by Beth Klenner | Digestion, Gluten, Nutrition
When I went Gluten-free due to health issues over 25yrs ago, virtually food that replaced a gluten form had to be made from scratch with the result being usually quite a dry, crumbly mess. I remember the rice bread was like a solid block of concrete and was best toasted to reconstitute any sort of texture of toast because it really wasn’t very nice in its natural form.
These days, though, the aisles in supermarkets are lined with GF options, with restaurants and fast food outlets often catering for GF, some of course better than others.
While that is awesome that we have these alternatives readily available we still need to consider what ingredients are being used and as they are still heavily processed, I’d recommend that they are treated as a special occasion food.
To begin to understand what Gluten is, I need to first explain what a lectin is. If you have not heard of lectins, they are proteins that are found in grains and their job is to bind carbohydrates.
These essentially are toxic, however, with modern agriculture, we grow and harvest crops of grains and turned their lectins into foods that are highly consumable and eaten many times in a day. If you are not eating an animal or dairy protein, root, or leafy vegetable, you are most likely eating a lectin!
They are hard to digest and interact with your gut lining that is only one cell thick, causing damage not only directly to these cells but also influence the pulling apart of a healthy gut lining, and this is referred to as leaky gut.
Once these lectins go beyond that one cell wall lining, they cause havoc with our immune system, and can potentially flare autoimmunity.
A Lectin can be further classified into Grains, Legumes, and pseudo-grains.
Table 1
To make it more confusing, Lectins are then further divided into prolamins or agglutinins.
Prolamins can also be called Glutenoids. When you take a grain apart, there is the smaller portion, the germ, and the endosperm which is the larger, starchy, and protein part of the grain. This is the food source for the germination and growing of a new seed.
In the endosperm of the grain (the larger portion), the proteins are called prolamins, mainly because they are made up of proline amino acids.
Common prolamins include gliadin (wheat), hordein (barley), secalin (rye), avenin (oats), zein (corn), kafirin (sorghum), and orzenin (rice).
Our digestive system is not good at breaking down prolamins as they contain an inhibitor to protease, which is our enzyme that breaks down proteins, so they simply don’t want to be eaten!
They want to pass safely through your gut to make a new plant in some hearty fertiliser that you generously surrounding it when passing out the undigested grain.
While the main culprits are Gliadin in Wheat, Hordein in Barley and Secalin in Rye (especially for Coeliac), Avenin in Oats also may be an issue for the individual Coeliac, the behaviour of the other prolamins are very similar, so it is good to have an awareness about them and your consumption of them.
What about fruit seeds? Yes, they also have prolamins but because the seeds of fruit such as berries, banana, kiwi, cucumber, and zucchini (yes, they are fruit!) are small enough to ingest without chewing, they happily travel through your intestine in pursuit of finding fertilised ground in which to grow.
But if the seed is big enough to bite, you might consider removing it before consuming i.e. cucumber and zucchini seeds.
Legumes also have prolamins and the main issue here is with the bean or seed, less so with the sprout. The legumes considered safe are rooibos tea, carob powder, and those that are normally eaten raw, being peas, green beans, snow peas, sugar snap peas, and runner beans.
As its name implies, agglutinin is a type of lectin and can cause red blood cells to clump together and become sticky. This is part of a seed’s external defense mechanism from fungi and insects.
It’s really interesting that these plants have the mechanisms so they don’t get eaten. Genetically modified foods have added agglutinins to assist the crops to be more robust against insects, however, this makes them indigestible.
The most well-known agglutinin is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). The germ is the part of the grain that houses all the nutrients needed to grow a new plant. It is usually removed during milling, with the WGA percentage used as a biomarker for how much a wheat product is whole grain.
WGA is difficult to break down in the gut and, as it travels through, it irritates the gut lining, setting off the leaky gut and aggravating the immune system.
Because agglutinins are stable at high temperatures, they need to be cooked for long periods of time and at high temperatures. Kidney beans, cannellini beans, common beans, and broad beans (fava beans) all need to be soaked and cooked really well. Peanuts and soybeans are also on the list of agglutinins.
Some sources say that agglutinin may not be deactivated by cooking which is why it is best avoided where there are autoimmunity and gut issues
Interestingly tomatoes are lectin-rich and therefore also stimulate the immune system via increasing leaky gut due to agglutinin.
If you cannot live without beans, soak these and other legumes in filtered water overnight for a minimum of 8 hours. Drain and rinse. Cook in fresh, filtered water at high heat: 100o C for at least 10 minutes or 95o C for 60 minutes. Slow cooking is not a good option due to the reduced temperatures of slow cooking.
If you sprout your beans, it can reduce lectins by 59%. If fermenting, as in the case of tempeh, lectins can be reduced by up to 95%.
Lectins can be reduced in wheat products, such as pasta, by cooking and processing however it is best not to consume these at all.
I know all of this information can be overwhelming and confusing. The good thing is, that there are simple solutions available and you don’t have to stress about how to remove gluten from your current eating habits, because I have that all covered with my gut restoration and whole food nutrition methods, that are adapted for weight loss, hormone balancing or thyroid support.
If you’d like to know more about this or other topics, you are welcome to join my free membership on face book. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub.
I’d love to see you there
Inspiring Wellness
Beth
References:
Lambert J, Vojdani A (2017) Correlation of Tissue Antibodies and Food Immune Reactivity in Randomly Selected Patient Specimens. J Clin. Cell Immunol 8: 521. doi: 10.4172/2155-9899.1000521
Vojdani A, O’Brayn T, Kellermann GH. The Immunology of Gluten Senstivity Beyond the Intestinal Tract: Immunosciences Lab. Received October 16, 2007 – Accepted January 18, 2008 European Journal of Inflammation. Vol. 6, no. 2, 49-57 (2008)
Killilea DW, McQueen R, Abegania JR. Wheat germ agglutinin is a biomarker of whole grain content in wheat flour and pasta. J Food Sci. 2020;85(3):808-815. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.15040
Vojdani A, Afar D, Vojdani E. Reaction of Lectin-Specific Antibody with Human Tissue: Possible Contributions to Autoimmunity. J Immunol Res. 2020;2020:1438957. Published 2020 Feb 11. doi:10.1155/2020/1438957
PreviMedica Group L.L.C., 2018 https://cellsciencesystems.com/pdfs/Lectins.pdf
Ballantyne, S 2013, The Paleo Approach, Victory Belt Publishing Inc, USA
Grain Diagram
https://fabflour.co.uk/fab-flour/how-flour-is-milled/attachment/grain-anatomy/
Table 1
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/correlation-of-tissue-antibodies-and-food-immune-reactivity-in-randomlyselected-patient-specimens-2155-9899-1000521.pdf
by Beth Klenner | Nutrition
Muscle maintenance is so important as we age. The alarming thing is, we actually start to lose muscle mass from our mid-twenties, and in total, we lose about 25 – 40% of what we were at our peak, and then it just gets faster after 60yrs. So, it is imperative that we know what to do about it right now!
To begin I want you to think about how active you are in terms of moving your muscles and how much resistance type of workout you get daily. When we exercise and how we exercise – and when I say this – I am talking about exercise as the movement of the body – like vacuuming, cleaning, going up and down the stairs etc. What you may not know is that there are 3 types of muscle fibres that use various different pathways for their energy source, so you need to have a variety of exercise to utilise all of these different types. Some are good for long walking or marathon running, others for short and fast movement, like sprinting and then the mixed type which is kinda in between.
The thing about muscle is, and you may have even said this yourself, if you don’t use it, you lose it? That is so true. Because building and breaking down muscle happens at the same time. Can you remember a time that you weren’t moving as much as you normally do? – you may have been sick and in bed, a lot, or on holidays and you weren’t doing as much exercise as you normally do – more sitting, eating and drinking and flexing this muscle. You may actually feel more ‘flabby’ or not strong after and this what is called muscle catabolism.
So to build muscle you actually have to have more of the building up going on, than the breaking down of muscle. This means we want ‘net’ balance is more for building. So as this balancing act is happening all the time, how do we push it more to the building side?
Okay, so we need to eat protein to build muscle right. Proteins are made up of Amino Acids, of which some are essential so we have to eat these to get them into our body. One of these is called Leucine it can activate the building of our muscle all on its own. Amazing right. Other Amino Acids can help stimulate making muscle as well as something called Insulin Growth factor, but Leucine has its own little trigger system. So what’s important here is 1. We have to eat this to get it and 2. It has its own special pathway, so I’m thinking this is kinda important.
What we want is about 3gms of Leucine per meal to turn on muscle building. And no, you don’t have to go out and buy a specific supplement, but you may see it in muscle-building protein powders.
You want a target amount of 3 g of leucine combined with 25-30 grams of protein, each meal, 3 times a day is recommended.
So where to get it? Well, you can find Leucine is most animal protein at reasonably high levels. So, all you have to do is eat it. These foods are particularly high in Leucine, beef, chicken, pork, tuna, salmon, sardines, eggs and feta, and cashew nuts give good high amounts from their 15 – 20gm of protein per gram.
And the perfect timing to eat for maximum muscle building is close as possible after a workout. So say if you have an early morning walk, or go to the gym before breakfast ensure it has a good source of protein, likewise after work, going for a workout and then having dinner.
For healthy aging, if you eat 3 high-quality protein meals per day, it provides all the amino acids you need to increase muscle mass by about 25% over 24 hours, which is pretty cool.
So, it’s all about maintenance as we age, and addressing our susceptibility to muscle breakdown. If you eat three balanced meals a day, in particular, a selection of high-quality proteins to ensure adequate leucine contents you will benefit in the long run.
Building muscle is greatest when combined with exercise, particularly ingestion of leucine-based protein as close as possible to completing the exercise.
Now if you are confused about what to eat, and the best options for you, I can certainly help you out there with a whole food nutrition plan, designed by your blood values. How incredible is that? The guessing stops there, as you have your own meal plan and types of protein to eat, it makes muscle building easy.
If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub.
I’d love to see you there
Inspiring Wellness
Beth
by Beth Klenner | Nutrition
The question I have for you right now is, what did you have for breakfast?
In particular, I am asking what your protein part was?
Was it milk, cheese, eggs, fish, meat, chicken or legumes?
Or none of these at all?
It may have been a coffee, toast, breakfast bar…
Then your body will be working hard to do all the housekeeping it needs without your protein meal.
Did you know that all protein is not the same? That is, they can all be broken down into different types and amounts of smaller particles called Amino Acids. You may be familiar with the name of amino acids as found in protein drinks or energy bars.
So out of 20 amino acids nine are essential to eat. The proteins that have all of these are called complete proteins.
Others, are lacking some or all of the nine essential amino acids are low-quality proteins. They don’t have all the essential amino acids or have smaller amounts of them that aren’t enough to contribute to making a full protein.
When this happens is it said they are limiting amino acids. And what does that mean? Once a limiting Amino Acid is used up then even if there is plenty of other amino acids available to make hormones, build muscle, carry red blood cells, make digestive enzymes and a number of other really important jobs in the body, it can’t because that one limiting amino acid has run out.
So you say, okay, well, I haven’t had all my amino acids this morning, I’ll make up for it at lunchtime. But guess what, you can’t! The body does not store excess Amino Acids.
Every meal is unique and you can’t do catch up later. That’s really insane and makes you really think about what your next meal is composed of.
A part of getting the benefits of the proteins is how well they are digested.
We need to be able to break down our proteins via our digestive system, which begins in the mouth, with tearing and chewing, then into the stomach where strong Hydrochloric acid begins the breakdown of the protein and pepsin begins work here as well. Then into the small intestine, there are more enzymes that continue the breakdown, until the protein that you ate is now singular, double or triple amino acid groups that get transported in the intestinal cells.
So if you have issues with digestion, burping belching, indigestion it is quite possible you are not breaking down your proteins well.
In general Animal, proteins are well digested – 90 – 99%, plant proteins not as well 70-90% with the exception of soy and legumes at 90%.
When proteins are being recreated in the body for important jobs to be done in the body, all the necessary Amino acids are needed at the same time. A bit like baking a cake and not having the flour or eggs to make it. It can’t be done.
Remember how I spoke about Complete proteins at the beginning, these have all the nine essential amino acids. If we are baking our cake and are putting milk into the mix to make it the right texture and we run out of milk and leave the mix very sticky and hard to handle, then we have a Limiting ingredient – Milk. Amino acids also have Limiting Amino Acids. So if a protein is being made and it may have to stop because there are no more of the amino acids that it requires.
This is where, if we are not eating complete protein in a meal, it is vital that we eat a combination of proteins called Complementary proteins. An example is eating legumes with grains. The Legumes have a reduction of two amino acids that the grains are in abundance of and vice versa. So eaten together will give plenty of amino acids to build proteins the body can use to make what we need.
This is exactly why the nutrition plan I use in my methods works so well.
If you’d like to know more, you are welcome to join my free membership on facebook. Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormone Harmony Hub.
I’d love to see you there
Inspiring Wellness
Beth
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