If you’re feeling a little confused about whether you should try out a grain free diet, or are wondering why everyone went from talking about the “low fat” diet to the “no carb” diet, you’re not alone.
There’s been a huge shift in mainstream nutrition recently after realizing the downside of the low-fat diet. Although it raised a lot of awareness about saturated fats and their link to cardiovascular disease, unfortunately the low-fat diet idea lead to people eating a lot more carbohydrates. And, ironically, eating too many carbs usually ends up with them being converted to fat and stored away in your body.
The Most Popular Grain Free Diets:
- Paleo Diet –this diet matches the foods that humans ate before we figured out how to grow our food and keep animals during the agricultural revolution. It excludes all grains but allows starches like yams, sweet potatoes, yucca, etc for athletes. Dairy and legumes are also excluded in the paleo diet.
- Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) – this diet excludes grains and starchy foods, but allows certain kinds of homemade dairy that are lactose free and some legumes. The theory behind this diet is that sugar molecules from partially digested grains, starches and milk sugars feed bad bacteria in our guts. These bad bacteria then cause a host of issues by damaging the lining of our guts and sending toxic substances into your bloodstream, body and brain.
- Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet – This diet is based on the SCD but has a slightly longer, stricter introduction to the full therapeutic diet that is focused on giving the gut more time to heal. There are also some differences with it’s approach to dairy.
Ok, now that you have the run-down on the different ones out there, you’re probably wondering if any of them are for you.
Top Reasons To Consider a Grain Free Diet:
- You have colitis, Crohn’s disease or another inflammatory bowel condition
- You have autism, schizoprhenia, ADHD or a similar condition affecting your nervous system
- You have recurring yeast infections more than 3-4 times each year
- You have PCOS, diabetes or another condition where your blood sugars are imbalanced
- You have an auto-immune condition or severe inflammatory disorder
- You’re curious to try it out! You don’t need to have a health issue to explore a new diet and you never know what you’ll discover along the way.
If any of these hit the mark for you, then it’s worth considering taking a break from grains. You’ll notice that I didn’t put weight loss on the list. This is because I personally don’t like to recommend these drastic diet changes as a first step for weight loss. Instead, I truly believe that weight loss ALWAYS happens naturally once you’re eating foods that match your body’s needs and bring in other key lifestyle changes.
Of course, none of these diets are one-size-fits-all and your body will respond in it’s own unique way. If you do decide to try it, you’ll want to give it at least 3-4 weeks to get an idea of whether the diet is working for you or not. It’s a pretty big mission but with support and some prep work beforehand, it’s definitely possible to go into it feeling 100% ready. And enjoy the experience!