In addition to the busy-ness of the gym, I’m moving! And yes…getting threatened with stiff $ penalties if my apartment walls are not back to builder-white has been prioritized by me as greater than blogging. But I’m here now! So let’s get talking!

I was organizing the office last week, and while I was organizing the notebooks we have, one had the papers flipped so the back page was facing out. And on it had been written the first half of a day’s food journal – my food journal, actually. When I found that food journal, I read it and laughed while simultaneously shaking my head. “No wonder…” I thought. Here’s what my journal listed:

Bfast: Oats (steel cut) with berries and honey
Snack: Apple with almond butter, nuts (probably almonds or cashews)
Lunch: Caprese salad, asparagus
Snack: Gluten free crackers

Why do you think I laughed at this list & thought ‘no wonder?’…It looks like pretty decent food, right? I mean, it’s definitely not McD’s!

We’ll explore several variables that are ‘less than optimal’ with that food journal over a few blog posts (because you’ll glaze over if we do this all in 1 go) & it’s my hope that you’ll learn from my early mistakes & make more optimal choices for your meals and snacks.

So what’s wrong with that list of food? It’s just one big insulin-spiking roller coaster that contains very little protein or fat and a whole lotta carbs. It has approx. 34g of protein, 35g of fat and 100g of carbs. Remember I still had dinner to get through (where there would have been another grain + protein) to add to these totals. Compare that to today, when I don’t eat 100g of carbs in an entire day, I eat 2.5x that amount of fat, and eat 3.5x that amount of protein. And I’ve gotten significantly healthier since changing how I eat from that early food journal when I’d just gone gluten free.

Whether you’re on the Paleo bandwagon, the gluten free band wagon, or no wagon at all – one thing you simply must understand if you are to understand how food/lifestyle plays into health/wellness.

Inflammation is at the root of almost* all disease.

*the scientific theory does not allow for a definitive statement unless every variable has been proven/disproven. Since new diseases are still emerging, we cannot say all, but for the top killers of humans- heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer – look to inflammation first.

Here are 2 ways to create inflammation in your body. (There are other ways, but we’ll leave those for another time)

1. Eat foods that spike your blood sugar, causing lots of insulin to be released into your blood stream.

2. Eat foods that contain pro-inflammatory compounds in them.

Let’s take apart #1: When you eat a food, it breaks down into smaller components as you digest it. Eat a food that breaks down as a simple sugar (carbs do this) & your body has to send out insulin to deal with the spike in blood sugar. Because, you see, you no live long time if you have sugar for blood.

You don’t eat many sweets you say, eh? How about your whole wheat bread (2 slices raise blood sugar more than 2 Tbsp table sugar), your rolled oats (because you already know those ‘instant’ oats are not as healthy)…sorry, same deal- blood sugar spike, your side of fruit along with your yogurt (sigh…sorry Charlie, fruit is full of fructose & most yogurts have 8g of sugar or more)…and all those cheery little gluten-free goodies like gluten free pasta/crackers/bread/cookies/etc.? oh this is so not good, those spike your blood sugar even more than the whole wheat bread. Total bummer right? Initially, I agreed…yes, bummer.

But when I looked at what those silly little gluten free foods were doing for my wellness and performance, I was willing to try something different. What wasn’t working for me? Well, at the time I wrote that food journal, I was gluten free, but I was unknowingly relying on sugar to keep me going all day. No, I wasn’t eating sweets at every turn. I was eating grains at breakfast daily, as a small part of lunch or afternoon snack (usually tortilla chips or GF crackers) and a few nights a week quinoa would show up on the dinner plate.

Grains break down as glucose in your blood stream. Whole9 says it well in their Grain Manifesto: “When too much blood sugar is present in the system, your body quickly runs out of places to store it as useful energy, and will store any excess as body fat.

In addition, when too much insulin is present in the system, the cells in your body become desensitized to the hormonal “message” insulin is trying to send. Since the message isn’t getting through, your pancreas is prompted to release even more insulin when your body doesn’t need it.

Finally, chronically high insulin levels lead to a condition in which your body has trouble releasing the energy already stored in your cells. This is a bad place to be. If (via a diet high in carbohydrates) this pattern continues, insulin levels continue to rise, fat stores continue to grow and the body becomes completely incapable of responding to its own directions.”

Does that make you re-think that pre/post-long run bagel or your gluten free crackers and cheese afternoon snack? *For the record: I’ve leaned out more since cutting the grains in my diet way, way down. No, it’s not hard, you just have to learn what you’re doing. Vegetables and potatoes provide ample carbs for the diet of even an active person.

I’m also not “hangry” anymore. Hangry: ‘hungry’ + ‘angry’ = “hangry” <–not a good thing for all parties involved. Hangry-ness happens when your blood sugar is plummeting after a previous skyrocket. Now, I get hungry, but it’s a deep, real hunger of needing nutrients – not a response I’m feeling from my ‘here & then gone’ simple carb snacks. I can go several hours without eating, and am not wrecked from it. I used to eat literally every 90mins some bite, snack or meal would go in my mouth because of the blood sugar roller coaster I was on.

We’ll get to method #2 for creating inflammation in the next post. We’ll look at how you can limit the amount of pro-inflammatory compounds you eat & find more optimal foods that will fuel your body better. Till then, take a good look at what you’re eating – maybe do a food journal for a few days, and see what types of foods you’re eating most. If it’s a carb-heavy diet, take a serious look at how that’s making you feel, look, and perform & consider how a change to your diet could improve on those things.

1) It carries a compound that doesn’t break down all the way in a human gut, thus causing gut irritation, systemic inflammation, & potential for autoimmune disease.*

Answer: CEREAL GRAINS
(yep, all those grains you eat as part of your ‘diet rich in whole grains’ as prescribed by Biggest Loser and a whole bunch of other mainstream, misinformed people. Did you know cereal is a slurry of grains formed into a flake or shape depending on the cereal & was originally invented at a sanitarium for use on the patients staying there as a way to ‘calm their loins’, yeah, it’s what you’re thinking – seriously, read the story here.)

2) It has molecules called anti-nutrients in it that fight against what vitamins, minerals, amino acids & helpful molecules try to do in your body.*

Answer: WHOLE GRAINS
(foods in nature aim to survive, it’s built into their DNA – look at an apple, its seeds contain small amounts of poisons that are there by design. If an animal or human came along & ate the whole apple - seeds and all – then the apple would never reproduce & would eventually die off. Seeds can easily pass through stool & since pungent with the poison, can signal animals to avoid eating them, leaving them behind to mix into the soil and re-grow. Grains, while not full of cyanide like apples, have a hard endosperm there by design & when eaten, sets off molecules & chemicals that make it tough for your body to fully digest them – that grain is fighting for its life to make it out of your intestines & back to the earth for re-growth!)

3) It has a defense mechanism built into it similar to a soap molecule. Rather than attach itself to your carrier cells in the gut, it simply punches holes in the membranes of the gut lining cells*. <—It’s a bit barbaric don’t you think?

Answer: QUINOA. I know!! I know!  I was shocked when I learned this because I enjoyed quinoa & its complete profile of amino acids giving it a slightly higher protein content than other grains, but when I really looked at the science of it…well, read on…
(Quinoa is botanically NOT a grain, but it has evolved in a similar biological niche giving it similar properties to grains*. Grains essentially hitch a ride on your cells & generally wreak havoc on everyone through their chemical inflammation, regardless of if you are Celiac or non-Celiac gluten intolerant..but quinoa decides to skip that part & just punch a hole in your microvilli (hold your hand up with the fingers apart, that’s what your inside of your gut looks like with cells all over that surface area of finger-like folds). If you punch a hole in the microvilli, you’ve just opened the door for food particles to slip out of the gut…hello leaky-gut syndrome! And this is how people can become intolerant to seemingly innocuous things like chicken, garlic, and cinnamon.

4) Contains a molecule that makes the immune system mount a response to it (as a good little immune system should do) however also makes a close match to cells you already have in your body, like pancreas cells, and sets the scene for the immune system to mount that same attack it had against the molecule to the pancreas cells.*

Answer: ALL GRAINS.
“But I don’t have Celiac!” you say, I know, many people don’t have Celiac. You don’t have to have Celiac to have an immune response to grains*. All humans react similarly to grains, and those with Celiac or non-Celiac gluten intolerance (what I have) simply have a more intense reaction than non-Celiacs. But the reaction is still there in non-Celiacs: when grains are eaten regularly, the body is perpetually dealing with these inhospitable jerky molecules creating inflammation (the root of most diseases) and creates the possibility for your body to begin mounting an attack against its own cells creating auto-immune diseases that seem to pop out of nowhere but can be tied to leaky gut & the autoimmune response that creates. See list below:
-Infertility/PCOS
-Type 1 diabetes
- Multiple Sclerosis
-Rheumatoid Arthritis
-Lupus
-Vitiligo
-Narcolepsy
-Schizophrenia
-Autism
-Depression
- Huntington’s
- Non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma
- Hypothyroidism
- Porphyria

I’m not posting this to annoy you about your grain consumption, I’m doing this because the more I learn about food & nutrition, the more I can see the CLEAR LINK between what you eat & how sick or healthy you become. Since I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance 2 years ago, we’ve studied grains & how being gluten free positively impacts health, and now we’re studying the differences between Neolithic (post-agricultural revolution) and Paleolithic (pre-agricultural revolution) foods.

Those of you who know about Paleo diets & hate anything that takes away your beloved grains, don’t roll your eyes, there is some serious science around this. We are not studying it because we want this to be the next fad in diets. We are studying it because as students of human science, we are literally eating up all of these studies & scientific proof showing how foods we thought were healthy are negatively impacting our health & longevity.  

In the month of May, Drew & I are going to be doing a Nutritional Challenge – and blogging about it. If you’re so inclined to join us, super! We’ll be using scientific studies & the teachings of biochemist Robb Wolf & former professional marathoner/resident-smart-guy Mark Sisson. Check back this week for updates on what will be included in the Nutritional Challenge.

*Excerpts of Robb Wolf’s book, The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet were included in this post. Studies proving this data are listed in the back of Robb’s book.

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning your body can make it itself, whereas other amino acids you must take in through your diet because your body cannot produce it. Recently, it has been classified as a conditionally essential amino acid, which means that even though the body can produce it, if there is a time of extreme stress, the body’s demands exceed the rate at which the body can produce it & depletion occurs, requiring supplementation to support the body’s needs.

Glutamine is involved in more metabolic pathways than any other amino acid. It converts to glucose, which is required for energy. It helps to manage blood glucose levels as well as the correct pH level in the body (which is critical to health!). It serves as a fuel source for cells of the intestinal lining, that without it, those cells waste away making digestion & nutrient absorption challenging. It is also the base of the building blocks for DNA & RNA synthesis.

So to summarize that paragraph: Your body uses glutamine to *have energy for daily & workout function *control blood sugar spikes & drops, which affect how much fat you store & if you develop diabetes *keep your pH in a range that does not cause disease, breakdown & sickness *help your body use the nutrients from the food you eat & keep the place where 80% of your immune system is stored (in your gut) healthy & *to upkeep the very things that make up who you are.

Glutamine also plays a role in helping the body to secrete HGH (human growth hormone) – which helps the body metabolize fat & support new muscle growth. And supplementation of glutamine can help in the treatment of arthritis, autoimmune diseases, fibrosis, intestinal disorders – and can play a big role in helping people to not waste away when they are going through treatments for critical health issues like cancer & AIDS.

When you are in good health, your gut lining is strong & functioning as God intended it- absorbing nutrients, digesting & eliminating the foods we take in. When your gut health is compromised, which antibiotics, the Pill, poor nutrition, extreme stress, medical treatments, lack of breast milk received as a newborn, and many more things can cause – your body lacks a major player in the key to optimal health. Glutamine plays a big role in helping the gut to heal if it is damaged & remain strong, especially if you’re someone like me, who already has an altered gut due to almost 3 decades of gluten intolerance that I didn’t know about & ate a gluten-filled diet that was damaging my gut the entire time.

Glutamine has many benefits for optimal health, but, if you are hyper-sensitive to MSG, you should use glutamine supplementation with caution as glutamine metabolizes in the body into glutamate. So if you have physical reactions to MSG in food, give due diligence before starting to supplement with glutamine. MSG & glutamate as metabolized from glutamine are NOT the same thing – MSG is a chemical compound that scientists still don’t really understand other than that it can make any food taste more like that food. MSG is EXTREMELY dangerous to consume regularly. Glutamate as the metabolized form of glutamine is simply what the body does to this amino acid to make it readily available for use within the body.

Glutamine is just one supplement that may help you to move closer to optimal health. Our diets today are so nutrient deficient, even in fruits & vegetables if they are not organic, and we’ve done such damage to them from living an unhealthful life at some point in our lives or from taking antibiotics, that we all need to consider supplementation to help us return to optimal health. We should not rely on them as something we need forever, as your supplement profile should change as your health changes, but you should explore supplements as an added benefit to your health plan.

Consult with your naturopath before beginning a program (I’d say doctor, but to be honest, very few doctors understand supplements in a natural or holistic way so you’d probably be met with the answer “you don’t need that” if you talk to them).

Gluten has the potential to shorten your life if you consume it with ANY level of intolerance. Gliadin, the protein in gluten, is difficult to digest & for those with intolerance to it this means that those proteins sneak through the stomach & into the blood stream, where they make their way to any & all parts of the body and act as an opiod. That’s right, when you eat gluten with an intolerance, even a tiny amount, it’s going to places like your brain, your joints, your heart, your immune system, and creating problems such as cancer, arthritis, brain fog, mood changes, and tons more.

So yeah, it’s not ok to eat gluten – even tiny amounts – if you’re intolerant. That doesn’t mean get crazy, but it means be totally freaking educated so you don’t accidentally activate cancer cells because your body does not have active natural killer cells because the gluten disables them. That’s one thing that can happen if you still eat gluten. As you can see, I’m passionate about this.

And if you don’t have any intolerance? Still better to limit your gluten intake because it IS an inflammatory food, which means when you eat it, your inflammation levels rise as your body tries to process it. Inflammation is seen in the body as dysfunction like arthritis, heart attacks, skin issues – and as excess stored body fat – for those of you who’d like to look like you workout.

So – what’s the deal with Modified Food Starch? (And modified corn/tapioca starch, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and many more “flavorizers”) Well, I saw my naturopathic doc to get another ASI Stress Test done to check my adrenal levels (they’d been elevated the last time we checked). The test also checks your insulin levels, cortisol levels, DHEA & progesterone levels, and for any immune reaction to gluten in your system. When he called with the test results, I was shocked that he told me I was “borderline” for gluten intolerance.

“Um, Doc, shouldn’t my number for that reading be 0 since I already don’t eat gluten?” “Well Kate, obviously it’s sneaking through somewhere, one big area people don’t realize is they consume any products that contain things like HVP, modified food/corn/tapioca starch, and many more things, that the process to make those uses gluten- THUS, if you consume something that contains those things, you’re ingesting gluten.” Crap.

As you know I don’t eat processed/packaged stuff very often – but have you looked yet to see how pervasive those additives are in food today???? It’s sick how they are in virtually anything on a store shelf today. I was looking at tapioca pudding last week as a nice little summer-weather dessert for me & my man – and every single type contained modified tapioca starch. Your yogurt may have it. Your pudding cup definitely does. Your fruit snacks do. And if you check the things you eat daily, I’ll bet you find stuff that has chemicals in it that are made using gluten.

These are all basically new versions of MSG, and along with MSG, they should all be banned. They don’t do the body any favors. There are better ways to make food because we’ve done it for a long time without these newer chemical additives to food.

So! If you’re trying to stay gluten free, be wary that if you eat these chemicals, you are consuming gluten. I’m watching everything that goes into my diet now to see just how often I run into these food additives & to see if I can step around them. I urge you to read your labels this week & see if you can count how many times you go to eat something that contains these things in the ingredient list. It all comes down to eating as nutritionally valuable as possible – if that food gives you a big bang for your buck, then have at it! If it’s edible stock price is plummeting as you read the ingredients list, know that if you consume it, you’re consuming a lower quality product for your high performance body.

This week, we are so fortunate to have Dr. John D. Turner granting us an interview on how food, specifically gluten, plays a role in the improving or declining health of individuals. His interview sheds light on “optimal wellness” for non-athletes & athletes alike!

Dr. Turner has been the person to treat & guide me to good health through homeopathic, nutritional & supportive services. He also was the Dr. to diagnose my gluten intolerance after many different Dr.’s wrote my symptoms off as “just the way you’re built,” “take this pill for the rest of your life,” or as not really being a ‘big’ issue, even though I felt like my wellness was an important issue to me. I owe him the world & he’s been kind enough to share some insights in this interview. Please enjoy!

Kate: Dr. Turner, in 1 or 2 sentences, what is/are your practice philosophy(s) as relating to the care of ones’ health?

Dr. Turner: Health is a balance of the structural, nutritional, & emotional aspects of our beings. You cannot influence one part of the triangle without affecting the other two.

Kate: Celiacs’ disease is portrayed as a fairly UNcommon issue…is this true? What % of the pop has Celiacs? Can you estimate a % that has it & does not know it?

Dr. Turner: Uncommon? No. Poorly Diagnosed? Yes. Statistically it is diagnosed in 1 of every 200 individuals or 0.5% of the population, but that is the extreme form of the disease & only discovered through invasive diagnostic techniques. There are some estimates that say as much as 40% of the population could have some form of Celiacs’ disease & not be aware of it.

 Kate: Why kind of issues/symptoms can gluten create in the body for someone with gluten intolerance/Celiacs’ & for someone without intolerance of any kind?

 Dr. Turner: One of the reasons its poorly diagnosed is that the vast majority of the symptoms are not gastrointestinal. Headaches are one of the most common non-GI symptoms. There is a 20% decrease in blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain during a gluten sensitivity reaction. Because of the constant stress on the immune system, the adrenal glands are eventually depleted and a host of problems can occur…anything from hypothyroid function to hormone imbalances to hypoglycemia.

Kate: Gluten intolerance is a very real issue to me and many people, however, it’s been written about as “some catchall name for when a person feels better in body/mind/or spirit after cutting grains from their diet & that it is not actually diagnosable” (from Slate.com, 2009). Would you give me your thoughts on this statement & also how you can diagnose gluten intolerance?

 Dr. Turner: The statement seems counter-intuitive to me. If someone feels better in body, mind & spirit after cutting grains out of their diet then who cares what you label it, you are obviously healthier. To diagnose gluten intolerance, we use laboratory testing to measure gliadin antibodies in a persons’ saliva. This method can register a ‘false negatives’ if someones’ Secretory IgA is suppressed due to adrenal imbalances. We also use applied kinesiology, or muscle testing, and sometimes we use a computerized acupuncture device to energetically test for sensitivities.

Kate: What are the short & long-term consequences of consuming gluten when you’re intolerant to some degree?

 Dr. Turner: Allergic gastritis due to food allergies will result in a reduction of the hydrochloric acid secretions in the stomach which will in turn impair protein digestion & overall nutrient absorption. Long term, this leads to malnourishment, dysbiosis, and symptoms of acid-reflux.

Kate: Does consuming too much gluten affect other chemical or hormonal functions of your body? Am I correct in assuming over-consumption also lays the groundwork for a Candida overgrowth?

 Dr. Turner: I’ve mentioned the endocrine imbalances related to Celiacs’ disease, you can only imagine the end result of year of poor nutritional support to the reproductive system, musculoskeletal system, & nervous system. Because of the low acid in the stomach resulting from allergic reactions, there is a rapid & dramatic rise in Candida growth in the stomach, small intestine & esophagus.

Kate: If you don’t have an intolerance, can you eat gluten freely without consequence?

 Dr. Turner: Too much grain based foods will drive the inflammation up in your body even if you don’t have an intolerance. Hard fiber from grains also tend to constipate you.

Kate: Is there any support for the idea of advising patients to go gluten-free (or very gluten-reduced) for improved sports performance or improved performance in daily functions, even if they are not intolerant?

 Dr. Turner: Although grains containing gluten can provide you with glycogen for muscle energy, they also make you more acidic which will increase inflammatory proteins. If you have an intolerance & don’t know it, then you will notice a big difference in how you feel, both mentally & physically, during and after your workouts (after removing gluten).

Kate: Is there anything else you think is vital for people to know about gluten or the over-consumption of grains?

Dr. Turner: Grains & fiber became a large part of our diets when two men, Mr. Kellogg & Mr. Graham, led a puritanical campaign at the turn of the century. Their premise was that constipation resulted in pressure being applied to our reproductive organs which generated “carnal thoughts.” Their solution was to eat lots and lots of fiber. Sadly, our modern-day food pyramid hasn’t wavered from that stance very much. (Link to this amazing historically factual story here. Of note – how corn flakes were invented by letting corn grains go stale!)

I would like to thank Dr. Turner for sharing his time & valuable education with us! Your interview has shed even more light on the fact that ‘all is not as it seems’ in the colorful & snazzy world of food-product-marketing & that we need to be constantly vigilant of what is going in our mouth & whether it is taking us toward optimal health or further from it.

A person with non-celiac gluten intolerance may develop celiac if they continue to ingest gluten & once you have one of these disorders, there is no going back. You will have it for life & the ONLY treatment is to live a gluten-free life.

Symptoms associated with Celiac’s Disease & Gluten Intolerance:

Gluten is a protein found in many cereal grains & is the main protein found in wheat. It’s what makes dough soft & chewy & is vital to making bread in the traditional recipes. The major grains that contain gluten are: wheat, barley, rye & oats*. A complete list of the grains containing gluten is found below. Gluten is made up of amino acids, which are like building blocks for that protein. Gliadan is one form of gluten, and is generally recognized as the problem for those who have gluten intolerance or Celiac’s disease- which are very different forms of a similar problem.

Celiac disease is the most severe form of gluten intolerance, recognized by villous atrophyin the lining of the stomach. The simple way to understand this is that Celiac patients are classified by a specific majormalabsorption issue in their small intestine. Gluten intolerance (non-Celiac) is a just as serious but not as severe. A gluten intolerant patient will not have the villous atrophyof a Celiac but will have symptoms that will limit their quality of life & could eventually become Celiac’s disease.

When a person ingests gluten regularly – which means they eat anything that comes from wheat/barley/rye/oats (like breads, pastas, muffins, cereals, baked goods) or is made with gluten (including some coffee creamers, lunch meats, soy sauce, dry seasoning packets, some personal hygiene products & the list goes on and on), their body has to try to digest & absorb that large protein, gliadin. Since it cannot digest the gliadin, the body sends out antibodies to attack this offender which sets off an immune reaction in the body. See my post on a complete list of symptoms of this disorder for more details on this immune reaction.

 Gluten intolerance/Celiac’s disease are auto-immune disorders, which means if you are diagnosed with it, family members should also be tested because there is a high likelihood that 1 or more of them are carriers as well. These disorders lead a person to have serious malabsorption issues – since their small intestine is where vitamins & minerals are absorbed by the body – a person with either disorder can begin to have serious problems as they absorb less & less vitamins – specifically vitamin B12 absorption is seriously affected in patients. B12 play a major role in cellular function & since you are made up of cells that need to function, this is a problem that can affect your entire body.

*Oats do not contain gluten on their own, but are commonly mixed with gluten-containing grains, thereby making them contaminated & a no-go for someone with gluten intolerance. If your doctor is ok with it, Certified GF(Gluten Free) Oats can be an option for porridge but some people also have an allergy to oats, and must avoid those as well.

Gluten-containing grains: Wheat, barley, rye, oats*, durum wheat, kamut, spelt, einkorn, triticale, semolina, bulgur, wheat germ, couscous, farina, emmer, matzoh, graham……*remember that there are a vast majority of processed & packaged foods out there that also have wheat gluten in them so you have to read labels.

Link to ”safe” foods for gluten intolerant:     http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

(Healthier Without Wheat, Dr. Stephen Wangen)