Rice trouble for babies

Rice often is recommended as the first solid food for infants, but new findings by doctors in Australia confirm that rice can trigger a severe gut inflammation in infants. The reaction is known as 'food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome' (FPIES) and is characterized by vomiting and diarrhea within a few hours of eating.

[Rice Can Trigger Severe Gut Reaction in Infants. Archives of Disease in Childhood. New York: Reuters Health, 2008]

This doesn't surprise me, given that rice, along with other grains, didn't enter the human diet until the relatively recent past. We had to learn to soak and heat grains in order to digest them at all. Even still, grains are probably the most difficult foods to digest.

Grains, as well as beans and potatoes, are all toxic when raw. Toxins include enzyme blockers and lectins. Cooking destroys some, but not all, toxins. For more info, see this.

Dr. Balzer's Intro to the Paleo Diet

I wrote more about feeding babies here.

Rethinking First Foods for Babies