Can I eat quinoa?

It’s a frequent question: Can I eat quinoa . . . or beans, or brown rice, or sweet potatoes? These are, of course, non-wheat sources of carbohydrates. They lack several undesirable components found in wheat, including no: Gliadin–Degraded to exorphins that exert mind effects and stimulate appetite to the tune of 400 additional calories per day. Gliadin–Intact, gliadin triggers autoimmune diseases and neurologic impairment. Amylopectin A–-The highly-digestible “complex” carbohydrate of grains that is no better–-worse, in fact–-than table sugar. So why not eat non-wheat carbohydrates all you want? If they don’t cause appetite stimulation, behavioral outbursts in children with ADHD, addictive consumption of foods, ulcerative colitis or rheumatoid arthritis, why not eat them willy-nilly? Because they still increase blood sugar. Conventional wisdom is that these foods have lower glycemic indexes than, say, table sugar, meaning they raise blood glucose less. That’s true . . . but very misleading. Oats, for instance, with a glycemic index of 55 compared to table sugar’s 59, still send blood sugar through the roof. Likewise, quinoa with a glycemic index of 53, will send blood sugar to, say, 150 mg/dl compared to 158 mg/dl for table sugar–-yeah, sure, it’s better, but it still stinks. And that’s in non-diabetics. It’s worse in diabetics. Of course, John Q. Internist will tell you that, provided your blood sugars after eating don’t exceed 200 mg/dl,...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle carbs gluten grains HbA1c insulin quinoa sugars Source Type: blogs