If you by refined grain, you mean white bread, maybe, that is if the hypothesis of hyperinsulism is correct.

If by refined grain, you mean whole grain in judicious amounts, I wouldn't be so sure.

(Not to mention the benefits todigestive tract health from the fiber.)

Ah Ha! This topic is very coincidental!
 

As a matter of fact, I was just debating this topic with myself (I just started listening to Protein Power book-on-tape) this morning on the way to work. As Dr. Eades was describing the theory that wild plants create antinutrients so as to make themselves LESS attractive to wildlife, I had two questions:

• don't some plants that use seeds to propogate TRY to be attractive to animals so that their seeds will be more widely distributed in animal scat. This would also be true for flowers that are more attractive to bees and the like. Plants & flowers that are better at evolution are those that are the MOST adaptive, right? Not the least.
• It would seem that our Prehistoric/Paleo ancestors would certainly have availed themselves of plant life whenever it was convenient. I'm not saying cultivated plant life, but wild plant life, yet I got the feeling from Protein Power that they feel early human's would have chosen meat over plant life. Karen's statement seems more likely, however. Same thing would go for their meat choice: whatever early humans happend to have available or wherever they journeyed to to make available.

By the way: sorry if this is not completely relevant to general low-carbing.

I am rather curious on how you came to this conclusion. In the first two weeks of Atkin's he bans fruit.

In OWL and maintenance fruit is allowed on a daily basis. Did I miss something while reading through his books?