Wheat Overkill May Kill Us

[mellowsong]

Posted by thoughtfulness (can find no name)
Feb 1, 2012

It’s hard not to believe in a correlation between the growth of veganism and vegetarianism, which sharply limited the types of foods one can eat; the USDA’s food pyramid of 1992, and the growth of wheat intolerance.
Wheat may kill us if we don’t kill this misconception that so much bread and pasta are so good for us.

The USDA made a huge mistake in 1992 by placing 6-11 daily servings of wheat and grains –at the expense of all other food groups — as the foundation of the first food pyramid, but it was an easy sell to the children of the 80s and 90s who have been propagandized and socialized to become vegetarians and vegans. The vegan food pyramid, above, created by the American Dietetic Association, shows grains and cereal as its largest component. 1

Read more: http://www.thoughtful-living.org/2012/02/01/veganism/wheat-overkill-may-kill-us/

[Reesacat]

Excellent article — the author has a great idea for studies:

"There should be a study of how many people developed the wheat intolerance after becoming vegetarian or vegan.
Even more importantly, there should be a study of how many people acquired an auto-immune disease after becoming vegetarian and/or vegan."

[StephenX]

I was a vegan for years. Lost weight and couldn't hang in there with the big boys playing basketball. Bottomed out at 135. I felt good; but something was missing. Now I follow an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, sometimes a little fish. I get more protein and I feel stronger at 174. I still eat some grains (but only whole and organic). I'm using more and more buckwheat flour to replace grass grains. According to our friend Joe Mercola I am a mixed type, so I can tolerate the carbs. Also I am blessed with a metabolism that burns through food like a fusion reactor. Lately I dropped to 153 due to an UTI. I had to eat 3000 cals a day and walk a couple of hundred miles and lift some free weights to get back up to the mid 170's. When I walk the woods I can fill up on wild grass seeds, berries, ramps (strong wild onions) and wild mushrooms. When I hike in the winter I take high protein snacks with me (sardines and cheese). When I walk in the warm months, I take nothing as the forest and fields provide me with all I need. Hoka hey!

[bmc65]

Sounds lovely StephenX, I love ramps and I believe it's soon going to be fiddle head fern time! It must be cool to walk in the woods and find these things. For me it's a walk down the grocery store isle. Too find them wild.... how fresh and nutritious.

[Julieanne]

It's not just grains in pasta and bread - many vegetarians and vegans eat a meat substitute made of wheat gluten, called 'seitan'. There used to be a restaurant in Perth called 'The Happy Buddha" which served dishes that tasted and had the texture of pork, chicken etc, all made from gluten. I ate there once with a veggie friend, many years ago, and the food was surprisingly like meat. There are a million seitan recipes online.

[Islander]

Wonder if "seitan" is another name for quorn. Maybe not, I think quorn is made from a fungus, i.e. mushroom base.

[Maurya]

Seitan is a word of Japanese origin, also know in English speaking lands as "wheat meat", for obvious reasons.

[StephenX]

I believe seitan has a lot of gluten in it. Also such meat substitutes are high in soy and unless they are organic, they are GMO. I can never understand why people crave fake meat. I admit I eat a "veggie burger" now and then; but I make my own with black beans, lentils, brown rice, walnuts and an egg.

[Aaltrude]

In my opinion any vegetarian who eats meat substitutes (which are all highly processed and often contain free glutamate , the problem ingredient in MSG) is finding excuses for not eating meat by trying to keep their diet with a semblance of what they perceive as a normal diet. As an enforced vegetarian (I do not tolerate meat or dairy) there are plenty of ways that in my opinion are more tasty and better for you, to include protein in your diet.

[Maurya]

Among many vegetarians, the mindset is that a combination of the proteins from seitan (protein from wheat gluten) and from tofu (protein from soybeans) would provide the optimal proportions of amino acids from these two sources to yield an approximately appropriate amount of each of the "essential" amino acids. While this thinking basically is sound and accurate, as far as the proportions of amino acids, it leaves out the awareness of so many people's sensitivities to the wheat and to the soy themselves.

No substitute for carrying out a thought process to completion, is there?

[Reesacat]

No substitute for carrying out a thought process to completion, is there?
Now that is a well-thought out post!

[Julieanne]

Seitan is usually made at home, not bought, so not much processing. It is just vital wheat gluten mixed with water and flavouring, simmered in water. Some time ago, I went veggie for a while (didn't last) and made my own. I knew nothing about gluten sensitivity then.

Apparently it's fairly popular with Seventh Day Adventists. Most vegetarians were brought up eating meat, so they miss the texture, and this is a reasonable substitute.

[highlander]

In my experience many vegetarians like the flavor of meat but can't accept the killing of an animal to please that desire. Meat substitutes are attractive in that regard. I loved sausage patties but I couldn't deal with eating a pig. Enter Morningstar Farms. I ate their products for years (and loved them) until I found out how bad soy is for health.

[StephenX]

If you cannot kill it, you should not eat it. If you kill it you are obligated to use every bit of it. I have no problem with people who hunt. My problem is with people who kill for sport and don't use all of the animal. The Native Americans had the right idea. They apologized to the soul of the animal and thanked it. Then they used every bit of it.

[Reesacat]

StephenX, that makes sense to me. After reading The Lakota Way I have so much respect for Native American hunting practices.

[highlander]

I agree with you, Stephen. I'm the type who would starve rather that kill an animal. Sometimes my body wants fish or turkey and I'm caught in a quandary. Guilt vs. cravings -- a familiar place.

[mellowsong]

I would LOVE to be able to stop eating meat simply for humanitarian reasons. However, I have gotten extremely ill every time I've tried. My body simply cannot process the grains and legumes needed to get enough protein. I no longer even tolerate quinoa. Along with not being able to get adequate protein, I also have a blood sugar issue. If I eat more than 20 to 30 g/carbs/day regularly my blood sugar climbs. Even one sweet potato can put it past 150. I don't have metabolic syndrome or anything; I do have a damaged pancreas that simply does not produce much insulin. I have a choice of very low carb or end up frankly diabetic. Guess you know which choice I've made. So, although I hate the thought that an animal had to die for me to eat; I do the best I can to make sure nothing I eat wasn't at least humanely raised.

[highlander]

Has your body always responded this way, Mellow?

[Islander]

I feel exactly like Stephen.
I have no problem with killing an animal for food. Something must die for something else to live. We evolved as both hunters and gatherers. I kill and dress all my own chickens, always have, and used to do my rabbits, turkeys and geese as well. The larger animals went to slaughterhouses where I watched to make sure they were dispatched humanely. All my critters led free and happy lives. My kids grew up understanding that these were pets, those were food, and named them accordingly. I have no quarrel whatsoever with vegetarians but I personally take responsibility for the meat I eat. And yes, I use all of it, even make head cheese. Any part I don't want becomes pet food. Nothing is wasted here on the tundra!

[mellowsong]

@Stephen and Islander: I really like the way you put things and although you've said similar things before Islander, what y'all have said does make me feel better about having to eat meat. Thank you :)

@Highlander: Not always, in a way that I was aware of. Of course, knowing what I know about gluten etc, I imagine a lot of my problems are directly related to my past diet. When I first went in the Air Force, I was put in the paint shop because they were trying to increase the number of women in non-traditional fields. Well, within a year, I developed asthma from exposure to the fumes. Then, I retrained into pharmacy. One of my jobs was mixing all the IV antibiotics for the hospital. I would spend up to 12 hours/day in front of a laminar flow hood. This hood prevents contamination of sterile solutions but, it blows the antibiotic powder directly back at you, into your face. Before long, I was allergic to every antibiotic I had compounded. This was back in the 70s. I have now developed allergies to antibiotics that didn't even exist back then. I've had problems with iodine and seafood since the late 70s. I could eat fish, but eating shell fish was playing Russian roulette. I still did it frequently, just taking Benadryl and making sure I had an inhaler handy before hand. The last time I ate scallops, I ended up in ER in near anaphylaxis even with precautions, so... My reactions to conventional foods are not directly the protein but the residual antibiotics and other chemicals in meat, and pesticides/fungicides on produce. The MCS was formally diagnosed back in 2000 but in the last few years, after chemical and mold exposure, has become extreme. I think I just insulted my body too many times in too many ways and it went into full scale rebellion.

[Maurya]

Has anyone read Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World by Mark Schauss? In it the author explains quite a bit that we have suspected all along.

[mellowsong]

Sounds like a good book Maurya. I'll have to see if my library has it. Thanks :)

[sollyb]

Mellow wrote:

My reactions to conventional foods are not directly the protein but the
residual antibiotics and other chemicals in meat, and pesticides/fungicides on
produce.

I have that sort of "allergies" as well. Most people just can't grasp how many foods one cannot safely eat when there is an iodine allergy. Way back 25 years ago when my first huge hives reaction to iodine ocurred, the only things I had to avoid were ocean fish, shellfish, and seaweed. Now the list of things I can't eat is about as long as I am tall, all because of increased iodine and seaweed extractive usages. And along the way I have developed other allergies also. When one is in the middle of an allergy reaction I found it is all too easy to develop a reaction to something that was not a problem before. Some of those have become permanent allergies for me...given that factor and the increasing iodine every where (in any and every form), my food choices, med choices, and personal care product choices continually narrow.

To get to the original topic........when I was vegetarian, gluten "steak" was a real treat for me......I'd make a huge batch, bread it, and fry it up in PUFA veg oil......It was utterly addictive, I could eat enormous amounts of it in a sitting, I could not stop eating it. I've since run across the idea that this should have been an indication it was an allergen to me.
sollyb

[Aaltrude]

When one is in the middle of an allergy reaction I found it is all too easy to develop a reaction to something that was not a problem before. The term given to this phenomenon is "spreading".

[StephenX]

I can relate to the synergy of allergies. When I was but a lad, I suffered horribly from "hay fever". Couldn't even go outside when ragweed was blooming. When I quit drinking that white crap they call commercial milk, my ragweed allergy disappeared.

[StephenX]

My mother admitted to me that she drank tons of tomato juice when she was pregnant with me. That may account for my extreme allergy to raw tomatoes.

[Aaltrude]

My mother admitted to me that she drank tons of tomato juice when she was pregnant with me. That may account for my extreme allergy to raw tomatoes.
Quite the opposite should happen Stephen. The foetus is primed to accept anything it comes into contact with in utero as self. This is how the body is able to prevent the immune system attacking itself. If you are allergic to tomatoes and your mother ate lots of them during pregnancy then your "allergy" could potentially be termed an auto immune problem.
My mother was given a lot of penicillin when she was pregnant with me and she often asked me if I am allergic to it. I don't think I ever managed to convince her that it was unlikely I would ever become allergic to it in those circumstances.

[Maurya]

OK, some of you smart people, what would the expected outcome be if a Mother prided herself upon having gained very few pounds while pregnant. Normal weight (7 pounds) baby was born (that be me!) According to her memory, she gained a bit more with her other pregnancies, but always kept her weight down somewhat, as that seemed to be the recommended "thing" during the 1950s.

Would this set up a person for trouble in adulthood?

[Islander]

Maurya, no source to refer you to, only my experience with kids under mental health care...which is that the developing fetus takes what it needs from the mother's body. If the mother isn't eating well, she's the one who will become malnourished, not the baby. Hence the old saying, "A tooth for each child."

[highlander]

If the mother isn't eating well, she's the one who will become malnourished, not the baby.

I read that is true with everything except when it comes to adrenals. I came across that while researching adrenal fatigue and don't remember the source. Stressed moms can have newborns with compromised adrenals. (I think that was the case with me.)