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Foods, Intolerances And Allergies

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Book-2: Guide to Total Wellness -1.0

Cereal grains: are seeds of cultivated grasses and include wheat, rye, oats, rice corn and barley. Grains that contain the protein gluten are wheat (including varieties such as Spelt, Kamut, Farro and Durum and also products such as Bulgar, Malt in various forms, Semolina and Baker’s Yeast), Barley, Rye and Tricale. Oats themselves do not contain gluten, but get contaminated during processing.

The American Diabetes Association considers pearled barley a diabetes super food because the whole grain is full of fibre and potassium.

The Bhalia / Djavadkhani wheat from Gujarat is a unique long grain variety with a high protein content, high carotene levels and low water absorption capacity.

Wheat, as Cardiologist William Davis, M.D, writes in his book – ‘Wheat Belly’, spikes your blood sugar more than other grains.

Wheat contains – Amylopectin A, a chemical unique to wheat that is an incredible trigger for the increase of the small LDL particles in your blood – the number one cause of heart disease.

Wheat also contains high levels of Gliadin , a protein that stimulates appetite causing an average person to consume additional 400 calories a day. Gliadin also has opiate like properties which makes it addictive.

Wheat also contains several other undesirable compounds like Gluten (See – below).

Removing wheat from your diet results in a substantial weight loss especially from the abdomen. People can lose several inches in a few months. It also greatly benefits those suffering from asthma, acid reflux, migranes, IBS, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and such. It also reduces the small LDL particles in your blood by over 80 to 90 percent.

The wheat we eat today is not the wheat that was eaten a century ago. It was really changed in the 60’s to 80’s due to a series of techniques used to increase yield, including hybridization. It was bred to be shorter, sturdier and to have more Gliadin.

If you stop eating breads/pasta/chapaties every day, and start eating rice you still lose weight because rice doesn’t raise blood sugar as high as wheat and doesn’t contain the Amylopectin A or Gliadin, though it does contain other forms of Amylopectin but at low levels, and you also won’t have the same increase in calorie intake that wheat causes.

That’s perhaps why cultures that don’t consume wheat tend to be slenderer and heathier. Not eating wheat will transform your life.

You will ofcourse not be having any wheat product on the Low­carb / Ketogenic diet. However, as research is still controversial on the adverse effect of wheat, you may consider re-introducing it into the diet after the initial stage, but with caution.

Rice doesn’t contain gluten and is a healthier grain, but it is a refined carbohydrate and hence should preferably be eaten in small quantities or as a resistant starch. (See – ‘Glossary and Explanation of Terms – Resistant Starches’). Long grain rice (Basmati or Jasmine) has least Amylopectin and most Amylase and hence is the best for digestion. The amount of Amylopectin is proportional to the stickiness of the cooked rice. In any case grains should represent only a small part of your diet. regardless of your age. A little quantity of long grain rice cooked properly and eaten with lots of vegetables is the exception. Ideally do not eat rice for the first 5 weeks to 3 months of the Low carb or the Ketogenic diet.

If thereafter you seek to re-introduce rice into your diet you may do so carefully and under constant self monitoring. You may also consider indigenous varieties of rice other than the usual white rice varities, and that have unique advantages.

  • Navara rice is medicinal rice grown in Kerala used on its own or combined with other herbs in Ayurveda to treat several Navara rice bran oil is also used to relieve a multitude of painful conditions like cervical spondylosis, stiff joints, backache and rheumatoid arthritis. Also the water drained after boiling this rice is combined with herbs and consumed as a traditional health drink known as Karkilakukanji.
  • Diana rice is a parboiled variety packed with vitamins and minerals and high in fibre content (that gives it a nutty taste and rough texture). It has a low GI that makes it ideal for diabetics and for obesity control.
  • Red rice (Matta rice) is an indigenous variety of rice grown in Kerala, where it is used for idli’s and appams, and also eaten plain with vegetables and curries. It is packed with anti-oxidants and has double the iron and zinc content of white rice. This rice has a luscious red colour and a very low GI. It has a firm texture and a nutty flavour.
  • Black rice (Chak Ho) from Manipur, is full of heart healthy anthocyanins (the anti-oxidants that give this unpolished rice is brilliant purple hue), vitamins, minerals, iron and fibre. It has a sweet, slightly nutty flavour that is exemplified in the Manipuri black rice kheer (dessert). Eating black rice can help protect the body against various ailments such as heart disease, obesity, inflammation and cancer.
  • Bamboo rice: The fibre-rich and calorie-dense kernels of bamboo ‘rice’ are actually seeds of bamboo flowers collected by tribal people in Karnataka. Locally called Mulayiri, it is hard to collect as the flowering pattern of bamboo is highly unpredictable and can vary from 5 years to 50 years. It has a slightly sweet wheat-like taste and can be used as a substitute for both wheat as well as rice. It helps in detoxification of body, improving reproductive health and relieving rheumatic pain.

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