What is a Grain-Free Groupie?

A Grain-Free Groupie (GFG) is someone who eliminated grains from their diet for health and/or weight management issues.  Going GFG doesn't mean you are Paleo and doesn't mean you are a weirdo, hippie, liberal nutjob, or anything else.  It means you have decided to take control of your nutrition (I prefer nutrition to diet) and incorporate clean, whole, unrefined and minimally processed foods.  As in real food.  Not chemically derived edible product, passed off as food.  I have been grain-free since the summer of 2011, then went primal in 2012, and finally paleo in 2013.  Being grain-free and paleo helps maintain low blood sugar and as a Type 1 LADA diabetic has kept me off insulin thus far, and is helping combat several auto-immune disorders.  Will it solve every single problem in your life and heal a lifetime of standard diet eating habits and related ailments?  Maybe not.  You may need a more stringent nutritional plan targeted to eliminating candida or combating autoimmune issues and other sensitivities.  But we all need a starting point.  Grain (and thereby gluten)free was mine.

But seriously, what is a GFG?  Here is some info from Grain Free Living.

List of Grain and Grain-Free Foods

Written by Grain Free Living

A useful list of what is a grain, and what is NOT a grain.
Foods that are grains, or are made from grains are:

• Wheat
• Rye
• Barley, including barley malt
• Bran
• Bulgur
• Couscous
• Farina
• Kamut
• Orzo
• Semolina
• Sorghum (gluten free)
• Spelt
• Corn (gluten free)
• Cornflour (gluten free unless the wheaten cornflour)
• Cornmeal (gluten free)
• Rice (gluten free)
• Wild Rice (although not related to rice it is still of the Poaceae family of cereal grasses, so technically, still a grain)
• Oats
• Millet (gluten free)
• Beer (yes, beer!)
• Glucose made from wheat
• Teff (gluten free)
• Montina flour
• Graham flour (wheat)
• Commercially made stock: like chicken, beef or vegetable stock in either powder or liquid usually contains some kind of grain.
• (this list is incomplete)

So any thing made from these products would also have grains - like cakes, biscuits, pizzas, bread, pasta, breadcrumbs, spaghetti etc

Foods that are grain free, even though they are often used as a flour or look a bit like a grain are:

• Almond
• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Buckwheat also called Kasha
• Cassava
• Chickpeas (made into flour)
• Coconut (used in flours)
• Cottonseed
• Dal
• Fava bean
• Flaxseed
• Gram flour (chickpea)
• Lentils
• Manioc
• Potato Starch/Flour
• Quinoa
• Sago
• Sesame
• Taro flour
• Soy
• Tapioca
• Glucose made from tapioca
• Plantain flour (can get at African grocers)
• Yam (iyan) flour (can get at African grocers)
• Mesquite flour

So any thing made from these products would be grain-free - like any of the recipes on www.grainfreeliving.com.  Grain free foods are also automatically gluten free.
Dairy products, or anything from an animal like milk, cheese, butter or meat do not contain grains.
All fruits and vegetables are not grains, (except for corn, which is a grain).