I know many a person who loves wheat. It is a powerful attractant to humans for the opiod content alone, never mind the blood sugar issues. Many, when confronted with the evidence that it drives up blood sugar, attacks the gut, and in general isn't nutritious, get a pained look on their face and then simply ignore the information. However, in order to eat the wheat they apparently can't live without, they mix into the flour any number of flavor producing products prior to baking (if they don't buy their sugar and flavor enhanced bread off the shelf) and slather butter, jelly, mayonaise, or some other product on to the bread to make it taste good enough to eat it. Truly, this is a puzzling behavior to witness for people who express a desire to control their blood sugar, lower their weight, or reduce the hypoglycemia/hunger cycles.
Dr. William Davis, unusual in that he's a cardiologist who's built a business around non-surgical heart care interventions, has done the world a favor and published "Wheat Belly".
The adult RDA for vitamin B6 is 1.3-1.7 mg per day for adults, though many argue (and I agree) that higher quantities are beneficial. According to the USDA, two slices of whole wheat bread contain 0.117 mg of vitamin B6.
What other sources of B6 are there? Here’s a partial list:
Salmon, 4 oz: 0.64 mg
Spinach, 1 cup cooked: 0.44 mg
Chicken breast, 4 oz cooked, 0.68 mg
Tuna, 4 oz, cooked: 1.18 mg
Flaxseed, 2 tablespoons: 0.18 mg
Pistachios, 1/4 cup shelled: 0.408 mg
Sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup hulled: 0.484 mg
Avocado, 1 cup: 0.41 mg
Herbs and spices, such as garlic, paprika, turmeric, oregano, and chile powder, are also rich sources of B6. Just two cloves of garlic, for instance, contain 0.074 mg B6, or 63% of that contained in two slices of whole wheat bread.
So 4 oz of chicken breast provides nearly 6-fold more vitamin B6 than two slices of whole wheat bread, 4 oz of tuna over 10-fold more. Even two tablespoons of flaxseed–very easy to obtain–handily exceeds the B6 content of wheat products.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/09/wheat-belly-and-vitamin-b6/
Paleo man and woman may have had a few grass seeds from time to time, but mostly they got the nutrition that is in grass by eating the herbivores (and omnivores like chickens) who were made for that purpose. And that's just how you should get your B6 also.
Listen here to Dr. Davis' summary of "Wheat Belly" via Jimmy Moore's podcast: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/4418/495-the-fly-lady-and-dr-william-davis/
Here's the BLUF: The wheat you eat today is a variety much unlike that eaten by any prior generation. Further, whole wheat or not, when measured, wheat very often (unless your system is still bulletproof) wheat drives blood sugars sky high. To that, add a remarkable number of neurological effects and you get a food that is truly suspect unless your life and health is so perfect you can afford to take a hit so that you can eat a food that must be slathered in sugar or fat to be enjoyed (by most).
Why do people still recommend "whole wheat" (which isn't really whole, but that's another story) for its glycemic superiority? I can't answer that. It's mind boggling that professionals can be that ignorant.
Here's another fabulous post by Fat Head himself, Tom Naughton: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/08/30/book-review-wheat-belly/
A taste: receive occasional emails and comments from people who can’t believe wheat isn’t health food. Some have quoted Bible passages about our daily bread, the staff of life, breaking bread with family, etc. Others have pointed out that Americans ate plenty of bread and other wheat products 100 years ago, but weren’t as likely to be fat and diabetic as people today.
I usually reply that the wheat products we consume today aren’t the same as those consumed by people in Biblical times, or even in more recent times. But I didn’t realize just how different today’s wheat is until I read Wheat Belly, a terrific new book by Dr. William Davis, the cardiologist you may already know from his Heart Scan Blog.
Here's Mark's Daily Apple weighing in on lectins and why you don't want them unless you do want a wheat belly: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/lectins/
Lastly, here's a grain industry post on the topic, which is interesting to read because of the fabulous effort to spin the book via half truth and appeal to authority (grain industry group cites USDA as the gold standard for scientific endorsement? How's that working for you?) - but even better are the comments. Folks are passionate because they know they are being lied to, and it makes them angry (and informed!). Really, grain food industry, all you have throw at this book is B6 deficiency and the USDA? http://www.sixservings.org/2011/08/500/
But that's all they will likely have to throw at the book, because most just won't do without the convenience and the habit of wheat and bread consumption, and seem to willingly pay the price.
Dr. William Davis, unusual in that he's a cardiologist who's built a business around non-surgical heart care interventions, has done the world a favor and published "Wheat Belly".
The adult RDA for vitamin B6 is 1.3-1.7 mg per day for adults, though many argue (and I agree) that higher quantities are beneficial. According to the USDA, two slices of whole wheat bread contain 0.117 mg of vitamin B6.
What other sources of B6 are there? Here’s a partial list:
Salmon, 4 oz: 0.64 mg
Spinach, 1 cup cooked: 0.44 mg
Chicken breast, 4 oz cooked, 0.68 mg
Tuna, 4 oz, cooked: 1.18 mg
Flaxseed, 2 tablespoons: 0.18 mg
Pistachios, 1/4 cup shelled: 0.408 mg
Sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup hulled: 0.484 mg
Avocado, 1 cup: 0.41 mg
Herbs and spices, such as garlic, paprika, turmeric, oregano, and chile powder, are also rich sources of B6. Just two cloves of garlic, for instance, contain 0.074 mg B6, or 63% of that contained in two slices of whole wheat bread.
So 4 oz of chicken breast provides nearly 6-fold more vitamin B6 than two slices of whole wheat bread, 4 oz of tuna over 10-fold more. Even two tablespoons of flaxseed–very easy to obtain–handily exceeds the B6 content of wheat products.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/09/wheat-belly-and-vitamin-b6/
Paleo man and woman may have had a few grass seeds from time to time, but mostly they got the nutrition that is in grass by eating the herbivores (and omnivores like chickens) who were made for that purpose. And that's just how you should get your B6 also.
Listen here to Dr. Davis' summary of "Wheat Belly" via Jimmy Moore's podcast: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/4418/495-the-fly-lady-and-dr-william-davis/
Here's the BLUF: The wheat you eat today is a variety much unlike that eaten by any prior generation. Further, whole wheat or not, when measured, wheat very often (unless your system is still bulletproof) wheat drives blood sugars sky high. To that, add a remarkable number of neurological effects and you get a food that is truly suspect unless your life and health is so perfect you can afford to take a hit so that you can eat a food that must be slathered in sugar or fat to be enjoyed (by most).
Why do people still recommend "whole wheat" (which isn't really whole, but that's another story) for its glycemic superiority? I can't answer that. It's mind boggling that professionals can be that ignorant.
Here's another fabulous post by Fat Head himself, Tom Naughton: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/08/30/book-review-wheat-belly/
A taste: receive occasional emails and comments from people who can’t believe wheat isn’t health food. Some have quoted Bible passages about our daily bread, the staff of life, breaking bread with family, etc. Others have pointed out that Americans ate plenty of bread and other wheat products 100 years ago, but weren’t as likely to be fat and diabetic as people today.
I usually reply that the wheat products we consume today aren’t the same as those consumed by people in Biblical times, or even in more recent times. But I didn’t realize just how different today’s wheat is until I read Wheat Belly, a terrific new book by Dr. William Davis, the cardiologist you may already know from his Heart Scan Blog.
Here's Mark's Daily Apple weighing in on lectins and why you don't want them unless you do want a wheat belly: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/lectins/
Before Monsanto, Mother Nature had her own pesticide strategy. (Humans being among the “pests” to be warded off.) In order to avoid being completely decimated by insects, foraging animals and Groks, plant species evolved assorted anti-nutrients that would make said pests regret their gorges with a variety of mostly digestive related ailments. Low grade toxins, in a sense. A workable balance developed between plants that were able to safeguard their species’ survival and the “pest” patrons that were able to benefit from the plants’ nutrition but learned to partake more sensibly from their supply. Given that our primal forefolk foraged widely and ate a surprisingly diverse diet, the system worked.
Lectins are essentially carb-binding proteins universally present in plants (and animals). Just as they protect plant species from Grok-sized predators, lectins also support other immunological functions within plants and animals (against pathogense, parasites, etc.) They also assist in other functions like protein synthesis and delivery in animals. They’re relatively sticky molecules, which makes them effective in binding with their sought after sugars but undesirable for our digestion, in which their binding powers can lead them to attach to the intestinal lining and wreak havoc.Lastly, here's a grain industry post on the topic, which is interesting to read because of the fabulous effort to spin the book via half truth and appeal to authority (grain industry group cites USDA as the gold standard for scientific endorsement? How's that working for you?) - but even better are the comments. Folks are passionate because they know they are being lied to, and it makes them angry (and informed!). Really, grain food industry, all you have throw at this book is B6 deficiency and the USDA? http://www.sixservings.org/2011/08/500/
But that's all they will likely have to throw at the book, because most just won't do without the convenience and the habit of wheat and bread consumption, and seem to willingly pay the price.
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