A Grain Free Diet Decreases Inflammation, Heals Digestion and Supports Adrenal Health

Going grain free can be an important part of healing from a lot of chronic conditions. While not everyone needs to go grain free, there are some specific conditions I’ll recommend a grain-free diet to treat.

What is a grain?

A grain is technically a cereal that comes from a small hard seed. A whole grain is a food product that contains the entire part of the kernel: bran, germ, and endosperm.

Examples of grains include wheat, rye, barley, corn, oats, millet, rice.

Grains can raise blood sugar and insulin levels, and they can also promote inflammation in the GI tract.

This is in contrast to quinoa, teff, and buckwheat, which are actually called pseudograins. They are similar in quality and texture to grains, but they are in a different botanical family and therefore are processed differently than grains in our body. They may or may not be appropriate for people on a grain free diet.

Conditions I Use a Grain-Free Diet For

Leaky Gut: leaky gut is a condition involving digestive inflammation that is worsened with eating certain foods. It’s also exacerbated by stress, toxins and chemicals, and excessive alcohol and coffee. Leaky gut is often associated with chronic fatigue, brain fog, and joint pains.

It’s called “leaky gut” because, in a healthy digestive tract, the cells of our intestines are tightly bound together and anything inside the intestines must be absorbed by the cells. In leaky gut, the cells become swollen and inflamed, causing spaces between cells in the intestines that food particles, toxins, and microbes can squeeze through and enter the body. This causes inflammation throughout the body.

Adrenal Fatigue: adrenal fatigue is a functional condition in which a body under constant stress starts to change the amount of stress hormones it puts out, as well as its response to these stress hormones. Depending on how far along this process goes, the level of stress hormones like cortisol will look different. Initially the body pumps out excess cortisol to handle stress, but eventually the body downregulates its cortisol production to extremely low levels. Adrenal fatigue is linked with grain intake through blood sugar, and through inflammation.

As blood sugar increases, insulin is released by the body. As insulin levels rise, cortisol levels drop. Conversely, when blood sugar levels drop and insulin levels drop as well, cortisol is released by the adrenals. Cortisol helps raise blood sugar when we’re in fasting states. A critical piece of recovering from adrenal fatigue is maintaining healthy, regular blood sugar levels and avoiding blood sugar spikes.

Inflammation in the GI tract causes inflammation throughout the body. When a person’s digestive system is inflamed, it can cause body aches and pains (especially wandering pains), chronic fatigue, and brain fog. Grains can be really inflammatory to an already sensitive system, so taking a break from grains is an important part of healing an inflamed GI tract.

So What Will I Eat?

Swapping out grains can seem like a big ordeal initially. I always tell my patients to look at it as an opportunity to get even more superfood fruits and veggies into their diet, which increases their overall antioxidant status and promotes cellular detoxification and anti-aging processes. Furthermore, avoiding grains helps normalize blood sugar levels which is also anti-aging.

Again, any time you can swap veggies and fruits for grains, you are promoting your body’s detox processes and reversing cellular aging.

Some examples of foods to eat instead of grains:

• Riced cauliflower or broccoli instead of rice

• Salads

• Lettuce wraps or collard green wraps instead of bread or tortillas

• Zucchini, carrot, sweet potato or butternut squash pasta instead of wheat based pastas

• Sweet potato “toast” (slices of sweet potatoes which can be gently cooked in a pan, or par-cooked and frozen and then toasted in a toaster oven)

• There are more and more grain free convenience options too. Look for paleo and/or grain-free foods available in the frozen and refrigerated sections.