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
I don’t see the benefit of eating grains in this article. Why should I eat grains when I can get the same nutrients and benefits from vegetables, fruits, and nuts and I can avoid phytic acid?
I highly recommend the book Primal Body, Primal Mind. It will explain a lot. Unfortunately, I (still) cannot tolerate grains and haven’t eaten them for a year now. My children eat them in limited amounts but do better when I can manage to feed them protein and fat. I just wonder, if even though “traditional cultures” ate grains, what about the eons before that when no grains were consumed?
Hi Sarah
Years ago I bought a baking book called Baking Bread: Old and New Traditions by Beth Hensperger.
Many of her bread recipes involve what she refers to as a ‘sponge’. Is this the same as ‘soaking’?
Sarah,
8 months ago I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. My husband and I decided to make our home gluten free. We have seen many health improvements – weight loss, elimination of reflux, etc. A few months ago we both became more interested in optimizing our health further through diet, and I discovered WAPF and have dug in further to more reading and research. We have been eating a Traditional Foods and Gluten Free diet for about 2 months now, and the results seem to be pretty amazing (continued weight loss and health improvement, etc.).
I have read on several of your blog entries that you now purchase your sourdough bread from the store. As I am a gluten-free Celiac, can you recommend a GF bread at the store? I am still new to Traditional Foods and although I am very committed, I do still find the amount of time I’m spending in the kitchen a bit overwhelming. We would LOVE to make a sandwich once in a while, or have a piece of toast with some butter! A source for GOOD, HEALTHY gluten-free bread would be GREAT!
PS I do also plan to buy the purchasing guide from WAPF
You could, but why bother? The nutritional value of grains is questionable at best. Fiber does nothing to benefit your gut, and in fact may hasten it’s destruction. Wheat is not poisonous to certain people… it’s poisonous to everyone… the only difference is how quickly and to what degree the effects are noticed.
My head is spinning from all of these comments…eat grain…don’t eat grain…I think one point that we’re missing here is addressing biochemical individuality. One way to know that you are eating right for your metabolic type is that you maintain a healthy weight and don’t have digestive discomforts or other discomforts such as joint pain, migraines and rashes. However, I know we have put ourselves at higher risk of food intolerance now because of the Standard American Diet and have trashed our digestive tract. The optimal ratio of MacroNutrients (Carbs, Fats, Proteins) can look different for each individual. I also think one’s ancestry plays a huge role in what you can tolerate as well. One persons food truly can be another person’s poison. In my home, we eat a balanced, varied diet – and we are all healthy (thank God) maintain a healthy weight and free of disease – this includes my 66 year old mother. I am however intrigued with some of Sarah’s teaching about preparing grains and legumes and making stocks and fermenting foods – will have to give it a try.
Good for you, Nickole. The more you read, the more you’ll realize that grains (especially modern wheat) are not only unnecessary on our diets, they can actually be quite harmful. Some people are more susceptible than others… but why risk all the harmful side effects? Bottom line: you don’t need grains in your diet and if someone tells you that you should be eating them, politely tell them you don’t feel like destroying your gut.
I just started reading Wheat Belly and it does seem to make a lot of sense. I just read all these comments and I am just so thankful that you guys are discussing this b/c it really does help me in my confusion about wheat. I am going to continue to read this book for sure now. I think the author has a lot of insight.
Nickole
If you need more convincing:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/wheat-gluten_b_1274872.html
Ally… you would be surprised. The glycemic index of whole wheat bread is higher than table sugar… and yes, this bread is whole grain. Even some candy bars have a lower glycemic index than whole wheat bread. Carbs (regardless of their source) are readily and easily converted to glucose, provoking an insulin response. The damage caused by grains (especially today’s mutant varieties) is easily avoided… so why put yourself in that situation? The more research I do, the more convinced I am that grains are not necessary and after eliminating them from my diet, I do not crave them.
I will agree that not all carbs are created equal. However, what carbs you do eat is best obtained from fresh vegetables and some fruits. We were never evolved to eat grain and since we’ve only been eating them for about 10,000 years, we have not evolved to properly digest them. Some people are extremely fortunate and don’t have the same kind of insulin response to grains that most of us experience. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to get yourself a glucose meter and measure your levels after eating a meal of grains. For me, grains are definitely off the list… and it’s time for me to reverse all the years of “low-fat high-carb” nonsense that have left me obese and quite possibly insulin resistant.