What Are The Healthiest Grains?

[kaygato]

I'm planning on trying a low to no grain diet, something like the south beach diet. I'm already gluten free but want to lose some weight and eat less starch and sugar.

I've heard of people on grain free diets still eating quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and brown rice. I've also heard amaranth talked about in this way too.

My question is what are the healthiest/most nutritious grains? Obviously I wouldn't have anything with gluten, and I'd also exclude oatmeal, corn, white rice, and potato. So are the grains I mentioned earlier actually better for you than other grains?

[Marilyn R]

My guess is that whole grains would be your best bang, like brown or black rice.

[fantasticalice]

Open Original Shared Link

Here ya go, all gluten free!

[fantasticalice]

Only Quinoa has all 9 amino acids!

[Marilyn R]

Quinoa set me back so bad the one time I tried it. Gtanted I got it out of a bulk bin at a health food store (bad move),but I'll never try it again.

[mushroom]

Marilyln, I'm with you on the quinoa - deadly. Millet too. And yet the link fantasticalice provided claims that millet and sorghum are the same - NOT!. I love sorghum, no problems whatsoever with it.

[freeatlast]

Marilyln, I'm with you on the quinoa - deadly. Millet too. And yet the link fantasticalice provided claims that millet and sorghum are the same - NOT!. I love sorghum, no problems whatsoever with it.

Ah, yes...millet. Tried it once as just one ingredient with several gluten-free flours in a recipe. Haven't used it since. Glad I'm not the only one. Never buy quinoa, either, but for a diffeent reason. I started gluten-free in 1977 and quinoa and rice flours were the only options. Got so sick of it.

Amaranth has lots of minerals in it, I believe. It sure tastes healthy to me

[fantasticalice]

Wow! I stand corrected. I eat a lot of quiona and I feed it to my dogs as well (pugs, lots of allergies) I bake with Bob's Red Mill flour, we LOVE the stuff! Um...I would never buy it for daughter from bulk bin!? Costco has it (Bob's) and it's 1/2 price, compared with other stores. We eat oatmeal and I know many don't. Trader's now has their own gluten-free oats. There are so many things Rachel can't eat and not just because she's Celiac. We are only discovering the many no-nos

Found Vances non-dairy creamer yesterday, anyone tried it?

[HiDee]

Some people in the SCD and Paleo world would advocate that NO grains are healthy (inlcuding millet, amaranth, quinoa etc.). I'm not an expert on either of those diets (there's tons of info on the web if you want to search it out) but my husband and I follow a largely grain free and low sugar diet but for the occasional rice cracker with my kids or popcorn on movie night etc. My husband is also largely dairy free as well, I believe avoiding grains, sugar and dairy for him has helped him a lot health-wise but when he strays, he pays. Personally, I find the grains you mentioned are not very tasty and certainly don't warrant the extra cost if I don't really like to eat them or bake with them. There are so many other options that taste better and are healthier, like More Vegetables! Instead of rice on the side, we have an extra vegetable or salad. My favorite website is elanaspantry.com, she almost exclusively uses almond flour or coconut flour for baking, as do I. It's a somewhat low carb but high nutrition approach. She has VERY good recipes and south beach approved I would imagine in most cases.

Good Luck!