This week’s Baby Step is One Grain-Free Meal.
It’s time to begin the transition into a grain-free diet.
A major part of gut healing and eliminating chronic inflammation is to remove grains from your diet.
This change may be temporary (a full healing diet usually takes 1-3 years), or you may decide to avoid grains forever!
Grain-Free Meal
This week, your challenge is to eat one meal every day with no grains or seeds in it. Make that meal homemade, organic (if possible), and try to stay away from processed foods.
Tips
- If you’re not used to eating grain-free, don’t make this the main meal of the day.
- Choose high quality meats and fats.
- Include adequate fat to give you energy and to help you feel satisfied at the end of the meal.
- Eat starchy foods such as potatoes if you are very active or if feel something is missing during the transition.
- If a full meal is too big of a step, make a grain-free snack instead.
Why Grain-Free?
Seeds, including grains, are funny little things. They are packed with nutrients, fiber, and can provide a lot of energy.
They are also filled with anti-nutrients that can cause inflammation and rob our bodies of vital minerals, such as magnesium. Extensive processing is required to reduce these anti-nutrients.
The fiber that grains contain is damaging to an already impaired digestive system. Also, eating them regularly can dampen digestive fire. The very thing we’re trying to build back up with a healing diet.
It’s estimated that at least 80% of our immune system is located in the gut, or GI tract, so it’s no wonder that most of our illnesses stem from gut issues.
We will expand on the topic of the anti-nutrients found within grains, seeds, and nuts when we go fully grain-free. For now, just know they can work against us when trying to heal from chronic illness.
Foods to Avoid (alphabetical)
Amaranth, buckwheat, chia seeds, corn (maize), flax seeds, millet, oats (oatmeal), quinoa, rice, rye, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, sorghum, teff, wheat [einkorn, farro, kamut, spelt, triticale], and wild rice.
Bread, cereal, couscous, crackers, flour, granola, gravy, pastas, pitas, pretzels, popcorn, tortillas. This is not a comprehensive list and care must be taken to read labels on processed foods. Making a meal from scratch and with whole foods will save you time reading labels and trying to remember what all the grain products are.
If I forgot one, share it in the comments!
Meal Ideas
- Beef Stew (without added flour to
- thicken gravy, can use tapioca starch/cassava flour in place of flour)
- Chili (over baked or mashed potatoes if extra starch needed)
- Grilled steak with roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans
- Roasted chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and salad
- Beef roast with assorted roasted vegetables
- Bun-less hamburgers with a mountain of extras – tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, avocado, sour cream, salsa, cheese (if you eat it; no cheese substitutes!), mushrooms, etc.
- Eggs with sausage or bacon and berries
- Smoothie – possible ingredients: whole grass-fed milk or milk alternative like coconut milk, yogurt, milk kefir, ice, fruit (avocado, banana, berries, etc.; note – frozen bananas and avocados are a great thickener and dairy alternative), just add water to thin as needed.
Snack Ideas
Final Notes
Don’t get in the habit of replacing your grain-filled goodies with grain-free knock-offs. These substitutes aren’t usually healing foods and can set your progress back or even prevent it from starting. Those foods should be reserved for occasional treats and special occasions.
It also interrupts the process of learning to listen to your body for answers on what to eat for your best health.
Now get out there and enjoy some fantastic food!
Photo Credit: Patrick Hoesly, Jennifer Nervo
DETOXIFICATION
IMMUNE SUPPORT
IMMUNE SUPPORT
THYROID SUPPORT
ADRENAL SUPPORT
HEALING RESPONSES
6 Responses
This is the hardest part for me to process. Recently I added chia and flax into my families diet for the extra nutrients/fat/amino acids, etc. It’s so hard to figure out the ‘right’ thing to do. I keep on adding stufff I think is going to be goid then find out it’s not and feel so defeated! (Soy, agave syrup, etc. over the yrs)
Oh, another big one is sunflower seed butter! My 7 y/o is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts so she gets sunbutter sandwiches every day. 🙁
Just focus on variety one meal at a time, and you’ll be there before you know it. 🙂
I’ve gone through the exact same process over the years. I would think of it as healing in stages. I consider agave and soy to be leaps and bounds above high fructose corn syrup (or “corn sugar” as they’re calling it now) and fast food. They may not the most ideal of foods, but they’re way better for you than frozen, packaged diet dinners. I’d say you’re on the right track!
I think adding in the seeds (preferably sprouted) once or twice a week should be fine. Focus on improving digestion, and you won’t need to reach as far or wide for good food choices. If you can properly break down and absorb the nutrients in everything you eat, then you’ll notice a big difference without reaching for superfoods (and give your pocketbook a break in the process).
So how do you get the nutrients that grains have if you don’t eat grains. And it’s even more challenging when your nursing. I have to nourish my baby. So how do I do that?
There are no nutrients exclusive to grains. You can search whfoods.com for other food sources of the nutrients you are looking for and consume larger amounts of those foods. Eating a wider variety of food will help to ‘fill in the blanks’ that many of us deal with when eating a diet of only a few foods. Grain-free diets are temporary for some as they heal and a life-long way of life for others. It’s all based on bioindividuality and how you feel eating different foods.