Why Grain Free?

No one in my family is gluten-intolerant. We don't have celiac disease or crohns disease. We actually tolerate gluten quite well.

So why go grain free?

Good question.

A question that came up a lot recently from several readers who noted that I was planning grain-free menus recently. Rather than re-writing and re-hashing what has already been written, here's the journey we've been going through . . .

First, I came across this post from Shannon at Nourishing Days on Why Grains are Not Necessary for a Nourishing Diet, followed by her follow-up post.

I was intrigued, especially since I completely related to her statement:

"Grains make me tired, sluggish and foggy. They keep me hungry and increase sugar cravings. Most of all they make it extremely difficult for me to maintain a healthy weight. Insulin and leptin seem to be the key hormones in all of this."

I had been planning on returning to a quasi low-carb/"Eat Fat, Lose Fat" inspired diet once the baby was born, but hadn't ever considered that grains were part of the problem and never considered cutting them out completely. I've always considered myself a moderate, but I admit that both my husband and I do better when eating low-carb. And we both need to lose weight.

I began researching the idea further, which led me to finding Son of Grok's blog - which I thought would be inspiring for my husband - and thus to Mark Sisson's Daily Apple, both of which focus on a paleo/primal-inspired diet, completely grain-free.

And then recently, Nourished Kitchen's Jenny wrote a great synopsis of 10 Reasons to Give Up Grain, and it was basically the nail in the coffin. Seriously, I need to print it out and keep it on my fridge.

For me, grains have just kind of been filler. Meal extenders. A means to bring tastier things to the mouth (like meats, cheeses, and spreads). So it really hasn't been that hard to eliminate them. Instead, we've been eating tons more vegetables and fruits . . . more details to come.

We've been experimenting the last few weeks with grain-free and mostly grain-free menus. And you know what? Not only have we been losing weight (four pounds for me in one week!), but our tummies have been feeling better; symptoms that I thought were "normal" for me (because, hey, I already eat a lot of probiotics and enzyme-rich foods - everything should be well digested!) are noticably gone when I reduce/eliminate my grain (and sugar) intake. And that counts for all of us.

And, after only a week of focusing on eliminating grain, when I did "slip" and eat a cracker, it literally tasted like sawdust and had no flavor. I didn't want a second.

We are not saints. We still occasionally have a cheat meal or special dessert. But not often, and our cravings are diminishing by the second (I ordered a sandwich this weekend, without thinking, and ended up only eating half of the bread and eating the remainder of the sandwich with a fork. Because I wanted to. I didn't want the bread; not because I felt in any way guilty. Frankly, it was better that way.). We're still eating some dairy (true primal eaters cut it out for the most part!) - Lloyd and me more so than T. So far we've had about one meal a week with potatoes (not a grain, but not low-carb!) and we are grilling ears of corn for dinner tonight (a grain, not a vegetable!) but for the most part, we're grain-free. And we're doing great!

Why go grain-free? I think the links and blogs above, along with our restored tummies and lost weight are reason enough!