Getting Off The Grain Train

If I told you that delicious looking cinnabon or whole wheat bagel had millions of tiny shards of glass in it, would it still be appealing enough to eat? Yes? How about rat poison? Still yes? Geezy pete. Ok, how about this: Would you feed it to your loved ones? (If your answer is yes, stop reading, please. You need more help than I can offer.) Am I being dramatic? Of course! But also…NOT AT ALL.

 
Why…What is in that delicious treat you just consumed? I am not worried about the FAT (stay tuned, Amy!), or the calories (you too, Patsy!). You totally get a free pass on the load of carbohydrates you just ingested. Ohhhh wait, it’s because you needed the carbs for your hour on the elliptical watching Ellen at the globo-gym? (I hope my sarcasm is not lost in cyberspace. And btw I like Ellen; she is a decent dancer and pretty dang funny.)

 
Today, we talk about GRAINS (insert scary music here). Despite what you have been told since you were a mere babe, grains are NOT GOOD FOR YOU. I have spent oh, about 5700 hours trying to figure out the best way to approach this post (new weird Mal-factoid: 57 is my favorite exaggerating number. You will see it again.). What I am attempting to do here is impart upon you the seriousness of what grains can do to your health, without getting overly complicated, long-winded, scientific, or putting you to sleep (LISA!).

 
Enter: my dramatic glass shard/rat poison example. Grains do not want to be consumed. In order to keep other things from doing so, they have built in defenses. You learned about such things beginning way back in elementary school. (Even if you weren’t listening-but hey, I’m sure that wasn’t your fault…) Think about butterflies with ‘eyes’ on the wings, a porcupine’s quills, squid and their spraying ink, and the oils in poison ivy. Grains have defenses which attempt to save their little grain-souls (no, I don’t think grains have actual souls. Come on, now.). The defenses which are found in grains essentially lead to destruction of the things which consume them. (Ahem, YOUR INSIDES!) Things such as: GLUTEN, leciten, and toxic anti-nutrients…to name a few. These are the glass and rat poison that I referred to. Grains like wheat, rye, barley are leeching these toxic properties into your digestive track (and beyond). Here, they rub like sandpaper, poke holes that remain there and begin to catch particles like little dish drains, cause inflammation, block absorption of essential nutrients, and more. The consumption of grains and this damage to your (one and only) body is being scientifically connected to devastating health issues that you wouldn’t even begin to imagine: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, diverticulitis, rheumatoid arthritis, infertility, dementia, sleep disorders, and depression…to name a few. Below, you will find links to articles and posts which I sincerely (hey, I can be sincere…buttheads!) urge you to follow. If you want to take my word for it- that rocks, I will do my darnedest not to lead you astray. (I am a genious. The spelling error is for emphasis.) But for those of you who find the proof in the pudding, you are going to have to get out there and start reading, listening, and learning. Make an informed decision based on what you feel makes sense. I promise that the more you learn, the more convinced you will become that grains, particularly wheat, are something with which you want NOTHING to do. If you eat them, grains may be wrecking your health, whether you realize it or not. I’m not getting religious here, but from hence forth if you would associate grains with a nasty dude in red with a gargantuan, recently sharpened pitchfork, that would be excellent. Plus, they are a definite no-no in CFR’s paleo challenge…so you better get used to the idea(=

 
Start Clicking:
Wheat: the nicotine of the food industry? Listen to this podcast in the car on the way to work, or while whipping up some delicious meat in the kitchen.
Paleoisthttp://crossfitretribution.com/_wp/wp-admin/post-new.phpa : Both grains and legumes contain anti nutrient properties. While growing from the ground, these very components serve to protect them from pesticides and predators, but when we ingest them, they work against us by adhering to many of the vitamins and minerals in our food, preventing us from properly absorbing them and causing microscopic tearing in the intestines, thus increasing intestinal permeability.
Over time, ‘leaky gut’ syndrome ensues, whereby proteins are able to leak into the peritoneum causing inflammation, infection and subsequently a whole host of maladies throughout the body, NOT just in the GI tract but also in the body as a whole.
This helps set the stage for acne, joint pain, exacerbation of auto immune disease, chronic fatigue, IBS, colitis, Crohn’s disease, cancers and so on and so on and so on. Copyright © 2010-2011 Nell Stephenson. All rights reserved.
Mark Sisson is one cool dude. Who doesn’t do gluten.
From Health-Bent. Another Site you will love! (recipes!)Grains have evolved to possess a host of compounds designed to discourage consumption. They don’t want to be eaten! When you consume grains you are ingesting toxins. These “anti-nutrients” wreak havoc on your gut lining (can block absorption of nutrients you need) and are associated with auto-immune disorders among other things. Beans and legumes contain many of these compounds as well. Grains have only been an available food source for humans for about 10,000 years…a mere blink of the eye compared to our 2+ million years of existence.
Dr. Loren Cordain- scientific but worth the time. “…because of the dissonance between human evolutionary nutritional requirements and the nutrient content of these domesticated grasses, many of the world’s people suffer disease and dysfunction directly attributable to the consumption of these foods.”
My paleo, your paleo. “Among the paleo advocates listed here (perhaps not surprisingly), there is also consensus regarding most of the foods that one should avoid.”
Grains are bad. Robb Wolf can tell you 1 zillion reasons why.

Until next time…
Mallory

 
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