News :: Food :: 10 Reasons to Avoid Gluten and Modern Cereals

When we talk about gluten-free products we think rather in wheat, barley and rye, because the protein that they contain is the origin of celiac disease. But in fact, the definition of gluten is "a substance present in cereal grains, especially wheat, that is responsible for the elastic texture of dough" (Oxford dictionary), that is to say, that all grains contain gluten in more or less quantity.
But is that the gluten in all kind of grains as bad?
Can the gluten represent a problem not only to celiac persons but also others?
What is gluten sensitivity?

A little bit of history ...

1. - The prehistoric man did not eat cereal, he fed on hunting and gathering. Cereals were introduced with agriculture about 11,000 years ago, to say it’s very recent in the history of humanity that begins 7 million years ago. This time is not enough for men to be adapted to this food, according to Dr. Seignalet.

2. - The decline of the great civilizations of the past, like the Egyptian, can be attributed to agriculture of wheat and intensive milk consumption. According to Michel Dogna, post-agricultural human bones were brittle, damaged teeth and suffered chronic diseases. On the other hand, the pre-agricultural, was tall and thin, had strong bones and dense, healthy teeth and showed no signs of disease.

3. - Wheat is a mutated plant from its origin. It comes from the hybridization of wild grass and small spelt. In the last twenty centuries they have undergone many transformations to increase productivity and gluten content in order to improve the baking properties. Original wheat had only 2 sets of chromosomes = 14 chromosomes. Nowadays, the durum wheat and bread wheat, have 4 sets of chromosomes and 6 sets respectively (28 and 42 chromosomes), as the result of several mutations. Our digestive enzymes do not recognize these mutated wheats. Corn, barley, rye, oats and millet suffered the same fate. The only one that humans have not succeed to mutate is rice.

Properties of gluten

4. - The word gluten comes from the root "glue", so it is a glue that is used in many industrial applications such as stamps, envelopes, labels for glass, adhesive for wood, paper and films for food, etc..

Effects of gluten on the body: immune system and neurological system

5. - Gluten produces mucus in the intestine, a sticky mass which has several effects:
It prevents proper absorption of nutrients.

6. - This mucus is made of several strains of bacteria which are fed on proteins of gluten that haven’t been digested by enzymes and serve as food for undesirable bacteria of the intestine and lead to intestinal dysbiosis or intestinal flora imbalance, with an excess of bad bacteria and lack of lactobacillus or good bacteria. Intestinal dysbiosis is the origin of many diseases, because lactobacillus are part of the body's defenses and bad bacteria have a neurotoxic effect, overloading the liver and can migrate to all other parts of the body and create any kind of diseases.

7. - The body must excrete the mucus. But if elimination organs (liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, skin) are already overworked, elimination is not possible and then it appears the respiratory diseases: colds, nasopharyngitis, bronchitis, flu, etc..

8. - Gluten is the origin of celiac disease, a disease because a reaction of IgA antibodies against gliadin in wheat, secalin in rye and hordein in barley and self-transglutaminase antibodies. People affected by this disease have a damaged intestine villi and consequently, a very reduced absorption of ingested food.
Celiac disease is diagnosed with IgA antibodies blood test and an intestinal biopsy.

9. - Gluten also produces opioid peptides, pieces of undigested gluten that pass into the bloodstream and reach the brain. There, these peptides can bind to opioid receptors in the brain and affect the communication of neurotransmitters. As Pr. Karl Reichelt discovered, the result of the opioid peptides is the development of several neurological diseases and disorders. Also, immune cells (lymphocytes or white blood cells) have receptors for opioid peptides from food (gluten) so that lymphocyte response against infections is reduced. In concrete, the mobility of leukocytes is inhibited. Then, diseases come easily with a weakened immune system.
To detect if attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, dyslexia, phobias, etc.., are caused by opioid peptides the Peptidury test developed by Pr. Reichelt is advisable.

Gluten sensitivity

10. - Celiac disease has been known for a long time, in the nineteenth century, but it was not too very much known by modern physicians, since some years ago, when the diagnosis of celiac disease seems to be increasing.
But "gluten sensitivity" disease had never been recognized in medicine until 2011, when it was celebrated the first consensus on gluten sensitivity.
So it is clear that for a large number of persons: celiacs, intolerants and gluten sensitive persons, health is significantly improved when the ingestion of products with gluten stops. Gluten sensitivity, which touch a 10% of the population, in contrast to the intolerance and allergy, has no immunological response to gluten, but people are recovering their health with the elimination diet.
To find out if you are sensitive to gluten you can test IgG and IgA antibodies to gluten. But still, it is possible that the results of these tests are negative but still have a health improvement with a gluten free diet.

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