Against the Grain

The staples that

are better left alone

utting all grain products out of your diet could prove to be the remedy for many of your ills. Yes, I know you love your pasta, toast, sandwiches, and breakfast cereals. But they don’t love you! The reason is simple: mankind has not had time to adapt to these ‘new fangled’ components of our diet, which have only been in existence for approximately 15,000 years.

Prior to the discovery of agriculture, our primitive ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and had never been exposed to any unnatural food. If it didn’t grow on trees, if it didn’t spring unaided from the soil, if it couldn’t be easily dug up, if it couldn’t swim, or fly or run, our ancestors didn’t, and couldn’t, eat it. If we lived similarly, we would not be plagued by degenerative diseases. And here is the really scary part; our trillions of cells, our digestive systems, in short our entire physical makeup, is virtually the same as it was three million years ago. Our bodies have not had time to adapt to grains in the few thousand years since our ancestors learned to grow and harvest their food. Perhaps in another three million years our bodies will find a way to adapt, and we will evolve into a junk-eating species. If we survive.

Grains are pushed aggressively by most ‘health’ organisations, and by governments. But what do they know? Certainly governments have hopeless track records in areas of health care, and the various organisations that profess to help sick people are, for the most part, financed by the food processors they recommend. Most of these organisations wholeheartedly recommend nasties such as polyunsaturated oils, soy, and artificial sweeteners, as noted in Chapters 6, 9 and 4. Just to be consistent, it stands to reason that they would love grains!

To compound the problem, mothers often don’t breast feed and, even if they do, they frequently supplement with cereals before the baby is 12 months old.

Because a baby’s digestive system is extremely delicate, and adapted to a diet of only mother’s milk for the first year, this is a disaster. It leads to a permanent allergy to grains of all kinds. Unfortunately, this allergy does not necessarily take a form that is obvious, such as vomiting or hives. It can manifest as a constant mucus build-up, sometimes culminating in serious, life-threatening illnesses and premature decrepitude.

During my lectures at Hippocrates Health Centre, people who want an excuse to keep eating grains refer to the excellent health of grain-eating cultures. I point out to them, however, that there have been hundreds of studies which have proved conclusively that grain consumption is detrimental. Asians have been known for 200 years to have hypertrophy of the pancreas as well as severe tissue degeneration, due to their heavy reliance on rice.

Not Heart-Friendly

Wheat causes calcium salts to be deposited in tissues, is one of the most allergenic of all foods, and causes hardening of the arteries. One of the worst aspects of grain ingestion is that grains metabolise rapidly to simple sugars and disrupt insulin levels. Those with diabetes should avoid grains (in spite of misguided medical advice), as should those with high blood pressure, high homocysteine levels, and high cholesterol.

For decades, the ‘experts’ have eagerly recommended grains to prevent or reverse heart disease. This is ironic, considering that grains are well known to raise triglyceride levels, and a high triglyceride level is a well-established risk factor for coronary heart disease. Twenty studies involving approximately 50,000 subjects have confirmed this: high triglyceride levels raise the probability of heart disease by 76 percent in women and 32 percent in men.

And what raises triglyceride levels? The diets pushed by the low fat, polyunsaturated, high-carb dictocrats. This is because when carbohydrates are consumed, levels of insulin are elevated, and cause triglyceride levels to rise. Now, this does not mean that triglycerides themselves cause heart attacks. What it does mean is that whatever elevates the triglycerides leads to heart attacks. And that is the low fat, high-carb diet.

The ubiquitous, grain-pushing ‘food pyramid’ is a crock. Instigated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the 1950s, publicised relentlessly by governments, it has brought billions to the grain-growers and has done huge damage to the health and profiles of people in Western countries. And, of course, readers of this book are by now aware that any time government endorses anything – be it food, drugs, vaccinations, war – we had all better be suspicious.

Thanks to the power and influence of the USDA, this evil pyramid is printed on many grain foods, bread wrappers, cereal boxes, etc., published in university textbooks and posted on school bulletin boards. Heavily promoted and considered almost holy writ by nutritionists, the food pyramid advises daily consumption of up to 11 servings of bread, pasta, rice and cereal, with all other foods used sparingly. Wow! People following this government-sanctioned nutritional advice are bound to end up resembling Porky Pig. And, indeed, they do: just observe the stomachs and backsides of the populations of developed countries who have been told for decades that their diet should be grain-based.

Obesity is not the only negative. This is what Dr Peat has to say about grains: “Nutritional deficiency diseases probably wouldn’t have been discovered if our diets hadn’t been based on grains. The starches in grains aren’t their only problem, but starch is uniquely suited to activate the formation of fat, and to stimulate appetite, especially an appetite for more carbohydrate, to restore the blood glucose that has been used up in making fat. Starch also has the ability to stimulate allergic responses, to plug small blood vessels and to accelerate aging, according to the work of G.Volkheimer, and others.”

Coeliac Disease

During the last 200 years the amount of cereal grains consumed has increased tremendously, and in the past four or five decades people have become more and more dependent upon fast food, which consists to a large degree of junk grains. Grain growers have exacerbated the problem, by increasing the amount of gluten in wheat by 50 percent through genetic selection. This was done to make grains easier to cultivate and harvest, and to facilitate baking. This change benefited bakeries and the USDA, but it created an epidemic of gluten intolerance and coeliac (or celiac) disease.

Coeliac Disease (CD) is a severe allergy to the gluten in wheat, rye, oats, triticale, barley, spelt and kamut. It is hard to diagnose. So hard, that people who are diagnosed as having cancer, liver disease, leukaemia, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, sleep apnoea, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psychological stress, diarrhoea, lupus, spastic colon, anaemia, CFS, gall bladder disease, migraine headaches, viral gastroenteritis, irritable bowel syndrome, etc., are sometimes just coeliacs in disguise. Many would get over their life-ruining symptoms if a doctor would simply test them for CD and put them on the right diet.

Then there are the people who are gluten intolerant, or gluten sensitive, and while they will not test positive for CD, eating grains causes them serious health problems, even death, if they continue poisoning their bodies with grains. For example, lupus, which establishment medicine considers incurable, is often caused by gluten. The only people I’ve ever observed with long-term lupus who got over it were at the Gerson Institute in Mexico and at Hippocrates Health Centre. And, of course, bread is a no-no, in both places.

When Jonathan Wright, MD, was visiting Australia in the 1980s, Dr Christopher Reading, of Sydney, showed him proof that 100 of his patients who had ‘incurable’ lupus remained symptom-free for five years, after eliminating all gluten grains, as well as dairy, and taking oral and intravenous nutritional supplementation.

As Dr Wright said, “Even today, in 2002, just about any ‘lupus specialist’ in the United States will say that’s impossible… and then resume writing prescriptions for prednisone.” Which doesn’t work, of course, and causes serious problems.

One of the worst aspects of CD is that it can lead to a misdiagnosis of leukaemia. This is the way it can happen:

A virus, bacteria, or anything else the body perceives as a foreign invader, can result in a raised white cell count, because the body utilises white cells in its constant efforts to protect itself and heal. To physicians, this white cell elevation can mean leukaemia. In many cases, this diagnosis is correct – after all, we are bombarded by ionising radiation, benzene and many other chemicals, all of which are known to contribute to leukaemia. There is, however, a chance for tragic misdiagnoses if the particular type of leukaemia is CLL (chronic lymphatic leukaemia). In this illness, white cells may have been elevated by the body, due to the individual having a severe intolerance to gluten.

Forever Compromised

Simply cutting all gluten-containing foods from the diet can result in cessation of all the symptoms that led to blood tests indicating leukaemia. This can mean that the patient did not have leukaemia, but coeliac disease, and if the physician prescribes conventional treatment for what he erroneously diagnosis as leukaemia, the patient’s health will be forever compromised by chemotherapy, antibiotics and blood transfusions.

Gluten, as you have just learned, is in most grains, but it is also hidden in almost all manufactured foods and even vitamins. It is a cheap filler, used extensively, and usually not mentioned on the label, so effort is needed to identify and avoid it.

My suggestion is that before submitting to chemotherapy or any other drug, simply eliminate all grains, as well as dairy, which can also cause white cell proliferation, and within a few days a strong reaction should occur, as the body expels the offending substances. If the ‘leukaemia’ was merely an allergic reaction, the patient should feel much better after recovering from the elimination crisis and must then maintain a strict grain-free diet permanently.

Your oncologist probably will not be that crazy about your ‘miracle cure’, but, hey, it’s your body.

In my opinion, gluten isn’t good for anyone, although many professionals say that some people do well on it. I like to remind these grain enthusiasts that when you put gluten into a Petrie dish with human internal organs, the gluten damages the tissues. That’s enough to keep me away from it, and the following should be enough to make mothers’ wary of infant formula:

Sweden has ten times the number of coeliacs compared with Denmark and Holland. Scientists think the reason is Sweden’s infant milk formula that has forty times more gluten than formulas sold in Denmark and Holland.

If you know that you are a coeliac, or gluten intolerant, it is important to remember that your bones will be compromised. You will need to supplement with magnesium, zinc, vitamin D and vitamin K, and stick carefully to the osteoporosis diet recommended in Chapters 7 and 8.

According to some experts, rice, corn, amaranth, millet, buckwheat and quinoa will not adversely affect people with gluten intolerance. They do, however, have their own problems, and need to be approached with care, particularly millet, which can affect the thyroid. First, get all gluten-containing grains out of your life. After at least three weeks, you might like to try these foods, one at a time, and watch for symptoms. Your body will tell you.

If you don’t have a serious illness, but just feel ‘yucky’, try eliminating grains from your life and see if you feel lots better. A three-week trial is needed to identify any food sensitivity, and it’s worth the effort. I’ve never encountered anyone who did not benefit from quitting grains, but if you find it too inconvenient or too traumatic to give them up, at least cut way down. Fill the resulting void with lots of health-giving vegetables and fruits, good quality proteins and the right kind of fats. This will protect you from most illnesses, especially heart disease, the Western world’s biggest killer.

When friends or health professionals say that “everyone” knows grains are healthful, remember what Bertram Russell said:

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held,

is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.”

The Blood Type Diet

Hardly a day goes by without someone asking my opinion of this hyped diet plan. Simply put, had I started following the recommendations for my blood type, I would have been pushing up daisies for the past decade, instead of having fun blowing the whistle on establishment medicine and silly diet plans. Looking at it logically, take the example of two girls born with identical blood types.

One is breastfed for two years, and given a wonderful diet throughout her childhood by parents who never allowed anyone to smoke in her presence. This girl will be robust throughout life and will be able to eat what she likes, even “fun food”, for many years without repercussions. The other girl never sees a breast, and must make do on pasteurised, homogenised, chemicalised milk, and is then given cereals at six months, long before her digestive system is ready. She will have a lifelong allergy to many things, especially to grains, because her digestive system has been so compromised by a dreadful start in life. Further, her thyroid, adrenals, lungs and entire body have been damaged, because everyone in her extended family chain-smokes. This girl is destined to be delicate all her life and will have to watch her diet carefully in order to survive. Yet, these girls, because they were born with identical blood types, are advised to eat identical food. Does this make sense to you?

I have a confession to make: I am the second girl, and my delicate constitution was a motivating factor in my lifelong study of health. It was learn or die young, and I learned that grains and soy are poisons to my body, even though they are recommended for my blood type.

Highly Recommended

One of the most important, even profound, books of the 21^st Century, is The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Search for a Perfect Meal In a Fast-Food World, by Michael Pollan. Beautifully written and amusing, this book will change forever the way you look at your food and the way it is grown.