Get Grain-Free Recipes from the No-Grain Diet

Have you ever imagined eating a grain-free meal? Americans are so used to consuming grains that many people will feel unsatisfied if they don’t get to eat bread, pasta or dessert with their meals.

It also doesn’t help that the USDA Food Pyramid recommends generous servings of bread, cereal, pasta and rice per day.

Eating a diet loaded with grains will increase your insulin levels and impair your body’s ability to burn fat, leading to weight gain, at the very least.

Your so-called “grain addiction” stems the "high" that you get from eating grain products. Grains are essentially comfort foods and produce a spike in your blood sugar, which comes with a corresponding insulin release to compensate for the blood sugar surge.

Eating grains also releases serotonin, a “feel good” neurotransmitter that induces relaxation and a state of wellbeing

Aside from weight gain, your habit of eating grains in every meal will impair your body’s ability to function properly – sapping your energy, give you digestive problems and leave you prone to disease.

That is why you should limit or even entirely eliminate grains from your diet based on your Nutritional Type.

You can break free from this addictive cycle by not eating grains for three days, Dr. Joseph Mercola, DO, explains. The first step is by giving the no-grain diet a shot. You’ll be surprised at the number of delicious and nutritious grain-free recipes you can try.

Here is a sample grain-free menu:

• Breakfast – no-grain pancakes with cinnamon butter, homemade sausage patties (grass-fed beef or bison) and Dr. Mercola’s green juice (the beginner’s juice consists of celery, cucumber and fennel)
• Lunch – energy soup (composed of herbs and vegetables), Asian salad, hearty stew (turkey)
• Snacks – Chicken and vegetable wrap using Romaine lettuce with walnut garlic sauce
• Dinner – Squash spaghetti with tomato meat sauce

At the beginning, you may feel hungry after eliminating grains from your meals. This means you will likely have to adjust the ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates in your diet. Try eating more protein and lesser carbs, or more carbs and lesser fat.

Grain-free recipes are just one part of the no-grain diet. Understanding the no-grain diet principles will help you continually adjust the program so it can work for you. Grab a copy of Dr. Mercola’s No-Grain Diet to get more grain-free recipes and learn how to eat the no-grain way.

The Zone Diet: Just Another One-Size-Fits-All Diet

The Zone Diet, is an eating program popularized by former MIT and University of Virginia biochemist Barry Sears. According to Sears, a person can stay fit if he/she eats meals in which 40 percent of the calories are from carbohydrates, 30 percent from proteins and 30 percent from fats.

Putting it simply, the Zone Diet preaches: eat the butter but don’t spread it on the bread.

Sears' 1995 book, The Zone, sold some 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 14 languages. The Zone promotes “hormonal thinking” when it comes to food, rather than thinking of calories, and blames insulin, not dietary fat, for making Americans obese. According to Sears, people should think of food “not as a source of calories but as a control system for hormones.”

The Zone Diet’s 40-30-30 ratio was designed to control the body’s insulin production and restricts certain carbohydrates which rapidly release glucose – grains, bread, pasta, rice and other starches – in favor of more protein, in the form of lean meat, egg whites, poultry and fish; and includes fats like olive oil, canola oil, macadamia nuts, almonds and avocado.

Sears believes that the human body is genetically programmed for his 40-30-30 carbohydrate-protein-fat ratio. But while the Zone Diet did provide weight loss results for a lot of people, it’s far from being a healthy eating plan.

Here are the reasons why the Zone Diet is just another one of those fad diets:

• The Zone Diet is a one-size-fits-all diet – To become optimally healthy, one has to eat according to his/her unique Nutritional Type, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains. Meaning, some people thrive with more carbohydrates on their diet; others on eating more proteins. Dr. Mercola’s no-grain diet is designed to help people get to their weight ideal weight and prepare them to eat according to their Nutritional Type.
• Faulty nutritional suggestions – While the Zone Diet appreciates the value of omega-3 fats and limiting grains, it has its share of questionable recommendations. For one, canola oil is not best oil. Soy isn’t the healthiest food either. Ice cream, as we know, is loaded with sugar, one of your main obstacles to good health. Eating too much fish exposes people to the dangers of mercury. Also, without fat, the Zone Diet is bound to leave you hungry.
• The Zone Diet is too structured – Many dieters will find it hard to stick to the 40-30-30 ratio when they’re not at home or eating out. If they do find a Zone Diet menu in a restaurant, it’s not gonna come cheap – a five-course Zone meal goes for around $50.The Zone Diet sets specific time intervals for eating, like breakfast within an hour after getting up and dinner within two and a half hours of the prescribed afternoon snack. In the long run, the more structure a dieter has to follow, the more confusion and temptation he/she has to deal with.

Dr. Mercola’s no-grain diet will provide dieters with a totally new dieting experience that is based on time-tested principles. By helping you eliminate cravings, yo-yo dieting and confusion, The No-Grain Diet is the last diet book you’ll ever need.