Grains
It’s a fact: modern grains aren’t the same as they used to be a few hundred years ago, or even a few decades ago - Katie Wells
image by: Amber M. Brown
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Grains: To Eat Or Not To Eat?
If you listen to the ideology of some mainstream diets out there, it would appear that grains are the latest diet villain, following in the footsteps of fats (healthy ones) and even fruits (because of their natural sugar). (And off the topic- still, still (!)- these typical mainstream diets never suggest that there is such a thing as eating too much protein. After all, they want to preserve the food they love- and their steak, even at the expense of kidney failure and colon cancer). Some diet plans tell us that it’s unnatural for us to eat grains, that they do more harm than good and that agriculture has thrown human digestion off its proper course for some time.
It’s not true. We’re…
Resources
Are Grains Good For You?
The fact is that not all grains, and not all ways of consuming them are equal. Not even close. In the industrialized world, we turn our wheat into white flour for bread and cakes. We turn our corn into high-fructose corn syrup and Doritos. And we turn our rice into Uncle Ben’s and Minute White. But that’s not how it started out.
Hot Topics: Sugar In Grain Foods
Sugar is found in both nutritious whole foods and nutrient-poor discretionary foods, so it’s not a clear cut case. Some core foods, like milk, fruit and vegetables and some grain foods do have small amounts of free sugars, but they are also highly nutritious, so shouldn’t be avoided for their sugar content alone.
The Real Problem With Grains
Grains are a controversial food in modern society, but the real problem with grains may not be what you think! On the one hand, you have experts who claim that grains are a modern addition to the food supply and have only been consumed for the last 10,000 years or so but we aren’t meant to eat them. Others claim that grains are the foundation of our food supply and have been for thousands of years. So, Who is right?
Against all Grain
Danielle Walker is the author and photographer of the New York Times Best Selling cookbook Against all Grain. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when she was 22 years old, Danielle realized that she needed to make dietary changes to end her suffering. She removed grains, lactose, and legumes from her diet, and started her blog to help others suffering from similar ailments continue to enjoy food.
Are Grains the Bad Guy?
Popular diets such as Whole30 and Paleo shun all grain products from their edible vocabulary. But, are these diets accurate in vilifying this food group? Are their gripes with whole grains warranted?
For the Love of Grains
Cereal grains are currently the most important nutritional component of the human diet—and for thousands of years grains have been recognized as staples—necessary foods—and extolled as “the staff of life.” In Roman times Ceres was the goddess of agriculture.1 The gifts offered to Ceres at festivals were referred to as cerealia. Since the most important gifts offered were wheat and barley, these grains naturally became known as cerealia or cereal.
Global malnutrition: why cereal grains could provide an answer
Low-carb diets have become increasingly popular in the UK, US, and Europe in recent years, with no shortage of information being spread online about the harms of carbohydrates for your health. Indeed, some carbs do worsen some digestive disorders in some people, and eating too many definitely can contribute to poorer health and obesity – including diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But for billions of people around the world, staple cereal grains like wheat, maize, barley and rice provide the most accessible form of energy, critical to staving off hunger. These cereals have been major foodstuffs for millennia. And for much of the world’s population, they make up over 50% of people’s diets.
Grains, Malt, and Sugars
The earliest beer was probably stored grain that accidentally got wet and the resulting grain-water was fermented by wild yeast. After thousands of years of brewing tradition, gradual refinement, and eventually scientific inquiry we now have a delicious beverage in a number of distinct regional and historical styles. Fundamentally beer is a solution of grain derived sugars dissolved in water and fermented by yeast to produce alcohol.
Grains—Are They Good or Bad for You?
There are plenty of fad diets out there. And with every fad diet, there's usually a villain—like carbs, fats, sugar, and gluten, to name just a few. Sometimes, these villains are legitimately unhealthy (sorry, sugar). Other times, these so-called bad guys are misunderstood, and people who buy into the fad diets deprive themselves from the nutritional benefits. Grains are some of the more well-known food villains. Whole 30 and most forms of paleo diets are two examples of popular diets that call for a ban or limit on grains. However, grains can actually be the good guys, if you choose the right ones.
Is a No-Grain Diet Healthy?
Around the world, it’s become common for people to stop eating certain foods, often because they believe the change will improve their health...But there are risks when people cut entire categories of food without making sure they’re getting all the essential nutrients they need.
Less Nutritious Grains May Be In Our Future
In the future, Earth's atmosphere is likely to include a whole lot more carbon dioxide. And many have been puzzling over what that may mean for the future of food crops. Now, scientists are reporting that some of the world's most important crops contain fewer crucial nutrients when they grow in such an environment.
Living With Phytic Acid
Phytic acid in grains, nuts, seeds and beans represents a serious problem in our diets. This problem exists because we have lost touch with our ancestral heritage of food preparation. Instead we listen to food gurus and ivory tower theorists who promote the consumption of raw and unprocessed “whole foods;” or, we eat a lot of high-phytate foods like commercial whole wheat bread and all-bran breakfast cereals.
Multigrain, wholegrain, wholemeal: what’s the difference and which bread is best?
Wholemeal, wholegrain, multigrain, sourdough, rye, white, high fibre white, low GI, low FODMAP, gluten free. With so many choices of bread available, how are we to know which is best for our health?
The Healthiest People In The World Eat A Lot Of Carbs
Japanese people are, as a whole, very healthy: They have the second-highest life expectancies compared to any other country in the world (the U.S. comes in at number 43) and have an obesity rate of just 3.5 percent, which is one-tenth of America’s 35 percent obesity rate. The reason for Japan’s superior health? Their grain-heavy, high-carb diet.
What Grain Is Doing To Your Brain
It's tempting to call David Perlmutter's dietary advice radical. The neurologist and president of the Perlmutter Health Center in Naples, Fla., believes all carbs, including highly touted whole grains, are devastating to our brains. He claims we must make major changes in our eating habits as a society to ward off terrifying increases in Alzheimer's disease and dementia rates.
Why Grains Are Unhealthy
Apart from maintaining social conventions in certain situations and obtaining cheap sugar calories, there is absolutely no reason to eat grains. Believe me — I’ve searched far and wide and asked everyone I can for just one good reason to eat cereal grains, but no one can do it. They may have answers, but they just aren’t good enough. For fun, though, let’s see take a look at some of the assertions...
Why Intact Grains Are Even Better Than Whole Grains
The reason intact grains, beans, and nuts are better than bread, hummus, and nut butters is that no matter how well we chew, intact food particles make it down to your colon where they can offer a smorgasbord for our good bacteria.
Year One of 'Grain Free' Me, a Backwards Glance...
Did going grain free heal me? I can't say, because I was wolfing down every healing superfood I knew about. But it seemed like the grain free played a big part. When you take in so many good nutrients, and take out other things, it's hard to isolate just one.
Grains: To Eat Or Not To Eat?
One caveat: you must eat whole grains...
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