The No-Grain diet is based on the idea that grains and sugars are "enemy number one to losing weight and living longer."
Instead, The No-Grain diet emphasizes organic vegetables and quality protein.
It's true that refined grains - such as white bread, white rice and many breakfast cereals - contain many calories, but without the fiber, vitamins, and minerals found in whole-grains.
In other words, they're energy-dense but nutrient-sparse.
But it's worth pointing out that there's a difference between whole grains and refined grains.
Eliminate sugar, sweets, starches, grains and you will drop the pounds - so says The No-Grain Diet. This diet is based on the idea that meals high in grains, sweets, and starches promote elevated insulin levels, causing you to become hungry soon after you have just eaten. This is referred to as a "grain addiction" - when the cravings trigger you to eat more of the "wrong foods" and a harmful cycle ensues. The No Grain Diet also claims to help to reverse diabetes and help prevent other chronic diseases.
"Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Overweight, hungry, diabetic, and fat-free
Let me tell you about my low-fat experience from 20 years ago.
At the time, I was living in Cleveland, Ohio, and served on the faculty at a large metropolitan university-affiliated hospital, supervising fellows-in-training and developing high-tech cath lab procedures like directional athererectomy and excimer laser coronary angioplasty. (Yes, another life.)
I was concerned about personal heart disease risk, though I knew next to nothing about lipids and coronary risk prediction outside of the little I learned in training and what the drug industry promoted.
I heard Dr. Dean Ornish talk while attending the American College of Cardiology meetings in Atlanta. Dr. Ornish spoke persuasively about the dangers of fat in the diet and how he "reversed" coronary disease using a low-fat, no added oils, no meat, vegetarian diet that included plenty of whole grains. So I thought I'd give it a try.
I eliminated all oils; I removed all meat, eggs, and fish from my diet. I shunned all nuts. I ate only low-fat products like low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese; and focused on vegetables, fruit, and whole grains. Beans and brown or wild rice were a frequent staple. I loved oatmeal cookies--low-fat, of course!
After one year of this low-fat program, I had gained a total of 31 lbs, going from 155 lbs to 186 lbs. I reassessed some basic labs:
HDL 28 mg/dl
Triglycerides 336 mg/dl
Blood sugar 151 mg/dl (fasting)
I became a diabetic. All through this time, I was also jogging. I ran on the beautiful paths along the Chagrin River in suburban Cleveland for miles north and south. I ran 5 miles per day most days of the week. "
Mozambican Grass Seed Consumption During the Middle Stone Age
Julio Mercader
Science 18 December 2009:
Vol. 326. no. 5960, pp. 1680 - 1683
DOI: 10.1126/science.1173966
The role of starchy plants in early hominin diets and when the culinary processing of starches began have been difficult to track archaeologically. Seed collecting is conventionally perceived to have been an irrelevant activity among the Pleistocene foragers of southern Africa, on the grounds of both technological difficulty in the processing of grains and the belief that roots, fruits, and nuts, not cereals, were the basis for subsistence for the past 100,000 years and further back in time. A large assemblage of starch granules has been retrieved from the surfaces of Middle Stone Age stone tools from Mozambique, showing that early Homo sapiens relied on grass seeds starting at least 105,000 years ago, including those of sorghum grasses.
After much consideration into this blog's new name in the light of my new direction, the decision has been made.
"Free the Animal"
Why? First, if you read that post linked above, you know that my health and fitness approach is perfectly in harmony with my philosophical approach; and hence, my approach to politics and all that. In other words, a big part of the reason I have discovered something that truly works; and moreover, is the simplest, most natural, downright fun way of living: that gets you lean and fit; gets you feeling and sleeping great; and gets you looking years and years younger is precisely because I don't believe in the gods of heaven or earth, we evolved over millions of years and are conditioned by survival pressures that in no way include all vegetable diets, gorging on bottled water all day, eating ground grass seeds (grains and derivatives) running on a treadmill or elliptical, or involving ourselves in social schemes and cons that leave us powerless, with no influence, and at the mercy of the crowd and collective (the cannibal pot). Some have a lot of the pieces and do good work. I have all of the major pieces, though acquiring all of the specifics is a lifelong and never-ending journey of discovery. I will focus on essentials and specifics that really matter to me and others living a normal life in pursuit of survival, prosperity and happiness. I will point to other sources that provide more depth in specific areas that are of interest to only some
Vegetarianism is the practice of following a diet based on plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds, with or without dairy products and eggs.[1] A vegetarian does not eat meat, game, poultry, fish, crustacea, shellfish, or products of animal slaughter such as animal-derived gelatin and rennet.[1][2][3] A vegan diet is a form of vegetarian diet which excludes all animal products, including dairy products, eggs, and honey. A lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy products but excludes eggs, an ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs but not dairy products, and a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet includes both eggs and dairy products. Vegetarianism may be adopted for ethical, health, environmental, religious, political, cultural, aesthetic, economic, or other reason
A 1999 metastudy[22] combined data from five studies from western countries. The metastudy reported mortality ratios, where lower numbers indicated fewer deaths, for fish eaters to be .82, vegetarians to be .84, occasional meat eaters to be .84. Regular meat eaters and vegans shared the highest mortality ratio of 1.00. The study reported the numbers of deaths in each category, and expected error ranges for each ratio, and adjustments made to the data. However, the "lower mortality was due largely to the relatively low prevalence of smoking in these [vegetarian] cohorts". Out of the major causes of death studied, only one difference in mortality rate was attributed to the difference in diet, as the conclusion states: "vegetarians had a 24% lower mortality from ischemic heart disease than nonvegetarians, but no associations of a vegetarian diet with other major causes of death were established."[2
When I hear the word 'antioxidant', our mind would immediately pictured the many benefits behind this grain of strawberry fruit. In addition to antioxidants, strawberries also contain vitamin C, no less with oranges. folic acid, fiber, potassium, and ellagic acid.
"Aug. 31, 2009 -- Eating a Mediterranean-style diet may help people with type 2 diabetes keep their disease under control without drugs better than following a typical low-fat diet.
A new study from Italy shows that people with type 2 diabetes who ate a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables and whole grains with at least 30% of daily calories from fat (mostly olive oil) were better able to manage their disease without diabetes medications than those who ate a low-fat diet with no more than 30% of calories from fat (with less than 10% coming from saturated fat choices).
After four years, researchers found that 44% of people on the Mediterranean diet ended up requiring diabetes medications to control their blood sugars compared with 70% of those who followed the low-fat diet.
It's one of the longest-term studies of its kind, and researchers, including Katherine Esposito, MD, of the Second University of Naples, say the results "reinforce the message that benefits of lifestyle interventions should not be overlooked.""