Hello blogger world. It's been a while. Not much time these days to share all that is on my mind, but I had to take a few minutes out of my busy day to share this.
I've been reading a new book about autoimmune diseases called, "Autoimmune - The Cause and The Cure" by Annesse Brockley and Kristin Urdiales. While I am a bit skeptical about the word "cure" when it comes to all types of autoimmune diseases, I do realize that a drastic change in diet and lifestyle can greatly benefit ANYONE and EVERYONE, regardless of whether or not they suffer from an autoimmune disease.
Here I want to share a small bit of the book in the section about rebuilding your gut.
It starts off by explaining how all dry breakfast cereals are made. They
make a thick mash out of the grains, etc. and then put them in an
extruder - this machine forces the grains out of a hole the shape they
want the cereal to be (o-shapes, flakes, animals or shreds).
Now to quote the book:
"This process of 'extrusion' destroys many of the nutrients that are
present and renders the amino acids toxic to our bodies by denaturing
the proteins.
"In his book, Fighting the Food Giants, Paul Stitt cited a cereal company
study in which four groups of rats were each given a different diet
(Stitt, 1980). The first group received plain whole wheat, water, and
synthetic vitamins and minerals. The second group received puffed wheat
(an extruded cereal), water, and the same synthetic mix of vitamins and
minerals. The third group was given only water, and the fourth group was
given only water and the synthetic vitamins and minerals.
"The rats that were part of the group that received the whole wheat lived
for over a year on the diet. The rats that received the water and the
vitamins lived about two months. The rats that were only given water
lived for a month. The most surprising results came from the group given
the puffed wheat. The rats that received the puffed wheat, vitamins,
and water lived for only about two weeks. Upon autopsy, researchers
found signs of insulin shock, with dysfunction of the pancreas, liver,
kidneys, and the degeneration of nerves of the spine.
"In an additional study, University of Michigan researchers separated
their rats into three groups (Fallon, 2008). The first group received
corn flakes and water; a second group received the cardboard box the
cereal came in and water; and the control group received rat chow and
water. The control group remained in good health during the experiment.
The rats fed the corn flake box and water died of malnutrition. The rats
given the corn flakes and water, however, died before the rats that
just ate the box! Additionally, the rats given the corn flakes displayed
schizophrenic behavior before they died; throwing fits, biting each
other, and finally going into convulsions."
I have not checked into the sources she refers to, but I plan to when /
if I have time. And yes, I realize these are rats, not humans, but still
the results are alarming enough to cause concern.
We ditched cereal a long time ago. For the last 10 years or so, we have had cereal a few times a year ... some organic, whole grain varieties that we get real cheap at the discount store that we have as a snack or part of a meal in a pinch. I think we'll skip it from now on. Sounds like even a few times a year is not worth it!!
There are so many other options for breakfast besides cereal. We usually just have leftovers. If nothing is leftover, we have oatmeal or toast & eggs or some other quick, healthy alternative. Lately I started making real sourdough bread ... great for breakfast or any time of the day. Maybe I'll post about that some day when I have time.
There is so much more I want to say here.
we don,t eat cereal that much any more, well honestly rarely.
ReplyDeleteIt is basically all SUGAR now...
Most corn these days is genetically modified. It tends to create its own pesticide in our guts. I rarely eat corn, and when I do, I get non-gmo certified.
ReplyDeleteI no longer eat wheat in any form. I believe it was slowly killing me. After I quit eating wheat in two weeks a long list of ailments, conditions, and symptoms completely disappeared. I asked some others about it, and they pointed me to the book Wheat Belly. (I'm not saying go buy it!) In it Dr. Davis explains how the wheat that is in all processed foods, the flour we buy, all of it, is a mutated form of wheat (not GMO), and that there have been experiments that by removing the wheat it actually cured people of schizophrenia (a study that had to be thrown out because the schizophrenics themselves didn't volunteer for the study), and cured tons of other medical diagnosis.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'm not claiming Dr. Davis is right or wrong, I can only say that from my own experience, it certainly holds true. I no longer have asthma, acid reflux, joint pain, brain fog, I can now get up at 5:30 in the morning and stay awake until 10:00 pm with no need for a nap, I don't get hungry between meals, and I'm much calmer. That's just some of the things!
What amazed me was how I was told that all of my health problems stemmed from some other thing, like my asthma was due to scarred lung tissue, acid reflux due to spicy food, chocolate, over eating, and all the usual suspects, but the fact is it was NONE of those things because I can eat and consume all I want (not that I should) as long as there is no wheat in it and not get heart burn. In two weeks I cold walk a mile without wheezing or needing a nap. I now walk two and my husband is always amazed at how I can do that when I could barely get down the driveway without needing an inhaler, and being in pain in my joints. I'm not a celiac, I don't have a gluten intolerance, and an allergy test wouldn't show that I was allergic to wheat, maybe a sensitivity, but not an allergy. It doesn't matter to me, it was killing me and I won't eat it again if I can help it.
So my point is, I'm not sure it's just the cereal. It could be the wheat in the cereal.
Tia - have you tried sourdough? That actually does not bother me like regular bread does.
ReplyDeleteSomething is certainly different about today's wheat. What did Christ eat? I'm not sure. I have heard a few different ideas ... kamut, spelt or rye being some. Whatever the case, the bread certainly did not contain this instant yeast!!! I hope to do a blog post soon on sourdough bread.
It's not the yeast that bothers me (although now if I do eat some bread all I can taste is the yeast, blech!)
ReplyDeleteI need to clarify that I do eat wheat/bread once a week for communion. I have a very small piece though.
Not sure what type of wheat or bread Christ ate, but it's believed that a type of wheat he could have eaten is called einkorn wheat. You can buy einkorn pasta but I haven't been able to find the flour.
The wheat that is used in all processed foods, the flour we buy, all of it is a hybrid type of wheat that has a lot more genes then einkorn. You have to think about how that can be bad like this: When you breed one type of dog to another type of dog you still end up with a dog that has the same amount of genes as its parents. Today's wheat has far more genes then its parents. I think of it as if it were a type of wheat that was grown in a nuclear power plant.
It was developed in the 1960s-70s; a high-yield, semi-dwarf strain. It's not genetically modified, but cross-bred, to be fast growing, and resistant to certain bugs and such. The bottom line was the dollar, grow it as fast as you can, as much as you can, and sell it for as high as you can. We were told how wonderful this wheat would be in solving the world's hunger problems. It hasn't. It's just made people fat and have lots of diseases.
I don't eat much cereal these days, but when I do, I usually go for plain oatmeal, with some honey, cinnamon, milk and raisins. It is very satisfying and oatmeal is great for the digestive system. When I feel I need to "cleanse" my body of toxins (for example, the other day I ate something really buttery that gave me ferocious heartburn), I eat a few meals of oatmeal. Took the heartburn away and got the garbage out of my system.
ReplyDelete