Nutrition skepticism
The nutrition world has its own kind of “conspiracy theories”.
- Gluten sensitivity is all in your head.
- Gluten free is only a trend.
- You can get all the protein you need in broccoli.
- Meat will give you cancer.
One of the biggest and most controversial is the gluten issue.
Some believe that gluten is evil, and others couldn’t care less and will never let go of it.
First, if you follow the health and fitness industry’s latest news, you might have stumbled upon the story of a farmer’s win over the big agrochemical and agricultural giant Monsanto. The company has been ordered to pay $289 million in damages after a California jury found the defendant liable in a lawsuit alleging its weed-killer Roundup caused a man’s cancer. How convenient that in last June, drug maker and chemical company Bayer has finalized a blockbuster deal to buy up Monsanto. Bayer will drop the name “Monsanto” as a strategic move geared at distancing the negative publicity surrounding Monsanto and genetically modified organisms.
What does it have to do with gluten? Well, Monsanto is the maker of the weed killer Round up which contains Glyphosate. Along with wheat and oats, glyphosate is used to desiccate a wide range of other crops including lentils, peas, non-GMO soybeans, corn, flax, rye, triticale, buckwheat, millet, canola, sugar beets and potatoes. Sunflowers may also be treated pre-harvest with glyphosate, according to the National Sunflower Association. So basically, pretty much a major part of the main recommended food group, breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles and other grains.
What is Glyphosate?
Glyphosate is an herbicide. It is spread on the leaves to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses. The sodium salt form of glyphosate is used to regulate plant growth and ripen fruit.
Glyphosate was first registered for use in the U.S. in 1974 (N.B. by the same company (cough cough Monsanto) that produced the ‘’agent orange’’ used in the Vietnam war). It is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States.
Now, it has been said that glyphosate has the ability to disrupt the hormonal system. Taken from one of the many researches that I came across on PubMed; “We exposed human liver HepG2 cells, a well-known model to study xenobiotic toxicity, to four different formulations and to glyphosate, which is usually tested alone in chronic in vivo regulatory studies. We measured cytotoxicity with three assays (Alamar Blue, MTT, ToxiLight), plus genotoxicity (comet assay), anti-estrogenic (on ERalpha, ERbeta) and anti-androgenic effects (on AR) using gene reporter tests. We also checked androgen to estrogen conversion by aromatase activity and mRNA. All parameters were disrupted at sub-agricultural doses with all formulations within 24h”
You’ll also find that for every negative writing on that matter, there will be another study saying the exact opposite. Yet again, in the in the lawsuit against Monsanto, it was proven that Monsanto paid and hired researchers to provide false claims and research proving that their product was safe, which we now know is bullshit.
My esteemed colleagues and I have been saying those very facts for the last 10-15 years. We have been under fire so many times and called alarmist, extreme, or just plain bullshit believers. Although we truly didn’t care and kept on with our beliefs and results. People are slowly waking up, let’s give them another ten years and the same goes for gluten symptoms, as there are plenty of them, too much to keep track, until they find a pill to profit from, the medical community will let it pass.
What can you do? It’s so simple. You want to know if you are sensitive to gluten? Stop eating it! Give it a good 3 to 4 weeks. If you see the symptoms diminish or disappear, you might have found the main problem of your health concerns.
Coach Eric
