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Comment by warpwoof | Hacker News Reader

People have different tolerances to the amount of grains they can eat, but, if you want optimal health, you'd stop eating grains. Grains are not a nutritional necessity. There's nothing in grains that you can't get in meat, vegetables, fruit, or seeds/nuts.

This article is a pretty good treatment of specific problems with grains: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/

Again, some people can be in good shape and eat grains. But if you want to be as healthy as possible they need to be avoided. Or if you're overweight/out of shape, removing them from your diet will definitely speed up the process of improving your health.

I know for my own body, it's best for me to avoid them completely. They have a very addictive quality for me, more so than anything sweet. Forget the ice cream, give me a roll!

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Again, some people can be in good shape and eat grains. But if you want to be as healthy as possible they need to be avoided.

Find me a professional athlete on a grain-free diet.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you a better professional athlete who eats grains.

With so much effort put into finding optimal diets for athletes nowadays, if cutting out grains would improve fitness in any meaningful way then we'd know about it by now. If Lance Armstrong or Usain Bolt could go faster with a grain-free diet they'd be doing it.

edit: I found a link about Usain Bolt's diet. Turns out he eats quite a lot of rice:

http://dailyrunningtips.com/training/usain-bolt-diet-food/

Now I can't prove he wouldn't be even faster if he cut out the rice, but I am pretty sure it can't be doing him too much harm.

I see where you're coming from, but I think we have a different definition of "health." Athletes are not necessarily the definition of "healthy" to me. They have usually specialized in one aspect of performance. In fact a lot of what they put their bodies through can be detrimental in the long run.

For the normal person who works out a few times a week and then sits at a desk 40 hours, I think removing grains would be very helpful.

A professional marathoner is a different story. Grains might make sense because of their carb density.

Find me a professional athlete on a grain-free diet.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you a better professional athlete who eats grains.

Find me a (former) professional athlete who lived in perfect health till their 90s.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you multiple (former) professional athletes who died from CVD, cancer etc.

if cutting out grains would improve fitness in any meaningful way then we'd know about it by now. If Lance Armstrong or

Um, the guy who got cancer when he was 25 years old? Phenomenal athlete, but hardly a good example of a perfectly healthy person.

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