Low-Carb Living

Lesson 3: What Not To Eat

Grains, Legumes, and Tubers

Grains. Many people find it difficult to imagine a diet free of bread, cereal, pasta, rice, etc. Most of us begin our days with cereal, and include grain products in every meal. The USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid lists a daily recommendation of six to eleven servings of grain products per day. This is the food group from which we are to get the largest percentage of our calories. The problem is, these foods don’t contain the level of nutrients found in an equal number of calories derived from lean meats, fruits, and vegetables. Grains also contain toxins such as phytic acid which interfere with bodily processes such as the absorption of nutrients. Grains are high-glycemic carbohydrates which require our bodies to produce excessive amounts of insulin. We will talk more about why this process is destructive to our health later in the course. See page 110 in The Paleo Diet, for a list of grains and grain-like seeds. We will also talk about gluten-intolerance, or celiac’s disease.

“Increasing dependence on cereal grains as an energy source decreased dietary breadth and necessarily reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables which had been prime foodstuffs throughout primate and hominid evolution. Paleolithic humans commonly obtained 65% of their food energy from fruits and vegetables (often from 50 to 100 individual species over a year’s time), but becoming dependent on grains may have reduced intake of fruits and vegetables to 20% or less of total energy intake. Accordingly access to micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) previously supplied by fruits and vegetables was substantially decreased. Of course, cereal grains also provide micronutrients, but not necessarily those to which human biology became accustomed throughout a multimillion year evolutionary experience during which fruits and vegetables were the overwhelmingly dominant plant foods.”–S. Boyd Eaton, MD and Stanley B. Eaton III.

Grains such as wheat, rye, barley, and possibly corn and oats, contain gluten, a protein that causes an immune response in many people that damages the intestinal lining. Gluten sensitivity or intolerance leads to Celiac Disease that can lead to malnutrition. This condition is widely underdiagnosed. Some affected people experience gas, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, or depression, while others experience no noticeable symptoms. Gluten allergies are the second most common allergy after cow’s milk.

Legumes. Beans, green beans, peas, soy products, and peanuts contain harmful toxins, such as phytoestrogens, lectins, phytates, and protease inhibitors, which interfere with our absorption of nutrients. These toxins serve legumes as natural pesticides and preservatives, but they do not serve us as they perform the same operations within our bodies. Toxins are associated with the development of autoimmune diseases. See pages 110 and 111 in The Paleo Diet, for a list of legumes.

Soy beans contain phytoestrogens which can lead to thyroid disorders, behavioral disorders, infertility, and many other conditions. Soy is particularly harmful to babies and children. Soy-based infant formula as well as cow’s milk-based formula are greatly inferior to human breastmilk. Human breastmilk is a living substance that cannot be artificially created. For more information about the effect of soy products on our bodies, visit Soy Online Services at http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/

Tubers. As with legumes, tubers such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other potato-like vegetables cannot be eaten raw and contain harmful toxins, some of which are not destroyed by cooking. See page 111 in The Paleo Diet, for a list of starchy vegetables.

“As grains, beans and potatoes form such a large proportion of the modern diet, you can now understand why it is so common for people to feel they need supplements or that they need to detoxify (i.e.. that they have toxins in their system)–indeed both feelings are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, we don’t necessarily realize which supplements we need, and ironically when people go on detoxification diets they unfortunately often consume even more Neolithic foods (e.g. soy beans) and therefore more toxins than usual (perhaps they sometimes benefit from a change in toxins).”–Dr. Ben Balzer, family physician.

For more specific information on the toxins found in grains, legumes, and tubers, visit Dr. Balzer’s web page, “Introduction to the Paleolithic Diet,” at http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_b...

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