Got my weekly dose of The Paleo Diet Update today and the paragraph about vitamin D deficiency jumped out big. The info in the Paleo Diet is always an affirmation of what I believe and the info within is timely. Always.
A conversation with a family member just this past Friday had her mention her low levels of vitamin D so that part of this article popped out to me and I wondered at the prevalence of bone problems within society that we are “fixing” on the back end with pharmaceutical prescriptions rather than on the front end with food prescriptions.
Another pop out thought was the mention of the use of oats to induce rickets in dogs almost 100 years ago!! Check out the label on your dog’s food. Nice, huh?
Maybe the genetic propensity we think we have in regards to various health results (family history of osteoporosis for example) is more a genetic inability to process various contaminants in the foods we eat. I eat grains and have significant abdominal pain due to not being able to process them as well as break out with acne. My eldest daughter is now showing similar problems with upset stomach and breaking out in a rash with prolonged consumption of grains. The family member with low vitamin D levels is my mom which is the heads up to myself that the same issue is a large possibility for me. The point of this is that we may have different results from the same cause. The same issue is displayed in the different people, genetically linked people, with different results all from the same source. None of us should be eating grains.
From Dr. Cordain’s The Paleo Diet Update:
Whole Grain Cereals and Vitamin D Metabolism
Nutritional scientists have known forever and a day that excessive consumption of whole grain cereals severely impairs vitamin D metabolism and can lead to the bone disease, rickets16. In fact, as far back as 1918, before vitamin D was discovered, a scientist in England by the name of Mellanby routinely induced experimental rickets in puppies by feeding them an oat diet17. Epidemiological studies of human populations consuming high levels of unleavened whole grain breads show vitamin D deficiency and rickets to be widespread 18-20. A study of radio-labeled vitamin D in humans consuming 60g of wheat bran daily for 30 days clearly demonstrated an enhanced elimination of vitamin D in the intestines21.