Is Your Food Eating You?

Food: Is it What You Are Eating? or What Is Eating You?

Eating healthy foods begin with the brain. You must keep your brain healthy. What is your motivation? Do you want to be around for your children?, grandchildren? To be able to travel? Have energy and feel excited about life? Once you identify the motivation, no amount of ice cream, fast food, wheat, dairy products are worth it.

Despite all the scientific research, human health is continuously declining. Many nutritionists connect human health problems with nutritional deficiencies. Humans have lost their natural way of eating. What is the human diet supposed to be? What was it originally?

The good news is that there is another species in this world that closely resembles humans, and whose eating habits can be of great help in this quest.

Chimpanzees are very similar to humans.
“Modern people and chimpanzees share an estimated 99.4% of our DNA sequence, making us more closely related to each other than either is to any other animal species.”

“Chimpanzees resemble humans more than any other animal … Human brains are very like chimpanzee brains. The major differences between humans and apes are not anatomical, but rather behavioral.”

Comparison of: the Standard American Diet with the diet of chimpanzees

Consumption of greens has generally shrunk to the two wilted iceberg lettuce leaves on a sandwich.
The bulk of the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) are starches, simple carbohydrates, sugar and grains. This is followed by animal protein. All of these are highly acidic, and disease producing.

Are you aware that something you’re eating may be killing you, and you probably don’t even know it! If you eat cheeseburgers or French fries all the time or drink six sodas a day, you likely know you are shortening your life. But eating a nice dark, crunchy slice of whole wheat bread–how could that be bad for you? Well, bread contains gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and oats. It is hidden in pizza, pasta, bread, wraps, rolls, and most processed foods. Clearly, gluten is a staple of the American diet. What most people don’t know is that gluten can cause serious health complications for many. You may be at risk even if you don’t have full blown celiac disease.

A recent large study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people with diagnosed, undiagnosed, and “latent” celiac disease or gluten sensitivity had a higher risk of death, mostly from heart disease and cancer.
This study looked at almost 30,000 patients from 1969 to 2008 and examined deaths in three groups: Those with full-blown celiac disease, those with inflammation of their intestine but not full-blown celiac disease, and those with latent celiac disease or gluten sensitivity (elevated gluten antibodies but negative intestinal biopsy).
The findings were dramatic. There was a 39 percent increased risk of death in those with celiac disease, 72 percent increased risk in those with gut inflammation related to gluten, and 35 percent increased risk in those with gluten sensitivity but no celiac disease.

This is ground-breaking research that proves you don’t have to have full-blown celiac disease with a positive intestinal biopsy (which is what conventional thinking tells us) to have serious health problems and complications–even death–from eating gluten.

Yet an estimated 99 percent of people who have a problem with eating gluten don’t even know it. They ascribe their ill health or symptoms to something else–not gluten sensitivity, which is 100 percent curable.

And here’s some more shocking news …
Another study comparing the blood of 10,000 people from 50 years ago to 10,000 people today found that the incidences of full-blown celiac disease increased by 400 percent (elevated TTG antibodies) during that time period. If we saw a 400 percent increase in heart disease or cancer, this would be headline news. But we hear almost nothing about this. I will explain why I think that increase has occurred in a moment. First, let’s explore the economic cost of this hidden epidemic.
The most serious form of allergy to gluten, celiac disease, affects one in 100 people, or three million Americans, most of who don’t know they have it.

Undiagnosed gluten problems cost the American healthcare system oodles of money. Dr. Peter Green, Professor of Clinical Medicine for the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University studied all 10 million subscribers to CIGNA and found those who were correctly diagnosed with celiac disease used fewer medical services and reduced their healthcare costs by more than 30 percent.

The problem is that only one percent of those with the problem were actually diagnosed. That means 99 percent are walking around suffering without knowing it, costing the healthcare system millions of dollars.

Why haven’t you heard much about this?
Well, actually you have, but you just don’t realize it. Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity masquerade as dozens and dozens of other diseases with different names.

A review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten. These include: osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety depression, schizophrenia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage). It has also been linked to autism.

Gluten sensitivity is actually an autoimmune disease that creates inflammation throughout the body, with wide-ranging effects across all organ systems including your brain, heart, joints, digestive tract, and more. It can be the single cause behind many different “diseases.” To correct these diseases, you need to treat the cause–which is often gluten sensitivity–not just the symptoms.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that ALL cases of depression or autoimmune disease or any of these other problems are caused by gluten in everyone–but it is important to look for it if you have any chronic illness. By failing to identify gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, we create needless suffering and death for millions of Americans. Health problems caused by gluten sensitivity cannot be treated with better medication. They can only be resolved by eliminating 100 percent of the gluten from your diet.

The question that remains is: Why are we so sensitive to this staple of our diet?
There are many reasons …
They include our lack of genetic adaptation to grasses, and particularly gluten, in our diet. Wheat was introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages, and 30 percent of people of European descent carry the gene for celiac disease (HLA DQ2 or HLA DQ8), which increases susceptibility to health problems from eating gluten.

American strains of wheat have a much higher gluten content (which is needed to make light, fluffy Wonder Bread and giant bagels) than those traditionally found in Europe. This super-gluten was recently introduced into our agricultural food supply and now has “infected” nearly all wheat strains in America.

You can go to: www.celiac.com for a complete list of foods that contain gluten, as well as often surprising and hidden sources of gluten. Hidden sources can be: soup mixes, salad dressings, sauces, as well as lipstick, certain vitamins, medications, stamps and envelopes you have to lick, and even Play-Doh.

To find out if you are one of the millions of people suffering from an unidentified gluten sensitivity contact our office: Lemire Clinic 352-291-9459 www.lemireclinic.com
Additional References: Dr Mark Hyman, : http://drhyman.com, My Life with the Chimpanzees by: Jane Goodall