Why should you avoid “healthy whole grains”?  Aren’t they the biggest part of the US Food Plate?  Aren’t they necessary for “carbo loading”?  If you’re active, don’t you NEED grains?

Oh my gosh, NO. We’re all just USED to grains.  They’re an enormous, familiar source of calories and pleasure, and meals built around bread and pasta are so ingrained that for some people, living without is unthinkable.

Well, I’d like you to think about it.

Grains/whole grains/ starchy carbs, cause terrible health problems (heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune), severe intestinal problems (crohn’s, ibs, colitis), they’re addictive, and they make you fat.  That’s my short take on them.  If you hear someone with far more years of education than me claiming that whole grains are healthy or necessary, they’re either not as educated as they think, blind to all the contrary evidence out there, or lying.
Honestly, if this news is new to you, trust me when I say I could fill a thesis with scientific reasons to stay away from starchy carbs, in their whole grain form or refined.  Besides the FACT that our body wants only a TEA-Spoon or two of blood sugar at a time(all grains digest to blood sugar), and anything more than that is an EMERGENCY/PRIORITY to get rid of, grains are really, really hard to digest.  That goes for whole or refined.

Here’s the Short Version:
All grains contain phytates, or phytic acid.  These are referred to as “anti-nutrients”, because their job is to Grab Hold of minerals like Calcium, Iron, Zinc, Magnesium found in the whole grain OR found in other foods mixed in your stomach, and make those minerals UN-USUABLE, and INDIGESTIBLE.  Did you get that?  Those healthy whole grains contain substances that leach on to minerals and make them worthless. Minerals are VITAL to your health.

Grains also contain extremely hard to digest PROTEINS,  the most famous one is GLUTEN, but there’s others. Animal proteins are easy to breakdown, proteins from grains aren’t. These proteins are so difficult to breakdown and digest, that it often doesn’t happen.  Then you have undigested proteins literally banging on the small intestine wall.  (Proteins USUALLY get broken down to Amino Acids and ABSORBED thru the intestine wall, into the blood stream.  That’s normal and healthy.).  Eventually, the big, in-completely digested protein pieces break thru the intestine wall and enter the blood stream, where  ***********OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM TREATS THEM LIKE FOREIGN INVADERS, AND MOUNTS AN IMMUNE RESPONSE.  (this is aka   Leaky Gut Syndrome)   The Results:  massive amounts of inflammation, and not just in the stomach, but EVERYWHERE in the body.
Allergies, auto-immune conditions, asthma, migraines, mood disorders, ect ect.  Grains Aren’t Good For You Or Your Kids.

Wheat contains another protein called Gliadin, which has the addictive effect of stimulating appetite by binding to opiate receptors in the brain, making them want more. (sound familiar?)

And a point I’m making in post after post? Excess carbohydrates get converted to FAT.  The body can’t store carbs, it can only store fat.  We can store more than 40,000 calories as fat, but only a couple thousand as carbohydrate.  Excess Carbs Are Toxic To The Body and must be  gotten rid of.

This was a BRIEF summary of a FEW problems grain causes.  Still on the fence?  Keep digging for yourself, Please.  There’s a lot of GREAT books out there by doctors :  Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davies is one, buy it and read it, or at least go on his website,www.wheatbelly.com.  There are so many doctors counseling against sugar and grain consumption right now that it’s amazing: Dr. John Briffa, Dr. Cate Shanahan, Dr. Mary and Mike Eades, Dr. Colin Champ, and Dr. Jonny Bowden to name a few.  They all have blogs if you want to check them out.   The more you know, the easier it becomes to make choices that make you healthier;  weight loss (if you need to) is a SIDE EFFECT of being healthy.

Need some grain-free recipe ideas?  Thanks to the poor state of health in this country, that whole direction of cooking is exploding.  Here’s a few sites:
maria’sdeliciousandnutritiousjournal
wheatbelly
paleomom
paleoparents
elanaspantry
alldayIdreamaboutfood
foodlovers
everydaypaleo

If you’re wondering how to feed your family without grains, check out my What I Eat page.  This is also how I fuel myself for hours of exercise every week.  You don’t need the grains!  Your kids don’t need the grains!  You can live without them and be so much healthier and leaner for it.  It’s completely doable, and not even an issue once it becomes your norm, I promise.