Portland Paleo Project

The logic behind avoiding grains in a paleo diet not only rests on the fact that we have only been consuming these foods for 10,000 years, a blink of an eye in our evolution. But also in the health harming effects these little buggers can have. Although grains contain protein, carbohydrates and some vitamins and minerals, which will, on the outside, make grains seem like a brilliant food source, grains also contain what are called antinutrients, lectins and gluten (types of protein that can be categorized in the same family), all which have negative traits. Let this point be very clear to you, nothing likes to be eaten! Where as animals can run away from their predators, plants cannot, therefore they require other defense mechanism so that their whole species does not get wiped out. Lets take a look at some of those defenses that protect the grain, but harm the consumer (you).

• Gluten-You have more than likely seen products in the grocery store that proclaim “gluten-free!” If your like the average person you probably had no clue what this meant, all you knew was you weren’t going to be eating it. So what is gluten? Why should you avoid it? Gluten is a protein found in mostly all grain (wheat, rye, spelt, barley, oats etc) that your body does not obtain the ability to digest. Your body does not use protein, it uses the building blocks that constitute them, amino acids. Gluten is a defense mechanism in that it cannot be digested, and it irritates the gut lining (think poison ivy) causing a problem known as “leaky gut” or increased intestinal permeability. If your gut lining is irritated, large undigested proteins can slip through into the blood stream. Why is this a problem? Because your body doesn’t use proteins, it uses amino acids. Protein has to be broken down into amino acids and absorbed for the body to use. When these intact proteins get into our blood stream, the immune system will mount an attack to the foreign substance and create anti-bodies so that if anything similar comes through again your body is ready. The problem lies when these foreign proteins (anything protein you eat) resemble that of protein tissue that make up your body. If this happens, those anti-bodies begin attacking yourself, this is known as “molecular mimicry.” Now we have an auto-immune condition. Increased gut permeability or “leaky gut” has been implicated as one of the main causes for every auto-immune condition, including: Multiple Sclerosis, Insulin-dependent Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hypothyroidism and Asthma. It should also be noted that just because you do not have any auto-immune conditions, doesn’t mean this isn’t effecting you. More than half of all celiacs (gluten-intolerance) have latent (present but not visible) symptoms. With an irritated gut it will make it harder too absorb nutrients, and break down food in general. Are you one of those people that just can’t digest meat, especially red meat? Get all the gut irritants out of your diet, allow your gut to heal and I will almost guarantee this issue will go away. The pH of your stomach could also be low due to the stress of latent irritation and the fact you could be low on zinc and B6 (not absorbing nutrients properly, remember?).

• Fatty Acid Profile- Grains are predominantly omega-6 and very little omega-3. The problem with this is that omega-6 tend to be pro-inflammatory and omega-3′s anti-inflammatory. Too much omega 6 in the diet will encourage inflammation in the body. If that doesn’t sound good, its because it isn’t good. Inflammation is the route cause of almost all disease. Adjusting your omega-3′s and omega-6′s can have an enormous effect on your health and well-being.

• Insulin management-Whether your goal is to lose a few pounds or just be healthier in general, controlling insulin should be your main priority. Insulin is a hormone released in response to elevated blood sugar. The best way to elevated your blood sugar is by consuming carbohydrates. There are no “simple” or “complex” carbs, they are both just sugar and enter the blood stream at a rapid pace. Grains being almost entirely carbohydrate (sugar), would be a poor choice to consume if you want to control insulin. Why is this such a big deal? Insulin controls what your body does with incoming nutrients. If there is room you will store some of those amino acids & glucose in the muscle tissue or liver, if not they will be readily shipped to the fat tissue for storage. Insulin is a storage hormone. When insulin is high, nothing gets out of the cells. You can’t burn fat when it can’t get out of the cells.

In a warning letter to the food giant, federal authorities outlined a raft of “serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations” following an inspection to the Augusta site in February 2011.

Listeria was found at fifteen separate locations in the Marvin Griffin Road facility, with almost half found on food contact surfaces such as conveyor mesh and belts.

Tests showed the strain of pathogen discovered matched those found at the same plant more than a year previously and revealed flaws in Kellogg’s cleaning methods at the factory, said the FDA

“The presence of a persistent strain of L. monocytogenes in your facility between January 2010 and February 2011 is significant in that it demonstrates that your cleaning and sanitation efforts were inadequate to remove this organism,” said John Gridley FDA district director in Atlanta.

Flies and a black substance

Swarms of flies were also observed around a drain, near to the flour sock of a mixer and the back panel of a mixer, said federal authorities

Kellogg makes a variety of Keebler and Famous Amos cookies at the plant.

Other violations included multiple pipes whose insulation were soaked with condensation and several areas where pooled waste had collected. Pooled condensate was also observed “dripping directly into an open upright mixer bowl”. The pooling of water at the in-feed of one spiral cooker contained “product debris and a black substance”.

Company response

The company said it had voluntarily shut down the plant after the FDA visit and completed a comprehensive cleaning exercise and structural improvements to floors and the roof. A number of other longer-term upgrades to equipment and infrastructure at the site were also underway, added Kellogg.

The cereal and snack company was given fifteen days to respond to the issues raised in the June 7 warning letter, setting out how it planned to rectify the GMP breaches.

Listeria

This is not the first time the FDA has taken Kellogg to task over Listeria contamination at one of its plants.

In January 2010, it raised concerns over detection of the bacteria at its Eggo Waffle plant, also in Georgia.

The company had been forced to halt production in September 2009 after officials from the Georgia Department of Agriculture had detected Listeria at the site.

In 2010, Kellogg recalled 28 million packets of breakfast cereal after elevated levels of a chemical in the liner caused off-flavours and smells in a range of products that had caused vomiting and nausea in some consumers.