Lyoness, i think Sentience is onto something with the Candida idea...it really does appear to have an intelligence that will control you and force you to feed it with grains and sugars. And it's true, the only way to get rid of it and rebalance is to quit everything that it thrives upon, at least for a little while. I did a Candida cleanse a few years ago and then did two rounds of Chinese herbs which took care of it. Nasty stuff, that Chinese tea...but my brain fog went away and my gut healed.

During my first month 100% raw, i ate soaked oat groats for breakfast to help transition myself away from the things i depended upon for breakfast (breads, pastries, grains, waffles, etc..) But i was quickly disappointed with the fact that chewy oat groats is nothing like the comforting mush of cooked oatmeal. After a few weeks of chewing, and chewing, and chewing this chalky rubble in my mouth, i realized that i had transcended the need for cereal in the morning. By then i was fully in smoothie mode, and because i was eating so much less food than before, i found that the smoothie was all i needed until lunchtime in the late afternoon. I abandoned grains altogether, after this oat groat experiment.

I've messed around with sprouted wheat and buckwheat (which makes a lovely granola when you dehydrate it), and i'd still like to try my hand at making manna breads and cookies and such, but i really feel best when i don't eat grains at all. If you can go without them for a month, maybe you'd get to that point too. It depends on whether your addiction is emotional or physical. If it's physical, it may be a Candida-related issue. If it's emotional, then you have to approach it differently. Yoga, meditation and dance help me with that part--it's a form of self-mastery to learn how to analyze your desires and break them down to the real elements within, and it's truly exhilarating when you achieve this.

As for the Kombucha, i've had mixed feelings about it. I used to make it and i drank 4-8 oz. every day and i felt fantastic. It gave me a lot of energy and i found myself craving it all day long (which i found somewhat disconcerting but just kept drinking it). After about a month, i got these weird patchy spots on my legs that resembled ringworm in texture and color. I was told that Kombucha can't live in the body due to the temperature, but because these patches disappeared immediately after i stopped drinking the stuff, i surmised that it had taken up residence on my skin where the body's temperature is actually cool enough to sustain living Kombucha. Nobody in the Kombucha tribe had ever heard of this happening, but it creeped me out so much that i stopped making it. Now i buy a bottle now and then because my son loves it, but we only drink small quantities and i am careful not to drink it when i've had fruit because i feel that it causes excess fermentation in the gut.

I think the grain Kefir is a good idea and it might help you to transition away from the starch of grains. I certainly don't mean to spark a debate over this, but in my opinion, grains are best utilized by cud-chewing animals. We humans may have gotten too smart for our own good, learning how to harvest and process grains to the point of being able to make donuts and hamburger buns which are killing people. If we were to live solely on the food the earth has given to us in its perfect, natural state, we would be eating fruit, nuts, legumes and vegetables. This is the basis of my diet, and consequently, my spiritual path.

btw i'm surprised there is still no moderator here. It's been a few weeks since i've been to this tribe (had to take a break, it was just too much...) but i'm glad to see that it's been steered back on topic so i'll probably be around more often now.
:)