10 Reasons to Ditch Grains from Your Diet

By Karen Lirio, Registered Personal Trainer

 

1.    They are Making You Fat
Our bodies are designed to use slow burning fuel for energy, such as our stored body fat. Grains provide a fast burning fuel source. While that fast burning fuel source is being consumed by us in abundance our stored body fat remains just that, stored!

 

2.    They are Toxic to Human Beings
Grains (especially wheat and wheat germ but also quinoa, rice, buckwheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and corn), legumes (all dried beans, including soy and peanuts), dairy (from grain fed cows), and nightshade (including potato, tomato, eggplant and pepper), all contain high levels of lectins. Lectins are toxic to the human body and have been linked to arthritis, allergy, asthma, high cholesterol, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes, low blood sugar, chronic fatigue, IBS, Crohn's, colitis, celiac, chronic Candida, repeated gut pathogen infections, malabsorption syndromes, autoimmune diseases, dementia, Alzheimer's, autism, ADD/ADHD, Schizophrenia, osteoporosis, cancer, adrenal insufficiency, obesity, and hormonal imbalances; just to name a few.

3.    They are an Allergen
One of our most common allergies is to gluten. Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat and other grains such as rye, oats and barley. Gluten is responsible for the porous, spongy texture of bread. Maladies range from a runny nose to severe gas and chronic dermatitis herpetiformis. And if the gluten doesn’t get you then there is always corn wreaking its own havoc in the form of skin rashes, a runny nose and itchy eyes, and asthma.

4.    Human Beings Were never Meant to Eat Them
For 150,000 humans roamed the earth hunting and foraging for meats, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, some tubers and roots, the occasional berries or seasonal fruits and seeds. We ate what nature served up. Around 10,000 years ago however, the tide turned with the Agricultural Revolution and grains became a dominant part of our diet. Sadly people became smaller and frailer as a result of a deathly allergy to them, or limited capacity to take in their poor nutrient value. It takes a lot more than 10,000 years, in the context of evolution, to drastically change our digestive systems and so we continue to suffer the repercussions of our new ill-suited diet.

5.    They Were Never Meant to be Eaten by Human Beings
Grains are plant seeds (plant embryos), housed in a hard or semi-hard shell to help them survive until germination. Their shell helps them, in particular, to weather the journey through an animal’s intestines should they be inadvertadely eaten. They don’t even taste good, to discourage ingestion in the first place. Have you never wondered why we insist on eating something that we have to smash and/or cook to death and drown in flavouring for it to be palatable!

 

6.    They Cause an Abnormal Insulin Response
Grains, once you strip off the hard shell, grind down the inside and then cook them, have an extremely high glycemic index. This basically means that as soon as they are digested they quickly spike blood sugar levels and send the body into panic mode. To mop up these toxic levels of sugar the pancreas sends out huge amounts of insulin to process the excess sugar, storing it in the muscle, liver and then fat cells. Unfortunately this rapid removal of excess blood sugar then sends you reeling into a lightheaded sugar crash. It is this sugar-insulin-sugar cycle that often leads to Type II Diabetes.

 

7.    They are Nutritionally Devoid and a Poor Source of Fibre
Unfortunately grains aren’t quite the complete nutritional source we’ve been lead to believe and have in fact been associated with minerals deficiencies. Whatever nutrients you can get from whole grains you can get in equal or greater amounts in other food. If the label says otherwise, look closely because the product has probably been fortified. As for fibre, vegetables have 8-10 times the fibre of grains!

8.    They’re Cheap As Well As Nasty
Why is something so nutritionally marginal so dominant in our diets? As I’ve already mentioned our lives and diets radically changed 10000 years ago with the Agricultural Revolution. Humans learned how to farm, process, cook and eat grains which suddenly provided us with a cheap and easily accessible supply of calories. Grains are still a cheap and easily accessible supply of calories and pop up in almost everything processed that we eat. They are literally a cheap and nasty filler that we end up paying top dollar for. 

 

9.    They’re Not Satiating
Foods that are satiating (ie. fill you up and keep you feeling full) are rich in protein or fiber. You now know that neither of these are characteristics of grains; which are relatively low in protein and fibre when compared to lean meats and vegetables. Red meats, fish and chicken are a great source of satiating protein but are often accompanied by unhealthy saturated fats and need to be limited. Vegetables on the other hand are fat free and very low in calories. Did you know that you can reduce the calorie content of a casserole by 30 percent simply by adding bulky vegetables!

 

10. They Don’t Leave any Room for the Good Stuff
The reason that the Government and health experts have us eating 2 Fruits & 5 Veg a day; a glass of milk, a tub of yogurt and two slices of cheese a day; lean red meat 3-4 times a week; and fish 1-2 times a week; is because we are filling up on cheap and readily available grains and becoming malnutritioned. The very society that gave us grains in the first place has gone into major damage control. What more can I say.

 

If you are interested in learning more about living without grains, log on to www.marksdailyapple.com for an introduction to The Primal Blueprint. Learn how the author, a former Hawaiian Ironman, relieved his bowel and arthritis symptoms by ditching grains for a thoroughly modern diet of lean grass fed meat, truly gourmet salads and vegetable dishes, fresh fruit and the occasional cheese platter, glass of red wine and block of rich dark chocolate.     

Comments

[Andee]

Is this article for real? This is complete rubbish. I am an accredited practising dietitian - I have compelete years of university training and have years of experience working in clinical nutrition.

This information is completely untrue with no real scientific basis.

[Karen]

Thanks for your feedback Andee. Yes this is 100% for real. I’m suprised that you didn’t cover this school of thought in your extensive studies, even if just to discredit it.

In 1975 gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin first published the idea of following a paleolithic (primal) diet for improved health and people all over the world have been following it ever since. Walter’s theory was based on the fact that humans are primarily carnivorous and evolved to thrive on a diet based mostly on fats and protein, with only a small amount of carbohydrates. He supported his theory with his own experiences in addressing digestive problems such as colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome and indigestion.

I personally have been on a gluten free diet for approximately 5 years but didn’t experience complete relief until going 100% grain free. As an added bonus my adult acne has finally started to clear up and I no longer have chronic dark rings under my eyes. Perhaps it’s not for everyone but it works for me 

[Andee]

"Perhaps it’s not for everyone but it works for me".

Exactly my point. It is most certainly not a general diet to be followed, it would have been more responsible if you have stated this in somewhere in you entry.

Cutting grains out from one's diet is prescribed only if there is a valid medical reason such as coeliac disease and one should be under the supervision of your GP and a dietitian.

The way that this entry has been posted is misleading, most people will read this and go "Oh yes I want to lose weight, I should try it", hence having more fad diets.

I can certainly provide journal articles if evidence is needed, 1975 is a long time ago now, the validation techniques in the 70's would be nowhere near what we have now.

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[Karen]

Thank you again for your reply. My entry was in fact intended as a suggestion for people to follow as a general diet. Any dietary decision made needs to be in consultation with a medical practitioner and I would never presume to recommend a diet for medical reasons, such as celiac disease.

People make individual choices everyday regarding what they eat and this is just another option available for people who believe that it may benefit them. The intention of the blog was merely to let people know about an eating plan that benefits people everyday but they may not have heard of previously.

I hope that you have the time to check out this week’s blog on SuperFoods, which incidentally features oats at the top of the list :)

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