A Crisis of Faith

Since mid January of this year, I've read books, blogs, editorials and opinions about what type of diet is best. The one that has always made the most sense to me is a diet that is low in carbohydrate, high in fat and moderate in protein.

Years ago I read and fell in love with Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook which teaches about the wonder of grains that have been soaked/sprouted or fermented and for quite some time, I believed that this was the way to go with grains though I never actually followed their advice. At least in terms of the grains. Bone broths and proteins, you bet. Dairy and grains, not so much.

My most recent research has been focussed on the Primal/Paleo diets which completely rule-out grains along with the Atkins Diet which initially forbids grain though they may be added in, in extreme moderation, by those who have achieved their desired weight and now look to maintain it. Everything negative that I've read about grains, about wheat in particular, makes perfect sense to me whether it's Sally Fallon's view that grains are safe and nutritious if phytic acid is neutralized by soaking/sprouting/fermenting first or whether it's the Primal/Paleo view that the human body has not, and may never, adapt to eating grains which is a relatively new addition to the human diet in terms of the history of humanity.

It all makes perfect sense to me from a scientific point of view and as a result, I've completely removed all grains from my diet and from that of my family's diet. But from the very beginning there's been a seed of doubt growing in my mind and with every passing day, that seed grows just a little bit more and today, I found that it's sprouted into a beautiful little plant that I can no longer ignore. I'm going to have to decide what this seed of doubt has grown into; a weed that needs to be plucked or a plant that needs to be nurtured?

Here's the crux of the problem, or the point of crisis in my faith; if grains are bad for human digestion, to the point that they should be completely avoided, why are the Scriptures full of references to them and to products made from them? Jesus himself is referred to as the Bread of Life, God gave Ezekiel a recipe for bread, Joseph was told to store grain for the coming famine, Jesus and his disciples walked through a wheat field on the Sabbath and ate the grain, bread was baked for the Temple and bread figures prominently in all of the Biblical feasts. Bread and grain appear over and over and over again in the Bible so how can it be that humans are not meant to consume grains?

Could it be that we're simply not meant to consume the modern version of these grains (refined white flour and the plethora of snack and cereal items made from 'whole grains', etc) but rather the ancient ones?

Answering this question will be the subject of my research in the coming weeks and your thoughts would be MOST welcome. After all, you're some of the smartest folks I know.