If you have been told that you have to give up gluten grains, you may be feeling a bit lost. This guide to cooking with non-gluten grains can get you started.

Many people who have Celiac disease or gluten intolerance (also called sprue, gluten enteropathy or gluten-sensitive enteropathy) are now stuck with the problem of finding something to eat.  This guide will introduce you to the non-gluten grains and link you to some fabulous recipes you can find all over the web.

If you want some help kicking the gluten grains consider trying my 30 Sugar Free Days Program that helps people stop eating sugar and the foods that act like sugar (mostly grains).

Amaranth

Amaranth is a tall plant that produces millions of tiny seeds. Amaranth seeds are high in protein and they have a distinct nutty flavor. Amaranth mixes well with other grains, try adding a little bit to the next rice dish you make and watch how it enhances the flavor of the meal. Cinnamon Amaranth Grits (use Stevia for a non-sugar version) Aztec Tapule Spanish Style Amaranth

Buckwheat

Buckwheat has a strong flavor that could be described as nutty or dark. It has a strong flavor that many Western tongues find strange, but give it a try and you will find that its flavor grows on you. Buckwheat is high in manganese, magnesium, zinc and fiber. Buckwheat is a staple of Japanese foods and you can by noodles made out of buckwheat (which many people looking for gluten free foods are looking for). Sweet and sour buckwheat noodles with asparagus Buckwheat Coconut Pudding Buckwheat Salad

Corn

Corn is one of those grains that people are familiar with, so when they first switch to a gluten free diet they eat a lot of corn. But corn is a common source of food allergies too, so watch out. That being said, corn is a wonderful and versatile grain that fill the gap when you can’t eat gluten grains. Corn can be eaten right off the cob, but there are also corn noodles and many corn backing mixes. Most people know what to do with corn, so I don’t have a lot of recipes, but here is one I like: Chili Mac (use corn elbow noodles)

Millet

Millet is one of the tiniest of grains, but it packs a powerful nutritional punch.  It has a bit of a nutty taste to it, but not as strong as buckwheat.  Anytime you think about using rice, think about substituting with millet.  I like to mix millet with other grains (think about a rice/millet pilaf). Broccoli and Cashews over Millet Millet Casserole Autumn Millet Bake Butternut Squash and Millet Cakes

Quinoa

Quinoa has a distinct flavor but one that most people find enjoyable. Like millet flour, you need to use some binder (see below) to help it stay together when you are baking with it. Quinoa is one of the healthiest of the non-grain grains and you should experiment and use it often. Quinoa and Black Bean Salad Quinoa and Veggie Stirfry Quinoa Skillet Dinner Italian Quinoa Dinner

Rice

Rice is a staple food all over the world. It is a wonderful addition to any meal. There are rice noodles, but they take a bit of getting used to (sauce doesn’t stick as well to rice as it does to wheat).  Once again, most people know what to do with rice, but here are a few recipes. Rice Stick Noodles with Exotic Mushrooms Pad Thai

Teff

Teff is the tiniest grain that is used for food. The word Teff means “lost” – supposedly because it is so easy to lose these tiny grains. The taste of Teff can best be described as malty, try mixing a small amount of teff in with your next rice or other grain meal. Teff Polenta with Veggies Berbere Stew (lentil and teff stew)

All is Not Lost

You can enjoy your life even if many of the grains you are used to are now gone. Most people who start a non-gluten diet feel much better than they have in years.

If you like baking, take a look at this guide: The Gluten Free Flour Guide.

Do you have some great recipes of your own? Leave them in the comment section below (or provide us with a link to the recipe).

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Gluten is one of the major proteins found in wheat. Gluten is also found in other grains such as:  spelt, kamut, triticale, barley, rye, and malts. But if you really want to avoid gluten you also have to look out for food additives as stabilizers, flavorings, or even thickening agents that contain gluten.

The word “gluten” comes from Latin and means “glue” and while it may be causing your digestive system all sorts of problems gluten is what makes wheat such a great grain to cook with. If you want light and fluffy breads you need to have something to hold the grain particles together and gluten does that really well. Breads rise when you add yeast to gluten-containing flours because gluten holds the bread together. When you see the pizza guy twirling a crust in the air he can do that because gluten is holding it together, If you grind rice and add the exact same ingredients and all you get is a messy pizza guy with rice dough on his face.

Cooks, scientists and farmers all wanted to have wheat with more gluten and the food scientists actually bred wheat to contain more gluten than found in nature. The result is that our wheat today has a ton of gluten in is and while pastry chefs all over the world applauded this move, our tummies do not.

If you want to read more about gluten, check out this Wikipedia article: gluten

Why does gluten cause problems?

Gluten intolerance is an immune problem; many people’s gut immune system simply doesn’t like gluten and reacts to it. This is due, in part, to the high gluten content in the grains we eat, but also because we eat so much of it. When was the last time you went a meal without eating some form of wheat?

There are people who have full-blown allergic reaction to gluten and these people have Celiac disease. But what I see more often than people with a full blown reaction to gluten is what I would call gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance. Common problems that I see in people who are sensitive or intolerant to gluten are sinus problems allergies, digestive problems including gas, bloating, diarrhea and problems concentrating and others.

What can you do about gluten intolerance?

The only real answer to gluten intolerance is to avoid gluten and go on a gluten free diet. The best way to do this is to avoid gluten and gluten products for at least two weeks. When you avoid these products for at least two weeks, then your body has a chance to repair all the damage done by the overactive immune system.

Flours that you can bake with that seem to work are corn, potatoes, rice, and tapioca, amaranth, arrowroot, millet, quinoa, sorghum, sweet potato, taro, teff, chia seed, and yams. (see Baking with Non-Gluten Grains)

But I wouldn’t stop there. If you are having digestive problems then I would also remove other common allergens such as dairy foods and corn. If you are really crazy (and maybe want to lose some weight) try my 30 Sugar Free Days Program where people stay away from not only sugar but foods that act like sugar (that means all grains).

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Metabolic syndrome is not really a disease but a syndrome and what I would call a “pre-disease” or a condition that you get before you get really sick. Metabolic syndrome is also known as syndrome X, or metabolic syndrome X, or even insulin resistance syndrome.

There are four primary symptoms of metabolic syndrome: central obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia (all explained below). Having metabolic syndrome brings with it a risk for other diseases (mostly heart disease, stroke, and type-2 diabetes) and the potential for a shortened life.

The most important thing to know about metabolic syndrome, though, is that it acts like a canary in a coal mine warning you that you are at risk for much worse things to come (that is, if you don’t stop it in its tracks). The good news is that you can change what you are doing right now and avoid much of the pain that comes with having diabetes or heart disease.

Symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome

How do you know if you have metabolic syndrome? While the definitions for metabolic syndrome change from medical group to medical group, most groups agree on the following definition for the syndrome:

• Central Obesity: Central obesity (see picture on this page) is where most of the fat that you carry is about your center or stomach. The other major way to carry extra weight is considered pear shape (where excess fat surrounds the waist) and is not associated with metabolic syndrome. Waist measurements usually determine central obesity with measurements of over 40 inches (102 cm) for men or over 35 inches (88 cm) for women.

• Insulin resistance: Insulin resistance is where the cells of your body are resistant to insulin. Diabetes is a condition where the cells are very resistant to insulin, but there are all sorts of grades of insulin resistance before diabetes. Usually people start out somewhat insulin resistant and then it gets worse as times progresses. Insulin resistance can be measured by a fasting glucose more than 100 mg/dL (or you are taking blood sugar medications). Read more about insulin resistance here: Insulin Resistance

• Dyslipidemia:  Dyslipidemia is a state where your blood fats are either too high or too low. You are familiar with many of these blood fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Dyslipidemia in metabolic syndrome usually is defined as having high triglycerides (over 150 mg/dL) and a low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL for men and less than 50 mg/dL for women).

• Hypertension: Hypertension or high blood pressure greater than 130 systolic (top number) and 90 diastolic (bottom number).

What Can You do About Metabolic Syndrome?

If you are wondering what you can do about metabolic syndrome, the answer is a lot! While you might be looking for a pill that you can take, that is not your answer. The only way to change metabolic syndrome is to change what you are eating and how much you are exercising.

Here is my plan for stopping metabolic syndrome:

• Stop eating sugar: Okay, I know this is easier said than done, but you have to kick your sugar habit. I have a plan for kicking sugar (and foods that act like sugar) and you can take a look at it here: 30 Sugar Free Days.

• Exercise: You need to get at least 20 minutes, but more like 40 minutes of intense exercise in a day. Pick something like biking, swimming, running or other consistent exercise and practice it every day.

• Eat More Vegetables: Every chance you get you should put something fresh into your mouth. Find a way to incorporate vegetables into every meal you eat (yes, even breakfast).

Metabolic syndrome may seem like a one-way dead end street to heart disease and diabetes, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Change what you are doing today and you can change who you are (and maybe how long you are going to live).

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Insulin resistance is a modern day problem that is the result of eating modern day foods. What insulin resistance means is that the cells in your body are resistant to insulin. While this may not sound like a big deal, it is. The more insulin resistant your cells become, the high your blood sugar rises (and your body hates high blood sugar). Let’s take a look at just how insulin resistance happens in your body.

How Insulin Resistance Forms

If your blood sugar shoots up high occasionally, there is really no problem. The problem comes when your blood sugar is high over a long period of time or high blood sugar happens every day. To understand this, you have to understand what is happening in the cells of your body.

The cells in your body only want so much sugar; they just want enough sugar to do their jobs. When there is constantly too much insulin and too much sugar in the blood stream (like when you eat sugar at every meal) the only response that the cells have is to remove the doorways (receptors) from the outside of the cell. This process is called down-regulation of receptors. When insulin receptors disappear throughout the body, it creates a whole-body effect called “insulin resistance,” meaning the cells of the body become “resistant” to insulin.

Let’s take a look at what happens to the cell when the body removes receptors, in the following diagram the yellow represents the cell and the blue thingies are the receptors.

A cell goes from having this many receptors (normal):

To having, say, this many:

Now, this is a bit tricky to understand, but imagine if all the cells in your body began to respond to too much sugar by removing their insulin receptors. If every cell in the body removed its receptors, the doorways to sugar, what would happen? The end result would be that you’d have more sugar in your blood.

Why?

Remember that insulin used to be able to push sugar out of the blood stream and put it into the cells. The cells, though, are now getting rid of receptors because there is too much sugar around most of the time. The cells are becoming resistant to insulin. So, even though there is sugar in the blood stream and a lot of insulin, the sugar has no where to go because the cells won’t allow it in. So, now, where does the sugar go? It stays in the blood stream.

But you also have to remember, more sugar in the blood stream creates what? The answer is more sugar in the blood stream leads to more insulin. When your body becomes insulin resistant, the next time you eat a meal, you have a higher amount of sugar in your blood because the cells are refusing to take on that sugar. So, more sugar in the blood stream means that the body will now release more insulin. Do you see the vicious cycle that is starting to develop? More insulin circulating in the body will eventually lead to fewer receptors on cells, which will lead to more sugar in the blood, and more insulin, and fewer receptors and…you get the idea.

Cells will eventually look like this as they get rid of even more receptors:

Now you understand how insulin resistance can develop from eating a high amount of sugar every day. The association between eating sugars and the creation of insulin resistance is, however, far from being a proven phenomenon in human beings. Animal studies demonstrate a relationship between eating sugars and foods that act like sugar and the development of insulin resistance,[i]^,[ii] but the medical community is far from convinced. Like much of the scientific study on sugar and health, much more research is needed.

Over Time

Okay. Let’s see if we can pull this all together. Watch what happens over time, not to the individual cell, but in the whole body. The following chart shows how blood sugar and insulin react to each other and how insulin resistance builds over time when you are consuming sugar foods. (click on the image below to see full size).

What happens over time with insulin resistance is that the body can no longer produce enough insulin and, eventually, insulin production fails. When the body can no longer produce enough insulin or the cells have become resistant to insulin, your body is no longer able to keep blood sugar within a narrow range. This is called diabetes, a situation where the blood sugar is very high.

What Can You Do?

There is a lot that you can do to avoid insulin resistance, the chief among these is to stop eating sugar and foods that act like sugar. I have program called the 30 Sugar Free Days Program where you can join with other people who are giving sugar the boot.

Besides stopping the sugar feast, you can exercise, lower the amount of saturated fat in your diet and eat as many vegetables as you can. Insulin resistance is not a death sentence, but a wake-up call. There is a lot you can do to stop and reverse insulin resistance, but you have to get moving today.

[ii] Daly M: Sugars, insulin sensitivity, and the postprandial state. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Oct;78(4):865S-872S.

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Most weight loss success stories sound pretty much the same. The stories all tell of people losing incredible amounts of weight in short periods of time using some new and crazy diet. But the question you really want to ask is: Did the Weight Stay Off? Everyone reading this page has probably lost weight (maybe even a lot of weight), but the reason why you are here today is because you are looking for a weight loss success story where people take weight off and they actually keep it off. Let’s face it, the only weight loss success story you really want to hear about is yours.

What Works and What doesn’t

After reviewing and experimenting with hundreds of diets in thousands of people, I can tell you something that may surprise you: All Diets Work. From Akins, to South Beach, The Hollywood Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Master Cleanse, yes, even the Grapefruit diet… they all work.

The question is which of these diets work in the long term? Which of these diets can people lose weight and keep it off?

I have two standards for deciding if a diet works in the long term.

• The first is can people actually do the diet long term? When I ask this question of the above diets, most fail. It is hard to eat only bacon and butter (so Atkins and South Beach are out), likewise Master Cleanse, Cabbage and Grapefruit diets can only be done short term. And as far as I can figure out, the Hollywood diet is just a “sell you another product” diet and no one has the money to keep doing that very long.

• The second question I ask is: are you healthier on the diet? Once again, Atkins and South Beach are the first to drop off because eating nothing but high fat and protein foods will do nothing for your longevity. Each of the other diets (Cabbage, Master and Grapefruit) all appear to be healthier, but they are unsustainable.

What’s Left?

After much experimenting I can tell you that the only long term weight loss success stories come from people who make a life change, they change the way that they are eating and living their lives. They realize that their weight gain is a product of the environment that they live in and that going on a short-term diet does nothing because as soon as they are off the diet and back to eating what they normally eat, the weight comes right back. The problem with weight gain is the way that we live our lives and our lives have to change if we are going to lose weight.

Here are the elements of that life change:

• Exercise: A successful diet is one that starts with exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything too strenuous at first, but you do have to commit time to your effort (at least 30-40 minutes a day).
• Vegetables: You have to eat more fruits and vegetables. I suggest eating around 80 to 90 percent of your diet as fruits and vegetables. If that sounds like a lot, it is. Make changes slowly and add as many fruits and vegetables into your diet as possible.
• Fat and Protein: I think humans are designed to eat protein, just not as much as we do. I think that eating meat should be a once-a-week activity and not an every-meal activity.
• Sugar: You got to kick sugar and the foods that act like sugar. Check out my program for kicking sugar: 30 Sugar Free Days.
• Diary: Dairy foods are the worst foods you can eat if you want to lose weight. Drop the dairy and drop the weight.

Remember, if you want to lose weight you are going to have to change the way that you are living. Your own personal weight loss success story comes from realizing where you are and where you want to be and making steps towards that every day.

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You have been diagnosed with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance (also called sprue, gluten enteropathy or gluten-sensitive enteropathy), now what?

If you think your baking life is all over now that you can’t use traditional flours, think again. While gluten free flours certainly do take some time to learn to work with they are every bit as versatile as the gluten flours and usually come packed with extra nutrition to boot.

This gluten free flour guide can help you navigate the world of gluten free flours. I’ve included a brief description of the gluten free flours and a recipe or two to get you started.

Many of the following recipes contain sugars (and you may know I’m not a big fan of sugar), but I’m also not a big fan of grains (especially the gluten grains). Consider kicking the gluten grains as a first step and then moving on to kick sugar out of your life (see my 30 Sugar Free Days Program).

Almond Flour

Almond flour is made from almonds (I know, it’s obvious) and is a great way to get extra protein and good fats into a meal. The flour itself is denser than grain flowers and adds a lot of stability and “meatiness” to a recipe. Almond flour is perfect for baked goods and the cherry-like flavor means less need for added sugars. Almond Flour Recipes (Elana wrote the book on almond flour) Almond Flour and Rice Pie Crust Gluten Free Almond Flour Pizza Crust

Amaranth Flour

Amaranth is a beautiful plant that produces millions of tiny seeds. These seeds can be ground up and used as a flour; the leaves of the amaranth plant are also used as food. While there are over 60 different kinds of amaranth only a few are found in our stores. Amaranth seeds and flour are very high in protein and they have a distinct nutty flavor. You can bake with the flour or add the cooked or uncooked seed to most recipes. Amaranth Flour Granola Recipe Amaranth Bread Recipe Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed cake

Buckwheat Flour

Buckwheat has a strong flavor that could be described as nutty or dark. It is a good idea to mix it with other grains such as corn or rice flour to buffer the taste. Like amaranth and quinoa, this grain is packed full of amino acids; it is also high in fiber. Brown Rice & Buckwheat Sandwich Bread Gluten-Free Rosemary-Thyme Dinner Rolls Buckwheat Waffles Buckwheat Sweet Potato Quick Bread

Carob Flour

Carob seed pods come from a tree and the pods are ground to create a flour. The taste can best be described as “chocolate like,” but carob has a natural sweetness that cocoa (baking chocolate) doesn’t Carob Chip Mint Cookies Amaranth Carob Brownies

Coconut Flour

The amazing coconut has so many uses and coconut flour adds a delightful taste to almost any baked food. While you might think that coconut flour would have a strong coconutty flavor, it doesn’t and that is why you can use it in foods such as pizza crust. Herbed Gluten Free Coconut Flour Pizza Crust Gluten Free Dinner Rolls Gluten-Free Pasta Recipe (check out the substitutions part of this recipe)

Corn Flour

Corn is so versatile and is used in so many dishes that it hardly needs an introduction. I would caution anyone with Celiac disease to watch out for corn because it is another common food allergy. Gluten Free Tortillas Corn Waffles Gluten-Free Pasta

Garbanzo Bean Flour

The garbanzo bean (otherwise known as chickpea) is a great source of vitamins and minerals. When the bean is ground it creates a flour that is similar to almond flour (a little more dense than regular flours). Garbanzo beans do have a distinct flavor but I find they mix in well with other flours and add a slightly nutty flavor. Pizza Crust Blueberry Muffins Garbanzo Bean Pancakes

Millet Flour

Millet has been known for a long time as a bird feed. These tiny yellow seeds make a flour that is light and airy. There is a slight taste to millet but nothing you have to work around (like buckwheat). Millet flour does not stick together well so you need to use a binder (see below). Amy’s Gluten-Free Rice Flour Mix Bajra Roti Millet Flatbread Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls

Potato Flour

I like to add potato flour to a number of dishes; it is great as a thickener in soups. As a baking flour it adds a smooth taste to most dishes. Gluten Free Gnocchi Gluten Free Potato Bread

Quinoa Flour

Quinoa has a distinct flavor but one that most people find enjoyable. Like millet flour, you need to use some binder (see below) to help it stay together when you are baking with it. Quinoa is one of the healthiest of the non-grain grains and you should experiment and use it often. Orange Quinoa Muffins Quinoa Pancakes Quinoa Crackers

Rice Flour

You can buy rice flour or you can use the whole cooked grain in many baked foods. When I make waffles I use whole cooked rice as part of the recipe and the grains just disappear in the waffle maker, leaving a slightly chewy texture. Rice flour is light and can be added to almost any baked good. Gluten Free Dinner Rolls Gluten Free Pancakes

Sorghum Flour

Sorghum flour is another flour with a distinctive flavor. I think it is best used when combined with other flours. Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies Thanksgiving Dinner Rolls Irish Soda Bread

Soy (soya) Flour

Similar to garbanzo flour, soy flour is a light flour that adds a high amount of protein to any meal. It works well with many other non-gluten grains. Gluten Free Tortillas Macadamia Pie Crust

Sweet Chestnut Flour

I haven’t used chestnut flour, but many people use it in baked goods such as cookies and pancakes. Amy’s Gluten-Free Chestnut Flour Mix for making cookies and other baked goods. Sweet Chestnut Pancakes

Teff Flour

Teff is the tiniest grain that is used for food. The word Teff means “lost” – supposedly because it is so easy to lose these tiny grains. Teff is so small that it can be added to many baked goods without even grinding it. The taste of Teff can best be described as malty, try mixing a small amount into your next baked food to make it an adventure. Gluten Free Bread Banana Bread Ethiopian Injera (flatbread)

Thickeners and binders

If you are going to use grains without gluten, then you often need something to hold them together (gluten means “glue”). The following are good replacements for gluten:

• Tapioca (cassava)
• Arrowroot
• Xanthan gum
• Taro flour
• Guar gum

Feel Better

Most people who start eating a non-gluten diet feel much better than they have in years. This is a big transition, but once you learn the tricks it gets much easier.

Do you have some great recipes of your own? Leave them in the comment section below (or provide us with a link to the recipe).

I also have a guide to cooking with non-gluten grains, check it out here: Cooking With Non-Gluten Grains.

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I often get the question about why fruits and vegetables are good for you and the short answer is that they are good for you because they are what you are supposed to be eating. That sweet tooth you have is not meant to lead you to white sugar or refined carbohydrates it is meant to lead you to the natural sweetness found in fruits and vegetables. Let’s take a look at exactly why fruits and vegetables are good for you.

High Nutrition, Low Calories

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I’m not a big fan of the calorie concept (see: When it Comes to Weight Loss, Forget Calories), but calories can be useful when talking about certain food concepts and understanding the goodness of vegetables and fruits is one of those times.

There are many ways to measure the value of the food you are eating. Measuring food by weight and nutrients is called a Nutrient Adequacy Score and is a common way to measure the quality of food, but it is very inaccurate. You can also measure the quality of food by calorie (how many nutrients does a food supply per calorie) and this is much more accurate. When you compare the nutritional value of foods by calories (called a Nutrient Density Score) you see that nothing stacks up to fruits and vegetables.

When you calculate the Nutrient Density of Foods then foods such as Kale, spinach, Brussels sprouts score really high (you get a lot of nutrients per calorie) and foods like grains, beans and meats are much lower (not many nutrient per calorie).

There are many different nutrient density scoring charts, but the most user-friendly is Dr. Joel Furhman’s (see ANDI Scoring System). Using this system show you that there is nothing as good for you to eat as fruits and vegetables.

You might be shunning fruits and vegetables for their cost, but take a closer look. When Turns out vegetables may seem expensive, but they provide the best nutrient per calorie of any food[i]

Anti-Everything

Fruits are vegetables are the anit-everthing foods (anti-cancer, anti-heart disease…) There are no better fighters of disease to put in your mouth than fruits and vegetables. Let’s take a look.

Anticancer

• Fruit consumption seems to be protective against cancers of the esophagus, oral cavity, and larynx.[ii]
• Eating more fruits and veggies protects against cancer of the stomach and pancreas as well as colorectal, prostate,^[iii] and bladder cancers. Even lung cancer risk is lower for smokers who eat their veggies.^[iv]
• For women, cancers of the cervix, ovary, and breast,^[v] and endometrium are all lower when they consume more fruits and vegetables.
• Women who consume a large amount of fiber are at lower risk for breast cancer in women (fiber “sweeps” cholesterol and bad estrogens out of the body).^[vi]
• Clinical trials are ongoing with many individual fruits and vegetables:
  • Cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage and broccoli).[vii]
  • Allium vegetables (such as garlic and onion).[viii]
  • Tomatoes.[ix]
  • Berries.[x]

• Compounds found in fruits and vegetables are also being tested:  lycopene (from tomatoes), sulforaphane (from asparagus), brassinin, (from cruciferous vegetables), indole-3-carbinol (from broccoli), and resveratrol (from grapes and peanuts). [xi]

• John Hopkins School Of Medicine has been studying the benefits of Brassica vegetables for over 20 years.
  • High fruits and vegetable consumption reduces your risk of high blood pressure.^[xii]
  • A high-fiber diet lowers cholesterol,^[xiii]
  • You also reduce your overall risk of heart disease when you eat fruits and veggies.^[xiv]
  • Consumption of fruits and vegetables—particularly leafy green vegetables and vitamin C-rich fruits—appears to have a protective effect against coronary heart disease.^[xv]
  • Eating more fruits and vegetables helps you to lose weight; scientific research has shown that eating more fiber does help to lower your weight.^[xvi]

  Heart Disease

  • High fruits and vegetable consumption reduces your risk of high blood pressure.^[i]
  • A high-fiber diet lowers cholesterol,^[ii]
  • You also reduce your overall risk of heart disease when you eat fruits and veggies.^[iii]
  • Consumption of fruits and vegetables—particularly leafy green vegetables and vitamin C-rich fruits—appears to have a protective effect against coronary heart disease.^[iv]

Weight Loss

• Eating more fruits and vegetables helps you to lose weight; scientific research has shown that eating more fiber does help to lower your weight.^[v]

Other Diseases

• The risk for Alzheimer’s, ^[xvii] diabetes, ^[xviii] and many other diseases is lower with higher fruit and vegetable consumption.

Vegetables and Fruits are Good For You

There is no doubt that vegetables and fruits are good for you, the research above is only a tiny bit of what is out there. You should try to make fruits and vegetables as much of your diet as possible. You can feed your body what it needs by making sure every meal has some sort of fruit and vegetable in it.

[ii] Riboli E, Norat T. Epidemiologic evidence of the protective effect of fruit and vegetables on cancer risk. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep;78(3 Suppl):559S-569S.

[iii] Freedland SJ, Aronson WJ. Dietary intervention strategies to modulate prostate cancer risk and prognosis. Curr Opin Urol. 2009 May;19(3):263-7.

[iv] Block G, Patterson B, Subar A. Fruit, vegetables, and cancer prevention: a review of the epidemiological evidence. Nutr Cancer. 1992;18(1):1-29.

[v] Patterson RE, Cadmus LA, Emond JA, Pierce JP. Physical activity, diet, adiposity and female breast cancer prognosis: A review of the epidemiologic literature. Maturitas. 2010 Jan 22

[vi] Suzuki R, Rylander-Rudqvist T, Ye W, Saji S, Adlercreutz H, Wolk A. Dietary fiber intake and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer defined by estrogen and progesterone receptor status–a prospective cohort study among Swedish women. Int J Cancer. 2008 Jan 15;122(2):403-12.

[vii] Herr I, Büchler MW. Dietary constituents of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables: implications for prevention and therapy of cancer. Cancer Treat Rev. 2010 Aug;36(5):377-83. Epub 2010 Feb 20.

[viii] Bianchini F, Vainio H. Allium vegetables and organosulfur compounds: do they help prevent cancer? Environ Health Perspect. 2001 Sep;109(9):893-902

[ix] Ansari MS, Ansari S. Lycopene and prostate cancer. Future Oncol. 2005 Jun;1(3):425-30.

[x] Gullett NP, Ruhul Amin AR, Bayraktar S, Pezzuto JM, et al. Cancer prevention with natural compounds. Semin Oncol. 2010 Jun;37(3):258-81.

[xi] Gullett NP, Ruhul Amin AR, Bayraktar S, Pezzuto JM, et al. Cancer prevention with natural compounds. Semin Oncol. 2010 Jun;37(3):258-81.

[xii] Alonso A, de la Fuente C, Martín-Arnau AM, et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with blood pressure in a Mediterranean population with a high vegetable-fat intake: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) Study. Br J Nutr. 2004 Aug;92(2):311-9.

[xiii] Brown L, Rosner B, Willett WW, Sacks FM. Cholesterol-lowering effects of dietary fiber: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Jan;69(1):30-42.

[xiv] Slavícek J, Kittnar O, Fraser GE, et al. Lifestyle decreases risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2008 Dec;16(4):161-4.

[xv] Joshipura KJ, Hu FB, Manson JE, et al.  The effect of fruit and vegetable intake on risk for coronary heart disease. Ann Intern Med. 2001 Jun 19;134(12):1106-14.

[xvi] Liu S, Willett WC, Manson JE, et al. Relation between changes in intakes of dietary fiber and grain products and changes in weight and development of obesity among middle-aged women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Nov;78(5):920-7.

[xvii] Giem P, Beeson WL, Fraser GE. The incidence of dementia and intake of animal products: preliminary findings from the Adventist Health Study. Neuroepidemiology. 1993;12(1):28-36.

[xviii] Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJ, et al. A low-fat vegan diet and a conventional diabetes diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled, 74-wk clinical trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):1588S-1596S. Epub 2009 Apr 1.

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Losing weight is not as difficult as it is keeping the weight off (you probably know that). But keeping the weight off is not as big of a mystery as you might think. You really don’t have to resort to some crazy diet plan like eating only rice or grapefruit, you do (however) have to change what you are doing. Remember the definition of crazy is trying the same thing over and over but expecting new results. In order to lose weight you have to change what you are doing.

If weight loss is your goal, here are the top 10 tips to lose weight.

1. Stop Short Thinking

Most people think that they can go on a diet and lose the weight that they want to lose and once they achieve their goal they can go back to eating the way that they were eating before their diet (not realizing that the way that they were eating is the cause of their weight gain). When you are looking for a new diet plan, find one that you can live with the rest of your life. Yes, you read that correctly: The Rest of Your Life. The reason why you have a hard time losing weight and keeping it off is because you are eating foods that are not meant to go in a human’s mouth. When you are looking for a diet, pick one that nourishes your body and allows you to lose weight. What does that look like? Read on.

2. You Don’t Have to Spend a Lot of Money

Any plan where you have to shell out a lot of money is a bad idea. Weight loss is simple (well, maybe not so simple to do, but simple to understand). In order to lose weight you simply have to give your body what it needs and your body will respond by giving you what you want: a lighter, healthier body.

3. Don’t Trust Prepackaged Anything

If you want to lose weight, you are going to have to stop letting other people make your food. Both restaurants and food companies want to make you happy and in order to make you happy they are going to fill their food with three magic ingredients: Sugar, Salt and Fat. These three are the deadly ingredients of the dietpocalypse are guaranteed to bring you back to the table over and over again, but also guaranteed to add to your waistline.

4. Remove Food Allergies

Most people don’t know that they are carrying around a lot of extra weight in the form of water weight. Your body holds on to water when you are eating foods that you are allergic to. How do you know if this might be you? Try an allergy elimination diet (see my article: I’m Allergic to Everything). The most common food allergies are probably the foods that you like most: wheat (and gluten-containing foods), nuts, shellfish, dairy, soy, corn and eggs.

5. Eat Your Veggies

You don’t eat enough veggies. How do I know that you don’t eat enough veggies? Because no one eats enough vegetables. You may know that eating enough vegetables is a good thing to do (after all, your mom told you to do it), but veggies are not only good for you but they are also good for your weight loss. Researchers have shown that people who eat a lot of vegetables weigh less than those that don’t.

6. Eat Your Fruits

Remember what I just told you about veggies? The same is true of fruit. If you want to lose weight, find a way to get as many fruits into your body as possible.

7. Exercise

I’m guessing that this is not the first time you have heard that you need to exercise in order to lose weight but I’m going to mention it here because exercise is critical to your weight loss. The only way to get your metabolism back is to make sure you are building new muscle. Get out there today and get some exercise.

8. Cut Out Dairy

While many people are allergic to dairy products (and that can cause weight gain) that is not the main reason why you want to kick dairy out of your life. You want to stop eating dairy foods because they are a major source of fat in your diet. After you read that sentence, you might be thinking that you will just switch to low-fat dairy products but even that won’t work because low-fat dairy products are still high in fat. Read the labels on dairy products and compute the number of fat calories compared to the number of total calories and you will find that even skim milk is around 40 percent fat – those milk producers are tricky when the calculate the total fat calories by volume (this is why they can say skim milk is only 2 percent fat). Worried about calcium? Check out this post: Calcium Myths

9. Reduce Meat

Reduce or eliminate meat from your diet is another great way to kick the fat out of your diet. People who are vegan or vegetarian have a much less chance of being overweight than the rest of us. Try a one-month trial of removing meat from your diet and see what it can do for your waistline.

10. Stop the Sugar

If you want to lose weight, you have to stop the sugar insanity. Sugar is easily turned into fat in our bodies and kicking it out of your life is a great way to keep the pounds off. But let me warn you that if you are trying to stop sugar you also have to stop eating the foods that act like sugar in our bodies.

There you go: Top 10 Tips to Lose Weight.

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Low glycemic foods are the best foods to eat if you are trying to control your blood sugar, but it also works well to eat low glycemic foods if your goal is weight loss.

But just what are low glycemic foods?

The Glycemic Index

The glycemic index is a listing of foods and how each of those foods increases our blood sugar. As you might imagine, eating straight sugar increases your blood sugar but here is the strange thing: other foods increase your blood sugar too (some even more than eating straight sugar).

The glycemic index came about when a scientist decided to check someone’s blood sugar and then give them a single food and then test to see what that food did to their blood sugar. It is a simple enough experiment, but it yielded some surprising results. Foods that we thought would increase blood sugar did, but some of those foods act more sugary that sugar itself. Part of this has to do with what we are measuring and part of it has to do with how readily available the sugars in foods are when we eat them.

Here is a breakdown of a typical glycemic index chart:

What you will notice about the chart is that most of high and medium glycemic index foods are grains, sugars and simple starches. These are the foods you want to avoid

Low Glycemic Foods

Here is the list of the some of the low glycemic foods (for a database, go to www.glycemicindex.com )

GRAINS

• Pearl barley

Grain Products

• Fettuccine, egg
• Lasagna
• Linguine
• Macaroni
• Ravioli
• Spaghetti

FRUITS (RAW)

• Apple
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Dried apricots
• Grapes
• Kiwi fruit
• Mango
• Orange
• Peach
• Pear
• Pineapple
• Plums
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

VEGETABLES

• Avocados
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots, raw
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chard
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Kale
• Onions
• Radish
• Sprouts
• Squash (most)
• Tomato Juice
• Tomato soup
• Tomatoes
• Yam (Canada)

Lettuce of all kinds

• Green leaf
• Iceberg
• Red leaf
• Romaine

Mixed greens

• Arugula
• Beet greens
• Collard Greens
• Dandelion greens
• Endive
• Escarole
• Radicchio
• Red mustard
• Spinach

BEANS

• Baked Beans
• Black eyed beans
• Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
• Hummus (chickpea salad dip)
• Lentils, red
• Pinto beans
• Red Kidney Beans
• Romano beans
• Soya beans

DAIRY

• Full-fat cows’ milk
• Cheese (most)

NUTS AND SEEDS

• Almonds
• Cashews
• Macadamia
• Mixed nuts
• Peanut butter (no sugar)
• Peanuts
• Pecans
• Pistachio
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts

PROTEIN

• Beef
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Fish
• Pork
• Poultry (all)
• Sausages
• Wild game

MUSHROOMS

• Maitake
• Reishi
• Shitake

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If you ask most medical doctors or even established associations such as the American Diabetes Association (see Diabetes Myths) you will find that they think that eating sugar has nothing to do with diabetes. To most people it seems mind bogglingly simple to connect a sugar control problem (diabetes) with eating too much sugar but the medical community just can’t seem to make that leap.

For the rest of us that live on planet reality it is obvious that eating sugar can cause diabetes. How do we know that? Because humans that don’t have access to purified white sugar or foods that act like sugar simply don’t have diabetes. If you look around the globe, you see that people who are unlucky enough to be able to go to the store and pick up a bag of sugar (or get a soda, or buy a bag of chips) are the same people who have diabetes.

A sugar free diet for your diabetes will not only help you, but can dramatically reduce or eliminate your need for medications.

White Sugar

The image you have to get into your head about white sugar is that it is the 100-proof vodka of foods. When you pick up a bag of sugar and the label says that it is almost 99 percent sucrose (and nothing else), that means that your sugar has been so refined that there is nothing else in that bag but pure sucrose. No food this pure exists on the earth until human hands purify it. White sugar is like a drug – only more pure than any you would find on the streets.

But here is the problem.

You can remove all the sugar you want from your diet but if you don’t also remove the foods that act just like sugar in your body then you are not doing yourself any good. What are the foods that act like sugar? They are foods such as bread, crackers, chips and certain fruits and vegetables and they all act just like eating sugar. Want to learn more? Check out my article on the foods that act like sugar.

How to Go Sugar Free

If you are going to do a sugar free diet for diabetics then you are going to need some help.

First let me caution you that changing the way that you eat (especially if you remove sugars and foods that act like sugar) can dramatically change your blood sugar. This is no problem if you are not on medications for your diabetes, but if you are taking medications for blood sugar control then you can put yourself in a dangerous position by simply eating better. Let me suggest that you work with your doctor or health care provider if you are taking diabetic medications and you are going to change your diet.

I find that the easiest way to change your diet is to follow a plan and I have a 30 Sugar Free Days Program that you are welcome to join (there is free version) and try going 30 days without sugar and foods that act like sugar.

Take the plunge and try the 30 sugar free days challenge:

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