Do whole grains belong in a healthy diet, or should you cut them out?

Dave AspreyEntrepreneur, author and podcast host · founder and CEO of Upgrade Labs · no clinical or scientific credential claimed

Cut them, and get the fibre from cooled starch instead

What it rests onHe does not dispute that people should eat more fibre; he disputes every common source of it. Gluten, he says, opens the gut lining in nearly everyone rather than only in people with coeliac disease, oats are not the safe alternative because avenin provokes a similar response, conventional oats carry glyphosate, and both grains bring phytic acid and lectins with them. His replacement is resistant starch from white rice cooked with coconut oil and cooled overnight, or from plantains. His evidence is a chain of biological mechanism; he cites no trial.

Ken D. BerryMD · family physician, Tennessee

Cut them. Most people feel dramatically better without wheat, corn and rice.

What it rests onHis fourth core principle, with the mechanism given in his blog post: seeds carry lectins, phytates and gluten as plant defences, and grains break down rapidly to glucose. His endpoint is how a person feels within weeks, and his evidence is his own clinical observation over a self-reported two decades. He cites no study for it in anything published on his own domain.

Michael GregerMD · founder, NutritionFacts.org

Keep them, and eat three servings of whole grains a day.

What it rests onItem 10 of his Daily Dozen checklist, with servings defined as half a cup of cooked whole grains, one slice of bread or three cups of air-popped popcorn. His supporting argument is population disease incidence, stated with his own conditionals: three daily portions 'may achieve similar benefits' to blood-pressure drugs and 'could decrease' coronary artery disease and stroke by about 15 and 25 percent. His target throughout is intact whole grains, not refined flour.