Originally posted by Dr. Davis on 2014-04-22
on the Wheat Belly Blog, sourced from and currently found at: Infinite Health Blog.
PCM forum Index of WB Blog articles.

Smoke more low-tar cigarettes!

Just kidding, of course.

But followers of the Wheat Belly discussion understand why we often repeat this message: Just because something bad is reduced or eliminated in cigarettes, it does not follow that cigarettes must now be good. Low-tar cigarettes still contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium, as well as nicotine, naphthalene, arsenic, formaldehyde, ammonia and other toxic compounds. Low- or no-tar does NOT mean healthy.

This may seem obvious, but it is surprising how many people — physicians and dietitians included — fall for such flawed logic when applied to nutrition.

So it goes with gluten in wheat, as well as secalin in rye, hordein in barley, zein in corn, and avenin in oats. If it were possible to reduce or eliminate gluten and related proteins in grains, could we declare that grains are now healthy?

No, not even close. Wheat and related grains still contain:

• Phytates — that disturb digestion and block iron and zinc absorption by 90%. This is why grain consuming societies experience so much iron deficiency anemia, impaired immunity, and skin rashes.
   
• Lectins — Wheat germ agglutinin is indigestible. It is thereby free to exert disruptive effects in the gastrointesinal tract and gain access to the bloodstream, where it yields potent inflammatory effects.
   
• D-amino acids — Humans, as well as other mammals, have the digestive apparatus to break proteins down in to L-amino acids. But many of the amino acids in grains are the mirror image D-versions. The implications of this peculiar clash between incompatible species–non-ruminant humans and the seeds of grasses–are just starting to be appreciated.
   
• Amylopectin A — The carbohydrate of grains that is responsible for its extravagant potential to raise blood sugar.

In other words, wheat and related grains are still quite terrible for health, with or without gluten. I highlight this issue because of this awful product: Gluten Cutter, a preparation that contains several enzymes that they purport digests gluten. They even go so far as to suggest–not overtly claim, as that would likely cross some FDA barriers–that even people with celiac disease can consume gluten if they take this supplement.

This is blatantly irresponsible. Don’t fall for it.

Even if gluten digestion were complete (they have no data to prove it one way or another), there are all the other issues in wheat and other grains to contend with. And the price of even minor exposures to undigested gluten in people with celiac disease can be intestinal lymphoma, autoimmune diseases, and dysbiosis. The only reasonable use of this product would be to take it in case there is inadvertent gluten exposure that may be minimized by digestion.

There is more to wheat than gluten, more to rye than secalin, more to barley than hordein, more to oats than avenin. This is because Homo sapiens and seeds from the grasses in the family Poaceae are incompatible.