Personally, I gave up grains (bread, pasta, rice, oats, cereals of all sorts) 6 days a week back in early April and lost 23kg (48lb) quickly (in 15 weeks), simply, easily and with hardly any hunger pangs after 40+ years of trying to diet incorporating all that grains crap that the supposed 'food pyramid' devised on poor 'research' told me I should eat and left me constantly fighting hunger and at war with myself unless I went and shovelled a loaf of bread down my face daily consequently regaining weight.
I feel fresher, more alive, my sleep needs have reduced by around 1 hour a day on average, other health benefits are in evidence including my teeth which were heavily 'banded' and almost transparent a few months ago are distinctly 'filling in' and becoming more opaque. I'm thinking, if cutting grains had this impact on my teeth, what positive impacts is it having on my skeleton? there are other benefits I won't mention in public!
On my recent diet, I ate 8400 calories per week (including the one day a week when I was allowed grains - mainly for social reasons, one of my closest friends is Italian and loves to cook a heavily pasta and grain orientated menu and she was heart-broken at the thought I wouldn't eat it - and exercised walking 30km a week and swimming 5-6km a week for the duration.
I didn't need a substitute because I wasn't hungry!
Anyway, for me the essential thing was my core diet of vegetables (including peas and carrots), fuul (fava beans), eggs or feta cheese or tuna PLUS making it up to the requiste calories by the judicious addition of chocolate, icecream, yoghourt, potatoes, cheese, nuts. I don't eat much fruit because it makes me hungry, I don't particularly like it, and so is a waste of calories IMHO.
I am now in the process of adjusting back to a more generous calorie allowance adding in 700 calories a week or eg extra cheese, yoghourt, meat.
I can say 100% for sure, that this diet has worked for good. Everything feels so right and different.
Check out Paleo recipes, there's a few freebie recipe books downloadable online - I'm not strictly paleo, but it gives me ideas for eating a full calorie non-grain based diet (I'm rebuilding up to around 14000-15000 a week while losing the last few kg en route).
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