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Jul 15, 2024 · Legumes: Beans, lentils, and other non-grain legumes. Healthy fats: Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and other non-hydrogenated oils. Grain-free flours: Coconut flour, almond flour, and tapioca flour are famous for baking and cooking. These foods are chosen for their lack of grain content and, in many cases, for being whole and unprocessed.
free foods are often made with substitutes like potato starch and tapioca that can make blood sugar spike. • Gluten-free versions of foods have been shown to have more calories, sodium, and sugar than their regular gluten-containing counterparts, and often carry a higher price tag too.4 Real, whole grain foods are a better choice.
Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat, rye, and barley. A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes gluten completely. Many people have an allergy or intolerance to gluten. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by gluten. Gluten intolerances used to be relatively uncommon but are now becoming more commonplace.
- Overview
- What is a grain-free diet?
- How to follow a grain-free diet?
- Benefits of a grain-free diet
- Potential downsides
- Foods to eat
- Foods to avoid
- Sample menu
- Easy grain-free snacks
- The bottom line
Grains are a staple in most traditional diets, but a growing number of people are cutting out this food group.
Some do so because of allergies or intolerances, while others opt for a grain-free diet in an attempt to lose weight or improve their health.
This way of eating is said to offer various health benefits, from improved digestion to reduced inflammation and blood sugar levels. However, it may also have drawbacks, and it may be unsuitable for some.
This article takes a critical look at a grain-free diet, including its benefits and potential drawbacks.
A grain-free diet eliminates all grains, as well as foods that come from them.
This includes gluten-containing grains such as:
•wheat
•spelt
•barley
•rye
To follow a grain-free diet, you need to avoid eating all grains, as well as grain-derived foods. This includes:
•bread
•pasta
•muesli
•oatmeal
•rice cakes
May help treat certain health conditions
A grain-free diet is most commonly followed by those with certain autoimmune diseases, and several studies support its use in these cases. For example, celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects around 1% of the Western population. It causes your body to mistake gluten, a protein in wheat, as a threat, sending your immune system into overdrive (1). This can lead to gut inflammation, which in turn can cause severe nutrient deficiencies and other digestive concerns. People with celiac disease must exclude all gluten-containing grains from their diet (2, 3). Similarly, some people are allergic to wheat and must avoid all foods containing it. Others may be intolerant to gluten or other compounds in grains despite not having celiac disease or a wheat allergy. (4). People with such a non-celiac gluten sensitivity commonly report symptoms like stomach pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, eczema, headaches, or fatigue when eating grains and may benefit from excluding them from their diet (5, 6, 7, 8). Finally, in a 6-week study in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), following a grain-free diet improved symptoms in 73% of participants (9).
May reduce inflammation
Grains may contribute to inflammation, which is believed to be the root cause of many chronic diseases. Some test-tube, animal, and human studies suggest a link between daily intake of wheat or processed grains and chronic inflammation (10, 11, 12). However, not all studies agree (13). The lack of consensus may be explained by the type of grain researched. For instance, while refined grains may increase inflammation, whole grains appear to have very little effect on inflammation, and in some cases, may even lower it (13, 14, 15, 16). Plus, cutting out grains may cause some people to naturally increase the quantity or variety of fruits and vegetables they eat — both of which may help reduce inflammation (17, 18, 19). Still, it’s worth noting that whole grains may offer anti-inflammatory benefits of their own. Unless you have celiac disease, wheat allergy, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, you likely don’t need to completely cut out grains to successfully fight inflammation (20).
May enhance weight loss
A grain-free diet may promote weight loss, likely because it’s naturally devoid of processed grains found in calorie-rich, nutrient-poor foods like white bread, white pasta, pizza, doughnuts, cookies, and other baked goods. What’s more, cutting a whole food group out of your diet may reduce your overall daily calorie intake, creating the calorie deficit needed to lose weight. Yet research clearly shows that as long as you create a calorie deficit, you will lose weight — regardless of whether your diet contains grains. In fact, evidence suggests that eating whole grains may promote weight loss and boost your metabolism (21, 22, 23, 24). So, cutting out all grains from your diet is not a requirement for weight loss.
May increase your risk of constipation
A diet devoid of grains, particularly fiber-rich whole grains, may limit your intake of fiber. Unprocessed grains are a particularly good source of insoluble fiber. This type of fiber adds bulk to your stools, helping food move through your gut more easily and reducing your risk of constipation (33). If you’re following a grain-free diet, try increasing your intake of fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds to lower this risk (34).
May limit nutrient intake
Whole grains are a good source of nutrients, particularly fiber, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, and selenium (35, 36, 37). On the other hand, processed grains, whose bran and germ have been removed, lack most of their fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial plant compounds (38). Studies show that unnecessarily following a grain-free diet may increase your risk of nutrient deficiencies, particularly in B vitamins, iron, and trace minerals (39). You may be able to prevent this to a certain degree by increasing your intake of pseudocereals like quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat, as these tend to contain many of the same nutrients as whole grains (40, 41, 42). In addition, increasing your intake of other foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, meat, fish, and eggs, can help make up for any nutrients no longer provided by grains.
May be unnecessarily restrictive
Though research supports the benefits of excluding specific grains from certain people’s diets, evidence on the benefits of excluding all grains from everyone’s diet is lacking. Plus, most of the benefits linked to a grain-free diet can be achieved in ways that don’t require cutting out an entire food group. Moreover, excluding all grains from your diet can reduce variety and make your diet unnecessarily restrictive. This may make this way of eating less sustainable in the long term. What’s more, unnecessarily demonizing grains under the disguise of health may serve to promote extreme fixation on healthy eating, which is common in people with orthorexic disordered eating behaviors (43). summary Grain-free diets may limit nutrient intake, increase your risk of constipation, and be difficult to sustain in the long term. Unnecessarily demonizing grains for purported health reasons may also promote orthorexic eating behaviors.
The following food categories can be included on a grain-free diet:
•Fruits. All types of fruit are allowed, whether fresh, dried, or frozen.
•Vegetables. These can be eaten raw, cooked, or incorporated into salads or soups. Starchy vegetables like potatoes, squash, and fresh corn are good, carb-rich alternatives to grains.
•Protein-rich animal products. This category includes meat, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt.
•Protein-rich plant foods. Legumes, tofu, tempeh, edamame, natto, soymilk, soy yogurt, and mock meats devoid of grain-based ingredients can be enjoyed on a grain-free diet.
•Pseudocereals. This includes quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth.
Grain-free diets generally exclude the following food categories:
•Most baked goods: grain-based breads, bagels, tortillas, tacos, pizza, etc.
•Most pastries: grain-based doughnuts, cookies, croissants, muffins, etc.
•Most noodles: pasta, rice noodles, ramen noodles, udon noodles, etc.
•Breakfast cereals: muesli, oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc.
•Grain-based flours: all-purpose flour, graham flour, corn flour, and rice flour, as well as all foods made from them
Day 1
•Breakfast: egg or tofu scramble with plenty of vegetables and homemade hash browns •Lunch: salad topped with your choice of veggies, cooked amaranth, smoked tofu, or salmon, and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing •Dinner: coconut-lime curry with shrimp or marinated tempeh on a bed of cauliflower rice
Day 2
•Breakfast: smoothie made with milk (or a plant-based, grain-free alternative), frozen mango, flax seeds, spinach, and an optional scoop of protein powder •Lunch: hearty pumpkin, carrot, and white-bean soup topped with roasted cashew nuts •Dinner: oven-baked sweet potato topped with chili, fresh corn, chopped lettuce, guacamole, and salsa
Day 3
•Breakfast: mini breakfast quiches with spinach •Lunch: bun-less meat or veggie burger, topped with roasted peppers, hummus, avocado, and a side of buckwheat pasta salad •Dinner: spiralized zucchini noodles topped with a meat or tofu Bolognese sauce, roasted pine nuts, and Parmesan or nutritional yeast summary A well-balanced grain-free diet can include a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes, as well as some meat, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy.
Here are a few simple yet nutritious grain-free snack ideas to tide you over between meals:
•fresh fruit with yogurt
•trail mix
•chia pudding
•flax crackers with olive tapenade
•smoothies
Though limiting certain grains may benefit some health conditions, cutting out all grains is unnecessary for most people and can even be detrimental to your health.
Plus, the purported benefits of a grain-free diet can often be achieved in ways that don’t require cutting out an entire food group from your diet.
Oct 10, 2023 · 7-Day Grain-Free Meal Plan. Following the success of my Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan, this grain-free plan includes a grocery list and daily menu to help you succeed in removing grains from your diet. There’s a variety of recipes in this meal plan from zucchini noodles (instead of pasta) and crunchy cabbage wraps (instead of tortilla shells ...
Mar 31, 2024 · A grain-free diet may offer several health benefits. A grain-free diet may help treat certain health conditions. Those with certain autoimmune diseases most commonly follow a grain-free diet, and several studies support its use in these cases. For example, celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects around 1% of the Western population.
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gluten-free diet. 4. A pseudograin and grain-free diet is superior to a gluten-free diet for management of autoimmune disease. KEYWORDS Grains, pseudograins, prolamins, glutelins, leaky gut, molecular mimicry, gluten. 1 Department of Standards, Paleo Foundation, Encinitas, CA Correspondence Karen E. E. Pendergrass Department of Standards, Paleo
