<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Laura Johnson-Kelly <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >As an archaeologist, I can't resist responding to this query. Put simply, >the areas in Europe which have the highest apparent incidence of cd are >those areas which grain agriculture reached last. Ireland was a largely >pastoral economy (ie based on herding animals) long after >gluten-containing grain agriculture was introduced. Presumably, the >genetic predisposition for cd would not have been a disadvantage in hunting >and gathering economies, or in pastoral economies. It is only in groups >where the gluten-containing grains were staple foods that cd would have been >selected against, thus reducing the incidence in people who trace their >roots back to the areas where wheat etc. have been cultivated the longest. But Black Africa has never cultivated any of the gluten-bearing grains. The hotter the climate the harder it is to grow wheat, and the lower the gluten content. Wheat grow in the far north has the most gluten. The incidence of CD is *very* low among people of African descent, and the one that I know has some Scottish blood in him from many generations back. Here's something related from Hills, Hilda Cherry, _Good Food, Gluten Free_, New Cannan: Keats Publishing, 1976. Dr. R. Shatin of Melbourne, Australia, member of the Scientific Council of the International Society for Research into Nutrition and Civilization Disease, has, since 1963, been publishing reports on his treatment of cases of rheumatoid arthritis with a gluten-free, high protein diet, with supplements, introducing his concept that in these patients, as in celiacs, the primary lesion is to be found in the small intestine. Shatin's concept rests on his view that "the domestication of cereals (wheat and later rye and oats) crucial to the development of civilization also confronted metabolism with a historical challenge." He points out that man changed from a food-gather to a food-producer, epochal changes in his ecology were paralleled by similar changes in his diet. This transition from animal flesh amd milk with what nuts, berries, fruits and roots were still available from the times when he lived exclusively on these, to domesticated cereals obtained by culturing and farming the seeds of grasses, could have been too sudden for the digestive functions of a significant minority to have been able to adapt adequately to such drastic changes in dietetic habits. Dr. Shatin considers that celiac disease may have been very common in pre-history, but that since it would have been lethal before the age of reproduction was reached, a partially dominant trait could in this way have become rare (as it now is) and recessive. He presents evidence that there is also small intestine malabsorbtion in RA and suggest the possibility that a suscepibility to this disease exists which can be activated by gluten and other factors into a primary lesion (injury). He claims that the apparent benefit from the use of a gluten-free-high-protein diet in a few cases of RA has given him some practical support for his theoretical considerations and points out that in its medical aspects, his hypothesis has the merit of being eminently capable of proof. [log in to unmask]