carbs increase bacteria/yeast in your bowels causing disease

kkrichar · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 9:47 am

I saw this status update on Facebook from the Wahls Foundation. Dr. Wahls has cured her own MS through diet. I was surprised she placed such a negative focus on carbs. Her diet isn't McDougall (obviously) but it does have a lot of whole foods. Due to her own illness she has spent a lot more time studying nutrition than most doctors. I'm surprised by her position.

"Rice is only 10,000 years in human diet; we have existed as a species for 2.5 millions years. The more carbs, sugar, processed food in your diet, the more likely you are to have sugar loving bacteria/ yeasts in your bowels that confuse your biology, increasing your risk of obesity, diabetes, autoimmune problems." - The Wahls Foundation Facebook post

I asked Dr. Wahls if these diseases are prevalent in countries with rice-based diets and she replied, "yes - diabetes and autoimmune conditions are present and increasing dramatically in Asia."

I think asked if that was due to rice consumption or from adopting a Western Diet and she never responded. However, a couple other posts have me scratching my head:

"rice is soooo genetically modified now and its lectin content soo high, surely that must have a negative impact on our systems.. its not the rice of even 100 years ago....."

"factor in the unnatural modification of grains to create a better yield and we have some foods that may sustain us, but are ultimately, making us ill and old before our time."

Does anyone have any thoughts on these things? I'm curious about the bacteria/yeast comment but more interested in people's thoughts on the modification of grains.

schermel · **Joined:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:44 am **Posts:** 96

I happen to know Dr. Wahls and have witnessed her transformation from wheelchair bound to walking and biking. She follows a paleo-type diet. I don't think she eats gobs of meat and I know she eats grass fed and organic meats. She and I have had several discussions about diet. I asked her once why these other diets also work (McDougall, Fuhrman, Esselstyn, etc) and she really couldn't answer. I also know that she has many food allergies--gluten, dairy, many legumes, so I think that is why she steers clear of this kind of diet. She does eat lots of greens and berries. (like 9 cups a day). We concluded that it must be the vegetables and fruits which is the common thread in both types of diet.

I too have wondered about the wheat and other grains. I can buy Eikorn (spelling??) whole wheat pasta where I live and it is supposed to be an ancient wheat and not the same as the hybridized wheat we eat today. It's good, but I don't feel any difference when I eat it.

At Dr. Wahls' request I tried a gluten free diet for a couple of weeks. I did not notice anything.

I think we can eat many types of diets, but they need to be "clean" whole foods diets. Maybe the problems people have with grains is that they are eaten in refined form so much of the time.

kkrichar · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:02 am

Hi Schermel. I work with Dr. Wahls and also witnessed her transformation. It's amazing. I was surprised that she said rice, specifically, was a problem and given the comments others made about modifications over time I wondered if there might be something to it. It seems like we are always modifying things to make it bigger, better, cheaper, faster or whatever and it wouldn't surprise me if we modified our way right out of a healthy rice diet. I know Dr. McDougall makes a lot of comparisons to healthy Asians but if we are altering the rice that could change things. I've been eating a lot of brown rice and this made me go hmmm.

schermel · **Joined:** Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:44 am **Posts:** 96

Cool! I wonder if there are studies about the bowel flora? Maybe we could ask Jeff.

Spiral · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:55 am

kkrichar wrote:

"Rice is only 10,000 years in human diet; we have existed as a species for 2.5 millions years. The more carbs, sugar, processed food in your diet, the more likely you are to have sugar loving bacteria/ yeasts in your bowels that confuse your biology, increasing your risk of obesity, diabetes, autoimmune problems." - The Wahls Foundation Facebook post

I asked Dr. Wahls if these diseases are prevalent in countries with rice-based diets and she replied, "yes - diabetes and autoimmune conditions are present and increasing dramatically in Asia."

I think asked if that was due to rice consumption or from adopting a Western Diet and she never responded.

She never responded because as some of the Asian populations have become wealthier, their consumption of rice and wheat has declined, consumption of animal based foods has increased and the incidence of western diseases like cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and type 2 diabetes has increased.

Let's take another look at this statement.

Quote:

Rice is only 10,000 years in human diet; we have existed as a species for 2.5 millions years. The more carbs, sugar, processed food in your diet, the more likely you are to have sugar loving bacteria/ yeasts in your bowels that confuse your biology, increasing your risk of obesity, diabetes, autoimmune problems."

Is there any peer reviewed population study or intervention study published in a mainstream scientific journal backing up this idea that as rice (or other grain) consumption increases, the risk of MS and other autoimmune diseases increases?

Or is this doctor just stating a hypothesis? Anyone can state a hypothesis regarding the nutritional influence on disease. But we need some data to determine if this hypothesis is correct.

Surely, this doctor isn't asking you simply to take her word for it, right?

nicoles · **Joined:** Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:15 pm **Posts:** 2115

I cannot speak to the original question, but I can speak to the highly individualized nature of autoimmune disease, as I have one.

My diet and food sensitivities are completely my own, and it sounds like Dr Wahls has discovered her own unique optimal diet as well, through trial and error.

Sometimes autoimmune diseases occur in all types of countries, with all kinds of diets, but their being on the rise in Asia seems to be more like the result of adopting a more Western diet than of rice consumption.

However, I have met (online) many autoimmune disease sufferers who do not handle grains of any sort well, yet they are fine eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.

It is hard to know for sure, but I'd say that she exaggerated the risks associated with grains.

Frieda · **Joined:** Sat Jun 02, 2012 5:29 am **Posts:** 290

I didn't do an extensive search but a quick search turned up this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22248178

Quote:

J Med Food. 2012 May;15(5):469-75. Epub 2012 Jan 16.
Consumption of Rice Bran Increases Mucosal Immunoglobulin A Concentrations and Numbers of Intestinal Lactobacillus spp.
Henderson AJ, Kumar A, Barnett B, Dow SW, Ryan EP.
Source
1 Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University , Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Abstract
Abstract Gut-associated lymphoid tissue maintains mucosal homeostasis by combating pathogens and inducing a state of hyporesponsiveness to food antigens and commensal bacteria. Dietary modulation of the intestinal immune environment represents a novel approach for enhancing protective responses against pathogens and inflammatory diseases. Dietary rice bran consists of bioactive components with disease-fighting properties. Therefore, we conducted a study to determine the effects of whole dietary rice bran intake on mucosal immune responses and beneficial gut microbes. Mice were fed a 10% rice bran diet for 28 days. Serum and fecal samples were collected throughout the study to assess total immunoglobulin A (IgA) concentrations. Tissue samples were collected for cellular immune phenotype analysis, and concentrations of native gut Lactobacillus spp. were enumerated in the fecal samples. We found that dietary rice bran induced an increase in total IgA locally and systemically. In addition, B lymphocytes in the Peyer's patches of mice fed rice bran displayed increased surface IgA expression compared with lymphocytes from control mice. Antigen-presenting cells were also influenced by rice bran, with a significant increase in myeloid dendritic cells residing in the lamina propria and mesenteric lymph nodes. Increased colonization of native Lactobacillus was observed in rice bran-fed mice compared with control mice. These findings suggest that rice bran-induced microbial changes may contribute to enhanced mucosal IgA responses, and we conclude that increased rice bran consumption represents a promising dietary intervention to modulate mucosal immunity for protection against enteric infections and induction of beneficial gut bacteria.

It's rice bran, not whole rice, so there's less ability to draw conclusions from it re: what Dr Wahl said. The paper basically said that adding rice bran increased the microbial activity in mice in a positive way--it increased beneficial bacteria (Lactobacillus) and that increase enhanced the immune system in the gut. Also, this was in mice, and mice are not people, but they are an accepted model for such studies.

This study says that resistant starch beneficially enhance the microflora in the gut.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12749342

Quote:

Proc Nutr Soc. 2003 Feb;62(1):171-6.
Resistant starch as a prebiotic and synbiotic: state of the art.
Topping DL, Fukushima M, Bird AR.
Source
CSIRO Health Sciences and Nutrition, Adelaide, Australia. David.Topping@csiro.au
Abstract
Non-infectious diseases such as CHD and certain cancers have become major causes of death and disability in affluent countries. Probiotics (principally lactic acid bacteria; LAB) may assist in lowering the risk of these diseases. Experimental studies with probiotics have given generally inconclusive outcomes for infectious disease and for biomarkers for non-infectious disease. In part this situation may reflect their inability to colonise the adult human gut effectively. Prebiotics can assist in promoting colonisation, and resistant starch (RS), as a high-amylose starch, is a prebiotic and synbiotic. This starch exerts its synbiotic action through adhesion of the bacteria to the granule surface. Consumption of RS assists in recovery from infectious diarrhoea in man and animals. A rice porridge, high in RS, appears to modify the autochthonous porcine large-bowel microflora favourably through lowering Escherichia coli and coliform numbers. Many of the beneficial effects of RS on large-bowel function appear to be exerted through short-chain fatty acids (SCFA)formed by bacterial fermentation. In man LAB are found in relatively highest numbers in milk-fed infants where the profile of fermentation products differs quite markedly from that in adults. It appears unlikely that ingestion of current probiotics will alter either total SCFA or the proportions of the major acids. More emphasis needs to be given to the investigation of the effects of complex carbohydrates, including RS, on the autochthonous microflora of the human large bowel.

Lacey · **Joined:** Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:15 pm **Posts:** 583

kkrichar wrote:

"Rice is only 10,000 years in human diet; we have existed as a species for 2.5 millions years... "

I have heard that estimate of 10,000 years for a very long time. People keep repeating it, ignoring evidence that there is reason to believe that humans have been consuming grains for over 100,000 years. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2009/12/17/humans-feasting-on-grains-for-at-least-100000-years/

didi · **Joined:** Wed Jun 30, 2010 2:35 pm **Posts:** 2343

It has always seemed reasonable to me that grains were eaten long before the advent of agriculture. Why would people plant a crop that they did not normally eat? It is more likely that they would cultivate something they had enjoyed all along when found in their foraging.

That some can't eat grains is no reason that they can't be enjoyed by others. I can't eat kiwi because it causes itching and I can't eat avocado because it precipitates a migraine but others find these perfectly acceptable foods.

Didi

Katydid · **Joined:** Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:30 am **Posts:** 2657

The following video from the wonderful Primative Nutrition series is an excellent review of grains and evolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Nh2fwr8RM&sns=em

Kate

woollyprimate · **Joined:** Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:49 am **Posts:** 57

Why do people following a paleo diet eat grass-fed beef, but claim that grains are bad because they are "young." Well, I got news for them. People living in the paleolithic era did not eat beef. Cows did not exist back then. Why is mucking around breeding different plant crops so bad, but mucking around breeding different animals OK?

nonyabizz · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:28 am

woollyprimate wrote:

Why do people following a paleo diet eat grass-fed beef, but claim that grains are bad because they are "young." Well, I got news for them. People living in the paleolithic era did not eat beef. Cows did not exist back then. Why is mucking around breeding different plant crops so bad, but mucking around breeding different animals OK?

Yeah, I have a feeling meat was not as prevalent as paleo advocates think. Man was on foot, and most of those animals did not sit around waiting to be slaughtered.

kkrichar · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:52 am

These responses are fantastic. So much to think about and great links for me to study.

It sounds like no one is worried about changes in rice over time due to genetic modification. I did a tiny bit of Internet sleuthing on this just to see how much of what we eat is modified. It doesn't look like GM rice is commercially sold for human consumption in the US. Perhaps the poster was referring to other changes in crops over time other than GMO? I really haven't studied this issue because I didn't think about it. I wasn't aware it was a problem. Is this what the Paleo people have been saying for awhile?

Vegan Hunter · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:03 am

woollyprimate wrote:

Why do people following a paleo diet eat grass-fed beef, but claim that grains are bad because they are "young." Well, I got news for them. People living in the paleolithic era did not eat beef. Cows did not exist back then. Why is mucking around breeding different plant crops so bad, but mucking around breeding different animals OK?

There you go with those obvious questions.

Nettie · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:34 am

kkrichar wrote:

I asked Dr. Wahls if these diseases are prevalent in countries with rice-based diets and she replied, "yes - diabetes and autoimmune conditions are present and increasing dramatically in Asia."

If rice were the problem she thinks it is, there would have been diabetes and autoimmune disease for millennia in China, because they've been eating that way for thousands of years. The incidence of these diseases would not be "increasing dramatically" because they would already have been suffering with these conditions.

I think she's off base.

Nettie

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