Greg's Grains Mission Statement I

Have you ever gulped down a burger and fries and wondered almost before you have finished what is the point? I love food and I might add that I like junk food also, but sometimes you can get too much of a good (or bad) thing. Hey I’m no better than anybody else. Many times food took the place of having a life. If we can’t always sit down to a good meal maybe what we shove into our mouths isn’t worth the effort.  There is a lot more to food than just how we feel while we are shoveling it down. How does it feel sitting in your belly? Does it feel heavy like a ball of grease? Does it make you feel like falling asleep? After eating it will your hunger be satisfied, and for how long? These are some important considerations when we go about the daily maintenance of our bellies. It never ceases to amaze me the way people put more effort into their cars upkeep than to their own bodies.

I have a little story to tell how I came about my present food habit intake. A while back somebody introduced me to yogurt and I found this quite satisfying by itself. Sometimes the health food store ran specials, three for a dollar. I would shake them up and drink them for lunch. About this time my brother got a job with Quaker Oats and he would give me more oats than I knew what to do with. Anybody who as ever eaten oatmeal knows how it sticks to your ribs. So, not having too much money at the time and out of convenience, I started dumping raw oatmeal into a cup of flavored yogurt. I was pleased to discover how incredibly thorough my appetite was satisfied . Sometimes I would put so much oatmeal in the yogurt that I wouldn’t have to eat the rest of the day. It was truly a relief to get a break from the bloated feeling of eating a big meal but having my appetite truly satiated. Plus, its very cheap, convenient and nutritious. Another thing that amazed me about this combination was how the body digests yogurt and oatmeal. Your hunger will come back very slowly, in other words you digest it very slowly. Later on I started grinding the oatmeal in the blender and adding other grains and seeds to make it even more nutritious and tastier. I even started making my own yogurt, which turned out to be easier than I thought.

You can put these grains in soups, salads, stews, milk shakes, smoothies, mashed potatoes, sauces for thickening and many other things. But I recommend for a quick fix  - YOGURT!!!!!!  I might add that this will help you to lose weight. You can never really lose weight and keep it off by starving yourself. You can only loose weight by giving your body what it needs -  good food low in calories. Ultimately, the best diet is finding an interest in things besides food.

Greg's Grains Mission Statement II

A big part of anyone's budget is food. There can be a great savings attributed to making an effort to eat "right" foods. We all think if necessary , 'oh, I just won't eat.' Well that is not usually feasible because when we get hungry, one will eat what is available. And when we do this we accept food that is not healthy, lousy tasting or just does not even satisfy our hunger for long.

I have been experimenting with foods all of my life. We all do. But, I started a more constructive effort about twenty years ago, out of necessity. I started looking at alternatives to the fast food dilemma that haunts all of us. Adequately filling our bellies is a logistical problem for many people because of many circumstances. Auto mechanics or anyone who has chronically dirty hands, cannot usually handle food properly without getting the food dirty. Here is where a cup of yogurt and a concentrated amount of grains will come in handy. It will allow someone to fill their belly and not get dirt in their food.

For college students who are forever short on time, money and time to do dishes, this will be a godsend to them because it is very cheap. Its quick and there are no dishes to clean up when they are finished. I'm not trying to take the pleasure of eating from anybody. But, if you cannot sit down to a good, wholesome, well-cooked meal, why not at least eat something that is healthy, pretty good to fantastic tasting (depending on the person's taste) and involves no clean up.

Which brings me to the next point of eating which is false hunger and real hunger. False hunger is when we eat because we are bored or the clock on the wall says it is time to eat. Real hunger is when our blood sugar has been used up and the storage of excess blood sugar in the form of glycogen stored in the liver is also drained from our bodies. Then we go into a state of nervous agitation known as "the shakes". That is when we are truly hungry but that is not the end of the story. There are other forms of false hunger and that is when we are addicted to caffeine and when we come down from the caffeine. You need to take another shot of caffeine or the next best thing, we eat something. So I try not to let my mind and body fool me. I know now that when the caffeine wears off that doesn't necessarily mean I need to eat.

Even though I used to smoke (occasionally) I cannot really say that I was addicted to nicotine the way I was addicted to caffeine. Because I usually smoked just to suppress my hunger, unlike coffee, which I drank to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms that followed the lack of caffeine.

In other words, I am not sure nicotine is as addictive as caffeine because I never felt I needed a cigarette the same way as a cup of coffee but both are in the same class of drugs. So, I would venture to say that people addicted to nicotine may also come down off this drug and alleviate the need for a cigarette by eating something. All that I am saying is we must be aware of the consequences of what we ingest because they are all interrelated to all our behaviors.

Remember, though, that food is a necessity, cigarettes and coffee are not. So that intense hunger we are feeling may be a result of withdrawing from some cheap drug like cigarettes and coffee. Remember when you are scarfing down that burger and fries (I've done it many times) who is in control. You or the food?! If you have ate yesterday and you have not worked out physically a lot, you should not be that famished that you cannot put the food or fork down before you get through the meal. Remember that we have a lot of sugar stored in our livers and that is the gauge that tells us if we are really hungry when the blood sugar drops. When we eat we have to ask ourselves who or what is in control, the food, us or the cheap drugs we consume. For the average student who is taking an average of core classes, the amount of calories you are burning turns out the same as if you were doing nothing. It has been my understanding that you would expend the same amount of calories whether you are doing calculus problems or if you are sitting on the wall watching cars go by. In other words, your brain and body use pretty much the same amount of calories if you are thinking hard or not thinking at all. This of course does not involve physical education classes. Once you get out of the desk, that is when the calories start getting spent. So outside of gym class and if you are not working a physically demanding job, then your food consumption should be fairly consistent.

This is where Greg's Grains has a simple formula for cutting your food budget by two-thirds. If you buy an 8 ounce cup of your favorite yogurt and eat one half of it with anywhere from 1 to 3 ounces of Greg's Grains for breakfast and then the other one half of that same cup of yogurt with another shot of Greg's Grains for lunch, this will get you through any typical day spent in the classroom and library. Of course you could eat the whole cup of yogurt for lunch and pile the Greg's Grains into it, like I used to do and this will also get you through the day. A two pound bag of Greg's Grains is worth a month's worth of breakfast and lunch blocks in the cafeteria. Then you can eat anything you want for dinner.

People do wonder why Greg's Grains fills me and keeps me from getting hungry. Its because they are a very concentrated mixture of food made up of proteins and carbohydrates. Most foods we eat are mostly water and air. That is why you have to eat so much of them in order to feel satisfied. When you eat Greg's Grains for the first time, you might even feel bloated because your stomach may not be used to being fed so sufficiently. Greg's Grains are very low in calories and high in fiber and vitamin E, which is all natural. So, if you are trying to lose weight this food product is just the thing you will need. Besides for losing weight, Greg's Grains has enough protein to be excellent for the body builders also. Remember that we have a threshold amount of protein that we can assimilate at any one feeding.

Our bodies cannot store protein unlike fat and carbohydrates. That is, we excrete excess protein if we eat too much at one time. Flushing it (any money) down the drain.

Greg's Grains Mission Statement III

Greg's Grains are terrific for chefs or any people that work in the food industry. Because, even if you can eat filet minion or prime rib everyday, you are going to tire of it eventually. I can remember when I worked at a pizza shop and later a burger joint. Pizza and burgers were the last thing I wanted to look at on my day off. So, anybody who works with food all week will be happy to take some time away from that same food they work with and eat something light and healthy that requires no cooking or cleanup. Ironically, a food that is not traditionally thought to be very appetizing actually can be eaten everyday. Because, you get a nice energy burst from it and you digest is very comfortably. Just recall how you felt when you ate a bowl of oatmeal when you were a kid. You probably felt very satisfied even though you might not have been crazy about the way you ate it. But, in reality, Greg's Grains, like oatmeal, only more so, can be ingested in as many ways that are humanly possible to think of in time and place. Check out the recipe page.

Also, I would like to address another issue dear to my heart. And, that concerns people who work night shift or turn shifts. You know that old familiar feeling of jet lag when you are not sure anymore when to sleep when to eat. You wonder if your appetite is ever going to be normal again. Your circadian rhythms are completed confused.

You don't want to eat at all or you can't stop eating, usually all of the wrong, bad foods. That is the hardest thing for me especially the first night out on the graveyard shift. It always seems like I crave the most unhealthy foods.

Sleep is like food. You either get too much or too little as a result of working shifts. I recommend that you go straight to bed upon coming home in the morning. Set an alarm as for those that tend to oversleep. I know it is near impossible to find a quiet, dark place to sleep. But you have to try to keep on some schedule as it is easier to turn back to the day shift or afternoon shift. I recommend a heavy blind and dark curtains for the bedroom in which you sleep. Even though the night shift can be rough you can make the best of it. Try to get some exercise and realize that the jet lag that you feel is only chemicals in your brain that can be altered by exercise and social interaction.

Since I gave up caffeine, night turn really isn't half as bad as it was when at 3:00 a.m. the coffee I had the day before wore off and you needed more caffeine. But you know you shouldn't have any or you won't get any sleep when you go home after work. It's a vicious "caffeine cycle". Although I have heard a remedy from my co-worker. Bob Metro says that the only day the he drinks coffee is his last night out on night turn. He'll drink coffee and not go to bed that last morning. He will stay up the whole day and then go to bed at the normal time. This puts him back on schedule for the day light shift that is coming up next, following a few days off. This is something I may try because I know if you only drink coffee once a week your body doesn't get accustomed to it and you are not addicted to it like most coffee drinkers. Coffee drinkers that drink coffee everyday, have to have it.

Another good habit is to drink non-alcohol beer. That is if you are a beer drinker, during the week of night shift. Even a few regular beers at dinner or in the evening will effect how you feel later in the night while you are working. And, that headache combined with jet lag of not sleeping will make you feel like you have a slight hangover.

More than anything else, experiment with yourself and whatever works for you, do it. I myself recommend to stay on a sleep schedule, set an alarm especially on you days off after night turn. Get some exercise (working on the house is exercise too). Lay off of the beer and coffee. Do not drink coffee or beer on night shift. After your last night out, sleep a little. Upon waking up, have a cup of coffee. And, later in the day or evening, drink a beer to celebrate finishing the graveyard for another week. For more information on shift work, check out the following links. Please email me your suggestions on how to deal with the night shift.

A Night Shift Website Link

Circadian Technologies Inc.