Are wholegrains healthy?

[foreverondiet]

I always thought yes, as that's what we've all been taught.

I've just read wheat belly and now I am angry / confused / enlightened ......

In a crux - modern (dwarf) wheat is differs from ancient wheat, it highly addictive, not actually good for us or particularly nutritious and even wholegrain wheat has similar GI to white grain and sugar.

www.amazon.co.uk/Wheat-Belly-Davis-William-MD/dp/1609611543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329748000&sr=8-1

Has anyone else read this book?

You can get wheat free muesli Solo If you were giving it up then you'd have to give it ALL up (I can tell by DH's mood if he's had a TINY amount of it weird but true)!

Do you ever get inexplicable exhaustion or evil tempered for no reason?

I do pp . I put the exhaustion down to the ME and the temper down to hormones or PITA kids!!

"Do you ever get inexplicable exhaustion or evil tempered for no reason?"

I get this too. Seriously, this could be caused by wheat?

Eat Natural muesli is both gluten-free and the best muesli I've ever tasted. It is more expensive, but it is very filling so I have a much smaller bowl than I did of my old cereal. I mix it with (gluten-free) yoghurt.

There is gluten in so many things. The Coeliac UK website has details of how to find gluten-free products.

Exhaustion certainly can be called by gluten. It's one of the symptoms of coeliac, along with mood disturbances (being exhausted and uncomfortable is a recipe for bad mood anyway). DS1 is less tired and more even-tempered after 10 days gluten-free. That's proper gluten-free, absolutely no gluten, not just cutting down.

There's gluten in yoghurt?!! bugger!
Actually, my cousin has Coeliacs so I suppose I could ask her...

no gluten in natural yoghurt but there is in some of the fruity ones that use it as a thickener. your cousin will know all the details.

are you sure you are not coeliac? with a relative that has it, you have a higher chance of having it than an average member of the population and your symptoms are suggestive. Some coeliacs have been mis-diagnosed with ME and all sorts of other things before the real probelm was discovered.

Phew! I eat Greek yoghurt on my cereal instead of milk every day!

I don't think I'm Coeliac red, I don't suffer bowel troubles and from a list of possible problems, I only have two or three from the minor and major lists so I'd be very surprised if I was.

DS1 didn't have any bowel troubles either (unless you count his bloated tummy). And only one or two symptoms. His paediatrician didn't think it was worth testing - fortunately we happened to change paediatrician to one who did. Some people have no symptoms at all but are still suffering the internal damage. Since there is a family history of it, I'd think it was worth a blood test - can be done with the practice nurse at the GP surgery (if the doctor authorises it).

Obviously I'm a bit coeliac-obsessed at the moment, with the recent diagnosis, but it is so under-diagnosed (only 10-15% of sufferers know they have it) and yet so common (1 in 100 of the population have it) that there are a lot of people who could be helped.

Yes ephiny If you look at the link that forever gives at the top of this thread it goes into the reasons why more scientifically than I can, but I know it does.

My ex DIL and Dh are sooo much calmer when not eating wheat!! I'm not sure that they're undiagnosed coeliacs though it may be the case I suppose.

I'm still generally sceptical but am wondering about this wheat thing now. My weight is fine and I don't have any serious health problems, but thinking about it I don't feel great most of the time - I often have unexplained tiredness (and sometimes proper exhaustion for no good reason), frequent headaches, mood-swings and irritability. Was going to say I don't have digestive symptoms, but I do get stomach cramps and constipation more often than is probably normal.

Of course there are lots of things that could cause those symptoms (I've put a lot of it down to mild depression and stress) but I guess it's possible it could be something in my diet.

Honestly doubt I have undiagnosed coeliac or anything, but maybe it's worth me cutting out wheat/gluten just as an experiment to see if I feel any different...

Yeah good idea Ephiny i can support you if you like as our household is wheat free!

Solo - It really isnt that bad, and nothing and I mean nothing would get me eating it again. It made me well. Seriously that simple i was incapacitated. I was so ill and all i had to do was cut out wheat. It gave me back my life.

Hmmmm...I will give it some thought tra thanks :)

It's definitely worth trying cutting out suspected foods for a fortnight. If you get withdrawal symptoms (headaches, clumsiness, aches, pains) on days 3 and 4 it's probably food-related. I had to do a dairy-free trial because of bf'ing DS, and discovered I was intolerant to lactose (milk sugars). Changing to lactose-free dairy products boosted my energy levels a lot and improved my IBS considerably.

I've done a couple of gluten-free trials and I have found them both dull and expensive. Things that are normally cheap are really expensive e.g. gluten free oats cost £3.00 for 450g from Tesco. It's worth a try though.

Something else that can cause mood swings, tiredness, sudden irritability is being sensitive to sugar. Your body responds to sugar & white carbs as if they're addictive dcrugs.

There is an eating plan called Radiant Recovery to overcome it. There's a test on the website for how you know if you're sugar sensitive.

I've been doing it about a month after struggling with long-standing irritability, mood swings and exhaustion. I'd tried eliminating dairy, gluten, eggs, nuts, soya, and the GP tested me for iron levels, mal-absorption of nutrients, coeliac disease and thyroid, all of which came back negative apart from the dairy, which helped but didn't solve the problem.

I'm only part-way through the RR plan but it has transformed my energy (and patience) levels by about 500% so far. It has 7 steps, and the first 5 are about adding things to your diet rather than giving things up.

So is it the gluten in wheat that causes the problems?

I think it's very often the gluten, but some people can eat other types of gluten (oats, barley) but not wheat.

If you have coeliac disease or are otherwise gluten intolerant, different people have different tolerance levels for gluten so some can still eat oats, but others can't.

Hmmm....thank you :) food for thought.

Part of the problem with oats is that they are usually contaminated with wheat gluten - farms that grow them usually rotate wheat and oats in the same fields - so in an 'oats' year, a few wheat plants will still sprout up in the field and be harvested, milled etc. in the oats. It's a small amount, but enough to cause damage to coeliacs. You can buy specially farmed 'gluten free' pure oats (expensive and harder to get hold of) but even that is not recommended for coeliacs in the first year or two after diagnosis, as your intestines need the best chance of healing.

That's interesting red i wondered why coeliacs can't eat oats. Is there a form of gluten in the actual oats as well?

I think it is a different protein in the oats, and they seem to think that some coeliacs can tolerate it and others can't. There is advice on the Coeliac UK website, which I think says that coeliac children shouldn't have oats at all, and that adults can try small amounts but with a dietician advising. Best to check on the website though as I might not have that quite right.

Thanks red