Everybody loves cereal — right? Organic grains made into fun shapes and flavors from the health food store was a staple in my house. I thought that was the healthiest thing around. Little did I know that I was feeding my son something that was making him sick. I didn’t want the antibiotic enriched milk from the conventional market and organic milk was difficult to come by at the time, so I choose soy milk as an alternative. Could it have been any worse?

Low fat milk (cow, soy, rice, etc.) and cereal grains are used to fatten livestock like cows and hogs. I guess it really never occurred to health officials that feeding humans this diet would accomplish the same thing — weight gain.

Aside from the obvious issues with the obesity and diabetes epidemics, there are other concerns around eating these grains.

Preparation of conventional grains

Commercial grains are just not prepared properly. If you have been reading this blog, you know by now that grains have a lot of phytic acid, lectins and enzyme inhibitors that prevent human digestion of the nutrients within the grain. These anti nutrients are neutralized by soaking, fermenting and/or sprouting the grains.

Commercial grains are not processed in this way and so contain all the phytic acid and lectins that are irritating and toxic to the human body. Traditional cultures took a great deal of time and energy to prepare the grains they ate by soaking, sprouting or fermenting them in order to make them digestible.

Modern grains are genetically modified

More than 80% of the corn and soy crops grown in this country are genetically modified. The long term effects on human health and nutrition are unknown. These two mono crops are the basis for many processed foods and are not labeled as genetically modified.

As you probably know, there is a major push right now to pass a law in California that would require food manufacturers to label the GM ingredients in their food. This is a critically important issue that I hope you can help with.

Refined flours are stripped of nutrients

If it wasn’t bad enough that commercial grains are not properly prepared, so many of them are refined. This means that they are stripped of the nutrients. The food manufacturers put synthetic vitamins and minerals back in that are not well absorbed.

Extruded grains

This is perhaps the most important aspect of cereal that makes it toxic. In order to make those fun shapes and sizes, the grains are forced through an extruder under high pressure. This pressure changes the protein structure and may also destroy the fatty acids and vitamins.

When the protein structure is changed, it becomes a foreign protein that the body may react against with an immunological response. Hence, allergies to grains can develop.

Unfortunately, the organic grains, while certainly better because they do not have the pesticide residues that conventional grains have, are more delicate and may be damaged much more by this extrusion process.

Have some lectins with your phytates

As I mentioned above, I gave my son lots of fun organic cereal from the health food store thinking it was a great breakfast. To make matters much worse, he poured lectin rich soy milk over it and chowed down.

Looking back, it’s clear how his allergies and leaky gut developed. At the time, I thought his diet was good. It’s very clear that a change to real food like eggs, bacon, butter (or ghee) and meats and fat from pastured animals can make an enormous impact on a child’s health and ability to learn. Adults as well.

OK, enough with beating myself up about this. Let’s go on to the solution.

The solution is to go grain-free

Some people need to go grain-free for years and maybe for life (I’m one of those people). Others may just need to let their gut heal for a few months or a few years and then they are well enough to eat grains again ( properly prepared).

While it may seem like an insurmountable task — I have made it easy for you in my new online cooking class, go grain-free.

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What You Get in This Class

You’ll get lifetime access to 12 weeks of classes including:

• Over 80 video tutorials
• Over 150 recipes!
• You will automatically receive two bonus video/recipes when you register during this promotion!

Click here to see the full class schedule

What people are saying about Real Food Forager

Jill, you are the QUEEN of cooking videos! I love your videos because they are informative and you explain things so well.

I want to tell you that I made your salmon patties last night and my husband REALLY liked the recipe! That is a MIRACLE… he doesn’t like fish… especially salmon! When I told him what we were having, he made a disgusted-looking face, but he changed his mind when he ate the patties. He told me it was very tasty… much better than the ones his mother used to make!

Your mayonnaise recipe is my favorite mayo recipe. I always make it… I had always used dry mustard before (and safflower oil), but the fresh mustard makes it so much tastier!

And I don’t mind making mayo now that I learned you don’t have to add the oil slowly when you use an immersion blender. It’s so easy to throw everything in the jar at one time and use the stick blender. I make it in the same jar I’m going to store it. Works beautifully! —Victoria B.

I’ve been following your blog for months now and have been cooking your recipes without grains. I’ve already lost almost twenty pounds without even trying to diet! This is amazing as I have had trouble all my life with my weight. It is just eating better that is helping.

I also have had much nicer skin – I always had rosacea and eczema, since going grain-free it has been much better. —Jody D.

I am so excited for this class! To have everything in one place and to get over 80 videos will really help me save time in the kitchen! Following a grain-free diet has really been a benefit to my health and to my son who has learning problems and digestive issues. —Carol C.

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You will have lifetime access! Once you are enrolled, you can go back again and again to the video lessons and recipes and learn at your own pace.

You can view these videos anytime and anywhere — in the comfort of your own home and in your pj’s if you care to! If you are not completely satisfied you may return the class for a full refund within 30 days — no questions asked. Click here for the refund policy.

Get the grain free class and grain free Desserts, Breads and Snacks e-book for only $139.00! This price will only be good — through August 2013!

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This post is shared at: Creative Juice Thursday, Eat Make Grow, Simple Lives Thursday, Keep it Real Thursday, Pennywise Platter, Fresh Bites Friday, Freaky Friday. LHITS, Foodie Friday, Friday Food, Fill Jars Friday, Seasonal Celebration, My Meatless Monday, Melt in Mouth Monday, Sunday School, Monday Mania, Barnyard Hop, Meatless Monday, Traditional Tuesday, Hearth & Soul Hop, Tasteful Tuesday, Whole Food Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Mommy Club, Sustainable Ways, Allergy Free Wednesday, Healthy 2Day

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