I mostly eat whole foods with an occasional lapse. Veggies, fruit, lean meat, yogurt, and cottage cheese make up 80-90% of my diet. Do I need to eat whole grains? I tried adding Kashi cereal to my diet, but it makes me HUNGRY. I'm already getting plenty of fiber from veggies. Am I missing any essential nutrients by not eating grains?

Not necessarily. There are quite a few "experts" who argue that grains aren't necessary (or even beneficial), and some of the research they cite is rather compelling.

If you want to read some of those books, check Amazon.com for some of these titles (and if you look up the books on amazon, you'll find a lot of other suggestions for similar books).

Against the Grain
Life without Bread
Primal Blueprint
Neanderthin
The paleo diet
The paleo prescription
Cereal Killer

I think it all depends on what works for you. For instance, I am vegan and don't eat animal products of any kind. I don't have to eat grains, but without them, it's difficult for me to get filled up. I don't eat a lot of them, but I also don't try to avoid them. It sounds like your diet is pretty varied and balanced, so I'm sure you're fine. The list of books that kaplods gave you sounds like a good place to start for more information.

Thanks for the book recommendations! A couple of my friends are on the paleo diet, but I never thought of that since I eat a bit of dairy.

I'm one of those people who can get into a food rut and will eat the same thing every day for months. I want to make sure I'm getting everything I need.

I also eat dairy and I also tend to go on food jags - so I use an exchange plan for portion, calorie, and carb control. I just try to make my choices to fulfill those exchanges according to paleo principles.


Remember that you can "tweak" any plan (including Paleo) any way you want. If it works great, and if it doesn't tweal some more. Also, not all of the paleo plans eliminate dairy.

I can't remember which book (but it was one of the earliest ones, perhaps Neanderthin), the author argued that dairy was ok, because although it was a modern food, dairy was more palatable to most folks than the paleo sources of calcium and some other minerals, by way of insects, egg shells, shellfish shells, bones, skin, internal organs and dirt (Not that paleo people intentionally ate dirt - but that they incidentally ate more dirt because they probably didn't wash foods as thoroughly as modern humans).


For me, the exchange plan works best, because then I don't have to worry about sticking to a strictly paleo diet. Also, I have a "back up plan" if I eat something "off plan." Often when people follow a non-counting plan (like Southbeach, Paleo, Atkins....) they don't have a back up plan, and when they eat a food off-plan they end up going WAY off plan and fall into a binge, because they don't have a back up plan). For me, the exchange plan gives me a way to eat off-plan foods, and still stay on plan. If I eat a poor choice, I don't decide that I've "blown it" and might as well binge big. I also don't see any food as "bad" because it's not on my "preferred food list."

I can include anything in my exchange plan, but there are consequences to chosing modern foods (mostly for me, hunger and aggravation of skin issues). I can eat bread as my starch exchange, but it's going to make me hungrier and generally feeling a bit yuckier than if I eat sweet potato.

Not all of the experts agree on whether grains (generically, or specific grains like wheat) are bad for everyone, or whether their disadvantages outweight the advantages (or vice versa).

There actually are many compelling arguments on both sides of the argument.

Because of the controversy, it pays to read both sides of the argument, do some self-experimentations, and decide for yourself which grains to include in your diet, and which to avoid.

Good posts kaplods