Sunday, May 23, 2010

Refined grains and chronic inflammation

My doctor suggested that I consider making changes in some of the foods I eat. Her thinking is: eliminate foods that can cause the body stress and it will then be better able to prevent disease or cope with any disease present. This makes sense to me. One of the ways the body copes when it is stressed is through the immune system response of inflammation. The inflammatory response to injury or germs, for example, is a good thing.  It's the chronic inflammatory response that's not so good.

Some of the foods we frequently eat can cause chronic inflammation, others can reduce inflammation. One group of foods to avoid are those made with refined flour. I'm replacing these with whole grains, which experts believe help reduce chronic inflammation.

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What are whole grains? Well, this may be obvious but it's important so I'll point it out anyway- they're whole. This means whole grains contain all parts of the grain; the starchy endosperm, the bran, and the germ. In comparison, refined grains and flour are composed of only the starchy endosperm of the grain. They are missing a significant portion of important nutrients. Let's look at a slice of white bread.  The Mayo Clinic states that "a slice of commercially prepared white bread has 66 calories, 1.9 grams protein and 0.6 grams fiber. A slice of whole-wheat bread has 69 calories and provides 3.6 grams protein and 1.9 grams fiber." But that's not the only difference.

Let's now look at the link between eating refined grains and chronic inflammation. Foods have an effect on blood sugar. This is measured by the glycemic index (GI). A food that has a low glycemic index will raise blood sugar much more slowly than a food with a high GI.  According to Dr. Weil, chemical reactions occur in the body between the sugars and protein that produce pro-inflammatory compounds called AGEs (advanced glycation end products). These AGE's can be moderated by keeping blood sugar levels low and stable. So inflammation can be controlled by by eating low GI foods.

Recent research suggests that the glycemic load of foods may be just as important to consider as the index, but that's for another post.  Make sure to check out The University of Sydney, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, Human Nutrition Unit link to their glycemic index tool.  You just enter a food and it tells you the GI and load. 

The bottom line - eat more whole grains. 


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this easily understood explanation. You got me looking at those labels alot more closely. Not all whole-wheat breads are created equal.