Are you currently grain free or on the full GAPS Diet to heal your allergies or another autoimmune issue?
Fear not, this can and should be only a temporary situation!
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride MD, author of groundbreaking book Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), writes that almost half the population reports some sort of “allergy” to a food or foods.
Despite this sobering statistic, she estimates that only 1% of people cannot recover from these food allergies (yes, this includes celiac).
This means that only 1% of people really need to be grain free forever.  Going grain free to reverse allergies should be only a 1 1/2 to 2 year process, not a lifelong sentence in the vast majority of cases!
The important thing is to know how to prepare your grains traditionally when you re-introduce them!
Plenty of Traditional Societies consumed grains, some like the Swiss obtained a large share of their calories from sourdough bread.  Hunter-gatherers from Canada, the Everglades, Australia, Africa, and the Amazon consumed a variety of grains, tubers, vegetables and fruits that were available in addition to plenty of animal foods, so don’t fall for the incorrect notion that ancestral societies didn’t eat grains and that it is unhealthy to do so.
And, if you haven’t yet learned to prepare your grains traditionally and are still consuming plenty of modern grains on a daily basis, you better learn quick as the autoimmune/allergy train is coming down the tracks at full speed and it’s headed straight for you (if it hasn’t flattened you already)!
Knowing how to prepare grains traditionally is the only way to consume them long term without autoimmune illness inevitably cropping up, unless you are part of the 1% who needs to avoid them forever.
For most of us, then, traditional preparation of grains is an essential skill in the kitchen, one that must be mastered to experience vibrant health.
Please note that freshly grinding your flour and baking your own bread with yeast is not traditional preparation of bread!
Fresh bread that is homemade does not necessarily equal healthy bread!
Bread and other grain based foods must be sprouted, soaked, or sour leavened to be digestible and healthy!
So, go with the grain, not against it. It is not necessary to be grain free to be healthy and it’s certainly not very fun – at least not long term.
Eating, after all, is meant to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience and grain based foods no doubt play a big part in that.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, 2009
Nasty, Brutish and Short? by Sally Fallon Morell
Sarah, Can you please provide some info on the “traditional” societies and hunter gatherers which consumed grains that you are referencing? All of the research and material I’ve read indicates otherwise, however I am open to learning about the information you have.
Hi Sarah, I followed your video and soaked my grains with some vinegar in it. Traditionaly where I come from we don’t use vinegar or any acid to soak. The problem with the acidic solution was that my grains never fully cooked. Last year I tried soaking beans folloing N.McBride advice to add kefir and guess what? WE had to throw them away. I also tried soaking batter for pancakes with some kefir and the batter turned very sour, almost bitter. Please advice me where I went wrong and do you have the same problem. Also do you use pressure cooker to coo your grains? Thank you, Teodora, Bulgaria
Dj,
Thanks for your comment,I am not talking about eating lots and lots of grains and Im certainly not talking about eating “healthy whole grain” cereal – I think we are unaninoumous that is seriously harmful stuff and the fact that you referred to this misses the point.
Here in Ireland we have a diet that is traditionally quiet reliant on brown soda bread- I used to eat this and frankly two slices with full fat butter was satisfying and didn’t give me sugar highs, I was never overweight and didn’t have the wheat belly but always completely avoided sugar because I was well aware of its harms – I went Paleo because after reading Mark Sisson and other Paleo books, I was convinced, who wouldn’t be!
If we look at the carbohydrate composition of bread, the most popular stoneground buttermilk type here has 9g of carbs per slice but no matter how much you say carbs = sugar = insulin, I just can’t believe that I would feel the same effect from eating 9 X 1g packets of sugar. Not all carbs are equal because the digestibility of the carbohydrate in the bread would be more complex than simply downing sugar which would no doubt turn straight to insulin.
If Paleo has had a positive impact on your health, then that’s great. Truly I am delighted about it’s popularity because there is no doubt it is moving people away from processed sugary stuff.
A few of my friends have just recently begun a Paleo lifestyle and I certainly wouldn’t degrade it given the rubbish they used to eat before – funningly enough they never listened to my lectures about how harmful their fizzy drink addiction’s were in the past but now they are almost high on information and are their favourite line is ‘it’s all about the insulin’!!
We are all on our own personal journey’s, seeking optimal health is commendable and I simply would like to add some grains back in to my diet and think that perhaps 4-6 slices/ week of spouted spelt bread with butter might be a good place to start. It is always good to use our own intuition and this is how I am using mine. We must think for ourselves – so many people are loosing that skill – I see that in my friends who are now Paleo – their whole lives they ate crap then they read mark’s book and now they are “Paleo” – I’m not saying that is a bad thing but just the fact that they were never able to think for themselves that the food that they were eating was wrong all their lives and these are the kind of people that are incredibly devoted to non grain eating – the people who don’t think and question for themselves – all arguments are rehashed from mark sisson and co’s books/blogs rather than from one’s own mind!
Ally 🙂
All I can find is reasons you shouldn’t be eating grains… I really can’t find any reasons outside this article (nor within this article for that matter). This makes a much better read:
http://theliberatedkitchenpdx.com/gaps/top-10-reasons-to-eat-grains/
What a poorly written and researched article…and then when someone challenges the content the author either doesn’t respond or merely states that it is not so – there’s evidence-based science for you !
It is also illuminating that the author admits to actually be following a low grain diet herself despite advocating grains as being healthful – why don’t you eat a higher percentage of grains in your diet if they are so beneficial ?
The bottom line is that grains contain substances known to be toxic to the human digestive system, but through processing or ‘traditional preparation’ you will remove some of the toxins – sprouting reduces phytic acid, soaking doesn’t ; but there is evidence that wheat lectin actually increases when sprouted !!! It will not however remove the benzoxozinoids that are known mutagens.
Not to mention that grains today are not the same as ancient grains, or even from recent history, as others have mentioned.
If you have now, or have recovered from, an auto-immune disease/ grain allergy why would you take the risk ?
Hi,
I registered for the grain webinar, but didn’t get to watch it, and haven’t received info yet on how to watch the recording. Perhaps the info hasn’t been e-mailed yet, but if it has, I don’t want to miss out on it so I thought I’d check! 🙂 I’m really looking forward to learning about grains as I’m very confused about them right now! Thanks for your great website and information!
Becky
Personally, I want to know how a diet without grains is “limited”. I keep seeing that tossed around like it’s fact; yet with the incredible variety of meats and vegetables and the countless ways in which they can be prepared… I fail to see how we’re “limited”. There’s more than just eggs and bacon out there. (Although I’m a huge fan of both).
Ally… grains = carbohydrates = sugar. Obesity does not equal diabetes and just because you are insulin resistant or type 2 diabetic doesn’t mean you will be obese. It is also nearly impossible to overeat on a high-fat, low carb diet… since fat will leave feeling more satiated for a longer period of time. If you consume a lot of grains, you’ll end up feeling hungrier sooner and since grains aren’t all that nutritionally dense, you’ll eat more than you should to keep from feeling hungry all the time. After all, I take a look at what is supposed to constitute a full serving of “hearthealthywholegrain” cereal and I think “I’m supposed to eat less than a cup of this in one sitting and feel full?” Have you ever just ate one serving of grains and said to yourself “Boy, I’m FULL! I couldn’t possibly eat another bite!”? Of course not… and to top if off, even if you eat your fill, you’ll be hungry again in a couple of hours.
I have yet to see one compelling argument for eating grains. They are completely unnecessary and even potentially harmful to our health. I want everyone who agrees with the author of this article to think about the logic being presented:
“Get off grains to heal the damage they caused, then once you’re all healed, go back to eating them to start the damage cycle all over again… you can just heal yourself by going back off of them for a while”.
How about eliminating them and as a result, eliminating the damage they cause forever?
Ally, If you’re sick of eggs, eat something else. Personally, I eliminated grains not only to recover my digestive and joint health, but also to get control of my blood sugar swings. Type II Diabetes runs rampant in my family (though, I do not have it yet, Thank God!), and selectively choosing my carbs, and eliminating grains and starchy foods is the only way to keep my blood sugar from swinging out of control. Given the fact that I just don’t have time to properly prepare grains before eating them, eliminating them is just better for my health. I can get the health benefits from grains, and stay completely satisfied, with other foods, so there is just no need for me to eat them. I don’t miss them at all.