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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Want to know how many calories you should eat to lose weight? The answer is simple: If You Want to Lose Weight, Calories Don’t Matter. You might be a bit surprised by that answer (especially when doctors, nutritionists, and government agencies all have suggestions for how many calories you should eat if you want to lose weight). The truth is simple: your body is not a calorimeter. What is a calorimeter? It is the machine that food scientists use to determine how many calories food contains (see picture on this page). The problems with using a machine to decide the value of food are many, but the biggest problem is that a calorimeter has no storage device (the way that you do).

What is a Calorie?

The first thing you need to know is what a calorie is. Here is the definition: A calorie is the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C. If you are wondering what that has to do with how much you should eat to lose weight, you are not alone. Food scientists stick an apple in the calorimeter and measure how much energy it produces when they burn it and that (supposedly) tells them how much energy you get from eating that apple. Scientists will tell you that a calorimeter is a good substitution for what happens in the body (but don’t you believe it).

Most people would say that a calorie is the amount of energy that is stored in the food that we eat (and, basically, that is correct), but not the whole story.

If you take the common scientific wisdom about calories as truth, then you would say that everything that you eat has energy in it and that certain foods contain more energy than others. But that doesn’t have anything to do with weight loss. In order to lose weight, you have to focus on which foods you are eating, not how many calories the foods have.

Calories in Calorie out is Bunk

In order to lose weight (food scientists suggest) you have to burn more calories than you take in, but what they forget is what happens to calories that you cannot use right away and there are ways to change what you are storing and what you are not.

You want to store calories? That is easy just keep your blood sugar high.

When your blood sugar is high, three things happen:

• No conversion of fat into energy: Since your body has enough energy running around your blood (in the form of glucose) it will not covert fats into energy. It takes energy to change fat into glucose and almost no energy to store fat as fat.
• No conversion of fructose into energy: In a strange twist, it seems easier for the body to store fructose (a sugar) as fat than it is to change it into energy (glucose). So that soda that is high in fructose goes straight to your hips.
• Fat storage increases: High sugar means high insulin (the hormone that controls sugar) and high insulin means that you will start to store fat.

As you can see, storing calories is easy when your blood sugar is high and the opposite is also true (keeping your blood sugar low means that you are not storing calories).

How Many Calories Should you Eat?

I know you grew up with the idea of calories and are used to thinking about them when you want to lose weight, but here is where you have to change your mind. Instead of thinking how many calories should you eat to lose weight you need to start thinking about what kind of foods you need to eat to lose weight. The beauty of this approach is amazing; you no longer have to count calories and you can eat as much as you want (just pick the right foods).

Here are the basic steps of good weight loss:

• Keep sugar out of your life (this means you also have to avoid the foods that act like sugar).
• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables: While you might have to watch that you are not eating too many starchy vegetables and sweet fruits, vegetables and fruits are the basis of a good diet.
• Exercise: Yes, you have to get out and move your buns around to lose some weight.
• Avoid dairy: Dairy foods are a common food allergens and tend to pack on the pounds. Try a week without and dairy foods (cheese, milk, yogurt…) and see what happens to your weight.
• Limit meat: Meat should be an occasional meal and not an everyday (or everymeal) food. Try eating meat on the weekends only or avoid it altogether until your weight stabilizes.

Remember, if you want to lose weight, you have to stop saying “how many calories should I eat to lose weight?” and start saying “what foods should I eat to lose weight?”

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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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People generally think that they need calcium in their diet (and they are right), but they also think that they need a lot of calcium and that milk is the only way to get enough.

There are many reasons why you might want to consider removing milk and milk products from your diet. Studies are starting to show just what kind of negative impact our love affair with the cow has on our health and even on our bones. When I suggest to people that they stop milk, I can almost guarantee that the next thing out of their mouths is, “yes, but where do I get my calcium?” There response speaks to the power, effectiveness, and tragedy (for our health) of advertising.

My answer to their question of where do you get enough calcium is to ask another question: “Where do cows, moose, and even elephants (who all have very strong bones) get their calcium if all they eat is grass?”

Foods high in calcium

While you might think that the only good source of calcium is milk, there are others. Yes, milk does contain calcium (1 cup has 296 mg of calcium), but milk is, by far, not the only good source of calcium. Take a look at these other foods:

• Sesame seeds (1 cup = 702 mg)
• Flax seeds (1 cup = 416 mg)
• Cabbage (1 cup = 380 mg)
• Collard greens (1 cup = 266 mg)
• Spinach (1 cup = 245 mg)
• Orange (1 cup = 104 mg)
• Kale (1 cup = 94 mg)
• Broccoli (1 cup = 62 mg)

What the Doctor Says

If you check with your medical doctor, they often give you the advice that people don’t get enough calcium. It is probably because of our doctor’s advice that calcium is the fourth most consumed supplement taken in the United States. Not only do calcium pills fly off the shelves, but you can also get calcium in your cereals, breads, soy drinks and even in your orange juice and chocolate bar.

But of all the nutritional guidelines a doctor might want to recommend, calcium makes the least sense.

How Much is too Much?

It is very common for doctors to suggest that you get 1200 mg of calcium every day, but where is the precedence for this? Where in our past history have humans consumed that much calcium? The answer is: nowhere. Imagine the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, or Native peoples around the world spending all their days gathering calcium in order that every person receives their 1200 mg a day. It just didn’t happen.

Where does this 1200 mg a day suggestion come from? It comes from research that shows that 1200 mg is the amount of supplemental calcium you need in order to increase the density of you bones.

And yes, it is true, if you supplement with that much calcium, you will increase your bone density. But here is the real question: does it really make any difference to your health to supplement with that much calcium?

Bone Research

A funny thing happened in the bone research lab.

Scientists wanted to find a way to reduce bone fractures, so they started to look for ways to make bones stronger, but the only way they could measure osteoporosis is through a bone density test. What they found out what was that supplementing with calcium did indeed make bones denser, but no one (until recently) questioned whether supplementing with that much calcium made any difference to bone fractures.

Here are the results of a study done in 1986¹

Yes, supplementing with calcium did increase bone density, but it does not reduce bone fractures. As you can see from the chart above, the countries with the most calcium consumption have the largest chance of hip fractures. Why is this?

Too much calcium in the bones actually makes bones more brittle. So you get denser bones when you supplement with calcium, but you are just as likely to break those bones as you were before you 30-year, 1200mg-a-day, odyssey.

More Studies on Milk

But it doesn’t stop there; more studies show that milk and calcium have an effect on fractures (but the opposite of what our milk education said it would).

For example, a 12 year study in 1997 that followed 77,000 women showed that women who drink 2 or more glasses of milk are actually almost 50 percent higher risk of fracture than those who don’t drink milk.².

How to Get Enough Calcium

Stop focusing on calcium as your source for good and healthy bones. The health of your bones has more to do with other factors than it does with how much calcium you can shove into your mouth.

Here is how to optimize your bone health:

• Calcium: Get your calcium from foods. This means that you eat more green leafy vegetables.
• Vitamin D: Make sure you get enough vitamin D. This will be the subject of a future post, but for now, get outside as often as possible and you might have to think about supplementing.
• Exercise: Yes, you have to get out and move your buns around.
• Foods: Both high salt and high protein will reduce the amount of bone you have. Consider a vegetarian or mostly-vegetarian diet.

1. Hegsted DM. Calcium and osteoporosis. J Nutr. 1986 Nov;116(11):2316-9.
2. Feskanich D. et al. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. Am J Public Health 1997;87(6);992-7.

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What is a Calorie?

The first thing you need to know is what a calorie is supposed to represent.

When asked, most people will say that calories are the amount of energy that is stored in the food that they eat, and, basically, that is correct. But that it is not the whole story. If you take the common nutritional wisdom about calories as truth, then you would say that every food has energy in it and that certain foods contain more energy than others. For example, by common caloric measurements, both proteins and carbohydrates have about the same amount of energy stored in them (about 4 calories per gram) and fat has over twice the energy (9 calories per gram). This is where the wisdom behind keeping fats out of your diet comes from: there are more calories in fat than in protein and carbohydrates.

Okay, that is all well and good, but let’s stop for a minute and find out how this “energy” is determined.

A calorimeter is a scientific tool that is used to measure calories. To use it, scientists place a food in the calorimeter and then burn that food to ash and measure the amount of energy it took to change that food from its original state to ash. Scientists will tell you that a calorimeter is a good substitution for what happens in the body (but don’t you believe it).

Caloric Consequences

If believed that a calorie was a calorie no matter what, you might make this kind of calculation:

Let’s say that you were eyeing that piece of cake and you found out that the cake contained 300 calories. In your mind you think, “hmm… 300 calories, I think I can burn that off by a little bit of exercise.” So you sit down at your desk and you calculate the amount of exercise that you need to do to burn off that amount of calories. It turns out that if you were running around 9 minute miles (not too fast), you would burn around 775 calories in an hour. [click here to see how many calories you burn per hour] So, you figure that you only have to run for around 20 or 30 minutes to burn off that piece of cake.

If you have ever tried this, you know how crazy this can be. Most people I know who have tried this approach to weight loss stop because they are too frustrated. I’ve had people report to me that they have exercised for one to two hours a day and still can’t lose weight. Shouldn’t that much exercise burn off the calories that they are consuming?

The answer is no, but let’s see why it isn’t so.

It Not the Calories

Using calories as a way to measure what you should be eating can only take you so far. The reason this is true is that you simply are not a calorimeter, you are a living being and not some laboratory tool. Something happens when you consume carbohydrates that is different from what happens when you eat proteins or fats… regardless of calories.

Let me show you why:

Imagine that you have a certain amount of energy your body needs and then you eat something sugary. In the first scenario, you are using exactly what your body needs; you are eating the exact same energy that you are using. If we were to graph that relationship, it would look something like this:

In this first scenario, your body is acting exactly like a calorimeter, you are burning all the energy that is coming your way.

The situation is exactly the same if you are eating sugar energy from carbohydrates and the energy you consume is under your energy needs, like this:

But what happens when you are eating more energy than your body needs at the moment?  This is the situation were your body no longer acts like a calorimeter and calories don’t matter any more:

When you consume energy over your basic energy needs, your body now has a problem: what to do with that extra energy? Well, you probably know the answer to that question. Your body stores those extra calories as fat. This is what makes carbohydrates unique. This is what makes the thoughts about calories obsolete. This is what makes carbohydrates much worse than fats and proteins and this is what no one is telling you: calories don’t matter as much as blood sugar especially when you are talking about weight loss.

To lose weight, yes you need to burn more calories than you are consuming, but you also have to keep your blood sugar from spiking too high and causing your body to store that extra energy as sugar.

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