You harmful effects of grains (Low carb diets) are so subtle that when someone tells us about the harm we don't even believe it. Their effects confuse us, making us think that the causes are something else. Research shows that when we eat grains, brain function decreases, we can develop brain damage over time and our IQ may even lose a few points. The compounds in grains cause a myriad of problems in the body, namely less brain .

Most cavemen didn’t eat grains, so we’re not very genetically adapted to them. Some research suggests that some cavemen ate a small amount of ancient grains in season, but in microscopic quantities compared to what we eat today. Grains are low in nutrients and contain toxins that promote brain dysfunction and disease. Interestingly, wheat, of all foods, is the most highly correlated with mortality (3). You’re not going to be very smart if you’re dead.

The harmful effects of grains and their cultivation

When grains began to be cultivated about 10,000 years ago, the average height of a man decreased from an average of 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches) to 5 feet 3 inches (141 cm). (10) Only in the 20th century, with greater wealth and nutrition, did we regain our height. Even today, in cultures that subsist largely on grains, children's growth is stunted and their stature is reduced.

This period in evolution also saw the birth of modern health problems—heart disease, osteoporosis, etc.—as evidenced by Egyptian mummies. Chronic inflammatory and degenerative conditions are endemic in grain-eating populations—exactly what we see in the United States. Today, malnutrition in the womb of grains has caused our skulls to become too small to accommodate our teeth, resulting in crooked teeth and impacted wisdom teeth. Grains make you stupid, too. Thanks, bread.

Some people can tolerate relatively new foods like grains – just as some can drink and smoke their entire lives and live to 110. Nothing can kill these people. They are like cockroaches. Some people are perfectly healthy eating grains, but most are not.

The Harmful Effects of Grains | Anti-nutrients

Plants, like any other living thing, need to survive. Humans and other mammals can run away from predators. Plants can't. The poor things are stuck in the ground. So they've had to develop other defense mechanisms—antinutrients called phytates, lectins and gluten – to keep animals from eating them. Call it Mother Nature’s pesticide strategy. These substances cause intestinal distress, malnutrition and even infertility.

Hunter-gatherers were in some ways smarter than us because they figured this out and soaked their grains before consumption. Modern humans are indeed smart, but they are turning a blind eye to the plant's weapons of mass destruction. Let me wake you up.

These anti-nutrient toxins are most abundant in the bran and germ, or outer layers of the grain, but are present throughout the grain. There are a lot of grain toxins—too many to mention in this short blog post—but I’ll get past the big troublemakers. They include:

• Gluten
• Phytates
• Lectins

Gluten (the Latin word for glue) is the primary protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye, and oats. Because it’s difficult to digest, gluten enters the small intestine undigested, where it causes intestinal irritation. This inflammation can contribute to all sorts of health conditions, including autoimmune diseases, IBS, thyroid problems, neurological disorders, and pain.

Phytates, which bind phytic acid, are an anti-nutrient. Phytic acid, once released from its phytate bond, is a powerful chelator, meaning it binds to minerals and takes them out of the body. This can be positive, reducing toxins and fighting cancer, but it is usually negative, prohibiting your system from absorbing minerals. It is a common misconception that phytates in grains remove minerals beyond what is in the grain you are eating. This is not true. Phytates only remove what is in the grain itself. Because phytates make minerals bio-unavailable, you can forget about all those healthy vitamins and minerals you think you are getting from your oatmeal.

Lectins are essentially carbon-binding proteins. Their binding powers can cause them to attach to the intestinal lining and wreak havoc. Lectins are responsible for most of the negative effects of wheat and other grains. They are particularly resistant to degradation with soaking and fermentation, which means that even proper preparation doesn’t get rid of these nasty substances. They are difficult to digest and bioaccumulate in your body, causing all sorts of health problems. They promote leptin resistance, contributing to obesity. Even in small amounts, lectins are pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, cardiotoxic, and neurotoxic. Just nasty stuff.

A plant's antinutrient toxin strategy is to prevent the digestion of its seed. Grains are seeds. One way the seeds spread is through bird droppings, the only ones that have resistance to these substances.

If you eat the seed (which we know you are), the seed will hopefully pass undigested through your body to a new location and propagate the species. Our ancestors knew this intuitively and always went to great lengths to prepare grains to make them more digestible. So, you should… or avoid them.

Perhaps if grains had been around long enough for us to develop an adaptation to them, we could eat them without such serious health consequences. As of today, we simply do not have the digestive capacity necessary to mitigate the harmful effects of lectins, gluten, and phytates.

Harmful effects of grains | Gluten

The poorest offenders: gluten grains

Brains and nerves are damaged by gluten. Medical research reveals that gluten commonly causes nerve damage, brain diseases, mental disorders, learning disabilities, fatigue, and poor growth. Gluten causes inflammation in the intestines that prevents the absorption of nutrients, which causes nutritional deficiencies. But most gluten damage sufferers remain completely unaware of this!

Most people cannot tolerate grains containing gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats) — even people who are not considered gluten-sensitive or have symptoms of intolerance. An estimated one in three people have an intolerance to gluten-containing grains. A recent study shows that even people without gluten intolerance or celiac disease experience inflammation after consuming a very small amount of gluten. (1) Some people can tolerate grains in small amounts — not as a dietary staple, as we find in the standard American diet. If you do include these relatively new foods in your diet, they should be kept to a minimum.

Dr. Maios Hadjivassiliou of the United Kingdom, a recognized world authority on gluten sensitivity, reported in The Lancet that “gluten sensitivity may be primarily and sometimes exclusively a neurological disease.” In other words, people may experience gluten sensitivity due to problems with brain function without any gastrointestinal problems. Dr. Hadjivassiliou points out that the antibodies that a person produces when they are sensitive to gluten may be directly and exclusively toxic to the brain. We recommend buying your favorite at super low prices and free shipping, and you can also pick up your order in store on the same day.

Since its original investigations in 1996, the recognition that gluten sensitivity can lead to impaired brain function has led to a virtual explosion of scientific papers describing this relationship. Researchers in Israel have noted neurological problems in 51 percent of children with gluten sensitivity and have even described a link between gluten sensitivity and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As authors of a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics stated in their research:

This study suggests that the variability of neurological disorders occurring in celiac disease is broader than previously reported and includes simpler and more common neurological disorders, including chronic headache, developmental delay, hypotonia, and learning disabilities or ADHD.

The link between gluten sensitivity and problems with brain function, including learning disabilities, difficulty staying on task, and even memory dysfunction, is actually not that difficult to understand. Gluten sensitivity is caused by elevated levels of antibodies to a component of gluten, gliadin. This antibody (anti-gliadin antibody) binds to gliadin when a person is exposed to any gluten-containing food such as wheat, barley, or rye. Testing for the antibody can be performed in any doctor's office. When the antibody binds to this protein, specific genes are activated in a special type of immune cell in the body.

When these genes are turned on, inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are created, which are directly detrimental to brain function. In fact, elevated cytokines are seen in such devastating conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and even autism. Basically, the brain doesn’t like inflammation and responds very negatively to the presence of cytokines. Flipping these gene switches negatively impacts brain health and function.

Harmful effects of grains | Grain suppression digestion

For every gram of wheat bran consumed, fecal weight increases by 5.7 grams. Eating wheat causes large amounts of food to be excreted instead of digested. (6) And when you don't get the most nutrition from your food, you'll eventually suffer from grain bloating.

Gluten is toxic to intestinal cells. It inhibits cell replication, changes membrane structure, reduces the size of villi that absorb nutrients, and increases secretions that cause oxidative damage. (10) Gluten sabotages the gut by reducing its surface area and impairing digestion. How can you be smart if you’re not absorbing all the nutrients from your food?

Gluten causes intestinal permeability

If you’re gluten-sensitive (and even if you’re not), a serious amount of damage can occur in your body long before you experience symptoms or intestinal distress. This damage won’t necessarily be limited to your digestive system, as gluten most notably negatively affects the thyroid and triggers autoimmune diseases (10). The insidious nature of gluten is that the damage often occurs silently and goes unrecognized for a long time.

One of the most well-studied aspects of gluten is its propensity to increase intestinal permeability (4). Increased intestinal permeability can lead to a wide range of health problems, including reduced brain function. The problems start like this:

Like all toxins, gluten triggers an immune response. Almost everyone has an immune response to gluten (10).

This immune response clears gluten from the intestine but causes inflammation.

Inflammation kills intestinal cells and loosens the tight cellular junctions that form the intestinal wall, creating “holes.” (1)

These holes in the intestinal walls are what is known as leaky gut syndrome.

Undigested gluten proteins pass between these funnel cells and into the blood, triggering an immune response.

Now, other harmful substances can enter your bloodstream and settle in your organs, including your brain. These include, but are not limited to, toxins from food, including preservatives and food additives. Pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses can also enter your body.

The stage is set for these toxins to cause a variety of non-specific symptoms and illnesses.

Toxicity flows from your gut throughout your body and into your brain, clogging the brain with toxicity and preventing it from performing its normal functions. Natasha-Campbell McBride elaborates further:

… As a result, the digestive system – instead of being a source of food – becomes a major source of toxicity. These pathogenic microbes within the digestive tract damage the integrity of the intestinal wall. Then all sorts of toxins and microbes flood the bloodstream and enter the brain.

Harmful effects of grains on the brain

Wheat contains large amounts of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). This lectin is largely responsible for many of wheat’s negative effects. Because lectins are so difficult to digest, they tend to bioaccumulate in your body, where they can interfere with biological processes. WGA is particularly problematic in this regard. Studies indicate that it has a number of harmful health characteristics and activities:

Neurotoxicity – WGA can cross your blood-brain barrier through a process called “adsorptive endocytosis,” (2) pulling other substances with it. WGA can attach to your myelin sheath (8) and is capable of inhibiting nerve growth factor (9), which is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain neurons.

Excitotoxicity – Wheat and soy contain exceptionally high levels of glutamic and aspartic acid, which makes them excitotoxic. Excitotoxicity is a pathological process where glutamic (think MSG) and aspartic acid (think aspartame) cause excessive activation of their nerve cell receptors, which can lead to calcium and brain damage. These two amino acids can contribute to neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and other nervous system disorders such as epilepsy, ADD/ADHD, and migraines.

The Harmful Effects of Grains May Make Your Brain Shrink

We’ve lost 10% of our brain mass since the beginning of agriculture. In other words, we’re giving it back thanks to grains. This is due to consuming a larger portion of our diet as grains, which are nutritionally far inferior to animal proteins. So our brains have shrunk. Thank you very much, red velvet cupcakes.

When you eat grains, whether they are whole grains or not, your blood sugar spikes. These grains are broken down into simple sugars that cause you to release insulin to bring that high blood sugar down. The constant release of insulin (the fat-storing hormone) can eventually lead to diabetes and insulin resistance. A constant state of high blood sugar wreaks havoc on your body and brain.

If you developed diabetes from eating too many grains and sugar, substantial evidence shows an association between type 2 diabetes and brain atrophy, cognitive impairment, and dementia. (5)

Blood sugar levels just in the “high normal” range — below the levels associated with diabetes or even prediabetes — can lead to brain shrinkage, according to the results of a new study from Australia. Using multiple brain scans, researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra found evidence of the shrinkage in older adults aged 60 to 64 whose blood sugar was high but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes or prediabetes. The researchers observed a decrease in brain volume of six to 10 percent in participants whose blood sugar was “high normal.”

This study suggests that brain changes that affect memory and emotional processing may occur even before blood sugar reaches pre-diabetic levels. This makes a strong case for cutting back on any foods, including grains, that cause a spike in blood sugar. (5)

The harmful effects of grains are lowering IQ

Dr. Paul Jaminet, author of The Perfect Health Diet, refers to an interesting study that shows a correlation between wheat and low IQ:

[Another] really interesting study came out of Japan this summer. Children in Japan who eat wheat every day … are almost four IQ points lower than children who eat rice. The cool thing about rice (it’s the only grain we recommend in our diet) is that the toxins are destroyed in cooking. Cooked white rice is very low in toxins. That gives us a measure of how much wheat can affect health. That’s interesting, because the IQ difference between Asians and Americans is about four points. It could just be the difference between eating wheat and rice.

Harmful effects of grains | Final words

When it comes to things that we humans are not adapted to eat and digest, wheat and its gluten protein probably top the list. It’s very sad that wheat is so ubiquitous in our society, and many health conditions would likely not exist if it weren’t for our high wheat consumption. Positive changes are often seen immediately after removing wheat and other grains from the diet. Consider giving it a try for a few months.

While most people can indulge in less healthy choices from time to time without negative consequences, wheat and other gluten-containing grains should, in my opinion, be completely avoided, especially for those suffering from any type of autoimmune disease, digestive condition, or inflammatory condition. All evidence points to the idea that most grains should be eliminated from the diet—with the exception of white rice. White rice does not appear to cause the problems that other grains do. (10)

When you start to review the evidence stacked against whole grains, it becomes quite clear that our dependence on wheat and other grains may be a major culprit in the poor health of so many. Grains are the food most strongly associated with mortality (3). They also reduce IQ and brain volume. There may not be a single step that can do more to improve your health and intelligence than eliminating bread and grains from your diet. Say no to whole grain cereals!

Chris Kresser gave a very interesting talk at the Ancestral Health Symposium in 2013. He postulated that the reason we don’t tolerate grains as well is not because we can’t digest them, but because we’re missing out on the crucial gut bacteria needed for their digestion. Many of the hunter-gatherer cultures discovered by Weston A. Price thrived on diets consisting of grains. How could this be if grains are so detrimental to our health?

One theory that’s prevalent in the Paleo community goes something like this: the shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture led to an increase in disease and a decline in health. There’s no doubt that this is true, but the idea that compounds like gluten and lectins were responsible for this decline isn’t very well supported by the evidence. Significant increases in chronic inflammatory disease didn’t occur for the most part until the last few hundred years. However, the shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture happened approximately 10,000 years ago. So there has to be something else that explains this decline in health. If it were true that gluten and lectins in grains significantly increased the risk of disease, they would have done so long ago.

Chris Kresser posits a very interesting theory that it’s possible that these potentially harmful compounds in new foods aren’t a significant risk factor for inflammatory diseases, as long as the Paleolithic microbiome—our gut bugs—are still intact. When our microbiome is depleted or deficient, these foods can become risk factors for inflammatory diseases. Without adequate probiotic colonies, we develop leaky gut, food intolerances, allergies, autoimmune issues, inflammatory conditions like asthma, and a host of other diseases.

Chris Kresser went on to say in his talk that if we still had the Paleolithic microbiome intact, we would be able to tolerate grains and all of these compounds without any problems. This point is crucial because it resolves some of the apparent conflicts in the ancestral paradigm. It may explain why many cultures ate grains for thousands of years and why the health conditions we attribute to grains were incredibly rare.

You can expand your Paleo diet. Some people who have spent time checking their gut bacteria are able to introduce grains, dairy, or other non-Paleo foods—even if they have had previous intolerances—and do just fine. It also explains why some people are able to tolerate these foods with seemingly no problems, while others cannot. So work on good gut health (see Probiotics ) and you should be able to safely enjoy grains and other non-Paleo foods, as long as you don’t have food intolerances for other reasons.

Given this new information, if you’re having health issues, go grain-free. Fix your gut. Then reintroduce grains to see if you’re ready. You’ll know when and if grains work for you. And if you don’t have the right gut flora to handle them, they cause all the problems mentioned in this blog post.

See also:

References

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2. Broadwell, R. D., B. J. Balin, M. Salcman. “Transit Pathway for Bloodborne Proteins across the Blood-Brain Barrier.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. 1988. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC279605/ .
3. Campbell, Colin T. The Study of China . Banbella Books, 2005.
4. Campbell-McBride, Natasha, MD. Gut Syndrome and Psychology . 2nd Edition.

Medinform Publishing, 2010. 5. Cherbuin, Nicholas, Perminder Sachdev, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, Kaarin J. Anstey, PhD. Higher normal fasting plasma glucose is associated with hippocampal atrophy. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31826846de. Neurology 2012 Sep 4 vol. 79 no. 10 1019-1026. Http://www.neurology.org/content/79/10/1019.abstract

6. Cummings. JH The effect of dietary fiber on fecal weight and composition. Handbook of Dietary Fiber in Human Nutrition, 2nd Edition, ed. GA Spiller. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1993, 547-73.
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8. Dolapchieva, S. “Distribuição de sites de ligação de aglutinina de germe de concanavalina A e de trigo nas fibras de nervo periférico de ratos reveladas pela histoquímica de lectina / glicoproteína-ouro”. The Histochemical Journal . Londres: Chapman & Hall, 1996. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02331422?LI=true#page-1 .
9. Hashimoto, S., Hagino A. Wheat germ agglutinin, concanavalin A, and lens culinary agglutinin block the inhibitory effect of nerve growth factor on cell-free phosphorylation of Nsp100 in PC12h cells. Cell Structure and Function Journal. Kyoto: Nihon Saibo Seibutsu Gakkai. 1989. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2720800# .
10. Jaminet, Paul. Jaminet, Shou-Ching. The Perfect Health Diet. Scribner, 2012.
11. Mercola, Joseph. 3 Ounces of This May Harm Your Brain. July 4, 2011. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/04/can-eating-this-common-grain-cause-psychiatric-problems.aspx
12. Mercola, Joseph. This Food May Slow Your Brain—and Dropped IQ 4 Points in Recent Study. January 7, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/07/dr-paul-jaminet-interview.aspx
13. Virgin, JJ. The Virgin Diet . Harlequin Nonfiction, 2012. Com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/04/can-eating-this-common-grain-cause-psychiatric-problems.aspx 12. Mercola, Joseph. This Food May Slow Down Your Brain — and Lowered IQ 4 Points in Recent Study . January 7, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/07/dr-paul-jaminet-interview.aspx 13. Virgin, JJ. The Virgin Diet . Harlequin Nonfiction, 2012. Com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/04/can-eating-this-common-grain-cause-psychiatric-problems.aspx 12. Mercola, Joseph. This Food May Slow Your Brain—and Lowered IQ 4 Points in Recent Study. January 7, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/07/dr-paul-jaminet-interview.aspx 13. Virgin, J.J. The Virgin Diet . Harlequin Nonfiction, 2012.