Whole grains are the seeds of various grasses and are often referred to as “cereals.” They have been the mainstay of the human diet for thousands of years, as our body’s main source of fuel and energy. While the grains consumed in different societies vary greatly wheat in the United States, rice in the Orient they provide the backbone for all diets. In fact, a meal without grain often feels incomplete and somehow lacking.
Whole grains are almost complete meals within themselves, containing fiber, protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins such as B and E complexes, and many minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, and manganese. There are three main parts to each kernel of grain: the endosperm, or central core, which is about 80 percent of the entire kernel; the germ, which comprises about 3 percent; and the bran, which encompasses 15 percent of the kernel. Whole grain products contain all three parts of the grain and have a high concentration of nutrients. However, when grain is refined in milling to produce white flour products, the germ and bran are removed, leaving only the endosperm. As a result, most of the essential nutrients of the grain are removed, leaving a devitalized product.
The nutrients of whole grains help promote good overall health. They also have a tremendous effect on relieving the symptoms and reducing the risk of a wide variety of female related health problems. Whole grains have a very potent effect on regulating estrogen levels in the body, through their high levels of phytoestrogens (natural plant estrogens), their fiber content, and their high levels of vitamin B complex and vitamin E.
Many whole grains are excellent sources of phytoestrogens. Whole grains contain lignans, cellulose like materials that provide structure to plants. Lignans have been found to be weakly estrogenic and can bind to the estrogen receptors of cells. As a result, they can provide additional nutritional support to menopausal women deficient in this hormone. In addition, certain plants like buckwheat are excellent sources of the bioflavonoid rutin. Like lignans, many bioflavonoids are estrogenic and can help to regulate the effects of our own body’s estrogen on sensitive target tissue like the breast and uterus. Rutin is particularly helpful in its ability to strengthen capillaries and reduce heavy menstrual bleeding in transitioning menopausal women. Studies attest to this. Bioflavonoids have been used, along with vitamin C, to reduce heavy bleeding in transitioning menopausal women and women with bleeding due to fibroid tumors and spontaneous abortions. In fact, an early study done at the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1956 found that the bioflavonoid vitamin C combination allowed 78 percent of high risk women to carry their pregnancies to full term.
The high fiber content of whole grains benefits women during their active reproductive years as well as menopausal women. Fiber binds to estrogen in the intestinal tract and removes it from the body through the bowel movements, thus helping to regulate estrogen levels. This process, called the enterohepatic circulation of estrogen, occurs as follows: estrogen circulates in the blood throughout the body and passes through the liver; the liver then metabolizes it from its more potent forms, estradiol and estrone, to a more chemically inactive and weaker form, estriol. When the liver is healthy this occurs efficiently.. The estrogen metabolites are then secreted into the bile and from there, into the digestive tract.
With a high fat, low fiber diet, the bacteria in the intestinal tract act on these estrogen products, allowing reabsorption of the estrogen back into the body. This increases the blood levels of estrone, the primary type of estrogen produced by the body after menopause, and estradiol, the type of estrogen produced by the ovaries during the active reproductive years. As a result, the levels of these two estrogens rise higher than estriol, their primary breakdown product. When this occurs, the patient is said to have an “unhealthy estrogen profile.” Research has shown that estradiol and estrone, as more chemically active and potent forms of estrogen, may predispose women towards developing heavy menstrual bleeding, fibroid tumors, PMS, and even breast cancer while estriol, a much weaker form of estrogen, may reduce the risk and severity of these problems. Thus, a high-fiber, low-fat diet may help regulate not only the estrogen levels but also the types of estrogen circulating throughout a woman’s body. In fact, other studies from Tufts University Medical School have shown that vegetarian women excrete two to three times more estrogen in their bowel movements than do women eating the typical high fat, low fiber diet.
continued in Whole Grains Part II
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