I did my damndest for years to “eat clean”. I cut out “bad fat”, all sugar, all caffein (apart from matcha tea, which is OK because monks drank it and its, er, green), wheat, gluten, no grains of any kind after lunch, nothing over-cooked, nothing over-oiled, everything sprinkled with activated nuts and usually stuffed with dates or rice syrup.
These things were, I knew, catastrophically bad for my health and, if consumed, I would turn instantly and entirely to fat, develop heart disease, diabetes or, from the sound of it, some sort of narcolepsy. In fact, what I developed was an inability to leave the house without towing a stack of tupperware.
“Clean Eating” has slowly worked its way into usually sensible people's lives over the past few years, occasionally, but not always, based on the advice of Nutritionists (a title which, in case there is anyone out there who still considers it universally trustworthy, can, for the time-pressed, be bought via a nifty 10 hour online course). It has been given an air of credibility often due to the platforms it is preached from, and it is especially good at luring the vulnerable. As someone who spent a decade of my life battling an eating disorder and all it's associated food phobias, the comments I hear around me in yoga studios, in gyms, in dance class and the quinoa aisle of almost any supermarket, belong in the corridors of an eating institution.
I'm not talking about sensible, balanced healthy advice. No, it is not advisable to live on chips. Yes, some vegetables and a bit of protein are pretty useful. And no, a mars bar a day, it turns out, does not keep the doctor away.
Now, I wasn't going to name and shame, but having received no response from SoHot Yoga to any of my correspondence in response to their recent newsletter and campaign, including my genuine invitation to engage in discussion, I feel less worried about throwing out their name as an example. Also, this particular newsletter (which, in the interest of fairness and clarity, I have not edited in any way) hits on some excellent examples of the areas I want to address.
So I teamed up with a doctor (my brother) and a clinical dietician (his partner) to work through some of the confusion, beginning with their opinion on gluten...
'“You’re fine. You’re not gluten intolerant. Eating wheat will not cause you any harm”.
That’s a load of BULL and it could be a lie that’s killing you!
Here are some of the ‘joys’ you can look forward to when your sensitivity to gluten is triggered: Depression, anxiety, brain fog, a bevy of auto-immune diseases, unexplained weight gain, migraine headaches, skin problems, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, numbness and tingling in your hands and feet — and — aggravation of arthritis.'
Unless you have Coeliac Disease (which is 1% of the population), or gluten sensitivity (around 6%), the immune system is in no way affected by gluten. For everyone else, gluten alone is not enough to cause any of those problems in the body. It can play a part in the problem, but only as a result of other underlying health issues, such as IBS or imbalanced gut microbes. More often than not, if you can fix the underlying issue, you can eat gluten and wheat again.
'One challenge is in the testing. The standards for blood testing for gluten sensitivity are non-specific. If you are ‘just below’ an arbitrary line you are deemed to be “OKAY”. NOT TRUE!!!
One of our members was tested in Canada. She was told she is sensitive to gluten and she must stop eating wheat. She was also tested by her UK doctor and she heard the exact opposite, that she was not sensitive gluten and to carry on eating wheat. AGGH!!!''
This is difficult to address without knowing what kind of testing was performed, but some of the confusion here may lie in the distinction between gluten sensitivity and wheat sensitivity. To check for Coeliac/gluten issues, a blood test (known as a TTG) will be performed, and if that throws up any potential problems, it will be followed by a look at other immunoglobins associated with immune response. In order for this test to be accurate, the patient must have eaten gluten for 6 weeks before. If bloods suggest a problem, they are also followed by an endoscopy for a small bowel biopsy to confirm diagnosis.
For patients with IBS/wheat intolerance, blood tests and gut physiology are normal, so results will be negative. Again, in these cases digesting wheat will cause no immune response, and any symptoms they are experiencing, if they are a response to wheat, will usually be caused by other underlying issues, which can then be explored.
When I researched wheat — I found that no one is able to digest the protein in wheat — called gluten. You’re immune system hates it. It sees it as a toxic molecule. Your body has to mix anti-bodies against it to get rid of it.
There is quite simply no credible evidence to support this. If you are not Coeliac, your body will have no immune response to gluten. If you are one of the small number of people affected by wheat, your symptoms will not be caused by your immune system. For wheat sensitivity, you would be advised to follow a FODMAP diet, which looks at the role of fermentable carbs (Fructan) which are broken down naturally in the large bowel by 'friendly' bacteria. For a very small number, the bowel bacteria produces excessive gas, which causes bloating, pain and a change in bowel habits. In these cases, cutting out wheat often improves symptoms, but often, later down the line, can be re-introduced.
Gluten isn’t the only villain in wheat. There are other proteins that have shown to increase appetite and cause havoc with your gut wall.
Amylopectin-A is the starchy carbohydrate element of wheat. It is called a super-carb because of its ability to spike blood sugar level to insanely high levels — even higher than sugar.
Amylopectin-A is a part of the simple starch chain linking glucose unit. Glucose, being fundamental for all cell processes, is easily broken down and absorbed by the gut. There is currently no study that has produced any credibly evidence to support the claim of 'super carb'. How quickly glucose is absorbed does vary, but it depends on many factors, such as the fibre, protein and fat content of all meals, or a pre-existing sensitivity to glucose/heightened insulin response.
I'm going to come back to sugar, which deserves its own post, but just as a trailer, refined sugar is not an excellent idea. Bananas, when eaten in moderation (just in case any of you are a fan of YouTube's Banana Girl) are FINE. Eating great mountains of dates and rice syrup (or, indeed banana) is not advisable.
But to finish up on gluten, a recent study into gluten free brands found them to be considerably less healthy than their whole-grain wheat equivalents, due to the majority being filled with salts, variants of sugar and starches to replicate the taste and texture of the more nutritionally dense counterparts. What is more, wheat (I repeat whole-wheat, not processed wheats) contains a stack of nutrients that contribute to heart health and blood sugar regulation.
In fact, check out the most recent study intended to discover whether wheat consumption really did increase the likelihood of heart disease, which actually found that consuming whole-grain wheat reduces the likelihood of heart-disease, diabetes and obesity.
The full study is here.
I'm on something of a myth busting mission, so I'm going to rope my medical comrades in to doing more of these. Next up: Fat, carbs, sugar and...the alkaline diet.
To get ahead of the game, listen to Sam Harris's Waking Up podcast with Gary Taubes, episode 74, 'What Should We Eat?'. I cannot recommend it's nonsense-busting excellence highly enough.
I am also giving a talk about all this stuff at YOGARISE in Peckham on Sunday 28th May. Drop me or the studio ([email protected]) a line.
Also, do feel free to contact SoHot either via their site or check out their extraordinary nutrition Facebook Page.
These things were, I knew, catastrophically bad for my health and, if consumed, I would turn instantly and entirely to fat, develop heart disease, diabetes or, from the sound of it, some sort of narcolepsy. In fact, what I developed was an inability to leave the house without towing a stack of tupperware.
“Clean Eating” has slowly worked its way into usually sensible people's lives over the past few years, occasionally, but not always, based on the advice of Nutritionists (a title which, in case there is anyone out there who still considers it universally trustworthy, can, for the time-pressed, be bought via a nifty 10 hour online course). It has been given an air of credibility often due to the platforms it is preached from, and it is especially good at luring the vulnerable. As someone who spent a decade of my life battling an eating disorder and all it's associated food phobias, the comments I hear around me in yoga studios, in gyms, in dance class and the quinoa aisle of almost any supermarket, belong in the corridors of an eating institution.
I'm not talking about sensible, balanced healthy advice. No, it is not advisable to live on chips. Yes, some vegetables and a bit of protein are pretty useful. And no, a mars bar a day, it turns out, does not keep the doctor away.
Now, I wasn't going to name and shame, but having received no response from SoHot Yoga to any of my correspondence in response to their recent newsletter and campaign, including my genuine invitation to engage in discussion, I feel less worried about throwing out their name as an example. Also, this particular newsletter (which, in the interest of fairness and clarity, I have not edited in any way) hits on some excellent examples of the areas I want to address.
So I teamed up with a doctor (my brother) and a clinical dietician (his partner) to work through some of the confusion, beginning with their opinion on gluten...
'“You’re fine. You’re not gluten intolerant. Eating wheat will not cause you any harm”.
That’s a load of BULL and it could be a lie that’s killing you!
Here are some of the ‘joys’ you can look forward to when your sensitivity to gluten is triggered: Depression, anxiety, brain fog, a bevy of auto-immune diseases, unexplained weight gain, migraine headaches, skin problems, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, numbness and tingling in your hands and feet — and — aggravation of arthritis.'
Unless you have Coeliac Disease (which is 1% of the population), or gluten sensitivity (around 6%), the immune system is in no way affected by gluten. For everyone else, gluten alone is not enough to cause any of those problems in the body. It can play a part in the problem, but only as a result of other underlying health issues, such as IBS or imbalanced gut microbes. More often than not, if you can fix the underlying issue, you can eat gluten and wheat again.
'One challenge is in the testing. The standards for blood testing for gluten sensitivity are non-specific. If you are ‘just below’ an arbitrary line you are deemed to be “OKAY”. NOT TRUE!!!
One of our members was tested in Canada. She was told she is sensitive to gluten and she must stop eating wheat. She was also tested by her UK doctor and she heard the exact opposite, that she was not sensitive gluten and to carry on eating wheat. AGGH!!!''
This is difficult to address without knowing what kind of testing was performed, but some of the confusion here may lie in the distinction between gluten sensitivity and wheat sensitivity. To check for Coeliac/gluten issues, a blood test (known as a TTG) will be performed, and if that throws up any potential problems, it will be followed by a look at other immunoglobins associated with immune response. In order for this test to be accurate, the patient must have eaten gluten for 6 weeks before. If bloods suggest a problem, they are also followed by an endoscopy for a small bowel biopsy to confirm diagnosis.
For patients with IBS/wheat intolerance, blood tests and gut physiology are normal, so results will be negative. Again, in these cases digesting wheat will cause no immune response, and any symptoms they are experiencing, if they are a response to wheat, will usually be caused by other underlying issues, which can then be explored.
When I researched wheat — I found that no one is able to digest the protein in wheat — called gluten. You’re immune system hates it. It sees it as a toxic molecule. Your body has to mix anti-bodies against it to get rid of it.
There is quite simply no credible evidence to support this. If you are not Coeliac, your body will have no immune response to gluten. If you are one of the small number of people affected by wheat, your symptoms will not be caused by your immune system. For wheat sensitivity, you would be advised to follow a FODMAP diet, which looks at the role of fermentable carbs (Fructan) which are broken down naturally in the large bowel by 'friendly' bacteria. For a very small number, the bowel bacteria produces excessive gas, which causes bloating, pain and a change in bowel habits. In these cases, cutting out wheat often improves symptoms, but often, later down the line, can be re-introduced.
Gluten isn’t the only villain in wheat. There are other proteins that have shown to increase appetite and cause havoc with your gut wall.
Amylopectin-A is the starchy carbohydrate element of wheat. It is called a super-carb because of its ability to spike blood sugar level to insanely high levels — even higher than sugar.
Amylopectin-A is a part of the simple starch chain linking glucose unit. Glucose, being fundamental for all cell processes, is easily broken down and absorbed by the gut. There is currently no study that has produced any credibly evidence to support the claim of 'super carb'. How quickly glucose is absorbed does vary, but it depends on many factors, such as the fibre, protein and fat content of all meals, or a pre-existing sensitivity to glucose/heightened insulin response.
I'm going to come back to sugar, which deserves its own post, but just as a trailer, refined sugar is not an excellent idea. Bananas, when eaten in moderation (just in case any of you are a fan of YouTube's Banana Girl) are FINE. Eating great mountains of dates and rice syrup (or, indeed banana) is not advisable.
But to finish up on gluten, a recent study into gluten free brands found them to be considerably less healthy than their whole-grain wheat equivalents, due to the majority being filled with salts, variants of sugar and starches to replicate the taste and texture of the more nutritionally dense counterparts. What is more, wheat (I repeat whole-wheat, not processed wheats) contains a stack of nutrients that contribute to heart health and blood sugar regulation.
In fact, check out the most recent study intended to discover whether wheat consumption really did increase the likelihood of heart disease, which actually found that consuming whole-grain wheat reduces the likelihood of heart-disease, diabetes and obesity.
The full study is here.
I'm on something of a myth busting mission, so I'm going to rope my medical comrades in to doing more of these. Next up: Fat, carbs, sugar and...the alkaline diet.
To get ahead of the game, listen to Sam Harris's Waking Up podcast with Gary Taubes, episode 74, 'What Should We Eat?'. I cannot recommend it's nonsense-busting excellence highly enough.
I am also giving a talk about all this stuff at YOGARISE in Peckham on Sunday 28th May. Drop me or the studio ([email protected]) a line.
Also, do feel free to contact SoHot either via their site or check out their extraordinary nutrition Facebook Page.