Is Wheat the Root of All Evil?

I am always suspicious when one change or issue solves all other issues. Thus I am suspicious of Dr. Davis who attributes much of our modern dietary issues to wheat. 

However with 30% of the US populace having the genes that may express themselves as wheat allergy, celiac disease, and gluten sensitivity, it seems to me that this doctor's argument needs to be considered. (Celiac is a nasty disease that eats away at your small intestine from wheat allergy.) With 20% of our dietary calories coming from wheat, and with 30% of the US population as potential victims of gluten sensitivity, some caution is needed. 

If you decide to watch this presentation, you may be surprised that within modern memory the wheat genome has been drastically changed to a variety that alters the gliadin in wheat which intertwines with gluten. This may be the reason the celiac disease is on the increase. 

On a personal note my doctor took my blood and did a gluten sensitivity. I am very gluten sensitive. This was somewhat surprising as I had no symptoms that I associated with eating wheat. But then again most people don't. 80% of the populace that has celiac disease does not know it. The fact that allergy issues with wheat are much larger than are perceived by the public is not in dispute. 

I had recently lost about 40 pounds by a combination of limiting carbs to 120 grams and limiting calories, or better said I became aware of my calories. 120 grams is way too high to be considered low carb. But while I had limited my bread intake, I had been eating a cereal based on "healthy" wheat germ and the bread I did use was a high protein bread. Care to guess what the first ingredient of the bread was? Yes, that is right, gluten. Healthy wheat germ is filled with it as well. While I had limited my carbs I had probably quadrupled my gluten. This was a major whoopsie on my part. 

Am I saying you should stop eating wheat immediately? No. But I am saying that it is something to think about. I do feel better now that I am not eating any wheat, but of course this could be a placebo effect. While there are various tests, the incidence of false negatives is very high. The best way is to eliminate wheat from your diet for a time and see how it effects you. You must be very strict or you will not know for sure. (BTW this is a lot more involved than not eating bread, wheat is in everything, often unexpectently. Soy sauce is a good example of this.) 

Something to consider, if this doctor is even partially right. 

The Bitter Truth About Sugar

The video I am posting here, Dr. Lustig’s video lecture The Bitter Truth About Sugar, has some major flaws. He is spot on with the dangers of replacing a part of one's normal diet with high fructose corn syrup. It is metabolized quite differently than other carbohydrates. In fact it is digested in a similar way to alcohol. Eating such an unnatural product in the quantities many in the US consume cannot be good.

I think he is greatly oversimplifying. Looking at other interviews he has done, he said that carbohydrate and fat cannot exist in the same food. This is really strange, because they do. To make the details of what he is proposing even more confusing, he said that fruits are all right because they have fiber. Well, that depends on the fruit. Bananas have little fiber.

Even vegetarians like Dr. McDougal recognize that fruits can play a negative role in the formation of triglycerides, which are associated with heart disease. More discussion of this would have strengthened Lustig’s case.

He also said in the video that early humans ate 100 to 300 grams of fiber a day. That is rather high. Most estimates I have read place it at 100 grams. The only way they got this much was that ancient foods had not been artificially selected to make them sweeter and have more carbohydrates.

The recommendation is that humans should consume 25 grams. The average in America today is 12. Obviously there is room for improvement. Today I ate 55 grams of fiber, 15 of it artificial from a protein bar. How did I get the other 40 grams naturally? I ate a grapefruit, a banana, an apple, and one cup of strawberries. I also ate 3 cups of Brussels sprouts and three cups of various types of lettuce. I also got fiber from nuts. I had some spinach and beans with my fish. With this huge fiber feast, I still only got 40 grams of fiber. To approach what our ancestors ate may not be practical. (For those curious I am trying various dietary combinations to see how I feel.)

So while I have some reservations about Dr. Lustig's presentation due to oversimplification of complex issues, the reminder of the dangers of fructose is something that needs consideration. I doubt I will eat as much fruit as I did today on a regular basis. That seems like too much fructose. Lustig's explanation of fructose metabolism makes that clear to me.

Here is how Gary Taubes, no friend to sugar, describes the talk in the NY Times:

It doesn’t hurt Lustig’s cause that he is a compelling public speaker. His critics argue that what makes him compelling is his practice of taking suggestive evidence and insisting that it’s incontrovertible. Lustig certainly doesn’t dabble in shades of gray. Sugar is not just an empty calorie, he says; its effect on us is much more insidious. “It’s not about the calories,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the calories. It’s a poison by itself.”

Taubes presents a much more balanced approach, I recomend the whole article he wrote as a supplement, or substitution, to this viral video.

Shaving Cream

This may be the most important thing I have ever posted for men ...

Or, Maybe not 

Diet Fad Debunkers

Just because it is on Youtube does not mean it is any good. Here is a good example of really bad information, packaged in the guise of common sense. 

I see two possibilities. Either the doctor here has not actually read anything about gluten and the Paleo Diet, or he is lying. There really is no other option. (I suppose he could have misspoken.) Most people who are gluten sensitive or allergic do not quit eating bread. Instead they eat gluten free products like rice bread. The doctor does not seem to be concerned about gluten at all. He knows that only 1% of the population is allergic to gluten so why worry? However 80% of the people who have gluten allergy, or to use the more precise term, celiac disease, are not diagnosed. This is an issue for concern, it is a life threatening illness. 

No one knows the precise numbers, but it is estimated that 1% of the population is allergic to wheat, barley, and rye. A recent middle schooler’s science fair project showed a 4% rate among children. Since the symptoms of celiac disease can be described as ADHD, you think that this would be of interest. I guess not? 

In addition some people are sensitive to gluten. Once again no one knows the number, but the rate is much higher. About 30% of the US population has the gene for gluten sensitivity, so the number could be quite high. I have seen estimates from 3 to 10 percent of the populace. Most have no symptoms. 

I had none. Yes, I was diagnosed with Gluten Sensitivity with a recent blood test. I am not sure exactly what I will do, but I will certainly eliminate my wheat consumption. I had rice bread this morning—not my favorite. Since I am sensitive—not allergic or have celiac disease, I may not be too concerned with the fact gluten is in a huge number of traditional food products as an additive. 

This leads to the Paleo Diet. The basic premise of this is that one should eat what our pre-agricultural ancestors ate. Since grains were not a significant part of that diet, most Paleo eaters do not eat them. They correctly point out that gluten issues are horribly under-diagnosed. They also point out that 3/4 of the world's population do not handle milk well. So that is "forbidden" too. 

No, the doctor is wrong, meat can be cooked by Paleo eaters. While raw meat Paleo people must exist as the world is wide, I have never read or seen a presentation by one. The Paleo emphasis is on cooked grass fed meat as our modern food system, meat especially, is not conducive to health. 

But there are a number of issues with a Paleo Diet. The most important one is that it is impossible to eat a diet like our hunter-gatherer ancestors without becoming a hunter-gatherer. Vegetables, for example, are very, very different. What Paleo believers try to do is mimic the diet as much as they can. 

So today I will offer a final video that critiques the Paleo diet. This presentation is well done and points out some of the assumptions of the Paleo Diet that may not be true. This video was pointed put to me by a Paleo eater, so it shows the rather large variation among those that practice this type of eating. 

My own personal philosophy about anything like this is to look at the whole situation, and then do the best you can. 

Vitamin D Deficiency?

If you live above the line, you probably need a supplement. I may be wrong, but if I had to pick one reason why I got cancer it would be Vitamin D deficiency. Right now, even with a very aggressive supplementation program, I am still deficient. At the start of the supplementation I was low enough that I almost certainly had undiagnosed bone problems. It does not matter how much calcium is in your diet, if you do not have enough Vitamin D, the calcium is not properly utilized. 

The video I am recommending today talks about this issue. One figure in the video I found shocking. 85% of patients admitted to a Boston Hospital for any reason were deficient in Vitamin D. 

Unless you live an active outdoor life in an area without winter, you need to consider supplementation. The Vitamin D test should be a part of any physical you take.