🥖 Grains: From Gut Damage to Nourishment

🌾 Grains Built Civilization—and Broke the Human Body

Grains created civilization. When not properly prepared, they also create chronic disease.

For most of human history, grains were not considered food. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t wake up and forage for wheat berries. They hunted animals, dug up roots, gathered fruit, cracked open nuts, and moved on. It wasn’t until 10,000 years ago—just a blink in evolutionary time—that humans started eating the seeds of grass: grains.

That shift changed everything. It birthed civilization... and disease.

When humans first domesticated wheat and other grains in the Fertile Crescent, it allowed them to stop being nomadic. They could store calories. Populations grew. Cities formed. But so did malnutrition, stunted growth, infections, and epidemics. The Dark Ages were not a time of robust health. People lived short lives—often only long enough to reproduce—then died of malnourishment, infections, or famine.

Pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers often lived long, robust lives. Once grains took over the food supply, humans started living just long enough to reproduce—then dying of gut damage, infections, and nutritional collapse.

Archaeological records show that skeletal structure, dental health, and immune resilience all declined with the adoption of agriculture. And it wasn’t just the absence of meat—it was the presence of poorly prepared grains, consumed in massive quantities with no understanding of their gut-damaging effects.

❌ Why Grains Wreck the Gut (If You Eat Them Wrong)

Grains contain anti-nutrients—especially in the bran layer (the part that makes it a "whole grain"). These include:

• Phytates that bind zinc, iron, calcium, and magnesium

• Lectins that irritate the intestinal lining

• Enzyme inhibitors that block digestion

Gluten is just one of many gut irritants.

In their raw or unfermented form, grains are harsh. They slow motility, feed pathogens, and create chronic low-grade inflammation. This leads to leaky gut, food sensitivities, and autoimmunity—especially when someone is in low energy availability (LEA), undereating, or malnourished.

Grain proteins aren’t the root cause of autoimmunity—but in a stressed, underfed, or nutrient-deficient body, they absolutely become a trigger.

🧬 But Here’s the Truth: Grains Aren’t Evil. They’re Just Unprepared.

Many ancient cultures figured this out.

They didn’t eat brown rice.
They didn’t eat store-bought flour.
They didn’t eat whole wheat sandwich bread.

They fermented, nixtamalized, dehulled, and slow-cooked grains until they became digestible. They paired them with animal foods rich in protein, B vitamins, and fat-soluble nutrients. And they didn’t base their entire diet on them.

Proper grain prep is a lost art in the West—but it’s not gone forever.

✅ The 4 Grains I Recommend (When Your Body is Ready)

Not everyone tolerates grains—especially those still healing their gut or recovering from decades of carb restriction, PUFA overload, or metabolic stress. But for those who have restored their energy availability and built metabolic resilience, these four are typically the most well-tolerated:

1. Sourdough Bread

Every culture that consumed wheat fermented it first. All bread used to be sourdough—even on the American frontier. Laura Ingalls wasn’t eating Wonder Bread. She was using wild yeast and fermentation to break down gluten, phytates, and lectins. Europe still does this in many regions today.

Modern bread? It’s garbage. Commercial flour is bleached, brominated, fortified with synthetic vitamins, and often contains iron filings (yes, actual metal shards). No wonder so many people feel better without it.

But real sourdough made from organic, unbrominated white flour is a completely different food—and in many cases, it’s gut-healing.

❌ Avoid: commercial bread (brominated, bleached, full of synthetic vitamins and metal shavings)

🧳 How to Spot Real Sourdough

Most store-bought “sourdough” is a lie. It’s just commercial yeast + vinegar for fake tang. No fermentation. No gut benefits.

✅ What to look for at a bakery or label:

• Ask: “Do you use a real sourdough starter?”

• Look for: organic, unbleached, unbromated white flour

• Avoid: “Whole grain sourdough” (bran = no thanks)

• Bonus: Long-fermented (24+ hours = more gluten/phytate breakdown)

Real sourdough should have 3–5 ingredients: flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter. That’s it. If they can't name the starter or it lists yeast, it's not real.

2. White Rice

Not brown. Ancient Asian cultures went to extreme effort to create white rice—pounding or polishing off the bran layer by hand. Why? Because the bran is where all the toxins are. They didn’t do this for fun; they did it because they felt better.

White rice is:

• Low-residue

• Low-inflammatory

• Incredibly easy to digest

It’s ideal in times of healing and pairs beautifully with mineral-rich animal foods and fruit.

👍 This is my go-to white rice.

❌ Avoid: brown rice (still contains the bran = high in anti-nutrients)

3. Masa Harina (Nixtamalized Corn)

Corn in its natural state is hard to digest. But Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica developed a brilliant process called nixtamalization—soaking corn in lime (calcium hydroxide) to neutralize anti-nutrients, increase calcium and B vitamin bioavailability, and improve texture.

Masa harina is the result. It’s what tortillas used to be made from before the food industry took shortcuts. When made traditionally, it's a nourishing starch that pairs beautifully with bone broth, cheese, beef, or eggs.

👍 This is the best-quality masa I’ve found.
✅ Eat as: tortillas, tamales, pupusas, or mash it with butter and cheese

4. Sprouted, Soaked Oats (Only if Acid-Prepared)

Oats are only tolerable when properly prepared—and that means sprouted and soaked in an acidic medium, like:

• Raw buttermilk

• Yogurt

• Kefir

• Water with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

This neutralizes enzyme inhibitors and phytates that would otherwise block mineral absorption and inflame the gut.

👍 I use these sprouted oats and soak them in ACV water overnight.
Then I slow cook them with mineral-rich water and pair with raw honey, collagen, or fruit.

🫻 What to Cook Oats In

If you’re going to eat oats, don’t just soak them—cook them in something mineral-rich. Water alone won’t cut it.

✅ Best cooking mediums:

• Raw milk or gently pasteurized whole milk

• Milk + water combo for lighter texture

• Bone broth if savory

• Add collagen, honey, and sea salt to boost mineral profile

❌ Avoid:

• Quick oats (they’re overly processed)

• Oat milk (PUFA-rich and gut-irritating)

Personally, I slow-cook sprouted oats in raw milk with a pinch of salt, a scoop of collagen, and a swirl of honey or maple. It’s insanely healing.

🍞 What About Oatmeal Cookies, Granola, and Baked Goods?

Oats aren’t just for porridge. Some people find they tolerate baked oats better—probably due to slower digestion and better starch transformation from baking.

✅ Safer options:

• Oatmeal cookies made with soaked/sprouted oats

• Granola made with soaked + dehydrated oats

• Oat flour pancakes (if made from sprouted oat flour)

The same rule applies: prep the oat first (soak, sprout, or buy pre-sprouted) and avoid inflammatory add-ins like canola oil or nut butter.

🧠 Why the Bran Is the Most Harmful Part of the Grain

We’ve been sold the lie that whole grains are healthier. In reality, the bran layer—the very part that makes a grain “whole”—is the most gut-damaging.

It’s loaded with:

• Phytates that bind zinc, iron, calcium, and magnesium

• Lectins that irritate the intestinal lining

• Enzyme inhibitors that slow digestion

• Fibrous grit that mechanically damages the gut wall

Ancient cultures went out of their way to remove or ferment the bran because they understood, intuitively, that this part of the grain made them feel worse. Modern food science is just now catching up—and most of it’s still bought and paid for by industry.

⚠️ Whole Grains: A Government-Endorsed Lie?

We’ve been brainwashed to believe that “whole grains” are healthier. They aren’t. The outer shell of the grain—the bran—is what ancient cultures worked so hard to remove. It’s loaded with anti-nutrients, not magical fiber.

But the U.S. government, backed by the grain industry and Big Pharma, keeps telling us to eat them. Why?

• Cheap grains = higher margins

• Chronically inflamed people = more prescriptions

There’s no money in metabolic healing.
There’s no lobby for sourdough.

🥩 It’s Not the Grain. It’s the Context.

My partner has ulcerative colitis. When he ditched commercial bread, his symptoms dropped by 80%. Today, he eats sourdough every day—with no flare-ups.

Why? Because he’s eating it in the context of a high-calorie, high-carb, low-fat, nutrient-rich diet with plenty of collagen, dairy, and cooked vegetables.

Grains aren’t evil. But they’re not innocent either.

To tolerate them well:

• Heal your metabolism

• Exit low energy availability

• Lower your fat intake (especially seed oils)

• Get your body temperature and thyroid up

• Then slowly reintroduce one properly prepared grain at a time

🧠 Grains Aren’t Evil. Just Unprepared.

🚫 Ditch:

• Brown rice

• Whole wheat

• Commercial bread

• Quick oats

• Unfermented grains

✅ Consider (when ready):

• Real fermented sourdough 👉 buy it here

• 👍 And these sourdough crackers and this sourdough pasta are incredible too.

• White rice 👉 this one

• Masa harina 👉 nixtamalized, right here

• Sprouted, soaked oats 👉 these

Heal your gut. Exit LEA. Then reintroduce ancient wisdom.