Grain free diet suggestions?

[BaguaKicksAss]

I've been slacking lately, been eating lots of grains. Not my fault they have now come out with yummy gluten free, everything!

 

Seriously though, I have always felt the best, had the most energy, and could run half marathons just fine, whenever I stuck with the grain free diet 5-7 days per week.

 

I need some suggestions though please, I'm running out of ideas.

 

I have found the raw food stuff can work quite well, as it is all grain free. I can't eat coconut or banana though. However they do some pretty amazing things with raw cashews for example.

 

Also I do eat meat, and cooked veggies. I'm not entirely sure if beans of various sorts are allowed on the grain free diet, however I figure they are allowed on MY grain free diet. I also do eat potatoes, which most folks seem to view as horribly unhealthy for some really odd reason (they must put butter on them or something). I do try to avoid dairy though.

 

On the otherhand, I really don't wish to spend all day cooking either, or at least not everyday.

 

Btw, that cauliflower crust pizza in that cooking thread looks really good .

 

Any suggestions would be awesome. Perhaps I'm just being uncreative lately.

 

[Aetherous]

Buckwheat, Quinoa, and Amaranth aren't technically grains...so indulge in those if they work for you. I think acorn and cattail are also not grains, and can be used as types of flour...some places online have them for sale, otherwise you forage them from the wild. There's also almond meal and other types of non-grain flour. I'm sure you can make a lot of unleavened type of breads out of this stuff easily.

Soups and stews with lentils. Shepherds pie! Bone broth chicken soup. Indian curry type dishes (you don't eat rice I'm guessing as well?). Cabbage sides...like kim chi or cole slaw. Salads.

Soak various types of nuts and seeds overnight to have a satiating snack.

Taro root can apparently be used as like a potato substitute, either mashed or made into french fries...if you ever want to switch up the potatoes. Consider sweet potatoes, squashes, etc.

Right now I'm making fresh-ground organic whole wheat sourdough from a wild yeast starter...I realize this is a grain but I mention it because if you're going to eat grains at some point, this would be the way to go health-wise. Making sourdough the traditional way almost completely gets rid of phytic acid, makes the nutrients in the wheat readily available, takes down the gluten, etc.

Edited October 4, 2013 by turtle shell

[BaguaKicksAss]

Thank you for the suggestions . Yes, almond meal, that stuff is sooooo good! In everything . East Indian dishes I cook so many of that I got tired of them after oh about 10 years lol. I might go back into them though, especially more south indian flavors since I'm newer to those,and actually prefer it. I might also get back into Moroccan and Egyptian cooking, but without the grains of course. I'm sure I could come up with a grain free dosa recipe.

 

Ugh, can't stand buckwheat lol, but amaranth and qinoa are OK. I also like using hemp seeds, as they are very filling and quite nutritious.

 

Bone broth, gotta try that, especially since my butcher would definitely be happy to help out. Taro is also quite yummy, and readily available around here.

 

I'm celiac, so something with gluten will not be on the list ever. Btw, no rice is out as well, otherwise I'd just eat Pho every night hehe.

[juliank]

Best of luck on being grain free !

You definitely feel a lot better without it.

 

I've been on that tip for a while now and I have scoured the web for the best blogs on recipes.

Whenever you get stuck on what to make sans grains these are awesome.

 

http://www.paleogirlskitchen.com/

 

http://nomnompaleo.com/

 

http://stalkerville.net/site/chow/

[BaguaKicksAss]

Thank your for the paleo recipes reminder . I have not seen those blogs, cool.... I have a paleo for athletes book which is pretty awesome. I was marathon training for the entire year or two I was grain free, so did quite a bit of research to make sure I got enough carbs for said endurance activities.

[mYTHmAKER]

yams in lieu of potatoes

[Taomeow]

If you want to stay away from grains but eat other starchy, carby stuff like root veggies and legumes, I suggest higher saturated fat additions to your diet. So, butter on your potatoes is a must -- carbs consumed with no fats are one of the most welcoming invitations to insulin resistance. Ghee, coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, and animal fat are your best friends. All your carb dishes will be richer and more satisfying and healthier too -- and I guarantee you won't gain weight by increasing your dietary saturated fat, nor do anything bad to your cholesterol.

If you avoid dairy because you were told to by someone but don't really have a problem digesting it, get it back, but not in the form of straight-up pasteurized homogenized non-organic horrors. Get goat and sheep cheeses, raw imported ones are the best (though the price is atrocious... but when you don't feel like cooking, they are one of the best solutions.) Also kefir -- whole fat, organic, preferably LIfeway (they are the only company that gets the taste somewhat close to the real deal).

And bone broths as the base for all kinds of quick soups that you don't have to work too hard to cook. I buy organic marrow bones and always keep a supply in the freezer.

Omelets can be made interesting with all kinds of stir-fried veggies -- and this is semi-cooking because it's so fast, doesn't take much longer than to make a sandwich, really. Stir-fry some mushrooms, plus whatever else is handy, top it off with cheese if you like. (Don't eat eggs after sunset! -- sounds superstitious but I believe it because this particular folk taboo is cross-cultural globally.)

Edited October 4, 2013 by Taomeow

[thelerner]

For Paleo no grain recipes, here is a very good source http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-paleo-recipes/#axzz2gn549HjS

The rest of the site is pretty good to.

[soaring crane]

On the otherhand, I really don't wish to spend all day cooking either, or at least not everyday.

 

this is the problem I have as well. I know from experience that I really prosper health-wise on an almost zero-sugar (wheat pasta and refined starches are sugars in my book) fish/egg/vegetable (albeit with plenty of fat) diet; but all that damn shopping, chopping, cooking, thinking up new things to try ... it becomes tedious, and at my most natural, I'm really a snacker. i just want to open the fridge and eat the first thing I see. I don't really want to have to think about my food. (if I were a millionaire, I'd donate all my money except enough to pay for a personal cook).

 

I want eating to be about as exciting as filling up at the petrol station, but I want the fuel to be high octane, so to speak.

 

So... I always have things like antipasti, eggs, avacados, smoked salmon, sardines, hokaido pumpkin, frozen organic berries and fruits, parboiled rice (cook up three days worth at a time), and I don't know what else on hand. Things I can eat at a whim or combine and cook when I feel like it. And lot's of spices to keep it all interesting and varied.

 

I could see myslef tossing salmon, berries, pumpkin and oily stuffed peppers in a frying pan... then cracking a few eggs on top. And sprinkling tumeric and dried habenero on top of it all. And then put that on a little bed of fried rice. Mmmmm yes!

 

It all starts with the shopping, I guess.

 

 

Omelets can be made interesting with all kinds of stir-fried veggies -- and this is semi-cooking because it's so fast, doesn't take much longer than to make a sandwich, really. Stir-fry some mushrooms, plus whatever else is handy, top it off with cheese if you like. (Don't eat eggs after sunset! -- sounds superstitious but I believe it because this particular folk taboo is cross-cultural globally.)

 

 

 

Omelets (the American style where you make a kind of 3-egg pancake, spread a pile of stuff on one half and the fold it over) are a perfect meal, imo. We buy huge, beautiful organic eggs and go through them like wild aninals. The egg might be the most valuable food on the planet. They're certainly highly sought after in the rest of the animal kingdom.

Edited October 4, 2013 by soaring crane

[BaguaKicksAss]

If you want to stay away from grains but eat other starchy, carby stuff like root veggies and legumes, I suggest higher saturated fat additions to your diet. So, butter on your potatoes is a must -- carbs consumed with no fats are one of the most welcoming invitations to insulin resistance. Ghee, coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, and animal fat are your best friends. All your carb dishes will be richer and more satisfying and healthier too -- and I guarantee you won't gain weight by increasing your dietary saturated fat, nor do anything bad to your cholesterol.

 

If you avoid dairy because you were told to by someone but don't really have a problem digesting it, get it back, but not in the form of straight-up pasteurized homogenized non-organic horrors. Get goat and sheep cheeses, raw imported ones are the best (though the price is atrocious... but when you don't feel like cooking, they are one of the best solutions.) Also kefir -- whole fat, organic, preferably LIfeway (they are the only company that gets the taste somewhat close to the real deal).

 

And bone broths as the base for all kinds of quick soups that you don't have to work too hard to cook. I buy organic marrow bones and always keep a supply in the freezer.

 

Omelets can be made interesting with all kinds of stir-fried veggies -- and this is semi-cooking because it's so fast, doesn't take much longer than to make a sandwich, really. Stir-fry some mushrooms, plus whatever else is handy, top it off with cheese if you like. (Don't eat eggs after sunset! -- sounds superstitious but I believe it because this particular folk taboo is cross-cultural globally.)

 

Dairy and I don't get along, at all . Though I do cheat at times, then end up with a 2 day "hangover". Even yogurt bothers me. I can sometimes get away with goat milk stuff though. Also when I spent some time in Albania which doesn't really have cows, so all the cheese and yogurt is sheep or goat milk, I did really well. (getting to try 20 different flavors of feta cheese wasn't bad either hehe).

 

I have to say I haven't eaten stuff because folks tell me it's good or bad for me for years, instead I just go with what my body reacts best to.

 

Omelette's rock! Especially when they involve goat cheese and mushrooms, or smoked salmon. I'd never heard of the eggs past sunset thing, interesting.

 

 

this is the problem I have as well. I know from experience that I really prosper health-wise on an almost zero-sugar (wheat pasta and refined starches are sugars in my book) fish/egg/vegetable (albeit with plenty of fat) diet; but all that damn shopping, chopping, cooking, thinking up new things to try ... it becomes tedious, and at my most natural, I'm really a snacker. i just want to open the fridge and eat the first thing I see. I don't really want to have to think about my food. (if I were a millionaire, I'd donate all my money except enough to pay for a personal cook).

 

I want eating to be about as exciting as filling up at the petrol station, but I want the fuel to be high octane, so to speak.

 

So... I always have things like antipasti, eggs, avacados, smoked salmon, sardines, hokaido pumpkin, frozen organic berries and fruits, parboiled rice (cook up three days worth at a time), and I don't know what else on hand. Things I can eat at a whim or combine and cook when I feel like it. And lot's of spices to keep it all interesting and varied.

 

I could see myslef tossing salmon, berries, pumpkin and oily stuffed peppers in a frying pan... then cracking a few eggs on top. And sprinkling tumeric and dried habenero on top of it all. And then put that on a little bed of fried rice. Mmmmm yes!

 

It all starts with the shopping, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

Omelets (the American style where you make a kind of 3-egg pancake, spread a pile of stuff on one half and the fold it over) are a perfect meal, imo. We buy huge, beautiful organic eggs and go through them like wild aninals. The egg might be the most valuable food on the planet. They're certainly highly sought after in the rest of the animal kingdom.

 

 

 

I'm coming over to your house for dinner!

 

Good suggestions. Much more varied than my "hmmm, almonds, pistachios, cashews or pecans for snacks today?" lol

 

Smoked salmon and lox are the best foods ever I think.

 

I have also had green smoothies which are actually quite good, but a lot of work. I'm tempted to prechop the greens and freeze them. I do like various fresh herbs with my green juices and smoothies though.

 

 

[Jainarayan]

The grains to avoid if one is avoiding grains (non-celiac gluten intolerance or celiac), are wheat, barley, rye and possibly oats. Corn is technically a grain but it is not in the wheat family. As much as I'd like to become vegetarian, the only thing that works for me is paleo. I'm sensitive to not only wheat, but other carbs, being insulin resistant. Unless one is insulin resistant, other carbs... potatoes and other root vegs., quinoa, legumes, rice, corn should be no problem. Stay away from beer... barley.

[BaguaKicksAss]

I'm avoiding all grains.

 

Just gluten free would be easy as there is Udi's bread, and several good gluten free bakeries near here .

[soaring crane]

Stay away from beer... barley.

 

Never ... serenity.

[mike 134]

I was gonna say beans but you already mentioned it, and you say you can't eat bananas ????

 

I don't understand all these idiosyncratic diets people like to follow. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, and I go to restaurants for dinner.

[BaguaKicksAss]

Yeah I'm allergic to bananas.

 

It nearly made it to page 2 before someone insinuated my personal choices might be wrong .

[Taomeow]

I was gonna say beans but you already mentioned it, and you say you can't eat bananas ????

 

I don't understand all these idiosyncratic diets people like to follow. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, and I go to restaurants for dinner.

 

 

 

Let me guess. You have always been young and healthy so you have no reasons to believe this could ever change. Your grandparents and your parents have always been in perfect physical and mental shape, never sick, never functioning below their optimum, never unhappy, never making anyone else unhappy. So your approach is, if it ain't broke don't fix it. I can understand that.

 

If any of the above is not the case though, food choices is the first place I would look for the reasons why before investigating any further. In quite a few cases, investigating any further proves unnecessary. Change your food, change your body; change your body, change your mind; change your mind, change your spirit; change your spirit, change your destiny. That kind of an idiosyncratic deal.

[BaguaKicksAss]

I really should add some recipes here:

 

Take raw cashews (cheaper in chinatown). Soak overnight in water. Blend in blender in the morning with some lemon for flavor. Add salt and paper and other spices to make it a dip or savory dish, or nutritional yeast to make it cheese like. Add some form of sweetener (such as maple syrup) to make it a sweet dish. Can also add cocoa powder, and cocoa butter to make the best chocolate dessert ever.

 

Or soak cashews in water, and use the water to make "whip cream".

 

Take chick peas, add coconut milk, or yogurt, or water and patkas curry paste. Yummier than the restaurants. Can be done with tandori or butter chicken too.

 

Take veggies you didn't get around to cooking, place in blender with liquid, yummy lunch .

 

Beef protein powder from truenutrition (cheaper there) and use instead of whey protein powder for workouts and such.

 

Almond meal and sweetener with an egg white = marzipan. Add some almond liquore to liven it up!

 

Pumpkin pie sans the crust or with an almond flour crust is grain free, and yummy. (see the alternatives to mopai thread for more details on this).

 

Take avocado and cacao powder, makes good chocolate desserts.

 

Mush up cucumbers without the rinds, with some herbs and spices, and perhaps brazil nuts, tastes like cream cheese.

 

Eat pine nuts lots! Pine sap too :>. Both very healthy.

[Coaster]

There is a trick, which is that there is evidence that the problem with grains is the grain form itself. So, once the grain (seed) is planted, and sprouts, the result is a vegetable, like any other vegetable.

 

So, you may find that products made from 100% sprouted grains do not have the same adverse effect as grains and flour.

 

Strangely enough, the ancient verse Ezekiel 4:9 is about making bread in exactly the same way and a company called "Food For Life" makes breads from 100% sprouted grains called - cleverly - "Ezekiel 4:9 bread". They even make tortillas and english muffins from the recipe.

 

Places like Whole Foods or equivalent carry this - it is usually refrigerated.

[BaguaKicksAss]

It isn't gluten free though unfortunately (celiac), perhaps due to other grains nearby, or? I have tried it though and it is yummy.

 

You mean wholepaycheque foods? They have some awesome gluten free cupcakes that I tried when I was in California!

 

The no grains thing started when a teacher of mine suggested diet based on TCM. No grains, then some other stuff to go along with it. The difference was remarkable! This was even though I was already gluten free. Then I got lazy and went back to just gluten free.... and that made the difference even more apparent. No idea if it would work that well for others or not though, I think everyone is different.

[Uroboros]

It isn't gluten free though unfortunately (celiac), perhaps due to other grains nearby, or? I have tried it though and it is yummy.

 

You mean wholepaycheque foods? They have some awesome gluten free cupcakes that I tried when I was in California!

 

The no grains thing started when a teacher of mine suggested the old chinese immortality diet. No grains, then some other stuff to go along with it. The difference was remarkable! This was even though I was already gluten free. Then I got lazy and went back to just gluten free.... and that made the difference even more apparent. No idea if it would work that well for others or not though, I think everyone is different.

 

Do you happen to remember any of the other aspects to the old chinese immortality diet?

 

Sounds pretty interesting!

 

I understand your struggles. My body does not tolerate dairy, wheat/gluten or soy well.

 

I can eat goat cheese and feel just fine. Coconut milk is my savior!! So delicious.

 

The sprouted grains bread, Ezekial, I do use. I still feel a bit fuzzy with it, nowhere near as bad as regular bread.

 

Im not a celiac, just sensitive with a damaged digestive system.

 

What I do to get my nutrients in, is make smoothies.

 

I put kale, celery, apples, blueberries, strawberries, avacado, beets in my blender and have at it!

 

Awhile ago I got a Blendtec blender because my regular blenders kept breaking. I went thru 5 of them in 2 years.

 

Blendtec is pricey, about 500 dollars. If you use it to make liquid meals as I do, its completely worth it.

 

To get a nice, tasty energy boost, I use two tbsp's cacao powder, a bannana, tablespoon of peanut butter, add honey to individual taste, added to 2 and a half cups of coconut milk. Very tasty and gives a nice boost.

 

Peace

[BaguaKicksAss]

I'll get a blendtech once I win the lottery.... . Everytime I think about getting one, I instead think about Bagua lessons in California, or something else where my $500 can go lol. I found one blender that never breaks, but unfortunately the company discontinued them. Black and Decker.

 

I'm allergic to coconut . I found out the hard way, after drinking a lot of coconut water and milk. Loved buying fresh coconuts and putting a straw in them! Ah well I can still have cocoa butter so all is good.

 

For an unhappy digestive system I definitely recommend medical qigong (and Bagua! lol) they work amazingly well.

 

Your smoothies sound good. I tend to add one of the greens products for extra nutrients, as well as powdered vitamins. Which reminds me, I haven't used either in ages. Liquid vitamins rock too. Then I get stuff like acai berry powder and so forth. Now I'm in a smoothie mood... I blame you guys

[BaguaKicksAss]

Oh baking them would be a really good idea, thank you . Yes I love falafel! With tziki sauce of course. It also reminds me of some other amazing cooking I had while I was in Egypt.

[Seth Ananda]

Taro root can apparently be used as like a potato substitute, either mashed or made into french fries...if you ever want to switch up the potatoes. Consider sweet potatoes, squashes, etc.

 

I want to second this! Taro or Cassava is freaking delicious! I would never have believed there was a vegetable that could replace potato and be better than it.

 

I like to boil it, slice it open, cut out the white core, chop it into chunks and deep fry it. Then with some tamari, its better than hot chips...

 

You can also eat it just boiled, but remember it requires half an hour with salt in the water before eating or frying, to neutralise its cyanide levels...

[Stosh]

I may have overlooked but I didn't see blackeyed peas mentioned. They taste great .Today'sHarvest brand cooks up quick.(frozen).they don't have the polysaccharides that become 'gas' that may be difficult for folks with digestive issues. Or kale which has been a staple 'green' (off kilter is related to -off your kale-diet)

some of them bitter greens are nice carmelized quick and deglazed with an acid like vinegar or OJ. Or cream which knocks out the bitterness.

And I didn't notice squashes mentioned -both the toasted seeds and flesh have beneficial qualities.

But you probably know that already.( if you aren't crazy about cyanide or silicate crystals ..I'm not so sure about pine sap either tho)

Edited November 5, 2013 by Stosh

[de_paradise]

What hasn't been mentioned is that you do not have to exchange one calorie dense food for another calorie dense food just because it has the relative same portion size on your plate. What you can do is cook a load of spinach or broccoli, your favorite fresh veg, etc instead, and even though it looks like alot and has way more nutrition. When I became vegetarian my vegetable portions became enormous. When I did the fruitarian diet for 6 months, the meal conception was even more liberated from the standard food pyramid, I was eating tons of fruit, many times more than an average person. The bottom line is that one doesnt really need to replace grains with anything stodgy or starchy, but it may a while for your mind and body to adjust to it.