I lost weight without giving up grains, but now that I'm maintaining my weight loss, I've had to give up most grains. Eating a slice of bread will cause cravings. Not only that, it will cause my glucose level to spike. Wheat seems to be the problem for me - it is so refined now.

I may have to give up the one final grain - oats. I love my oatmeal in the morning.

We are all different. But if you are having problems with weight loss, giving up grains might be something to try. It certainly has helped me.

And I found what I was possibly thinking about, pellagra, basically niacin deficiency. This isn't generally a worry for many healthy people who eat plenty of tryptophan because the body can make niacin from tryptophan. And tryptophan can be found in meat and legumes. There are plenty of incidences of people not being able to do the conversion though so taking a multivitamin is a good idea to cover your bases.

And pellagra is seen in societies with high corn consumption - there is an inhibiting factor there directly related to the poor nutritional quality of corn and need for proper soaking methods. This is actually seen in many grains and one of the reasons I quit consumption - they not only displace more nutrient rich foods, most preparations of them leave them at least somewhat indigestible and can inhibit the assimilation of crucial nutrients.

Well corn needs to be treated with lime to make niacin bioavailable. This wasn't an issue with mesoamericans but was a problem to societies that replaced their other grains with corn.

Gah y'all know so much stuff about nutrition that just overwhelms me, lol.

In most cases, the "deficiencies" caused by low-grain diets, are also because of low-protein and/or low-vegetable intake as well. They're mostly associated with extremely low-variety diets (which is why they're seen mostly in poverty-stricken, drought-stricken, and other near-starvation conditions). They're also usually only seen in remote areas and other locations where medical resources are unavailable or poorly utilized (that is, it's seen in folks who either cannot or will not seek medical attention when troubling symptoms appear).

These deficiencies do not appear full-blown out of the blue. You don't wake up with pellagra. The symptoms appear gradually, and in the USA, the vast majority of people (even of the lowest income) would be seeing a doctor before symptoms because health-threatening.

Folate/folic acid -deficiency is a bigger concern, because it is a leading cause of birth defects, especially of the brain and spinal column. And the mother often experiences no symptoms whatsoever.

While breads and other grain products are often fortified with niacin, folate, and other B vitamins, they probably wouldn't need to be, if folks ate more non-starchy plant foods and organ meats. Many of the "deficiencies" caused by low-grain diets are actually a result of low-plant food diets. In the SAD (standard American Diet), grains are the main (and in some cases only) source of plant foods.

The SAD is extremely low in produce in general, and in low-calorie vegetables in particular. Just taking out grains, isn't the solution if you're not already eating (or replacing the grains with) a wide variety of low-carb, high-fiber vegetables. Eating the widest variety of foods possible is the best strategy for all diets, and a grain-free diet is no exception. Eliminating grains makes it even more important to eat more high-quality plant foods (but the fact remains that most people in the USA do not eat enough plant foods, especially of the low-carb, high-fiber variety).

Regardless of grain intake, a multivitamin isn't a bad idea for anyone, because there are so many potential gaps in the SAD diet, especially for people who aren't eating tremendous variety.

In the USA, the most common source of nutritional gaps is in the area of vegetation rather than protein or starch. It was extremely shocking to me to learn that a large segment of the population eats absolutely no true fruits and vegetables (unless you count ketchup, potatoes, and corn vegetables - and possibly the occasional slice of iceberg lettuce and pickle that comes on a fastfood hamburger).

It was amazing to me how many grains and grain products I was eating before I lost weight. I never planned to cut them out (and I still haven't) but through calorie counting I found my way to a nearly grain-free diet.

The only time I have grains are for my lunch. I'll have a wrap or panini and that's it 90% of the time (unless I have a salad instead!).

It hasn't hindered my maintenance and I actually ate more grains while losing weight. It's certainly a lot easier to stick to my calorie goals when I limit grains, but I don't find it completely necessary.

I 100% agree that a good multivitamin is good insurance. And Kaplods had a good point that variety in the diet, particularly in vegetables, is important.

Well, I tried my first day, and it wasn't so bad, except I realized there's not many things I can't eat in my house now! I'll have to get some soups or ask my mom to start cooking with grain alternatives, like almond and coconut flour.

And I didn't mean to imply that fortified grains should be part of the diet. We wouldn't need to fortify as much if we did eat a large, varied diet with legumes and whole grains (vs stripped and fortified) and plenty of vegetables. I grew up with a very varied diet so I am always amazed at hearing about people with a diet with little variety.

Anyway, I actually don't eat a lot of grains myself but what I do eat is varied including quinoa, amaranth, barley, rye, kamut, millet, brown rice, wheat, oats, etc.

I cut grains pretty substantially this time around while trying to lose weight, but it really was just because it didn't fit well with my calorie budget... I chose to spend my limited calories on lean protein, veggies, some fruit, and some nuts... So there just wasn't much rooms for a lot of added grains... And for me there was no noticeable difference in how I felt with the reduced amount of gains in my diet...

Now that I've been maintaining I would like to add back some whole gains that I feel would add some more variety to my meals that I'm looking for now and fit well with my calorie and nutritional goals and my fitness goals as well...

Kaplods, enjoyed your post as always, interesting that the acronymn for the standard american diet is SAD as it is pretty sad...we have been incorporating more fruits and veggies in our diet, but not going grain free, I'm with you on the variety being important, sometimes I really have to make myself break out of a rut, I like to slide back into eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch.

Very interesting thread, definitely learned alot! thanks everyone for posting