QUOTE:
" I'm going to give the einkorn bread (I've got to make some more) to people who experience acute reactions to conventional wheat and see if the einkorn does the same."

Who knows?  You may have a promising and prosperous future as an einkorn baker.

Jim Purdy
The 50 Best Health Blogs

Mortar and pestle are not the best implements to grind flour. It's no wonder you couldn't get it done. Take a look at this. I have played with this kind of grinder in my childhood and its eminently doable and good exercise.

Please post on the blood glucose effect findings.

Have you considered incorporating wild yeasts and long fermentation time (as in days days, not minutes or hours) instead of using a single commercial strain of yeast?  In addition to the wheat having changed in recent generations, so has the yeast.  While this bread may have an ancient strain of wheat, it still seems pretty modern in other ways.

Long fermentation times with wild yeast sourdough starter allows for fuller breakdown of the gluten protein.  Many, if not most sourdough breads on the market aren't truly sourdough fermented, but merely enhanced with sourdough starter or sour flavoring.  Commercial yeast is still used to speed dough rising and production times.  

I haven't yet tried the "bread man's" bread below (as I also have to consider the CHO/BG issue in addition to the gluten) but if I was going to eat wheat bread again, this is the kind of bread I would try to make (he does conduct workshops, btw).  This year I drive  through LA regularly so if the timing works out on one of my trips, I may stop and try the bread sometime.  

www.cheeseslave.com/2009/03/31/top-10-reasons-to-eat-real-sourdough-bread-even-if-youre-gluten-intolerant/

www.yelp.com/biz/bezians-bakery-los-angeles

$24 + labor to yield one loaf of bread.  One would have to be a diehard bread lover to spend that time and money.  When I consider the flavor and nutrient opportunity cost of that loaf in the form of pastured meats, fresh cream, ripe berries and cherries all deliciously in season right now, that golden brown loaf doesn't look so appealing.

I am interested in knowing how your subjects react to einkorn wheat.

Fascinating experiment. I'm looking forward to seeing more on this.

Too bad you didn't try making sourdough bread with it instead of conventional yeast bread.

I dunno, just take the orange wedge out completely and shift the diary rec's to full fat instead of low fat and it would be a pretty good plan!  I notice that they recommend both eggs and beef in the protein section!!!

Hard to justify all those subsidies if you don't recommend eating the product you subsidize.

Pharmacology depends on an unhealthy diet as well.

Now excuse me while I polish my tin foil hat some more.

Saw this and thought of you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDYKHduoQ00  Woman 'can't stop eating' cornstarch [NBC: 6-03-2011]

The idea that we should get nutritional advice from the Department of Agriculture should tell everyone the purpose behind the advice is nothing but promoting the increased sell of agricultural products. Now there was a time when that might have been acceptable - say around the 1700's or so - but with the devolution of farming in the US and the bastardization of foods and farmin and farm animals alike - it is akin to buying in big on the eve of the Market Collapse of 1929.

The clue to perpetuating sickness is to oversimplify, never provide details, supply conflicting information incessantly and encourage people to trust the "experts" - most of which haven't a nickels worth of common sense left in their brain account or haven't done a nickels worth of research on a topic.

"The USDA should stay out of the business of offering nutritional advice. They are very bad at it. "

I love it!  I wrote about this today too.  I do think the plate is an improvement over the pyramid.  But I did some tweaking and made my own plate that I like a lot better: http://knitfitter.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-usda-nutrition-plate-and-my.html

"It looks to me like the USDA has not only failed to keep up with the evolution of nutritional thought, but has regressed to something close to advising Americans to go out and buy stocks on the eve of the 1929 depression. "

I agree, this is like the fox guarding the hen house.  There's no way the government should be allowed to advise us on what to eat since the agricultural business segment has such a powerful lobby.   I actually liked this plate, only because it was far better than the food pyramid, which mistakenly emphasized more carbs and less fat.  At least now they have shifted the direction to fewer carbs and more fat.  I think of it as the lesser of evils - so the MyPlate isn't right but it's better than the food pyramid.  I wrote a post on it at http://cravingsugar.net/the-new-food-pyramid-myplate-usda-says-eat-less-carbs-more-fat.php.

I agree that the USDA is bad at it, and that there are powerful interests influencing the message.  For instance, when the last food "pyramid" was unveiled,  advice to avoid sugar that was originally included had been taken out, thanks to the sugar lobby.

On the other hand, there are some well-meaning people involved, trying to get a message out.  They may be misguided in some ways, but not everyone promoting this is corrupt.  With the current obesity epidemic, there's a lot of genuine public health interest in getting a good "message" out about nutrition.  Having worked somewhat in that field, I know the impulse in an earnest one.  

Here's what Pee Wee Herman would call the "Big But": your readers, who can converse intelligently about AGEs and sdLDL are a world apart from *most Americans,* who first must get their hand out of the potato chip bag and their lips off the 64oz value-sized Dr. Pepper.  The USDA, whatever its faults, is trying convey a message that can be understood, and a goal that can be achieved.  

I think messages like "eat a rainbow," "eat your colors," or "fill half your plate with vegetables" are better slogans - partly because I don't think grains and dairy are necessary*, and that improperly prepared grains and all gluten grains are problematic (I take a more nuanced position than Dr. Davis).  But I do think part of the reason the USDA's "plate" is so dumbed-down is that complex messages just don't work in public health.  

(*Though I do feel dairy's necessary for me!)

P.S.  I love how butter and fortified margarine used to be their own food group!

Was wondering if anyone had looked at the effect on farming if everyone switched from wheat and grains? Obviously the effect on the processors, Nabisco, Kellogg's would be disastrous which is why it probably won't happen, but would there be enough, beef, pork, chicken, egg, diary, production to go round?  Could wheat fields be switched over to cattle or rearing or should they produce bio-fuel instead? Arguably we all eat too much so we could just dump the grains portion and maintain existing meat/fish/dairy. But our diet has been somewhat determined by being able to produce enough food for a booming population on a small planet. "Food for thought" anyway.

Hi Paul Lee,
Maybe  global protein needs could be met 100% by converting the grain fields over to growing substrate feed stocks for poultry or iguana meat.  A diet of always only  protein  would  not be  great,  so you need to figure out what  you intend to complete human  nutritional needs with.  Cereal grains are just so convenient  for energy calories that most nations rely on them; they don't need refrigeration,  transport easily and have long storage.

Agribusiness has undoubtedly increased yield and thereby enhanced accessibility and reduced price. But I fear they have also created a house of cards that, in many ways, many be unsustainable or will yield unintended effects.

The painfully familiar food recalls from E. coli or Salmonella contamination that result from factory farming and other mass production practices will inevitably catalyze a return to organic, old-fashioned farming methods with higher prices, a concentration on necessary foods and not "luxury" junk foods.

That sounds like a good thing to me.

Paul raises a crucial point: How do we make the switch to a world without modern high-yield wheat without a cataclysmic shift in economics? I don't know. But it will be much like the gradual shift from mass produced eggs to free-range, organic eggs, just on a much larger scale. It will be a process that won't occur next Tuesday, but hopefully over the next 50+ years. In the meantime, tens of millions of people will unknowingly suffer from consumption of this thing being sold to use called "wheat."

Interesting stuff, and Might-o'chondri-AL, I try and get at least 50% of total calories from fat. Without wanting to drift OT,  I don't know whether you have seen this news in the States there has been major problems with German grown (organic) vegatables (cucumbers, tomato's etc) with E.coli (Spanish veg was blamed at first). Literally thousands of tons of veg are being dumped. Salad is certainly off the menu in Europe this week!

"The painfully familiar food recalls from E. coli or Salmonella contamination that result from factory farming and other mass production practices will inevitably catalyze a return to organic, old-fashioned farming methods with higher prices, a concentration on necessary foods and not “luxury” junk foods."

I am loving this! I hope this becomes the reality-- sooner the better.

It's bad that the government is wrong, but the media multiplies it many times over by parroting these guidelines to public. For example, the US News Diet Rankings:

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-overall-diets

Some of my comments on my blog:

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-overall-diets

My advice: The USDA should stay out of the business of offering nutritional advice. They are very bad at it. They also have too many hidden motives to be a reliable source of unbiased information.

I don't think they will stop offering advice since so many people seek guidance.
Your advice should be:  Ignore the nutritional advace offered by the USDA.  It is very bad advice because they have too many hidden motives to be a reliable source of unbiased information.  Seek nutritional advice from more reliable sources.

Unfortunately, how do we know which sources are reliable?  Vegetarianism makes sense.  What do they have to say?

I think the grain section should be dumped entirely and fruit section should a sliver at best or there should be some mention that those with blood sugar issues may want to greatly reduce ALL fruit.  I find that the tolerance to fruit is highly individual.  Since I lowcarb and my fasting sugars are usually mid 80s unless I've had an unusually large late night meal in which case it can be mid 90s -- I was shocked to see what the allegedly lower sugar fruits such as raspberries and blackberries (both high fiber too) are really doing to my sugar since I started self testing.  I am beginning to think that with my genetics and age, even the so-called healthy berries can be the devil.

I am 5'2.5" and weighed 107.5 this morning.  I'm in my late 40s and only medication is armour/cytomel for hypothyroid.  Both parents and only sibling are type 2s -- dad was a slender type 2.  Ex: This morning fasting sugar was 86.  I had a black coffee and skipped breakfast and went on a long brisk walk (1.25 hour) in the heat.  At brunch at 1:00PM consisting of 3 soft boiled pastured eggs; a few ounces (2 or so) of leftover grassfed ribeye; 6 olives (I sweated a lot outside and needed more salt despite salting eggs and steak-- I eat no processed food except canned sardines and find I need extra salt sweating in hot sun or I get extremely weak, very low blood pressure etc); and now for the grand mistake -- 1 cup of mixed blackberries/raspberries.  I took my sugar 15 minutes later and it was 128; 15 minutes later; 138; 15 minutes later 123; 15 minutes later 118 etc

I have eaten similar to the above meal minus fruit but adding large amounts of raw freshly shelled hazelnuts and my blood sugar will not spike anywhere near 138 despite adding several hundred more calories.  I've even checked numerous hours later to see if there is a late spike and while the highest point does take longer with large meal containing big amounts of nuts (slow digestion) and no spike -- a slow steady rise generally never going over 115 and coming back down over the next few hours.  

So fruit sugars can be the devil for some of us and given the diabetes epidemic -- I think the fruit wedge should be much much smaller or come with a caveat.  Or better yet, given the disasterous history of government dietary recommendations, perhaps the government should stay out of our kitchens entirely.

I'm not surprised at all. I've "met" people on forums that are on this, and they rave about how much better it is than non-prescription fish oil.

Reminds me of years ago, when patients were given (in my area) "Anacin" in the hospital, then would ONLY take it for pain....other brands, or heaven forbid generic just didn't work as well!

Amazing, huh?

On the other hand, like you say, at least now they're giving it to patients.

Now how about Mg? CoQ10? Are they starting to show up too?

Not sure if you find this interesting or not, but after stumbling on your blog not knowing anything about Pectus Excavatum, I went googlin' and got a bit depressed, as it's not as benign a malformation as I was led to believe.

But I found this site http://www.ctds.info/pectus_excavatum.html which suggests that Vit D deficiency/rickets causes the malformation in many cases, and also that celiac disease might cause rickets in some due to malabsorbtion of vitamins/minerals etc.  I thought it was interesting as you've been posting about wheat and vitamin D and heart health, while perhaps they are also necessary for chest wall health.  I take heparin and low dose aspirin while pregnant to prevent fetal demise due to antiphospholipid antibody syndome (aware of that? causes blood clots), but I'm wondering if it somehow inhibited Vit D absorbtion in me when pregnant, couldn't have been a normal deficiency I was gardening in the sun during the entire pregnancy and I don't use sun block. I assume some of your patients are on blood thinners as I was? I know it effects calcium.

As for fish oils, Udo's blends are supposed to be incredible, several moms I know use it on themselves for exhaustion and over all health, and many moms swear that fish oils have helped their toddlers with speech delays.

Let me know if you'd rather I didn't yammer at your blog, I've linked to it from my little blog because I find your blog fascinating.

Happy 2007

As for hospitals, well, there's a reason homebirthers and women into birth politics are as passionately anti-hospital as they are, many bad medical practises continue in the litigation crazed society of the USA medical system, from what I read. Forward thinking countries like Germany and Sweden incorporate natural remedies and holistic medicine right in with the mainstream medical system...great role models for us north americans, but impossible in a litigation-mad culture. But, the pharmaceutical companies are to blame too, though that discussion requires tin oil hats.

Coenzyme Q10, no. Magnesium, yes. In fact, magnesium is pretty routinely checked and replaced via intravenous supplementation to avoid diarrhea. However, magnesium levels are checked because of heart rhythm disorders, not for general health.

I know of no interaction between blood thinners and vitamin D. However, you're absolutely right on the increased likelihood of vitamin D deficiency in the presence of bowel diseases like celiac.

I use RxList.com to check any and all medications I am prescribed (or friends/family are prescribed).

This about Omacor on their site:
The empirical formula of DHA ethyl ester is C24H36O2, and the molecular weight of DHA ethyl ester is 356.55. Omacor®  capsules also contain the following inactive ingredients: 4 mg α-tocopherol (in a carrier of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils including soybean oil), and gelatin, glycerol, and purified water (components of the capsule shell).

I mentioned in another comment that I am intolerant to soy, so I avoid it whenever possible.....but to put hydrogenated oils in a preparation touted as "pure"????

I realise it's a very small amount....but from what I've read on trans-fats, the only amount of transfat that is good for us is NONE!!!

Of course, the AHA also promotes foods that contain transfats in their "No Fad Diet" (see Regina Wilshire's blog post here: http://weightoftheevidence.blogspot.com/2005/07/aha-includes-trans-fats-in-heart.html)

I agree with the need for some sort of unbiased but brand/manufacturer-oriented guidance.  I guess my question would be, if this content is not based on your specific experience, what criteria would you apply to determine how to assure some level of credibility?  With advertising, the criteria is generally willingness to pay the price of the advertising.  If you want to maintain higher standards than that, won't it require someone with either understanding or technical expertise or direct experience to assess whether the producer is credible and trustworthy?

As it stands, I am looking for someone whose opinion I can trust regarding which supplement suppliers to turn to.  I have been impressed and surprised by the degree of your willingness to tell it the way you see it, including naming names of product manufacturers that you have found to supply products that seem to work for your patient population.  I hope you'll keep that up no matter what.  And I'm interested in how this idea develops.

Thanks for the helpful thoughts.

I wonder if a user comment method would work. In other words, say a product manufacturer makes a claim and sells their product to you (Track Your Plaque would not sell it), there will be comments from people who have tried the product and their supplier before.

Such a system would not be as certain as providing our own stamp of endorsement (which we could still do, of course), but it would encourage an open conversation. Hopefully, any undesirable products would be rapidly identified as such.

My concern is that, with hundreds or thousands of products out there, we end up saying "We've never tried it" all too often.

Dr. Davis for as much time and effort that is put in the TYP program, why not i'am sure the snake oil salesman would not want his product under the gun like people on this progran would do, frank discussions on supplements is not a bad thing as a example i'am the person who asked you about PGX fiber, its called WellBeX and is marketed by Natural Factors, one more example would be i use a insulin mimetic R-alpha lipoic acid with biotin (also a very good antioxidant) i can buy the brand name Insulow or i can use a different brand (Glucophase),for less money that does the same thing, being a type 2 i test all of the time and sometimes go days eating the same thing at the same time i know that i can get between 10 and 12 points with either one.  i know their are a lot of supplements but we only talk about a few, and like i said before why not, my biggest concern on buying supplements are they selling what they say they are selling or is it different item that will not work, or is made up with a different material than is is advertized. why not get some add revenue, their are good products out their, Upsher-Smith Slo Niacin, Endurance's Endur-acin SR both are good nicotinic Acid products, Insulow makes a good product, one more example would be the Vitamin Shoppe sells a  good Vitamin D softgel under their store brand this is a good product, but they also sell under their store brand a no flush Niacin in their heart supplement area , this product is worthless for the TYP program, I would say start with the products, that we know, and expand a little at a time, also how about Direct access testing for blood work, i use Lab Corp to get my NMR lipoprofile i'am sure that their are others full speed ahead, I think increased revenue could have some good outcomes
Eugene

Great thoughts.

I think, if and when we proceed with such a process, that we:

1) Have some sort of checklist for approval of quality, price, availability, purity, etc. and provide our stamp of approval.

2) Convey our comments in addition to info provided by the manufacturer or distributor.

3) Permit all the Track Your Plaque participants to leave their own comments, much like Amazon does with books.

A record holder in plaque reduction has now been acheived.  What brand of supplements was the member using? What brand of fish oil? This is when a recommendation would be welcomed!!

Nothing magical: He used Sam's Club fish oil.