Grains

[Taomeow]

WTF is right.  A hunter-gatherer "worked" to "make a living" fifteen hours per week, the rest of the time was for play.  The work was skill intensive but not labor intensive.  No back-breaking or mind-wrecking anything.  No soul-extinguishing anything especially.  So someone was bound to realize that these skilled creatures naturally forming cooperating group will make a perfect slave force. 

 

There's two ways to make a slave.  To remove him/her from the sustaining habitat.  Or to remove the sustaining habitat from him/her.  The first way is fast, simple, amateurish, and local.  The second way is long term, sophisticated, professional, and global. 

 

Amateurs will keep imitating professionals, of course.  "Set it and forget it," as some general (I think) explained what a perfect weapon is like.  It only needs to be installed, and then it never stops making war. 

 

Grains are bullets in that war we lost.  Oh but they hit our opiate receptors so we couldn't possibly resist...  not after a perfect match was accomplished between the addictive endogenous painkiller and what will gently, softly perpetuate the addiction for thousands of years to come. 

 

I was once told by a biologist that a geneticist studying wheat usually comes to a place where he or she first exclaims, "this is not possible, there's no way in hell nature could do something like this..."  ...and then shuts up.  And tiptoes away from the inquiry as fast as an iceberg hit by the Titanic does not.   

[beingnature]

I read somewhere that before the deforestation and agriculture there where so many hazelnut trees here in germany that people could eat them the whole year(lots of calories, healthy and saturated fats).Also its said that the germanic people ate like 80 to 90 percents foods that where gathered so the correct term should be gatherer-hunters i think.

[Stumpich]

On 8/29/2017 at 2:40 AM, Kar3n said:

I like quinoa, a lot. Barley is another one, but I really only like it in soup. I was just thinking that a quinoa and wheat berry salad sounds pretty good. I am going to test that today. I'll post a pic later.

I like Quinoa as well , but it seems to mess with my blood sugar somewhat - I'll check out barley when I get the chance - if I can find it in the store

On 8/29/2017 at 4:18 AM, blue eyed snake said:

I use buckwheat often, I think that's not properly a ' grain' but it serves me well.

 

I cannot use any  grains containing gluten and also react badly to oats.

 

so for me it is rice, buckwheat and ( organic) corn. But happily there are other filling foodstuffs, I especially like lentils, when you make lentils with vegetables there's not really need to add grains

I'll checkout Buckwheat when I get the chance - If I can find it in the store

On 8/30/2017 at 11:24 PM, Taomeow said:

 

I've studied this particular subject exhaustively.  Probably wrote about it somewhere more than once, but don't remember where, so to OP's question, briefly:

 

1. Grains (and grain-like non-grains) that neither contain gluten nor provoke cross-sensitivities to same (in most cases -- see below) are rice, glutinous rice (yup -- despite the name, there's no gluten in it), millet, quinoa, buckwheat (yup -- despite the name, not related to wheat), teff.  

 

2. Grains that do contain gluten, besides wheat, are rye, barley, oats, amaranth, spelt.

 

3. The grain that doesn't technically contain gluten but in many cases causes similar problems due to cross-sensitivity provoked by proteins in it similar enough to gluten is corn.

 

4. Cross-sensitivities in some gluten-intolerant people can manifest in response to all grains -- and strangely enough to dairy which also contains similar enough proteins. 

 

5. Legumes were introduced into the human diet as a way to survive a catastrophic event in our history that wiped out many primate species (in particular, on the North American continent, 150 of them -- that is to say, all of them).  We would never eat this if we weren't starving, because there's a plethora of antinutrients present in legumes, from enzyme inhibitors to highly reactive lectins (ricin, which folks may have heard about in conjunction with political murders, is one of them -- and one of the most toxic substances known) to digestive difficulties to brain damage (soy specifically -- according to a 30-year study of Japanese men in Hawaii eating tofu vs. those not eating it, the largest ever and mighty convincing). 

 

So, if you stick with (1), you have six grains and grain-alikes to choose from, and don't have to eat just rice all the time.  I am very partial to teff.  This African grain-alike is not very well-known, but worth discovering.  I was very grateful when I did.

 

Abstaining From Grains is ideal, IMO, but not easy to pull off.  I fall off the wagon from time to time.  Typically, I don't eat grains every day, and when I do, they are from the (1) list.  But since I don't have any explicit symptoms of gluten-related difficulties,  except I start losing my far-better-than-average flexibility if I eat gluten-containing grains, occasionally I yield to the temptation.  Usually short term, then back to gluten free.  My litmus test is the Chen taiji move that asks for all you've got in terms of flexibility, Snake Creeps Down.  It requires open "unglued" joints and vertebrae, rather than stretched-out ligaments (which can work for the yogic kind of flexibility, but not for the taiji kind.)   It's like night and day, Snake on gluten and off. 

I see you a lot on this forum - I not only wonder how you are so smart - but also how you have time to be so smart & post so much 

thanks for all replies 

[Stumpich]

On 9/5/2017 at 10:41 AM, Andrei said:

Bi Gu means : No Grains

 

Grains have starches and starches are carbohydrates (carbs).

 

Carbs produce inflammation of the tissues, sooner or later.

 

If you have inflammations or pains of any sort in your body is because you consumed grains/starches for too long.

 

A normal "taoist" died should be anything and everything but following the rules of the seasons, directions, locations etc according to the five elements.

 

Fasting is one the most important part of a diet, because by fasting you switch from carbs to ketones and start burning the fat deposits.

 

A "taoist" approach should be fasting alternating with feasting just like Yin-Yang, periods of gaining weight and periods of loosing the weight, every season has 3 months so each 3 months should have a fasting and a feasting period.

 

But if there is something "taoist" in a diet, that should be

I will work on this Bi Gu when I get to it - right now it might be a money situation - as I get hungry & grains are abundant & somewhat affordable - I would like some fruit sometimes but it is so expensive 

I could probably afford the Bi Gu experiment now -- but it would definitely affect future financial plans -

it is nice living here in the Gompa - because it is a place of quiet practice - but I must move on asap & I should save money for that 

you know what they say " it's the best place in the world to be but, you have to get out of there some time"

I have just downloaded a bunch of books about fasting - miracle of fasting looks interesting ==== all this study takes so much time - I wish there was more content on audio books   

I have downloaded a lot of books just now on different diets & fasting many of them have to do with grain avoidance - I have too much study to do

On 9/5/2017 at 11:05 AM, Andrei said:

Grains grow in sunny areas, so they are associated with the fire element.

But actually they are Yin part of the Fire element, the only way to balance the grains is the Yang energy of the sun.

 

 

The only exception to that is rice which grows in humid areas, rice needs wetlands to grow, it needs water.

But even so rice is associated with metal element, with Dryness because rice is a desiccant, it absorbs the water or the humidity and makes it dry. So rice is just the opposite of wheat. Rice regulates the colon if there is too much internal dampness and produces constipation in people who have already a dry or fire metabolism.

Interesting - video

I've read that rice is neutral & balances out either constipation or diarrhea - it is supposed to be good for both & puts the bowels where they need to be 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Stumpich

[Taomeow]

7 hours ago, NATURE BEEING said:

I read somewhere that before the deforestation and agriculture there where so many hazelnut trees here in germany that people could eat them the whole year(lots of calories, healthy and saturated fats).Also its said that the germanic people ate like 80 to 90 percents foods that where gathered so the correct term should be gatherer-hunters i think.

 

Oh, there was abundance everywhere.  The first Europeans arriving in what was to become New York saw what a "traffic jam" in Manhattan looked like back then: migrating salmon in the Hudson went so densely side to side that fishing meant gathering -- you just plucked the fish out of the river with your bare hands.

 

I've foraged for hazelnuts in the wild, they don't grow on trees, it's a bush.  Nuts have never been a major food source for humans in times of abundance -- again, like with legumes, too many antinutrients, they are great snacks but only in moderation, since they shut down digestive enzymes and inhibit thyroid functions, to name a few adverse effects...  They do this protecting themselves from being overeaten, as a vast majority of wild plants do, with various phytochemicals, some toxic, others intricately and expertly regulating their consumption by interfering with digestion, fertility or energy production in species that might be wont to overeat them.  "Balance" does not mean "eat everything that can't strike back."  Plants can and do.  As a biologist put it, "With their toxic phytochemicals, plants proclaim, in a message loud and clear, their eternal hatred of the herbivores."   

 

And we were never "gatherer-hunters" in times of abundance.  Only in times of scarcity.  In times of abundance, we didn't even hunt for small or lean animals -- like I said before, we always went for the biggest, fattest animal in the environment.  On the North American continent, e.g., huge (crater sized) fire pits have been discovered and thoroughly described by archeologists, which Native Americans used to roast their bison and buffalo whole, and some of them were in continuous uninterrupted use for 25,000 years! (sic). 

 

 

[Taomeow]

51 minutes ago, Stumpich said:

I see you a lot on this forum - I not only wonder how you are so smart - but also how you have time to be so smart & post so much 

thanks for all replies 

 

Thanks for noticing.

 

To question number two -- I have been a member of this forum for 12 years.  I don't so much "post so much" as "been around long enough." 

To question number one -- that's a survival mechanism doing its job.  I had to figure stuff out to survive.  Smart means severely tested and passing the test.  I have great compassion for smart people, I know where they're coming from.

[beingnature]

That may be all true and after 10 years of being vegan , then one year on this bigu diet, meat didnt mess me up as much as grains or dairy did.But i could eat lots of nuts and felt great while doing so.I really dont know if we are supposed to eat so much meat, maybe we were different before that time...

 

In dschuang dsi's book the true men of the old are depicted as eating only wild peaches here and there and some ginseng roots... also hermits live on pineseeds that should also contain antinutrients...

 

For me everything was exatly like in the text: a treatise on corpse demons...

[Taomeow]

Well, I was born with fully operational food instincts, very acute senses.   And I hated all carbs (but grains especially, in any shape or form), sweets and all dairy for the first 13 years of my life.  Some cultures force feed children, or I would never touch any of these.  (Yes, I hated ice cream and chocolate too!)  All I wanted was 1. meat in small amounts, medium rare, fatty -- a little shish kabob was ideal;  2. raw vegetables, all kinds, and some fruit and berries, in small amounts;  3. to not eat anything on schedule, to wait till I'm hungry -- and it could take a while, the only time I was allowed to decide for myself when I want my next meal, at the age of 5, I didn't want it for three days and might have gone longer but adults lost patience and aborted the experiment.

 

I believe my instincts were spot on, and have done some scientific research into how this could come about, why they weren't suppressed the way they are in most modern humans who rely on anything but their instincts.  "Feel great" is no indicator of anything in a modern adult, for one thing there's no frame of reference to compare this "great" with exponentially greater greats that might be expected on a different, never available, regimen; for another, there's so many defense mechanisms interacting and interfering with each other that you can't really tell if you feel great because you eat what you were naturally designed to eat or because you're getting your fix of an addictive food or because you stopped eating what was truly damaging, or because your mind-over-matter powers help you feel great when you eat the way you believe is right.  But with children it's different.  Most are born addicted to whatever addictive foods mom ate while pregnant; but for some, earlier, phylogenic programs might kick in instead, i.e. instincts may overwrite addictions.  So for me, the biggest food authority, to this day, is my 5-year-old self.  Wish I had the instincts she had never force fed out of me.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Taomeow

[beingnature]

30 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

Well, I was born with fully operational food instincts, very acute senses.   And I hated all carbs (but grains especially, in any shape or form), sweets and all dairy for the first 13 years of my life.  Some cultures force feed children, or I would never touch any of these.  (Yes, I hated ice cream and chocolate too!)  All I wanted was 1. meat in small amounts, medium rare, fatty -- a little shish kabob was ideal;  2. raw vegetables, all kinds, and some fruit and berries, in small amounts;  3. to not eat anything on schedule, to wait till I'm hungry -- and it could take a while, the only time I was allowed to decide for myself when I want my next meal, at the age of 5, I didn't want it for three days and might have gone longer but adults lost patience and aborted the experiment.

 

I believe my instincts were spot on, and have done some scientific research into how this could come about, why they weren't suppressed the way they are in most modern humans who rely on anything but their instincts.  "Feel great" is no indicator of anything in a modern adult, for one thing there's no frame of reference to compare this "great" with exponentially greater greats that might be expected on a different, never available, regimen; for another, there's so many defense mechanisms interacting and interfering with each other that you can't really tell if you feel great because you eat what you were naturally designed to eat or because you're getting your fix of an addictive food or because you stopped eating what was truly damaging, or because your mind-over-matter powers help you feel great when you eat the way you believe is right.  But with children it's different.  Most are born addicted to whatever addictive foods mom ate while pregnant; but for some, earlier, phylogenic programs might kick in instead, i.e. instincts may overwrite addictions.  So for me, the biggest food authority, to this day, is my 5-year-old self.  Wish I had the instincts she had never force fed out of me.

 

That sounds like a really, really good diet to me! I am also a big fan of the instinct and methods to make it stronger then just diet advices!

[gendao]

5 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Nuts have never been a major food source for humans in times of abundance -- again, like with legumes, too many antinutrients, they are great snacks but only in moderation, since they shut down digestive enzymes and inhibit thyroid functions, to name a few adverse effects...  They do this protecting themselves from being overeaten, as a vast majority of wild plants do, with various phytochemicals, some toxic, others intricately and expertly regulating their consumption by interfering with digestion, fertility or energy production in species that might be wont to overeat them.  "Balance" does not mean "eat everything that can't strike back."  Plants can and do.  As a biologist put it, "With their toxic phytochemicals, plants proclaim, in a message loud and clear, their eternal hatred of the herbivores."  

What antinutrients in particular are you talking about...tannins, phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, etc?

 

And BTW, did ya know another "interesting" side effect of deforestation/agriculture was...SLAVERY!?

Edited September 7, 2017 by gendao

[KuroShiro]

On 31/08/2017 at 7:24 AM, Taomeow said:

 

I've studied this particular subject exhaustively.  Probably wrote about it somewhere more than once, but don't remember where, so to OP's question, briefly:

 

1. Grains (and grain-like non-grains) that neither contain gluten nor provoke cross-sensitivities to same (in most cases -- see below) are rice, glutinous rice (yup -- despite the name, there's no gluten in it), millet, quinoa, buckwheat (yup -- despite the name, not related to wheat), teff.  

 

2. Grains that do contain gluten, besides wheat, are rye, barley, oats, amaranth, spelt.

 

3. The grain that doesn't technically contain gluten but in many cases causes similar problems due to cross-sensitivity provoked by proteins in it similar enough to gluten is corn.

 

4. Cross-sensitivities in some gluten-intolerant people can manifest in response to all grains -- and strangely enough to dairy which also contains similar enough proteins. 

 

5. Legumes were introduced into the human diet as a way to survive a catastrophic event in our history that wiped out many primate species (in particular, on the North American continent, 150 of them -- that is to say, all of them).  We would never eat this if we weren't starving, because there's a plethora of antinutrients present in legumes, from enzyme inhibitors to highly reactive lectins (ricin, which folks may have heard about in conjunction with political murders, is one of them -- and one of the most toxic substances known) to digestive difficulties to brain damage (soy specifically -- according to a 30-year study of Japanese men in Hawaii eating tofu vs. those not eating it, the largest ever and mighty convincing). 

 

So, if you stick with (1), you have six grains and grain-alikes to choose from, and don't have to eat just rice all the time.  I am very partial to teff.  This African grain-alike is not very well-known, but worth discovering.  I was very grateful when I did.

 

Abstaining From Grains is ideal, IMO, but not easy to pull off.  I fall off the wagon from time to time.  Typically, I don't eat grains every day, and when I do, they are from the (1) list.  But since I don't have any explicit symptoms of gluten-related difficulties,  except I start losing my far-better-than-average flexibility if I eat gluten-containing grains, occasionally I yield to the temptation.  Usually short term, then back to gluten free.  My litmus test is the Chen taiji move that asks for all you've got in terms of flexibility, Snake Creeps Down.  It requires open "unglued" joints and vertebrae, rather than stretched-out ligaments (which can work for the yogic kind of flexibility, but not for the taiji kind.)   It's like night and day, Snake on gluten and off. 

 

What is your opinion about miso? I've read the fermentation takes care of the anti-nutrients.

 

 

On 06/09/2017 at 1:09 AM, Taomeow said:

 

Excellent question, and I would encourage everyone considering a raw diet to get that answer -- it may help avoid damaging their health and muddling their cognitive powers with a logical fallacy.

 

 Animals have digestive systems that "cook" their food inside their bodies which we humans don't have.  Why we are so different is a separate question, and I tend toward a very sad hypothesis that might explain it, but for now let's stick to the facts.  Not hypothetically but factually, animals are far, far better equipped to eat their food raw than we are.  E.g., the stomachs of cats and dogs produce hydrochloric acid in the amounts (per lb) far exceeding what we produce, and far more concentrated --  10 times more concentrated than that of humans in dogs, even higher concentrations in cats, even higher in wild felines.  This lets them dissolve not just meat but even bones inside their bodies. 

 

If you want to observe for yourself how that works, you can do a little experiment.  Purchase some HCl of the concentration a cat's stomach manufactures, and pour it on your raw food, see what happens.  (Warning: don't eat the results, just observe.)  It cooks every bit as well as fire -- they don't use the term "chemical burn" for nothing.  Animals have chemicals inside that work for them the way our external fires work for us.  (This is not the only thing we've externalized that other species keep internal.) 

 

I gave just one example, but whichever species you look at, except humans, you'll find that they have something -- super concentrated HCl, super powerful liver and pancreatic enzymes and bile...  a snake swallows whatever it eats not just raw but whole -- a large anaconda can swallow a whole calf or deer, and the bile will dissolve not just meat and bones but the fur, the hooves and the horns -- it's stronger than our cooking, which won't!

 

Whether humans have ever been bona fide animals or the outcome of some genetic messing around from the get-go is anyone's guess, but civilized humans are not, physiologically speaking, equipped to eat like wild animals.  Not by a long shot.  Even mice who have been born in labs are vastly different from -- and a whole lot wimpier than -- their peers born in the wild.  If the former are released into the wild to live as the latter, they fail at that and promptly die. 

 

 

Great post. Also there are humans with digestion problems due to low stomach acid. It's usually misdiagnosed and mistreated by doctors.

 

True about the mice, it has to do with their microbiome. It works similar in humans.

 

 

On 06/09/2017 at 2:00 AM, NATURE BEEING said:

Hmm you are mostly speaking of meat eating animals and it doesnt explain why i gained weight , health and was never sick while  being on rawfood... but maybe lots of qigong got me wild again

 

Chinese Medicine says don't eat raw food or only very small quantities and depends on the food. You probably don't suffer from low stomach acid.

[silent thunder]

Speaking of microbiomes and harm... a bit off topic but related to the gut and healthy process.

 

The over-reliance and rash of the use of antibiotics that are prescribed is alarming to me...and not once, has any dr who prescribed a round of antibio's ever mentioned to me any sort of probiotic restorative treatment to engage in after the antibiotics to help reestablish all the healthy microbiology that is wiped out in the treatment.

 

After a round of some of these antibio's my gut feels like a bomb zone in a war.

[rainbowvein]

Does anyone here happen to do well on grains? I seemed to not have had a problem over my lifetime. If I eat grains regularly, in whole or semi-whole form, they are sustaining for my composition. I eat both glutinous grains and non-gluten grains. I can see by some posts here that this is not the case for everyone.

Edited September 21, 2017 by rainbowvein

[Gerard]

I eat grains EVERY DAY.

 

The grains is not the main issue but purifying the HEART. And oh boy! This is not an easy quest.

 

As you probably know already:

 

Healing Temple/Wat Trivisudhidham

 

We were modeled according to tree form, the 5E and the Bagua (totality). The Heart is at the centre of that and the source of all disease, karma and samsaric wandering.

 

A grain-free diet won't purify the Heart.

 

Eating fresh food, calmly and happily is what matters the most.

 

Herbal medicine is a MUST in today's world (refer to the Chinese Medicine tradition).

 

 

[rainbowvein]

8 hours ago, Gerard said:

A grain-free diet won't purify the Heart.

 

Eating fresh food, calmly and happily is what matters the most.

 

 

[blue eyed snake]

hmm...

I don't know about purifying the heart.

 

but i do know that a growing amount of people gets sick of grains with gluten and many of them have trouble digesting gluten-free grains too. Those people have an inflamed gut. Most often both small and  large intestine have inflammation. As far as I know in TCM the heart and the small intestine have a close relationship. So at least for those people there would be a relationship between the (functioning of the) heart and the gut.

 

I think functioning will be affected both physical and energetical.

 

I do not know about people who are able to digest the stuff, as I am not one of them. But I do have a sneaking suspicion that the old taoists were right thinking that grains are not oke for humans who are on a road to ever more fine energy.

 

11 hours ago, Gerard said:

Eating fresh food, calmly and happily is what matters the most.

 

I do agree with that

[Stosh]

Wheat in particular seems to be problematical , for me as well.

Seems a surprisingly common condition , considering all the people I see eating it though. 

And on top of that you have to consider diabetics re: the carb content. 

[Taomeow]

On 9/21/2017 at 4:31 AM, KuroShiro said:

 

What is your opinion about miso? I've read the fermentation takes care of the anti-nutrients.

 

 

 

Great post. Also there are humans with digestion problems due to low stomach acid. It's usually misdiagnosed and mistreated by doctors.

 

True about the mice, it has to do with their microbiome. It works similar in humans.

 

 

 

Chinese Medicine says don't eat raw food or only very small quantities and depends on the food.

 

Thank you, KS! 

With soy, fermentation does appear to be a game changer.  It introduces beneficial probiotics, critters that predigest hard-to-digest proteins, enzymes, hard-to-come-by vitamins (e.g. vit. K), and degrades certain antinutrients, notably lectins.  Importantly, one does not make a meal of miso concentrate or soy sauce and does not use fermented soy products as staple foods, only as condiments.  The amount matters.   An omnivore can eat almost anything if he or she does not make a staple of what's only edible in small amounts.   Even an obligatory carnivore like a cat or a fox can and does, in nature, consume grains in very small amounts, and fermented at that -- that's what a rodent's or a bird's stomach contains, and cats and foxes eat them whole (minus the feathers if it's a bird.) 

 

With wheat, however, fermentation doesn't accomplish the main task of removing wheat germ agglutinin, aka wheat lectin, which appears to be indestructible and can provoke an immune conflict in any amount, and apparently even in homeopathic doses, that can persist for 8 months after one ingestion. 

 

Interestingly enough, wheat lectin successfully latches onto human opiate receptors, assuring lifelong addictions.  People who eat it every day may or may not have immediate noticeable reactions, but whether they are addicted or not can only be discovered if they try to go without for a length of time, like with any chronic narcotic dependence.  It's like that joke -- "I don't have a drinking problem...  I only have a problem when I can't get a drink!"

 

Wheat and corn are very mysterious.  For all our cultivated plants, there's a wild counterpart in nature from which the agricultural one was cultivated -- there's wild potatoes and tomatoes, wild carrots and apples, wild peppers and lettuces...  but wild wheat or corn have never been discovered anywhere on earth.  Any wheat or corn ever observed was already a cultivated, modified plant, not wild.  Things people eat are usually accounted for, it is possible to tell where they originated and how they came to be cultivated.  Not wheat or corn though...  thoroughly "designer" plants with no wild ancestor ever found, and genetically speaking, apparently never possible.  Mystery of mysteries...    

[KuroShiro]

25 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

Wheat and corn are very mysterious.  For all our cultivated plants, there's a wild counterpart in nature from which the agricultural one was cultivated -- there's wild potatoes and tomatoes, wild carrots and apples, wild peppers and lettuces...  but wild wheat or corn have never been discovered anywhere on earth.  Any wheat or corn ever observed was already a cultivated, modified plant, not wild.  Things people eat are usually accounted for, it is possible to tell where they originated and how they came to be cultivated.  Not wheat or corn though...  thoroughly "designer" plants with no wild ancestor ever found, and genetically speaking, apparently never possible.  Mystery of mysteries...    

 

Wow I've never read about this.

What about the ancient species such as spelt and einkorn? Weren't those the origin of today's wheat?

Wikipedia talks about wild einkorn.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, blue eyed snake said:

but i do know that a growing amount of people gets sick of grains with gluten and many of them have trouble digesting gluten-free grains too. Those people have an inflamed gut. Most often both small and  large intestine have inflammation. As far as I know in TCM the heart and the small intestine have a close relationship. So at least for those people there would be a relationship between the (functioning of the) heart and the gut.

 

 

I believe the Small Intestine also has a close relation to the Pericardium/Heart Protector. But yes Heart is yin S.I. is yang.

And since all Organs are connected an injury on one might soon affect the others.

 

Grains with or without gluten are not good choices (also depending on the amount/type of grains in the diet and the rest of the diet), if one hasn't a problem with them (digestion, bones/teeth issues...) that's great but I would bet their children or their future generations will.

 

[Gerard]

10 hours ago, blue eyed snake said:

hmm...

I don't know about purifying the heart.

 

Well, that is the ultimate goal, the last gate before entering "The Absolute."

 

Very difficult and challenging path since your own mind will be your greatest enemy.

 

Are you game?

 

 

 

Quote

 

but i do know that a growing amount of people gets sick of grains with gluten and many of them have trouble digesting gluten-free grains too. Those people have an inflamed gut.

 

Have you wondered about their lives as a whole? Your state of mind determines the state of your gut, which is Earth and currently Gaia is being heavily offended and disrespected by Humanity.

 

1. Food quality isn't the same anymore

2. Farming/production, storage and distribution practices have been manipulated to cope with technological society's demands

3. How many people today bless their food, pray and say thanks to Gaia for putting food on their plates?

 

 

Quote

 

 

 

 

Most often both small and  large intestine have inflammation. As far as I know in TCM the heart and the small intestine have a close relationship.

 

Certainly! And the Liver is the Heart's mother:

 

http://www.itmonline.org/5organs/liver.htm

 

Uncontrolled emotions, desires/craving, lust, anger, physical inactivity, insufficient blood (specific herbs and foods will fix this), environmental pollution, stress, anxiety, etc damage Heart and Liver. Excessive Heart Fire also damages the Wood/Liver.

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

I do not know about people who are able to digest the stuff, as I am not one of them. But I do have a sneaking suspicion that the old taoists were right thinking that grains are not oke for humans who are on a road to ever more fine energy.

 

 

Descend the Qi (https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/gpa/ascending-and-descending-in-herbal-medicine-interview-heiner-fruehauf/) and how a blocked Metal/Lung network is the cause of many diseases. One of the biggest challenges in modern human health: excessive Qi in the head which is impairing Lung fuction, which is to descend and open the water pathways. Like dead tree leaves that drop on the ground in the autumn season so does our Lung behave. But is is becoming a chronic condition today due to eating incorrectly (too fast and worrying during a meal) and computer work.

 

***Please read and study that link carefully, priceless wisdom related to the creation cycle of the 5E. Lung ---> descend; Liver --->ascend.

 

Qi dynamics must be approached with care and not taken lightly.

 

 

Also:

 

http://www.itmonline.org/5organs/lung.htm

 

What mountain Taoists do in seclusion is not something you should be concerned about. Let's look at practical stuff for people like us who live in the world.

 

Extreme asceticism is not the Middle Way.

 

Stoking your metabolic fire with Congee:

 

http://www.medfordashlandacupuncture.com/articles/stoking-your-metabolic-fire-with-congee/68/

 

Rice congees will protect your Earth element.

 

Rice, fresh ginger, shallots, etc.

 

Here is a wonderful recipe:

 

http://amp.foodandwine.com/recipes/ginger-vegetable-congee

 

 

#Note: 2-3 years ago I had a chat with a Chinese lady in herb shop and she happened to be a Chinese Medicine practitioner. Out of curiosity I asked her what was the most common condition she encountered in her own practice. She told me:

 

Here in the West ---> Spleen Qi deficiency. Possibly in modern China too.

 

Then I thought, it's the whole planet.

 

By harming the planet humans are harming their own Spleen, the Earth element.

 

https://www.sacredlotus.com/go/diagnosis-chinese-medicine/get/zang-fu-spleen-patterns-tcm#sp_qi_xu

 

Too much thinking, worrying, brooding and also eating cold foods...and junk food.

 

Theravada Buddhism has a wonderful practice to safeguard the Spleen ---> Tudong.

 

One meal per day, eating only from one's bowl and wandering.

 

http://vimutti.org.nz/2008/04/wandering-forest-monks/

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Gerard

[Taomeow]

2 hours ago, KuroShiro said:

 

Wow I've never read about this.

What about the ancient species such as spelt and einkorn? Weren't those the origin of today's wheat?

Wikipedia talks about wild einkorn.

 

 

Wikipedia does, but reality differs. 

That wild einkorn, a different species (coinciding in name ascribed to it only, while not offering enough empirical proof that it's related to the heirloom wheat we call this name), is a progenitor is a "moderate possibility" according to the less sensationalist among its researchers --  a hypothesis, not a fact.  This is also true for the other two kinds of heirloom wheat, emmer and spelt, emmer being the oldest and all three collectively known as farro and related to each other and to modern wheat, only less molested than the latter (and therefore lower in gluten).  The hypothesis that competes with simple domestication of any one of these suggests that complex hybridization of different wild lineages was necessary to produce domesticated emmer (or any other wheat).  This, however, could never be replicated in modern times with all the modern genetic apparatus of knowledge and techniques at scientists' disposal.  No one has ever been able to do today what our ancestors are supposed to have accomplished -- hybridize toward domestication -- any of the known wild cereal grains. 

The crucial difference between wild and domesticated being that off the wild plant, seeds scatter, while on domesticated wheat of any kind, they stay on the stalk waiting to be harvested.  Another crucial differences is threshability (a combination of rachis fragility, and glume -- husk -- shape and tenacity.)  The heirloom grains, just like modern ones, are designed for this, but no one has been able to redesign a wild one toward these traits.  Complex genetic manipulations are necessary to introduce even a modicum of the trait; in particular, at a number of steps, inexplicable recessive mutations have to take place which are not within the power of modern science to accomplish...  yet our ancestors supposedly knew enough genetics ten thousand years ago to accomplish just the kind of precise mutations that might allow for golden fields of wheat in the future of their posterity --

fields that all of a sudden sprouted all over god's green earth, in places that had no way to communicate, simultaneously.

 

The plot is way thicker than Wiki would ever admit, even if it had a clue...   

[CloudHands]

On 23/09/2017 at 2:56 AM, Taomeow said:

 

Wheat and corn are very mysterious.  For all our cultivated plants, there's a wild counterpart in nature from which the agricultural one was cultivated -- there's wild potatoes and tomatoes, wild carrots and apples, wild peppers and lettuces...  but wild wheat or corn have never been discovered anywhere on earth.  Any wheat or corn ever observed was already a cultivated, modified plant, not wild.  Things people eat are usually accounted for, it is possible to tell where they originated and how they came to be cultivated.  Not wheat or corn though...  thoroughly "designer" plants with no wild ancestor ever found, and genetically speaking, apparently never possible.  Mystery of mysteries...    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegilops

[CloudHands]

As a note, everything kills, even life kills. Red meat produces diseases too, and much more lethal. Not going to lecture you, I think you know that well TM. Burnt meat is specifically wrong. Fat from meat is also the wrong kind for us. Smokes are very bad too. Well no... not meat as an elixir.

 

Follow the teeth

 

Note trying to convince you, but I briefly had to pop some counterargument because all that you say sounds very partial.

[Gerard]

On 9/23/2017 at 0:41 AM, rainbowvein said:

 

 

 

Smile back  

 

Smiling ---> It's a Spleen exercise (lips and tongue are rules by this organ, same as the rest of the flesh and muscles).

 

Healthy Spleen

 

Snap Your Spleen Back in Shape! Part 1

 

Snap Your Spleen Back into Shape! Part 2

 

Some useful recipes (and teas) at the bottom of this page and also this pin (which has a link to various cooking blogs; lots of Spleen loving recipes).

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by Gerard

[Taomeow]

On 9/24/2017 at 0:03 PM, CloudHands said:

 Well no... not meat as an elixir.

 

 

 

Of course not.  The elixir is animal fat.  And fish oil.