Posted on 11/18/2004 8:48:52 PM PST by MarMema
The food pyramid is a three-sided polygon of lies. First, since it is almost exclusively presented in two dimensions, it is not technically a pyramid but a triangle. Second--and far more importantly, according to nutrition expert and author Danna Korn--the so-called food pyramid puts an abnormal emphasis on the consumption of wheat and wheat products, a diet that couldn't be less adapted to the human digestive system. Wheat, she insists, is the devil's food--even more than the delightful chocolate cake of the same name.
Korn's campaign against wheat began 14 years ago when her son was diagnosed with celiac disease--a genetic disorder characterized by the inability to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. At the time, celiac disease was considered a rare pediatric disorder that was limited to gastrointestinal symptoms, but during the last decade, it has been recognized as the most common genetic disease in the world. Right now, it is estimated that celiac disease effects one in 100 people--"most of whom have no idea why they feel so terrible," says Korn.
The disease actually goes back 11,000 years to Mesopotamia and the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There, humans evolved from hunter-gatherers to farmers and introduced gluten-based grains into the food supply. The human body--accustomed to a steady diet of foraged nuts, berries and meat--did not take readily to the change.
"That's really only yesterday, evolutionarily speaking," Korn says. "Our bodies still look at wheat like a toxin and try to fight it off. No human fully digests wheat. Even if you don't have a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, your body does not completely digest wheat."
Symptoms of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease include fatigue, headaches, joint pain, depression, irritability and gastro-intestinal irregularities. As a result, they're often mistaken for other serious disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. "So these people are told, `Sorry, you've got fibromyalgia or you've got chronic fatigue syndrome, there's nothing we can do for you. Take these pain pills and go away."
The only way to diagnose celiac disease is a series of blood tests, and the only way to overcome it is to give up gluten cold turkey. "You go gluten-free, and your health will be fully restored," says Korn.
Unfortunately, the list of food items containing gluten reads like a catalog of scrumptiousness: "bread, pasta, pizza, cookies, cake, bagels and beer." And just because a bread is white doesn't mean it's gluten-free. All breads are made of wheat flour.
Despite the moratorium on fermented hops and barley, Korn says there are a number of options available to the dedicated boozehound, including "wine, tequila, vodka, gin, rum or any of a variety of non-wheat-derived spirits."
"We've perpetuated the myth that wheat is good for you and it truly is not," she says. "There's a little bit of protein in wheat. Other than that, though, wheat offers very little in the way of nutrition. Whole wheat is a whole grain and that's good for you, but you can get whole grains from so many other sources that won't have a toxic effect on your body."
Kind of ironic given that it was created out of whole cloth by the dairy industry to get people to consume more dairy products.
Iff 99 out of 100 handle it OK, why the big attack?
If they are symptom free and it's only detectable through tests, why stop eating wheat?
"Our bodies still look at wheat like a toxin and try to fight it off."
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All I need is one statement like that to know this is more
liberal new age crapola.
All together now...
Roll the eyes... "Oh BROTHER!"
Roll the eyes... "Oh BROTHER!"
Roll the eyes... "Oh BROTHER!"
This would be the new fledging democratic state of Iraq, of course. I guess maybe I'm still in election mode because I expected "war" to be in the next sentence.
Sooooo, someone named Korn doesn't like wheat. Isn't that special?
Is there a beer ping list out there?
Check out the so-called paleo diet concept. There are a lot of websites about it; it's not a packaged and promoted kind of diet.
Basically, I'd say it's more of a modified Atkins approach. Unfortunately, as anyone who's tried a high protein, low carbohydrate diet will tell you, natural protein in all it's forms is a lot more expensive than processed foods.
New Age? More a throw back to human pre agricultural diets.
Oh, bull. This sounds like a woman who had a sick kid so she became a busybody crusader on a mission to get everybody else to quit eating wheat so her child wouldn't feel weird because he can't eat it.
Good thing it wasn't a daughter ... she'd join the fringe movement to make men pee sitting down.
Wheat = Flatulence
A sign in my local Trader Joe's says:
"We don't need no stinkin' gluten"
Amen. I'm working nights at a computer workstation and it's really taken it's toll in the last few years.
Well that is real specific. It has the same symptoms as every other mystery ailment.
The average life span 11,000 years ago was probably about 25 years compared to today's 70 - 75. I think I'll take my chances with wheat.
If you have Celiac disease, you will have symptoms. My husband nearly died in January from this disease He stopped eating anything with wheat and is a well man today. You cannot even lick a stamp or envelope as the paste is made with wheat.
Grains were given to mankind so that he may brew.
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