Watch the news enough and you're going to hear another doctor who has determined that some food source is responsible for causing harm in some form to our body. I am not a PhD, but my gut feeling here is that our obese nation with poor health has a lot to do with our level or activity, or lack thereof, and overall diet.

If I were to sit inside all day at work and at home, and eat a diet comprised primarily of a few items my chances of being over weight and being in poor health.

My plan is to eat sensibly, stay active and ENJOY life.

In its ever, and constant need to be repeated: All things in moderation! With that in mind, all those horrid foods about, shouldn't cause to much harm........

Today, it is unfortunately, very hard(impossible(?)to not be bombarded by "Experts", and all of their declarations of how healthy or deadly, everything we eat or do is.

Take it all with a grain of salt, O wait, maybe not......;) In the mean time, tell everyone you love, to get off their donkeys, and go start gardening!(<- I'm more inclined to throw wheat berries at the fact, that most people today are more than only willing to move the inch it takes to see what Kim K. and Lady Gaga are up to, Its all they're doing..........

What are your feelings on other grains and cereals? I'm pretty sure we've been eating barley for tens of thousands of years... I'm thinking a variety of various grains, with a reduction in processed foods like white bread isn't so bad... but I don't really have much knowledge on the subject. I just ate a bowl of red lentils and some homemade naan made with unbleached flour. IMO, as long as I don't eat the naan every day, it's a healthy meal. shrug

What's your opinion on the most healthy grains in this list?

Wheat Barley Millet Oats Amaranth Quinoa Buckwheat

I only listened to the opening comments & heard so much BS, I didn't go any further. It's true we eat too many carbs. It makes no difference if it's wheat or otherwise. Celiac disease is much more common than most think and its prevalence goes up with aging, but that's a specific problem, not the general problem of too many carbs. And it's carbs, not the gliadin, that stimulates appetite. You know what they say about Chinese food. It's all carb and no gliadin.

Obesity is directly related to the action of insulin: it promotes lipogenesis & prevents lipolysis. This is why the Adkins diet really works for weight loss.

I've calculated that a diet of rice, beans & corn (all needed to provide the essential amino acids) would require an intake of ~6000 cal per day to provide 60gm of protein, a bare minimum for a healthy adult not working/excercising very vigorously. The same 60gm could be provided by 500cal worth of beef. In general, it takes ~10 cal per day to maintain each lb of body weight, so 6000c/d would push you up to a weight of 600lb, just to put that in perspective.

Your mother was right: eat a balanced diet.

ps/ I'm also tired of hearing how great "whole grain" is. True, most of the protein and vitamins are in the bran, removed in making white flour, but that amount is so small that it's useless anyways. Eat meat for protein, greens & citrus for vitamins and just use carbs if you want more cavities.

Sounds like you all have covered the waterfront pretty well. Just a couple of specific comments:

T --- Mark didn't say it in his post, but moderation is the decision we've come to as well. Because there are some very bad for you foods we love (brownies... ). We've mostly been taking grains out of our meals, though, so we can have room for them now and then in desserts.

Shannon --- My take on other grains is about what Doc said below --- they're all nutritional filler.

Doc --- Thanks for the great comment! I have a tendency to agree with you about whole wheat, but I feel like a heretic saying it. Glad you did it for me....

Heather-Thanks for pointing out that there was no info-mercial or B.S. involved in the Dr Davis interview. Youtube can sometimes look a little less than perfect, but this information is new and like all new information needs to be scrutinized and driven around the block.

I think the issue is more relevant for those who have high sugar levels and are at risk of developing diabetes or similar health issues. It's easy enough to try....just delete all wheat for a few weeks and see if it helps you feel any better.

There's another recent interview with Dr. Davis that covers some additional items at Gnostic Media.com that I thought was informative and well done.

http://www.gnosticmedia.com/wheatismurder