Grains?

[SteveW]

I've been gluten-free for 3 months,mostly eating meats and veggies, and I'm starting to feel better. One thing I'm noticing is that all the alternitive grains bother me-same reaction as if I'm eating gluten.

Rice(3 brands) and Quinoa are the 2 grains I've tried. I miss not having rice but don't miss Quinoa-it was awful.

Anyone else have the same issues?

I read online a gov report on celiac disease that claim a lack of research on most grains because a lack of test subjects. Anyone have this link?

Thanks Steve

[seeking-wholeness]

Steve,

I use Lundberg brand brown rice without any apparent problems. Was that one of the brands you tried? Also, Minute Rice is supposed to be gluten-free. The jury is still out on my reaction to quinoa. I have some McCann's oats and some Norquin brand quinoa flakes (processed on dedicated gluten-free equipment) that I intend to try as soon as my body settles down from whatever it is currently reacting to. I'l let you know if I have a reaction to the quinoa.

Here's another question: Have you ever cooked barley in the pan you are using to cook your gluten-free grains? Barley scum NEVER comes off completely, no matter how hard you scrub--as I discovered when I went gluten-free. I reacted to rice as well, until I bought a new pot to cook it in. Now I have no problems with it.

It could be that you have separate sensitivities to most grains, but I think it's still too early to conclude that for certain. I hope you discover that cross-contamination has been the source of your trouble, so you can continue to consume carefully selected grain products!

[SteveW]

I did not try the Lundberg rice.

I'll give it a shot at some point.

Never cooked barley in any of my "New" pots, just some rice that may have a Gluten coating. Not sure so I'll just buy another pot when I feel good enough to try out some different rice.

Thanks

[YankeeDB]

You might have a sensitivity to lectins, another potentially problematic protein found in most grains. Do a search on this and maybe on the "paleolithic diet" or the "caveman diet" which it sounds like you're already starting to follow.

Info on "inflammation" also makes reference to lectins.

I'm starting to wonder about myself along these lines as I am still very fatigued most of the time (although admittedly I'm still struggling with gluten accidents) but my bowel symptoms are very improved.

I've learned to LIKE quinoa (especially with maple syrup on it!) and buckwheat and Mighty Tasty Cereal from Bob's Red Mill and am disheartened to learn I may have to forego those too. But I'm still investigating.

Another problem class of foods for some people are nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, legumes, et al).

Perhaps after the intestine is healed from gluten avoidance other grains and nightshades can be re-introduced, like dairy. I sure hope so.

[seeking-wholeness]

YankeeDB,

My understanding of lectins comes from learning about the Blood Type Diet, which has as its primary goal the optimization of a person's lectin intake. I have learned that pretty much all food contains lectins, and the molecular structure of different foods' lectins can vary tremendously. In other words, tomato lectin is different from kidney bean lectin, which in turn is different from lentil lectin, which is different from wheat germ lectin (which is NOT the same thing as gluten), etc. They also have completely different effects on the body, and these effects vary in some cases according to a person's blood type. Wheat germ lectin, for instance, strongly resembles insulin in its molecular structure, and it is a major contributor to insulin resistance syndrome because it "fits the lock" on a person's cells and blocks ACTUAL insulin from doing its job. (This happens to some extent in all blood types.) Some lectins are actually beneficial, performing functions like identifying newly mutated cells and tangling them up so the immune system can deal with them before they become truly cancerous. (Different food lectins perform this function in different blood types.) Cooking and sprouting are processes that destroy the lectins in some foods, but they enhance the lectins in other foods.

So, a person would not have a generalized sensitivity to "lectin" or lectins, but he or she could certainly have trouble with some subset of lectins (those from the nightshade family, for instance). In the grain department, rice, millet, and quinoa have lectin activity that is neutral or beneficial for all blood types. All other grains are good for some and bad for others.

I personally believe that following the Blood Type Diet has shortened my recovery time from celiac disease by quite a bit, although of course I have no way to prove it! There are other diets that I believe have merit, but they are one-size-fits-all approaches, and I have ALWAYS found that I am just too different from the norm in so many areas of life for a generalized recommendation to be useful to me. The Blood Type Diet is a set of targeted recommendations, and I STILL have had to modify it to be gluten-free! You might find it an interesting read, if you haven't already invsetigated it.

Take care, and I hope your fatigue improves soon!

[YankeeDB]

Sarah, what an interesting and informative post! Thank you! Wow, you certainly do your homework. I will definitely look into the blood typing approach to diet choices. Have you heard anything about oligosaccharides and their role in helping lectin intolerant (I guess that would be specific lectin intolerance if I understand your post correctly) people tolerate them?

Incidentally, I've been using FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide) powder after reading that it is a sweet-tasting form of fiber that also supplies benefits for "good" microflora in the intestinal track.

[seeking-wholeness]

YankeeDB,

I haven't read much about FOS except that it IS good food for our friendly bacteria. The more they thrive, the more we can digest and the better our quality of life. Fascinatingly, it seems that many friendly bacteria actually use our blood type antigens as a food source as well, so different strains of bacteria are more or less prevalent in certain blood types depending on whether their favorite food is available!

The website for the Blood Type Diet is Open Original Shared Link, and here is some information on the books that I wrote in another post:

Eat Right 4 Your Type...presents a simplistic version of the diet that is a compromise between the two variants. This is largely because Dr. D'Adamo expected many of the book's readers to be "fad dieters" who were interested mainly in weight loss and would be turned off by technical details. Sad, but true! Live Right 4 Your Type, on the other hand, presents the diet/lifestyle in its entirety and is geared toward health-conscious readers who want guidance on how to make the most of their lives. It also contains the results of further research that hadn't been completed when Eat Right was published.

I recommend reading Eat Right first to get a handle on the main concepts behind the diet, then reading Live Right for the updated food lists and a lot of information on how blood type influences many aspects of our physiology indirectly (through gene linkage, primarily).

Enjoy!