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Friday, March 27, 2009
Beat Carbohydrate Addiction with the No-Grain Diet
What were your thoughts when you first heard about the No-Grain Diet?
Yes, it may sound extreme and radical but it’s not another fad diet.
If you have trouble sticking with a strict diet or if you find it extremely difficult to suppress your food cravings, then the no-grain diet may be just what you need.
Dr. Joseph Mercola explains that when he uses the term “no-grain,” he is not speaking solely about grains; he expands no-grain to include all forms of grains, starches and sugars that promote weight gain, food addiction and health problems.
The No-Grain Diet emphasizes that grains and sugars are a dieter’s worst enemies when it comes to weight loss and living longer.
For Dr. Mercola, overcoming carbohydrate addiction is one of the most important keys to optimal health. He explains that fats shouldn’t be blamed when people gain weight and get fat; the real villains are grains, starches and sugars.
Why Most Diets Just Don’t Work
Majority of diets fail because of the cravings for grains and sugars. Foods like bread, pizza and cookies have caused a lot of people to abandon their diets due to grain addiction.
The Atkins' diet tried to solve this problem by promoting a reduced carbohydrate diet. As a result, many people started to believe that all carbs are bad. However, it was the bestselling book The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet by Drs. Rachael and Richard Heller which first drew attention to carb addiction and its associated health dangers.
But despite their sound diagnosis, the Hellers’ food plan was ineffective because for them, it was still okay for dieters to eat ample quantities of grains, starches and sweets for a brief period every day.
Dr. Mercola explains that diets fail because you just return to your old habits after doing the diet. This is not to say that you lack the willpower; it's simply because you’re just following what your body is telling you to do because of the cravings.
The Advantages of the No-Grain Diet
The common misconception about the no-grain diet is that one has to stop eating all types of carbohydrates. Mercola explains that quality high-carbohydrate foods such as whole grains and potatoes are not necessarily bad for everyone. However, people who need to lose weight should completely avoid all carbohydrates at the beginning.
Whole grains can be healthy – if you are at your ideal weight. But if you have been struggling with your weight for the longest time, it's most likely that they aren't healthy for you, especially if you’re eating processed breads, pastas, and cookies rather than healthy grains like quinoa, teff, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth.
Therefore, the first step is to eliminate all grains, starches and sweets from your diet. This will help reorient your body's signals to help you lose weight and get fit.
One of the flaws in the Atkins' diet is that it promotes excess animal protein consumption, which hinders your ability to lose weight and keep it off in a healthy and sustainable fashion.
The no-grain diet addresses this concern and helps dieters incorporate a wider range of healthier foods than other diets. Dr. Mercola recommends the consumption of more organic foods and vegetables, and guides dieters in selecting the right source of proteins, which is crucial to any successful and long term weight loss program.
With the no-grain diet, you'll also learn about the Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT, a psychological acupressure method. EFT will help you get rid of your remaining grain and sugar cravings. Once you permanently overcome your grain and sugar addiction, you effectively eliminate the biggest obstacles to weight loss.
Dr. Mercola has applied the principles of the no-grain diet for over a decade on thousands of patients with a high success rate. Slowly but surely, more scientific studies are supporting the no-grain diet’s teachings, bringing hope to those suffering from obesity and carbohydrate addiction.
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Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wheat Bread Is Not a Healthy Food
Bread symbolizes life and nourishment. It would be hard to look at it in another way. Since 1990, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines have recommended the daily consumption of 6 to 11 servings of bread (though the government’s food pyramid doesn’t say the types of grains you should include in your diet).
The Bleached Truth about White Bread
White bread is made from wheat flour without the bran and the germ, and is often bleached to remove any yellow coloring and extend its shelf life.
Flour mills use nitrogen oxide, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl, benzoyl peroxide and various chemical salts as chemical bleaches. Chloride oxide is particularly worrisome because it combines with the residue protein left in the flour to form alloxan, a poison used to produce diabetes in lab animals. The use of chloride oxide strips the flour of vital wheat germ oil. The process of making the flour white also destroys half of the good unsaturated fatty acids and virtually kills all of the nutrients.
A study done by the University of California’s College of Agriculture revealed that when the wheat germ and bran are removed, the entire vitamin E content is lost and almost 50 percent of calcium, 70 percent of phosphorus, 80 percent of iron, 98 percent of magnesium, 75 percent of manganese, 50 percent of potassium, 65 percent of copper, 80 percent of thiamin, 60 percent of riboflavin, 75 percent of niacin, 50 percent of pantothenic acid and about 50 percent of pyridoxine are also destroyed.
So, aside from tasting bland, the white bread you get is left with only poor quality proteins and fattening starch.
The Many Hazards of Eating Wheat
Many consumers have become aware of the many deficiencies of white bread and are now buying wheat bread instead, believing that it is more nutritious and therefore, healthier.
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “whole wheat bread offers a nutritional advantage over white bread.”
This may be true to some extent but according to Dr. Mercola, wheat bread is likely to cause health problems for a lot of people.
It may be hard to believe this at first because of the conventional belief that organic whole grains are healthy for everyone. Even Dr. Mercola agreed to this theory as a med student and it was only after 15 years of research outside of medical school that he learned that grains — even organic whole grains, and especially wheat — are a major reason why many people get sick from a wide variety of diseases.
The main reason why grains should not be considered as health food is that they will typically lead to a rise in your insulin levels. But what happens when your insulin levels increase?
• weight problems
• high blood pressure
• high blood cholesterol
• Type 2 diabetes
• cancer
Wheat also contains mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungus), so matter what the form wheat takes — whole wheat, cracked wheat, sprouted wheat, and so on — they are all capable of causing health problems, including:
• Celiac disease
• rheumatoid arthritis
• miscarriages
• headaches
• infertility
• developmental delay in children
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disorder which has been associated with conditions ranging from diabetes, anemia, short stature, infertility, Down syndrome and diarrhea. Patients suffering from Celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
According to a study done in 32 states, almost 2 million Americans suffer from Celiac disease but majority of the people in the U.S. are unaware of this illness.
Another not-so appetizing fact about wheat: wheat flour is used to make glues for book binding and wall-papering and is also the key ingredient for paper mache mortar.
For Dr. Mercola, one of the most important changes you can make to your diet is to limit or if necessary, completely eliminating wheat from your diet. This will also benefit your weight loss efforts. You can also find out what foods to eat and which ones to avoid by identifying your Nutritional Type.
The Bleached Truth about White Bread
White bread is made from wheat flour without the bran and the germ, and is often bleached to remove any yellow coloring and extend its shelf life.
Flour mills use nitrogen oxide, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl, benzoyl peroxide and various chemical salts as chemical bleaches. Chloride oxide is particularly worrisome because it combines with the residue protein left in the flour to form alloxan, a poison used to produce diabetes in lab animals. The use of chloride oxide strips the flour of vital wheat germ oil. The process of making the flour white also destroys half of the good unsaturated fatty acids and virtually kills all of the nutrients.
A study done by the University of California’s College of Agriculture revealed that when the wheat germ and bran are removed, the entire vitamin E content is lost and almost 50 percent of calcium, 70 percent of phosphorus, 80 percent of iron, 98 percent of magnesium, 75 percent of manganese, 50 percent of potassium, 65 percent of copper, 80 percent of thiamin, 60 percent of riboflavin, 75 percent of niacin, 50 percent of pantothenic acid and about 50 percent of pyridoxine are also destroyed.
So, aside from tasting bland, the white bread you get is left with only poor quality proteins and fattening starch.
The Many Hazards of Eating Wheat
Many consumers have become aware of the many deficiencies of white bread and are now buying wheat bread instead, believing that it is more nutritious and therefore, healthier.
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “whole wheat bread offers a nutritional advantage over white bread.”
This may be true to some extent but according to Dr. Mercola, wheat bread is likely to cause health problems for a lot of people.
It may be hard to believe this at first because of the conventional belief that organic whole grains are healthy for everyone. Even Dr. Mercola agreed to this theory as a med student and it was only after 15 years of research outside of medical school that he learned that grains — even organic whole grains, and especially wheat — are a major reason why many people get sick from a wide variety of diseases.
The main reason why grains should not be considered as health food is that they will typically lead to a rise in your insulin levels. But what happens when your insulin levels increase?
• weight problems
• high blood pressure
• high blood cholesterol
• Type 2 diabetes
• cancer
Wheat also contains mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungus), so matter what the form wheat takes — whole wheat, cracked wheat, sprouted wheat, and so on — they are all capable of causing health problems, including:
• Celiac disease
• rheumatoid arthritis
• miscarriages
• headaches
• infertility
• developmental delay in children
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disorder which has been associated with conditions ranging from diabetes, anemia, short stature, infertility, Down syndrome and diarrhea. Patients suffering from Celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
According to a study done in 32 states, almost 2 million Americans suffer from Celiac disease but majority of the people in the U.S. are unaware of this illness.
Another not-so appetizing fact about wheat: wheat flour is used to make glues for book binding and wall-papering and is also the key ingredient for paper mache mortar.
For Dr. Mercola, one of the most important changes you can make to your diet is to limit or if necessary, completely eliminating wheat from your diet. This will also benefit your weight loss efforts. You can also find out what foods to eat and which ones to avoid by identifying your Nutritional Type.
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Truth about Grains and Your Health
Ever wondered what our ancestors ate? Generations of humans survived primarily on meat from wild animals and whatever edible vegetation they can gather. Agriculture was born when man finally learned how to till the soil.
Now, from being a hunter and a gatherer, man now grows 17 plant species to provide majority of his food needs. Approximately 17 plants species provides 90 percent of the world's food supply. Six of the top 10 are all grains: wheat, corn (maize), rice, barley, sorghum and oats.
Imagine how the world could support its current six billion inhabitants and the estimated 12 to 15 billion people expected during the next century without plant-based foods.
Food grains are rich in carbohydrates, providing you with the energy you need to function. Grains also deliver B vitamins, iron, fiber and some phytonutrients.
Carbohydrates are generally grouped into two types: simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates come from sugars while complex carbohydrates are starches from whole grains, beans, nuts and vegetables.
A common (and unhealthy) misconception is that you need a lot of carbohydrates in your diet. The truth is you can survive without eating carbohydrates. Just take a look at Eskimos. They thrive by having a diet composed of high-quality protein, fat, water and minerals.
The carbohydrates from vegetables are preferable than those from grains. Most grains should be avoided because grain carbohydrates increase insulin levels and interfere with the body’s ability to burn fat.
The USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid recommends 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta – all grain foods – per day.
Does this mean that the nutritionists have gotten everything backwards about grains?
This may sound contrary to everything you’ve learned and believed about diet and nutrition but if you want to experience optimal health – to stay fit and avoid disease – you should severely limit, or may even need to entirely eliminate, grains from your diet.
Go Against the Grain
From an evolutionary point of view, the simplest explanation is that man’s body was not designed to consume grains.
Humans began consuming grains and sugars only 6,000 years ago. That’s how “recent” grain consumption is in relation to our total dietary experience. Man may have been eating grain foods for "millennia," but millennia is still a very short period in the overall timeframe of human existence. The estimated amount of genetic change which has occurred in the human genome over this time period is negligible, meaning modern man’s genes have remained largely unchanged and are still essentially the same to that of pre-agricultural man.
In terms of diet, this shows that modern humans are most ideally suited to eating the same types of food which were available to pre-agricultural man, like lean muscle meats, limited fatty organ meats, and wild fruits and vegetables, and not grains, legumes or the high-fat meat of modern domesticated animals.
When man learned agriculture, he secured the world’s food supply but he paid a very high price: his health would never be the same again because he began eating food that his body wasn’t designed to consume.
As a result of the agricultural revolution, modern humans began experiencing illnesses and health problems which their hunter-gatherer ancestors never had to deal with, including: infectious diseases, reduced stature, bone abnormalities and diseases, tooth problems, iron-deficiency anemia, and a shorter life span, among others.
The numbers don’t lie: in America, two-thirds of the population is already overweight and the obesity epidemic is rising. A key factor in these developments is poor diet, including the high consumption of grains and sugars.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, a leading natural health expert and author of New York Times bestseller The No-Grain Diet, has called grains and sugars as the main enemies to losing weight and living longer. But Mercola is not the only health professional advocating this seemingly radical stand. Over the last decade, a number of doctors and nutritionists have broken away from the accepted belief that grains are important for your health.
This site was launched to educate people about proper diet and nutrition and provide information on how to live healthy, eat right, lose weight and fight disease based on the “no-grain philosophy.”
It’s time to break free from the bondage of “grain gluttony.” If you want to experience a long-lasting positive change in your health, follow the nograindiets blog over the next few weeks for more articles and relevant information.
Now, from being a hunter and a gatherer, man now grows 17 plant species to provide majority of his food needs. Approximately 17 plants species provides 90 percent of the world's food supply. Six of the top 10 are all grains: wheat, corn (maize), rice, barley, sorghum and oats.
Imagine how the world could support its current six billion inhabitants and the estimated 12 to 15 billion people expected during the next century without plant-based foods.
Food grains are rich in carbohydrates, providing you with the energy you need to function. Grains also deliver B vitamins, iron, fiber and some phytonutrients.
Carbohydrates are generally grouped into two types: simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates come from sugars while complex carbohydrates are starches from whole grains, beans, nuts and vegetables.
A common (and unhealthy) misconception is that you need a lot of carbohydrates in your diet. The truth is you can survive without eating carbohydrates. Just take a look at Eskimos. They thrive by having a diet composed of high-quality protein, fat, water and minerals.
The carbohydrates from vegetables are preferable than those from grains. Most grains should be avoided because grain carbohydrates increase insulin levels and interfere with the body’s ability to burn fat.
The USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid recommends 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta – all grain foods – per day.
Does this mean that the nutritionists have gotten everything backwards about grains?
This may sound contrary to everything you’ve learned and believed about diet and nutrition but if you want to experience optimal health – to stay fit and avoid disease – you should severely limit, or may even need to entirely eliminate, grains from your diet.
Go Against the Grain
From an evolutionary point of view, the simplest explanation is that man’s body was not designed to consume grains.
Humans began consuming grains and sugars only 6,000 years ago. That’s how “recent” grain consumption is in relation to our total dietary experience. Man may have been eating grain foods for "millennia," but millennia is still a very short period in the overall timeframe of human existence. The estimated amount of genetic change which has occurred in the human genome over this time period is negligible, meaning modern man’s genes have remained largely unchanged and are still essentially the same to that of pre-agricultural man.
In terms of diet, this shows that modern humans are most ideally suited to eating the same types of food which were available to pre-agricultural man, like lean muscle meats, limited fatty organ meats, and wild fruits and vegetables, and not grains, legumes or the high-fat meat of modern domesticated animals.
When man learned agriculture, he secured the world’s food supply but he paid a very high price: his health would never be the same again because he began eating food that his body wasn’t designed to consume.
As a result of the agricultural revolution, modern humans began experiencing illnesses and health problems which their hunter-gatherer ancestors never had to deal with, including: infectious diseases, reduced stature, bone abnormalities and diseases, tooth problems, iron-deficiency anemia, and a shorter life span, among others.
The numbers don’t lie: in America, two-thirds of the population is already overweight and the obesity epidemic is rising. A key factor in these developments is poor diet, including the high consumption of grains and sugars.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, a leading natural health expert and author of New York Times bestseller The No-Grain Diet, has called grains and sugars as the main enemies to losing weight and living longer. But Mercola is not the only health professional advocating this seemingly radical stand. Over the last decade, a number of doctors and nutritionists have broken away from the accepted belief that grains are important for your health.
This site was launched to educate people about proper diet and nutrition and provide information on how to live healthy, eat right, lose weight and fight disease based on the “no-grain philosophy.”
It’s time to break free from the bondage of “grain gluttony.” If you want to experience a long-lasting positive change in your health, follow the nograindiets blog over the next few weeks for more articles and relevant information.
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Sunday, March 1, 2009
Dr. Joseph Mercola
Dr. Mercola is a well-known physician and a multiple New York Times Bestselling Author. He started his website, Mercola.com, in 1997, and it has become the world's #1 Natural Health site. Dr. Mercola is a recognized, licensed Physician and Surgeon in the state of Illinois. He first opened his practice outside Chicago in 1986 and has treated over 20,000 patients.
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