Should You Eat Grains On A Raw Food Diet?

It is no secret that we as a species consume a lot of cereal grains.  It’s in our breakfast, our lunches, our side dishes and entrees.  It’s in our Mexican, Italian, and Chinese staples.

Grains even make up most of our favorite snacks and desserts.

And according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society, this is a good thing.  These institutions feel that “whole” grains, such as wheat and brown rice, should be the foundation of a healthy diet.

Do you wanna know what I think?  (Since you’re reading my blog, I’m going to assume that you do.)

The USDA, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society are completely WRONG.  You do NOT need grains to be healthy.  In fact, it will serve you well to completely eliminate them from your raw food diet.

Would You Eat Them Raw?

Seems like a silly question, but bear with me here for a moment.

If you were out in the wild foraging for food and you came across a field of wheat, would you be inclined to it some?

Would your mouth water at the sight of uncooked, unprocessed, unseasoned wheat kernels?

For the 1% of you who answered yes, I have to wonder about the possible fowl genetics present in your lineage. ;)

On a more serious note, eating raw grains is not just unappetizing to the human palate.  In Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet, Dr. Douglas Graham writes:

"At best, raw grains taste unpleasant and bitter, even when they are sprouted.  More often, they are inedible or poisonous if eaten in the field.  Even birds, the only natural grain eaters, feed their young on insects, as grains are deficient in protein and nutrients."

On the other hand, ripe fruit is instantly appealing to our senses.  It’s beautiful to look at.  Its smell makes us salivate.  It gives nicely in our hands.

Last but not least, fruit tastes wonderful.  What sane person can honestly resist a perfectly ripe peach or a fragrant muskmelon?

What About Cooked Grains?

You may be thinking that cooking grains is a better option than eating them raw.

Think again.

When a complex carbohydrate food such as wheat or barley is heated, the molecules of the food are fused together into a glue-like substance.  Even though cooking has broken down the complex starches into simple glucose, the body must do extra work to process the now chemically fused molecules.

This presents a huge problem in terms of blood-sugar levels.  In Left In the Dark, authors Graham Glynn and Tony Wright write:

"Carbohydrates also appear to be problematic when eaten in large amounts.  A diet high in carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates (cakes biscuits, pasta, etc.) dumps large amounts of glucose rapidly into our bloodstream.  This can cause insulin resistance in which the absorption of glucose from the bloodstream is disrupted.  This in turn can lead to obesity, adult onset diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and strokes."

And a little further down the page:

“If we compare refined carbohydrates with fruit we can see that fruit has a much lower glycemic index, which means it is digested more slowly thus avoiding the problems of the ‘glucose rush.’”

But that’s not all!  Here are some more problems associated with eating cooked grains:

• Migraines
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Depression
• Crohn’s disease
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Autism

But Humans Have Been Eating Grains For Thousands of Years!

While 10-30,000 years may seem like a long time to we humans with a mere 100-year life span (at best), it is but a flash in the pan evolutionarily speaking.

Here is an excerpt from Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution on the increased consumption of grains since the Neolithic Period (when humans settled down and began farming extensively):

"Becoming dependent on grains reduced intake of fruits and vegetables, often 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."

Quite simply, we have not been consuming a diet high in grains long enough for our anatomy and physiology to have adapted to them.

And anyway, grains do not fulfill our nutritional needs as fruits and vegetables do.  For instance, they are very low in vitamins A, B, and C and sodium and calcium.

This is why when you pick up a box of cereal or whole wheat pasta, you will often see  “Fortified with,” preceded by a host of vitamins and minerals that have been added to the product.

Not only that, but certain properties in grains affects absorption of vital nutrients within the body.  It is now known that grain consumption decreases Vitamin D absorption.

And while many proponents of a grain-based diet site fiber as a reason to indulge, there is a huge caveat here.  You see, the fibers in grains are not water-soluble like those present in fruits and vegetables; they are insoluble.

This means that they lack the ability to absorb water and move comfortably through the body.  Think of a harsh bristle brush slowly making its way down your digestive track.

Yikes!

Leave It To the Birds

In short, there is no reason for you to consume grains.  Raw or cooked, they are completely inferior to raw fruits and vegetables.

If you are having trouble consuming enough calories on a raw food diet, there is no need to turn to sprouting grains…or legumes for that matter.  Simply increasing your consumption of sweet fruit until you feel satisfied will do the trick.

Remember, fruit always comes first.