Part 1 - Gluten: The Gut Microbiota

This is the first part of a three part series on the TERRIBLE TRIO of gut microbiota health. The gut microbiota describes the living microorganisms found in a defined environment, such as oral, gut, and latest, brain microbiota. It is a potent modulator of pro-inflammatory and autoimmune responses, leading to different inflammation-related diseases. Its integrity and optimum function are significantly compromised by Gluten, Dairy and Sugar.

GLUTEN CONTAINING GRAINS (wheat, rye, barley, kamut, spelta and oats)

The 2.5 million years young human genetic design has evolved and adapted to the environment and eventually been finalized around 10,000 years ago. Throughout this long period, it was designed and equipped to benefit from foods available at the time: wild plants (fruits and vegetables), occasionally some game (though only 1 in 29 hunting trips was successful), and later, for the tribes that moved towards water, some fish.

At the time the human genome was finalized, foods like grains (with or without gluten – rice, for example) and tubers (potatoes) either didn’t exist or were not consumed. Hence, the human body is not genetically equipped to digest, absorb, and thrive on them.

There is no clear evidence on how people benefitted from grains and tubers health wise during and post Agrarian Revolution, but we know for sure that they were widely available and relatively easy to produce in large quantities. Thus, they became cheap belly fillers and energy sources that turned also into a trade commodity. This is why and how grains and tubers production proliferated to present days!

In the last 40 years all these food items have been heavily genetically modified and cultivated with poisonous pesticides. The current wheat, rye, barley, kamut, spelta and oats (gluten containing) as well as rice (gluten-free) do not resemble the original ones that humans started to cultivate and consume during the Agrarian Revolution. The potatoes (tubers) and corn (grains) were introduced much later, as additional sources of cheap carbohydrates/ energy.

Hence, nowadays, most of these food items are undigestible and not absorbed. Moreover, they create a lot of damage in the digestive tract and beyond, all being very inflammatory!

Just to add insult to the multiple injuries caused by grains and tubers, the modern lifestyle poses additional challenges to our gut:

• psychological (fear, stress, anxiety, etc.) as well as
• physical, such as (other) foods, drinks, medicines, drugs, exotoxins inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin as well as endotoxins such our own byproducts of suboptimal digestion, respiration, and other bodily/ brain functions.

As a result, our intestinal lining - villi (little hair-like formations that uptake nutrients from the intestines to transfer it into the blood stream) is most likely damaged by a combination of the above factors.

For example, one tablet of Panadol (and most of the over-the-counter or prescribed drugs), would compromise the internal intestinal lining for more than 72 hours. During this time hardly any nutrients would be absorbed, while the post medicated gut will take time to heal, depending on the other aggressors it is exposed to.

GLUTEN literally glues off the villi!Its damage incidence (to varied degrees) was estimated to be over 70% of the Caucasian population in early 2000’s. Due to the continuous negative changes in the quality of food and life in general of the past 20 years, gluten is likely to afflict most of the population that consumes it by now, as it has been added to many processed foods. A more recent estimate was of 90% of people eating a diet that includes gluten are somewhat affected by it.

Besides being genetically modified and full of pesticides, etc. and cultivated into a soil depleted of nutrients, affected by pollution, and other environmental pressures, gluten containing grains as well as rice are chlorine bleached (!) instead of stone grounded, for cost reasons. It is cheaper and faster to chlorine bleach than ground, sift, etc.

Some bread making processes like the sourdough breaks the gluten, making it somewhat easier to digest. However, sourdough breads are not completely gluten-free and could still create havoc in the digestive tract and systemic inflammation, as the flour comes from grains that have high carbohydrates contents, besides gluten residues, plus all the environmental and processing related toxins.

All nutrients the gluten-containing grains as well as from rice, corn and potatoes provide are available from other food items. Why risking eating GLUTEN (‘glue X ten’) foods as well the other highly inflammatory grains (rice and corn) and potatoes that jeopardize the integrity of the gut? The gut is not only responsible for digestion and absorption of nutrients, but it also hosts about 70% of the immune system. A compromised gut equals a compromised immunity!