Are Grains Really Good For You?

So far I have been reading and learning. I have read a lot about grains actually NOT being good for you - much to my surprise!

Here is something for you to read and ponder that I found online.....



I have a question that stems from talking with a nutritionist and Drs..

The following quote kinda sums up my question I guess.

"We have had several people starting problems

arguing about how soy and grains (or other illegals, such as sucralose)" are

good foods;

Why are the soy and grains not good? What makes them bad? In other diets

such as that are gluten free, some grains are allowed. But on other diets they are not.

And does leaving all grains out put you at a risk of not

getting enough carbs and will it lower your energy level?


The answer:

A good question.

It's good to point out that grains and soy aren't edible in nature

without processing and so it's safe to assume we haven't eaten them for

millions of years. Only since the advent of agriculture we started to

rely on grains for our food supply. That was a huge mistake. There are

several reasons why grains and soy are bad:


Grains are in fact a large supply of starch, surrounded by a kernel.

Starch decomposes (digests) into maltose and isomaltose in the

intestines, which then decompose into glucose. You can look at it this

way. When you take a slice of bread and crush it in your hand, you are

virtually eating that amount of refined sugar. The problem is that that

amount of sugar elevates the bloodsugar levels amazingly fast and

causes your pancreas to produce lots and lots of insulin to metabolise

it. Humans are not adapted to eat such amounts of concentrated

carbohydrates and the pancreas (and adrenals) aren't fit to the job.

Over time one will develop insulin resistance, hypoglycemia, diabetes

II. Another problem is that the immune system crashes when your

bloodsugar levels increases to high levels. It takes *hours* for the

the immune system to recover fully.

Another problem with refined grains is that it's void of minerals and

vitamins, which are needed to properly digest and metabolise the huge

amount of starch. So, each time you eat a slice of bread, your body

needs to take minerals and vitamins from its limited stores to digest

and metabolise it. Over time, you will develop deficincies of these

vitamines and minerals.

You could eat the grains unrefined, but then a lot of antinutrients

will remain. Antinutrients are substances that bind to essential

vitamins and minerals, making them worthless or impossible to absorb

from the digestive tract.

So, either way, refined or unrefined, grains will cause problems.

Further, many grains contain a lot of allergens which upset your immune

system and causes the development of allergies. Imagine this: Humans

have never in their evolution of millions of years eaten grains and

now, since only 4.000-10.000 years ago, we are relying on this food.

Our genes aren't adapted to these foods. Grains are in fact

incompatible with humans (and also dogs and cats and many mammals).

Soy beans aren't edible raw and they are full of antinutrients and

substances that act like hormones in the human body. Eating soy can

cause women to have menstruations that last 2 days longer than normal

and are much more painful.

Another problems with grains and soy bean it that they can't be eaten

raw, which only allows us to eat them cooked. Cooking often destroys the vitamins and

minerals in foods. The more you eat raw, the better you will feel. Note - YES, you can eat meat RAW,

though it is not recommended (YUK). But just to know that it is not a food that HAS to be cooked.

I forgot perhaps the most important reason why grains are bad: They are

very hard to digest properly. As I said above, they need to be digested

in two phases. First, the starches, which are very long chains of

carbohydrate molecules, must be seperated into small pieces consisting

of 2 glucose molecules. This is called maltose (or isomaltose). Next,

the intestines need to produce enough enzymes (maltase) to digest the

maltose into the elemental glucose molecules. As you see, quite a lot

of work.. The problem is that the human body isn't fit for this job and

a part of the starch isn't absorbed and descends into the large

intestines, feeding critters, causing inflammation, gasses, damage to

the wall of the intestines, and other problems.

Compare this to fruit and honey, which are predigested foods. They

primarily contain glucose and fructose, which don't need to be digested

at all and can be absorbed painlessly by the intestines. Because

everything is easily absorbed it can't feed the critters.

I bet there are even a dozen more reasons why grains and soy are bad

but I think these are the most important.

As for the problem of not getting enough carbs: You can get them from fruits and vegetables,

especially root vegetables (except for white potatoes), nuts and seeds.

By the way, on http://www.healingcrow.com there are some great articles

on this topic. Check it out.