AMY1 gene, allow increased digestion of the amylopectin starches of grains.23
• The gene for haemochromatosis, a condition of excessive iron storage that increases the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream, is believed to be an adaptation to iron deficiency that developed in grain-consuming humans. Because it is a relatively recent mutation, genes for enhanced iron absorption are carried by less than 10 per cent of people of northern European descent.
• Variations in genes that determine diabetes susceptibility are believed to have evolved with the consumption of the seeds of grasses, with recent variants providing partial protection from the disease.24 Judging by the worldwide explosion of diabetes, though, these attempts at genetic adaptation are inadequate.
Yes, as a species, we are trying to adapt to a diet dominated by the seeds of grasses and their adverse health effects, but such adaptations are not enough. We haven’t had sufficient time to adapt to the many effects of prolamin proteins, lectins, and changes in oral and bowel flora, or the mental, emotional or autoimmune effects of grain consumption (all of which I discuss in later chapters). These continue at a high level across all populations that enthusiastically consume the seeds of grasses. Perhaps, in another few hundred thousand years, we will fully adapt and thrive without disease while consuming the seeds of grasses. The Homo sapiens of a grain-dominated future may chew a cud, grow some extra stomach compartments and add ‘moo’ to the dictionary.
50 Shades of Grain
This man, whom I once thought of as a romantic hero, a brave shining white knight – or the dark knight, as he said. He’s not a hero; he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark.
E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey
All of the grains that fill the modern diet to bursting are grasses. Ground, baked, roasted, toasted and popped, they come in an astounding variety of forms, colours and flavours, as they are among the most popular ingredients in modern processed food. Who would have guessed that popcorn and pretzels are closely related, or that tortillas and Danish pastries are kissing cousins? Beneath those comforting smells and flavours, however, are buried dark secrets, undisclosed confidences and demons ready to engulf you in their embrace, enfolding your mind and body in their effects. As wheat is a grass, its bewitching effects are shared to various degrees by the seeds of other grasses.
The problems posed by the tortured relationship between wheat and humans are largely shared by other wheat-derived grains, including triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), bulgur and traditional strains of wheat such as spelt and kamut. When discussing ‘wheat’, I therefore am referring to all the closely related grains in the wheat family. Let’s consider several of the most popular non-wheat grains in all their lurid glory.
Rye
The history of rye consumption dates back to the early days of wheat consumption, when humans first experimented with consuming einkorn. Rye, another grass, grew as a weed in fields of wheat, an example of Vavilovian mimicry, or the ability of a weed to mimic a cultivated plant. This weed came to be recognized by humans as yet another seed of a grass that could be consumed, and farmers often harvested both wheat and rye with the same sickle or thresher without bothering to separate them.
Rye has gained some blessings in nutritional circles because compared with wheat, it has less potential to trigger insulin, despite identical potential for raising blood sugar.25 (To be fair, just about anything compared with Triticum aestivum, our favourite grain to bash, comes up smelling like roses.)
Rye and wheat share a high content of gliadin protein, with all its potentially toxic effects. (Rye gliadin is called secalin, although the structures are nearly identical.) The secalin protein has similar potential to do bad things as its gliadin counterpart.26 Likewise, the lectin of rye is nearly identical to wheat’s destructive lectin, wheat germ agglutinin, and therefore shares its potential for causing intestinal toxicity, clumping red blood cells, provoking abnormal growth of immune system lymphocytes and mimicking insulin.27 Rye shares with wheat a peculiar and only recently recognized phenomenon: the formation of acrylamide, a compound believed to be a carcinogen and neurotoxin.28 Rye and wheat contain a high content of the amino acid asparagine, which, when heated at high temperatures during baking or deep-frying, reacts with the plentiful carbohydrates present to form acrylamide. (It also forms in chips.) Modern reliance on nitrogen-rich synthetic fertilizers also boosts the asparagine content of rye and wheat, increasing acrylamide formation further.
For all practical purposes, given the crossbreeding that has occurred via natural Vavilovian means as well as the breeding efforts of humans, the differences are minor, meaning that they are virtually one and the same. Being wheat-free should also mean being rye-free.
Rye and the Work of the Devil
Rye has the unique potential to be infected with a parasitic fungus, Claviceps purpurea, that produces a human toxin called ergotamine. When ingested in, say, a loaf of rye bread, it exerts a range of hallucinogenic effects on humans, partly because it is converted to lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD.
History is filled with fascinating and terrifying stories of humans exposed to rye and ergotamine. Because some victims afflicted with contaminated rye experienced an intense dermatitis (skin inflammation), the condition became known as St Anthony’s Fire, named after the early 11th-century sanctuary operated by monks to treat victims of ergot poisoning. During the Middle Ages, writers described hysterical outbursts afflicting previously normal people, including thrashing and writhing while shouting, ‘I’m burning!’ The afflicted would eventually collapse, after which their bodies would blacken. And at least one observer has ascribed the madness of the Salem witch trials to ergotamine poisoning after determining that many of the 19 young women accused of being witches lived near a rye field. A ‘witch cake’ made of rye flour was fed to a dog to confirm a ‘bewitching’ effect.29
The rye itself was, of course, entirely innocent, since it was the common parasitic infestation of the grass that was to blame. But, as with so many other matters surrounding the relationship between the seeds of grasses and the hapless humans who try to consume them, it should come as no surprise that it is a relationship fraught with danger.
Barley
The origins of barley consumption parallel that of einkorn and emmer wheat in the Fertile Crescent, which is now Iraq, Iran and Turkey. For many years, barley was the preferred grain among ancient people of Greece and Egypt, spreading to Europe 7,000 years ago. Barley has largely been demoted to animal fodder, with most human exposure nowadays coming in the form of the barley malt used to make beer. As with rye, barley also shares many characteristics with its close grass relative, wheat. People with coeliac disease, for instance, who avoid wheat because it’s a source of gluten (and thereby gliadin), must also avoid barley due to gliadin’s similarities with barley’s equivalent protein, hordein. Gliadin and hordein overlap extensively, suggesting that the peculiar human effects of wheat are shared by barley.30 The lectin of barley is also virtually identical to wheat germ agglutinin, thereby sharing its potential for gastrointestinal toxicity. Barley’s allergic effects also overlap with those of wheat, meaning that the same asthma, sinus drainage and congestion, skin rashes and gastrointestinal distress provoked by a wheat allergy can also be provoked by barley.31
Corn
After modern wheat and its problematic closest brethren, rye, barley, bulgur and triticale, corn is the next problem grass. (For the sake of clarity, I will call maize by its North American colloquial name, ‘corn’. While corn outside the United States and Canada can mean wheat or be a nonspecific term for any grain, here it will be used to refer to maize.)
