A friend sent me this video the other day. If you read my grains blog post and found it interesting, you might be inclined to watch this video too. He talks about lectins, grains and some other good stuff.
http://vimeo.com/33622882
2/25/12
2/24/12
Rip Rap hike
It's Friday! It was supposed to be pretty windy today with a chance of rain in the afternoon, so I decided instead of disc golfing like every other Friday I'm in town, I'd go for a hike. I went to Shenandoah National Park (SNP) for a short outing. The full hike is a little under 10 miles, with a lunch spot around 2 miles in. It was warm and mostly sunny for the hike in, and I spent most of the time just taking in the solitude.
I took about 90 picutres of the clouds moving from a stationary spot while I ate lunch. After watching the most amazing video on Yosemite, I thought I'd just see what I could do with my little point and shoot camera. I set it up to take a picture every 30 seconds, and take 10 pictures in a row. I discovered that the timer in the camera must be a little wonky, because sometimes it would wait 30 seconds and other times it would take another picture about 6 seconds later. So the video turned out kind of choppy for that reason, plus the fact I was eating lunch and reading at the same time, so I would forget to push the button again after the 10 was done. A bigger more advanced camera would've been pretty sweet at the time, but this turned out better than I thought it would honestly. It's only 6 seconds so I didn't bother sticking a song in there, but here you go.
The clouds did come in pretty heavy and it started to rain, so I decided not to do whole whole loop. I went back the way I came and was out pretty quick. I brought my rain jacket knowing it might come in handy. Luckily we got out before the worst of it. A little wet, but warm, and no harm done. I love this jacket because I can use it to cover my backpack at the same time, poncho style.
The rain was off and on driving out of the park, so I stopped for another quick pic. Another good Friday!
2/15/12
Why "should" one consider avoiding even gluten-free grains?
In my last post, I said I'd entertain questions on food and health. Here was my first question, and it was a great one!
Why "should" one consider avoiding even gluten-free grains?
Most people know that folks with celiac disease shouldn't eat gluten and that, if they do, they can have a very bad reaction. To serve this population, a growing number of foods are being made with alternative grains and are labeled gluten-free. Most of us assume there’s something ‘wrong’ with those people with celiac, but lets look at grains in general and what they contain.
From an evolutionary standpoint, everything wants to survive at least long enough to procreate. Animals, plants, bacteria, viruses... everything has the same ultimate goal to keep the species alive. Animals have legs so they can run away from predators or they can use their claws and teeth to defend themselves. Plants on the other hand are stuck in the ground. Some plants have developed spines, thorns or thick skin to prevent themselves from being eaten. Some plants have developed bad taste as a deterrent, while others create toxins. That’s what we’ll be focusing on to answer this question.
Different plants, and the grains or seeds of those plants have different defense mechanisms for deterring their consumption. The most commonly talked about, is gluten, which is contained in wheat, rye and barley. Gluten is one of a large group of lectins. Lectins are essentially nature’s pesticide. Lectins are toxins found in a variety of foods, including gluten-free grains; but not limited to, rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, oats, and corn. They attempt to prevent the grains from being eaten by causing the eater distress. Some grains have higher concentrations or more potent lectins working through different pathways to prevent the eater from consuming too many grains and wiping out the species.
We’ll use rice as an example because it can be ground into flour and used in some gluten free recipes. Rice has “haemagglutinin-lectin” which can bind to intestinal cells, but instead of damaging them, it just causes the cells to be less able to absorb the nutrients you do want. Luckily, nearly all the “bad” stuff is contained in the rice hull, so white rice, which is rice with the hull removed is pretty safe. Brown rice though is rice with the hull still intact and, therefore, contains the lectin as well as phytates that bind to the nutrients. This makes even more nutrients unavailable to the eater, and also inhibits trypsin. Trypsin is used by humans to break down proteins, so you won’t be able to digest that steak you ate as effectively if you eat a bunch of brown rice at the same time. So remember, white rice is better than brown if you’re looking to avoid lectins.
These gluten-free grains contain different lectins that can cause varying degrees of discomfort to the eater, but most don’t produce any immediate acute symptoms. Some lectins bind to the sugars molecules on your cells. By binding to the cells on the intestinal wall, causing inflammation, and damaging the barrier between your guts and your blood, particles of incompletely digested food could make their way into the blood stream. This is sometimes called “leaky gut” and might be linked to a number of autoimmune diseases. You won't often notice this right away and might think “grains aren’t a problem for me”, until you start getting allergies, or arthritis, or diabetes.
Other lectins can also bind to insulin receptors on a cell, meaning the cell can’t get the vitamins and minerals necessary inside, or they can reduce leptin receptor sensitivity. Leptin is a hormone your cells release to tell the hypothalamus in your brain that they are full and you should stop eating so if your brain doesn’t get the “stop eating” message, it becomes much easier to over-eat.
So, one reason to consider being “grain free” is to avoid the lectins in grains and therefore avoid the problems they might cause. But it gets to be pretty slippery a slope, because other foods have other lectins, like soy, legumes, dairy and nightshades. You could eliminate a lot of otherwise good foods just to avoid lectins. Different lectins bind to different simple sugars (mono and oligosaccharides), so if you can eat those foods that essentially neutralize the particular lectin, you’ll get better absorption and nutrient use.
There isn’t a lot of research on which simple sugars inactivate which lectins though. There is some research that shows glucosamine binds to gluten, but there’s no way to eat enough glucosamine to balance out the lectins. Overall it seems to be easier to avoid the lectins and get your vitamins from safer foods, and when you do eat a lectin filled food, properly preparing it to reduce the over lectin load is best.
At the end of the day, I still eat white rice and some corn chips on occasion, but one might consider avoiding grains all together to reduce a large portion of ones daily intake of lectins. Those with GI tract issues would be most likely to feel better from a reduction or elimination of grains. Since their GI system is actively damaged, by removing some of the damaging chemicals, they might be better able to heal, as some lectins even prevent healing. Most of the time replacement grains are used in recipes that could be questionable for other reasons anyway; like gluten free cookies...
Please let me know if there are more questions or I need to clarify or expand on something in this post.
Why "should" one consider avoiding even gluten-free grains? Most people know that folks with celiac disease shouldn't eat gluten and that, if they do, they can have a very bad reaction. To serve this population, a growing number of foods are being made with alternative grains and are labeled gluten-free. Most of us assume there’s something ‘wrong’ with those people with celiac, but lets look at grains in general and what they contain.
From an evolutionary standpoint, everything wants to survive at least long enough to procreate. Animals, plants, bacteria, viruses... everything has the same ultimate goal to keep the species alive. Animals have legs so they can run away from predators or they can use their claws and teeth to defend themselves. Plants on the other hand are stuck in the ground. Some plants have developed spines, thorns or thick skin to prevent themselves from being eaten. Some plants have developed bad taste as a deterrent, while others create toxins. That’s what we’ll be focusing on to answer this question.
Different plants, and the grains or seeds of those plants have different defense mechanisms for deterring their consumption. The most commonly talked about, is gluten, which is contained in wheat, rye and barley. Gluten is one of a large group of lectins. Lectins are essentially nature’s pesticide. Lectins are toxins found in a variety of foods, including gluten-free grains; but not limited to, rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, oats, and corn. They attempt to prevent the grains from being eaten by causing the eater distress. Some grains have higher concentrations or more potent lectins working through different pathways to prevent the eater from consuming too many grains and wiping out the species.
We’ll use rice as an example because it can be ground into flour and used in some gluten free recipes. Rice has “haemagglutinin-lectin” which can bind to intestinal cells, but instead of damaging them, it just causes the cells to be less able to absorb the nutrients you do want. Luckily, nearly all the “bad” stuff is contained in the rice hull, so white rice, which is rice with the hull removed is pretty safe. Brown rice though is rice with the hull still intact and, therefore, contains the lectin as well as phytates that bind to the nutrients. This makes even more nutrients unavailable to the eater, and also inhibits trypsin. Trypsin is used by humans to break down proteins, so you won’t be able to digest that steak you ate as effectively if you eat a bunch of brown rice at the same time. So remember, white rice is better than brown if you’re looking to avoid lectins.
These gluten-free grains contain different lectins that can cause varying degrees of discomfort to the eater, but most don’t produce any immediate acute symptoms. Some lectins bind to the sugars molecules on your cells. By binding to the cells on the intestinal wall, causing inflammation, and damaging the barrier between your guts and your blood, particles of incompletely digested food could make their way into the blood stream. This is sometimes called “leaky gut” and might be linked to a number of autoimmune diseases. You won't often notice this right away and might think “grains aren’t a problem for me”, until you start getting allergies, or arthritis, or diabetes.
Other lectins can also bind to insulin receptors on a cell, meaning the cell can’t get the vitamins and minerals necessary inside, or they can reduce leptin receptor sensitivity. Leptin is a hormone your cells release to tell the hypothalamus in your brain that they are full and you should stop eating so if your brain doesn’t get the “stop eating” message, it becomes much easier to over-eat.
So, one reason to consider being “grain free” is to avoid the lectins in grains and therefore avoid the problems they might cause. But it gets to be pretty slippery a slope, because other foods have other lectins, like soy, legumes, dairy and nightshades. You could eliminate a lot of otherwise good foods just to avoid lectins. Different lectins bind to different simple sugars (mono and oligosaccharides), so if you can eat those foods that essentially neutralize the particular lectin, you’ll get better absorption and nutrient use.
There isn’t a lot of research on which simple sugars inactivate which lectins though. There is some research that shows glucosamine binds to gluten, but there’s no way to eat enough glucosamine to balance out the lectins. Overall it seems to be easier to avoid the lectins and get your vitamins from safer foods, and when you do eat a lectin filled food, properly preparing it to reduce the over lectin load is best.
At the end of the day, I still eat white rice and some corn chips on occasion, but one might consider avoiding grains all together to reduce a large portion of ones daily intake of lectins. Those with GI tract issues would be most likely to feel better from a reduction or elimination of grains. Since their GI system is actively damaged, by removing some of the damaging chemicals, they might be better able to heal, as some lectins even prevent healing. Most of the time replacement grains are used in recipes that could be questionable for other reasons anyway; like gluten free cookies...
Please let me know if there are more questions or I need to clarify or expand on something in this post.
2/13/12
February
Lots to catch up on... where to begin? First, I need to be better about taking some pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
We'll just dive in here with whatever comes to mind first. At the encouragement of a few people, I'd like to entertain any questions about food and health you may have. Anything from 'what is gluten?' to 'how does cholesterol effect your health?' and anything else you can come up with. No question is too simple or complex. How food can be your medicine or your poison. We all might agree Doritos aren't good for you, but have you asked why? Or what is canola oil? Maybe you eat whatever you want and never gain a pound, or you gain 5 pounds just looking at a donut. Curious why? Send me an email or post a question in the comments section.
Onto adventures of late: more riding and disc golfing as always. Went up to Northern VA to a trail called Fountainhead which was a lot of fun. A lot more hills than in Richmond, that's for sure. Visited Andrew and Janna for the Superbowl and hung out with fun folks up in MD. I finished up a book called Deep Survival, suggested to me by Chad, which was a great read. And I started reading Unbroken which was suggested to me by two people in the same day, and I can see why. It's excellent! And I have to put a plug for The Flinch, which is a super short, interesting, make-you-think, free book from Amazon.
This past weekend was action packed. While riding at Fountainhead last weekend, I came off a 'skinny' which is usually a narrow piece of wood a little ways up off the ground, which broke a relatively easily replaceable part on my bike. So on Friday I ran errands, picked up that part, fixed the bike, stopped by the yarn store to get some more hat making supplies, and took the dog out for some disc golf.
Saturday was awesome. After a reminder about when and where from Karen, I decided to get out and help maintain some of the trails I use for biking/hiking. I spent a couple hours in the morning hacking vines and digging and packing dirt for some new sections of trail. The afternoon consisted of attending a Buddhist lecture, making foam rollers out of PVC, and having the "Triple Nut Encrusted Opakapaka w/amaretto lobster cream sauce" for dinner at Tarrant's. Amazing! Great company and lots of learning.
Sunday was another cold day, but three of us went down to Pocahontas state park in my bike transporting machine, aka the Subaru, for a good ride on some different trails. We grabbed some lunch on the way home, and after dropping everyone off, I changed and grabbed Maddog for some more disc golf. It was in the low 40's I think at that point in the afternoon, and while I was tired and a little cold from riding, Maddog was full of energy and looked like he could've run around all day.
After using my new foam roller for a little bit to loosen up the legs from riding, I got a shower and a snack and went to Commercial Taphouse for some live music and hanging out with friends. Again, great company and I was happy to get out and take advantage of the under-appreciated Sunday night for more fun.
Here's a couple pictures just for those visual people among us.
The first is of Madison, and in the big tree behind him, is a good sized hawk. I couldn't tell what kind, but I told Madison to come closer to me.
There's a closer, but really grainy picture of the hawk.
This is the moon coming up over the Art Museum by my place. It just looked really pretty and felt a little surreal in its veil of wispy clouds along with the other lights.
We'll just dive in here with whatever comes to mind first. At the encouragement of a few people, I'd like to entertain any questions about food and health you may have. Anything from 'what is gluten?' to 'how does cholesterol effect your health?' and anything else you can come up with. No question is too simple or complex. How food can be your medicine or your poison. We all might agree Doritos aren't good for you, but have you asked why? Or what is canola oil? Maybe you eat whatever you want and never gain a pound, or you gain 5 pounds just looking at a donut. Curious why? Send me an email or post a question in the comments section.
Onto adventures of late: more riding and disc golfing as always. Went up to Northern VA to a trail called Fountainhead which was a lot of fun. A lot more hills than in Richmond, that's for sure. Visited Andrew and Janna for the Superbowl and hung out with fun folks up in MD. I finished up a book called Deep Survival, suggested to me by Chad, which was a great read. And I started reading Unbroken which was suggested to me by two people in the same day, and I can see why. It's excellent! And I have to put a plug for The Flinch, which is a super short, interesting, make-you-think, free book from Amazon.
This past weekend was action packed. While riding at Fountainhead last weekend, I came off a 'skinny' which is usually a narrow piece of wood a little ways up off the ground, which broke a relatively easily replaceable part on my bike. So on Friday I ran errands, picked up that part, fixed the bike, stopped by the yarn store to get some more hat making supplies, and took the dog out for some disc golf.
Saturday was awesome. After a reminder about when and where from Karen, I decided to get out and help maintain some of the trails I use for biking/hiking. I spent a couple hours in the morning hacking vines and digging and packing dirt for some new sections of trail. The afternoon consisted of attending a Buddhist lecture, making foam rollers out of PVC, and having the "Triple Nut Encrusted Opakapaka w/amaretto lobster cream sauce" for dinner at Tarrant's. Amazing! Great company and lots of learning.
Sunday was another cold day, but three of us went down to Pocahontas state park in my bike transporting machine, aka the Subaru, for a good ride on some different trails. We grabbed some lunch on the way home, and after dropping everyone off, I changed and grabbed Maddog for some more disc golf. It was in the low 40's I think at that point in the afternoon, and while I was tired and a little cold from riding, Maddog was full of energy and looked like he could've run around all day.
After using my new foam roller for a little bit to loosen up the legs from riding, I got a shower and a snack and went to Commercial Taphouse for some live music and hanging out with friends. Again, great company and I was happy to get out and take advantage of the under-appreciated Sunday night for more fun.
Here's a couple pictures just for those visual people among us.
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