How do antinutrients protect grains? page 2

[magicmerl]

Yes, this is the ultimate test when you are considering , "Is <x food> Primal or not?" Ask yourself the question, "Could I eat this straight up raw, right off the tree, vine, ground, whatever?" Even meat and fish and eggs are perfectly edible raw. That doesn't mean you have to eat them that way. Indeed there are some health benefits to cooking some foods in that it makes the nutrients more bio-avaliable. But you could eat a string bean raw, or sushi, or steak tartare. These are Primal foods.

I agree with the general thrust of what you are saying, but I think that 'primal' needs to cover cooked foods as well. Modern humans didn't arise until after the discovery of cooking (both meat and tubers).

[Paleobird]

I agree with the general thrust of what you are saying, but I think that 'primal' needs to cover cooked foods as well. Modern humans didn't arise until after the discovery of cooking (both meat and tubers).

That's why I wrote the part I wrote about cooking making nutrients more bio-available. The, "Could I eat this raw?" test is just a way to determine Primal from non primal foods. Tubers are edible raw, not particularly tasty but edible. I am in no way shape or form advocating raw foodism. Blech, no!!

[Omni]

Wheat was not protecting itself from humans, until 10,000 years ago we only used wheat grasses as cover while stalking prey, they were tall & clumpy, maybe it had evolved to poison insects with gluten, I don't know.
Antinutrients are basically just toxins, their primary purpose as I understand is for the growth and germination of the seed when conditions are right, the fact that they don't agree with us may just be incidental.
Amazing how self centered we are as a species, everything around us must somehow be related to our being, well it isn't, nature just does what it does most of the time it has nothing to do with us one way or another.

[Alex Good]

Hey, wheat can be lethal. Every time I eat it I get this whole brain fog and start stumbling around (no motor control) which would make me really vulnerable to predation.
If modern society didn't exist and I somehow ended up eating bread (even though it likely wouldn't exist either...), well, I'd be wolf meat.

[Bosnic]

Where do you get the idea that grains need to KILL the things that eat them?

It's not about killing, it's just about preventing from being digested. So that when whatever eats them poops, the seeds have a nice fertilizer.

[KathyH]

Wheat will make you very sick if you try to eat in raw off the stalk. We manage to make it edible by drying, grinding, fermenting, sprouting, baking, and all the other processing we do to it.

If something needs that much processing just to be edible at all, kinda makes you think that it is not a good idea to eat it in the first place.

Are you talking about just yourself by saying that wheat will make you very sick if you eat it raw off the stalk? Or are you saying that it will make majority of the human population sick?

[Bosnic]

Are you talking about just yourself by saying that wheat will make you very sick if you eat it raw off the stalk? Or are you saying that it will make majority of the human population sick?

No human can digest raw wheat efficiently. You have to go through the trouble of sprouting it to even have a chance of getting any sort of benefit from it, and even then it's still filled with antinutrients.

[KathyH]

No human can digest raw wheat efficiently. You have to go through the trouble of sprouting it to even have a chance of getting any sort of benefit from it, and even then it's still filled with antinutrients.

Not sure why you quoted me as the question was to Paleobird whether raw wheat makes her sick or whether she is claiming that the entire population of humans will get very sick. Nowhere it was mentioned about digesting raw wheat efficiently.

[Dirlot]

Not sure why you quoted me as the question was to Paleobird whether raw wheat makes her sick or whether she is claiming that the entire population of humans will get very sick. Nowhere it was mentioned about digesting raw wheat efficiently.

Because it is called a forum and people answer questions.
The hull is inedible according to Livestromg even with the hull removed they need to be soaked before being eaten. Not the best source I know but since they are pro grains I would believe them in this case. And from Is it healthy to eat raw grain soaked in water overnight? seems to confirm they will pretty much make everyone sick unless you have an industrial digestive tract
Essential they are undigestible raw with the hulls on whether they make you sick or not.

[sarasue624]

If you eat wheat right off the stalk it doesn't break down like normal human food does. It turns into gum. Literally, tasteless, chewing gum. Favorite treat when I was a little farmgirl was to take a handful of whole raw wheat and chew it into gum. It's not something that your mouth instinct tells you to swallow.