How interesting! I have a meat-eating friend who swears by the paleo diet, but as a vegan, I just don’t get it.

I am totally with you! We are all so different that it’s impossible to impose one diet to all people. My diet is mostly grain-free and I rely on quinoa and buckwheat and that seems to work for me. I’ve noticed rice (even brown rice), corn and wheat don’t agree with me. It’s all about experimenting and realising what works and what doesn’t.

Thanks for sharing! Have a lovely weekend!

xx

Being gluten and corn intolerant I completely understand the health benefits of going grain free.
Although, I’m not sure the paleo dieters are 100% accurate in their belief that “A relatively recent addition to the human diet, grains can be difficult to digest and hard for the body to handle.”
You mentioned yourself how rice is an Asian staple and corn a staple in Hispanic cuisine.
Also, the grains used in bread making in ancient custom involve fermenting. Traditional Naan and Injera both use fermented dough which eases digestion to a degree.
Anyway, I do think that reducing grains for anyone is a step in the right direction, as long as more veggies and fruit replace the reduced grains.

Such a great lesson to learn, to listen to your own body to see what works best for *you*.

I actually have been discovering this more and more myself lately. I have a degree in nutrition, so I know better than anyone that fruit is really great for you. But I also know that fruit just doesn’t work well with me – I too have trouble with blood sugar imbalances and for my body most fruit, with it’s simple sugars, just wreaks havoc on my system. I eat it and I just don’t feel good afterwards. After years of feeling guilty that I ‘should’ be eating fruit I finally decided what I should be doing instead is what makes me feel best. In my case it’s getting my dose of vitamins and minerals from vegetables, so that’s what I load up on now totally guilt free.

Here’s to listening to our own bodies!

I totally agree that no one should eat gluten who doesn’t need to avoid it, I certainly wouldn’t if I did feel better off of it and have celiac disease. That being said, I don’t find being gluten-free to be that bad, especially somewhere like Portland which is probably one of the most gluten-free friendly places in the country. I have visited several times and never once felt deprived or felt a lack of places to go to eat a good meal. I was saddened by your statement that being gluten-free might equate to a less quality of life, because it doesn’t. However I see your point on not needing to be gluten-free and so why miss out. I just don’t want gluten-free eating to get a bad rap and wanted to say that Portland is a great place to get GF food.

Great post! I just started a gluten free diet yesterday, mostly looking to help my husband. We both eat the same exact things in the same proportions, but he is overweight and I am skinny. I am really hoping this will be the change my husband needs since his weight did not change at any point in time after switching from SAD to veg to vegan (cholesterol and bp are great tho now). I do all of our cooking (since there is not a single decent vegan meal to be found in our town) so I need to make the change as well. I don’t think I personally have a gluten intolerance, but I am interested in seeing the results.

Amen to that! I can definitely tell the difference when I do less grains, although there is little difference in how I feel if I just eat none. So I go with moderation. My husband, on the other hands, can down refined carbs like they’re his last meal and report no ill effects. Everyone has different sensitivities and a lot is probably genetics and even your countries of origin and what is native to those areas I would suspect.

I really love reading your blog and how open-minded you are despite your strong values. A lot of vegan blogs (P.S. My friend Tashina just went full vegan at LogicalHarmony.net for anyone interested – Just a quick plug) come off really snooty but I find that the paleo ones, while I agree with a lot of it, are just too snobby to read!

My absolute favorite line from this post??? There’s something to be said for quality of life.

Right on!

Also, hear hear on the whole different diets working for different people thing (although I still retain some bodies are better at assimilating certain nutrients from plant foods than others. As much as I wish I felt good on a vegan diet, I just…don’t..boo! Just my experience though…)

I’ve been on a grant diet trial all my life it feels like…and am still on it…here’s hoping!

On a semi-relate and semi-unrelated note (I feel you, Sayward, and the rest of the BA community would be interested in this):
I *just* started a new chiropractic treatment (I have gone through a TON of “traditional” and “non-traditional” treatments for a variety of ailments) and although I can’t really report any major benefit (or non-benefit) as of yet, after one treatment my digestion has already improved. Awesome, right?

Although I am told not to crack my neck or back in between appointments…let me just say I had no idea how addicted I was…sigh…

I think Sayward actually stayed gluten-free after this trial but added *other* grains back. At least, that is my understanding from this post. You can see where she says “and I knew that I already felt so much better after cutting out wheat (THE main grain) and processed sugar” in the beginning of the post. I think she found that cutting out OTHER grains did not have a big effect though and thus wasn’t worthwhile.

As someone who was raised having pasta with my family every Sunday, I’ve found that trying to cut it out from my diet actually makes me feel kind of depressed, not better. There definitely is something to be said about quality of life, and that different diets work for different people. I eat mainly veggies in my diet, but adding in that pasta with homemade tomato sauce meal just makes my whole week.

Quinoa and buckwheat are the 2 I do best with as well – incidentally, they’re not actually grains! They’re “psuedograins”, technically seeds.

I used to have trouble with brown rice and oats, but the last few months I’ve done totally fine with them. I believe I repaired a lot of damage in my gut and that’s allowed me to tolerate a wider range of foods. So who knows, maybe in a year or so you’ll be able to try some other grains again!

Hi Amanda, I also had postpartum-related Candida. I did get rid of it completely using diet and lifestyle, but I had to do a very strict diet that eliminated A LOT (this was back in 2010). I cut all sugar, fruit, carbs, alcohols, vinegars, yeasts, and many legumes. It was really hard but also only lasted a relatively short time. I ate a lot of salads, seaweed, protein powder drinks, and nuts. It sucked!

There are also some anti-candida drugs that are safe for nursing. We were broke and uninsured at the time, but if you have insurance I really strongly urge you to work with a professional. Candida is SUCH an asshole.

Yay! Oh I hope you like it!

Yup! Thanks for all the help clarifying Ginger. I think my wording was a bit confusing in this post.

This whole comment rocks, and the first paragraph is me and D exactly! I can’t go overboard with grains or I start to feel bad. Moderation is everything. Damian is such a bread-head!

Not strange at all! I actually think omnis are the majority here. =)

Just out of curiosity, what part of falafel (minus the pita) has grains? I thought it was just ground chickpeas.

It depends on the falafel, but many of them are not gluten-free. Some use gluten-containing or gluten-contaminated ingredients. Many add flour as a filler/binder.

Slightly off-topic, but I wonder if you’d share a bit of how you knew that you had Candida in the first place? I just can’t figure it out – the list of symptoms on the internet are so general and vague that I’m not sure how to decide if my (also post-partum) feelings of ickiness, fatigue, and inability to lose weight are candida-related.