Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part IX

Conclusion

The wonderful foods that we have got so accustomed towards, are a staple in majority of our diets, have become domesticated by many, and are actually bringing us more problems, than solving our health problems.  This is a rise for concern here I, yet many are unaware of this, so people who are dealing with symptoms are looking for other reasons why they have disease. It can be a simple answer of eliminating many of these foods. Pre disposed individuals towards gut issues, need to pay very close attention to what they eat, since food sensitivities are a major concern. Even individuals who are healthy, who can tolerate these foods, still have to be concerned by the potential of long term consequences. Meaning, we know they have bad actions, and we know these actions affect healthy people, what we do not know whether these bad actions will make a significant digestive difference in healthy people over a long period of time. Anecdotes say yes; Science hasn’t formulated a conclusion yet.  What potentially can decide whether healthy individuals start developing disease, in the gut, can come down to the rate of damage by the rate of healing, also known as homeostasis. What can cause a shift in maintaining harmony can be triggered by other factors like nutritional deficiencies, anti-inflammatories, excessive inflammation, etc. Nobody is safe to guarantee, that you will maintain excellent health forever. What you can guarantee yourself, is learning about our bodies, and making the best educated decisions. We just need to put in the effort, the rest we leave to faith, hopefully it’s on our side. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VIII

Raffinose and Stachyose Oligosaccharides (Legumes, Vegetables, and Grains):  

·         Are units of simple forms of carbohydrates linked together, which are resistant, due to our enzymes being unable to break the carbohydrates into a form that can be absorbed. Let me get a little scientific here, for the learners who might be interested in terms of why are own enzymes are not able to break these oligosaccharides down. Well, the complex bonding of these carbohydrates contain beta glycosidic linkages which are resistant to human enzyme activity. Furthermore, our own enzymes are not able to breakdown carbohydrates that contain more than three monomers of monosaccharides units linked together. Instead these carbohydrates enter the colon, our bacteria can ferment the carbohydrates and produce gases. This tends to cause abdominal discomfort to some individuals and others not so much. Potentially, this has to do with your varying type of gut flora. If you experience any abdominal discomfort, and or dealing with malabsorption syndromes, your best bet is to stay away from foods that contain forms of these carbohydrates. Another option is to supplement with digestive enzymes. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VII

Gluten Cross-Reactivity:  

What this means is that people who are either predisposed to coeliac disease or have gluten sensitivities will also develop auto-immune triggering towards non gluten containing foods.  Give you some background on how this happens, the proteins have chains of amino acid sequences, some very long and some shorter depending on the protein. When antibodies are formed against gluten for instance, certain short pattern sequences of antibodies were formed for gluten tend to repeat on the proteins listed below. This will depend on the location of the sequence, certain sequences are also more antigenic. The key here to understand is that antibodies recognize short amino acid sequences not the whole protein, this is how cross-reactivity occurs.

• Rye
• Barley
• Spelt
• Polish Wheat
• Oats
• Buckwheat
• Sorghum
• Millet
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Corn
• Rice
• Potato
• Hemp
• Teff
• Soy

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part VI

Eggs, another food that many people tend to be allergic towards, but is considered a quality cheap source of protein. Many recipes tend to include eggs as one of the main ingredients, which has become a staple in every household. If you are dealing with an autoimmune disease, eggs might have to go.

Here is why eggs might be a problem who have autoimmune diseases:

·         The egg white protects the yolk from microbial attack, as the embryo grows. The egg white protects the yolk by containing proteolytic enzymes which render the microbes ineffective by breaking them down. The main protein enzyme we have to worry about, who has a leaky gut or autoimmune problems is Lysozyme.  This protease enzyme is naturally occurring in our bodies, and it is not the main cause for concern, the issue is its high binding complexity towards other egg proteins like ovomucin and ovastatin. These proteins now attached to lysozyme, are not going to be broken down, and eventually end up in our bloodstream. Once in the blood stream, they are recognized as foreign substances triggering an immune response.

·         Another potential concern is cross reactivity; when antibodies formed towards the egg proteins ovomucin and ovastatin, form antibodies towards normal proteins present in organism, by a process of molecular mimicry. Unfortunate cause of mistaken identity.

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part V

Grains, Night Shades, and Legumes also contain anti-nutrients, for protection against predation and prevention against destruction of reproductive material (seeds).

• Protease Inhibitors: are the seeds way to escape digestion completely from all predators. When these inhibitors are present in our gut, they inhibit most of our protease enzymes, not all though. Essentially, these enzymes help to break down the proteins we ingest, along with the proteins present in the seeds. Making the pancreas release more of proteolytic enzymes to provide aid. This leads to an imbalance, causing excess, between the protease digestive enzymes. Since it is the protein that is not being broken down effectively, majority of enzymes released from pancreas will be protein-type enzymes, in particular trypsin. Elevated trypsin content in the intestines weakens the connections between enterocytes, allowing substances in the gut to leak into the blood stream. 

• Phytate Acid: prevents absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, copper. This particular acid has a high binding affinity towards minerals because of the ionic electrostatic attraction of charges. Simply meaning, absorption becomes hindered. 

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part IV

Polyphenols and Tannins:

Considered part of the flavonoid group of phytochemicals that are biologically active in our organisms. Phytochemicals have antioxidant characteristics which prevent our bodies from aging and developing diseases. Not all phytochemicals are helpful in fact, these two have negative actions towards absorption, and hormonal activity.

·         Tannins: Have similar methods of action as phytate acid by preventing digestibility of proteins, and binding minerals preventing normal absorption.

·         Polyphenols: particularly in soybean and soy products contain a polyphenol termed phytoestrogen, which mimics estrogenic activity, and can act as goitrogen substances in the body. Without going into too much detail on the mechanisms behind how these phytoestrogens cause hormonal disruption, will keep it simple by stating that it can potentially impact hormones by impairing normal thyroid dynamics, disrupt menstrual cycles in females, and development of a goiter.

Examples of Foods

·         Legumes

·         Nuts

·         Fruits (berries)

Foods That Cause Disease, But Have Become Domesticated Part III

Glycosides: These are sugar molecules that are bonded with a particular functional group. Essentially, they have toxic properties, and protect the plants from becoming ingested by any predators.

Several ways these compounds cause problems:

·         Saponins have a fat soluble core and chains of water-soluble carbohydrates. This compound acts like a detergent, since it mixes with fat and water forming a soluble complex that can bind with cholesterol. Once it interacts with the cholesterol molecules dietary saponins create holes in the surface membrane of the cells which line the gut (enterocytes), allowing a variety of substances found in the gut to enter the cell. Meaning any potentially undigested proteins, toxins, bacteria, carcinogens can enter into the blood and cause an immune response. Other concerns like increased permeability by destroying the lining of the gut can create nutritional deficiencies.

·         Cyanogenetic Glycosides are found in lima beans, these compounds are extremely poisonous if eaten raw by turning into hydrogen cyanide in our intestines. Fortunately, cooking can destroy this poison. However, your problems are not over, since cooking converts the hydrogen cyanide into thiocyanate, which has been shown to have goitrogen activity in our organisms.

·         Favism Glycosides are also lethally toxic substances found in fava beans that can trigger hemolytic anemia in genetically predisposed individuals shown to have the genetic defect.

Examples of Foods:

·         Amaranth

·         Quinoa

·         Lima Beans

·         Fava Beans