This is slowly killing you, pt.1
Drop it in the bin and give yourself extra ten years.
Author’s note:
Dear reader,
In this series of stories I want to share my perspective on what is often considered harmless (or even healthy) to our bodies. In some cases my views may sound strange and provocative but I want to assure you they are based on the latest research available. I hope you enjoy it and if you feel there’s something I missed please let me know in a response bellow.
Your friend,
Saul
If you had celiac disease in the 1930’s your chances of reaching a sweet sixteen were slim. The mortality rate for children was a staggering 30% and the only known cure was eating bananas (at least seven a day). This was of course as effective as munching Nutella for weight loss.
Thankfully, not everybody was sold on the idea of bananas. A Dutch physician named Willem Dicke, was experimenting with wheat-free diets, which led to a remarkable discovery. He noticed that during the 1944–1945 Dutch famine his celiac patients suddenly got better, but as soon as French bread got back on the plates his patients immediately relapsed. This strengthened William’s theory that wheat is the main villain behind celiac disease and led to the first gluten-free diet.
Luckily, celiac disease is a relatively rare genetic disorder affecting only 1% of the population. But even if you’re part of the fortunate 99% don’t be too hasty to celebrate. Regardless, if you’re celiac or not, gluten is slowly killing you.
Let me explain.
Like millions of others I grew up being taught the western food pyramid as the holy grail of nutrition. There’s high chance you were too. Ever seen one of these?
As we can see whole grains form the foundation of this pyramid and it’s not surprising why. Culturally grains have been part of our diet since at least 8000 BC and it’s widely believed that their cultivation lead our species to leave hunter-gathering and turn to settled farming.
In his book “Sapiens” Yuval Noah Harari describes this transition as “History’s Biggest Fraud”. Wheat wasn’t more nutritious or healthier. It was simply more convenient. Having a more predictable source of calories turned wheat into the core source of energy for the early farmers. And this formed new habits which billions of people are following today.
It’s sad to say this, but the food pyramid is bullshit. There are many reasons why but for now I want to focus on glutenous whole grains.
Why you shouldn’t eat wheat
The human body can digest every protein except for one — gluten. Since gluten can’t be fully broken down its main ingredients gliadin and glutenin essentially end up floating in your upper small intestine. If they were to somehow escape into your blood stream your immune system would treat them like Bubonic plague — a foreign body in need of eviction.
Luckily your gut is designed to act a bit like a prison. The inner lining in your intestines is a barricaded wall, which prevents bad actors from escaping whenever they please. These walls also have lots of tiny gates, which open up once in a while to let useful substances flow into your body. So far so good.
Until a team of scientists led by Dr. Alessio Fasano discovered a protein named “Zonulin”, which really f̶u̶c̶k̶e̶d spiced things up. It turns out if your gut is a prison, then Zonulin is the guard operating the gates.
Dr. Fasano’s research found that gliadin provokes the release of Zonulin, opening the damn gates and essentially bypassing all of the security (source). What happens next is akin to the season one of the popular drama series “Prison Break”. Remember, gliadin is not supposed to leak into your bloodstream so when it escapes your body’s auto-immune system mistakenly goes into full red alert causing inflammation to combat the intruders.
So what’s the big deal with having a bit of inflammation? Well, in theory nothing. We wouldn’t be alive today without the inflammatory response preventing the spread of nasty infections.
The problem is having too much inflammation. Chronic inflammation is increasingly seen as the Illuminati of illnesses.
“research increasingly suggests that [chronic inflammation] is also intimately linked with a broad range of non-infectious diseases, perhaps even all of them” (source)
Thousands of peer-reviewed studies indicated a link between inflammation and some of the most common and devastating diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and many many more (source).
It’s not too late
Time for some good news. In his, TEDx talk Dr. Rodney Ford tells how he cured thousands of sick children by simply taking them gluten-free. And he’s not alone. There’s literally tens of thousands of stories online of people reversing serious and sometimes even incurable illnesses ranging from eczema to arthritis.
Apart from reducing inflammation gluten-free diet has other benefits. If you want to drop a couple of kilos there’s good evidence you could significantly tone up just by excluding gluten. For example, gluten-free diet has been shown to significantly reduce body fat and insulin resistance in mice (source).
Conclusion
Gluten is an indigestible, evil anti-nutrient, or as Dr. Rodney Ford puts it — “waste of chewing”. You should stop eating that shit today.
It may be disheartening to abandon all of the crunchy, delicious things you love (thinking of you 🍕), but the message I’m trying to put across is that perhaps you don’t have to. Gluten-free diet is not a fad. And whilst gluten-free pizza is still too damn expensive, as consumers we have the power to vote with our money. Share this message and help bring gluten-free economies of scale to our favorite foods to make them healthier and affordable for everyone.
You’re still here? If you enjoyed this I would really really appreciate if you could give this story a good clappity clap. It takes just a few seconds and it means a world to me. Merci!
Saul
