Grains in other Cultures page

[BrettD]

I know the subject of grains has been hashed over and over but I keep getting asked by others why then do other cultures like the Asians have Rice as a staple in their daily diet and do just fine? Over half of humanity depends on Rice. In ancient days such as the Romans, Jews, Russians, Indians, Chinese, etc they depended on Wheat and other grains, Latin America depends on Corn in their diet, etc. At first glance it would seem these have been provided to us on this earth for a reason. I'm not discounting the effects on the body such as inflammation, but wondering if anyone has some good historical context to this??? I'm definitely going to try living without grain and see what type of effect this has.

[Griff]

The short answer is they don't do just fine. The second answer is that they don't eat nearly as much of it as our Western perceptions think they do. But look up the rates of heart disease and diabetes in Asia, India, and Mexico sometime... appalling.

[Mirrorball]

Have a look at this post:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...at-grains.html

There are food preparation techniques that neutralise a lot of toxins in grains. When the Japanese eat soya, they eat tofu, tempeh etc, not soya burgers, soya milk and hydrolised soya protein. Rice seems to be the least harmful grain.

[Noturningback]

Bioengineering has changed the face of corn. It's believed that corn (maize) was domesticated from teosinte, a group of large grasses. Teosinte looks nothing like the corn we know. It doesn't even have "ears" like present day corn stalks.

Not to mention the time and effort put in to breaking these grains down for human consumption. Crack out the mortar, pestle and "elbow grease".

[BrettD]

Nice link! Thanks for the comments and additional resouce.