The Answer (Chap. 1-4)
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THE ANSWER- (Chapters 1-4)
By Dogtor J.
©2001 DogtorJ.com
1.INTRODUCTION……………………………..………………..1
2.0 BACKGROUND………………………………..……………2
2.1 Why is a veterinarian writing this?……………..……..2
3.0 CELIAC DISEASE AS A MODEL…………..……….2
3.1 My brother’s story………………………………..…………..3
3.2 “This is me!” …………………………………….…………….4
4.0 HISTORICAL EVIDENCE………………………………..4
4.1 The History of Wheat…………………………….……….. 4
4.1.1 The key ingredient in wheat………………..…………4
4.1.2 “Common wheat”.. is created………………..………4
4.1.3 The Dark Ages and the Plague………………………4
4.1.4 “Coeliac” Disease and Natural selection…………5
4.1.5 Black Americans- The newest celiacs?……………5
4.1.6 Sickle Cell Disease- Now and Then…………………5
4.2 The History of Milk………………………………….…………6
4.2.1 The Big Mistake………………………………….………….6
4.2.2 The key ingredient in cow’s milk………………………7
4.2.3 The Dark Ages and Plague revisited………….……7
4.3 Soy Protein- The Third Big Mistake……………..……..7
Go to Chapter 5-8 of “The Answer”…
THE ANSWER- to “Why is the Plane of Our Nation’s Health in a Death Spiral?
By Dogtor J.
©2001 DogtorJ.com
INTRODUCTION
There has been a 40% increase in the rate of diabetes in this country over the past decade. There are one thousand new cases of multiple sclerosis diagnosed every week. One person an hour dies of melanoma. An incredible 44% of American deaths each year is attributable to one condition alone -atherosclerosis, the condition underlying strokes and heart attacks. A person dies of a stroke or heart attack every 3.5 seconds in this country. 15% of Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease but a staggering 50% over age 80 have this devastating condition. There are on average 135 new cases of Parkinson’s disease diagnosed every day and 40%of them will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Both of these horrible conditions are now occurring in younger victims, with 5-10% of Parkinson’s disease striking before age 40. Parkinson’s Disease alone costs the average sufferer nearly $6,000 annually in medication while costing the nation an estimated $5.6 billion in Social Security payments, lost income, and nursing home expenditures. Over 2 million people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, many of the cases occurring between 20 and 30 years of age and afflicting women twice as often as men. This painful and debilitating condition costs the American economy nearly $65 billion annually in lost wages and production. But the crowning blow to Americans is the word no one wants to speak…cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, over one million Americans get cancer each year. Approximately 33% of women and a phenomenal 50% of men will get some form of cancer at some point in their life. How could this be? How, in the age of modern technology and rapid infusion of scientific knowledge, could we still be in the Dark Ages of medicine when it comes to understanding the origins and pathophysiology of these diseases that plague us all? The Answer is right before us.
BACKGROUND
Medical doctors who are reading this have to be asking themselves why a veterinarian feels that he is qualified to tackle such an issue when the scope of this topic is clearly out of his jurisdiction. The answer to that reasonable question is complex yet completely understandable. First of all, the disease processes that we are faced with personally and professionally are very similar. Dogs and cats suffer from most of the human conditions and many in more abundance. For example, the cancer rates of dogs exceed those of people. These pets are plagued with virtually all of the immune-mediated diseases that we experience, such as diabetes and lupus.
Secondly, my profession appears to have one distinct advantage over the medical industry. The fact is that veterinarians have a rather unique perspective on medicine these days in that we continue to see our patients from birth to death. Specialization in human medicine may have afforded better care for individual conditions but has the apparent downside of creating a lack of continuity that, in turn, prevents some health care professionals from seeing the big picture. To an observant veterinarian, patterns become readily apparent that oftentimes aid tremendously in the art of diagnosing our patients conditions without the obvious support of verbal confirmation by our patients. If only they could talk is the standard comment offered by our clients. Fortunately, by performing a thorough physical exam of all systems and by taking a thorough history, we can, with the aid of supportive diagnostics like blood work and radiographs, do an amazingly good job of diagnosing our patients without their consent. The patterns that we have observed in that patient or in our hospital during that week or month or even season give us that additional edge to perform our job more accurately (and with the least trauma to our patient and the lowest cost to our client.) All of these factors filter into the art of veterinary medicine. Because we do not have the insurance industry to fall back on, this skill is a necessity, not an option. Has the medical professional inadvertently lost some of their ability to perform this art as skillfully as in the past by focusing so keenly on the individual discipline or disease process? Has the “Pearl Harbor approach” to diagnostics subtracted from the physicians ability to reason his way into that diagnosis?
I want it clearly stated at this point that the purpose of this paper is not to lambaste the medical profession but rather to illuminate the true elements that have contributed to the downhill slide in human health. These factors have developed as a result of our advances as much as shortcomings. This may be an absurd statement to the intellectual in our midst, but can be understood by all upon completion of this treatise. The role physicians and veterinarians play emanates from their individual perception and understanding of what is presented and accepted as truth. Each of us has the responsibility as caregivers to seek out this truth and apply it to the best of our abilities. This is a collective as well as an individual effort, and is molded in part by our individual experiences. Herein lies the genesis of my motivation. What I have experienced and learned over the recent past has launched me toward a brave new world of medicine. My understanding and compassion have reached new and much needed heights.
It is clear that the best way for us to help someone is to “go through the fire” ourselves. Once accomplished, we have the empathy and understanding it takes to truly aid those in need. This is the crux of the matter and why I am writing this article. “It takes one to know one” is the childhood comeback. No truer words were spoken.
CELIAC DISEASE AS A MODEL
In April of 2000, I would have a life-altering condition dropped in to my lap. I found out that I had celiac disease, otherwise known as gluten intolerance. Gluten is a complex of proteins found in the cereal grains wheat, barley, and rye. An intolerance to these proteins leads to a myriad of allergic reactions and other immune-mediated responses causing a wide variety of symptoms. This diagnosis came about in an indirect fashion through my brother. He had been experiencing weight loss and severe abdominal pain for a few months and had made two or three trips to the emergency room for sharp, unrelenting discomfort. After a complete work up, including blood work, MRIs, barium series, colonoscopy, and more, his doctors were at an impasse. The only abnormal finding was an iron deficiency anemia. Little did they know that they held the key to the diagnosis in their hand.
Out of the blue came an Email from a friend of his concerning celiac disease. His friend was a medical researcher and Internet buff who came across this “disease” as a match for Rob’s symptoms. My brother brought it in to his “doctor” brother to read one day in my veterinary hospital. When I read the pages from www.celiac.com, my mouth fell open and I said ” Well, Rob. This is you all right. Trust me. When this many things fit, it is the answer. But, Rob! This is not just you, this is me! It describes my symptoms perfectly.” And it did. My chronic fatigue, irritable bowel, insomnia, heartburn, allergy symptoms, and even my fibromyalgia were described on those pages. I immediately committed to going off foods with gluten as well as launching a full-scale investigation into this elusive condition.
Of course, Rob was definitively diagnosed through the available celiac screening blood tests and later by duodenal and jejunal biopsies. (Gastroenterologists familiar with celiac disease now suggest that 8-10 biopsies may be required rather than the customary 2-3 samples.) The “key” I mentioned, of course, was the iron deficiency anemia. It is the “red flag” for celiac disease, in retrospect. I was “diagnosed” by my dramatic response to the elimination of gluten and later by testing my son, who had suggestive signs at 10 years of age. My wife and daughter were negative on the blood screens. My father was clearly the primary source and again, in retrospect, had been a clinical celiac for years.
I launched into a study of gluten intolerance that would rival any research I had done in my academic study or career. This was partly motivated by my brother’s condition
but really fueled by my rapid improvement from nearly all of the maladies that I had been suffering from since childhood. Within four days, my head cleared mentally from a fog that only the right amount of caffeine could do. I had felt depressed or fatigued since I was about thirty-five and was even treated for acute endogenous depression in that time. Four days off gluten and I felt better than I had in years. My diarrhea stopped, my ears bothered me less, my (severe) heartburn subsided, and I started to sleep better. It was miraculous. This really got my attention.
My study of gluten took me to places that I could not have imagined. My symptoms were just a small sampling of the less serious conditions associated with celiac disease. I found out that celiacs have a fifty times higher rate of colon cancer, intestinal lymphomas, and diabetes (particularly juvenile onset) than the general population. We had much higher rates of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid diseases (both hypothyroidism and Grave’s Disease), multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, and much more. Finding this out really got my dander up and I was hooked on Internet research.
I had been off of all cereal grains (wheat, barley, rye, and oats) for six months when I read that at least 50% of celiacs were also casein intolerant, casein being a principle component of cow milk. It is gluten’s evil twin. I immediately sensed that dairy was, in fact, a problem in me so I dropped all dairy products and started researching casein-related disorders. That is when the planets started to align. My shoulder, neck, back, and knee pain all went away and my insomnia disappeared. All that was left was a small remnant of my seasonal allergies. The study of dairy intolerance revealed relationships to all of the celiac-related conditions and more. The consensus of the latest medical opinion appeared to be that dairy protein, most notably casein, was behind diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, coronary artery disease, and lupus. It was everywhere I turned.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
“How could this be?” I asked. How could the staples of our diet be doing this to us? I researched the history of wheat and milk and came up with some vital answers. Wheat as we know it was created by man in the first millennium by blending a number of its ancestor strains together. Anyone can find the history of present day wheat in their encyclopedia. Between my son’s World Book Encyclopedia CD for the computer and celiac websites, it didn’t take long to gather all the specifics.
The ancestors of wheat grew wild in the Middle East for thousands of years B.C. and were most likely consumed in the form of seeds initially. Later, porridges were made. The next step in this food’s evolution was likely to be a pancake, or flatbread, created by frying the porridge. During this period, our northern Germanic ancestors were in a transition from being hunter-gatherers to becoming farmers. The crop that motivated this major change in “careers” was their new obsession…wheat. They started to cross-pollinate and blend wheat varieties in an attempt to improve the quality of the primitive breads with which they had become dissatisfied. Little did they know that the component of wheat they were selecting for was gluten.
Gluten (“glue”-ten), as its name implies, is the substance in wheat that holds its offspring products together. It is the gluten in bread that gives it the resistance to tearing when peanut butter is applied, for example. Gluten is also used for stamps, envelope glues, and even industrial strength adhesives. It is simple to understand that our ancestors desired breads that did not crumble as easily and were able to hold the shapes that they preferred. Increasing the gluten level provided the solution. In fact, they were so successful at this process that wheat became their primary crop. It was largely wheat that motivated the Germanics to migrate all over Europe, all the while searching for more fertile land to grow their creation. They moved north and became the Scandinavian countries, moved west and conquered the United Kingdom, and went south and wiped out the Roman Empire. Those in Scandinavia became the Vikings who took turns invading the northern parts of the United Kingdom, sailing into the Mediterranean, and then crossing the Atlantic to Newfoundland. Whether we realize it or not, most Caucasians are Germans. The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes, not natives of England.
It is believed that common wheat, as we know it, was created in about 400 A.D. This wheat took the gluten level to a new high, suddenly increasing this protein complex to a “toxic” level. This led to the onset of true “coeliac disease”, striking our northern Germanic ancestors shortly after its creation and killing large numbers of them. They died of dysentery and immunosuppression, particularly children. I found it incredibly interesting that the Dark Ages followed immediately after the creation of this new wheat. During this 500-year period, Europe plunged into its worst period in history, suffering from stagnation of learning and artistic growth as well as severe medical problems.
It was in the early 500′s that the first pandemic of plague occurred. It swept through the Mediterranean region for the first time since 1000 B.C. The question I had was where does a plague go for 1500 years? Why are there cycles of these horrible pestilences? The conclusion at which I arrived was one of the first clues in my search for the answer. Diseases are likely to occur once we become susceptible to them. This seems elementary, but it is really deeper than what comes to mind on first inspection. Later on, it would make sense that many of the infectious organisms we are faced with only become a problem when our immune systems are too weak to fight them off. Even today, we know this is true, with a good example being West Nile virus. In the young and healthy, it causes minor flu-like symptoms. In the immune suppressed or elderly, it can be fatal.
Could it be that the plague was present in the environment for those previous 1500 years only to raise its ugly head when our ancestors did something to weaken their immune systems? Could the creation of common wheat have been that catalyst? The answers to these questions would come later when the effect of gluten on our present day immune systems was better understood.
Since that time in the midpoint of the first millennium, man has “genetically engineered” wheat to have incredibly high levels of gluten. This started innocently enough as the blending of different strains of their new creation. This has continued over time and has ultimately led to present day wheat. Canadian “hard” wheat for example now has in excess of 55% gluten content. This is in stark contrast to the original ancestor of wheat, which had approximately 5% gluten. The proof of this lies in the texture of our newer breads. I can remember the days when spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread required almost surgical skills. Now, with the addition of wheat gluten to the bread mix that is made from gluten-rich wheat, we have a product from which one could almost make a trampoline. These are seriously tough breads. If the gluten killed our ancestors, what must it be doing to us now?
Natural selection took place among the Europeans in those days leaving the most intolerant behind. Those that survived were more tolerant, but the process of increasing wheat’s gluten content continued. So, there was a parallel situation of our becoming more tolerant through continues natural selection while we were gradually raising the level of the substance of which we were intolerant. This is one aspect of the “spiral”.
In my medical literature review, I quickly found that Black Americans had a much higher rate of many immune-related disorders than Caucasians. In fact, their incidence rates of diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid, and coronary artery disease were very similar to those of celiacs. Suddenly, history and medicine were melded together again. It didn’t take long to confirm that wheat and cow’s milk were especially unnatural for African Americans once I examined the diet of their ancestors.
In Africa, the cereal grains they consume are comprised of the wheat-substitutes we know now to be safe for celiacs, such as sorghum and millet. Recalling that wheat as we know it was an Anglo-Saxon creation, a short return trip to the history books told a depressing tale.
In about 1500 A.D., the slave trade was getting into high gear. The exportation of the African people from their homeland to remote locations such as the Mediterranean and North America would be tragic in more ways than one. I read in one source that approximately 6% of the slaves never made it to their destinations, many of whom died of dysentery. It suddenly dawned on me that they could have easily been the newest batch of gluten intolerants. These transplanted people had never eaten wheat-based foods in the past and yet here they were, under the worst possible conditions, having this new dietary challenge suddenly thrust upon them in the form of the white man’s bread.
When I examined the Black American’s current affliction with immune diseases, it all started to make sense. They had never had a chance to pass gently through a more gradual process of natural selection like the Caucasian. Instead, they hit this potentially devastating immune insult head-on and did so in the much more recent past than did our Germanic ancestors of the fifth century. When I read about the unsanitary and horribly inhumane conditions found on many of those slave ships, I wondered how many of those poor individuals who were tossed overboard after passing away from dysentery might have survived had they not been exposed to the damaging effects of gluten.
This notion would drive me to the medical books in search of data on the diseases from which Black Americans suffer most. The list above was quickly confirmed but there was a rather unique skeleton in their medical closet- Sickle cell disease, otherwise known as Sickle cell anemia. I found a strange dichotomy in this incredibly sad and catastrophic condition.
In their homeland, the Sickle cell gene helped to protect them against malaria just as it does today in Africa and the Mediterranean. Malaria is a protozoal disease that is usually transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. The injected stage of this parasite then enters the liver where it undergoes a life stage change. This next stage leaves the liver and begins infecting red blood cells. Once in the red blood cell, they are hidden from the immune system until, after multiplying in that blood cell, they break out to infect other red cells.
But here is where things get interesting: In those individuals with the Sickle cell trait- in whom there is one gene for normal hemoglobin and one for Sickle cell hemoglobin- the infected red cell becomes deformed and is destroyed by the body before the parasites can be released to infect other cells. In this way, protection against full-blown Malaria is achieved, with the formation of these deformed “sickle cells” helping to prevent further proliferation of the parasite.
In other words, the Sickle cell gene was a good thing and, without it, infected victims would suffer and die from malaria. Those without any Sickle cell gene were much more susceptible to the lethal effects of malaria. On the other hand, those who had two sickle cell hemoglobin genes- rather than one coding for normal hemoglobin and one for Sickle cell hemoglobin-were subject to developing true Sickle cell disease and dying at an early age, with malaria being one of the main triggers of this horrible condition. Because of the consequences of both genetic extremes, the majority of the population had one of each gene.
So, the Sickle cell gene was an adaptation that protected the population against malaria. And the majority of the population who were taken as slaves had one Sickle cell gene. When did having this gene become a bad thing? Was it purely that these transplanted individuals no longer had the threat of malaria to kill those with two Sickle cell genes when they were brought to America? Is it automatic that an individual with two Sickle cell genes will develop what we know as Sickle cell disease and die? Are there triggers other than malaria that can initiate a Sickle cell crisis?
After reading the Merck Manual section on Sickle cell and seeing the list of known triggers and the similarity of symptoms to celiac disease, I hypothesized that a dramatic change in the diets of the slaves could have somehow turned this gene against its host once they arrived on foreign soil. I read that zinc deficiency was a common finding in symptomatic individuals and knew that zinc was absorbed by the duodenum where gluten does its harm. I read that viral and bacterial infections were common inducers of Sickle cell crisis and knew that celiacs were frequently immune-compromised and much more susceptible to such infections. The sudden diet change must have caused an abrupt change in the slaves immune status, just as it did the northern Germanics when they first created common wheat.
In the chaotic immunological atmosphere created by the new foods (wheat, dairy, and corn), could the immune system have become over-reactive to these sickle cells, causing them to adhere to the walls of the blood vessels that carried them and leading to the clots, organ damage, and growth abnormalities that characterize those with chronic Sickle cell disease? Similar syndromes do occur in Caucasians, such as hemolytic anemia, in which the red blood cells become coated with foreign proteins, resulting in their destruction by the immune system. What causes those non-Sickle cells to clump and rupture?
This paper will specifically deal with the pathomechanisms of immune-mediated diseases, but suffice it to say here that Sickle cell disease clearly has an immune component. The disease process as described in the medical texts is a complex syndrome. It is truly a who’s who of what can go wrong with an individual- and this from a gene that used to save lives in Africa and the Mediterranean. How in the world could this happen?
When I first read the description of Sickle cell disease in the Merck Manual, I immediately called my brother. We had been brainstorming for weeks as the medical revelations were coming to our newly unlocked minds. I had been sitting on my bed, performing my new favorite exercise- opening the Manual with my eyes closed and pointing to a page. I would then try to explain the disease or condition on that page through the eyes of food intolerance. One of the first to be dissected was Sickle Cell.
I read the description to him- the pain, the blood problems, the growth abnormalities, the gastrointestinal disturbances, etc. and asked him what it sounded like. He just nervously laughed and said “My gosh, its celiac disease isn’t it?” I agreed that the two shared an incredible number of signs. When I went over the whole protection versus death idea, we both concluded that the difference had to be in the immune component introduced or exaggerated by food intolerance.
Being the obsessive compulsive that I am, I launched into a brief but manic search for information on the condition over the Internet, and then began relaying what I had found. I was still young and foolish in those days, believing that my Emails would reach the hands of someone important and that I would actually affect a difference. I sent Internet letters to Oprah, Montel, and the Sickle Cell foundations explaining my findings and suspicions. The lack of response was disappointing at first but understandable. These were busy people with thousands of Emails to sort through. They must get millions of letters form well wishers with great ideas for shows or topics. Little did I know that it would be six months of in-house research and a whole lot more study to come up with enough data and insights to write a paper with some real meat in it to send to them in hard copy form.
Wheat had an amazing history and clearly played a major role in shaping the medical conditions that would follow. But, the same thing happened with dairy products. Before 1500 A.D., the principle sources of milk and its derivatives were sheep and goats. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans demonstrated their understanding of the true value of these animals by elevating them to the heavens. The sheep was honored for it’s wool and milk and given the astrological name Aries. Capricorn, the goat, was valued for its milk. In fact, part of the name given to this honored creature meant “foster milk”. The ox, Taurus, was deified for his work in the fields. It wasn’t until much later that man veered from his natural course and chose to mass-produce cow milk.
In fact, it wasn’t until the middle of the second millennium that this took place. Somewhere between 1300 and 1500 A.D., our ancestors decided to go into the dairy industry using cows. A decisive factor had to be the usual motivation for most that we do as humans, supply and demand. The corollary to this is ignorance and greed. Suddenly, there was a demand for greater and greater quantities of milk and the cows larger udder was a tempting source. The rest is history.
The main problem with this seemingly logical yet devastatingly ignorant decision was that there was a vast difference between cow milk and that of its predecessors. The protein, fat, mineral, and vitamin content as well as the pH buffering qualities were all different. Some of these differences were subtle; others would be the difference between tolerance and intolerance. Goats milk was much more digestible, forming smaller curds and being lower in the indigestible components such as lactose. However, the most vital difference would not be discovered until the days of immunology and quantitative analysis arrived.
Now we know that the biggest difference between cow and goat milk is the absence or low quantity of one protein fraction, alpha S-1 casein. Understanding of this dairy protein not only serves to explain the lower allergy rate to goat milk, but also sends us in the right direction on our search for the culprit behind other immune-mediated food issues. Casein makes up 80% of the protein in cow milk. In bovine milk, 75% of the casein is alpha casein. In goat milk, the majority is beta casein. The dominant component of the alpha casein in cow milk is the alpha S-1 casein, the culprit we just identified as being responsible for most immune reactions, including milk allergies. There are other differences in protein concentrations, including those lactalbumins in the whey portion, but we will focus later on casein as it relates to the induction of villous damage in the small bowel.
The milk history lesson doesn’t end here. The reader is directed to remember the possible relationship between the advent of common wheat and the start of then Dark ages because history repeats itself. The first pandemic of plague occurred shortly after wheat’s creation. The second pandemic of plague, by far the worst of the three, immediately followed the introduction of cow milk. This was a phenomenal coincidence to me. This devastating epidemic known as the Black Death started in Europe in approximately 1300 A.D. and killed one fourth of its population. The pandemic occurred in 1400 and spread across Europe into Asia wiping out nearly 40 million people. Just as the dairy industry was getting into full swing in 1600 in England, its true land of origin, the Great (bubonic) Plague of London occurred, killing another 100,000 people. The third and last pandemic occurred in the mid 1800s in China, causing over 20 million deaths over a 75-year period. Had milk and wheat finally reached their land?
Are these historical coincidences? Celiac disease is a historical fact and occurred in those that finally developed wheat into a toxic grain. The ultimate immuno-suppressive effects of food allergies and intolerances are well known and will be covered in greater detail later in this treatise. The potentially devastating effects of an incompetent immune system would have to include increased vulnerability to infectious diseases. Therefore, the timing of these plagues could easily be interpreted as evidence of the horribly deleterious effects off these novel proteins on an unsuspecting population of susceptible people.
Therefore, it should be clear to the reader that man took two very important steps backward when it came to maintaining his health. The development of wheat as we know it was potentially catastrophic in scope only to be eclipsed by the change in horses from sheep and goats to cows as a milk source. Between the two, man was on a collision course with immunological disaster. But we’re not finished yet. Humans seem to make a major nutritional blunder once a millennium and the newest “winner” is soy protein.
All one has to do ask, “If soy is so good for us, why have we waited 3000 years to make it a major protein source?” We have known about soy since the Chou Dynasty in 1100 B.C. It was first developed as a crop to place nitrogen back into the soil. Soy was planted about every 3-4 crops for this purpose. Granted, the Asian cultures began consuming this mixed blessing very early on, but they learned quickly the safe and proper way in which to do it. They knew from experience that soy had “anti-nutrients” and other potentially harmful components, such as threateningly-high levels of estrogen. The manner in which they ate soy was then very well thought out. In the hands of unknowing Americans, the old “if some is good, a lot must be better” mentality takes over. Suddenly, soy protein is showing up in school lunch burgers, meal-replacing drinks, and breakfast cereals aimed at the female market. Without the basic knowledge of the potential harmful effects of soy protein, we are steaming toward disaster.
At this point, a distinction needs to be made between the different nutritional components of the soy plant. As the reader may have noticed, the term soy protein has been used most frequently in reference to the harmful effects of this plant. This protein portion will be the focus of discussion as it relates to the serious effects it has on the immune system and central nervous system. The other “nutritional” component of the soy plant is the isoflavone. This term refers to the phytochemical portion, that part which is primarily composed of the phytoestrogens (“plant-estrogens”). Although the health benefits of plant estrogen supplementation in people are debatable, the protein portion is not, in my opinion.
The two portions arise from distinctly different parts of the plant. The protein comes from the legume seed itself, whereas the phytoestrogen comes primarily from the leafy part of the seedling. It is, therefore, easy to separate the two and reap the (potentially) beneficial effects of soy without subjecting ourselves to the harmful effects of the protein.
The ill effects of soy protein are everywhere you turn, starting as a primary allergen in children and adults. It is number four on the FDA’s list of childhood food allergens. This should be a serious warning right away. I discovered it on my own, however. Two weeks of soy milk in place of dairy had my stomach in an absolute knot. I have interviewed numerous clients who attested to these nauseating effects. As we will discuss later, the gastrointestinal effects are only the beginning. Serious immune-stimulating actions as well as pain-inducing effects are common among soy consumers.
Asians then and now eat soy in a specified manner. They would consume only small quantities at the beginning of a meal, eating less than two teaspoons a day. They would then quickly follow this up with a meal rich in animal protein, such as seafood or poultry (and now beef). The protein from animal sources helped to block the anti-nutrients of soy, such as the trypsin inhibitors. This practice probably also aided in the reduction of the amount of estrogens absorbed.
The estrogen levels of soy are incredible and there is an abundance of statistical data that supports the idea that they have changed the pace of our children’s sexual maturation. In studying the age at which the first menstrual cycle occurred in the Japanese before and after WWII, researchers linked the decline from 15.5 years to 12 years to milk consumption. They found that prior to WWII, the Japanese consumed an average of 5.5 pounds of dairy products per person per year. After that war, thanks to American influence, their dairy consumption rose dramatically over the next ten years to 250 pounds per person annually. Over that time, the age of their little girls’ first menses dropped to twelve years of age. That was milk talking.
In this country, the this age for our children has continued to drop, with a shocking 19% of our little girls having their first cycle by age eight. That’s right…eight! This is the effect of soy formulas being given as a substitute for the cow milk based varieties. Why did we do that? We ignorantly reached for the soy substitute because of the incredibly high incidence of cow milk allergies in our infants. The problem is that soy protein, once again, is the fourth most common childhood allergen, according to the FDA. Why is that? As we will cover later, it is because our body doesn’t want this food in us…at all. Allergies are a distinct warning sign. My next paper, in fact, will be entitled Warning Shots, or “How you should have known what you have now was coming based on what you had before.” We should now be able to see this one coming from miles and miles away.
But, are we done yet? Are there any other foods that fit into this category of glycoproteins that can be doing us harm? The bad news is that even corn and rice can be significant players in the generation of allergies and related disorders. This should not be a surprise, really, in that they are related botanically to the aforementioned grains in that they are all in the same grass family. Corn is not really a vegetable as most would think but rather it is a grain. The wheat, barley, corn, and rice are really the seeds of the parent plant that we have chosen to consume. So, all of these food sources are related botanically (same grass family) and biochemically (glycoproteins in structure) which should take away that element of surprise when one finds that they react negatively to a number or even all proteins.
This is especially true for our pets. The bad news is that once the animal protein is removed from pet foods, we are left with wheat, barley, corn, soy, and rice, none of which would naturally find their way into the stomachs of our pets. These foods are all man-raised crops that are unavailable to the natural animal.
But how bad can corn be for a human or an animal? The paper will discuss the role of corn in allergies, asthma, and immune-mediated diseases, but recent history gives us a clue as to importance of this protein. Remember those fast food chain taco shells not long ago and the story about the genetically engineered corn that had leaked into our food supply? This was another tip of the iceberg type of story. The stated health risk was allergic reactions. Well, allergic reactions are nothing to sneer at, but immune-mediated disease activation as in the case of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and others is another level of health risk. The latter conditions better explain the urgency of our governmental agencies to remove these foods as soon as possible, spending millions of dollars recalling hundreds of brands of foods containing corn in the process.
More bad news for our pets…they get the genetically engineered corn in their diets. Animal feed is the main outlet for this genetically altered form of corn. Therefore, we have a situation in which an animal that would never naturally eat a particular food (corn) is getting a form of that food that is too powerful for man. Should it then be a surprise that dogs and cats have some problems with corn?
What about rice? Well, the good news is that these trouble foods are on a spectrum of trouble-making. By that I mean that some are clearly worse than others in both incidence and effect in most cases. Wheat is clearly the number one problem grain in man and animals. Oats are clearly the least allergenic of the grain proteins. The others, like rice, are in between. But rice is not a non-allergenic food as some would have you believe. In fact, it is the number one food allergen in Asia, with a staggering 10% of Japanese who have any significant allergy symptoms being allergic to rice. Rice allergies usually show up later in life (adulthood) and are the least common of the grain allergies in pets.
Once again, the reader has to be asking how this could be. The fact is that it was our ancestors who chose to cultivate and develop a taste for these foods. We have just reached a point in our culinary habits where we feel that we cant exist without one of these glycoproteins on our plate. If one was served a meal with (only) a meat, a vegetable, and a fruit, we would cry out for the bread, the corn, the rice, or our salvation…the potato.
Yes, there is a silver lining around what most readers would call this dark cloud and it is called the potato. The fact is that practically no one is allergic to potatoes, one of the best indicators of its safety. The only exception is those uncommon individuals who are allergic to latex, as there is a cross-reaction between true rubber and potato protein in some cases. Otherwise, food allergies involving potatoes are unheard of in people and pets. So, if we must consume a food that is both a carbohydrate and a protein all-in-one, then the potato is your guy. Yes, it has a bad reputation for providing “all of that sugar”, but that is a small price to pay for a food that is so perfect otherwise. It is truly non-allergenic (being the only carbohydrate mentioned thus far that is not in the grass family) and a good source of protein and vitamin C. The potato is really only a problem for those who are trying hard to lose weight or already have diabetes. Otherwise, it is good source of protein and carbohydrate, as long as it is not deep-fat fried in hydrogenated oils or covered in dairy products. We must start using our heads.
Yes, our history of eating is not something that many have delved into but it is rich in answers. If the answers we are looking for to vital questions keep alluding us, then we are clearly looking in the wrong places. I disliked the study of history as much as the next person, maybe even more so. If it wasn’t about science and the living, I didn’t want any part of it. But there is a very important saying concerning there being nothing new under the sun. This implies that the understanding of history is absolutely crucial to solving today’s tough problems, including those in medicine.
Go to Chapters 5-8 of “The Answer”…
