Grains are not the best food for humans - they cause problems.

 

You have no doubt seen all of the hoopla lately on TV and in the news about the new study out that states that 'whole grain fiber is liked to longer life'. See this link for an example of what the news media is saying: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/14/fiber.lifespan/index.html?hpt=Sbin 

 

The first thing to realize is that this is an epidemiological study (of other studies). These types of studies can only show associations (i.e., eating whole grains may be related to having a longer life), not that the whole grain consumption is the cause of the longer life - other controlled clinical trials would have to be done to proof the relationship.

 

There are two excellent blog posts that I found that I want to share with you related to this grain study.

 

The first, in direct response to this most recent study, is written by Denis Minger and is posted on Mark's Daily Apple blog at http://www.marksdailyapple.com/will-eating-whole-grain-fiber-help-you-live-longer/. She provides a great analysis of the data and why we should be cautious of what they are saying because of the many "confounding factors" and potential biases that are in the study. One of the commenters of Denise's post pointed out that the study was the same as saying that filtered cigarettes are better than non-filtered cigarettes because they cause less cancer. Ditch the cigarettes (grains) all together and a lot of health problems go away. The study never compared grains to no-grains.

 

The second post is a fantastic read of the exchange of emails between Anthony Colpo (a self-learned, opinionated, independent researcher, physical conditioning specialist, and author) and Jane Karlsson, PhD, who disagrees with his research and analysis that grains are bad for us - she doggedly holds on to her conventional nutrition biases, even when given the studies that disagree with her. The post can be found here: http://anthonycolpo.com/?p=852 and is called The Whole Grain Scam. It is very interesting and he has lots of references to studies to support his conclusions.

 

There is more and more research coming out related to how bad grains are for human consumption - even though we all love them, they are not good for us. There are multiple autoimmune diseases that are being associated with the anti-nutrients and lectin proteins that can get into our body because of leaky/inflamed guts. Grains, and grain oils, especially as they are manufactured today, are a food source we would all do well to limit our consumption of.

 

Hope you enjoy

L, Carl