Transcription
The autumn or fall has come to New Zealand where the apples have readied their supply of fructose for release. But all is not well for you see plants are in an evolutionary arms race with animals. Plants do not want to be eaten in general. Here is a less overt plant protection mechanism, the hawthornne bush. While the berries are tasty, full of fructose, they also have these spines which contain a nasty plant alkyoid which causes huge pain. Very nasty.
I say I wonder what she's singing about. Perhaps we'll find out later. Ah, yes. The humble egg. A great source of nutrition and nothing to be worried about healthwise.
Meanwhile, down in my sister's garden, here are the fall or autumn tomato plants. Most of the tomatoes have been consumed despite the night shades. Here's corn grown by my sister. The most common crop eaten by humans. But we'll learn more about that soon. Here is another night shade. My sister didn't try and grow this one. It snuck in by itself. This is black nightshade. And a small amount of this will kill the animal the size of a sheep within half an hour.
Here's fungus. It produces micotoxins. We'll learn some more about those soon from the professor, too. Ah, here's some grass that's recently been grazed. Here's the evidence. I wonder who's been grazing here. Was it these guys? No, we're looking for a different kind of beast altogether. Seems they've also been here. It's always fascinating to see the difference in the color of the grass having just been grazed. It's almost as if the grass is withdrawing its nutrient down into the root structures to protect those nutrients. I wonder I think we're getting warm. Ah, here they are. The majestic low-line Angus cattle. Protein factories. These guys build huge bodies, but not from grass. You see, they digest bacteria that they civate that breaks down the grass. Cow's nutrition doesn't come from grass. Most of the grass gets well left on the ground in these lovely little brown piles.
Okay, here we go. This is a list of the top 10 crops eaten by human beings and some of the major toxins that are found in those plant materials inherently. Uh caveats. Number one, I'm not claiming genuinely that plants really want to kill you. uh certainly not outright anyway. A plant doesn't care if you die so long as it gets to live. I mean, the reason that plant um toxins exist is to discourage animals from eating those plants. Most of those toxins are aimed at smaller animals like insects and they're quite effective. There is an arms race. Of course, the insects are adapting and so the toxins adapt as well. Uh most of the toxins you will find in the top 10 common commercial crops that humans eat. Most of those toxins will not kill you outright straight away, but over a lifetime they can have some very serious effects and we'll deal with those on a case- by case basis as we go through this list. So there is that.
All right. The most common number one crop that humans eat is corn, otherwise known as maze. Okay. So, first of all, corn may contain fiber. Fiber seems to be relatively contraindicated in the human diet. That's a simple one. Uh most of these crops of course are containing fiber. So, we'll just take the fiber as red or the rest of them as well. However, more importantly with corn/maze is that corn and maze have developed a symbiotic relationship with a species or series of species of um fungus really that produce a bunch of toxins called aflatins which is a kind of micotoxin really. What do these things do? They tend to be involved in carcinogenesis at least in vitro in a lab. Uh they certainly are involved it seems in living organisms in mutagenesis the changing around of DNA in a subcancerous way but in such a way as to interfere with the production of various things like proteins which can really lead to a very sudden death situation. Um these things can be a very sudden onset thing. You might be eating corn all your life and have no problems with it and then suddenly something has triggered death can happen. Right? So there's that one.
Uh the second most common crop that humans eat is rice. Um so obviously take the fiber as granted. There are micotoxins in rice as well. Um and rice also tends to absorb arsenic from the environment around it depending on whether you know how much arsenic is in the environment in which that rice is growing. Rice has developed along the lines of absorbing arsenic as a protective mechanism to discourage animals from eating it. Arsenic of course not a good thing. So we should probably you know take that somewhat seriously over a lifetime.
Number three is wheat. H wheat of course contains micotoxins as well. Um but also it contains the jolly old gluten, doesn't it? Which is involved in irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease. Basically gluten acts by interfering with the cellto cell integrity in the intestinal wall. Breaks that down, gives us leaky guts, that kind of thing. People are more or less affected by gluten. Some people not apparently at all and other people very extreme such as the situation with celiac disease.
All right. Number four, cassava root that contains cyanogenic glycosides. What do they do? Well, they liberate cyanide into the body. Probably not a good thing. Why is cyanide a problem? Why is cyanide toxic? Well, it blocks the electron transport chain. Stops you respiring. That can be a dead thing depending on how much of it is released. All right. Uh and you say, "Wow, you know, people have been eating these things their whole lives." Well, yeah, but how long and how healthy would they have lived had they not been micro doing themselves with cyanide their whole lives? Who knows? Hard to say.
Number five, soybeans, micotoxins. Again, lectins. Good old lectins. Lectins are protein structures that tend to interfere with the ability of cells to do what they do, and that can be a dead thing. Uh, some lectins are vastly more problematic than others. Some of them are actually useful even. Um, but perhaps one of the most toxic lectins known as ryson. Okay. Um, we're not saying that soybeans contain rice, but they do contain lectins, uh, which can be a problem. Uh, there are also plant alkaloids in soybean, which can have all sorts of different effects on metabolism and cell function and all those sort of things. Alkoids are one of the widest range. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different sorts of alkaloids that have all sorts of different effects well beyond the scope of this video. You just need to know that they're there. And that soybeans, corn, rice, wheat, cassava, and number 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are all things that you don't require any of in your diet. So, you might as well avoid them really. Uh the other thing, of course, with soybeans is phytoestrogens. These are plant estrogens that mimic human estrogen to some degree, bind to human estrogen receptors to some degree, and causes estrogenic effects to some degree. Your mileage will vary. Nonetheless, they're not required. They're not necessary, so we might as well avoid them.
Number six, the potato. Didly D. Potatoes. Potatoes. Potatoes. Yes. Oxalate. Oxalate is a real problem. And also there are some toxic alkaloids that can be found in potatoes. Um depending on how those potatoes are kept and prepared also depends on how bad that situation might be. Again, people have been eating potatoes forever. Yes, they have. But what would their health and lifespan have been had they not been doing that? Who knows? Hard to know. All we know is those toxins do exist. They are there. You can't deny them. You also can't claim that potatoes are necessary in the human diet. You can eat meat and fat and be fine. So why not do that?
Um number seven, sorghum. Sorghum. Yes, we have cyanogenic glycosides again. We have micotoxins again. We have quite a high concentration of nitrates in sorghum. And now nitrates can bind onto hemoglobin molecules and prevent the carriage of oxygen. That can be a problem. That can be a dead thing, can't it? Yeah. All right.
Number eight, sweet potatoes. All right. Oxilate againoids, which are a hetto toxin, toxic to the liver. Uh, most notably, they are produced by the sweet potato plant when it's distressed in some way. Sure. Nonetheless, it's uh it's a risk that you're going to eat a sweet potato at some point that contains these things. Again, you don't need any sweet potatoes in your diet, so why would you?
Number nine, the yam, oxalates, soponins. Uh, now soponins can lead to hemolysis, the destruction of red blood cells basically. Uh, you can sort of start hemorrhaging really and be unable to carry oxygen cuz your red blood cells are all destroyed and yeah, not so good.
Um, number 10, plantain. They're a bit like a banana. They're very much like a banana. They look like a banana. They're a kind of banana, but they're a fibrous, starchy, less sugar containing form of bananas. Isn't it interesting, by the way, that in terms of the top 10 commercial crops, it's not until we get to number 10 where there's anything that's even remotely like a fruit. All of the rest of them are kind of starchy containing things. Interesting. Um, plantain, however, seems to be relatively innocuous in terms of its direct, you know, are there toxins directly involved with this thing? Whatever else of course is fiber, so we know that's contraindicated. The riper it is, the less fiber it has and the more fructose it has. Um, fructose of course is directly contraindicated in toxic levels. Not that you're going to get a toxic level of fructose from eating a plantain now and then of course or any piece of fruit, right? But fructose, most fructose that enters your body is dealt with by a hypatic pathway in the liver. that is that involves conccommittently that means necessarily and unavoidably a reduction in the level of ATP in the cells of the liver which is problematic for several reasons number one it causes a hunger drive meaning that you'll overeat secondly if you lower the ATP concentration that means necessarily you're increasing the concentration of ADP plus pi pi being inorganic phosphate and inorganic phosphate directly upregulates many of the pro-inflammatory cytoines. Now, is this a huge risk from eating a plantain? No, as I said. However, do you need any plantain? Is there such a thing as a plantain deficiency? No. Is there such a thing as a meat deficiency? There absolutely is evidence of that. I'll just go and have a look at some of these other influences that are holding antithetical views to what I'm putting forward here. Make your own decision on that. Um the other issue of course with the hippatic fructose pathway is that because you've built up the ADP concentration and the body wants to maintain homeostasis by keeping the ATP concentration up. What happens is the you get two ATP ADPs I should say you whack them together out of which you get a new ATP and an AM and then you have to get rid of the AMP so that that system of reaction is not alossterically inhibited. uh erggo there's another enzyme that takes the ammonia off the ammp and turns it into imp so that the reaction can continue buildup of ammonia uric acid gets formed gout is a probability okay you'd have to eat a lot of plantains of course um but nonetheless you don't need You don't need the fiber. You don't need the fructose. You don't need whatever glucose is in it. Also, I did find one thing on plantains before we finished the list. Here it is. Plantain contains a potential allergen. It's a protein that is very similar to the one found in latex, which again is an allergy that can be activated in anybody at any time. You can have no latex allergy your whole life and then suddenly you're exposed to latex under certain circumstances. Bam, you have latex allergy which can be an anaphylactic thing which can be death. Meat doesn't contain any of those things. Right. There you go. There it is. The 10 most common crops eaten by human beings and some of the potential problems associated with those things either immediately or over a lifetime. You're welcome. Join me next time when we'll talk about something like, well, why is it that eating only meat and associated fat is indicated in humans? Or stick around and maybe Bibra can tell us about it right now. party over to you.
Yes, thank you professor. Scientists have been able to extract viable collagen from the long bones of human remains anywhere between about 12,000 years ago through to well over a 100,000 years ago. The stable nitrogen isotope testing from this collagen determines the trophic level of humans. What did humans eat during that entire period? The answer is meat. Meat and fat almost entirely. There was a small amount of rooty fibrous tubers. Nothing like the sweet ones that we have selectively bred for these days. Anyway, given that's what humans did eat, given that evolution is a thing, and given that natural selection is a thing, that would be a pretty good argument for following that kind of diet potentially. Of course, do your own diligence. It's been a pleasure. Join us next time.