The role of Grain based foods in Weight Gain and Ill Health

(Bread, pasta, porridge, oats, breakfast cereals, rice, crackers etc)

The natural role of grain:

Grain matures in the autumn from the 1st August, and it stays on the stalks until mid to late September. Therefore there is about an 8 week window a year for it to be eaten.

Nature has designed grain to be consumed by ruminants (i.e animals with many chambers in their stomachs). The purpose of grain is to fatten cattle and other animals so that they have an energy store to help them through the leaner winter months to sustains them when food is less plentiful or might not be available at all. It does this in two ways (1) by being readily converted to fat for storage and (2) it makes the animals lethargic so that they don't use up the energy stored as fat until the winter has passed.

Grains and Humans:

When humans eat food, the body recognises it as food if it comes under the category of natural omnivorous food sources (i.e Meat, fish, eggs, fruit and vegetables). The body naturally knows when to stop eating these foods and a natural body weight is maintained effortlessly as there is a stop mechanism when enough food has been consumed. For example – how many apples can you eat in one sitting? How many eggs can you eat in one sitting? How much meat can you eat at one sitting?

The problem is grain is NOT recognised as food in the human so we do not know when to stop eating it.

Human beings only started eating grains in the last couple of thousand years. We have been eating other foods since the beginning of time and our body has established its own relationships to them. The metabolic changes needed to establish a similar relationship with grains would take many thousands of generations and we are not there yet, nor will we be in this lifetime! The complex carbohydrate argument suggesting the benefits of grain is a scientifically unsound nonsense. The definition of what constitutes simple or complex carbohydrates – in relation to human digestion - is also based on unsound outdated pseudoscience. Carbohydrates from fruit and vegetables are "wet" or water based, nutritious and energy giving. Dry carbohydrates from ripened grain sources are nutritionally poor, difficult to digest, energy draining and are disease causing as well as being the main cause of obesity.

The addictive nature of Grains

By

Tom Ryan

Hypnotherapist

The components of grain stimulate the narcotic regions of the brain and that is why grain forms of carbohydrates are highly addictive.

Grain in the role of the laying down of fat deposits & weight gain:

Because we eat far too much grain the body stores most of it as fat. Excessive intake of grain results in too much sugar being created (the result of grain digestion) and released into the blood stream. This is highly dangerous and needs to be countered by the release of insulin, which is used to re balance blood sugar levels.

Insulin is the primary hormone driving all metabolism and it influences the actions of virtually every cell in the body.

The insulin hormone produced by the Pancreas is released into the blood stream in order to decrease the elevated blood sugar. Insulin is the major nutrient storage hormone and it drives excess blood sugar, proteins and fats into the cells for storage.

Eating grain increases the blood sugar level, which in turn over stimulates the production of insulin, which in turn results in the sugar being sent into the cells to be converted into fat for storage on the body.

Grain in the role of disease:

1) As a result of increased insulin:

Grain eating gives rise to excessive blood sugar and this results in excess insulin. Insulin imbalance plays a large role in development of diseases such as: Heart disease, elevated cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, blood clotting problems, colon and other cancers, type 2 diabetes, gout, sleep apnoea, obesity, iron overload disease, reflux, severe heart burn, peptic ulcers, polycystic ovary disease and IBS.

2) Toxins in Grain:

The grains contain naturally occurring phyto-chemicals, which from a human perspective can be better called phyto-Poisons. These are designed to stop the too much grain from being eaten by animals when the grain is fully ripe. Nature wants enough to remain to fall to the ground and grow into next year's crop. When consumed by humans these naturally occurring chemicals in grains are toxic to the liver and kidneys and the body has to fight to purify itself after consuming them. The human body and immune system combats those poisons causing reactions such as lethargy and altered thinking behaviours.

3) Degeneration of the body:

The main problem is even worse. When grain comes into a body that is deficient in protein, the protein lining in the stomach breaks down and is consumed – the body is cannibalising itself - and that gives rise to leaky gut syndrome.

Because humans have only one stomach the grains are not digested properly a lot of undigested molecules leak into the blood stream. Some of these molecules closely resemble human genes. The human immune system goes into overdrive because of the invasion of these foreign bodies. It identifies attacks and eliminates those molecules. It then creates a marker for the recognition of any such foreign bodies re-entering and goes on a scavenging hunt. Human genes are mistakenly identified as grain molecules and they are also attacked and eliminated. Now the human system is attacking itself and auto immune diseases such as ME, arthritis and Lupus are the result.

Also we don't have the capacity to break down the husk or tough outer layer of grains, and this gives rise to inflammatory diseases of the bowel such as IBS, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Grain in the role of Cravings:

There are four reasons a body gets food cravings:

1) The person is eating grain based carbohydrates. As the body doesn't recognise this as food, it doesn't know when to stop eating it and becomes addicted as outlined above.

2) Vitamin and mineral deficiency i.e the cravings are the bodies way of getting the person to eat more in order to fulfil it's vitamins and mineral needs.

3) The person is eating low fat foods which do not satiate the body's needs for nutrients and actually creates deficiencies and hunger.

4) The person is feeding an emotional need or emptiness. The first three reasons can be entirely controlled by eating a mainly a balanced diet with sufficient protein together with vitamin and mineral supplements. The remaining reason can be easily controlled by dealing with the underlying emotional problems.