Grainless Living

Grain-Free vs Gluten-Free

This past summer, aside from enduring severe and I mean uncompromising pain from morning sickness (pregnant mama problems), I visited a variety of health food stores to satisfy my curiosity and reaffirm my theory on what the market considers “Healthy” and “Grain-Free.” My discoveries were not shocking to me, in fact it just made me feel more proud of the product lines I’ve created and will continue to produce.

I’ve been down this grain-free, dairy-free path for almost 9 years now so I believe I have a fair amount of knowledge in the department of food and health. There is always plenty more to learn and I continue to do so everyday through books, research, and podcasts. The journey of clearing my gut was a long process but rewarding beyond words. Yes granted, I thought it would be something that I could attain in a matter of months but like the saying goes, “short term pain for long term gain.”

Let me first explain the difference between grain-free and gluten-free, two terms that are of-ten used interchangeably but they are in fact quite different. Gluten-free foods are free from proteins found in grains whereas grain-free takes it one step further. It is defined as a diet eliminating all grains including rice, barley, wheat, corn, and oats - all of which are gluten-free but not grain free.

My company Nature Unwrapped consists of products that are completely GRAIN-FREE. They are definitely gluten-free and dairy-free but free of grains as well. Why do I find it essential to eliminate grains? For me it was simple. Eliminating grains cleared my digestive tract and cleaned my gut. I wasn’t digesting grains very well and so do a lot of other people with celiac or digestive issues.

When I visited stores, I looked solely for grain-free foods and products to make it comparable to the snacks and desserts I make. As much as I found grain-free products, I also found that these items contained added refined sugars and grain-free flours that I felt were completely unnecessary.

Now DON’T get me started on gluten free products! I am fairly certain I can create an entire book on unhealthy Gluten-Free products. The key to finding the right products for you is to look at the nutri- tional content and be able to identify the ingredients. They need to be recognizable and readable.

Nature Unwrapped has a long menu of completely grain-free and dairy-free snacks/desserts. There are many Vegan and Keto options as well. My goal is to continue creating recipes that have very few but high quality ingredients.

Moral of the Story: Don’t be fooled by the labels “Gluten Free” or “Grain Free” for that matter. Read and understand the ingredients!