I know we love our bread, but did you know….
There are three major hidden reasons that wheat products, not just gluten (along with sugar in all its forms) is a major contributor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression and so many other modern ills.
To learn more about this subject please read Part One – Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2022/10/14/part-one-three-hidden-ways-wheat-makes-you-fat/#more-2862
Read this Post to the end to learn how to How to Beat the Wheat, and Lose the Weight.
There are two ways other than celiac disease in which wheat appears to be a problem.
Gluten and Gut Inflammation: The Second Problem
The second way that gluten causes inflammation is through a low-grade autoimmune reaction to gluten. Your immune system creates low-level antibodies to gluten, but does not create full-blown celiac disease. In fact, 7% of the population, 21 million, have these anti-gliadin antibodies (2012). These antibodies were also found in 18% of people with autism and 20 % of those with schizophrenia.
A major study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that hidden gluten sensitivity (elevated antibodies without full-blown celiac disease) was shown to increase risk of death by 35 to 75 % (2012), mostly by causing heart disease and cancer.[4] Just by this mechanism alone, over 20 million Americans are at risk for heart attack, obesity, cancer and death.
How does eating gluten cause inflammation, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer?
Most of the increased risk occurs when gluten triggers inflammation that spreads like a fire throughout your whole body. It damages the gut lining. Then all the bugs and partially-digested food particles inside your intestine get across the gut barrier and are exposed your immune system, 60 % of which lies right under the surface of the one cell thick layer of cells lining your gut or small intestine. Your immune system starts attacking these foreign proteins, leading to systemic inflammation that then causes heart disease, dementia, cancer, diabetes and more.
Dr. Alessio Fasano, a celiac expert from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, discovered a protein made in the intestine called “zonulin” that is increased by exposure to gluten.[5] Zonulin breaks up the tight junctions or cement between the intestinal cells that normally protect your immune system from bugs and foreign proteins in food leaking across the intestinal barrier. If you have a “leaky gut,” you will get inflammation throughout your whole body and a whole list of symptoms and diseases.
Why is there an increase in disease from gluten in the last 50 years?
It is because the dwarf wheat grown in this country has changed the quality and type of gluten proteins in wheat, creating much higher gluten content and many more of the gluten proteins that cause celiac disease and autoimmune antibodies. Combine that with the damage our guts have suffered from our diet, environment, lifestyle and medication use, and you have the perfect storm for gluten intolerance.
This super gluten crosses our leaky guts and gets exposed to our immune system. Our immune system reacts as if gluten was something foreign, and sets off the fires of inflammation in an attempt to eliminate it. However, this inflammation is not selective, so it begins to attack our cells – leading to diabesity and other inflammatory diseases.
Damage to the gastrointestinal tract from overuse of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil or Aleve and acid-blocking drugs like Prilosec or Nexium, combined with our low-fiber, high-sugar diet, leads to the development of celiac disease and gluten intolerance or sensitivity and the resultant inflammation. That is why elimination of gluten and food allergens or sensitivities can be a powerful way to prevent and reverse diabesity (the term for diabetes occurring in the context of obesity) and many other chronic diseases.
The Super Drug
Not only does wheat contain super starch and super gluten – making it super fattening and super inflammatory – but it also contains a super drug that makes you crazy, hungry and addicted.
When processed by your digestion, the proteins in wheat are converted into shorter proteins, “polypeptides,” called “exorphins.” They are like the endorphins that bind to the opioid receptors in the brain, making you high, and addicted just like a heroin addict. These wheat polypeptides are absorbed into the bloodstream and get right across the blood brain barrier. They are called “gluteomorphins,” after “gluten” and “morphine.”
These super drugs can cause multiple problems, including schizophrenia and autism. But they also cause addictive eating behavior, including cravings and bingeing. No one binges on broccoli, but they binge on cookies or cake. Even more alarming is the fact that you can block these food cravings and addictive eating behaviors and reduce calorie intake by giving the same drug we use in the emergency room to block heroin or morphine in an overdose, called naloxone. Binge eaters ate nearly 30 % less food when given this drug.
Bottom line: wheat is an addictive appetite stimulant.
How to Beat the Wheat, and Lose the Weight
First, you should get tested to see if you have a more serious wheat or gluten problem.
If you meet any of these criteria, then you should do a six-week 100 % gluten-free diet trial to see how you feel. If you have three out of five criteria, you should be gluten-free for life.
- You have symptoms of celiac (any digestive, allergic, autoimmune or inflammatory disease, including diabesity).
- You get better on a gluten-free diet.
- You have elevated antibodies to gluten (anti-gliadin, AGA, or tissue transglutaminase antibodies, TTG).
- You have a positive small intestinal biopsy.
- You have the genes that predispose you to gluten (HLA DQ2/8).
Second, for the rest of you who do not have gluten antibodies or some variety of celiac – the super starch and the super drug, both of which make you fat and sick, can still affect you. So go cold turkey for six weeks. And keep a journal of how you feel.
The problems with wheat are real, scientifically validated and ever-present. Getting off wheat may not only make you feel better and lose weight, it could save your life.
This Post has been condensed from the article by Mark Hyman, MD, Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wheat-gluten_b_1274872
Mark Hyman, MD, believes that we all deserve a life of vitality and that we have the potential to create it for ourselves. That’s why he is dedicated to tackling the root causes of chronic disease by harnessing the power of Functional Medicine to transform healthcare. He is a practicing family physician, a ten-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in his field. He is the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is also the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor of The Huffington Post, and has been a regular medical contributor on many television shows including CBS This Morning, the Today Show, CNN, The View, the Katie Couric show and The Dr. Oz Show.
Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.
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