Ten to Fifteen thousand years ago agriculture, the cultivation of plant crops, began on our planet. For the previous two million years, humans lived a hunter-gatherer existence that did not include eating grains. Today in western civilization, many people’s diets consist mostly of grain-based foods like bread, pasta, cakes, cookies, donuts and bagels. Some authorities are beginning to realize that these foods may be at the root of certain diseases and disorders so prevalent in the modern world.

Have you ever heard of Celiac Disease? It’s a life-threatening intestinal disorder brought about by allergy to gluten, (a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, triticale, oats, spelt, kamut) that affects 1 in every 100 American people. In a book called Dangerous Grains, authors Braly and Hoggan state that gluten allergy may be affecting many more people who show no symptoms of celiac disease. Instead, they may be suffering from a variety of auto-immune disorders such as Addison’s disease, hemolytic anemia, autoimmune hepatitis, diabetes mellitus, lupus erythematosus, myasthenia gravis, pernicious anemia, and ulcerative colitis, to name a few.

When an individual has non-celiac gluten sensitivity, his or her immune system is reacting to gluten and mounting an attack on gluten particles that find their way into the bloodstream through the intestinal walls. This can lead to all kinds of problems, from simple fatigue to serious autoimmune conditions. Even psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and autism have been found to respond to a gluten free diet.

The authors of Dangerous Grains suggest a number of blood tests that can be done to determine if you have antibodies to gluten, gliadin or glutenins…all proteins in cereal grains that can cause problems. I highly recommend the book to anyone who has any of the above-mentioned conditions as well as to people who feel grains might be causing problems not yet diagnosed.

Author Peter D’adamo, who wrote the book Eat Right for Your Type, feels blood types O and B should totally avoid the gluten containing grains unless they are sprouted. Sprouting seems to inactivate the gluten somewhat or at least make it more digestible so that the offending proteins do not make their way into the bloodstream. D’adamo also suggests that blood types A and AB may want to limit their intake of wheat if they have a tendency to produce a lot of mucus.

I personally have never been tested for gluten allergies. However, I have noticed that since I stopped eating gluten-containing foods (for the most part!) my health and energy levels have improved tremendously. Were we as a species designed to eat grains? My feeling is no, we weren’t, and although some people have adapted somewhat to eating grain-based foods, many suffer less than optimal health because our biological evolution has not yet caught up with the diet of modern civilization based on cultivated grains and their products.