Heritage Wheat?

JDW

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Oct 22, 2012
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OK... I know I'm probably gonna get blasted for this BUT can someone help me understand why wheat is bad? I had always thought of it as bad from its blood sugar effects but now I know that blood sugar is not in and of itself a problem. Wheat/gluten is allergenic, I know, but what if you are not allergic to wheat? And, isn't much of the problem with bread and baked goods the added seed oils, preservatives, industrial grain processed with bleach, etc. rather than the wheat alone? It's pretty low in PUFA, right? I also know that today's wheat is different to yesteryear's. So my question would be, what if you used an organic heritage wheat?

The reason I ask is because while I'm doing well eating a Peatish diet, my kids are not entirely thrilled. With all the parties and events they attend, they are feeling deprived that they can't have any cake, cookies, or baked goods at all. While yes, they are happy with ice cream and pudding and chocolate milk, it's not the same for them as eating a piece of cake with their friends. They were previously eating organic treats with no dye or preservatives (already made them feel different) and I've now taken away even more from them. Obviously, I will force the issue if its what is best but I'm also left wondering if serving a cake made from heritage, hand-milled flour, using free-range organic eggs, and replacing the oil with refined coconut oil would "fix" the cake and make it "not-so-bad" in the world of Peat.

Maybe I'm grasping at straws here but my son has event on Monday and I just don't want to see his little crestfallen face again while the other kids slam down cake and he is left feeling "different" again. I just want to understand.
 

chris

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I wouldn't stop your kids eating cake at parties. Having a piece of cake every so often will be fine.
 
J

j.

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I wouldn't force them to eat the Peat way. They might do the opposite just to rebel against authority, even if they know it would harm them.
 
OP
J

JDW

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Oct 22, 2012
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It's not really forcing them because they already have food sensitivities that restrict them. Moving to a Peat diet has freed them in a lot of ways. The thing is, I try to have the whole family eat on "the food team" because it helps lift everyone up. The team has changed since we started Peat and the kids are thriving, especially my "ADD" son. That said, I can't let them eat commercial cake and treats anyway due to allergies so I need to make whatever they have. I happily make them alternative desserts but I don't want to specifically make things that are bad for them. I can try coconut flour goodies but the whole issue has me wondering about wheat. Kids learn by example so I want to set the right one. Is that example not to eat wheat at all OR is that example that you can eat wheat in moderation if you use heritage wheat and no PUFA. I know it seems nitpicky but my kiddos have learned that certain foods make them sick and they are compliant. I'd like to teach them now while they are compliant. :) Sorry if I'm not making sense. I'm on my phone and its hard to type!
 

gabriel79

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Sep 21, 2012
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I have a little daughter (3 years old), and she enjoys eating cake and some trash food on parties, as expected. As long as she eats fine the rest of the time, I´ve no problem with her enjoying food that´s not too OK. She´s a kid, I want her to enjoy that. It´s my job to worry about what she eats, not hers.
Bottom line: My suggestion, make sure 90% of her food is OK, let her enjoy the other 10%
 
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JDW

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gabriel79 said:
I have a little daughter (3 years old), and she enjoys eating cake and some trash food on parties, as expected. As long as she eats fine the rest of the time, I´ve no problem with her enjoying food that´s not too OK. She´s a kid, I want her to enjoy that. It´s my job to worry about what she eats, not hers.
Bottom line: My suggestion, make sure 90% of her food is OK, let her enjoy the other 10%

It's not that I don't let them eat "trashy" kid food because I do already. Trust me, those little buggers get to eat junk food. :lol: But, within that frame, because of food allergies, I'm already the one who has to prepare that trashy food. For instance, I can't let them eat the cupcakes the other kids are eating because the blue food coloring gives my son violent green/blue diarrhea within just an hour or two. Or, if my daughter gets certain additives, her cheeks are set ablaze and she literally turns wild for 24-36 hours and then we hear from school about how she couldn't get her work done. I have very sensitive kids. There is no 10% rule for me when it comes to that because it's setting them up for pain. There are other instances as well and when you combine the birthday parties every weekend and weekly school "events", the 10% starts to become more than 10%. While it's my job to worry about what they eat, my kids NEED to know what they can't eat and frankly, they want to know because they feel horrible when they eat something they are allergic to. In the past, I made them cakes or cookies using non-allergenic foods with no preservatives and natural colorings and I'd send it with them to whatever event there was. Since I started Peat eating and learning a different way, I haven't made cake or cookies for them because while it's one thing to let them "eat like kids" at an event, it feels vastly different for me to specifically prepare things for them that I know are terrible. I'm looking to learn and allow them to learn, too. Thus, my question about wheat. Does that mean on Christmas I won't let them have a few homemade Christmas cookies?... of course not! But, I want to start teaching them NOW why those Christmas cookies are only a treat and why chocolate milk or ice cream or fruit pops may be an every day thing thing for them. Does that make sense?
 

gabriel79

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Sep 21, 2012
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JDW, sorry. I didn´t get it from your original post that your children were sensitive to some foods. In that case, sure, you need to check what they´re eating even at parties and try to make them understand they have to be careful with what they eat.
Now, to your comment, and I understand your whole point in the discussion: "it feels vastly different for me to specifically prepare things for them that I know are terrible. " As Peat would say, everything in context. You´re not giving them these treats everyday. If you see that they don´t react bad to it, let them have it, especially on events like Christmas, like you said. I´d say once or twice a week, some wheat is OK. On how to teach them that these are not staples and only treats... sorry, I´m still working on how to teach that to my own child. If it was for her, she´d only eat candies and milk (luckily she loves milk)
 
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JDW

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gabriel79 said:
JDW, sorry. I didn´t get it from your original post that your children were sensitive to some foods. In that case, sure, you need to check what they´re eating even at parties and try to make them understand they have to be careful with what they eat.

No apology necessary. I was not clear in my first post and didn't clarify all that well further down in the thread. I shouldn't post on my iPhone 'cause I never do it well. :) Plus, I'm too wordy usually. I should have just asked the wheat question instead of bringing up the kids because that confused the issue since everyone was rightly thinking, "why the heck would you be so strict with your kids." LOL. I'm a dork.

Now, to your comment, and I understand your whole point in the discussion: "it feels vastly different for me to specifically prepare things for them that I know are terrible. " As Peat would say, everything in context. You´re not giving them these treats everyday. If you see that they don´t react bad to it, let them have it, especially on events like Christmas, like you said. I´d say once or twice a week, some wheat is OK. On how to teach them that these are not staples and only treats... sorry, I´m still working on how to teach that to my own child. If it was for her, she´d only eat candies and milk (luckily she loves milk)

That's the funny thing... since we started "Peating" the kids are living it up!! They were previously doing the Feingold diet for food sensitivities and ADD. Well on Feingold, fruit is restricted as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. They also did not drink milk and while sugar was present, it was certainly restricted. I've been slowly adding back in fruits and now they are eating fruit all the time, slamming down OJ, eating chocolate again without me feeling guilty and we are working on the milk part. They are thrilled to be able to eat all the time, too. I used to think negatively about snacks so we tried to avoid them but now that my whole thought process has changed, the kids are enjoying their new found freedom. It sounds like your little girl has the right idea! :mrgreen: You are lucky she loves milk! It will be nice to be able to teach our kids a healthy way of eating right from the start. My family used food as comfort so what I learned to eat was pizza, pasta, margarine, candy, bread and rolls of every sort, breakfast cereals in a rainbow of colors, etc. etc.. :lol: No wonder my body is trashed. It's hard to unlearn the habits of your youth so I'm hoping the kids growing up in this Peat world are learning all the right habits.
 

BingDing

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Nov 20, 2012
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JDW, I spent a great deal of time trying to understand why wheat is bad. I haven't been totally satisfied with what I've learned but the short answer is lectins and phytates. Many plants have some of each but they are concentrated in grains and legumes.

Lectins are proteins that bind strongly with biological sugars. Since cells have sugars on their surface (maybe for communication with other cells, not clear to me) dietary lectins bind to the sugars on the endothelial cells lining the gut. They might cause direct mechanical damage or maybe the immune system sees them as foreign and tries to remove them. The binding of lectins to these cells is a cause of leaky gut syndrome, according to some.

Interestingly, some microbes which cause disease have an appendage with a lectin component that binds to sugars on cells of the stomach and urinary tract. H. pylori that causes stomach ulcers uses that mechanism. D-mannose (a sugar) is an effective treatment of urinary tract infections because the microbes bind to the dietary sugar and are excreted.

Phytates bind minerals in the gut and prevent their absorption, I haven't studied them much.

I gave up wheat after reading some of the wheat belly blog, but never got much confidence in the guy behind it. He has a pretty narrow focus on wheat. Ray Peat's broader and more fundamental perspective is much more satisfying to me.

This page has a somewhat understandable explanation, though rereading it now it seems a bit overblown. The background of the page is a research program at a hospital in Australia for diet for ADD kids (or something similar, people who are very sensitive).

But I also found people who seemed pretty qualified who thought the whole lectin thing was much ado about nothing, so....

FWIW, I bought some Einkorn wheat flour from this place and made a loaf of bread. That's the original, single genome A wheat. It sat in my stomach like lead, tasted pretty mediocre, and was generally unsatisfying. Maybe I reacted that way because I hadn't eaten any grains for several weeks, but it pretty much cured me of any lingering longing for a sandwich.

Hope this helps, if you learn anything definitive please post about it.
 

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