"Oats are mischievous"

You know I love listening to podcasts. From health, to food, to parenting & kids, to business; I listen to sooo many. Last week Dr. Steven Gundry (the author of some really great books like Plant Paradox, Energy Paradox, etc) spoke about oats. He called them "mischievous".

Most of us know that there can be cross contamination between oats and gluten, since farms will use the same processing equipment to harvest their grains. This is why gluten-intolerant people are told to look for certified gluten-free oats. They do not contain gluten themselves, but can pick some up in the downstream processing, before it makes it to the store shelves. Not much, but enough to cause a reaction in the extremely sensitive.

Another big problem with oats is, like all big crops, they usually have some amount of glyphosate. Some oat-based cereals were taken from store shelves, and tested and found to have quite high levels of glyphosate. Glyphosate, while found to not directly affect humans, has been found to dramatically affect our gut microbiomes, and contributes to leaky gut. (This is why we try to source as many organic ingredients as possible here at the bakery!)

So now we're looking for "certified gluten-free organic oats". But are they really ok?

New studies are now showing that oats themselves contain a protein that is similar enough in structure to gluten, that it can confuse your body, and cause a reaction as if you actually ate gluten. This protein, called avenin, can activate gluten-reactive T-cells. For more details you can check out this article on celiac.org (where they also talk about developing a vaccine for celiac disease).

https://celiac.org/about-the-foundation/featured-news/2014/12/oats-and-gfd/

It sounds like it doesn't happen in everyone, (and it happens more in certain conditions), but it's enough to consider whether or not oats are right for you, on your healing journey. If you've removed gluten, and still have some GI symptoms, maybe it's worth testing oats.

While we never use oats at the bakery, personally this info comes at a funny time for me, as I was just starting to reintroduce some things (while making recipes from a new vegan cookbook), and had just started using organic gf oats in some of my breakfasts last week. (But I also ate some of my "red foods" while out Saturday evening, and ended up flaring hard yesterday) so I will be paying close attention next time I cook at home with oats.

But what about you? Do you use oats, or other grains in your gf recipes?

I'd love to hear what you think.