting to be excreted through the kidneys and liver.
The types of conditions we know that can be attributed to gluten consumption are : IBS, Eczema, Athsma, Hay-fever, Psoriasis, Auto Immune Disease and Some Cancers, all the way down to mental health concerns like Depression and Anxiety.
So Now What?
If you are going to eat it, find a PROPER Baker (generally German bakeries have full wheat bread... I've not found it anywhere else) or don't eat it at all. At the end of the day, it's your choice, but just remember, what you put in your mouth will either fight disease or feed it.
