that with optimally healthy foods
that don’t contain any of the
downsides of grains.Grains are seeds of plants in the grass
family. This includes wheat, oats, barley, rye,
millet, corn (maize), rice (including wild
rice), sorghum, teff, triticale, spelt, kamut,
buckwheat, amaranth, chia, and quinoa.*
The sole purpose of the seed is for
reproduction of the plant. (Plants do not grow
their babies just for us to eat.) When that seed
matures and falls onto the ground, it needs
some stored energy to get started—to
germinate and grow until it produces its first
leaves and can photosynthesize energy from
sunlight. Grains store most of that preliminary
energy in their seeds as carbohydrate.
Depending on what we do with those
grains (and how we consume—or
overconsume—them), all that carbohydrate