Is Wheat Evil?

This morning on the radio, the health reporter gave a summary of this article from Berkeley about "Wheatophobia".  

I won't pretend to know everything about both sides of the issue, but there are some basic problems with the Standard American Diet with respect to wheat.

How many meals a week does the average person eat that contains either bread, pasta, pizza, or cereal?  Look at the canned and boxed products in your cupboard.  What percentage of them contain corn syrup, corn starch, or corn oil?  Is it really good for us to get such a huge percentage of our calories from one food?  Even just giving a little love to buckwheat, rye, and barley might be better for us than the wheat and corn-centric diet most Americans eat today.

Apples are great for you, but if you were living primarily on applesauce I'd have some concern for your health.  If it was not intuitively wrong to you, I might point out how apples contain trace amounts of arsenic, and how arsenic was bad for your health.  Now most of us have at most one or two apples a day, and this arsenic level is not a problem.  Some studies even show a little bit of poison is actually good for you, and you may also be familiar with the phrase "the dose makes the poison".  

Wheat may contain proteins that are bad for human health.  The dosage required to cause a negative response may be different between different people.

I suggest that if you don't test positive on blood and stool tests for wheat antigens, but you suspect you have a problem with wheat, (let's say you're having trouble loosing weight, lack endurance, or have persistent digestive problems,)  first identify the symptoms that you have, take a log for a month or so of your symptoms.  Try to come up with an objective scale to rate your problems including frequency and intensity.  Then, go on an at least six week elimination diet.  Get rid of all grains, including corn.  Be careful of products such as sauces and beverages which are based on grain derived vinegar or alcohol.  Some would suggest going dairy free at the same time you go grain free, but personally I love my dairy, and I became less sensitive to it after going low carb.  Some people say that it can take six months for intestinal damage to heal after wheat stops aggravating the problem, so if you see a slight or no improvement you might consider extending the experiment to six months.  Keep up your journal during this period, keep referring back to your objective standards of frequency and intensity of your problems.  At the end of this trial period, re-introduce grains and once again measure your symptoms.

If you need a little help developing a grain free diet, try following an established diet like Perfect Health Diet, GAPS Diet, or find a Weston A Price Foundation chapter near you.  The Perfect Health Diet is strictly anti-grain, while on the other end of the scale Weston A Price Foundation focuses more on fermentation and nutrient dense foods that you might be switching to in place of grains.  Each of these diet groups has a different take on what foods are good/bad for you, but if you're not confident about formulating your own grain free diet, it may be best to follow in the footsteps of hundreds of others who have tried an experimental diet before you.  (More on wisdom of masses in a future post...)

It may be easiest to go on a diet like this in mid summer and fall when there is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables at your local farmer's market.  Who misses bread when you have a truly ripe tomato or a root veggie roast?

If you have a problem with grain, you should show a clear pattern of improving on the elimination diet, and backsliding when you return to your old diet.  Once this clear pattern is established, you can repeat the experiment with more variables to find a long term diet you can live with.  Are x servings a week tolerable?  Does well fermented grain (home made fully fermented sour dough) have a different effect?  Does corn give you the same issues as wheat?  As you do these experiments, you may become familiar with early warning signs of a reaction and be able to do shorter reintroduction tests, but always give your body time to fully heal on the stricter diet between experiments.

If you don't show any improvement on a six month elimination diet, then you probably have no problems with  grains.  Although it might not hurt to put a little more variety in your diet, choosing different grains and avoiding eating mostly processed products that are mostly wheat, soy, and corn.

In my case, wheat itself does not seem to be a major issue, but carbohydrates and vegetable oils in general are.  Since cutting back on these foods, I've stopped gaining weight, (lost a little bit) I can tolerate more sun/heat, and I've stopped having low blood sugar attacks except on vacation when I'm eating other people's cooking.  Vegetable oils don't cause me any real measurable problems, but they sit very heavy in my stomach, while animal fats I seem to be able to digest quickly and efficiently without packing on weight.

More on Healthy Sun Exposure

http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2012/07/17/are-we-increasing-cancer-risk-by-covering-up/

My severe sunburn is mostly healed.  I spent 3 hours by the pool in my new swimsuit, with some usage of a wrap when sitting by the pool chatting, and no additional damage was done.  Before the big 3 hour stretch, I several times put on my new swimsuit and spent 5-10 minutes outside getting moderate non-damaging exposure to accustom my skin that was covered by my old swimsuit to the sun.

I think the minimalist runner mantra of "Listen To Your Body" applies to sun exposure as well.  When I burned two weeks ago, my skin felt like it was heating up and loosing it's ability to self-regulate, but I put off getting into shade because I was having fun and kept wanting to do just one more thing...  Sunday at the pool I kept my wrap handy and covered my shoulders and head at the first sign of heat in the skin, and gave it a little time to recover before getting more sun.

I've also been considering what I've already read about sunlight and melanoma risk.  Statistical studies show that people with a history of sunburn are more likely to get melanoma, but they have had trouble reproducing this in the lab rats.  What else to people with a history of sun burn do?  They avoid the sun!  Is the burn itself, or the avoidance of sunlight that does more damage?

Sun Exposure

Last summer I spent more time outside than any summer since childhood.  I wore a floppy hat and a T-shirt, but no sunscreen.  I never burned once.  I attribute some of my success to avoiding vegetable oils and taking Vitamin D supplements in winter.

This year I got cocky, and went to the water park with no sunscreen or cover.  Every place normally exposed by a T-shirt was just fine.  I don't think of myself as tan, but I had just enough of a hint of color that my skin had natural defenses against the sun.  However, my pasty white shoulders got a pretty bad burn in 2 hours of exposure.  So I renewed my research a bit.  My burn may increase my chances of getting melanoma, but overall it may not be a total loss.  Regular moderate sun exposure (such as working outdoors) actually prevents internal cancer, and general overall health.

My new plan is to try to spend at least a few minutes outside each day in either my swimsuit top or my sun dress.  I don't really find sunbathing pleasurable, and I don't want a deep tan, but I need to get my pasty white shoulders a little bit of defense against longer special occasion sun exposures.

http://www.innerself.com/Health/cancer_sun.htm
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/22/sharp-rise-vitamin-a-deficiency
http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-vitamin-d-experiment.html

Farm On Hold

Just a quick update, the farm purchase is on hold until next year.  The local credit union in a farm area is fine with us buying a farm, but the big national PMI company does not like the idea of getting stuck with acreage, so we will be saving up a little more so as to not need PMI.

FYI for anyone else looking into this, Farm Credit requires 30% down, but may take farming education and potential farming income into account when extending credit.