Going against the grain...

[SimonPrimal]

Grains are now considered a staple part of the human diet, in evolutionary terms however, grains are a very recent introduction. If human existence was condensed into 24 hours, grains would only have been part of the diet for approximately the last 30 seconds or so!

Humans first developed the technology to grind and cook them around 10,000 years ago, resulting in the dawn of agriculture.

The cultivation of grains provided a huge increase in the ready availability of calories, and eliminated the necessity to travel in search of food, which in turn led to the (continuing) explosion in size of the human population, and the birth of civilisation.

Unfortunately, while grains may have benefited the human race in terms of numbers (though this is certainly debatable), they have certainly do not benefit humans in terms of individual health.

Fossil remains, and studies of the few tribes left that still follow a hunter-gatherer lifestyle show that the introduction of grains into the diet bring with them a multitude of negative health impacts including decreased muscle and bone density, dental problems, increased risk of CHD, diabetes, obesity and cancer and auto-immune diseases such as M.S. and arthritis.

Grains cause these problems through 3 main mechanisms:

1) Contributing to Hyperinsulinaemia
2) Disrupting the Acid-Base balance
3) The presence of Lectins

1) Hyperinsulinaemia is a condition in which the body over produces insulin due to chronic over consumption of carbohydrates. The plant foods traditionally consumed by hunter-gatherers contain relatively little carbohydrate, while being dense in nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and fibre. Grains on the other hand are nutrient sparse, but extremely high in carbohydrates. The human body is not evolved to deal with this quantity of carbs, which leads to this condition of hyperinsulinaemia. The effects of hyperinsulinaemia can vary from individual to individual, but include weight gain and obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, atherosclerosis of the arteries and coronary heart disease, and numerous types of cancer. Collectively these conditions are known as the "diseases of civilisation", and their spread through the human population follows the adoption of grains into the diet precisely.

2) All foods have either a net acid or net base load on the body. Meat, Fish, Eggs, Dairy, Legumes and Grains are all acidic. Fruits and fibrous vegetables are all alkaline. Traditional hunter-gatherer diets comprised of meats, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables tend to have a net base load. The inclusion of highly acidic grains into the typical western diet (often in place of alkaline fruit and veg) leads to a diet that has a net acid load.

The body has to neutralise this acidic environment, and it does so by leaching calcium from the bones, and glutamine from the muscles. This leads to a decrease in muscle and bone density and greatly increases the risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is absent from most hunter-gatherer tribes with the exception of the Innuit who eat a diet comprised of solely meat and fish.

3) Lectins are plant proteins found in grains and legumes which are able to penetrate the gut lining undigested. This process can damage the sensitive lining of the gut leading to leaky gut syndrome, causing IBS and general digestive discomfort. Once through the lining of the gut wall they elicit an immune response from the body which creates anti-bodies to attack the protein and destroy it. Things get worse in genetically susceptible individuals, as the plant proteins are very similar in structure to certain human proteins, and sometimes these anti-bodies can turn against the body and start to attack its own tissues. There is mounting evidence that arthritis and M.S. are both caused by the presence of lectins in the diet. Again, these conditions are not present in hunter-gatherer tribes, and only manifest in populations when grains are introduced.

So there are 3 good reasons to remove grains from your diet. For long term health and wellness, a good physique and optimum performance, ditch the bread, pasta, rice and porridge, and eat loads more vegetables instead. For some good low carb/grain free alternatives check out this post:

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[SimonPrimal]

Further reading:

http://thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf