interesting discussion of grain-free and vit D...

[tanyalynn]

There's a really interesting blog post by Don Matesz (one of the authors of Garden of Eating, tasty recipes, no grains or dairy if anyone needs ideas)....

http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2010/0...mentation.html

His question, and he's trying to piece together information here and there and doesn't claim to know a definitive answer, is whether grains in the diet have increased our need for vitamin D. What if that's true (and he mentions other aspects of diet, I'm sure there's a lot going on re: vitamin D levels), but what if it's more broadly true for fat soluble vitamins?

There were some grain-free groups Price looked at, right? I haven't cracked open N&PD for a while. No idea how legumes would play in.

The archeological discussions I've read of dental/oral health, from a historical perspective, seem to note a significant shift with the rise of agriculture. But I've always wondered, was _everyone_ pre-agriculture really getting so much A and D? I'd think that sometimes food would be scarce. And food sources of D aren't easy to come by--yeah, people were outside a lot more, maybe that's enough. But maybe part of the need for more fat soluble vitamins comes from consuming newer foods.

It's interesting. And for me, timely because I just changed my dogs' diets to no-grain and I'm still undecided on whether some things including vitamin D specifically I should supplement.

Thoughts, experiences?

Makes me wonder where I should go with the kids' and my vitamin D supplementation. We've been trending lower grain for a while, gfcf for a long time, but health is still an ongoing issue.

[Holiztic]

In hurry, haven't read blog, will come back to do so---

The newest Wise Traditions might hold some answers for you, I am still digesting what I've read, so forgive me for not explaining well. Tom Cowan wrote a little blurb that seems to apply Steiner's ideas of grains as the food of the future with the GAPS diet and no-grain eating being bad for some people. HE basically says (again, very Steiner) that grains have changed our brains/souls to make us more ego-centric and higher thinking/spiritual and some of us (not all) now NEED the starches/grains or we feel terrible. I have no opinion (yet) on this, its actually a topic I have been pondering for a while as we are both and TF family AND a Waldorf family.

Then in one of the grain prep articles, there is a discussion of the benefits of fat soluble vitamins (even more so the calcium in dairy, actually) in aiding the body in dealing with the antinutrients in grains. I'm murky on this one, and too tired to go read it again right now!

I think the Masai would be grain free (wasn't their diet exclusively milk and blood?) and did the cold weather cultures like the Inuit have access to grains?

[treehugginhippie]

Interesting...subbing to see what others say

[spughy]

There is also a very interesting post on www.wholehealthsource.blogspot.com about a similar issue - whether low vit D is a cause or an effect of different illnesses.

[tanyalynn]

I read Stephan's blog regularly, love it, that's what pointed me over to Primal Wisdom.

And it resonated with me, the idea of what comes first? Cause it seems like a pattern in H&H, regular posters there, with rather complex and/or chronic issues, and darn low vitamin D, that's sometimes slow to normalize. I haven't tested myself yet, the kids will be soon, but I think we fit a pattern of being quite low, and it's involved, but not clear as to which aspect came first. And for me, one of the interesting parts is the cholesterol connection, and a cholesterol pre-cursor being what the UVB turns into vitamin D--cause my cholesterol was really low, I think a symptom of my poor health. So it all seems to spiral in interesting ways. But I don't understand yet.

Now I want to go back and read more of Don Matesz's stuff. Some of his meals are really interesting, I was wondering if he had a background in TCM, and it turns out he does. I should look at his meal ideas more often, my creativity is running low.

[Koalamom]

Subbing to learn more, but I do want to ad that alot has to do with the amount of time we spend indoors. It seems that so much these days we are never outside. And primitive peoples were outside all the time.

In Dan Buteners book The Blue Zone, he visited groups of people that were all over 100 years of age. Interesting thing in common is they all lived around the same point of the equator where they would get good sun rays all year and everyone spent most of their time outside. Many places Dan visited consumed lots of grain. Still they all had great well rounded diets too.

As for a dog, that is a whole different story as dogs may need other nutrients. For example, goats can synthesize Vit C so supplementing is not necessary, but we humans cannot so we need to make sure we get it elsewhere. Not sure about the specifics on dogs so I wouldn't compare it to humans.

[FairyRae]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

Now I want to go back and read more of Don Matesz's stuff. Some of his meals are really interesting, I was wondering if he had a background in TCM, and it turns out he does. I should look at his meal ideas more often, my creativity is running low.

You might really like his and Rachel Matesz's book The Garden of Eating (if you haven't already read it). Really great grain free, paleo cookbook, and it's got a table in the beginning discussing some of Price's findings regarding hunter gatherer (grain and legume free) groups, compared to some of the grain eating groups. Totally fascinating stuff. The recipes are awesome too...

I LOVE the Primal Wisdom blog...

[mom61508]

Subbing, I had just read that article this AM too Tanya