The take home here is that grains
and milk both have proteins that bind with receptors to effectively encourage
satisfaction with the food but actually sidesteps the choices your body wishes
to make.
The problem is that we want to
over eat these foods and that promotes excess weight and any related
allergies. I suspect that low level
gluten allergy is way more common than anyone realizes.
In the e vent you now know that
your hunger for flour based products in particular is not a choice made by your
body so much as by the food itself.
Knowing this will allow you to take a more measured approach to their
consumption.
Addicted to Nature?
Published on June 8th, 2011
Written by Dr. Al Sears
Eating a bagel and cream cheese or crunching on some pretzels is
addictive in much the same way, biologically, as narcotics are.
That’s because grains like wheat, barley, and rye – and milk from
cows – have something in them that acts just like morphine. They’re called
“exorphins.” They can make you weak and tired, and take over your body just
like they’ve taken over the Western diet.
But today I’m going to show you how to stop this from happening, get
rid of the foods with exorphins that can make you weak, and give your body
foods that will keep you strong.
But first, let me explain how grains can be so addictive…
Did you know your body makes its own narcotics? They are mini proteins
that are like morphine called endorphins. Endorphins bind to other proteins
designed to receive them. These receivers are your “opiate receptors.”
When endorphins bind to these receptors, you get a reduced sensation of
pain, it sedates you, and it affects your emotions. It also stimulates your
pleasure response. It tells your brain you’re getting a reward.
Sweet foods like fruit and fatty foods like juicy cheeseburgers have
this effect. That’s why you crave them. Nature designed you this way so you
could get antioxidants from ripe, sweet fruits, and so you could get healthy
fats from meat to transport vitamins through your body.
The exorphins in grains and cow’s milk hijack this process and trick
you because they act just like natural endorphins. But there’s nothing natural
about them.
They replace your endorphins by binding to your opiate receptors
instead. This makes you artificially feel pleased and rewarded.
Instead of your own endorphins telling you something is tasty and to
eat more of it, the food’s exorphins tell you the food was tasty. The food is
fooling you and telling you to eat more, not your body.
In one study, researchers discovered how milk exorphins trick you. They
found that two exorphins from cow’s milk carry information with them as they
bind to opiate receptors. The message they deliver to your brain is, “Go to
sleep, feel bad, but go back for more anyway.”1
Your brain also uses the exorphins instead of
neurotransmitters which can impair your learning and memory.
The true source of nutrition, health, and energy starts with eating
mainly protein and very few grains that try to mimic or replace your body’s
natural endorphins.
Here are my three steps to help you keep exorphins from getting control
over your body and robbing you of your health:
Step 1) Get Rid of the Gluten: One exorphin you may have heard
of is gluten, a sticky, gluey protein found in grain. It’s commonly used in
baked goods. It makes dough stretchy, holds cookies together, and it’s why
bagels are doughy.
But here’s the thing about gluten: Besides being an exorphin, it isn’t
part of our native diet. It can give you digestive problems like bloating,
cramping and even symptoms that resemble irritable bowel syndrome.
You can find gluten in some unlikely places, like pasta, beer, soy
sauce, certain medications, toothpaste and even lipstick. It can also hide in
sausage and hamburger filler, ketchup, ice cream and mayonnaise, and
pre-packaged grated cheese.
Try to avoid these fillers that have gluten exorphins:
• Distilled grain vinegar
• Malt/Maltodextrin
• Hydrolyzed protein
• Yeast extract
• Food starch
• Rennet
• Semolina
Step 2) Get Better Bread: The modern food industry is constantly
trying to tell you how healthy their “wheat” or “whole grain” breads are.
That’s because big business wants you to keep eating grains. They’re cheap to
produce and companies make a fortune selling grain for all those rolls, boxes
of cereal and loaves of bread.
But none of them are natural in that you could not have eaten these
processed foods in your native environment. And none of them are “healthy.” Not
only do they have exorphins, but they are loaded with sugar and preservatives.
Whole grain breads are junk food.
Coconut flour and almond flour are excellent choices to replace
flour from wheat, bran, buckwheat, millet, and other grains if you want bread.
If you can’t find them, rice flour makes a good alternative.
Step 3) Get Back To Basics: Everyone can benefit from eating less
grains and processed food, and eating more protein. This will get you back to
your native way of eating. It will boost your energy, improve focus, improve
digestion, and aid with the absorption of nutrients.
The USDA is making this very difficult. Their food pyramid is based on
eating lots of exorphin-containing grains that make up breads, pastas and
breakfast cereals. The pyramid puts almost no emphasis on proteins and fats.
Instead, you want to turn the USDA’s pyramid on its head. Here’s my
Healthy Food Pyramid you can follow to minimize exorphins and maximize your
strength and energy:
1 Loukas, S., Varoucha, D., Zioudrou, C., et al, “Opioid activities and
structures of alpha-casein-derived exorphins,” Biochemistry Sept. 13,
1983;22(19):4567-73
1 comment:
Re: Milk and Grain Addiction. The article was truncated. The last sentence indicated that a food pyramid would be shown and none was.
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