Why is Wheat so bad?

I'm new to all this. I USE to eat healthy but now I am on a new road to eating healthy again. First it is gonna take me time to give up my coffee. I LOVE COFFEE and am a junkie for it.

But why is wheat so bad for you with Lyme. I only eat wheat pasta, rice and bread. I do not like white stuff. I have cut out all chocolate and candy. I have 1 piece of chocolate or candy 2x a week as a treat. I use splenda only, which all my docs have said it's fine to use.

Any advise is great. Thanks

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Krissy.
Was dx. with Lyme this year but have had it for 10 years.

Wheat contains a protein called gluten that promotes inflammation in the body and also causes the gut to become leaky - the gluten increases a chemical called Zonulin, which opens the gaps between cells in the lining of the GI tract...the more wheat a person eats, the more leaky their gut gets; the only difference between someone with Celiac Disease and a healthy person is that the effects of the increased Zonulin last longer and thus cause the body to become sensitized to the gluten and then the person not only has leaky gut, but they also have a destructive immune response to the gluten. But a normal healthy person still gets a leaky gut for a few hours after eating wheat. Leaky gut predisposes to the development of all sorts of other problems (bacterial imbalance, yeast overgrowth, food allergies, etc.) and it can deplete the immune system and lead to the development of other autoimmune diseases, etc. Most LLMD's who recommend a wheat-free diet do so because of the inflammation wheat promotes, and when trying to heal the body from chronic Lyme, inflammation is counter-productive.

I hope this helps - take care,

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-Razzle

Razzel

You have such a great way of explaining things.  I follow a gluten free diet since the dx of celiac dx.  My allergy includes dermatitis herpetiformis, so I'm extra careful with gluten.  I look at gluten as poison and was told by my GI doc that if I was to continue gluten I had an 80% chance of intestinal cancer.  That was enough info for me to say "YES, I can make that change". There are so many wonderful other things to eat.

Within 2 weeks of going gluten free my joint pain decreased by 90%, my GI issues resolved and the energy increased 10 fold.

Now I'm dealing with post Lyme and new dx with babesia.  Mepron & Zithro seem to be working.

Thanks for your informative entries.

maggie

when you said you dont like "white stuff" it is also made with wheat flour. and razzle explained it well except for the fact that wheat contains no gluten just the 2 proteins that form it

Krissy, you can bake your own rye bread like I do, but you may not care for the taste. Rye has very little gluten in it and you shouldn't add yeast. Do not add glutenized flour to it. It should be 100% rye. (FYI: you cannot buy 100% rye store bought). The result is dense, rather hard bread. It is a fantastic source of low glycemic index carbs though.

It's pretty good cut thin for sandwiches, or left thick for dipping in soups.

Sulma are you using chemical leaveners for your rye bread?

nothing at all, hermana. Just 100% all natural rye flour. I only add butter, sea salt, and stevia to the flour, then bake it. Like I said it will come out really dense, not even remotely fluffy and light, but hey that's what bread looks like w/o all gluten and yeast to make it stretchy and fluffy.

It's really not bad if you dip it in soups to make it moist and if you slice it real thin for sandwiches. Rye has a ridiculously good glycemic index and it definitely wont tend to feed the Bb (Lyme) and it keeps my energy level up nicely.

I don't know too much about all of this, except that splenda is one of the worst things you could put in your body. DEfinitely get away from that. I'm not sure why a doctor would even say it's "okay" because it's definitely not.
http://www.rense.com/general65/splend.htm

A MUCH better sugar substitute is (the all natural) stevia, or the new name brand is called Truvia
"Stevia Rebaudiana is an herb in the Chrysanthemum family which grows wild as a small shrub in parts of Paraguay and Brazil. The glycosides in its leaves, including up to 10% Stevioside, account for its incredible sweetness"
-http://www.stevia.com/Stevia_Article/Frequently_asked_questions_FAQ/2269

It is much sweeter than sugar, in fact you don't even need to use a whole packet for a cup of tea (they claim that it's 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar!) and apparently there are virtually no calories.
You just can't lose :)
(I assume this is why it's not talked about a lot, because it would put those artificial sweetener guys out of business)

Hello everyone. I just found out about gluten. I've been eating nothing but wheat bread for the last several years because I thought it was healthy because of the fiber. Is there any bread that I can buy at the grocery store that isn't so bad?

If you go to a health food store, there will most likely be a gluten free area - and they do make gluten free breads, bagels, waffles, ect.

Whole Foods Market and Trader Joes carry many gluten free items.

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Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

David, It is difficult to find a good tasting whole grain, non regular wheat bread in the stores. We used to use a whole grain fermented spelt bread made by Pacific Bakery(http://pacificbakery.com/, which is a great informative site to visit) that Trader Joe's and Wholefoods used to carry. Spelt grain does have some gluten in the grain, however, unless you are completely gluten intolerant, you can usually use spelt as the gluten is different than that of regular wheat gluten. My sister cannot eat even a crumb of any of the grains that have any gluten in them whatsoever and I was able to create a delicious buckwheat/brown rice bread for her to eat.

If we weren't able to make our own fermented, sourdough spelt bread and couldn't get the bread by Pacific Bakery, we would have to resort to using sprouted "Ezekiel Bread" that is available at Trader Joe's and Wholefoods. You do have to be very careful though, as any bread that is packaged in plastic, molds very quickly, especially bread that is more moist as the sprouted breads tend to be. You need to get it as fresh as possible and store it in the freezer and take out as needed to stop the mold process which is not good for you. You have to get used to lightly toasting the bread before eating to make it taste more like the bread you are used to eating. Ezekiel bread is made similar to "Essene Bread". You can find Essene bread recipes on the net. When you sprout grains, even regular wheat grain, much of the bad lectins (that can cause wheat sensitivities) located in the outer shell of the grain is washed away during the sprouting process.

Many of our ancestors who ate grain prepared it carefully before baking. They sprouted (germinated), sour-leavened, or fermented it to make its nutrients more bioavailable. Sprouting also unlocks many vitamins and nutrients. Sprouting and fermenting also neutralize the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors in the grain. Phytic acid is found in the bran of all grains. Soaking and fermenting the grain neutralizes the enzyme inhibitors in the grain seed.

Good Luck!!

Celiac Disease sufferers cannot tolerate a protein called gluten "gliadin", which is found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging the villi – the tiny, fingerlike protrusions coating the inside of the small intestine. The villi allow nutrients from food to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Without functioning villi, a person can become malnourished

Thank you so much allieann :) All I do is shop at Walmart Supercenter so hopefully I can find some gluten free bread there or find a store that does.

alieann, the buckwheat/brown rice bread sounds interesting. Does that have yeast in it? Is the recipe on the web? Thanks.

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I have Lyme; it doesn't have me.

OK....I have to post my $0.02....

For any of you on this forum who are actually gluten-intolerant or have celiac disease, I must point out that you CANNOT eat rye, barley, wheat (including spelt, kamut, bulgur, cous cous, etc) or ANY grain that is in any way related to these. You cannot eat oats either, because of contamination issues (farmers typically grow wheat one year, oats the next, on the same fields and they are processed with the same equipment).

A few rare celiacs (like me for instance) cannot eat certified gluten free oats either, because we react to the protein called avenin, which is in oats.

For those of you who are just eating gluten free because you've heard it's healthier, you can eat what you want. But I should point out that the human body is not built to process grains of ANY type. Google "paleo diet" if you don't believe me. Nor are ruminants like cows....the modern diet of corn actually makes them ill. But it gets them to market weight in half the time, so who cares, right?

I believe that the modern human diet with its emphasis on grains is at the root of the obesity epidemic. If grain gets cows to fatten up twice as fast, what do you think it has done to us???

Cows are supposed to eat grass, and WE are supposed to eat meat, fish, nuts, eggs, wild greens, wild root veggies, wild berries, etc. Nothing else. DON'T eat soy!! 91% of the soy grown in this country is genetically modified, and it is TOXIC. Read what happened to hamsters in just 3 generations after they ate GM soy: www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/genetically-modified-soy_b_544575.html

OK, I'm done. Stepping off the soap box now....

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Lyme Disease, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Bartonella, AIH, Hashimoto's, lupus, fibro, RA, celiac, asthma, psoriasis, adrenal fatigue, pre-diabetic, Raynaud's, hypertension, osteopenia, sleep apnea, RLS, GERD, DDD, severe lower back pain, cubital tunnel, tarsal tunnel, Suprax, Malarone, Alinia, Zithromax, Prednisone, Imuran, Plaquenil, Lyrica, Cymbalta, Levothyroxine, Liothyronine, Atenolol, Cozaar, Zyrtec, Fosamax, Albuterol, Prilosec

autoimmunediseasesgfliving.blogspot.com
lymetwistontherocks.blogspot.com/

So is soy itself bad or is it just bad because of how it's modified in this country?

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I have Lyme; it doesn't have me.

The reviews on soy are mixed, as you can see from the various links, below, but it seems that soy itself has a number of negative health effects....it's particularly bad for the thyroid and the brain, and the phytoestrogens can cause early puberty in children. Researchers have been wondering why there has been a recent epidemic of early puberty (kids starting puberty at age eight!!), especially in the African-American community. Some are now tying this phenomenon to the high consumption of soy formula by infants funded by the WIC program (Women, Infants, and Children - a program that provides free baby formula and food to those in financial need who are pregnant, nursing, or have children below the age of five).

archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/06/23/soy.danger.wmd/

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein

chinesefood.about.com/od/healthconcerns/a/soy.htm

Of course, all of that garbage about lowering the cholesterol is just that....garbage. If people eat a "paleo" diet (just meat, eggs, nuts, fish, veggies and fruits, no processed food), their cholesterol normalizes very quickly. For that matter, if you just eat animal products and nothing else, your cholesterol should go down....Eskimos eat ONLY animal products (including lots of whale blubber) and none of them had high cholesterol, or indeed any of the typical diseases of "civilization" until they started eating the "normal" American diet.

The food pyramid is bunk. And that's putting it politely, because this is a family forum!

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Lyme Disease, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Bartonella, AIH, Hashimoto's, lupus, fibro, RA, celiac, asthma, psoriasis, adrenal fatigue, pre-diabetic, Raynaud's, hypertension, osteopenia, sleep apnea, RLS, GERD, DDD, severe lower back pain, cubital tunnel, tarsal tunnel, Suprax, Malarone, Alinia, Zithromax, Prednisone, Imuran, Plaquenil, Lyrica, Cymbalta, Levothyroxine, Liothyronine, Atenolol, Cozaar, Zyrtec, Fosamax, Albuterol, Prilosec

autoimmunediseasesgfliving.blogspot.com
lymetwistontherocks.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the information, nasalady. I'm starting a food thread with my questions about food to get them off of the Byron White thread.

Rose

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I have Lyme; it doesn't have me.

I have just recently been eating Gluten free and bread is the hardest thing to find that taste good.  There is a relatively new product that makes the best bread.  I don't eat it much but if I want bread at all it's the only one to buy.  I'm not sure if I"m spelling it right but it's made by Udi ( pronounced ew-dee) and they are also going to come out with a hamburger bun soon.  Their pizza crust is amazing and the bread tastes like your grandma's homemade bread.  My husband and kids love it and they don't have to eat gluten free!  Just thought I would pass it along.