This content is part of an article series.
Imagine a world where:
- diabetes, heart diseases, autoimmunity and other modern diseases are rare or don’t exist at all
- we are naturally lean and fit
- we are fertile throughout our childbearing years
- we sleep peacefully and deeply
- we age gracefully without degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis
While this might sound like pure fantasy today, anthropological evidence suggests that this is exactly how human beings lived for the vast majority of our evolutionary history.
Today, most people accept diseases like obesity, diabetes, infertility and Alzheimer’s as “normal”. But while these diseases may now be common, they’re anything but normal. Humans evolved roughly 2.5 million years ago, and for roughly 84,000 generations we were naturally free of the modern diseases which kill millions of people each year and make countless others miserable. In fact, the world I asked you to imagine above – which may seem preposterous and unattainable today – was the natural human state for our entire history on this planet up until a couple hundred years ago.
What was responsible for the change? What transformed us from naturally healthy and vital people free of degenerative disease into a world of sick, fat, infertile and unhappy people?
In a word? The modern lifestyle. And though there are several aspects of our current lifestyle that contribute to disease, the widespread consumption of food toxins is by far the greatest offender. Specifically, the following four dietary toxins are to blame:
- Cereal grains (especially refined flour)
- Omega-6 industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, etc.)
- Sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup)
- Processed soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, etc.)
What is a toxin?
When most people hear the word “toxin”, they think of chemicals like pesticides, heavy metals or other industrial pollutants. But even beneficial nutrients like water, which are necessary to sustain life, are toxic at high doses.
In their book The Perfect Health Diet, Paul & Shou-Ching Jaminet apply the economic principle of declining marginal benefits to toxins:
It implies that the first bit eaten of any toxin has low toxicity. Each additional bit is slightly more toxic than the bit before. At higher doses, the toxicity of each bit continues to increase, so that the toxin is increasingly poisonous.
This is important to understand as we discuss the role of dietary toxins in contributing to modern disease. Most of us won’t get sick from eating a small amount of sugar, cereal grain, soy and industrial seed oil. But if we eat those nutrients (or rather anti-nutrients) in excessive quantities, our risk of developing modern diseases rises significantly.
That’s exactly what’s happening today. These four food toxins – refined cereal grains, industrial seed oils, sugar and processed soy – comprise the bulk of the modern diet. Bread, pastries, muffins, crackers, cookies, soda, fruit juice, fast food and other convenience foods are all loaded with these toxins. And when the majority of what most people eat on a daily basis is toxic, it’s not hard to understand why our health is failing.
Let’s look at each of these food toxins in more detail.
Cereal grains: the unhealthiest “health food” on the planet?
The major cereal grains – wheat, corn, rice, barley, sorghum, oats, rye and millet – have become the staple crops of the modern human diet. They’ve also become the “poster children” of the low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet promoted by organizations like the American Heart Association (AHA) and American Diabetes Association (ADA). If you say the phrase “whole grains” to most people, the first word that probably comes to their mind is “healthy”.
But the fact is that most animals, including our closest relative (the chimpanzee) aren’t adapted to eating cereal grains and don’t eat them in large quantities. And humans have only been eating them for the past 10,000 years (a tiny blip of time on the scale of evolution). Why?
Because plants like cereal grains are always competing against predators (like us) for survival. Unlike animals, plants can’t run away from us when we decide to eat them. They had to evolve other mechanisms for protecting themselves. These include:
- producing toxins that damage the lining of the gut;
- producing toxins that bind essential minerals, making them unavailable to the body; and,
- producing toxins that inhibit digestion and absorption of other essential nutrients, including protein.
One of these toxic compounds is the protein gluten, which is present in wheat and many of the other most commonly eaten cereal grains.
Celiac disease (CD) – a condition of severe gluten intolerance – has been well known for decades. Celiacs have a dramatic and, in some cases, potentially fatal immune response to even the smallest amounts of gluten.
But celiac disease is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to intolerance to wheat and other gluten containing grains. Celiac disease is characterized by antibodies to two components of the gluten compound: alpha-gliadin, and transglutaminase. But we now know that people can and do react to several other components of wheat and gluten. The diagram below shows how wheat and gluten are broken down in the body:
Current laboratory testing for gluten intolerance only tests for alpha-gliadin and transglutaminase, the two components of gluten implicated in celiac disease (highlighted in red in the diagram). But as you can see, wheat contains several other components including lectins like wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), other epitopes of the gliadin protein like beta-gliadin, gamma-gliadin and omega-gliadin, another protein called glutenin, an opioid peptide called gluteomorphin, and a compound called deamidated gliadin produced by the industrial processing or digestion of gluten.
So here’s the thing. Studies now clearly show that people can react negatively to all of these components of wheat – not just the alpha-gliadin and transglutaminase that celiacs react to. And the worst part of this is that up until about 2 weeks ago, no commercial labs were testing for sensitivity to these other subfractions of wheat.
This means, of course, that it’s extremely likely that far more people are intolerant to wheat and gluten than conventional wisdom would tell us. In fact, that’s exactly what the latest research shows.
This is nothing short of a public health catastrophe in a nation where the #1 source of calories is refined flour. But while most are at least aware of the dangers of sugar, trans-fat and other unhealthy foods, fewer than 1 in 8 people with celiac disease are aware of their condition. A 1999 paper in the British Medical Journal illustrated this well:
Patients with clinically obvious celiac disease (observable inflammation and destruction of the gut tissue) comprise only 12.5% of the total population of people with CD. 87.5% of those with celiac have no obvious gut symptoms. For every symptomatic patient with CD, there are 8 patients with CD and no gastrointestinal symptoms.
But does that mean patients with CD without gut symptoms are healthy? Not at all. It was long believed that the pathological manifestations of CD were limited to the gastrointestinal tract. But research over the past few decades has revealed that gluten intolerance can affect almost every other tissue and system in the body, including:
- brain;
- endocrine system;
- stomach and liver;
- nucleus of cells;
- blood vessels; and,
- smooth muscle,
just to name a few!
This explains why CD and gluten intolerance are associated with several different diseases, including type 1 diabetes, thyroid disorders, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia, psychiatric illness, ADHD, rheumatoid arthritis, migraine, obesity and more. The table below from the same 1999 BMJ paper depicts the increased incidence of other diseases in patients with CD:
As you can see, up to 17% of people with CD have an “undefined neurological disorder”. But even that alarmingly high statistic only accounts for people with diagnosed CD. We know that only 1 in 8 people with CD are diagnosed. We also know that those with CD represent only a small fraction of the population of people with gluten intolerance. With this in mind, it’s not hard to imagine that the number of people with gluten intolerance that have “undefined neurological disorders” (and other associated conditions on the list above) could be significantly higher than current research suggests.
Finally, we also now know that when you are gluten intolerant – which 33% (if not more) of you are – you will also “cross-react” with other foods that have a similar “molecular signature” to gluten and its components. Unfortunately, the list of these foods (shown below) contains all grains, which is why some medical practitioners (myself included) recommend not just a gluten-free diet, but an entirely grain-free diet. As you can see, it also contains other foods like dairy (alpha & beta casein, casomorphin, milk butyrophilin) and coffee (which is a very common cross-reactant).
- alpha-caesin
- beta-caesin
- casomorphin
- milk butyrophilin
- cow’s milk
- american cheese
- chocolate
- coffee
- all cereal grains
- quinoa
- amaranth
- buckwheat
- tapioca
- rice
- potato
- corn
- sesame
Industrial seed oils: unnatural and unfit for human consumption
The graph below shows how dramatically seed oil consumption has risen over the past several decades:
Throughout 4-5 million years of hominid evolution, diets were abundant in seafood and other sources of omega-3 long chain fatty acids (EPA & DHA), but relatively low in omega-6 seed oils.
Anthropological research suggests that our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed omega-6 and omega-3 fats in a ratio of roughly 1:1. It also indicates that both ancient and modern hunter-gatherers were free of the modern inflammatory diseases, like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, that are the primary causes of death and morbidity today.
At the onset of the industrial revolution (about 140 years ago), there was a marked shift in the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids in the diet. Consumption of n-6 fats increased at the expense of n-3 fats. This change was due to both the advent of the modern vegetable oil industry and the increased use of cereal grains as feed for domestic livestock (which in turn altered the fatty acid profile of meat that humans consumed).
The following chart lists the omega-6 and omega-3 content of various vegetable oils and foods:
Vegetable oil consumption rose dramatically between the beginning and end of the 20th century, and this had an entirely predictable effect on the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats in the American diet. Between 1935 and 1939, the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids was reported to be 8.4:1. From 1935 to 1985, this ratio increased to 10.3:1 (a 23% increase). Other calculations put the ratio as high as 12.4:1 in 1985. Today, estimates of the ratio range from an average of 10:1 to 20:1, with a ratio as high as 25:1 in some individuals.
In fact, Americans now get almost 20% of their calories from a single food source – soybean oil – with almost 9% of all calories from the omega-6 fat linoleic acid (LA) alone! (PDF)
This reveals that our average intake of n-6 fatty acids is between 10 and 25 times higher than evolutionary norms. The consequences of this dramatic shift cannot be underestimated.
So what are the consequences to human health of an n-6:n-3 ratio that is up to 25 times higher than it should be?
The short answer is that elevated n-6 intakes are associated with an increase in all inflammatory diseases – which is to say virtually all diseases. The list includes (but isn’t limited to):
- cardiovascular disease
- type 2 diabetes
- obesity
- metabolic syndrome
- irritable bowel syndrome & inflammatory bowel disease
- macular degeneration
- rheumatoid arthritis
- asthma
- cancer
- psychiatric disorders
- autoimmune diseases
The relationship between intake n-6 fats and cardiovascular mortality is particularly striking. The following chart, from an article entitled Eicosanoids and Ischemic Heart Disease by Stephan Guyenet, clearly illustrates the correlation between a rising intake of n-6 and increased mortality from heart disease:
As you can see, the USA is right up there at the top with the highest intake of n-6 fat and the greatest risk of death from heart disease.
On the other hand, several clinical studies have shown that decreasing the n-6:n-3 ratio protects against chronic, degenerative diseases. One study showed that replacing corn oil with olive oil and canola oil to reach an n-6:n-3 ratio of 4:1 led to a 70% decrease in total mortality. That is no small difference.
Joseph Hibbeln, a researcher at the National Institute of Health (NIH) who has published several papers on n-3 and n-6 intakes, didn’t mince words when he commented on the rising intake of n-6 in a recent paper:
The increases in world LA consumption over the past century may be considered a very large uncontrolled experiment that may have contributed to increased societal burdens of aggression, depression and cardiovascular mortality.
And those are just the conditions we have the strongest evidence for. It’s likely that the increase in n-6 consumption has played an equally significant role in the rise of nearly every inflammatory disease. Since it is now known that inflammation is involved in nearly all diseases, including obesity and metabolic syndrome, it’s hard to overstate the negative effects of too much omega-6 fat.
Sugar: the sweetest way to wreck your health
About 20 years ago, Nancy Appleton, PhD, began researching all of the ways in which sugar destroys our health. Over the years the list has continuously expanded, and now includes 141 points. Here’s just a small sampling (the entire list can be found on her blog).
- Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gallbladder and stomach.
- Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.
- Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract, including an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
- Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.
- Sugar can cause food allergies.
- Sugar contributes to obesity.
Fructose is found primarily in fruits and vegetables, and sweeteners like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). A recent USDA report found that the average American eats 152 pounds of sugar each year, including almost 64 pounds of HFCS.
Unlike glucose, which is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and taken up by the cells, fructose is shunted directly to the liver where it is converted to fat. Excess fructose consumption causes a condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is directly linked to both diabetes and obesity.
A 2009 study showed that shifting 25% of dietary calories from glucose to fructose caused a 4-fold increase in abdominal fat. Abdominal fat is an independent predictor of insulin sensitivity, impaired glucose tolerance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and several other metabolic diseases.
In a widely popular talk on YouTube, Dr. Robert H. Lustig explains that fructose has all of the qualities of a poison. It causes damage, provides no benefit and is sent directly to the liver to be detoxified so that it doesn’t harm the body.
For more on the toxic effects of fructose, see The Perfect Health Diet and Robert Lustig’s YouTube talk: Sugar, The Bitter Truth.
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Soy: another toxin promoted as a health food
For this reason, most people are unaware of how much soy they consume. You don’t have to be a tofu-loving hippie to eat a lot of soy. In fact, the average American – who is most definitely not a tofu-loving hippie – gets up to 9% of total calories from soybean oil alone.
Whenever I mention the dangers of soy in my public talks, someone always protests that soy can’t be unhealthy because it’s been consumed safely in Asia for thousands of years. There are several reasons why this isn’t a valid argument.
First, the soy products consumed traditionally in Asia were typically fermented and unprocessed – including tempeh, miso, natto and tamari. This is important because the fermentation process partially neutralizes the toxins in soybeans.
Second, Asians consumed soy foods as a condiment, not as a replacement for animal foods. The average consumption of soy foods in China is 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day and is 30 to 60 grams in Japan. These are not large amounts of soy.
Contrast this with the U.S. and other western countries, where almost all of the soy consumed is highly processed and unfermented, and eaten in much larger amounts than in Asia.
How does soy impact our health? The following is just a partial list:
- Soy contains trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function;
- Soy contains phytic acid, which reduces absorption of minerals like calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc;
- Soy increases our requirement for vitamin D, which 50% of American are already deficient in;
- Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
- Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12;
- Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines;
- Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods to mask soy’s unpleasant taste; and,
- Soy can stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors and cause thyroid problems, especially in women.
Perhaps most alarmingly, a study at the Harvard Public School of Health in 2008 found that men who consumed the equivalent of one cup of soy milk per day had a 50% lower sperm count than men who didn’t eat soy.
In 1992, the Swiss Health Service estimated that women consuming the equivalent of two cups of soy milk per day provides the estrogenic equivalent of one birth control pill. That means women eating cereal with soy milk and drinking a soy latte each day are effectively getting the same estrogen effect as if they were taking a birth control pill.
This effect is even more dramatic in infants fed soy formula. Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day.
Click here for a complete list of studies demonstrating the harmful effects of soy products.
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I just found this article and read all the comments, and I have my doubts about some of the things I read.
E.g. You say we’ve been g grains for the last 10000 years, but then you say modern health issues only started a couple hundred years ago?
At first you said rice was also a cereal and thus bad, then later on you it was recommended.
And I really hope you don’t mean that the “goal is to reduce intake of plants since all plants contain toxins” ?!!
I really like a lot of the articles on this website, but like most logs that promote the pales diet, there does seem to be a very strong bias towards it. Our diet should be focused on micronutrients which are only found in plant sources more than animal sources. There is zero evidence that paleolithic man didn’t have a primarily plant based diet, yet every single paleo diet is focused on animal sources.
Hi Chris,
Very interesting article. I have a couple of questions, for the very occasion where I would need a sweetener should I use pure glucose as opposed to sucrose? Could it be a better option to use pure stevia? I’ve never had any problems with insulin, metabolism etc.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Hemming
Clearly, the old ways of raising your own food and hunting were definitely better than today. There’s sugar, aluminum, sodium nitrate, mercury, Omega-6, and soy. Farmers probably use ingredients like steroids, pesticides, plant enhancers, and cheap feeding methods. I’ve watched on TV where these farmers are stretched financially, so–if this is true–it’s not that far-fetched to imagine that this may be going on. Is anything safely edible anymore?
Yeah, I believe what is said here about soy and I didn’t dive right in as many undoubtably have, because I read something long ago about it and cancer plus (if I remember correctly) I read something about soy being derived from cardboard(look it up–I could be wrong on that).
That being said, all of those toxins are unavoidable at moderate levels throughout our lifetimes anyway, as we are too fast-minded and too fast-paced. Those additives listed are in everything that one can imagine. The only things that anyone can personally do–without overly stressing about it–is to pray, avoid these things as much as you can right now(maybe even plan a personal garden), and plan your retirement with getting land, raising your own animals, and hunting in mind. Another option is to petition our gov’t in any way that we can to ban hidden toxins in food/drink, skin/hair care products, and in things that come directly in contact with food/drink.
Meanwhile, one should also benefit by mitigating those damages to the body–as much as one can–by checkups; taking herbs, vitamins, and minerals designed to counteract or lessen problems created by the toxins; and by leading a healthy lifestyle.
Hi,
I’m confused as to what is the best source of Omega oils (in the correct ratio). I take Udo’s Choice http://www.udoschoice.co.uk/ from Udo Erasmus the author of Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill. This oil is kept refrigerated in the shops and at home.
Should I stop using this oil as it’s made from Sunflower Oil (and some other
oils mixed in)? It also has some Soy added to it, which you’ve advised to avoid…
A few years ago I also watched a British documentary that stated, “the human body is inefficient at converting seed oils to DHA and EPA, it is far better at the conversion using fish oils”. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/fish.shtml). The problem with fish oils is all the heavy metal, PCB, and dioxin content…
Thanks in anticipation for any response (if not at least I’ve got this off my chest)
In looking through this site I haven’t found a recommendation to consume bone broth to heal a leaky gut. I had thought that was a necessary part of the healing process. Can anyone clarify this for me?
By the way, we have done some AAT for food sensitivities, but it won’t touch corn. Are you familiar with AAT?
Chris, what do you know out corn allergy? Like so severe that I can’t find meat for my son to eat. Definitely nothing processed by the USDA, and so far I can only find farmers in my area who are willing to process a few chickens for me with only water. Hopefully this will be enough, but the chickens are fed a grain diet with corn. We have our own chickens, but we have yet to find a diet for them that is safe enough for my son to tolerate via their eggs. So no meat, no eggs…he is on an extremely limited diet and still reacts. I’m looking for any advice/help I can get. Thanks for putting the info out there.
Try Tropical Traditions Grass-Fed Beef/Bison/Lamb, Pastured Turkeys/Chickens, and soy-free eggs. They taste GREAT!
Know this is a long shot but I am a student of Chinese Medicine in the UK and am keen on the paleo diet. I would really appreciate some feedback from you on the effects of the Paleo diet on Spleen Qi over time. As the modern diet has destroyed most people’s Spleen Qi I am wondering how people going on a Paleo will adapt to it?
In my case, I’ve had a slippery pulse since I’ve been on the diet (2 months now), although I’ve always had a tendency to “dampness” and am thinking that digestion will improve and slowly as I am become more robust, I will be able to transfrom the foods easier.
However, I cannot be certain as there is a lack of classic Spleen nourishing foods like white rice in the diet. Even though you recommend sweet potato and potato, they play a small part. I would just like to know what your clinical experience has shown? Is there an adaptation period? If Spleen Qi is week do you emphasise less fats? Any help would be massively appreciated, thanks.
Tom, the paleo diet is a joke. This comment is not directed at you; it’s directed at the hordes of paleo dieters who neglect to try and understand diet from the perspective of traditional cuisine/medicine. Stick to TCM and your spleen qi will remain strong. Eat properly prepared/fermented whole grains, legumes, and vegetables as your staples. All that fat will exhaust your liver and spleen qi and eventually destroy your internal organs, diminish jing, and shorten your life. We are most probably 95% herbivorous as a species, and even early man was primarily a plant-eater. Animal products are probably not necessary at all for most people to achieve optimal health. Check out Don Matesz at Primal Wisdom. Trained in TCM. Believed in paleo for 14 years before coming to his senses and becoming a vegan. Not everyone should be a vegan, but it’s certainly better than paleo…also check out plantpositive’s series on youtube debunking paleo using hundreds of scientific articles. Btw, I was a former paleo dieter for several months, had loads of health problems. Suffered from fatigue, palpitations, anxiety, abdominal pain, heart pounding in my chest, excessive thirst. Then I went to see numerous TCM physicians and read a lot on TCM dietetics. All health problems now gone and feeling great eating primarily grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit and a little dairy/meat once in a great while. Paleo is pure delusional fad diet, stay away! The Chinese have had thousands of years and millions of brilliant and talented physicians to sort out empirically what kind of diet is most appropriate for every type of individual. How can modern science, which is only 150 years old compare in terms of wisdom derived from hundreds of generations of pure trial-and-error? If you compare TCM to other traditional diets in India, Middle-East, Africa, Japan, they all follow the same broad strokes: whole-foods, plant-based, grains, vegetables, legumes as the staples with dairy, meat, eggs, sweets forming a smaller component. Are they all really delusional? Could they have been deluded for thousands of years? Could the paleo dieters have finally “figured out” the perfect diet for all humanity? These are all rhetorical questions, but you get my drift…
You’re right, Greg, the evidence backing Paleo pales in comparison to the rock solid foundations of traditional Chinese medicine.
I would like to add one thing as well: There are several intriguing studies I have seen recently that demonstrate that celiac patients can in fact tolerate whole grains that have undergone fermentation by yeast/bacteria, even though not all the gluten is digested by these organisms. It stands to reason that gluten may not be the only culprit or that it is only harmful in unfermented grains or that some other factor is responsible for celiac. I believe that once people start realizing that fermenting whole grains can remove gluten, phytic acid, fructans, and also make grains more digestible in general, the whole “gluten-free” movement is going to die off somewhat.
Thank you.. Can you send me the link?
Chris great article.. Quick question I seem to get gas after eating broccoli. Why? Thank you. When is part 2 of this article coming out?
Cruciferous vegetables are FODMAPs, which are a class of food that has excess fructose, fructans or sugar alcohols (polyols). People with SIBO or other digestive issues tend to be have trouble digesting FODMAPs, which can cause gas.
The entire series is finished. You can get it delivered via email by signing up for the Beyond Paleo newsletter on the home page (the series has been renamed Beyond Paleo).
I am have already eliminated most of these foods because of the food sensitivities I have. Soy makes me hyper and sugar makes me crash for several days. I recently cut out gluten products and immediately felt a lift in my mood and energy. Food sensitivities have pretty much forced me into eating the whole food way and I guess that has turned out to be a good thing. The one question I have is about mayonnaise. I have been eating a Safflower mayo that was suggested by another nutrition guru. What is a good mayonnaise to use. Would Canola be better?
My Lord, this is a lot of information to take on board but with the right medical intervention I’m trying to get my health back on track. I have been having difficulties over the last three years and diagnosed with Hasimoto’s but with some very severe reactions to certain foods (I believe to be caused by storage proteins), the last reaction necessitated the use of a cane for a number of days. I do believe I am very intolerant to certain foods, toxins and even medicines. My commitment to my health is to started in June by eliminating coffee, chocolate, cereals (except whole-grain rice & rice flour). How much of a problem is the rice flour and also potatoes? These would be my last carbohydrate and I used to love to bake, what could I use as an alternative? I guess I can answer this from my on symptoms. Will press on with the elimination diet and work towards sugar in home-made cakes, dairy & rice/potatoes?
Hard to get used to, any advise or support much appreciated.
Mary
Let us not forget, there are many very different yet effective ways that people achieve health with diet change and natural therapies. The thing I have noticed they all have IN COMMON is how our body’s pH levels directly determine how healthy we are. It has become apparent to me that blood pH is the most important focus for any person who wants to heal, although keeping in mind it can be a complex issue for some individuals, since such a goal must be personalized.
All grains are acid-forming in the blood.
Chris
I am sure you have discussed this but where does milled flaxseed fit in the toxin scale. I buy my seeds whole, strore them in the freezer and grind them just before I use them.
Ben
Thank you for the insightful health guidance. I’ve been working to get my health back for a couple years and feel like I am just now getting some answers. I’m struggling with adrenal fatigue and leaky gut. As a result of the leaky gut, I’m allergic to virtually everything at this point. It is making it very challenging to find healthy food choices. I am required to be on a rotational diet to prevent further allergies from developing. The anti-inflammation diet, however, contradicts the diet I’m supposed to maintain for adrenal fatigue. Then I recently read about oxalates and that diet…and now I’m reading your dietary recommendations. Honestly, my head is spinning. I’m really getting to the point where I am scared to eat anything–I mean now fruits and vegetables are bad? I’m just looking for answers and everyone seems to have a different opinion and they all contradict. I’m allergic to wheat, barley, oats (gluten), and corn and rice…just to name a few. So, for my grain choices I’ve been eating millet, sorghum, buckwheat, teff, and amaranth, several of which you listed above as toxic. Seriously, I just need someone to provide a list of foods that are OK to eat. Otherwise, I may be fasting permanently! Now that will truly bring me divine health!
Kindest Regards,
Sarah
Sarah, I know EXACTLY how you feel! Make sure you research msgtruth.org for valuable information about how protein processing releases free glutamates and the ways sensitive individuals are affected by them; it has been invaluable in helping me to determine some of my AVOID foods that had been triggering symptoms. I had lists of oxalate foods, salicylate foods, acid vs. alkaline-forming foods, blood type foods, I am still confused. Every week I find a new food that was problematic,i am scared to eat, take vitamins, scared not to eat. avoid anything with NATURAL FLAVORS in it – another form of MSG. Also, without grains I continue to lose weight, which I can no longer afford to do…
As far as the fructose and glucose from NATURAL and hopefully organic sources of fruit, much health is gained from this. Table sugar is NOTHING like sugar from fruit. To me this sounds like a calorie counting issue.
If you read Brendan Braziers Thrive Diet it explains very clearly how important several servings of fruit are in a day. Keeping in mind he is 100% raw and would have a completely alkaline body. I eat fresh fruit and veggies, I’m a female body ‘builder’ and very lean. I eat fruit with very rich greens every day all day. I do not eat any type of grain or processed food, no dairy or soy. I think this post needs more information… Have u even tried it? If you watch the documentary Food Matters, you will be much more informed on choices of food and why.
Hello Chris,
After researching for months I’m still a little confused on some things regarding grains, and I would love to get your insight. First, a little background information…
I have been off most grains (with the exception of the occasional white rice) for quite a while now. I am not gluten intolerant (or at least I don’t think so). In the past I experimented with making bread from Jim Lahey’s NYT article (“No-Knead”) with unbleached wheat flour. I eschewed this style of bread after reading this post (wheat=bad), but recently have made some sourdough rye simply because I miss eating bread. The current bread I’ve made is a wholemeal rye sourdough with a long (read: 24(+) hour) fermentation.
However, I am still weary of using wholemeal/bran due to the enzyme inhibitors and insoluble fiber (not being the best for the gut lining). Both Stephan Guyenet and Rami Nagel advocate for the removal of part (~50-95%) of the bran, and that this is a traditional practice in many cultures. What are your ideas on removing bran and subsequent effects on health?
Furthermore, you have mentioned above that it’s not only the gliadins and glutenin in wheat but also the lectins that cause problems for people (such as WGA). Besides gluten, the rest of the problematic components of wheat are in the bran and germ, correct? Would removing the bran and germ, help to reduce the problems with wheat?
Also, I would love to hear your take on this article in Nourished Magazine:
http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog/articles/bread-dread-are-you-really-gluten-intolerant-2
He is obviously lacking in references, but is there any truth to the idea that: unbleached wheat flour + commercial yeast + long fermentation –yields–> a digestible loaf?
I would like to add bread back into my diet if possible. This bread would be for pure enjoyment, and not for the negligible micronutrients in bran- kind of like white rice. I guess my ultimate question is, do you think that, although not necessarily nourishing, this bread is harmful? Would eating it have negative repercussions? Does the 80/20 rule apply here/is there any benefit to enjoying “compromise foods,”
assuming they are stress-lowering?
If any of my questions are unclear, just ask. I had a difficult time trying to phrase all of this. Thanks for your help Chris. I truly appreciate your wisdom and blog posts.
Sincerely,
Wade Gwin
If evolutionarily speaking, grains are morphing to harm our stomachs becuase we digest the seeds that would otherwise propetuate their species, wouldnt all seeds that we can digest, start to change to harm us? This includes beans and nuts. I will have to respectfully disagree that all grain is bad. I think to Americans grains are bad becuase we put it in EVERYTHING. We, as a group, eat way too much of it. I follow, and recommend that others follow a simple rule of thumb. If the plant or animal has been tampered with, in any way, don’t eat it (Including GMO, antibiotic and hormone fed cows and cows milk, ect.)
Chris, I don’t see olive oil in the chart. What’s the story on that, particularly with respect to omega3/6 ratio, plant toxins, and whether it fits in a paleo diet.
Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, with a low-moderate amount of omega-6. For that reason, it’s great for cold uses (salad dressings, drizzling on vegetables, etc.) but not great for cooking at high temps. Olive is a fruit and low in plant toxins.
What on earth can I eat then?
Meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, tubers, white rice & dairy (if tolerated)… essentially all of the foods your ancestors ate for the vast majority of evolutionary history (with the exception of dairy and white rice, which are relative newcomers).
Hi Chris, thanks for writing this. I’m a fan of TCM, and I know you have a background in this, so I just wanted to share a few thoughts. By tubers do you mean sweet potato? Because as far as I know that is the only organic tuber commonly available in the US aside from potato. You gotta get your energy from somewhere, and in TCM, eating large amounts of fat is generally contraindicated because it can lead to stagnant liver qi. This has been my personal experience, although I understand that many do not have the same problem. Eating too much sweet potato can overload the spleen-pancreas in TCM, although clearly the Okinawans don’t have a big problem with it (don’t know how much they actually consume on a daily basis or what kind). It seems we only require about 3-4 oz. of protein a day so even if you eat fatty fish like salmon, this would not be enough to satisfy your energy needs. Besides, there is a very well established ceiling for protein toxicity. Vegetables supply a negligible amount of energy. You can’t pig out on nuts either. While I understand that there is a lot of variation, primitive groups that eat a high fat diet (Maasai, Inuit, Aboriginals, etc.) are much more active/live in much colder climates. I would be curious to know how much of each type of food in absolute number of grams the high fat diet groups consume across different climates on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis. I would be very surprised if the Maasai consume as much as the Inuit. Same thing for the Aboriginals. According to TCM, a high fat animal products based diet would probably be suitable for someone living in the polar regions. If you make the Maasai sedentary and have them continue to eat their diet, I bet they will develop stagnancy problems. When I do vigorous exercise, such as biking for 20-30 km, I feel I need to eat much more, and I specifically feel like eating more fatty/heavy foods, esp. animal products. But when I am not that active, the same foods will immediately cause me to have stagnant liver qi. In my opinion, TCM is based on thousands of years of trial and error, and all those TCM practitioners could not have been totally delusional for hundreds of generations recommending grains as the energy staple for a sedentary, civilized human existence. Grains/legumes do have antinutrients, but these are easily neutralized by soaking/fermenting/cooking/sprouting and are a non-issue when properly combined with other foods. Rice has a very stable protein digesting enzyme inhibitor called oryzacystatin, which is another reason why consuming rice with meat is never recommended. Grains/legumes also provide a wider and higher micronutrient profile on a kcal basis than fatty tissue. Organ meats are the most concentrated sources of nutrition, but how much can a generally sedentary human being living in modern society consume before reaching satiety? Probably not much. Try getting over 50% of your daily calories from grass-fed liver, kidney, intestine, and other offal. Your protein intake would be much higher than 3-4 oz. In addition, organ meats do not supply all of the vital micronutrients that humans need for optimal health. TCM says that excessive (depending on your constitution, environment, lifestyle, etc.) animal protein results in the build-up of unwanted residues as well as kidney-adrenal degeneration and osteoporosis. In my very limited opinion, it seems we should be using TCM and Ayurvedic Medicine as the starting point for research/dialogue instead of the anthropological/ethnographic/evolutionary research on primitive HG tribes. While the latter makes some very convincing arguments, it has not been “field-tested” on modern, civilized humans over thousands of years. Would love to hear your thoughts if you ever find the time.
Awesome!!!!
Oryzacystatin is mostly found in the bran, so it’s not really an issue in white rice.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf00039a003
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-1113102-150012/unrestricted/Antunes_thesis.pdf