Why Choose Sustainable Food (and can we afford it?) Part Three - Grains.


This is a huge subject with many different sides to tell. I’ll try and condense it down to a simple-to-understand few paragraphs that will give you an overview of grains. From there, I’d advise to do some more research, there is loads and loads of info on grains out there at the moment – especially with diets like Paleo and Clean Eating etc gaining so much popularity, because at the end of the day - this is just my humble opinion formed from my own research and beliefs.

Grains would have to be one of the most affordable foods, but also the most unsustainable when it comes to production. Sadly, BigFarms are chewing up land at a frightening rate, and farming with sustainable practices is the least of their concerns. The top four crops in the world are wheat, corn (maize), rice and soy. All are GM and sprayed and fertilized with god-knows-what. There are smaller lots of organic produce around, but it is incredibly and increasingly difficult to farm without going GM, and this is because of BigBusiness. There are numerous cases being launched against farmers who are not GM, because of ‘seed drift’. In simple terms, if a seed from a GM crop down the road from your non-GM crop gets blown into your field, and investigators test your crop and find traces – you have to pay up, and keep paying. It also means that you now are the farmer of a GM crop – whether you chose to be or not. This means big money to the businesses that are controlling GM. And, without getting all political here – it’s not great for your health and certainly not sustainable.

The other point I would like to make about grains is that we aren’t really designed to eat them. So lets have a quick look at what’s in grains that supports this theory.

Grains and legumes contain specialized lectins which are a protein. Different varieties of plants contain these proteins to protect them from being over-consumed by animals (Ruminants) because if the animal eats too much of that plant, it causes intestinal distress (sore tummy, gas, bloating etc). Ruminants have a rumen. A rumen helps to process these grains in small doses (eg, browsing). Humans being Omnivores can tolerate some lectins, but over-eating or prolonged consumption contribute to leptin resistance. http://www.naturalnews.com/036750_energy_homeostasis_weight_loss_leptin.html#ixzz23F5aMi55

In The Vegetarian Myth (http://lierrekeith.com/book-ex_the-vegetarian-myth.php) Lierre Keith discusses the digestive system of Carnivores and Ruminants. In this she says:

‘Lions and hyenas and humans don’t have a ruminant’s digestive system. Literally from our teeth to our rectums we are designed for meat. We have no mechanism to digest cellulose.’

I consider humans to be Omnivores rather than Carnivores. Most people that choose not to eat meat, or not to eat much meat actually do quite well on that diet. Being an Omnivore, means that we can cope with whatever we have hunted and gathered. Sometimes hunting would be poor, and we were gathering more, sometimes we would have a very successful hunt – and meat was plentiful. Most of the time our systems can cope with all sorts of different foods, but there is an increasing number of people that are having digestive and other health issues that are linked to the grains in their diets.
You don’t have to be gluten-intolerant to have a problem with grains – it’s the grain that’s the problem and this is because of the specialised lectins mentioned above. This is a problem for us because grains in their true nature provoke an inflammatory response in the gut.  http://whole9life.com/2010/03/the-grain-manifesto/

Remembering that grains aren’t what they used to be when we first started cultivating them around 10,000 years ago (we’ve been here eating meat and veg a lot longer than that) http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/grains-and-human-evolution.html. We’ve changed grains to adapt to weather, yield, land, viability, pests etc.

Lectins from grains travel through our intestines without our stomach acids breaking them down much at all. What this does is make for an unhealthy intestinal membrane causing everything from mild bloating and discomfort to tearing tiny holes in your intestines called microperforations – and these are bad news. They allow proteins, bacteria etc directly into your bloodstream. Not good for your health.

Being a carbohydrate, grains spike your insulin levels. We know that a continued spike in insulin levels create an environment for weight-gain and type 2 diabetes among other conditions. Grains also effect your body by making it more acidic. For good health – we should try to keep our bodies alkaline. For example, cancer cannot flourish in an alkaline environment, it has to be acidic.

So there are a whole bunch of reasons to eliminate grains from your diet – or at least limit them.
Most aren’t sustainably farmed – creating huge dust-bowls and mineral deficient dirt lots that go on for thousands of acres, and that isn’t just for human consumption. Maize is farmed for animal feed as well. Our stomachs aren’t designed to cope with the specialized lectins contained in the grains, and they create an acidic environment in our bodies. So why do we love them so much?

Because they are yummy and because they are cheap.

I’m not going to stand on a podium and lecture you on what you should or should not be eating.
I’m just trying to provide enough information for you to get curious about your food and where it comes from and the impact it has on the earth and your body.

I have chosen to try to eliminate grains from my diet. Most of the time I can do this without any feeling of deprivation, and I feel so much better for it. But sometimes I want to have a piece of cake with my coffee. Sometimes I’m at a friends house for dinner and they have made risotto. Sometimes, you’re out the back of nowhere and all you can buy is a pie. Sometimes it’s just a little unavoidable – no matter how clear you make it known what your feelings are about certain foods. So in true Omnivore fashion – I just eat it and then go back to my usual diet. We are adaptable, and resilient as long as we don’t abuse our bodies.

I hope that I’ve succeeded with providing enough information here to spike your interest in what you are eating and feeding your family with this series on Sustainable Foods.