Chapter 6
Grains Are Antinutritious
I Don’t Miss Grains One Bit!: Bob’s Story
Here is my experience with removing virtually all grains and legumes from my diet for the last ninety days. I eat seafood at least twice a week and eat until I’m satisfied a good quantity of lean meats, whole fruits (great in smoothies), and nonstarchy vegetables. In between snacks are a trail mix of walnuts and other assorted nuts (all raw) and chopped dried fruits.
I am a fifty-four-year-old man in good overall health, except for having been on lisinopril for three years for blood pressure of 130/90 (unmedicated). My height is 5′7″. Here are my before and after statistics:
Start
Weight: 178
BMI: 27.9
Total Cholesterol 182, HDL 48, Ratio Total Cholesterol/HDL 3.79, LDL 109, Triglycerides 128, Glucose 92 (fasting)
After 90 days
Weight: 158
BMI: 24.9
Total Cholesterol 180, HDL 60, Ratio Total Cholesterol/HDL 3.00, LDL 105, Triglycerides 77, Glucose 93 (not fasting)
My doctor and I were very pleased with the 20 pound weight loss, reduction in blood pressure (about 10 points), and significant improvement in HDL and triglycerides after ninety days. He is reducing the lisinopril dosage, and I should be off it in a month. I’m also looking forward to continuing to drop more weight.
This is the first time in my adult life that I have felt in control of my weight and blood chemistry.
Bob’s follow-up
My wife and I are now at the seven-month point in eating mostly Paleo. (We include some milk and cheese in our diet but no starches or processed sugars.) I’m down 28 pounds to 150 pounds, with a BMI of 23.5, and am off blood pressure medication now. She decreased two dress sizes. Here is my blood chemistry profile:
After 7 months
Weight: 150
BMI: 23.5
Total Cholesterol 157, HDL 47, Ratio Total Cholesterol/HDL 3.3, LDL 103, Triglycerides “not detected by test,” Glucose 87.
We’re very pleased with this eating plan and have absolutely no problem staying with it.
In the United States, a number of governmental, institutional, and private organizations determine official national nutritional policy. The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) MyPyramid, recently renamed MyPlate, is probably the most visible governmental program that attempts to sway our perspective on what is and is not a healthy diet. The MyPyramid/MyPlate guidelines tell us that we must consume foods from all five of their self-proclaimed food groups—grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and meat/beans. The Pyramid/MyPlate cautions us, “For good health, eat a variety of foods from each food group every day.”
The USDA suggests that women between the ages of nineteen and thirty should eat at least 6 ounces of grains daily, and half should come from whole grains. For men, this figure is increased to 8 ounces of daily grains. Implicit in these recommendations is the notion that cereal grains represent an essential component of human nutrition. In other words, healthy human diets are difficult or impossible to achieve without cereal grains because they are nutrient-rich foods that we all require.
As a scientist, I can tell you that we should never blindly trust recommendations from the USDA or anyone else without first examining the data. The data speaks without the overtones of either charismatic individuals or rigid governmental organizations.
Grains are not part of the Paleo Diet. In this chapter I’m going to meticulously show you the science underlying why cereal grains are inferior foods, and why they should be avoided. In the decade since the publication of my first book, startling new information has surfaced about wheat consumption and human health. So much so, that the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control have now taken an active interest in this newly recognized public health threat.
The USDA’s MyPyramid/MyPlate encourages us to replace refined grains—white bread, white flour, white rice, and degermed corn meal—with whole grains because refined grains have been stripped of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. In the following chart, you can see how the refining process reduces the nutrient content of whole wheat.
Percentage of Vitamins and Minerals in Whole-Wheat versus White Flour
| Whole-Wheat Flour | White Flour | |
| Calcium (Ca) | 100% | 50% |
| Chromium (Cr) | 100% | 33% |
| Copper (Cu) | 100% | 20% |
| Iron (Fe) (enriched) | 100% | 20% |
| Magnesium (Mg) | 100% | 18% |
| Manganese (Mn) | 100% | 10% |
| Selenium (Se) | 100% | 75% |
| Zinc (Zn) | 100% | 20% |
| Potassium (K) | 100% | 22% |
| Biotin | 100% | 20% |
| Vitamin B6 | 100% | 17% |
| Vitamin E | 100% | 2% |
| Folic acid (enriched since 1998) | 100% | 25% |
| Vitamin B3 (enriched) | 100% | 20% |
| Vitamin B2 (enriched) | 100% | 33% |
| Vitamin B1 (enriched) | 100% | 18% |
| Pantothenic acid | 100% | 50% |
| Vitamin K | 100% | 24% |
At least on paper, compared to refined grains, it may appear that whole grains are indeed nutrient-rich foods packed with vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, it just isn’t so. What we need to do is to compare whole grains on a calorie-by-calorie basis to other foods such as fresh fruit, veggies, lean meats, and seafood, which are the staples of the Paleo Diet.
In a paper I published in 2005 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, I examined the thirteen nutrients most lacking in the U.S. diet and then ranked seven food groups—whole grains, milk, fruits, veggies, seafood, lean meat, and nuts/seeds—for each of these thirteen vitamins and minerals in 100-calorie samples. Food groups were ranked from 7 to 1—where 7 represented the highest-nutrient-density food group for a particular vitamin or mineral and 1 the lowest. We then summed up all of the rank scores to determine the most nutrient-dense food groups. The next table shows the results of our analysis. Fresh veggies were far and away the most nutrient-rich foods, followed by seafood, lean meats, and fruits. If you consider the sum rank scores, whole grains and milk are in fifth and sixth place, respectively. So much for the USDA’s suggestion that whole grains are a nutrient-rich food essential for good human nutrition! From a practical perspective, you can see that the inclusion of either refined or whole grains in our diets lowers its overall vitamin and mineral content whenever these foods displace fresh fruit, veggies, lean meat, and seafood.
18 Vegetables Tested: Iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion, carrot, celery, broccoli, green cabbage, cucumber, bell pepper, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, sweet potato, zucchini, mushroom, green onion, radish, summer squash, asparagus
20 Types of Seafood Tested: Shrimp, cod, pollack, catfish, scallop, salmon, flounder, sole, oyster, orange roughy, mackerel, ocean perch, rockfish, whiting, clam, haddock, blue crab, rainbow trout, halibut, lobster
4 Lean Meats Tested: Beef (sirloin tip roast trimmed of visible fat), chicken (breasts without skin and trimmed of visible fat), pork (loin roast trimmed of visible fat), turkey (breasts without skin)
20 Fruits Tested: Banana, apple, watermelon, orange, cantaloupe, grapes, grapefruit, strawberry, peach, pear, nectarine, honeydew melon, plum, avocado, lemon, pineapple, tangerine, sweet cherry, kiwi fruit, lime
8 Whole Grains Tested: Whole wheat, whole corn meal, brown rice, barley, rye, oats, sorghum, millet
10 Nuts and Seeds Tested: Almonds, walnuts, pecans, filberts, Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia nuts, coconut, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
Vitamin B12
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (μg) |
| Seafoods | 7 | 7.42 |
| Lean meats | 6 | 0.63 |
| Whole milk | 5 | 0.58 |
Vitamin B12
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (μg) |
| Vegetables | 4 | 0.00 |
| Fruits | 4 | 0.00 |
| Whole grains | 4 | 0.00 |
| Nuts/seeds | 4 | 0.00 |
Vitamin B3
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Lean meats | 7 | 4.73 |
| Seafoods | 6 | 3.19 |
| Vegetables | 5 | 2.73 |
| Whole grains | 4 | 1.12 |
| Fruits | 3 | 0.89 |
| Nuts/seeds | 2 | 0.35 |
| Whole milk | 1 | 0.14 |
Phosphorus
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Seafoods | 7 | 219 |
| Vegetables | 6 | 157 |
| Whole milk | 5 | 152 |
| Lean meats | 4 | 151 |
| Whole grains | 3 | 90 |
| Nuts/seeds | 2 | 80 |
| Fruits | 1 | 33 |
Vitamin B2
| Food Group | Ranking | NutrientAmount (mg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 0.33 |
| Whole milk | 6 | 0.26 |
| Lean meats | 5 | 0.14 |
| Seafoods | 4 | 0.09 |
| Fruits | 3 | 0.09 |
| Whole grains | 2 | 0.05 |
| Nuts/seeds | 1 | 0.04 |
Vitamin B1
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 0.26 |
| Lean meats | 6 | 0.18 |
| Whole grains | 5 | 0.12 |
| Nuts/seeds | 4 | 0.12 |
| Fruits | 3 | 0.11 |
| Seafoods | 2 | 0.08 |
| Whole milk | 1 | 0.06 |
Folate
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (μg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 208.3 |
| Fruits | 6 | 25.0 |
| Nuts/seeds | 5 | 11.0 |
| Seafoods | 4 | 10.8 |
| Whole grains | 3 | 10.3 |
| Whole milk | 2 | 8.1 |
| Lean meats | 1 | 3.8 |
Vitamin C
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Fruits | 7 | 221.3 |
| Vegetables | 6 | 93.6 |
| Whole milk | 5 | 74.2 |
| Seafoods | 4 | 1.9 |
| Whole grains | 3 | 1.53 |
| Nuts/seeds | 2 | 0.4 |
| Lean meats | 1 | 0.1 |
Iron
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 2.59 |
| Seafoods | 6 | 2.07 |
| Lean meats | 5 | 1.10 |
| Whole grains | 4 | 0.90 |
| Nuts/seeds | 3 | 0.86 |
| Fruits | 2 | 0.69 |
| Whole milk | 1 | 0.08 |
Vitamin B6
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 0.42 |
| Lean meats | 6 | 0.32 |
| Fruits | 5 | 0.20 |
| Seafoods | 4 | 0.19 |
| Whole grains | 3 | 0.09 |
| Nuts/seeds | 2 | 0.08 |
| Whole milk | 1 | 0.07 |
Vitamin A
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (RE) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 687 |
| Fruits | 6 | 94 |
| Whole milk | 5 | 50 |
| Seafoods | 4 | 32 |
| Nuts/seeds | 3 | 2 |
| Whole grains | 2 | 2 |
| Lean meats | 1 | 1 |
Magnesium
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Vegetables | 7 | 54.5 |
| Seafoods | 6 | 36.1 |
| Nuts/seeds | 5 | 35.8 |
| Whole grains | 4 | 32.6 |
| Fruits | 3 | 24.6 |
| Whole milk | 2 | 21.9 |
| Lean meats | 1 | 18.0 |
Calcium
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Whole milk | 7 | 194.3 |
| Vegetables | 6 | 116.8 |
| Seafoods | 5 | 43.1 |
| Fruits | 4 | 43.0 |
| Nuts/seeds | 3 | 17.5 |
| Whole grains | 2 | 7.6 |
| Lean meats | 1 | 6.1 |
Zinc
| Food Group | Ranking | Nutrient Amount (mg) |
| Seafoods | 7 | 7.6 |
| Lean meats | 6 | 1.9 |
| Vegetables | 5 | 1.04 |
| Whole grains | 4 | 0.67 |
| Whole milk | 3 | 0.62 |
| Nuts/seeds | 2 | 0.6 |
| Fruits | 1 | 0.25 |
| Sum Rank Scores | |
| Vegetables | 81 |
| Seafoods | 65 |
| Lean meats | 50 |
| Fruits | 48 |
| Whole grains | 44 |
| Whole milk | 44 |
| Nuts/seeds | 38 |
How about fiber? Almost everyone, including the USDA, assumes that whole grains are a good source of fiber. Traditional, dyed-in-the-wool nutritionists may ask, “If you eliminate whole grains from your diet, how in the world will you ever get enough fiber?” In the following graph, I depict the average fiber content in a 1,000- calorie serving of three refined cereals, eight whole-grain cereals, twenty fresh fruits, and twenty nonstarchy vegetables. Although whole grains have four times more fiber than refined grains do, they are lightweights when compared to either fresh fruits or veggies. Furthermore, the insoluble fiber found in every whole grain except oats does not have a blood cholesterol–lowering effect as does the soluble fiber present in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Average Fiber Content
Phytate: One Antinutrient in Grains
Another piece of the whole-grain story that the USDA’s MyPyramid/MyPlate doesn’t mention is nutrient availability. It may seem as if whole grains are great sources of calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. Not true. All whole grains contain an antinutrient called phytate or phytic acid, which binds these minerals and makes them unavailable for absorption in our gastrointestinal tracts. Phytate binds these nutrients in a dose-dependent manner, meaning that the more whole grains you eat, the more likely you will become deficient in these minerals.
Just such an effect was verified in rural Iranians who frequently consume about 50 percent of their daily calories from a whole-wheat flat bread called tanok. A series of studies in the early 1970s by Dr. Reinhold demonstrated that excessive consumption of tanok caused zinc deficiency in young boys and teenagers, which resulted in a condition called hypogonadal dwarfism. This nutritional disease prevents normal growth and development, reduces stature, severely delays puberty, and adversely affects reproductive function.
By following the USDA guidelines, whole grains can easily make up a third or more of your caloric intake. A twenty-five-year-old sedentary woman has an energy requirement of about 1,600 calories per day. If she consumes 6 ounces of grain, as recommended by the USDA, this amount of cereal translates into about 29 percent of her daily calories. If this woman considers herself “health conscious” and purchases only whole-grain breads and cereals and has made a decision to reduce or completely eliminate meat, eggs, and other animal foods from her diet, whole grains can easily compose 50 percent or more of her diet. Like many Americans, she thinks she is following a healthy plant-based diet that will reduce her risk of developing many chronic diseases and nutritional deficiencies. In reality, most likely she will develop both iron deficiency anemia and zinc deficiency. Her whole-grain-based diet, because of its high phytate and antinutrient content, will also promote calcium loss and osteoporosis.
One of the best-kept secrets about excessive whole-grain consumption is that it adversely affects skeletal health by impairing vitamin D and calcium metabolism. If you take a look at the table showing the vitamin and mineral contents of various food groups (see page 108), notice that the average amount of calcium in a 100-calorie serving of whole grains is a paltry 7.6 mg, whereas the same serving of fresh vegetables gives you fifteen times more calcium (116.8 mg). More important, vegetable calcium is well assimilated, whereas calcium in whole grains is virtually unabsorbable because it is bound to phytate. The more whole grains you include in your diet, the less calcium will be available to build and maintain a healthy skeleton.
If an extremely low calcium content that is poorly absorbed were not bad enough, whole grains have other adverse nutrient characteristics that harm calcium metabolism and bone health. Whole grains have a calcium/phosphorous ratio that is quite low (0.08). Consumption of excess phosphorus when calcium intake is adequate or low leads to a condition called secondary hyperparathyroidism, which causes progressive bone loss. The recommended, ideal calcium/phosphorous ratio is 1.00, whereas it averages 0.64 for women and 0.62 for men in the United States. High-grain diets such as those recommended by the USDA’s MyPyramid/MyPlate (around 30 percent of your total calories) will further reduce the calcium/phosphorous ratio in your diet and increase your risk for developing osteoporosis.
Whole grains are bad news not only for adults’ calcium metabolism but also for children’s. In an experiment involving infants, Dr. Zoppi and coworkers showed that wheat bran given to infants for just one month caused their blood calcium to plummet. Most consumers believe that whole grains are vastly superior to refined grains in every respect. This assumption is simply untrue, particularly when it comes to calcium metabolism and bone mineral health. Animal experiments show that whole-grain oats and wheat are worse for your health than their refined counterparts for a variety of reasons, including their adverse effect on vitamin D metabolism.
Whole Grains Impair Vitamin D Metabolism
One of the most disturbing effects of whole grains is their capacity to impair vitamin D metabolism. Besides calcium, vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients when it comes to our bone health. Within the last ten years, scientists have determined that vitamin D deficiency spans the globe and has turned into a worldwide epidemic. Scores of studies indicate that anywhere from 40 to 100 percent of elderly men and women in the United States and Europe are vitamin D deficient. This epidemic is not limited only to the elderly. A study in Maine revealed that 48 percent of preteen girls had deficiencies in this important nutrient, while a study in Boston indicated that 52 percent of Hispanic and black teenagers were vitamin D depleted. Other studies have demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency is common in middle-aged adults, with as many as 60 to 90 percent of them maintaining inadequate blood concentrations of this crucial vitamin. Moreover, if you follow government guidelines and consume a third of your calories as grains and whole grains, you will make the potentially severe health problem of vitamin D deficiency even worse.
In 1919, Dr. Edward Mellanby of London University experimentally demonstrated that excessive whole-grain consumption caused rickets in puppies. Rickets is a debilitating bone disease that afflicts puppies and human children by causing a softening of bones that leads to fractures and deformities that may persist throughout life. Since Dr. Mellanby’s pioneering work, numerous experiments in other laboratory animals and even humans have shown without question that whole grains impair vitamin D metabolism.
There appear to be at least two elements in whole grains and whole wheat in particular that undermine vitamin D metabolism in our bodies. Most of us are either borderline or vitamin D deficient to start with, so any losses caused by whole-grain consumption exacerbate the problem. A study of vitamin D in human beings who consumed 60 grams of wheat bran daily for thirty days demonstrated an increased elimination of vitamin D from the intestines. It is not entirely clear how whole grains promote losses of vitamin D from our bodies, but they may interrupt the normal recycling process of vitamin D between the intestines and the liver.
Recent work from our research group suggests that one substance found in whole wheat may play an even more important role in disrupting normal vitamin D metabolism than previously suspected substances do. Wheat contains a lectin known as wheat germ agglutinin, or WGA, that has been shown to easily penetrate the gut barrier of rats and enter their bloodstream. Experiments from our laboratory, as well as those from Dr. Roberto Chignola and coworkers at the University of Verona, support the view that WGA from whole and refined wheat bypasses the gut barrier and enters human circulation as well. This is definitely not a good thing because WGA is a lectin that can bind to almost any cell in our bodies and disrupt normal cellular function.
Lectins are protein molecules found in plant and animal cells that firmly bind to carbohydrate and sugar molecules. They were originally discovered when researchers noticed lectins’ ability to cause red blood cells to clump together in test tubes. In plants, their main function is to act as an antinutrient to discourage potential predators such as insects, birds, and small animals from eating their various leaves, seeds, and roots. Most plant lectins in our food supply are harmless because they can’t bind to cells in our gastrointestinal tract and therefore can’t get into our bloodstream. Two notable exceptions are cereal grain and legume lectins, which bind to cells in our intestines and enter circulation.
Once WGA finds its way into the bloodstream, it attaches itself to red blood cells and is carried to almost every cell in our bodies. At this point, WGA crosses cell membranes and binds to a structure on the cell nucleus called the nuclear pore. This action effectively blocks the entry of many hormones into the nucleus and prevents their intended cellular actions.
Vitamin D is actually not a vitamin at all. It is classified as a hormone because it affects so many of our body’s cells and organs. In order for vitamin D to produce its beneficial effects in our bodies, it normally must enter the cell nucleus through the nuclear pore. Unfortunately, this process can’t occur when WGA binds and blocks the nuclear pore. This series of events has been experimentally demonstrated in tissue studies in vitro but has yet to be confirmed in living human experiments in vivo. Yet the bottom line remains the same—excessive whole wheat and grain consumption disrupts vitamin D metabolism and disturbs normal bone health.
Whole Grains and Celiac Disease
One of the most shortsighted aspects of the USDA’s population-wide recommendation for all of us to consume grains is its failure to recognize that wheat, rye, and barley are troublesome to a large percentage of the U.S. population. In a landmark paper published in 2003, Dr. Alessio Fasano at the University of Maryland determined that 1 in 133 people in the United States has celiac disease, an autoimmune disease triggered by the consumption of gluten proteins found in all wheat, rye, and barley food products. Celiac disease arises when the immune system does not recognize the body’s own intestinal tissues as itself and mounts an attack on them. In celiac patients, the range of symptoms runs the spectrum from intense inflammation, tissue destruction, diarrhea, and malabsorption of nutrients to virtually no symptoms at all. In infants and children, celiac disease can stunt normal growth and in adults increases the risk of developing other autoimmune diseases and associated illnesses, with outcomes that range from inconsequential to lethal.
At least 2,316,000 Americans have celiac disease. Unfortunately, most are unaware that they have the disease, because about 80 percent of all celiac patients remain undiagnosed. If we do the math, you can see that at least 1,852,800 people in the United States don’t have a clue that they have celiac disease and that they shouldn’t be eating wheat, barley, and rye. Despite these compelling figures, the USDA has completely failed us with its MyPyramid/MyPlate recommendation for every man, woman, and child in the United States to eat grains on a daily basis.
At first, these numbers may seem trivial because they imply that most people have no trouble whatsoever when eating gluten-containing grains. Not true. Until very recently, the classical medical view of gluten was that it caused only one autoimmune illness (celiac disease) or possibly one other (dermatitis herpetiformis—an itchy skin rash). In the last five years, a few of the most well-recognized celiac researchers in the world, including Drs. Alessio Fasano and Marios Hadjivassiliou, have completely demolished this traditional perspective on gluten. These scientists have coined the term “gluten sensitivity” and have shown that celiac disease is just one of many illnesses and autoimmune diseases caused by gluten-containing grains. Intriguing evidence uncovered by these researchers and others show that gluten sensitivity may underlie an extraordinary number of health problems and disorders, including those shown below.
Diseases and Disorders Linked to Gluten Sensitivity
Acid reflux
Addison’s disease (adrenal disease)
Alopecia (hair loss)
Anemia
Aphthous ulceration (canker sores)
Asthma
Ataxias (a nervous system dysfunction causing grossly uncoordinated movements)
Attention deficit disorder (ADD)
Atopic diseases (flaky, itchy skin)
Autism
Autoimmune thyroid diseases
Dementia
Dental enamel defects
Depression and anxiety
Dermatitis herpetiformis (itchy skin disease)
Eating disorders
Epilepsy with cerebral calcifications
Graves’ disease
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
Hyperactivity
Infertility
IgA nephropathy (kidney inflammation)
Irritable bowel syndrome
Liver disease
Chronic active hepatitis
Primary biliary cirrhosis
Primary sclerosing cholangitis
Migraine headaches
Peripheral neuropathies (nerve damage causing pain, muscle weakness, tingling, spasms, cramps)
Psoriasis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Schizophrenia
Selective IgA deficiency (immune system dysfunction)
Sjögren’s syndrome (dry eyes, mouth)
Systemic lupus erythematosus (whole body autoimmune disease)
Type I diabetes
Uveitis (autoimmune eye disease)
Vitiligo (skin depigmentation)
If even a small percentage of these diseases and disorders are directly caused by the consumption of gluten-containing grains, we really need to rethink governmental recommendations for all of us to eat cereals. In a recent interview, Dr. Fasano estimated that twenty million people nationwide are sensitive to gluten. These numbers are truly staggering and represent an epidemic—so much so, that the Centers for Disease Control now considers celiac disease and gluten sensitivity a major public health threat.
One of the greatest improvements you can make in your physical and mental health will be to eliminate not only wheat from your diet, but the other seven major cereal grains as well: rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, and sorghum.
All eight of the commonly consumed cereal grains are true cereals because they are the seeds of grasses that botanically belong to the Poaceae family of plants. By now, there should be little doubt in your mind why true cereal grains are inferior foods and should be avoided. Yet what about starchy seeds that are frequently used by celiac patients and others to replace gluten-containing grains? Technically, these seeds are not true grasses because they are not members of the Poaceae family. They include chia seeds, buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth. Let’s take a look at the nutritional pros and cons of these seeds.
As with all aspects of human nutrition, we first need to look at the evolutionary clues before we come to sweeping conclusions about which foods and food groups we should regularly include in, or omit from, our diets. From what we know about historically studied foragers, they hunted, gathered, and fished for foods in a manner that maximized their caloric intake versus the energy they expended to obtain these foods. This food-gathering strategy is referred to as the optimal foraging theory by anthropologists. Based on the optimal foraging theory, hunter-gatherers typically maintained the following order of food preferences:
1. Large animals
2. Medium-size animals
3. Small animals, birds, and fish
4. Roots and tubers
5. Fruit
6. Honey
7. Nuts and seeds
8. Grass seeds (cereals)
You can see from this list that hunter-gatherers always preferred large animals if they were available—simply because they got more food calories for their caloric expenditure. Notice that seeds and cereals were at the bottom of the list. There is no doubt that foragers were opportunists, and if something was edible, it was probably consumed, but only if preferred foods couldn’t be acquired first. So yes, the evolutionary evidence supports the notion that if pseudo grains or even cereal grains were available, they would have been occasionally consumed.
Nevertheless, seeds and grains would never have been eaten on a daily basis as staple foods that make up 25 to 50 percent of one’s daily energy. In support of this conclusion is my 2000 analysis of 229 hunter-gatherer diets revealing that animal foods—not plant foods—were the preferred staples. Moreover, most wild plant foods, particularly seeds, are not available on a year-round basis but can be harvested and consumed seasonally for only a few weeks or months out of the year. Let’s see how this evolutionary insight is an important nutritional concept that has relevance today.
Seeds of any mature plant represent their reproductive future. If they are entirely consumed by animals such as insects, birds, rodents, or mammals or are destroyed by fungi and microorganisms, the seeds can’t make their way into the soil, germinate, and produce the next generation of plants. In other words, plants don’t produce seeds simply to feed other animals or microorganisms—if they did, they would rapidly become extinct.
Natural selection has come up with a number of strategies to ensure that a plant’s seeds are not completely eaten or destroyed by predators and microorganisms. First, the seed can be protected by a hard shell that makes it difficult or impossible for the predator to eat the inner seed. An example that comes to mind is a Brazil nut. Second, plants frequently evolve thorns, spikes, and other hazardous structures to keep animals away, such as what we find with cactus thorns. Another seed-saving strategy is the evolution of a very hard seed surrounded by sweet fruit. With this evolutionary solution, the predator is encouraged to eat the entire fruit, seed and all. The hard seed survives the predator’s digestive system and exits fully intact in a nice pile of fertilizing dung. Strawberries and crab apples are a good example of this evolutionary approach.
One important strategy a plant can take to protect its seeds is the evolution of lethally toxic or moderately toxic compounds to discourage predation and damage by animals and microorganisms. These compounds are called antinutrients. Unfortunately, antinutrients not only adversely affect microorganisms, insects, birds, rodents, and animals, but they also cause varying degrees of harmful effects in our own bodies. The good news about antinutrients found in our food supply is that their toxicity is generally dose dependent, meaning that they become more and more poisonous as we eat more and more foods that contain antinutrients.
Not all food antinutrients affect us in exactly the same manner. Some have minimal or subtle effects, a few are lethally toxic, and others have long-term adverse health effects that we are only beginning to understand.
Pseudo grains such as chia seeds, amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat are loaded with a variety of moderately toxic antinutrients that probably have minimal adverse health effects if we eat them occasionally, in limited quantities, or for only short periods. This dietary pattern mimics how hunter-gatherers would have consumed plant seeds. In the wild, plants produce seeds seasonally for only a few weeks or months out of the year. With the advent of agriculture and long-term storage technologies, we can now eat any plant seed that we like every single day of the year.
That’s the problem. Repeated high exposure to seed antinutrients can undermine the nutrient quality of our diets but, more important, may impair intestinal function, promote chronic low-level inflammation, and increase our susceptibility to allergies and autoimmune and other inflammatory diseases.
Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are small and oval shaped, either black or white colored; they resemble sesame seeds. They are native to southern Mexico and northern Guatemala and were cultivated as a food crop for thousands of years in this region by the Aztecs and other native cultures. Chia seeds can be consumed in a variety of ways, which include roasting and grinding the seeds into a flour known as chianpinolli that can then be made into tortillas, tamales, and beverages. The roasted ground seeds are traditionally consumed as gruel called pinole.
In the last twenty years, chia seeds have become an increasingly popular item in co-ops and health food stores, primarily because of their high content of the healthful omega 3 fatty acid alpha linolenic acid (ALA). Chia seeds have also been fed to domestic livestock and chickens to enrich their meat and eggs with omega 3 fats. I can endorse feeding chia seeds to animals but have serious reservations when it comes to humans eating these seeds as staple foods. The next table shows the entire nutrient profile for a 100-gram serving of chia seeds.
At least on paper, it would appear that chia seeds are a nutritious food that is not only high in ALA but is also a good source of protein, fiber, certain B vitamins, calcium, iron, manganese, and zinc.
Unfortunately, as is the case with many other plant seeds, chia seeds contain numerous antinutrients that reduce their nutritional value. Notice the high phosphorus concentrations found in chia seeds. This revealing marker tells us that chia seeds are concentrated sources of phytate, an antinutrient that binds to many minerals, such as calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper, making them unavailable for absorption. In our bodies, chia seeds actually become inferior sources of all of these minerals.
Nutrients in Chia Seeds (100-gram serving)
| Nutrient | Amount | % Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) |
| Kilocalories | 490 | 25 |
| Protein | 15.6 g | 31 |
| Carbohydrate | 43.9 g | 15 |
| Fat | 30.8 g | 47 |
| Saturated Fat | 3.2 g | 6 |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 2.9 g | na |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 23.3 g | na |
| 18:1 oleic acid | 2.0 g | na |
| 18:2n6 linoleic acid | 5.8 g | na |
| 18:3n3 alpha linolenic acid | 17.6 g | na |
| Fiber | 37.7 g | 151 |
| Vitamin A | 36 IU | 1 |
| Vitamin B1 | 0.87 mg | 58 |
| Vitamin B2 | 0.17 mg | 10 |
| Vitamin B3 | 5.82 mg | 29 |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.69 mg | 35 |
| Vitamin B12 | 0 | 0 |
| Folate | 114 mcg | 29 |
| Pantothenic acid | 0.94 mg | 9 |
| Vitamin C | 15.7 mg | 26 |
| Sodium | 19 mg | 1 |
| Potassium | 100 mg | 5 |
| Phosphorus | 948 | 95 |
| Calcium | 631 mg | 26 |
| Copper | 0.19 mg | 9 |
| Iron | 10.0 | 56 |
| Magnesium | 77 mg | 19 |
| Manganese | 2.17 mg | 108 |
| Zinc | 3.5 mg | 23 |
Similarly, the table suggests that chia seeds are good sources of vitamin B6. Unfortunately, in our bodies the utilization of this vitamin from plant foods such as chia seeds is quite low, whereas the bioavailability of B6 from animal products is quite high, approaching 100 percent.
One unusual characteristic of chia seed pinole or food products comes from a clear mucilaginous gel that surrounds the seeds. This sticky gel forms a barrier that impairs digestion and fat absorption and causes a low protein digestibility. Animal and human studies indicate that it is likely that other antinutrients, together with this gel, may promote a leaky gut, chronic systemic inflammation, and food allergies.
Amaranth, Quinoa, and Buckwheat
Many celiac patients or people who want to avoid gluten-containing grains frequently eliminate wheat, rye, and barley foods and substitute products that contain one or more pseudo grains—amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat—or their flours. The market for gluten-free food items has become enormous in the last decade, with estimated consumer demand totaling sixty million people in the United States alone. If you have purchased gluten-free foods or are considering doing so, make sure that you read labels carefully, as sometimes the seed flours that replace gluten flours have nearly as many nutritional shortcomings as the foods they replace. The health problems associated with the habitual consumption of amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat have not been as well studied as those for gluten-containing cereal grains. Nevertheless, there are important red flags that should grab your attention.
As I mentioned, all pseudo grains are chock full of antinutrients. These substances represent the plant’s evolutionary defense mechanisms against predation by insects, birds, rodents, and other animals, as well as a means to discourage infection by microorganisms. When we examine the chemical composition of almost all seed antinutrients, whether they come from cereals, legumes, or pseudo grains, a familiar pattern of compounds emerges.
When you think about any poisonous or toxic substance, it has to follow a number of key steps in your body to do its poisoning and cause illness. First, it has to get into your body—this means that it has survive digestive processes and resist gut enzymes that normally break down toxic food proteins into their harmless amino acid components. We know from human and animal studies that almost all plant seeds contain protease inhibitors. These compounds neutralize predator gut enzymes that normally would degrade seed proteins/toxins into nonhazardous substances. If a plant seed is to deliver a lethal or partially lethal protein to a potential predator, the toxic compound has to survive the predator’s digestive enzymes. Protease inhibitors found in plant seeds do precisely this. They allow plant seeds to deliver additional poisons to the host’s next line of defense—its gut barrier.
In addition to protease inhibitors that protect seed toxins from the host’s digestive enzymes, plant seeds have evolved a number of compounds that allow their toxins to penetrate the gut barrier. The most common gut-breeching chemicals are called saponins. Other gut-penetrating seed proteins are lectins; gliadin proteins from wheat, rye, and barley; and another category of substances known as thaumatin-like proteins. Each of these compounds works in a slightly different manner to compromise intestinal permeability, resulting in a condition known as leaky gut.
Once the gut barrier has been damaged, plant seed antinutrients can find their way into the bloodstream to disturb normal bodily functions, causing illnesses and disease. Antinutrient damage to the intestinal barrier allows toxins from bacteria and viruses found in the gut contents to enter the bloodstream as well.
Amaranth
As with all pseudo grains, unless you consume them as staples to replace cereals in your diet, they probably will have little adverse effects on your long-term health and well-being. Nevertheless, amaranth seeds and flour contain at least three potentially harmful antinutrients. First, the saponin content (790 mg/kg) of amaranth seeds is higher than in a variety of common human foods that have been shown to impair intestinal function and cause leaky gut, which can lead to an increased risk for allergies, autoimmune diseases, and chronic low-level inflammation.
Amaranth seeds are also concentrated sources of oxalic acid and contain four to five times more of this antinutrient than either cereals or legumes. Dietary oxalic acid is problematic because the more of it you consume, the greater your risk is for developing kidney stones.
The most disturbing antinutrient found in amaranth is a lectin abbreviated ACA. Experiments by Dr. Jonathan Rhodes have revealed that ACA is a potent promoter of cancer cell growth in the intestines.
Quinoa
Quinoa is a pseudo grain with origins in South America. Like amaranth and chia seeds, it contains numerous antinutrients, including saponins, protease inhibitors, phytate, and tannins. A potential health-threatening component in quinoa is its high saponin content—up to 5,000 mg/kg. In both rat and tissue experiments, saponins from quinoa seeds increased intestinal permeability.
As I mentioned, a leaky gut may lead to many health problems and is thought to be one of the essential triggers for autoimmune diseases. If you currently have an autoimmune disease or if you have a family history of these illnesses, I would definitely recommend that you avoid quinoa and all other pseudo grains.
Buckwheat
This plant produces a starchy seed that is ground into flour that is frequently made into noodles widely consumed in Japan, China, and Korea. It can be made into porridges or even mixed with yeast to produce pancakes. Because buckwheat contains no gluten, the flour and its products are often used by celiac patients as substitutes for wheat, rye, and barley.
From a health and nutrition perspective, buckwheat has not been examined in nearly the same detail as true cereal grains or even other pseudo grains, so the jury is still out on how it may affect our long-term health and well-being. Nevertheless, allergists worldwide have taken a great interest in buckwheat because it is such a potent and fatal allergen. Buckwheat allergy seems to be common in Asian countries and frequently causes life-threatening allergic reactions called anaphylactic shock that do not lessen after childhood.
Like other pseudo grains, buckwheat is a concentrated source of protease inhibitors, which are suspected in causing buckwheat’s powerful allergic responses. One unusual detrimental health effect of buckwheat consumption is a damaging skin reaction frequently shown in many animal experiments. This response is caused when sunlight reacts with dietary buckwheat compounds that make their way into the skin. How this adverse effect occurs is currently unknown.
As with other pseudo grains, I cannot recommend that you eat buckwheat, except on an infrequent basis. You will be much better off by completely avoiding buckwheat and eating more fresh meats, seafood, fish, and fruits and veggies.
Paleo Bottom Line
Don’t eat grains, which include wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, sorghum, and millet. Avoid pseudo grains such as buckwheat, chia seeds, amaranth, and quinoa.