Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Whole Grain Scam Re-Visited


By Miami Beach Chiropractor Todd M. Narson, DC, DACBSP

On September 2007 I wrote a blog article entitled “The Whole Grain Scam”. In the very first paragraph I wrote:

“Don't get me wrong, eating whole grains is E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y healthy for you. This isn't the scam. What is a scam is all of the packaging out there tricking you into believing you're actually eating whole grains. Therein "lies" the true scam”. http://naturalsportsmedicine.blogspot.com/2007/09/whole-grain-scam.htmlhttp://naturalsportsmedicine.blogspot.com/2007/09/whole-grain-scam.html

Now 4 years, a lot of nutrition books, webinars and seminars later I realized that this was a mis-statement of monumental proportions.  As I learn more and more about nutrition, I write and post what I learn in order to help others. As one learns you often find yourself tossing out old ideas and theories due to new advances in science and discovery. You make your changes and adjustments the forge ahead. Education is ever evolving.  As it turns out, the more I read about grains, the more I realize it really doesn’t matter how the grains are served up, whole, refined or wrapped up with a pretty pink bow, grains are treated by your body like sugar and that’s a bad thing.

And we weren’t meant to eat sugar as we do today.

The real whole grain scam is that grains are good for you in the first place. They’re not. Do they have some healthy nutrients in them? Yes they do, but they are bound so tightly to the grain, that they pass right through your body. Grains contain an anti-nutrient called Phytates that block our absorption of B vitamins and chemically bind iron, copper, zinc and calcium to prevent their absorption and digestion. So while grains contain calcium, zinc, copper, iron and B vitamins, you don’t get their benefit. You can’t, phytates prevent it. So grains are doing exactly what they were designed to do – survive the digestive tract, get dropped out the other end and still have enough “stuff” in it to re-plant and perpetuate the species. Survival of the fittest applies to plants too.

Grains are really the seeds from tall grasses. Now think to yourself…if you were living 100,000 years ago, or 2 million years ago how would you have picked enough of these grains to make them any kind of important part of your diet? The technology simply didn’t exist. You would have had to pick enough grains, then mash them or boil them in order to eat them. The technology didn’t exist and in order to eat enough of the grains, you’d expend too much energy picking and preparing them, they contained chemical components that prevented their valuable nutrients from being absorbed – what’s the point? To early humans, it wasn’t worth the effort except. According to Loren Cordain, PhD, they only ate grains in times of extreme starvation.

Research by teams of researchers continuously show that Paleolithic man (caveman is you will) had a diet that consisted of wild game and fish, vegetables, fruits (mostly low glycemic fruits like berries) and nuts. We drank water.

Since the agricultural age began approximately 10,000 years ago, we started to see a shrinking in the height of humans, on average preagricultural man was 5’9” tall and by 3,000 BCE, the average male was 5’3” tall. Cerial grains were providing fuel however lacked many of the nutrients wild meats, vegetables and fruits did. The result was more that just our general shrinking, but an explosion in the rate of ill health, disease and a reduction in the average life span. Dental cavities and tooth decay as well as heart disease, strokes, type II diabetes and cancer started to rear their ugly heads.

Coincidence?

No, it’s called Adaptive Physiology.

Adaptive physiology can work for us or against us. Our gene pool spent millions of years being shaped and shifted from the environment which we evolved from. Food of course was one of the biggest sources of influence from that environment. Our physiology was created by the foods we ate. Since no where in our gene pool over the past 4.5 million years (sans the past 10,000) did our food include grains, needless to say, grains should not be part of our diets today.

Nowhere in our evolutionary history did we eat grains or sugar and both should be stricken from our diets. But be careful when you go to the grocery store and buy some meat. You see, our meats are now grain fed too. Beef use to eat the flowering tops of grasses (what we now call “grass fed”) and poultry use to eat bugs, worms, larvae, seeds and were basically “omnivores”. Cows, buffalo and bison were monolithic vegans eating only the flower tops of various varieties of grass. Fish, well, ate other fish. Bu go ahead and go shopping and see what you find….grain fed beef, grain fed poultry and farm raised-mostly grain fed fish.

When you feed any species a diet it wasn’t physiologically adapted for, it gets sick. Our food gets its nutrient content from their food, and so on. So when we eat grain fed beef rather than grass fed beef, it doesn’t contain the nutrients that we need and adapted to. The same for grain fed chicken and fish.

Oh, and I don’t care if they’re fed organic grains. Organic or not, if you’re not meant to eat grains it doesn’t matter. They’ll just be “organically sick”, just like you’ll be if you eat them.  Would you eat cardboard? What about organic cardboard? Ridiculous right? Exactly my point. It's not good for you either way.

So, based on my current knowledge and studying, If it contains grains, don’t eat it. Grains being healthy is the scam. Now just throw in sugar, salt and un-natural fats and you have the health epidemic we have today.


However if you choose to eat them, make sure they’re spouted. Although sprouting grains does not reduce gluten (reference: The Gluten Doctors) it does reduces the phytates. But grains are neolithic nutrition, not meant for our paleolithic genes.

If you’re wondering about getting enough fiber, don’t worry. Fruit contains twice the amount of fiber as grains and vegetables contain 8 times the amount of fiber as grains. So eat the food we were made for:

1. animal protein from animals that ate their natural evolutionary diet
a. Wild game meats
b. Grass fed beef, buffalo, bison
c. Free range – pastured poultry
d. Wild caught fish
2. Vegetables (non-starchy; locally grown or organic)
3. Fruits (mostly berries; non-starchy)
4. Nuts
5. Drink water

Do this until you reach your health goals, then, do the 80-20 rule. Eat great 80% of the time, eat for taste bud enjoyment the other 20% and you should do just fine. This comes out to eating good 6 days per week and 1 day eat what you want. And, if you want, then eat great that day too.

The physiology of paleolithic man was more like that of our super athletes today.  Eat the way they ate and you'll be on your way to a much better, stronger, healthier and longer future. 

The whole grain scam is that grains, whole or refined are a health food. Simply put, They're Not.

‘nuff said.

Dr. T



Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

More Teens Die of Heat Stroke – When Will We Demand Better Education OF Our Kids Coaches?


Well, it’s extremely sad to day it happened again. This past week two more teenagers died of heat stroke during summer football practice. In Columbia County, FL a 16 year old boy was found dead at a high school football camp this past Tuesday. Hours later, another 16-year old. Georgia high school football player died in an Atlanta hospital, a week after being admitted suffering what doctors believe was heat exhaustion. Since the young athlete died, it’s pretty safe to say it was heat stroke, not heat exhaustion. In either case, this is a tragedy that is happening all too often and a clear trend is emerging and it seems our children do not appear to be safe in the hands of high school coaches.

After I decided that sports medicine was the direction I wanted my career to take, I started volunteering at local beach volleyball tournaments and triathlons. I had been putting in my time with more experienced sports medicine physicians for a couple of years when in the summer of 1994 I saw my first case of heat exhaustion. It was late in the day during the 1994 Bud Light Florida Beach Volleyball tournament on Ft. Lauderdale beach that we began to see them. This was an armature tournament and the players presented with very hot and red skin, not sweating after playing for hours and the muscles in their extremities (arms and legs) were fibrillating. We immediately administered fluids, cool towels and called 911 to transport to the local E.R. for I.V. fluids an evaluation. Luckily, no one died.

This brings up a good point, this was an amateur tournament and they didn’t have the knowledge or experience to know much about heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Luckily we were there in the medical tents and were able to handle it. But what about your teenage son or daughter and their high school coach? How well trained is the high school coach and assistant coaches in the prevention of heat exhaustion? Does the coach know what to do to help prevent heat exhaustion of heat stroke? Do they know what the signs and symptoms are and could they recognize it before it becomes too late? Just remember, they’re coaching your child.

Former coach David Jason Stinson, 37, was charged after 15-year-old Max Gilpin collapsed at an August 2008 practice as the team ran a series of sprints known as "gassers." He died three days later at a Louisville hospital of heat stroke, sepsis and multiple organ failure. His temperature reached at least 107 degrees. Players said Stinson ordered the gassers as punishment for the lack of effort they showed at practice on a day where th temperature and heat index were both 94 degrees. Prosecutors relied on a series of Gilpin's teammates who testified that several teens became ill during the gassers, vomiting or bowing out of the running with ailments.Several medical and athletic training experts also testified for the prosecution, saying Gilpin suffered from exertional heat stroke, which led to his death. One witness, University of Connecticut associate professor Douglas Casa, said Gilpin could have been saved if he'd been immersed in ice water almost immediately after collapsing on the field. Click here to read more on this story

 All too often I’ve seen coaches use water as the bait to get their kids to push themselves to the max. They use water as a punishment and a reward and this is utterly stupid and puts your child at risk. Athletes should drink enough water to prevent thirst, not wait until their thirsty to start drinking.
Parents and coaches should also know that dehydration reduces athletic performance. So if a coach is trying to get more out of the athlete, then drinking water and keeping hydrated is critical to top athletic performance. Studies show that athletes who lose as little as 2% of their body weight through sweating have a drop in blood volume which causes the heart to work hard in order to circulate the blood. A drop in blood volume can also lead to muscle cramping, dizziness, fatigue as well as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

If there isn’t a sports medicine professional such as an athletic trainer, certified sports chiropractor or medical physician at the practices or games, then you need to make sure that your children’s coach knows the signs or heat exhaustion and stroke and knows how to properly coach your kids to prevent dehydration. Water is essential for life and no longer should coaches use water as a reward or punishment to get their athletes to push themselves longer and harder.

If you are as concerned about this as I am, then take a few moments and read the 10 Ways To Prevent Heat Stroke In Student Athletes

Exercising during the hot summer can be very dangerous. Make sure your child's coaches have the proper training and take the proper precautions.  Make sure the coach and your child knows how important it is hydrate themselves. Make sure they know you get better performance when properly hydrated and make sure they know the consequences for not hydrating. 

This isn't one of those issues to take lightly. This is life and death.  It's easier to have a hard talk with the coach and threaten to pull your child from their program than to give a eulogy about your child.

Sorry to be so harsh, but this isn't a time to mince words.

'nuff said

Dr. T





Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

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