William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 105

The finer points of prebiotic fibers

No doubt: insight into the best ways to manage our prebiotic fiber intake is an evolving process.

Those of you who have been following these Wheat Belly conversations for some time recognize that we view bowel flora, the 3-pound or so collection of trillions of microorganisms concentrated in the colon, as a crucial player in human health. The species composition and relative numbers within each species play roles in bowel health, regularity, protection from colorectal cancer, even yielding metabolites that have metabolic impact on our bodies and modulate, for instance, blood insulin, blood sugar, triglycerides, and blood pressure. There is even discussion about a “gut-brain” axis that reflects the profound effect bowel flora metabolites exert on brain health.

And we all begin with various degrees of dysbiosis given our prior exposure to the many factors in modern life that modify species composition, such as occasional antibiotics, antibiotic residues in meats and dairy, chlorinated/fluoridated water, wheat and grain consumption, and many others. To help you understand the process we go through to re-establish something close to healthy bowel flora, we view our bowel flora as a garden. The “seeds” are high-potency probiotic preparations with as high a CFU count and as many species believed to be healthy as possible, while the “water” and “fertilizer” are prebiotic fibers that nourish healthy species and promote their proliferation. Wisdom in both areas, probiotics and prebiotic fibers, are evolving rapidly. We could, of course, wait 20 years until much of the science has been clarified. But I don’t think that is necessary—we can start now. Even with the limited knowledge we now have, it is still possible to obtain substantial health benefits by adopting a rational program for bowel flora cultivation.

In particular, there are some important lessons surrounding prebiotic fibers that you should know about to help maximize your chances of success:

Vary your choice of prebiotics–Over and over again, the studies point towards species diversity—having many different bacterial species—is a marker for health. Slender people have greater species diversity than obese people. Non-diabetics have greater species diversity than diabetics. People without cancer have greater species diversity than people with cancer. Primitive people unexposed to modern disruptive factors have greater species diversity than modern people. Because different prebiotics feed different species, we cultivate species diversity by varying our choices of prebiotic fibers: inulin one day, GOS the next, a raw white potato the next, a green unripe banana, the next, etc.
Avoid carbohydrate overexposure—Raw unmodified potato starch and green banana flour are, unfortunately, dehydrated at a temperature of 140 degrees F, a temperature high enough to degrade nearly 50% of fibers into sugars. While such flours do indeed contain prebiotic fibers, they also expose you to lots of sugars. So use these very sparingly, e.g., no more than 1-2 tablespoons.
Heat—While heat degrades the fibers in potatoes and bananas, inulin (longer chain) and FOS (shorter chain) are the exceptions and are more resistant to degradation from heat. Inulin and FOS even remain intact at the temperature of boiling water (212 degrees F, 100 degrees C), meaning you can add it to coffee or tea without converting to sugar. (For this reason, you can use the Wheat-Free Market Virtue Prebiotic Mix made with inulin to create hot cocoa without degrading the fibers.) Just be careful in very acidic liquids, such as lemon juice or vinegar, as an acid pH can, more than heat, break fibers down into sugar.
Aim for a total daily prebiotic fiber intake of 20 grams per day—The average person obtains between 5 and 8 grams per day, 3-4 grams of which are from grains. We banish all grains from our diets, leaving us with a small deficit. We therefore compensate and increase to the ideal daily intake of 20 grams per day for full benefit. At the start, however, aim for no more than 10 grams per day to avoid excessive bloating, abdominal discomfort, or emotional effects, as prebiotics can also cause proliferation of unhealthy microbial species. (This is why we also begin the Wheat Belly process with a high-potency probiotic to encourage proliferation of healthy species.)
If you follow all of the above, but are still experiencing excessive bloating, discomfort, or emotional effects—stop the prebiotic fibers while continuing the probiotic. This means you start with a substantial dysbiosis and prebiotic fibers are causing unhealthy species to proliferate. An initial simple workaround: continue the probiotic for another 4 weeks, then re-attempt the prebiotic fiber. This often works, allowing more time for the probiotic alone to cause shifts in bowel flora composition. If even this 4-week probiotic-only period does not allow you to resume the prebiotic, then it is time to seek help. You will likely have to either engage in a FODMAPS program for several months to essentially starve bowel flora and/or antibiotics to wipe the bowel flora “slate” clean.

I attended a recent conference on the emerging science behind bowel flora. But, even here among the experts, there was no agreement—actually very little discussion—about the nuts and bolts on how to best cultivate healthy bowel flora. So we are left with using logic and applying existing knowledge to crafting a program. But, given the thousands of people engaged in this process, it is working with reductions in blood pressure, blood sugar, better bowel habits, and improved mental/emotional states.

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Janet’s impressive Wheat Belly recovery

Look what Janet accomplished in one year living the Wheat Belly lifestyle:

“Left at 53 with acid reflux for 10 years, asthma, allergies since 13 (on 4 meds daily), inflammation, joint pain from RA [rheumatoid arthritis], 50 pounds heavier at size 14. Always wheezing, so no energy.

“Right at 54, no acid reflux, no asthma, no allergies, no meds, no inflammation, no joint pain, 50 pounds lighter at size 4, full of energy and walking 10-20 miles a day because I can.”

Losing 50 pounds is no small matter. But being freed of all her health problems—gastrointestinal inflammation, airway and sinus inflammation, joint inflammation—is even bigger.

Losing weight, particularly when lost from visceral fat, the peculiar hotbed of inflammation surrounding visceral organs such as the intestines, liver, and heart, can reduce inflammation. But it would not reduce inflammation sufficient to reverse the joint pain of rheumatoid arthritis, or the airway and sinus inflammation of allergies (that Janet suffered for 40 years), or gastrointestinal inflammation of acid reflux/esophagitis. People like Janet experience such extravagant reversal of inflammation because they have removed a highly inflammatory group of pseudofoods in the form of wheat and grains that contain proteins such as gliadin, secalin, hordein, zein, glutenins, wheat germ agglutinin, alpha amylase inhibitors and others.

Remember: grains—the seeds of grasses—were added to the human diet in desperation, a means of surviving another day, week, or month, accessible calories (via amylopectin A, the one truly digestible component of grains), without recognizing the chronic health price humans pay when they consume something to which they are not adapted: humans have not had sufficient time to adapt to the proteins of the seeds of grasses. This is why, for instance, the gliadin protein of wheat can remain intact and trigger the initiating step of autoimmunity, or it can be broken down to small peptides (but not single amino acids like the proteins from, say, eggs or beef) that act as opioids and exert a variety of mind effects, and wheat germ agglutinin (in wheat, rye, barley, and rice) is entirely impervious to human digestion but exerts highly inflammatory effects in its course through the gastointestinal tract and via the small quantity absorbed into the bloodstream.

Janet is an impressive 50 pounds lighter and looks fabulous—she looks like a slender, healthy 30-year old woman to me. But it’s the reversal of inflammation from grain elimination that yields the extravagant health benefits.

 

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The pain of prebiotics?

Here’s a question I hear on occasion: “I started the prebiotic fibers but I experienced a lot of bloating and abdominal discomfort and had to stop. Maybe they’re not for me.” As the Wheat Belly conversation is taken further into the mainstream population via the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, I am hearing this more and more.

Giving up too soon because of encountering a problem without understanding why is a sure way to booby-trap your return to health. Should you encounter problems such as bloating or discomfort with your prebiotic regimen, it is due to dysbiosis, disrupted bowel flora from prior eating habits and other factors. In other words, your previous diet of wheat, grains, and sugars, along with chlorinated/fluoridated drinking water, prescription antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides in food, etc. changed the composition of bowel flora, perhaps even allowing unhealthy species to ascend up the small intestine, occasionally as high as the duodenum and stomach (“small intestinal bacterial overgrowth,” or SIBO). Undesirable species such as E. coli, Enterobacter, and various Clostridia species proliferate and muscle out desirable species such as Lactobacillus. This can happen with green bananas, raw white potatoes, inulin, FOS, galactooligosacchrides, or any other form of prebiotic fiber.

Dysbiosis at the start of your program is common. Even by lax criteria, 35% of people without abdominal symptoms can start with dysbiosis. Compared to the average person, as many as 85% of people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can have some degree of dysbiosis (though estimates vary depending on the criteria used for “normal” vs. “abnormal”).

If you initiate a program of restoring prebiotic fibers (also called “resistant starch,” since these fibers resist digestion by humans but are metabolizable by bowel flora) but begin with a substantial degree of dysbiosis, the prebiotic fibers nourish both desirable as well as undesirable species—prebiotics can make dysbiosis worse. The latter situation is suggested by experiencing symptoms such as excessive bloating, abdominal discomfort, or diarrhea with a prebiotic fiber program.

How should you deal with this situation that suggests that you have substantial dysbiosis at the start, a situation that has adverse health consequences all of its own (impaired digestion, impaired nutrient absorption, body-wide inflammation, colon cancer risk)? Here is how I have managed this situation with good success:

Everyone should begin with a several week course of a high-potency probiotic, e.g., 50 billion CFUs per day with at least a dozen species of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacteria, etc. Add lactate-fermented foods to add further to inoculating your colon with Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and other species.
If symptoms are experienced at the start of your prebiotic restoration program, stop the prebiotics while continuing the probiotic. Re-attempt prebiotics after 4 weeks of probiotics alone.
If, after the 4-week course of probiotics, resumption of the prebiotics re-provokes unpleasant symptoms, then it is time to consider a formal evaluation from a functional medicine or integrative health practitioner to identify and treat severe dysbiosis. Solutions can include a FODMAPS program to essentially “starve” bowel microbes, or even a non-absorable antibiotic to begin with a clean “slate,” wiping out all species, good and bad.

The average American obtains 3-8 grams of prebiotic fibers from their diet, about half from grains. We, of course, cut out all grains, compensate for the loss and increase prebiotic fiber intake (over time) to the ideal intake of around 20 grams per day for full health benefits.

Bottom line: prebiotic fibers are crucial to health. Properly managed, they help maintain bowel regularity, nourish the intestinal lining, reduce risk for colon cancer; exert mind/brain effects such as reduced anxiety, reduced depression, deeper, more restorative sleep; and exert metabolic benefits such as reduced total and LDL cholesterol, reduced triglycerides, reduced insulin and blood sugar, reduced insulin resistance, reduced blood pressure. Having an initial unpleasant experience does not mean “they’re not for you.” It means that there is something physiologically wrong that needs to be addressed before you can resume your path back to health.

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Latest update from Wheat-Free Market’s founder, Gary Miller

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Wheat-Free Market’s founder, Gary Miller. Because they launched their new Virtue Prebiotic Mixes just a few days ago, I thought it would be a great time to get an update.

 

WD: It’s clear that the Wheat Belly community was excited to see your recent launch of Virtue Prebiotic mixes. Tell us more about this new product for Wheat-Free Market.



GM: Yes, it is really more of a functional food than what I consider a grain-free replacement food. When we started the company, the focus was on providing answers to questions like, “How can I have a muffin or cookie” or “Is there a Wheat Belly-compliant cereal available for breakfast?” But as we Wheat Bellyers continue on this journey, we realize there is so much more we can do for our health, such as supplementation and being sure we get adequate amounts of prebiotic fibers. I also know that you advocate a vigorous program of prebiotic fibers in the new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book, and I thought this would be a great time to introduce these Prebiotic Mixes as a convenient option.

 

WD: What made you decide to come up with a mix?

GM: Well, personally I was struggling to get my own prebiotic fiber intake where I wanted it. I’m busy, and dealing with blenders, green bananas, and raw potatoes just got a little old. And I guess I realized that since our mission is to provide  products for convenience to help make this lifestyle easier for people, why not come up with a way to make getting prebiotics easier as well? I wanted something easily measurable that you could just pop in some almond milk, coconut milk, yogurt, kefir, or other liquid and be on your way.

 

WD: I’ve tasted them and they are delicious. Was it an easy process to formulate them?

GM: Actually, it was more challenging than I thought it was going to be. We wanted as few ingredients as possible, we wanted them to taste great, and we wanted to be able to get all of this into one simple measurement. We were able to pull it off and have everything work in a level tablespoon.

 

WD: There are 5 grams of prebiotic fibers in each serving, is that right?

GM: Yes. I know you recommend we get up to 20 grams a day, but I am sure you know that many of us have learned the hard way that you need to build up to that. Five grams seemed be a nice and tolerable starting point. People can double up as it suits them over time, and of course people should seek prebiotic fiber from different sources. Speaking of which, we use inulin from the chicory root plant as a prebiotic source in our mixes since, as you know, the scientific data are strongest for this form of prebiotic.

Another nice thing about inulin is it is heat stable, except in very acidic preparations like tomato sauce.

Yes, so I am excited to try adding our mix not just into drinks or yogurt, but perhaps into the batter of our muffin makers or even brownies and see how it does. I will definitely be reporting back on that.

 

WD: So what’s next for Wheat-Free Market?

GM: Well, we have a lot going on. We are trying to find new production space and consolidate our operations under one roof. We also feel we are at a level as a company where we should have more “store-ready” packaging such as pre-printed bags. We still label all of our pouches by hand! It really takes a fair amount of money to move in that direction, especially because we have so many products. We are hoping to bring in investors to help transition to the next level. At that point, we hope big things will come. With some additional equipment and packaging upgrades and being under one roof, we’d be in a position to scale a larger launch into stores as well has have the time and resources to work on new products.

 

WD: Speaking of new products, what else is planned?

GM: Well, we are anxious to see how the Prebiotic Mixes are received. We’d like to add a fruit flavor to the line. Dried pure fruit powders without maltodextrin are tough to come by, plus they are very expensive. We have a strawberry-banana flavor, but cannot source a dependable supply of the strawberry at the moment. We’d also really like to add another flavor of either the Granola or Slow-Toasted Flakes. Honestly, there is so much we could do. But we are still a fairly small company, and like most early-stage companies resources and capital have to be managed carefully. I never thought I’d be in the food business and I consider it a “labor of love,” meaning it is a lot of work but also a lot of fun, and extremely rewarding knowing that you are making a difference for people.

 

WD: Thanks, Gary. Keep up the terrific work in supporting our Wheat Belly community with your healthy, convenient products!

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The Accidental Carnivore

Take a look at your hands: You’ve got nice fingernails . . . not claws. How about teeth? You’ve got relatively small teeth, lacking the sharp cutting power of large canine teeth. You’ve also got strong, somewhat thick-enameled molars. In short, we lack the natural tools of carnivory. While a hyena, jackal, lion or other carnivore can tear the throat of a gazelle with ease, you and I would not chance such a thing.

Based on such observations, some people say that humans are born herbivores and that carnivory is unnatural, perhaps a perversion of primate aggression. (All ruminant readers of the Wheat Belly Blog, however, are encouraged to continue reading the vegetarian literature.)

I’m going to propose a different perspective. I propose that Homo sapiens, likely derived from one or more herbivorous primates of the Australopithecine variety, is the exception to the rule that form determines function: Humans became carnivorous (or, more properly, omnivorous) because of their brains (and brains likely evolved as a consequence of this behavior). Let’s review the sequence that many anthropologists tell us occurred since the first Homo species walked (and climbed, given their residual arboreal capacity):

The earliest Homo species likely killed small game for food, such as small reptiles and rodents, on their own, while scavenging the larger kill of natural carnivores. This may have provided the basis for rudimentary tool use, e.g., cracking open the skull or long bones of a scavenged gazelle with a rock. This precedes the taming of fire, so meat and organs were consumed raw. Nonetheless, the fat and protein was likely deeply satisfying to hungry Homo.
Homo became more adept at creating tools and weaponry–The reign of the very successful Homo erectus and related strains witnessed the development of spears, knives, cutters, scrapers, pounding tools, all stone, of course. This made Homo a more effective hunter/trapper/killer of animals. Somewhere along the way, likely spottily and inconsistently, fire was used and tamed to cook food, making calories more bioavailable. (See Dr. Richard Wrangam’s excellent discussion about the role of fire in human evolution in his book, Catching Fire.)
Homo developed the ability to group hunt. While non-verbal carnivores can group hunt, Homo likely discovered the substantial advantage that emerged with communication. Imagine taking down a wooly mammoth: one or more humans slash the tendons of the rear legs, for instance, while several humans distracted the creature from the front. Such collaborative efforts, surely terrifying, required some means of communication–language–as well as the vocal apparatus for speech (absent pre-Homo). It also requires an advanced frontal lobe that allows making future plans.

It is not entirely clear why or how, through this 2.4 million year long story of adaptation to life on earth in its varying habitats and climates, brain size increased 3-fold, from the 450 cc chimpanzee-sized brain of Australopithecus, to the 1600 cc brain of pre-agricultural Homo (e.g., Cro Magnon and Neandertal). Anthropologists speculate that the combined effects of animal flesh and organ consumption, increasing need for more effective tools and weapons, consuming meats and organs cooked over a fire, and the advantage of communication/language/vocalization fueled this growth in brain size, coupled with mutations favoring such phenomena. (Carnivory alone, of course, is insufficient explanation, else lions would be the smartest creatures on earth.)

So consumption of animal organs and flesh, acquired via the unique brain, technological, and cultural evolution of Homo, sets us apart from other animals. We are not exclusively herbivorous like Australopithecus, nor are we obligatorily carnivorous like a Bengal tiger. We are something in between, uniquely positioned and unlike any other creature.

And, of course, we are most definitely not evolutionarily suited to consume the modern grain products of agribusiness, the stuff that even ruminants struggle with.

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The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox CHALLENGE is coming!

The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox challenge starts WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13th. Join the thousands of people who are losing weight and regaining health, while having the company and support of others who are going through it with you or have recently completed their own Detox!

To join the Detox Challenge:

Step 1)

Get the book. And read it (at least to chapter 5). Detox Challenge participants should be informed and active in order to get the most out of the Challenge and private Facebook group.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1JqzMea

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/wheatbelly10daygraindet...

Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1KwcFTQ

Step 2)

Come join the Private Facebook Group.

http://bit.ly/WheatBelly-PrivateFBGroup

Step 3)

Head back to the Private Facebook Group starting April 12th and onwards for tips, video, and discussions to help you get through your detox and reprogram your body for rapid weight loss. Dr. Davis will be posting video instructions and answers to all your questions.

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Why calcium supplements are unnecessary on the Wheat Belly lifestyle

There is no need for calcium supplements on the Wheat Belly lifestyle. They can even be dangerous. Let me explain.

Calcium is a mineral that the body needs to conduct hundreds of physiologic processes, as well as serve as the structural material for bones and teeth. Without calcium, you’d be sunk.

But taking calcium as a nutritional supplement is like tossing a bunch of bricks into the backyard hoping that they form a nice, neat patio—the world doesn’t work that way. Just because bones contain calcium does not mean that taking calcium orally will cause it to be directed to the bones. In fact, calcium taken as a supplement can contribute to calcification of arteries (part of atherosclerosis and heart attacks) and probably to making heart valves stiff (e.g., aortic valve stenosis treated by surgically replacing the valve). Several recent studies suggest that calcium supplements raise risk for heart attack by 30% and stroke by around 20%, as well as worsening of cholesterol values. Ironically, the data are also quite clear: calcium supplementation has little to no effect on osteopenia/osteoporosis (bone thinning) and little to no effect on reducing risk for osteoporotic fractures. Likewise, drinking more milk or consuming more dairy products does not protect from osteoporosis but has been associated with a modest increase in osteoporotic hip fracture and total mortality.

Yet doctors continue to urge female patients to supplement calcium, often at high doses, and to consume more milk and dairy products for bone health—outdated, even dangerous, advice. (Remember: healthcare has little to do with health, but plenty to do with dispensing revenue-generating products and procedures for the benefit of healthcare insiders.)

Well, there are additional reasons to not take any calcium supplements while living the Wheat Belly lifestyle. Among them:

Gluten (actually gliadin) from wheat and grains increases calcium loss in the urine, calciuria, by 63%, reversed with wheat/grain elimination. (By this means, grains also increase risk for calcium oxalate kidney stones, by the way.) In other words, you retain more calcium when wheat- and grain-free.
Intestinal calcium absorption increases dramatically with removal of wheat/grain phytates that bind calcium in the intestinal tract, making it unavailable for absorption. Removal of grain phytates also allows better absorption of magnesium that contributes to bone health.
Intestinal calcium absorption increases with restoration of vitamin D, one of the cornerstones of the Wheat Belly lifestyle.
Although only a modest effect,  wheat/grains tip the body’s pH towards acidic, a situation that encourages calcium removal from bones; removing wheat and grains allows a net shift towards alkaline.

Combine the above—wheat/grain elimination, vitamin D restoration—with a handful of additional strategies, such as exercise involving axial impact (e.g., jumping), vitamin K2 restoration (via bowel flora cultivation and K2-rich foods and perhaps supplements), and magnesium supplementation, and you can appreciate that the idea that calcium must be supplemented for bone health holds as much water as the “eat more whole grains for health” argument.

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Lynn’s facial redness gone in 3 days on the Wheat Belly Detox!

Lynn shared her “before” and “during” photos, just 3 days into her Wheat Belly 10-Day Detox experience.

“This is how much my skin redness has calmed since starting my Wheat Belly Detox 3 days ago. I was always getting asked if my blood pressure was up. I have always had great blood pressure, so that was never the issue. However, I never understood why my face would get red like this. Then I noticed it was especially after I ate.

“The ‘before’ pic was taken during Christmas time, therefore the redness isn’t from sun but from the wheat and grains. Also both pics are without any makeup.

“Well, I am a firm believer! Since starting my Detox 3 days ago, I have also lost inches and 2 lbs. I started semi-eliminating wheat and grains 2 weeks ago and have lost 15 lbs total.”

Recall that skin inflammation, exhibited as redness, is typically paralleled by inflammation in other parts of the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract, joints, and internal organs. Prolonged inflammation can show itself, over many years, as colitis, gastritis, esophagitis, hepatitis, pancreatitis, even cancer and dementia. The organ involved with the various forms of -itis can differ from person to person, but inflammation in some form is virtually guaranteed with consumption of wheat and grains, even if not perceived but evidenced, for example, by high levels of c-reactive protein, white blood cell counts, tumor necrosis factor, various interleukins, all measures of different aspects of inflammation.

Of course, the conventional medicine solution is to devise drugs to “treat” the various aspects of inflammation but almost never asking why such inflammation was allowed to take root in the first place. Thus we have H2-blockers and PPIs for gastritis, prednisone and NSAIDs for joint inflammation, methotrexate and azathioprine for colitis, injectable Remicade and Humira for a variety of inflammatory/autoimmune conditions.

But witness what is happening around the Wheat Belly neighborhood: inflammation recedes en masse in so many people and accompanied by weight loss, drops in blood sugar and blood pressure, reduction in appetite, relief from acid reflux and IBS symptoms, relief from migraine headaches, reduction in seizure frequency, increased energy . . . while the drugs are accompanied by nasty side-effects such as stomach ulcers, kidney disease, weight gain, irreversible liver toxicity, not to mention extravagant costs. (Remicade costs around $2000 per dose, Humira around $3000 per month.)

Following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, in Lynn’s case the accelerated, neatly-packaged version I call the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, has no side-effects beyond the initial opiate withdrawal/detoxification process of the first week and virtually no cost beyond the expense of restocking your kitchen to be grain-free. Oh, one more unanticipated consequence of living the Wheat Belly lifestyle: it might make your doctor idle, as you have the ability to minimize, even cure, so many health conditions.

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You might be a Wheat Belly when . . .

Alright: Stifle your guffaws, because this is serious stuff.

We all know that consumption of modern wheat and grains is associated with an astounding list of health problems, such as acid reflux, joint pains, behavioral and learning difficulties in children with ADHD and autism, depression, eating disorders like bulimia and binge eating, diabetes and pre-diabetes, and on and on. But the signature abnormality, the one clear-cut red flag on the surface: the infamous wheat belly, the probuterant “love handles” or “muffin top” that hints at underlying visceral fat, a hotbed of inflammation.

So how might John or Mary Q. Public know when they’ve got one? Well:

You might be a Wheat Belly when . . .

You haven’t been able to look straight down and see your toes since high school.

You thought pizza with low-fat cheese was a perfect healthy meal.

You thought you’d pass some gas quietly and unnoticed, only to realize it was the solid discharge of last night’s pasta dinner.

You can navigate traffic hands-free, maneuvering the steering wheel just by shifting your butt left or right.

You think a dinner of whole grain pasta, Italian bread, and tiramisu is a well balanced diet.

You’ve laughed and popped your jeans open.

You considered shoving a little kid aside so that you could get the last muffin at the breakfast bar.

You have to ask your husband to read your weight on the scale.

You dread putting on socks or pantyhose as much as a colonoscopy.

Your dental hygienist puts on a Haz-Mat suit to clean your teeth.

You believe that sprouting wheat seeds in water and labeling them with a God-like name magically transforms them into a healthy food.

You go to Krispy Kreme and they greet you by your first name.

You thought a bowl of sawdust every morning disguised as bran cereal was essential for healthy bowel movements.

You’ve remarked, “Why eat dinner?” after eating all the bread and rolls the waitress served before the entree.

You think fast food can be healthy if you just don’t eat the fries.

You thought a caramel macchiato with a reduced-fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake at Starbucks was a chic breakfast.

You only have to fill the bathtub halfway.

You thought Lite beer was the greatest invention since sliced bread.

You’ve often thought that McDonalds was underrated.

You ate the last half-donut in the box at work.

Okay, okay. You see that I could go on forever with this. (Thinking about this stuff, I couldn’t help hearing comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s voice: “You might be a redneck when . . . “)

Can you come up with any?

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Andrea freed from the tyranny of grains

Andrea shared her photos and 3-month Wheat Belly experience.

“April 4th was day 90. I’m down 22 lbs and 15 inches. But, more importantly, I’m free of joint pain, swelling, headaches, and feeling like a slave to sugar and carbs. My PCOS symptoms are much improved. This is the first time in years I’ve posted a full body pic. I think I look about 8 months pregnant in the pic on the left, but my youngest is 14, lol.

“If someone would have told me 3 months ago that I wouldn’t have any cravings for sugary, starchy foods, I would have called them a liar. My whole life has been filled with donuts, cakes, breads and pastas. Now the sweetest thing I eat are berries and I love it. I’m FREE!!! Free to eat good, healthy foods and fats and feel FULL, not miserably bloated all the time. Thank you Wheat Belly and Dr Davis. I still have a ways to go but, thanks to you, I’m so much closer than I was.”

Pretty spectacular, eh? I share wonderful stories like Andrea’s to drive home the point: the Wheat Belly lifestyle is not just about losing weight. It is about regaining control over health, inflammation, appetite, endocrine disruption—all the phenomena disrupted in peculiar ways by wheat and grains. Just look at Andrea’s eyes—they’re bigger, along with loss of the swelling/inflammation to the right and left of her mouth, so much so that she almost looks like a different person.

Food advice provided through the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the familiar USDA food pyramid and food plate are not just wrongheaded collections of dietary advice that make you gain weight; they also impair health in many ways, just as Andrea experienced, now relieved of several health problems by doing the OPPOSITE of their advice. And, though she does not mention it, she will also be reversing many, if not most, of the health problems associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS, by living the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

Do this before irreversible health issues set in, such as type 1 diabetes; type 2 diabetes involving damage to the pancreatic beta cells and kidneys; stroke from hypertension; dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure; coronary disease and heart attack; dementia from inflammation, glycation, and autoimmunity triggered by gliadin, to name a few. Thankfully, most chronic health problems like those experienced by Andrea are reversible with this lifestyle because she did it early enough in life. You should do so also and not live to regret the day that you missed the opportunity to take back control over your life and health.

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