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In reply to the discussion: Modern wheat a "perfect, chronic poison," doctor says [View all]HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Last edited Tue Oct 9, 2012, 02:11 PM - Edit history (2)
a major source of calories & nutrients for large fraction of the world's population. shouldn't they all be dead?
if wheat is 'inedible' 'poison,' how is it that as more people ate it more often lifespan increased rather than decreased?
as for opioid receptors, you understand that lots of things that aren't opioids will 'attach' to opioid receptors without being opioids or having the effect of opiates.
for example, the opioid antagonists Naloxone and naltrexone prevent actual opiates from attaching & thus prevent people from getting high even when they use opiates.
Many natural substances, e.g. some fractions contained in coffee:
It is not widely known, but coffee - decaf and decaffeinated, instant, brewed and espresso - contains compounds such as 4-Caffeoyl-1, 5-quinide (AKA 4-Caffeoylquinide or 4-CQL) which have a high affinity for the mu opioid receptor. These compounds do not activate the receptor. They prevent it being occupied and activated by endogenous opioids (produced naturally by the body) or by exogenous opioids, such as morphine. These compounds are mu opioid receptor antagonists and are unrelated to caffeine.
http://aminotheory.com/coffee/
a fraction of morning glory also binds to opioid receptors -- and produces hallucinations. but it's not an opiate and doesn't have the properties of opiates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvinorin_A
wheat isn't 'addictive'. that's bunk. not everything that binds to opioid receptors is addictive.
as for 'the sugar in wheat spiking blood sugar faster than sugar,' that's also bunk.
the 'sugar in wheat' = glucose. if you isolate it, it goes into the blood (maybe marginally) faster than sucrose because it doesn't need to be broken down -- same as the glucose from any plant food.
Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store. It is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in large amounts in such staple foods as potatoes, wheat, maize (corn), rice, and cassava.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starch
even lettuce contains glucose, btw.