Assignment #16 Speech- Jessica Sunnenberg

Jessica Sunnenberg

Mr. Logsdon

AP English Language and Composition

13 December 2015        

Wheat-A Dangerous Treat

Do you know everything you are putting in your body? Let me ask you this, have you ever read an ingredients label? Odds are most of you have. So you start out strong, with the easy to pronounce words, then once you get about halfway down the label you are hit with ingredients such as sorbitan monostearate, which is just too big and hard to pronounce. Let me simplify this word for you. Synthetic wax. This same ingredient I found on the label of a Tastykake box is also used in making metal machining fluid and leather brighteners. Several of the snacks or sweet treats we indulge in every day have ingredients such as this one. So I ask you to reconsider whether or not you really know what you’re putting into your body. People need to pay more attention to what is in their food. I believe more people need to stray off the path of the average American diet that includes gluten and other harsh chemicals that cause damage to the body, and instead explore other options or lifestyles to better treat their bodies.

For the past three years I have been living a primarily Paleo lifestyle. Yes, lifestyle. It is not considered a diet as it focuses on more than just the eating aspect. Writer Chris Kresser discusses how Paleo is just a simple term used to encompass every aspect of the lifestyle (Sleeping, body movement, stress management, relaxing and having fun, and then most importantly, the diet). It corrects the common misconceptions brought on by most people. Some of these being that Paleo is a “low-carb” diet and that everyone must follow the exact same rules and eat the same foods. Kresser, as well as my own family, describes the Paleo lifestyle as a template of sorts. It is something to be changed and manipulated as one seems fit. One idea of his that we subscribe to is that you don’t have to be completely compliant with the diet. If you want ice cream, then you can have ice cream, granted you might feel as if you’ve been drugged the next morning due to the affect it may have on your body that is not used to having those processed, sugar filled treats in it. It is unlike most diets in that you do not measure success based on weight loss, but instead how your body feels and your day to day performance.

          Being Paleo has changed several aspects of my life. It has helped tremendously with my performance in volleyball. I have been able to train harder and become an even better athlete. In everyday life, I notice that it is easier to wake up and get going in the mornings, my mind is clearer, and I have a happier, more positive behavior. When I tell people about the way I eat, the most frequently asked question is how I stay motivated. My answer to this is that the way I feel is so drastically better than the way I did or still do whenever I eat gluten. Feeling healthy and feeling my best is what motivates me and keeps me wanting to do it.

          Upon choosing this topic, I found a radio interview with Robb Wolf, a former research biochemist turned strength and conditioning coach and author of The Paleo Solution. He discusses the problems with modern diets and his own road to following a Paleo lifestyle. A former powerlifter, he changed his diet to higher carb, lower protein vegetarian, moving eventually to veganism in his mid-20s. He developed ulcerative colitis and began examining the effects of grains, legumes and dairy on evolutionary biology, leading to a research fellowship related to epithelial growth factors and auto-immunity followed by cancer research with a Paleo diet slant. He discusses the potential drawbacks of eating dairy and grains based on the effects of gluten, lectin and other particular proteins, such as developing “leaky gut” along with various autoimmune problems. Wolf’s experience showed that it may take multiple tries before finally finding what is right for your body.

          Also talking about the affects it has on your health, the book Grain Brain argues that gluten and carbohydrates are at the root of Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, depression, and ADHD (Perlmutter). The author began his research after realizing that modern medicine focuses on treating symptoms rather than the underlying disease process. He states that when we eat gluten, a compound called zonulin is activated in our bodies, leading to increased gut permeability which in turn can cause numerous health issues ranging from mild inflammation to debilitating digestive disorders, autoimmune problems, and sometimes even dementia.

          Finding all of this information was shocking to me. Before, I had just been told that gluten was “bad”, but never to what degree. Now that I know what it can do to you in the long run, I am even more motivated to stay on track. I also hope you find motivation in this too. I hope that I haven’t just been wasting my time up here talking for the last four minutes. Instead I hope that you will consider all of these negative effects before you indulge in those cookies that were brought in today.

         

Works Cited

Kresser, Chris. "20 Things You Didn't Know About Paleo." Chris Kresser. Chris Kresser, 19 May 2015. Web. 1 July 2015. <http://chriskresser.com/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-paleo/>.

Perlmutter, David, and Kristin Loberg. Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--your Brain's Silent Killers. N.p.: Little, Brown, September 2013. Print.

"Paleo solutions with guest Robb Wolf, part 1." Healthy Mind Fit Body. Kevin Koskella and Wes Bertrand. 16 July 2010. Radio.