by AliB » June 17th, 2011, 3:35 pm
As far as the bread is concerned, something dawned on me today.
My Mum had Coeliac Disease. We didn't know it until about 4 weeks before she died, but there were big clues, like the fact that she was type 1 Diabetic, had anaemia all her life and had fertility problems (she had a stillborn followed by 10 miscarriages - her body wasn't nutritionally strong enough to bring a baby to full-term).
She actually kept fairly well - in fact she had more energy than I did. The Coeliac really didn't fully raise its ugly head until 4 or 5 years before she died.
What I have realised is that up until around that time, for years, my Mum had made her own bread. She used to beat the guts out of her trusty old Kenwood every week, making good home-made, properly risen and fermented (usually overnight, sat on top of the boiler with a damp cloth on top) bread.
Eventually she decided that enough was enough and started to buy shop bread. Maybe it's just a coincidence - but from then on her health started to deteriorate. From what I have learned about the bread, I am not so sure it was any coincidence.
As Clive Lawler's Intro to his book says - 'Ever wondered how our ancestors managed to eat bread on a daily basis without so much as a tummy gurgle. Why were they not 'gluten intolerant'?. Answer - they didn't rush the bread making process.'
Added to that, two other things were introduced in Britain in the 1940's when my Mum was a child - generally prescribed antibiotics - and pasteurised milk. One destroys the gut ecology, the other gives no support to its replacement. As a lot of nutritive support is created in the gut by the very microbes that are destroyed by antibiotics - especially B vitamins, that could be another factor in the plethora of deficiency diseases that people are suffering today. Most, if not all ancient cultures had some kind of special lacto-fermented food that was highly prized. Things like Sauerkraut, naturally-fermented vegetables, lacto drinks like kvass, kombucha, kefir, jogurt, etc.
Mum also used to make and consume her own yoghurt for years and that may be another reason why she managed to keep her CD at bay, although I am sure that early antibiotic exposure that set up the original gut damage may well have been a factor. i was given a lot of antibiotics as a child and they trashed my gut too.
By killing the natural gut flora they open the way for opportunistic yeasts and fungus to flourish - especially when they get the food they luuurve - the carbs and sugars. They in turn set up cravings. Many Diabetics are riddled with yeasts and fungus - and they are very carb addicted (although they are often in denial - I know I was!).
Both My Dad and Mum were Diabetic (T2 and T1) - and they were both riddled with Candida by the time they died. It is part of the microbial soup that consumes us when we are dead - but unfortunately it starts working on some of us when we are still alive - and we encourage it in the food we eat. Any carbs that the body cannot process - and there are a lot of those, including the supermarket bread, and 'modified starch', the glucose-fructose syrups and things like corn syrup - is fair game for the yeasts. They are having a field day on the food we can't use.
I have decided I am not going down that route.....I've stopped feeding the fungus and it's virtually gone away.
T2 (never been checked for T1.5) on (much less since going Low Carb) insulin & gradually healing.
'You can't get rid of the flies until you clear the manure pile". Good food heals - bad food kills...
