The no sugar, no grains diet focuses on eliminating foods made with added sugars or refined flour, encouraging the consumption of whole, unprocessed foods instead. It's a dietary approach that has gained popularity, with proponents claiming various health benefits ranging from weight loss and improved digestion to reduced inflammation and better blood sugar control. However, like any dietary change, it's crucial to understand both the potential benefits and the risks associated with it.
What is a No Sugar, No Grains Diet?
A no sugar, no grains diet involves cutting out foods made with added sugars or refined flour. This means avoiding processed foods like cookies, cakes, pastries, and sugary drinks, as well as staples like bread, pasta, and rice made from refined grains.
Foods to Avoid
A grain-free diet excludes all grain-containing foods. It may also limit the intake of alcoholic beverages derived from grains or foods containing grain-derived ingredients. Generally, grain-free diets exclude the following food categories:
- Most baked goods: grain-based breads, bagels, tortillas, tacos, pizza, etc.
- Most pastries: grain-based doughnuts, cookies, croissants, muffins, etc.
- Most noodles: pasta, rice noodles, ramen noodles, udon noodles, etc.
- Breakfast cereals: muesli, oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc.
- Grain-based flours: all-purpose flour, graham flour, corn flour, and rice flour, as well as all foods made from them
- Many snack foods: popcorn, crackers, muesli bars, rice crackers, etc.
- Grain-based side dishes: rice, orzo, millet, couscous, polenta, etc.
- Grain-based meat replacement: seitan, etc.
- Grain-based milk alternatives: oat milk, rice milk, etc.
You may also want to avoid grain-based alcoholic beverages, such as beer, gin, whiskey, sake, and Scotch, as well as foods containing grain-derived ingredients like rice syrup or high fructose corn syrup.
Foods to Include
The following food categories can be included on a grain-free diet:
Read also: The Definitive Guide to Flourless, Sugar-Free Dieting
- Fruits: All types of fruit are allowed, whether fresh, dried, or frozen.
- Vegetables: These can be eaten raw, cooked, or incorporated into salads or soups. Starchy vegetables like potatoes, squash, and fresh corn are good, carb-rich alternatives to grains.
- Protein-rich animal products: This category includes meat, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt.
- Protein-rich plant foods: Legumes, tofu, tempeh, edamame, natto, soymilk, soy yogurt, and mock meats devoid of grain-based ingredients can be enjoyed on a grain-free diet.
- Pseudocereals: This includes quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth.
- Nuts and seeds: This includes all types of nuts and seeds, as well as butters and flours made from them.
- Non-grain-based flours and foods made from them: Almond, flaxseed, chickpea, soy, red lentil, and coconut flour, as well as noodles, bread, and other baked goods made from them, are permitted.
- Fats: These include olive oil, butter, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
You may also choose to include marinades and salad dressings as added fats, as well as sweeteners, such as sugar, maple syrup, or honey. Still, you’re encouraged to focus on whole, minimally processed foods.
Example Menu
Here’s a typical 3-day menu suitable for a grain-free diet.
Day 1
- Breakfast: egg or tofu scramble with plenty of vegetables and homemade hash browns
- Lunch: salad topped with your choice of veggies, cooked amaranth, smoked tofu, or salmon, and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing
- Dinner: coconut-lime curry with shrimp or marinated tempeh on a bed of cauliflower rice
Day 2
- Breakfast: smoothie made with milk (or a plant-based, grain-free alternative), frozen mango, flax seeds, spinach, and an optional scoop of protein powder
- Lunch: hearty pumpkin, carrot, and white-bean soup topped with roasted cashew nuts
- Dinner: oven-baked sweet potato topped with chili, fresh corn, chopped lettuce, guacamole, and salsa
Day 3
- Breakfast: mini breakfast quiches with spinach
- Lunch: bun-less meat or veggie burger, topped with roasted peppers, hummus, avocado, and a side of buckwheat pasta salad
- Dinner: spiralized zucchini noodles topped with a meat or tofu Bolognese sauce, roasted pine nuts, and Parmesan or nutritional yeast
Grain-Free Snack Ideas
Here are a few simple yet nutritious grain-free snack ideas to tide you over between meals:
- fresh fruit with yogurt
- trail mix
- chia pudding
- flax crackers with olive tapenade
- smoothies
- grain-free nut and fruit bars
- kale chips
- hummus and veggies
- seaweed snacks
- almond-flour muffins
- apple chips
- nut butter fruit dip
- homemade frozen yogurt popsicles
- coconut, date, and nut balls
Potential Benefits of a No Sugar, No Grains Diet
Weight Loss
As long as you practice portion control and limit highly processed foods, this will likely lead to weight loss, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, a certified diabetes educator at Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina. A no sugar, no grains diet may promote weight loss, likely because it’s naturally devoid of processed grains found in calorie-rich, nutrient-poor foods like white bread, white pasta, pizza, doughnuts, cookies, and other baked goods.
What’s more, cutting a whole food group out of your diet may reduce your overall daily calorie intake, creating the calorie deficit needed to lose weight.
Read also: Comprehensive Guide to Sugar on Keto
Reduced Cravings
Some research suggests that sugar activates reward pathways in the brain, triggering a habit in some people, according to Cleveland Clinic. Some people are able to cut out added sugars abruptly and experience fewer cravings. But cravings are based on many factors and vary widely from person to person. Depending on how much sugar and refined flour you were consuming before, you may notice less hunger and cravings.
Improved Energy Levels
Many people who try this diet report improved energy levels, especially early on. These benefits are often due to cutting out ultra-processed foods and refined carbohydrates, which are linked with poor metabolic health, according to the American Medical Association.
May Reduce Inflammation
Grains may contribute to inflammation, which is believed to be the root cause of many chronic diseases. Some test-tube, animal, and human studies suggest a link between daily intake of wheat or processed grains and chronic inflammation.
Plus, cutting out grains may cause some people to naturally increase the quantity or variety of fruits and vegetables they eat - both of which may help reduce inflammation.
May Lower Blood Sugar Levels
Grains are naturally rich in carbs. That’s why diets rich in grains may cause concerns for people who have a difficult time dealing with large amounts of dietary carbs, such as those with diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Refined grains, such as those found in white bread, white pasta, and many other processed foods, are particularly problematic because they’re devoid of fiber. This leads them to be digested very quickly, generally causing a spike in blood sugar levels shortly after a meal.
Read also: Reboot your health with a 30-day cleanse
Other potential benefits
A grain-free diet may also offer other health benefits:
- May improve mental health. Studies link gluten-containing diets to anxiety, depression, mood disorders, ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia. However, it’s currently impossible to know whether grains caused these disorders
- May help alleviate pain. Gluten-free diets may help reduce pelvic pain in women with endometriosis, a disorder that causes the tissue lining the inside of the uterus to grow outside of it.
- May reduce symptoms of fibromyalgia. A gluten-free diet may help reduce the widespread pain experienced by people with fibromyalgia.
Potential Risks and Downsides
Nutrient Deficiencies
Cutting out whole-grain flours and fortified foods could cause you to take in fewer essential nutrients like B vitamins, iron, and fiber. A diet devoid of grains, particularly fiber-rich whole grains, may limit your intake of fiber.
Unsustainable Weight Loss
Rapid weight loss from extreme diet restrictions often doesn’t last and can lead to weight cycling (yo-yo dieting).
Potential for Disordered Eating
Strict rules about “good” and “bad” foods can contribute to guilt, anxiety, or obsessive eating behaviors. Unnecessarily demonizing grains for purported health reasons may also promote orthorexic eating behaviors.
Lack of Scientific Evidence
While eating less sugar and refined flour can be good, this specific diet lacks strong scientific backing for long-term health outcomes.
Social Isolation
The rigid nature of this diet can make dining out, holidays, and social meals more stressful or difficult.
May Increase Your Risk of Constipation
Unprocessed grains are a particularly good source of insoluble fiber. This may make this way of eating less sustainable in the long term.
Is a No Sugar, No Grains Diet Right for You?
The no-flour, no-sugar diet may appeal to those who want to cut back on processed foods or added sugars. Like other highly restrictive eating plans, it may lead to results at first - but it may be hard to follow long-term.
Generally speaking, there’s very little downside from a health perspective for someone who wants to follow this diet and has no issues eating the appropriate amounts of whole foods and whole grains without feeling “deprived.”
If you want to follow a healthy but more-flexible diet that will help you cut down on sugar and processed carbs, you could try the Mediterranean diet, Politi says. “This dietary pattern consists of lean protein, heart-healthy fats, whole grains, vegetables at lunch and dinner, and fruit for dessert. It’s easy to sustain and conducive to weight loss and better health,” she says.
Alternatives to a No Sugar, No Grains Diet
The Paleo Diet
The paleo diet is the ultimate throwback diet: It promotes a return to eating as our ancestors did in the Stone Age. Eliminating carbohydrates and processed foods may not be a bad idea - especially in the case of processed carbs - and may result in weight loss, since the bulk of the American diet comes from carbs.
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)
A specific carbohydrate diet eliminates select carbohydrates from your diet. This eases symptoms of digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). People who follow a specific carbohydrate diet don’t eat grains or grain products. They avoid bread, pasta and cereal.
30-Day No Sugar Challenge
Many types of 30-day no sugar challenges exist, but most have similar guidelines. The main goal is to cut out all sources of added sugar for 30 days. Instead, you focus on consuming nutrient-dense whole foods. Natural sugars, which are found in foods like vegetables, fruits, and dairy products, are OK to eat. Rules and recommendations may differ by program. Alternatively, you can easily create your own 30-day no sugar challenge using the information in this article.