There is a lot of talk about grains and why we should or should not eat them. So what’s the truth?
Well the truth is some people can cope with them when they eat fermented, well soaked and properly cooked grains and sprouted beans to the tractional methods of cooking. But the majority of people do not eat there grains like that. When I was a vegetarian my diet was 60% grains, legumes and beans and I know I didn’t prepare them correctly like eating canned beans, processed crackers and lots of breads, cakes and biscuits and it caused me a lot of damage in my gut. Grains should be eaten away from fats and starches only be eaten on there own and need lots of digestion time. Food combining and why is it essential for health!-chart.
Most peoples grain consumption is very processed and grown with pesticides, herbisides and a host of other harmful chemicals. This makes them an inflammatory food that causes damage to the gut and can reak havoc with weigh gain, low energy, IB, fertility, mental illness and thyroid function. Not to mention those grains containing gluten and we know most people can’t tolerate gluten. Grains, seeds, and beans contain anti-nutrients such as protease inhabiters, saponins, lectins and prytoetrogens which can cause ‘leaky-gut syndrome’ and physic acid which blocks absorption of minerals like iron, zinc and copper which are essential for the body to be strong.
Seeds like quiona and some beans and legumes when cooked properly can be highly nutritious and full of protein, but again if you have any digestive symptoms like bloating gas or pain avoiding all grains and grain like seeds and beans is advised till your gut is healed. And there are more easily absorbed foods that give you just as much protein and minerals-Like Fruit and Greens!
By soaking or sprouting grains, seeds and legumes your body can break down this process and make them easier to digest and absorb the nutrients. So once your gut is healed and you have had along period without inflamitory foods you maybe be able to digest small amounts of grains, beans and legumes prepared properly and in the right food combination. But they should not make up more than 5% of your diet and not from processed foods like shop brought crackers and breads. And ideally be young sprouted legumes and beans not dried, cooked or canned.
Nora Gedgaudas is the worlds leading expert on why grains should be avoided for most of us. She goes in to the history of our eating and how mass agriculture only came in to our history 200 years ago and only 100 years ago chemicals started arising in our farming practices changing us from sometimes nutritious foods to a food thats in every product we buy and eat. We feed it to the animals and we costume max amounts of it daily. Did our ancestors eat that much? Has our bodies involved enough to cope with the speed of the agriculture? . . . she answers all of that below.
Using activated nut flours, seeds and coconut flours you can make breads, crackers, wraps, cakes, biscuits and most food you love but these are still not ideal for digestion and lacking in nutrients as they have been cooked and processed. Many restaurants serve grain-free foods now too. Once you learn not to add rice or pasta with everything you start adding more vegetables to your plate and the aim is to have 80% or more of your diet from plants!
It may seem a long way off but start with removing one grain meal a day and in 2 weeks you would have halved your grain consumption. Then in month most grains would be slowly out of your diet. Swap your bread for a lettuce wrap or seed wrap. Swap your biscuits for homemade walnut meal ones. Swap your cereal for a smoothie, your pasta for zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice. See you can do it!!
It will take you about 3 months for all the gluten to rid it self from your body theres a phrase gong around that says you can’t be a little bit pregnant . . . and so you can’t be a little bit gluten-free or a little bit grain-free, once you have removed it from your diet stay off it for at least 28 days to see the real benefits.
Let me know how your feel . . .