Going Grain Free

After eating a Paleo diet for six months, I've decided it's time for my children to join me.  My husband has gone gluten free, which is a start.  The next few months the blog will be dedicated to all types of writing, as usual, but I also plan to track our eating adventures pretty closely.  I will also dedicate a series of posts to why I decided to pursue grain-free living and condense the immense amount of research I've conducted into shorter posts.  And, while I don't believe there is one-size-fits all to much of anything in life, especially clothing, I understand different types of eating work for different individuals.  After extensive research and real-life experience, this is what I believe best fits my family, and I'm simply sharing the knowledge I've gained and the experiences we are encountering with you.

So, grain-free....that means no beloved goldfish, pasta, bread, quesadillas, cakes, cookies, pies, and the list seems endless.  Why would anyone give up soft, chewy, delectable rolls?  Aren't grains government-approved and endorsed as the crux of the American diet?  There are so many questions to cover that it seems overwhelming, which is why this will require several posts.  So first things first, why grain free?

I gave up bread and most grains almost two years ago and have never looked back.  Bread doesn't even appeal to me anymore now that I've read the science behind what excessive carbohydrates can do to your body.  I've never felt better.  My skin's never looked better....well....pre-puberty but whose didn't?  So part of the reason I've decided to take my children on this journey with me are the results I've seen in my own health markers such as energy level, sleep pattern, mood, weight, and many others.

I'd quickly like to address the food pyramid side of this, too.  It would be nice to think that the government created the food pyramid in a nice little, sound, scientific bubble, but that's simply not true.  The government creates no legislation or policy in a vacuum.  Not to rain on anyone's parade, but a lot of interest groups contributed to the contents of the current and previous food pyramids: the dairy industry, meat industry, grain industry, pharmaceutical industry, and all of these industries, though, we'd like to think they have our best interests at heart, they actually have a different bottom-line in mind, their own.  I'm a conservative, free-market, capitalist-loving girl, but I'm not blind to the influences that business and other interest groups (conservative and liberal) have on governmental policy.  If you'd like to learn more on how the food pyramid was decided or would like to learn more about food policy, Death By Food Pyramid, The Calorie Myth, and Fast Food Nation, among I'm sure many others, are good sources.  Be warned, though, you'll never look at a McDonald's combo the same.

I hear the grumblings.  Who do I think I am to try and completely overhaul the way my readers think about the Standard American Diet?  I'll admit that I am no expert, but in the past year, I have read over 30 books on nutrition.  Some were written by cardiologists, some by neurosurgeons with degrees in nutrition, as well, some were written by biologists, some by journalists, and some by nutritionists.  Please know, these books were not all written from a pro-Paleo perspective.  Most of the research I did was to prove that grain-free must be a scam.  Please don't tell me life without pasta is good for me.  Mama Mia!!  It's like the atheist who sets out to disprove the Bible and ends up an ardent follower of Christ.  The harder I tried the more the evidence I discovered that our American diet full of refined grains, refined sugar, and high omega-6 vegetable oils is most likely the culprit in our U.S. obesity/disease epidemic.  In fact, most research agrees that some version of the basic Mediterranean or Paleo diet offer the best health results.  The diets have in common that they focus on vegetables, fish, meat, healthy oils, and very few to no refined grains, refined sugar, and hydrogenated oils.

My entire nutritional perspective has been turned on its head.  For example, saturated fat and cholesterol aren't the enemy.  In fact, fat, the right kind, and cholesterol are good.  Pick your chin up off the floor, I'm serious.  For years and years, the belief was that bread made you fat then we were told to put down the steak, eschew the butter, and pick up a box of refined, vitamin-fortified carb-loaded Special K with orange juice.  Ancel Keys is to thank for the shift in perspective.  In the 1950s he studied diets and heart disease in 22 countries where he found that six of the 22 countries showed a link between dietary fat and heart disease.  He garnered a great deal of press, including a Time magazine cover story.  (Interestingly 64 years later, in 2014 Time ran a retraction of sorts, which stated "We were wrong about saturated fat.")  Keys selectively picked data that supported his hypothesis and in turn, transformed the way a society thought about nutrition and heart disease.  He adamantly believed that fat contributed to heat disease.  But, when all 22 countries were examined, there turned out to be no relationship between fat intake and heart disease death.  Other scientists taking the same data could have selectively selected six other countries and proven that eating more fat decreases the risk of dying from heart disease (Bailor).

Even the American Medical Association declared, "The anti-fat, anti-cholesterol fad is not just foolish and futile....it also carries some risk."  In fact, there is an alarming correlation between the government's recommendation to consume more grains and the increase in diabetes and obesity rates in the United States  Regardless, fat's new role as public enemy number one continued culminating in a government recommendation for low-fat, high starch diets (The Calorie Myth, Bailor).  Cholesterol has also been touted as a heart killer but recent studies are disproving this, as well.  In fact, cholesterol is critical to normal brain function.

Two very well-respected studies are helping to shed light on the fat myth.  The Nurse's Health Study has tracked the dietary habits of 90,000 nurses over twenty years.  It has shown no statistically significant association between total fat or cholesterol intake and heart disease.  The Framingham Heart Study has also shown a link between LOW cholesterol intake and an increased risk of dementia.  In fact, those who had the highest cholesterol levels scored higher on cognitive tests than those with lower levels (Perlmutter, 34).  Scientist are discovering that it is actually inflammation not cholesterol that is the real culprit behind heart disease (more on this in later posts.)

So, exactly what's so bad about too many carbs and about the wrong carbs.  Well, here's the short, I'm not a scientist version.  Excess body fat is a direct reflection of the amount of insulin produced in the diet, combined with a genetic predisposition to store fat.  Moderate insulin is good, too much is not so good.  Insulin delivers nutrients to the cells.  When insulin levels are elevated we accumulate fat in our fat tissue; when these levels fall, fat is used for fuel.  Insulin levels are mostly determined by the carbohydrates we eat.  According to George Cahill, former professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, "Carbohydrate is driving insulin is driving fat" (Taubes, 231).  When your liver and muscles become filled with glycogen, any glucose remaining in the bloodstream that isn't used by your brain or muscles gets converted into triglycerides and sent to fat cells for storage.  When blood insulin levels are high, insulin signals the fat cells to hold on to fat and not release it for energy (Sisson, 73).  So, obesity is a hormonal imbalance rather than one of too many calories in, too few out.  Our bodies are intricate chemistry labs not algebraic equations.  The "stimulating of insulin secretion is caused by eating easily digestible, carbohydrate-rich foods:  refined carbohydrates, including flour and cereal grains, starchy vegetables, and sugars, like sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup.  Those carbohydrates literally make us fat, and by driving us to accumulate fat, they make us hungrier and they make us sedentary" (Taubes, 243).

Notice, I didn't say all carbohydrates cause this.  High quality, high-fiber carbs found in vegetables do not contribute to this phenomenon.  Low-carb mostly means fewer or no grains and replacing those with vegetables and seasonal fruits, plus adding protein from grass-fed beef and pork and wild-caught seafood, and by replacing hydrogenated vegetable oils, including canola, with coconut and olive oil.

So, this is the science-y part condensed from thirty books into a blog post.  I haven't covered specific effects of grains like gluten in this post, though.  I'm saving that for later.  My recent experience with a complete eating overhaul coupled with the extensive scientific research, including a host of well-respected researchers from Harvard, John Hopkins, etc., has led me to make the decision to change the way my family eats, too.

I used to think that what I ate didn't really affect me that much.  Because we often don't notice negative health effects until they sneak up on us years later, we often don't make the connection between what we eat today and our health in ten years, but I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it does matter.  My breakfast this morning not only affects my mood in three hours, it also impacts my health in one year.  There is a direct connection between what goes into my mouth and my health.  In fact, weight control is 80 percent diet and just 20 percent exercise.  Eighty percent!!  So, I've broken it to my kids that we are ditching the goldfish and chex mix and replacing them with beef jerky, fresh berries, and cheese slices.  Too many studies have linked diet to ADHD, mood, inability to focus, and overall health for me to sit quietly by and allow my children to continue down the road of the Standard American Diet.  I know I'm going to be known as the crazy homeschooling, Paleo momma, but I don't care.  I'm ready to endure the whining until my little ones also start to realize the benefits of healthier, cleaner eating., and I have no problem with the stares I receive when I say I no longer eat bread. In fact, after two years, I've grown quite accustomed to the "bless her" head shake.  So, stay tuned to our adventure.  Coming soon, I'll share my research on gluten, eating local, the importance of choosing grass-fed animals, etc.  Plus, I'll share recipe disasters and successes, like my recent Coconut Cream Pie with a divine almond flour crust.  I look forward to sharing this journey to a healthier family with you.


List of books I've read (but not all) which include sources for this article:


The Great Cholesterol Myth Jonny Bowden
Brain Maker David Perlmutter
Why We Get Fat Gary Taubes
The Primal Blueprint Gary Sisson
The Calorie Myth Jonathan Bailor
Wheat Belly William Davis
Death By Food Pyramid:  How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics, and Shaky Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health Denise Minger  (Come on, the title of this alone makes it worth the read:)
Eat Like a Dinosaur Stacy Toth
Real Life Paleo Stacy Toth
Against All Grain Danielle Walker
The Homegrown Paleo Diana Rodgers
The Paleo Diet Loren Cordain
Good Calories, Bad Calories Gary Taubes
The Paleo Solution Robb Wolf
Perfect Health Diet Pail Jaminet
The Paleo Manifesto John Durant
Grain Brain David Perlmutter
It Starts With Food Dallas and Melissa Hartwig