According to the FDA
About seven years ago I started hearing the message that whole grains are good for you. According to the FDA, you should eat three or more servings of whole grains daily. If you’ve switched to whole grains or are thinking about it, please read this first.
Switching to Whole Grains
When I first learned whole grains are good, my staple single girl dinner was mac ‘n cheese mixed with a can of tuna or a cut up hot dog and preferably eaten while watching the Simpsons. I started buying whole grain macaroni elbows to make my mac ‘n cheese. I also bought whole grain bagels for breakfast most mornings and any time I found whole grains on a menu I would order them instead of white flour products.
Fast forward a few years: I cook just about everything myself from scratch. I learned to make my own whole grain sandwich bread, pizza dough and even whole grain cookies with organic soft white wheat and spelt flour grown in upstate New York.
But then I learned there was a problem…
The Anti-nutrient Problem
Most people have heard of Celiac or gluten-intolerance, but there are many more problems with grains that effect us all, and gluten is just one of the proteins that can cause problems. A little over a year ago I learned that whole grains contain anti-nutrients such as phytic acid, which block your body from absorbing nutrients in the grains, and worse, bind with other minerals you consume (such as calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron) so you don’t absorb those either.
When I learned this, I started soaking grains to neutralize phytic acid. (This includes oatmeal, which I ate for breakfast almost every day.) I also bought sprouted flour, which according to this book changes the structure of the grain to make them digest like a vegetable. I’ve since read that this may not be true (see the Wheat Germ Agglutinin link at the bottom of this post).
Today’s Wheat Isn’t Even Wheat
To make matters even worse, today’s grains are a result of “some of the most intense crossbreeding efforts ever seen” to “develop a higher-yielding crop.” “The wheat products sold to you today are nothing like the wheat products of our grandmother’s age, very different from the wheat of the early 20th Century, and completely transformed from the wheat of the Bible and earlier.” (See link The Dark Side of “Healthy” Wheat for more information.)
Leaky Gut
I recently learned about “leaky gut,” which is a widespread but little known problem associated with grain consumption. Basically your intestines become permeable and proteins and toxins then enter the bloodstream and cause all kinds of havoc throughout the body.
Millions of people have leaky gut syndrome and don’t know it. I personally only noticed gas and migraines before this year. The only reason I figured out I have leaky gut is because allergenic proteins from cow’s milk, peanuts and other foods were ending up in my breast milk and causing apparent food allergies in the baby.
Here are just a few possible outcomes:
- ADD/ADHD
- Arthritis
- Seasonal Allergies
- Apparent Food Allergies
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Depression
- Eczema
- Fibromyalgia
- Infertility
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Osteoporosis
- Weight Gain/Weight Loss Resistance
- Yeast/Fungal Overgrowth
Passing on Grains for Now
For the past six months I’ve drastically reduced my consumption of grains and for the last month I stopped eating grains completely. I believe that eating whole grains for so many years damaged my intestinal lining. I don’t think I was like this before because when I was in college I went to Mexico and ate fresh fruit, brushed my teeth with the water etc and had no issues, while two other people in my group were hospitalized for E. coli. (I started reading the GAPS book last night and learned that a healthy gut has helpful strains of E. coli that fight off the dangerous ones.)
I don’t know if this would have happened if I had gone straight from white flour to properly prepared grains (see Weston A. Price Foundation links below for more information on traditional preparation of grains). Since I can’t change the past, I am leaving grains off my plate for the duration of the Whole30 and beyond. I don’t plan to reintroduce grains until I’m sure my body is ready for them. If or when that day comes, you bet the grains will be traditionally prepared and in limited quantities.
Further reading:
- The Dark Side of “Healthy” Wheat
- Living with Phytic Acid (Weston A. Price Foundation)
- Be Kind to Your Grains (Weston A. Price Foundation)
- Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA)
- Leaky Gut Syndrom Description
- Leaky Gut Symptoms by Stages
I did the GAPS book for a while and I have major mixed feelings about it…but I was wondering if you have the Nourishing Traditions cookbook? We have it and I’ve only made a few of the recipes, but they were good – there are plenty of grain-free recipes and traditionally prepared grain recipes for later…glad your diet change had worked for you…small changes can make a huge difference, hey?
My sister and her family are doing the GAPS diet. She keeps trying to convince me to do it with my family too (lots of food allergies among my kids). I’m not desperate enough to try it yet (I don’t think they will be able to eat more on GAPS than they are able to eat with allergy restricted diets now), but I was wondering what your mixed feelings about it were, if you don’t mind sharing.
I would also love to know more about your feeling on GAPS. We do have the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and I mainly use it for guidance on broths and ferments. Since the Whole30, I’ve gone away from using recipes for meals most of the time and feel much more comfortable cooking without recipes.
I have been thinking about starting GAPS soon. I have a friend who did the intro stages in under a month, so it is possible to go through it quickly if that makes it more doable. The people who I have talked to that prefer GAPS to Paleo say that GAPS is about healing so that you can eventually eat anything you want, whereas Paleo supporters say you should not try to re-introduce grains, dairy or legumes in your diet (save for “open” meals if you do that).
There were definitely some good things about GAPS – I had hormone imbalances from having a baby and taking domperidone and I wasn’t having any luck losing weight, I had chapped lips that wouldn’t heal and I was suffering from horrible fatigue. I lost a fair amount of weight, but as soon as we started slowly incorporating “regular” food back into my diet, I gained it all back fairly quickly.
I did the intro in about a month as well (I did the diet under a naturopath’s supervision) – the worst part is the first five or six days. Day 2-4 or 5 is the healing crisis and it was horrible, although because you’ve done the Whole30 challenge, you might not have such a huge reaction.
The biggest cons for us was the cost and how quickly the weight piled back on when I went off the diet. We typically eat meat only 2-4 times a week, so increasing that to every day increased our spending substantially (we happen to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world which doesn’t help). Even buying regular (not organic or grain fed) produce and meat still made it too costly.
I also never felt satisfied – I was sometimes full-ish, but never satisfied. And I felt like I was eating ALL THE TIME! We played around with more fat, more protein, more of both etc etc, but I was always hungry (and consequently, often cranky).
About 4 months in, I started having fatigue issues again and they didn’t really clear up for a few month when we started reintroducing things like rice…
I guess the thing about the GAPS diet is that it is a healing diet, so you’re not meant to stay on it forever. I probably would have benefited more if I had been able to handle it for a few more months.
I didn’t use Nourishing Traditions much during the diet – there were too many things still that had to be modified.
I think the GAPS diet has its merits, but like a lot of things you have to try it to see if it is a fit for you. We introduced grains back a few months earlier than the naturopath would have liked mostly because my family was suffering because I was so cranky…I know of a few people it works for and my naturopath’s family does the GAPS diet and has been for years and both she and her husband work full time. (I know her sister, so I know that her kids get things like macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake when they’re at Auntie’s, but for the most part they stick to it…even in their packed lunches for school)
My advice if you decide to do it is to ease into the intro – although again, I think that the Whole30 probably has helped in preparing you. I started drinking broth about a week before, but I think I’d almost do a reverse intro to get into it – start by eliminating slowly. And makes sure you have a stock pile of food that’s ready to eat. When you’re in the healing crisis, it’s nice to be able to just open the fridge and grab something or at least grab the pre-cut veggies/meat etc to make a meal with.
If you want to know more, send me an email nannyshanny at gmail and I’m happy to respond. There are some great GAPS friendly recipes for “normal” food out there! I’ve got a spreadsheet somewhere too that lists what you can have at the various stages of the intro diet.
Thanks Shannon I will send you an email soon because I do want to discuss more with you. You have some great ideas. I just wanted to add a couple thoughts here (in case anyone else is following along).
I’ve heard of doing the full GAPS diet first and then going to the intro stages after you get used to it so it’s not such a shock. I don’t know if full GAPS can go on indefinitely but I think you’re supposed to be on it for 18 months or longer to complete the healing protocol.
Thanks again, I’ll email you soon.
Okay, clearly it’s Friday and I need to get off the computer.
That should say, I did the GAPS *DIET* for a while
Thanks for the info… I’ve looked at a couple of the links & read some… IMA check the others out too.