Grains are seeds of grasses. They, along with the Kentucky bluegrass and rye grass in your lawn, are plants from the family Poaceae, the grasses of the earth. Grasses are so ubiquitous and prolific that creatures have evolved that are able to survive by consuming them as their main source of food.
Ruminants such as cows, goats, sheep, giraffes, gazelle, and antelopes are able to digest grasses because they have undergone extensive evolutionary adaptation over millions of years that allow them to subsist on grasses as a food supply. For instance, ruminants:
- Grow teeth continuously to compensate for the wear caused by sand-like particles, or phytoliths, in grass blades. They also lack upper incisors, replaced by a bony dental pad on the top of the mouth to help seize hold of grasses. In contrast, you, a non-ruminant, grow teeth twice in a lifetime, only during childhood and adolescence, and have proud bite-worthy incisors.
- Produce copious quantities of saliva. A cow typically produces 100 quarts or more saliva per day, compared to our 1 meager quart.
- Have 4-compartment stomachs to break down the cellulose of grasses. You have a 1-compartment stomach.
- Regurgitate grasses to chew as a cud. While you may have the urge to chew, it certainly is not for regurgitated wads of grass fiber.
- A lengthy spiral colon that provides greater digestive exposure to further break down the components of grasses, unlike our relatively short colon with a couple of 90-degree turns.
- Harbor unique microorganisms in their 4-compartment stomachs and spiral colons that express the cellulase enzyme and other enzymes to break down the otherwise indigestible components of grasses. We have a relatively sterile stomach and upper small intestine with virtually no microorganisms that express a cellulase enzyme. While our colons harbor microorganisms, they cannot digest any substantial quantity of cellulose.
If you, proud member of the non-ruminant species Homo sapiens, were to grasp a stalk of 18-inch tall semi-dwarf wheat, you can’t eat the roots, nor the stalk, leaves, or husk. You can, however, isolate the seeds, remove the husk, then dry, pulverize, and heat them. You will then have something–porridge or flour–that can yield something you might view as food. But seeds, just like the rest of the plant, have components that are indigestible, such as wheat germ agglutinin, D-amino acids, gliadin (partially digestible), and trypsin inhibitors, among others. (The one component that is digestible is amylopectin A, accounting for the exceptional glycemic potential of wheat and other seeds of grasses, explaining why two slices of whole wheat bread increase blood sugar higher than 6 teaspoons of table sugar.)
You don’t look or smell like a ruminant. Why would you eat like one? When you try to make like a ruminant, all manner of health disasters result from gastrointestinal distress, to autoimmune diseases, to various forms of allergy, to heart disease, to cancer, to dementia. Humans are not adapted to consumption of grasses, seeds or otherwise.
Brian
December 19, 2018 at 5:42 pmWhat about hemp seeds ? There from Grass Man! ;)
What about hemp seeds ?
Bob Niland
December 19, 2018 at 9:45 pmBrian wrote: «What about hemp seeds ?»
With the passage of the recent farm bill, I suspect this question is going to arise more often.
As far as I know, none of Dr. Davis’ programs have had any position on these seeds. They are pretty low net carb. The protein is probably fine. A few seeds on a salad is probably fine.
Just looking at typical Nutrition Facts data, the main concern might be the fat, which is contains a high proportion of Omega 6 linoleic acid (27-41% of the hulled seed), a smaller proportion of beneficial Omega 3 ALA (9%), and an even smaller amount of beneficial GLA (which may be hyped in large text). The fat might be diminished in a meal form of the hemp, often sold as hemp protein. But if the standard amount of fat is present, don’t overdo it, as excess ω6LA is one of the under appreciated provocations of post-1970 diets.
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Rachel
December 20, 2018 at 5:44 pmPigs are not ruminants either, they are more like us hence pork must be cooked thoroughly as we can share parasites. I wonder, then, why products advertising organic pork show the animals grazing on hill tops.
Bob Niland
December 20, 2018 at 7:49 pmRachel wrote: «Pigs are not ruminants either, they are more like us…»
Omnivores — they’ll eat anything, plus the box it came in.
re: «…hence pork must be cooked thoroughly as we can share parasites.»
Such as Spirometra mansonoide, should one desire to harvest a feral hog in Texas (and that won’t, per se, be an organic hog, because it may have been raiding industrially-fertilized GMO crops). Cooking does kill S.mansonoide (aka bob cat tapeworm).
re: «I wonder, then, why products advertising organic pork show the animals grazing on hill tops.»
Because the regulations require access to some organic pasture area, and the imagery is what their customers expect to see on the package. Although commercial organic hogs are grained (presumably organic, but grains nonetheless), wild hogs consume “grasses, forbs, roots and tubers, browse, mast (acorns), fruits, bulbs and mushrooms”, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife. Porky is by no means a vegetarian, however; here in Kansas there is much lore about farmers who fell in the pen, and got eaten by the hogs.
Organic pork is not that easy to find, and is expensive when you do. Perhaps only ⅓ of 1% of US hog farms are organic, and the market is reportedly pretty picky about which portions they want, so the other parts probably get sold at a loss, and have to be subsidized by the choice cuts.
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Dave Prenger
December 28, 2018 at 12:32 pmI agree that removing most wheat products from one’s diet is a healthy choice. However, it seems plausible that the real culprit could be the glyphosate that almost all wheat grown in the USA is sprayed with right before harvest. Glyphosate wreaks havoc on the body’s immune system, gut bacteria, brain, etc. A recent study shows 93% of Americans have glyphosate in their bodies.
In addition, USA citizens with gluten sensitivity are able to eat wheat products in Italy (where most wheat is organic and not sprayed with glyphosate – Roundup) and not encounter any symptoms. But when returning to the USA and eating wheat, their symptoms return.
Do you know of any studies done on organic wheat vs non-organic wheat ? Other than the fact that wheat raises blood sugar, it appears to me that the other negative outcomes described in Wheat Belly could be attributed to glyphosate.
Bob Niland
December 28, 2018 at 2:29 pmDave Prenger wrote: «I agree that removing most wheat products from one’s diet is a healthy choice.»
That doesn’t describe what’s advocated here, which is removing all wheat products, along with all products made with gluten-bearing grains (barley, rye), all grains with troubling gliadin analogs or nasty lectins (corn, oats, rice, milo), and subjecting all less-immediately-toxic grass seeds to the net carb target.
re: «However, it seems plausible that the real culprit could be the glyphosate…»
That was just lately addressed here: Is glyphosate the REAL problem in wheat?
re: «…that almost all wheat grown in the USA is sprayed with right before harvest.»
The “almost all” may not be an accurate characterization of the prevalence this desiccation/staging process. Glyphosate application is a much bigger concern for actual non-wheat glyphosate-resistant GMOs. There’s little point in paying the premium for these patented mutants (e.g. Roundup Ready®) unless the intent is to spray them with that herbicide. In any event, the program here advocates organic and non-GMO produce due to the various direct, indirect, and not yet fully characterized hazards.
re: «…USA citizens with gluten sensitivity are able to eat wheat products in Italy…»
That might be a myth, although the bread is different there, due to factors like:
☣ wheat strain
☣ insecticide type & uptake
☣ fungicide type & uptake
☣ herbicide uptake
☣ fungicide in transport and storage
☣ unwise fortification of flours (folic acid & iron in particular)
☣ adverse other additives (conditioners, bleaches, preservatives)
☣ rapid yeast raising vs. naturally aged (fermented) dough
re: «But when returning to the USA and eating wheat, their symptoms return.»
Alas, there are any number of other suspects for returning tourist revenge: re-exposure to chloramine-laced municipal water, preservatives, emulsifiers, generally higher carb diet, just to name a few.
re: «Do you know of any studies done on organic wheat vs non-organic wheat?»
As with whole wheat vs. refined wheat, and heirloom (e.g. kamut) vs. modern, such studies might have been done, but even if they were unconfounded by wider diet, it hardly matters. The wheat rap sheet is too extensive to remediate. It is simply not possible to breed or engineer a wheat that is safe to eat, and still legitimately call it wheat.
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Dave Prenger
December 31, 2018 at 4:35 pmThanks Bob,
What about Einkorn wheat ? Is it safer to eat than modern wheat ?
Bob Niland
December 31, 2018 at 5:53 pmDave Prenger wrote: «What about Einkorn wheat ? Is it safer to eat than modern wheat ?»
Only slightly, and then only if it’s real einkorn, and organic. “Can I eat einkorn?” seems to be a wheat withdrawal negotiation phase many go through. We probably still have a half a pound of it around here somewhere, from 2011. The former TrackYourPlaque site (now Undoctored Inner Circle) actually had people experiment with it in 2010. That did not lead to an endorsement.
Here’s Dr. Davis on a similar question: Should you eat kamut?
That same research group later ran a similar experiment, and included a non-wheat arm (rice), which beat both wheat and heirloom kamut.
Of course, Ötzi tells us: consume authentic early neolithic grains; expect authentic early neolithic optional ailments. Ötzi also had gum disease, bacterial overgrowth {H.pylori}, worn joints, fully expressed genetic tendency to heart disease {GG for SNP rs10757274}, plus Lyme {still a thorny problem today} and a parasite {whipworm}. But an arrow got him before the organic non-GMO wheat {einkorn} had finished its work.
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