Our Complete Spotlight on Body Ecology Series!

1. Exhausted? Overweight? Under the Weather? The Body Ecology Principles Hold the Key to Your Health!
2. Beat Uncontrollable Sugar Cravings with The Principle of Step By Step!
3. Step by Step – Healthy Living Essentials: How to Fight Stress and Get Your Beauty Sleep!
4. The 80/20 Principle Part I: Think Twice Before You Reach for That Hamburger!
5. Animal Proteins Part II: Does Milk Really Do Your Body Good?
6. Good Carbs and Bad Carbs – What You Don’t Know IS Hurting You
7. Is It Fat or Fiction?
8. Stuff Your Holiday Turkey - Not Your Tummy (GETTING STARTED ON THE BODY ECOLOGY DIET)
9. The Principle of Food Combining: The Meat of It - Without the Bread (GETTING STARTED ON THE BODY ECOLOGY DIET)
10. The Principle of Food Combining Part 2: Fruit-ful Advice

You may be going out of your way to eat breads and foods made from “whole grains”, but did you know that the flours and grains they are prepared with could still be harmful to your health?

This is the sixth article in our continuing and much requested Spotlight on Body Ecology series. To read prior articles, click here.

In our previous articles, we covered the 80/20 Principle and how to choose the right proteins to pair with the 80% land and sea vegetables we recommend you eat at each meal.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to another important macronutrient: Carbohydrates, or “carbs”, as we are all accustomed to calling them. Are they good for you or not? If so, which ones are best?

You should know that carbs are the most easily accessible source of fuel for our bodies, yet the Body Ecology diet is a sugar-free/very low carb diet. Does this mean you won’t have any energy?

NO. In fact, the sugars we leave out are the simple sugars like sucrose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, agave, honey, barley malt, and rice syrup. These sugars temporarily raise the sugar in your blood, giving you lots of energy, and then cause a dramatic drop in sugar and energy.

These sugars also create acidity in your body so that candida, bacterial, and viral infections can thrive inside of you. In a nutshell, they are poison.

One of the many strengths of the Body Ecology Diet is the lack of these simple sugars. It’s one of the reasons that The Diet works so well.

Don’t give up on us yet if you are already thinking you can’t give up sugar! We totally understand that we all love that sweet taste, and we didn’t say that you couldn’t eat foods thattaste sweet. You can...so please read on...

What Is a Carb?

Besides the simple sugars mentioned above, starches, fibers, and gums are also called carbs.

Butternut squash, red skin potatoes, and fresh corn are examples of healthy vegetables with sugar or starch, while vegetables like broccoli, green beans, zucchini, and asparagus don’t have much sugar at all.  The first three are examples of “starchy” vegetables. We call the last group, “non-starchy” vegetables. Sometimes you will actually see that other diets (or books) list non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, green beans, zucchini, and asparagus as carbs. They are not and do not belong in the same category as starchy veggies or grains.

Fiber is a carb – one that your body does not digest. Fiber also does not raise your blood sugar. You have probably heard that fiber is good for you and keeps your digestive system healthy. This is very true. Fiber also helps increase the growth of good bacteria in your digestive tract.

To make matters even more confusing, there are two types of fiber, soluble and insoluble. On the Body Ecology Diet, insoluble fiber can be found in “grain-like seeds” (quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth).These absolutely improve digestion and are rich in nutrients yet low in sugar. You will find soluble fiber in flax, chia seeds, and whole fruits. Soluble fiber will slow down the digestion of sugar in your blood and reduce cholesterol.  Fiber is GOOD!

When it comes to “bad” carbs, cake, cookies, soda, and jellies are obviously bad for you, as are any other foods that contain refined sugar, processed flour, or refined grains. (Think white bread or white rice.) These foods are also not a good source of fiber.

Here’s another dietary myth…

We’ve been led to believe that complex carbs, like “whole wheat”, “high fiber”, and “whole grain breads and cereals” are healthy, when in fact, in our modern day, this may no longer be true.

The underlying cause lies in your inner ecosystem. Is yours healthy or not? What is living in your gut? And what about in your bloodstream? What is living there?

For millions of us, it is candida creating a fungal infection called candidiasis.

Whole grains like wheat, barley, rye, oatmeal, spelt, and rice all have sugar in them and are considered ideal foods for candida and other pathogens in your body to feed upon, creating even more of an imbalance and disease.

Furthermore, all of the above grains except rice also contain gluten, a protein that causes “gut dysbiosis” and is difficult to digest, especially for people with weakened inner ecosystems.

In fact, 1 out of 133 Americans have a negative reaction to gluten and cannot digest it1. What’s worse, this number has quadrupled in the last few decades, suggesting that the foods we eat and our environment are to blame².

Other Problems with Complex Carbs and Whole Grains

Not long ago, our ancestors still used granite stone mills to make flour. This meant that the grains were broken down slowly and gently, preserving the wonderful nutrients, essential oils, and vitamins found in the germ of the grains.

Not only that, the normal processes involved in harvesting oftentimes permitted the grains to be sprouted before they were milled, increasing their nutrient content and making them easier to digest.

Commercial producers today mill tons of grains at a time in industrial machines that create high heat and destroy all the nutrients.

To create white flour, they take out the bran and germ, which are often stored for long periods and sold separately to health food stores.

To make wheat flour, they simply add the destroyed bran and germ back into the white flour and fortify the end product with lower quality chemical vitamins to make up for the ones that were destroyed!

So the breads, pastas, and other goods that tout “whole grain” or “whole-wheat” flours are nothing close to healthy. They are mucus forming and create a gummy mess in your intestines, which is an ideal environment for pathogenic yeast like candida to thrive.

This toxic environment in your gut prevents the proper digestion and absorption of essential nutrients, leading to vitamin and mineral deficiencies, loss of energy, weakened immunity, and dwindling life force.

Your Inner Ecosystem and Body Ecology Grains

There’s no question that our modern day food processing and eating habits have wreaked havoc on our inner ecosystems and created epidemic levels of disease.

So if you want to feel better, slow down aging, maintain the perfect weight for your bone structure and to look your absolute your best, then your first priority must be to create a healthy intestinal ecosystem thriving with friendly microflora (friendly bacteria and yeast).

The microflora help digest your food, absorb nutrients, strengthen your immune system, create energy, guard you from parasites, and manufacture important B and K vitamins.

A healthy inner ecosystem will also free you from food and sugar cravings. If you are cutting back on carbs so that you can lose weight, you MUST have a healthy inner ecosystem.

When it comes to grains, we only recommend the gluten-free Body Ecology grain-like seeds of millet, quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat.

These grains may not be that familiar to you, but they are becoming easier to find on your supermarket shelves as more and more health conscious people discover their benefits.

They are hearty, nutrient-dense miracle foods that have actually been around for thousands of years. Here are some of their other great benefits:

• Quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat are all a complete protein, which is rare in the plant world.
  
• These grains will not feed pathogenic yeasts like candida in your body.
• In fact, they act as a prebiotic (food) for the healthy microflora in your intestines, which means more grain-loving microflora will flourish and increase your digestive power.
• They are rich in fiber, which encourages healthy elimination and cleanses your intestines.
• They contain antioxidants, B vitamins, and important minerals (like manganese, magnesium, iron, and tryptophan) and are great non-dairy sources of calcium.
• They help your body produce serotonin, which has a calming, soothing effect on your mind and body. With higher levels of serotonin, you will feel happier, won’t crave carbs, and should sleep much better at night.

Preparation of Grains:

Poor digestion of grains and gluten intolerance are all too common today, and many of us are lacking grain-loving microflora in our inner ecosystems. This is easy to fix if you know about our special probiotic liquids and other probiotic drinks.

If you want to give your inner ecosystem a quick boost, try Body Ecology’s fermented probiotic drink, Whole Grains Biotic, designed especially for this purpose!

Body Ecology seed-like grains are all very easy to cook, and you can easily use them in a wide variety of foods and meals.

However, since many of us have weak digestive systems, it’s important to know how to properly prepare them before even cooking them.

All grains, nuts, beans, and seeds have an enzyme inhibitor called phytic acid in them. Phytic acid neutralizes your body’s digestive enzymes, making it very difficult to assimilate these foods. Also, phytic acid binds to minerals, proteins, and starches so that you won’t be able to benefit from these important nutrients. In fact, in large amounts, phytic acid blocks the uptake of calcium, magnesium, copper, and iron. These foods are especially harmful to women and children. Women need to replace their iron when they are menstruating, and children need iron to grow.

Modern day food processing and preparation methods have ignored this important fact, which is another reason why digestive disorders and mineral and nutrient deficiencies have become rampant in our society.

Our ancestors knew very well that they had to soak, sprout, or use only fermented grains before they could be eaten, and each of these processes removes the phytic acid from nuts, seeds, beans, and grains.

So if you want the wonderful benefits of these grains while encouraging the reestablishment of your inner ecosystem, do not eat them without soaking them in water for at least 8 hours, preferably 24 hours before rinsing and cooking.

What About Other Carbs?

Starchy vegetables like acorn and butternut squash, lima beans, English peas, fresh corn, water chestnuts, artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes, and red skin potatoes are the starchy vegetables eaten on The Body Ecology diet. They combine best with your non-starchy land or ocean vegetables.

Despite the fact that conventional dieticians and medical experts encourage them, on the Body Ecology diet, we don’t recommend eating beans or legumes in stage one. Beans (including soybeans) are difficult to digest because they are mostly a carb with a small amount of protein. This is one of the reasons why they often create uncomfortable gas and bloating.

Once your digestion becomes stronger, you may be able to reintroduce them to your diet. If you do chose to eat them, you will find it wise to follow two of Body Ecology’s Principles, the Principle of 80/20 and the Principle of Food Combining. This means that you should eat 20% beans and combine them with 80% land and ocean vegetables. Of course, cultured vegetables are a must since they help with digestion at every meal. (The Principles of Food Combining and The Principle of 80/20 will be detailed in later articles.)

When eating a food made from soybeans, we only recommend the fermented foods like miso, natto, and tempeh.

Once your digestion is stronger and your inner ecosystem has become well-populated with plenty of “grain-loving microflora”, you may find that you want to reintroduce some of the other true whole grains, like rice, oats, and barley, back into your diet as well. You may also prefer to continue to avoid gluten and flours made from glutinous grains, which means avoiding wheat, spelt and rye. Celiac disease is a serious digestive disorder that affects millions of us, especially if we are of Northern European, Asian, and African descent.

Certainly, flour products are very appealing foods, and gluten is truly addictive. So who would want to give up delicious dinner rolls, sandwich bread, cakes, and cookies? No one really, but if ideal health is your goal, cut them out altogether, or eat them only on special occasions.
It’s okay to do this to see how your body reacts, but remember that the same rule applies: soak them first.

If you find you absolutely must eat wheat, then here’s a vitally important tip.

The wheat of today is nothing like the wheat that our ancestors ate. If you eat bread, the only bread we recommend can be found at Grindstone Bakery.

If you are a nut lover and are wondering about whether to eat them or not, please read: The Body Ecology Guide to The Healthiest Nuts (And Nuts To Avoid).

In our next “Spotlight on Body Ecology” article, we will lay out a comprehensive overview of the last macronutrient: FATS.

Misconceptions and controversy abound on this topic, and many people are still resistant to the idea that it’s not eating fat that makes you fat, it’s eating the wrong fats in the wrong foods.

In fact, eating the right fats is essential to help you stay slim and increase your longevity!

Stay tuned!