Question about grains? page

[Atlas]

Are grains considered "bad carbs" if consumed in a small quantities?

Right now I'm slowly in the process of trying out Primal living, and I've continued eating a small portion of grains with meals for now (supplying 20g of carbs from barley, for example). Would this dose of carbohydrates from grain be worse than 20g of carbs from, say, squash? If so, why? Right now it's possible for me to stay around 100g carbohydrates per day even with eating grain, so I'd like some input about how much health damage I'm doing with that.

Thanks for any input you may have!

[Primal Toad]

Grains contain antinutrients which prevents your body from absorbing minerals, gluten and are less nutritional overall compared to veggies. So, yes, squash is a better choice then grains.

[Atlas]

Hm... okay... would the insulin response be the same though?

(Please believe I'm not a troll! I'm really trying to understand this b/c my degrees are in biochemistry and I'm very interested in learning as many details as possible.)

[Vozz]

click here
its a place to start


I googled barley and squash for u

i found barley gi to range from 35 to 50

squash ranged from 0 to 15

so yeah the insulin response would be lower from squash

[elwyne]

(Please believe I'm not a troll! I'm really trying to understand this b/c my degrees are in biochemistry and I'm very interested in learning as many details as possible.)

red flag?

[Vozz]

i am quite curious what a vegan or vegetarian would say on this forum.. what kind of arguments would arise..

debate is good.

is there a post like that from the past?

[Griff]

Grains are poison. It would be better to get your carbs from a non-starchy vegetable source.

[Griff]

Vegans and vegetarians would (and have) flipped their lids on this forum. They probably wouldn't add much of anything helpful to the discussion.

[Atlas]

Thanks to those who responded with links and/or insights.

When I read things like this from MDA:

The bottom line is this: grains = carbs. ...
The best – really the only way – to achieve a low carb, whole foods diet is to ditch the grains. (Your body will be better off without inflammation, the insulin roller coaster, not to mention the constant onslaught of creepy gluten and lectins.) A diet very low or entirely without grains (low-carb) has been shown to decrease risk for problems associated with diabetes, to lower blood pressure, alleviate heartburn symptoms, and shed abdominal fat. Finally, low carb diets have been associated with significant “reductions in a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules.”

my thought is: yes, I agree about low carbs, but it is possible to eat some grains and still eat low-carb. So the specific issue, I guess, is: are carbohydrates the problem or are grains the problem, given that eating 20g of grain carbohydrates with a meal could still be part of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet?

The link with info. about phytates and gluten has provided the best leads so far.

[Suse]

I think the main issue is whether or not your body is damaged/you have metabolic issues. Yes grains are bad, they have anti-nutrients and lectins and all that stuff I understand, but I still come from the camp of a little bit isnt going to hurt me from time to time mainly because I am not overweight and dont have any serious metabolic issues. That doesnt mean I give myself permission to have toast for breakfast every day like I used to... it just means for me an occassional piece of garlic bread (yum yum yum) falls into my 20% quite happily. For some, they would say that isnt optimal health, but my sanity is related to optimal health too, and if having a bit of bread now and then keeps me sane... well... you see my answer