Does the consumption of gliadin increase one’s consumption of calories?
Does gliadin act as an opiate?
Is modern wheat dangerous to our health?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57505149/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/
:dubious:
Any time you get a news report saying that a common food is a poison, treat it with extreme skepticism. People have been eating wheat since literally the stone age, and have developed it into what it is now over a very long period of selective breeding. If it was a poison, we’d be dead by now.
Like many such reports, it’s mostly bullshit, but there is a kernel of truth.
Gliadin is the fraction of gluten that’s not glutenin. It’s thought to be the main source of the troublesome protein fragments that cause celiac disease, and also contains some short peptide sequences that resemble endorphins, and that have been shown in vitro to bind opiate receptors. In a study by one F. R. Huebner (whose affiliation I don’t know, but who does a lot of work on wheat), 0.5 mg of the most active peptides were equivalent to 1 nM of morphine. Making some guesses about the prevalence of these peptides in wheat gluten, I estimate that a sandwich may be equivalent to 0.1 - 1 µM morphine. Since molarity is a concentration and not a mass unit, I’m a little vague on what that implies, but one µmol of morphine is about 0.5 mg. If you put 0.1 mg of morphine into an IV bag, an adult patient probably won’t notice, but if you inject it straight into the spinal fluid, he will notice, but complain that he still hurts. 1 mg will definitely be noticeable in either case.
Note that I have not addressed the amount of exorphin likely to actual reach the brain. I have no idea, but I’ll bet it’s much smaller.
Surely any peptides produced by the break down of protein in food would be broken down into their component amino acids long before they reached the brain.
I note that, contrary to what Nametag says, gliadin is
It is strongly implied that gliadin is in “modern wheat” only because of “genetic research in the '60s and '70s”, and was never in the wheat from the good old days.
So either Nametag or the Dr Davis quoted in the article is full of shit. (I am pretty confident it is Dr Davis.)
No doubt Dr Davis also confuses (or intends his audience to confuse) that “genetic research in the '60s and '70s” with the genetic engineering that has, much more recently, led to various genetically modified crops, the safety of which is (rightly or wrongly) very controversial. Strains of wheat developed in the '60s and '70s were not created through genetic engineering.
I want to address what Dr. William Davis gets wrong, and what he gets right, and then explore some mechanisms that should add to the discussion here.
First of all, Dr. William Davis is not my preferred ambassador to deprogram the masses about their wheat addiction - he seems to completely miss the fact that gliadin IS wheat gluten, and makes several statements that are just plain wrong (like gliadin being a recent addition to wheat).
If you want a scientifically-based presentation on gluten, gliadin and wheat, look at the video here: http://bozemanchiropractic.com/bozeman-chiropractor/index.php/news/the-real-truth-of-wheat-gluten-intolerance-and-celiac-disease/
That video is by Dr. Peter Osborne, who is my preferred ambassador on this subject. Definitely worth a watch.
What Dr. Williams gets right is that wheat is a dangerous food. Is that due to peptides that trigger an opiate-like response? I don’t really know. I suspect that developing antibodies to the prolamine that also attack your opiate receptors are a bigger problem.
I know from the scientific literature that wheat that spikes your blood sugar worse than sugar, and that it raises your insulin levels. I also know that wheat has been scientifically linked to autoimmune diseases, a wide variety of inflammatory disorders, as well as mental disorders like schizophrenia and depression. This is incontrovertible.
So what are the mechanisms that explain this?
For one, consider that there are opiate receptors in all sorts of tissues, not the just the brain. White bloods cells for instance have receptors for every “molecule of emotion” known. This is how your emotional state effects your immune state.
Second, these prickly and hard-to-digest proteins leak across damaged small intestine, creating an acquired immune response to those peptides. That immune response create antibodies that can attack body tissues that have the same present protein sequences, and inflammatory cascades that can deposit in various tissues creating inflammation. It may not even take a damaged gut to pass longer peptides. I’ve been reading Gut for years, and the intestines seem to be more permeable than the textbooks have told us. Typically 60% or more the of WBCs are hanging out by the gut.
Third, there are non blood-based pathways that go directly from the gut to the brain. I’m speaking of Cranial Nerve 12 here. These neural pathways may provide transport for peptides to get into the brain without having to cross the blood-brain barrier.
Fourth, keep in mind for the last ten years or so they have been saying 95% of the serotonin in the body is in the gut. Think about it. Just gut damage alone could cause depression. Makes one wonder if the SSRIs can damage the gut as well.
A final thought:
Wheat may only be damaging to some people, or it may just be bad food for everyone. Just because we have been eating it for ten thousand years does not mean that it is healthy. A food can give you calories to keep you alive and still cause chronic disease, which can take 40 years to develop.
I appreciate your post and the comparison of similar ammouts of morphine like substances that might be released into the system thru consumption of gliadin. I wish I understood more of what you are saying, but think I get the jist of it. I have a huge problem with gliadin and I am living proof that small dosages do in fact reach the brain and bring on morphine induced symptoms that are so strong I find myself waking up with glazed eyes and am most definitely high with the consumption of gliadin in small amounts. Even with a gluten/gliadin free diet that I adhear to, there is just no way to avoid it when going to restaurants, even though I order gluten free food. So, I wake up several times a week feeling very m souch like I was given morphine, I mean I am literally staring at the walls, am wobbly getting out of bed, seriously feeling doped up. Its horrible and has been ruining my life for years as I cant function for hours. I find if I have had alchohol or feremented food along with the gliadin i didnt intend to digest, the morphine like feeling intensifies 10x, I mean I am seriously doped up…an explosion could happen next door and i wouldnt even hear it. I just thought I would share this with you so you know what someone who has this issue in real life experiences. If anyone else has this issue getting high as a kite from gliadin, I would love to have you post. I dont know of anyone who experiences this gliadin morphine like high except myself.
A lot of parents, I think, go “my child is engaging in behaviors, what could be wrong?” and that’s where you get antivax, or antisugar, or, well, this. Similarly, a lot of adults say “gee, I’m shvach lately, I wonder why” and part of it is that you notice it once you start to notice it, but for a certain type of person the assumption is that it’s dietary. And once you’re convinced that the problem is gluten – not because you have celiac, but because it’s a chemical, y’know – it’s not surprising that your subjective experience is that when you cut gluten out of your diet, you feel better.