Diet, Nutrition & Fitness: Whatever the question, the right answer is "It all depends".

The carbohydrate pendulum keeps on swinging! Bloggers keep on fighting!

Carbohydrates are good. No, they're bad. Wait, they're good again. Nope, bad again. Good again. Aargh!

So, are carbohydrates good or bad? See the title. Gluten? See the title.

As Everyone is Different, whether "X" is good, bad or indifferent all depends on genes (including gender), the expression of those genes, environment (i.e. birth weight, exposure to pollutants in the womb & after birth), general diet (i.e. nutrients, anutrients & anti-nutrients), lifestyle (i.e. sunlight exposure, stress, sleep etc) and type, level & volume of activity.

Grains & soyabeans: more bad news.

Jamie Scott (THAT PALEO GUY) has been doing some digging and found more dirt on...

From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Various_grains.jpg

See Wheat amylase trypsin inhibitors drive intestinal inflammation via activation of toll-like receptor 4.
"We identify the α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) CM3 and 0.19, pest resistance molecules in wheat, as strong activators of innate immune responses in monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. ATIs engage the TLR4-MD2-CD14 complex and lead to up-regulation of maturation markers and elicit release of proinflammatory cytokines in cells from celiac and nonceliac patients and in celiac patients' biopsies. Mice deficient in TLR4 or TLR4 signaling are protected from intestinal and systemic immune responses upon oral challenge with ATIs. These findings define cereal ATIs as novel contributors to celiac disease. Moreover, ATIs may fuel inflammation and immune reactions in other intestinal and nonintestinal immune disorders."

See Impact of antinutritional factors in food proteins on the digestibility of protein and the bioavailability of amino acids and on protein quality.
"Examples of naturally occurring antinutritional factors include glucosinolates in mustard and canola protein products, trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinins in legumes, tannins in legumes and cereals, gossypol in cottonseed protein products, and uricogenic nucleobases in yeast protein products."

"Among common food and feed protein products, soyabeans are the most concentrated source of trypsin inhibitors. The presence of high levels of dietary trypsin inhibitors from soyabeans, kidney beans or other grain legumes have been reported to cause substantial reductions in protein and amino acid digestibility (up to 50 %) and protein quality (up to 100 %) in rats and/or pigs."

"Normally encountered levels of phytates in cereals and legumes can reduce protein and amino acid digestibility by up to 10 %. D-amino acids and LAL formed during alkaline/heat treatment of lactalbumin, casein, soya protein or wheat protein are poorly digestible (less than 40 %), and their presence can reduce protein digestibility by up to 28 % in rats and pigs, and can cause a drastic reduction (100 %) in protein quality, as measured by rat growth methods. The adverse effects of antinutritional factors on protein digestibility and protein quality have been reported to be more pronounced in elderly rats (20-months old) compared to young (5-weeks old) rats, suggesting the use of old rats as a model for assessing the protein digestibility of products intended for the elderly."

I eat grains, also peas, beans & lentils, but not as a dietary staple.

There was this Cleveland dentist...

...and his name was Weston A. Price MS., D.D.S., F.A.G.D.

He was a dentist, so he got to see inside a lot of mouths. What he saw worried him - a lot. There's no point in me copying and pasting stuff that someone else has written, so read all about it at http://www.westonaprice.org/Weston-A.-Price-DDS.html

To sum-up. Mr Price travelled around the world with his wife looking inside the mouths of relatively primitive people, compared to the residents of Cleveland. What he saw impressed him - a lot. Considering that primitive people don't have access to clean water, food, medicine and other modern aids to living, they had hardly any tooth decay, gum disease or overcrowded teeth.

So he took lots of photographs, made lots of measurements and asked lots of questions. When he finished his travels, he wrote a book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects. You can read it at http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html

It's worth your while reading this book. The conclusions:-

Don't eat food that's been "buggered about with". Eat as much natural food as you can and prepare it in a way that maximises the nutrients and minimises the anti-nutrients. Don't worry about the fat in it, as fat contains the fat-soluble Vitamins A, D, E & K (but not enough D unless you live on a diet of oily fish, seals & beluga whales). For more information, see http://www.westonaprice.org/

That is all.