Should You Stop Eating Grains To Lose Weight?

What happens if I stop eating rice...

Stop eating rice! It’s because you eat too many roti’s.

How often have we heard this fat-loss tip?

Let’s address this scientifically.

Do we need to skip grains?

I was recently watching a BBC documentary about the diets of the Blue- Zones of the world.

Blue zones are places across the globe where people live the longest and are the healthiest.

These zones receive as much air- pollution, water- pollution, and industrial pollution as the rest of the world. These are not indigenous tribes living in the forests but are people living in cities and countries just like us.

So what’s different? Two major factors:

• Their approach to life

• Their diets (90% plant-based and LOTS of grains!)

Guess what their diet is mostly comprised of?

Whole grains such as rice, wheat, barley, corn, and buckwheat. Plus fruits, vegetables, lentils, pulses, and lots of nuts/ seeds. These do not cause weight gain and are in fact helpful in losing weight.

Read these article I wrote to learn more:

• Grain-Free Diet - A New Fad Diet In Market!

• How to Lose Weight on a High Carb Diet?

What does science say?

According to studies, people eating grains have an average of 7.5 pounds less body weight and tend to have a slimmer waistline.

Moreover, cutting out an entire food group from your diet will also cause hormonal, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies. It also leads to a vast gut dysbiosis which means that the balance in the ratio of good and bad bacteria in your body is severely affected.

Scientific evidence also gives credibility to the recommendations of incorporating whole-grain foods into a healthy diet and lifestyle program.

Skip processed grains like white bread, maida-made pasta, and white rice. But no reason to exclude unpolished rice, rolled oats, whole wheat phulka, and millets!

There have been several studies published on the health benefits of whole-grain diets such as in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colorectal, pancreatic and gastric cancers.

The possible benefits of such findings recommend that the consumption of 2 to 3 servings of grains per day.

So please eat that phulka and chawal,

Roshni Sanghvi.