Wednesday, February 20, 2013

All Grains Are Dangerous Unless Fermented

People are not constituted to eat grains, but it was the domestication of grains that allowed civilization to develop. All hunter-gatherer societies have gone exactly nowhere.

So how did so-called "primitive" people get around the problem of grains?

They all fermented them. There are many sites devoted to spreading this knowledge.

In fact, without fermentation we wouldn't have a lot of our food. No alcohol and no cheese, for example. No risen bread. No yogurt.

Grains require careful preparation because they contain a number of antinutrients that can cause serious health problems. Phytic acid, for example, is an organic acid in which phosphorus is bound. It is mostly found in the bran or outer hull of seeds. Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption.

But when you ferment grains, the problems inherent in them disappears.

Fermenting isn't that hard. I've done it for years.

Personally I eat a fair amount of oatmeal. I don't eat rolled oats. I eat the steel-cut. You put them in a bowl, add filtered water, add a teaspoon of kefir (or yogurt) let it set in a warm area for three days, and it turns into what is called sour porridge.

Fermentation neutralizes phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. Vitamin content increases, particularly B vitamins. Tannins, complex sugars, gluten and other difficult-to-digest substances are partially broken down into simpler components that are more readily available for absorption.

Wheat is particularly dangerous and is associated with just about psychiatric disorder that exists. I've known people who were diagnosed as bi-polar, had been on medication for 20 years, and when they got off of all grains they quit their medication in a few months. I've also seen depression go away and schizophrenics get a whole lot better.

Incidentally, in northern Europe during WWII no wheat could be had...and the rate of schizophrenia collapsed.

"...there's a funny thing about schizophrenia," writes Dr. Emily Deans in "Psychology Today, "turns out that quite a few of the adult schizophrenics on an inpatient psychiatric unit in 1967 happened to have a major history of celiac disease (gluten/wheat intolerance) as children. As in 50-100 times the amount of celiac disease that one would expect by chance. Celiac doctors also noticed their patients were schizophrenic about 10X as often as the general population."

She also wrote, "It is important to know that bipolar disorder is associated with inflammation and metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and a "western" style diet. I believe that a combination of chronic stress, genetic vulnerability, nutrient deficiencies, and food toxins (including gluten) are responsible for most of the chronic disease in the western world, including mental illness...what we find is that people with celiac, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia all have weird immune responses to wheat that healthy people don't seem to have."

I don't eat wheat at all, one reason being the wheat today is not the same as it was many years ago. It's been so altered I don't think anyone should eat it, especially kids.

I am especially disturbed about children. Hyperactivity and other fake disorders are overwhelmingly due to nutrition, lack of exercise and boring school. It's not because of a shortage of Ritalin. The only bread I eat is sourdough rye. And I don't eat all that much.

The food companies are there to make a profit, not protect our health. The same applies to government, which has a revolving door with corporate executives. Personally, I believe nothing the government says, or the media. Or almost all doctors, for that matter.

It's up to you to take your health into your own hands. And that of your children's, too. The government and the medical establishment sure aren't going to do it.

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