Are wholegrains healthy?

[foreverondiet]

I always thought yes, as that's what we've all been taught.

I've just read wheat belly and now I am angry / confused / enlightened ......

In a crux - modern (dwarf) wheat is differs from ancient wheat, it highly addictive, not actually good for us or particularly nutritious and even wholegrain wheat has similar GI to white grain and sugar.

www.amazon.co.uk/Wheat-Belly-Davis-William-MD/dp/1609611543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329748000&sr=8-1

Has anyone else read this book?

"Also, I don't think meat was particularly rare (and certainly not if you include fish) in the victorian diet,"

Nothing was out of reach for the wealthy. However, for the average person, both meat and sugar have been luxuries for a long time. You've only to read Dickens' gruel-laden stories to appreciate that.

ummm I find a lot of what is written on this thread a bit bollocky. I read a large study about the atkins diet that concluded that people lose weight because they eat less calories (basically there is only so much fat you can eat before you start feeling sick).

But that said I was ill for four years with ME. Totally ruined my life, lost my job, couldn't look after my kids properly it was hell. People always thought I was pregnant as my tummy would swell (and I wasnt particularly big - size 10ish) . i could barely walk the dog without needing to rest for a few hours. Then someone told me to give up wheat to see if that made a difference.

cut it out totally for two weeks (including spelt as a type of wheat), read every label to see what was in it and by day 10 I was completely better.

I made a few mistakes and would get ill almost instantly for a about a week. Tried gluten free wheat bread that made me very ill.

so now I eat no wheat, rye, spelt and am 100% well.

won't work for everyone though but wheat has been fucked about loads since the 70s (spliced and the amount of gluten has gone up loads), also we eat so much more of it than years ago (I can remember spaghetti being a real rarity).

I would recommend anyone who felt that something they were eating was effecting them badly to completely cut out everylast molecule for two weeks. No improvemnet, start eating again, if better go and talk to your GP and check it's not a bad thing to cut out and find alternatives for.

ps paleo man only had a life expentancy of about 35 years...

Dickens's stories were not typical though, he specifically over egged it for political reasons, and remember the cratchits weren't going without meat when they got the turkey, they were just making do with goose for example. Typical working class diets had lots of meat - see "From plain fare to fusion food: British diet from the 1890s to the 1990s" for details of how common meat was in 1890, with even the poorest getting a fair bit (often for the poorest what we would now think of as offal)

tralalala Another misconception - life expectancy at birth of 35 years, when you have very high infant mortality means you get quite a lot of people much older than 35. In fact 35 would be an unusual age to die because you need to balance the very large numbers of child deaths.

but I think life expectancy is worked out excluding under 5's

Bear in mind that roughly one in 20 of us (assuming we're female) will get bowel cancer, it's one of the top killers in the UK, and a high intake of whole grains has a well-proven association with lower bowel cancer rates. High red meat intake has the opposite association and strangely, according to Cancer Research, the jury's still out on fruit and veg.

.

sorry - I was wrong, but if you do take away those that die before the age of 21 life expectancy waws still only 41

My mum grew up during WW2 and had very little meat and almost no sugar. Stacks of bread, potatoes, vegetables though.
They were all stick thin but never hungry. Even after the war and much later when I was growing up (70's) meat was a very rare treat because it was too expensive. We ate piles of bread and spuds. Only one girl in the school was chubby (and compared to today she would be svelte!)

Yes Skirata but I worked in the one of the first Burger bars in the 70s and that's when the rot began along with the universality of car ownership.

I say that but my ILS were both obese and never ate a burger in their lives !! plenty of meat and bread, potatoes,cakes cheese though etc. so you can't prove much from that they were both type O though!!

I think the answer is 'who knows

That's interesting tralalala as that is what I've had for 12 years now. Don't feel unwell after eating anything in particular though I don't think.
Perhaps I'll be brave and try going wheat free for a while.

yeah good on yer sols!! It may make all the difference!!

I would have thought the clue was in the word, grains: it's not healthy to eat a huge amount of any single food. Get a variety. A bit of whole grain wheat, fine. Whole grain wheat daily as a major source of calories, risky. Oats, barley, rye, quinoa, buckwheat, maize, amaranth, there are lots of whole grains to choose from. Not just wheat.

Solo - Poor you. 12 years .

if you do it, do it properly. Otherwise there is no point. If I eat some soya sauce (with wheat) in it I am bollocked for days. So make sure you eat not a molecule for 2 full weeks.
I really hope you get something to ease it. Having had flu for 2 weeks I have been thinking alot about people who have ME. good luck (unMn hug for you)

Thank you. Not sure when I'll start but I'll certainly mull it over a while.
I did do, well actually, I started a particular diet for research purposes with St Bart's and it cut out sugar and wheat amongst other things and I had to give it up as I found it sooo difficult to follow....but we'll see :)

Just go to the supermarket and buy loads of gluten free stuff, it isn't that hard. i can give you a week of meals if you want ideas!

I know if feels ominous but if it makes a difference so worth it. I hardly miss it now and I am a real foodie

Is it expensive to do? I have a very small weekly food budget.

I use whole rice flour and it's good for white sauces and used with plenty of cocoa and molasses, (which is very cheap and a healthy alternative to sugar) and a little syrup makes good brownies (if you feel deprived of cake!!) I'll give you the recipe if you want. IMO and E there's a very good variety of flours in most H.F. shops (the stuff is not all expensive).

I avoid wheat and cows milk as a drink...and some cheeses and no soya.
I feel loads better for it.

I think it's very much each to their own and ensuring there are no underlying health issues, something I think many overlook.

Solo - it doesnt have to be more expensive. gluten free pasta is OK priced, bread is pricey and a bit shit. You're better off eating loads of pototoes,oats, rice instead of the more expensive alternatives. For a week you could eat:
porridge for breakfast (or rice crispies or cornflakes) but porridge fills you up
lunch: rice and veg, baked pots, leftovers of dinner, rice cakes or oats instead of bread.
dinner: fake pasta, meat and two veg, fish and two veg, lentils and rice, cottage pie, stir fry with rice or rice noodles,

snacks: fruit, chocolate (just not stuff like twixes with wheat in), rice cakes, oat cakes

good luck

Tra it sounds pretty grim to me...:( might give it a miss for a while until I pluck up the courage to eat things I really don't want to and get in the mood for it.

E.G. solo you can make yr. own chinese with rice flour dusted chicken. (my rice flour pancakes are NICER than the wheat ones DH said !!!). Some people who are wheat intolerant CAN eat rye bread and that's like normal good brown wheat bread chewier and nicer than the white! It makes good toast too Sainsbos sell it you just have to go by yr reactions.

Maybe when you feel strong enough as trala says cut out ALL carbs for a couple of weeks and reintroduce gradually checking yr reactions.

Trala some people are not good with oats either are they?

I eat Jordans each morning for breakfast which has both wheat and oats in it, though I think the wheat content is much less than the oats. I only have a tiny amount, but would be loathed to stop eating it for my first meal of the day.