Is Gluten Bad for You?

Are you gluten intolerant? Think again! It could just be the kind of bread you're eating.

Below is a transcript you can use to follow the video with links to more information on the topic.

Great news! You are not gluten intolerant. Unless you are among the chosen 1% of our population that has Celiac Disease. However, you may have a gluten sensitivity due to the way bread is produced in America.

Dr. Vincent Pedre says that we have hybridized wheat in a way that increased gluten content which increased gut permeability" that can lead to a list of autoimmune conditions.

So what does this mean?

Well, Dr. Robert Greenland describes the gut as this netted lining in our small intestine. When we get a leaky gut, things that are supposed to stay localized have the chance to fall through into the large intestine.

Naturally, our immune system identifies these lost particles as foreign. Once our gut has killed off these unidentified particles, it produces more antibodies to search and destroy for this deemed foreign material throughout the body. This is where autoimmune conditions stem from, the attacking of our own cells.

So what keeps these 'holes' of the net strong and less permeable?

That would be your best gut friend Butyrate, which is made from the fiber we're supposed to be getting from our diet. Unfortunately, if there is one nutrient that we don't get enough in the American Diet, it is fiber. Which is one of the main reasons we have a chronically inflamed society...

Anyway, so they took three groups people, one who is gluten intolerant, gluten sensitive, and gluten friendly, and they compared their gut reaction to bread. And just as they predicted the Celiac group scored the biggest increase in gut permeability, the sensitive group scored appropriately lower, but what about the non sensitive, non intolerant group?

It turns out their gut health too had become compromised. Which makes you step back and think, are we mistaking the gluten flag for the refined bread ship?

Even Dr. Pedre admits you can take a gluten sensitive person, feed them real fermented bread that allows gluten to be utilized how nature designed it to be, they go symptom-free!

If you didn't know, Michael Pollen tells us in his book that fermenting bread dates all the way back to ancient Egypt.

Fermentation is the process of turning sugars into acids also known as souring, where we get the name sourdough from.

In terms of bread making, this is gluten's finest hour.

You know those big air pockets you see in real bread? It's not possible without gluten. Michael Pollan describes gluten as this gum-like structure that allows the gas produced from fermentation to expand and then pop. This not only gives bread it's volume, but also helps to break down these complex carbohydrates that are hiding key vitamins and minerals that are otherwise not digestible.

And up until the middle of the 20th century, this was the only way bread was made! Why the switch? Because fermentation takes hours. I mean why wait when you can throw in some fast rising yeast, right?

Unfortunately, refining grains and fortifying them with food-like nutrient imitations is not the same. From a handful of ingredients since the beginning of civilization, to 7 fold in a matter of decades, these “advancements” in agriculture have managed to turn a once whole food, great source of b vitamins, minerals, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, into a proflammatory, unabsorable, frankenfood.

Fundamentally this goes far beyond the gluten fence you're on. The difference in eating real sourdough versus today's bread could be the difference between gut balance and disease.

Because according to Dr. Pedre, "the gut plays an important role in sugar metabolism and insulin sensitivity".

So don’t give up on bread or even gluten for that matter, it could very well be just the kind you’re eating!

If nothing else let's be sure to eat some high-fiber foods to keep the lining of our gut strong and healthy.