William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 109

Statin cholesterol drugs are for bread-eaters

Much of the $23 billion spent each and every year on statin drugs is really targeting the treatment of “high cholesterol”—but actually unhealthy distortions in lipoproteins—created by consuming grains.

Most people, unfortunately, continue to focus on fat consumption, especially saturated fat, as the cause for high cholesterol and have been led to believe that cutting saturated fat and statin drugs are the solution. So let me try and clear up this somewhat confusing issue and show you that 1) there is no real benefit to cutting saturated fat, 2) grains and sugars cause distortions that increase cardiovascular disease, and 3) statin drugs do not fully address the causes of cardiovascular disease, accounting for their relatively trivial benefits.

Here is a typical panel of someone who consumes grains:

Triglycerides 170 mg/dl

LDL cholesterol (calculated) 150 mg/dl

HDL cholesterol 40 mg/dl

Total cholesterol 224 mg/dl

In other words, HDL cholesterol is lowish, triglycerides high, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol high. What does this mean? Let’s take each, one by one. It’s a bit complex, but stick with it and you will emerge smarter than 95% of doctors who “treat” high cholesterol.

Triglycerides are the byproduct of two digestive processes: 1) De novo lipogenesis or the liver’s conversion of the amylopectin of grains and other sugars into triglyceride-rich VLDL particles that enter the bloodstream, and 2) absorption of dietary fats (which are triglycerides themselves). De novo lipogenesis dominates triglyceride levels in the bloodstream, far outstripping consumption of fat as a determinant of triglyceride levels. This simple fact was only identified recently, as the rise in triglycerides that occurs after consuming fats and oils develops within 2-4 hours, but the much larger rise in triglycerides from carbohydrate-to-triglyceride conversion starts 6-8 hours later, a fact not uncovered in older studies that failed to track this far out in time. (And, in certain genetic types, such as apo E2, the rise from carbohydrates in grains and sugars can last for days to weeks.)

LDL cholesterol is calculated, not measured. The Friedewald calculation, developed in the early 1960s to provide an easy but crude means of estimating the quantity of cholesterol in the low-density lipoprotein fraction of the blood applied several basic assumptions: 1) that everyone consumes an average diet of average macronutrient composition, and 2) that the triglyceride content of all lipoproteins remained constant from person to person (which is not true, but is wildly variable), and 3) that all LDL particles are the same (also not true, as LDL particles vary in size, conformation, surface characteristics, etc.).

Grain consumption, thanks to the process of de novo lipogenesis, increases blood levels of triglycerides and VLDL particles. VLDL particles interact with LDL particles, enriching LDL particle triglyceride content and reducing cholesterol content. This leads to a process of LDL particle “remodeling” that creates small LDL particles–glycation-prone, oxidizable, adherent to inflammatory blood cells, and persistent in the bloodstream for 7 days, rather than the 24 hours of more benign large LDL particles. Grains thereby trigger the process creating persistent and damaging small LDL particles; fats trigger the process that does not.

When we cut out grains and sugars, the Friedewald calculation is therefore no longer valid, as the assumptions–-weak to begin with–-are disrupted. LDL cholesterol, this crude, surrogate effort to indirectly quantify LDL particles, is therefore completely useless—the calculation of LDL cholesterol is INVALID. This has not, unfortunately, dampened enthusiasm among my colleagues nor the drug industry for trying to treat this number with statin drugs to the tune of $23 billion per year.

Better ways to quantify LDL particles: NMR LDL particle number (which includes quantification of small and large LDL particles) or an apoprotein B. (Each LDL particle contains one apo B, which thereby provides a virtual count of LDL particles, but no breakdown into small vs. large.) Lipoprotein testing has been around for over 20 years, is inexpensive and available—but requires an informed doctor to interpret.

HDL cholesterol is, unlike LDL cholesterol, a measured and reliable value. Ironically, it is among the most ignored. Grain-consuming humans tend to have low HDL because the high triglyceride/VLDL particles interact in the bloodstream with HDL particles, enriching HDL particles in triglycerides and reducing cholesterol content. This leads to a reduction in HDL size and HDL quantity, thus low HDL cholesterol values. The lower the HDL, the higher the cardiovascular risk.

Total cholesterol is the sum of all three values: LDL cholesterol + HDL cholesterol + triglycerides/5. (More accurately, LDL cholesterol is the calculated value: LDL = total chol – HDL – trg/5.)

Given the mix of values, total cholesterol is therefore essentially useless. A large increase in HDL, for instance–-a GOOD thing–-will raise total cholesterol; a large reduction in HDL–-a BAD thing–-will reduce total cholesterol: the opposite of what you would think. Total cholesterol can indeed yield useful prognostic information when applied to a population, though the relationship is weak. But it is useless when applied to an individual.

If we reject the silly and simple-minded notions of cholesterol panels, and apply the greater insights provided by advanced lipoprotein analysis, several nutritional observations can be made:

–Saturated fat increases HDL, shifts HDL to larger, more protective, particles, and triggers formation of large LDL particles.

–The amylopectin carbohydrates of grains trigger higher triglycerides, thereby providing more VLDL particles to interact with HDL and LDL particles, the process that leads to triglyceride enrichment and smaller ineffective HDL and smaller atherogenic LDL (heart disease-causing).

–Given the unusual persistence time of small (7 days) vs large (1 day) LDL particles, grain consumption is FAR worse than fat consumption.

You can begin to appreciate how overly simplistic this notion of “reducing cholesterol” using statin drugs really is. You can also appreciate that the real situation is a bit more complicated and beyond the reach of most busy primary care physicians, while being outside the interests of most cardiologists, obsessed as they are with revenue-producing activities like heart catheterizations, stent and defibrillator implantation.

A typical response in the cholesterol panel of someone who has eliminated all wheat, grains, and sugars would look something like this:

Triglycerides 50 mg/dl

LDL cholesterol (calculated) — mg/dl

HDL cholesterol 70 mg/dl

Total cholesterol 200 mg/dl

I left the LDL cholesterol blank because it can do just about anything: go up, go down, remain unchanged—but it doesn’t matter, because it is inaccurate, unreliable, invalid. If you were to measure advanced lipoproteins, however, you would see a dramatic reduction or elimination of small LDL particles and reduction of the total count of LDL particles (since the small LDL component has been reduced or eliminated) with large LDL particles remaining.

Common distortions of cholesterol panels can be easily explained by the chain of events that emerge from a diet rich in “healthy whole grains.” The relatively trivial benefits of statin cholesterol drugs (about a 1% reduction in real risk, not the inflated “relative risks” quoted in ads and statistically-manipulated studies) should come as no surprise, since high cholesterol is not the cause for cardiovascular disease.

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Crohns disease cured . . . by a chance encounter at the airport

I posed this question recently: Given the extravagant health successes people are experiencing by living the Wheat Belly lifestyle, are we on the dawn of an age of self-direction in health? If doctors misdiagnose/misclassify our acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, intractable constipation, migraine headaches, chronic sinusitis, asthma, depression, binge eating disorder, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, autoimmune hepatitis, and hundreds of other conditions, which we then reverse on our own with the lifestyle changes we introduce . . . who needs the doctors?

Christine provided her perspective:

“Absolutely, and I am living proof of it. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease 20 years ago and have endured multiple surgeries, every drug you can imagine and an indescribable amount of pain.

“In 2014, I happened across your book, Dr. Davis, in an airport bookshop. When I broached the subject with my gastroenterologist, her words were ‘I would never prescribe a gluten-free diet to help. It’s just too expensive.’

“To make an incredibly long story short, I am happy to report that a scope I had done in May, 2015 showed ‘no active disease.’ In fact, my gastroenterologist even repeated the test last month just to confirm. Still no issues. And I am seeing my surgeon next week, to book a date to reverse an ileostomy he did in April, 2014.

“I feel better than I have felt in 20 years. So, absolutely, I’m ALL FOR self-directed health!”

A chance encounter at the airport provided better information than years of dealings with gastroenterologists. There are undoubtedly times when we need doctors and the healthcare system, such as suturing a laceration or repairing a broken femur. But look at the wide variety of chronic health conditions (not acute injury or infection) that are reversing in the face of wheat and grain elimination, followed by the strategies we introduce to correct the health disruptions they introduced (e.g., thyroid disease, dysbiosis). As story after story shows us, people are reducing, often curing, themselves of chronic health conditions that doctors misdiagnosed, were unable to diagnose, but prescribed drug after drug and advised procedures.

By rejecting all wheat and grains, we revert back to the way humans ate for the first 99.6% of our time on earth before we figured out how to harvest the seeds of grasses and cultivate them–“grains.” We thereby also revert back to the way human life was that can still be observed in primitive cultures who do not grow grains—no obesity, no hypertension, virtually no diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or autoimmune conditions, i.e., none of the “diseases of civilization” that we view as common today.

Fold in the boom in tools that empower us in health, such as social media, new websites that collate collective human health experiences (e.g., Patients Like Me), home health tools, and smartphone health apps, and I do indeed believe that it is going to be a very exciting few years ahead as we become less reliant on a predatory and flawed healthcare system and more reliant on our own resources.

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No more wheat face for Suzi

Suzi shared her “before” and “after” photos after six months on the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

“Quit sugar a year ago, removed wheat 6 months ago. My cholesterol and blood pressure are fantastic.

“Love the books, especially the cookbook. Lost 4 dress sizes, too!”

The change in Suzi’s appearance is dramatic, more than weight loss alone would explain. As so often happens in people who reject all wheat and grains from their diet, look at Suzi’s cheeks, chin, and eyes: she has lost the inflammation and edema that are the signature of wheat and grain consumption, causing her to look almost unrecognizably different.

Suzi has also gotten a taste of the improved metabolic health that develops with this lifestyle in watching her cholesterol values and blood pressure improve, reflecting the head-to-toe improvement in health that this lifestyle yields.

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Wheat Belly: Self-Directed Health?

Director chair, film slate and load horn.

Here’s a proposal for you: If, by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, a long list of conditions are reduced or reversed at no risk, almost no cost, reversing even chronic and potentially fatal conditions . . . does that mean that the notion of self-directed health might be on the horizon, i.e., putting control over health back in our own hands?

I think it does. No, we will never implant our own defibrillators or take out our own gallbladders. But so many chronic health conditions afflicting modern humans recede that I believe that it is entirely reasonable to start talking about following this program as a means of not just dropping a few sizes in yoga pants, but also taking back control over a multitude of health conditions. Having spent over 25 years in the healthcare system, I can also tell you that much of what goes on in healthcare has little to do with health, but has plenty to do with delivering drugs, procedures, and other revenue-generating activities to benefit the healthcare system.

Here is therefore a list of conditions that are caused by wheat and grain consumption (especially products made from modern semi-dwarf wheat strains), reversed or minimized with their removal. Note that this list overlaps substantially with the list of conditions virtually unknown in non-grain consuming cultures but plague such people to extraordinary degrees when they are exposed to Western foods. Believe it or not, this is not a complete list, leaving out some obscure conditions.

This is not to say that, for example, every instance of sarcoidosis or CREST Syndrome will reverse. But, as I often point out, there is NOTHING lost in trying—there are no toxic intravenous drugs here, no one develops side-effects like type 2 diabetes, liver failure, or sudden cardiac death from this lifestyle, even though these are well-known side-effects of common drugs. I would be far more reluctant to start a modern drug for, say, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease than I would in starting this lifestyle. The only downside I know of is . . . inconvenience. And even that is minimal for those of us who have simply learned to prepare more of our own foods, shop more selectively, etc.—not a big price to pay to be relieved of so many health conditions.

Acanthosis nigricans

Acid reflux

Acne

Allergy

Alopecia areata

Ankylosing spondylitis

Anxiety

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome

Addison’s disease

Asthma

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia

Autoimmune hepatitis

Autoimmune inner ear disease

Autoimmune pancreatitis

Autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura

Barrett’s esophagitis

Bile stasis

Binge eating disorder

Bipolar illness (manic phase primarily)

Bulimia

Cardiomyopathy (dilated or congestive)

Celiac disease

Cerebellar ataxia

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Constipation, obstipation

CREST syndrome

Coronary disease, angina

Crohn’s disease

Cutaneous vasculitis

Dandruff

Dental plaque, gingivitis

Depression

Dermatitis herpetiformis

Dermatomyositis

Diabetes, type 2 (potentially type 1 if changes instituted before pancreatic inflammation/beta cell destruction complete)

Discoid lupus

Dysbiosis

Eczema

Erythema nodosum

Esophagitis, esophageal spasm

Fatigue

Fatty liver

Fibromyalgia

Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome

Gallstones, bile stasis

Gastroparesis

Gluten encephalopathy

Grave’s disease

Hair loss, non-immune

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Heartburn

Hypertension

Hypertriglyceridemia

Hypochlorhydria

Icthyosiform dermatoses

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

IgA nephropathy

Insulin-dependent diabetes (type I)

Iron deficiency anemia

Irritable bowel syndrome

Juvenile arthritis

Metabolic syndrome

Migraine headache

Mixed connective tissue disease

Multiple sclerosis

Myasthenia gravis

Myocarditis

Non-alcoholic liver disease

Obesity, overweight

Obstipation

Peripheral neuropathy

Pernicious anemia

Plantar fasciitis

Polyarteritis nodosa

Polychondritis

Polymyalgia rheumatica

Polymyositis dermatomyositis

Pre-diabetes

Primary biliary cirrhosis

Psoriasis

Raynaud’s syndrome

Reiter’s syndrome

Rheumatoid arthritis

Sarcoidosis

Schizophrenia, paranoid (limited to reduction of paranoia, auditory hallucinations)

Scleroderma

Seborrhea

Seizures, primarily temporal lobe

SICCA syndrome

Sjögren’s syndrome

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth

Systemic lupus erythematosus

Temporal arteritis

Ulcerative colitis

Uveitis

Vasculitis

Vitiligo

Wegener’s granulomatosis

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The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox CHALLENGE starts Feb 17th!

The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox challenge starts WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH. Join the thousands of people who are losing weight and regaining health!

To join the Detox Challenge:

Step 1)

Get the book. And read it. 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 February 16th and 17th 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.

The post The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox CHALLENGE starts Feb 17th! appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

You won’t recognize Karen after Wheat Belly

Karen shared some “before” and “after” photos of her Wheat Belly experience.

“The first pic was from Christmas, 2014. I started Wheat Belly on Oct 15th, 2015.

“In 3 months, I went from 224 all the way down to 185! My husband also went from 278 down to 242. We exercised, too, about 30 mins a day, 6 days a week. We also walked on trails with our dogs for about 45 mins on Saturday and Sundays.

“I was pre-diabetic, depressed, sick, achy and had IBS, fibromyalgia, anxiety, and panic attacks, now all reversed. I can’t believe how I looked. I’m so happy now. I’m 40 pounds away from my goal, which is 150, but I will get there.”

That’s an impressive list of health conditions that Karen reversed—on her own, without her doctor, without medications, losing 39 pounds in 3 months while regaining health in so many other ways. But just look at the change in Karen’s appearance. I believe she is truly unrecognizably changed in appearance. She has lost a significant quantity of weight, but has also lost the bloated, swollen look of grain-induced inflammation.

Here’s another side-by-side before/after:

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Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox: A Life-Changer

Here’s another brief excerpt from the new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book. Followers of the Wheat Belly lifestyle quickly learn that this is not just a means of losing 30 pounds without effort. It is a simple way to regain health in so many ways, ranging from relief from migraine headaches, to reversal of skin rashes and joint pain. No organ system is spared the ravaging effects of wheat and grains; no organ cannot show improvement by removing them.

Sit down, grab a handle, and strap yourself in: you are going for the ride of your life, a roller coaster of emotional and physical turbulence with a few yelps, nausea, and moments of panic along the way that will land you in a place you likely have not been before, a world of health, single-digit clothes sizes, feeling wonderful, and the recipient of jealous looks from the perplexed grain eating people around you, as well as appreciative looks from your partner. This is your ticket to that world.

It may sound like an overused, over-the-top prediction to say that the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox experience will be life-changing—but I assure you it will. It will be as life-changing as surviving the throes of adolescence minus the acne and social bumbling, as life-changing as having children without the diapers and sleepless nights. I predict that the changes will be so dramatic that you will wonder how you managed to endure life before you discovered these answers to your health and weight problems.

You may come to view your life as pre-Wheat Belly Detox and post-Wheat Belly Detox. Those of you who start the process with a health problem or five can typically expect dramatic improvements in health and the way you feel. Even within the first week, joint pains in the fingers and wrists, acid reflux, and bowel urgency can disappear, while over the second week and onwards energy improves, the belly shrinks visibly, pain in larger joints like knees and hips can begin to recede. It’s not uncommon for health to improve in such a broad front that it’s hard to keep up in reducing or eliminating prescription medications. People with high blood pressure or diabetes, in particular, commonly witness marked reductions in blood pressure and blood sugar within days, making it necessary to whittle down medications rapidly (to be discussed).

Even people who start this process to just lose a few pounds, but feel pretty good at the start, report that they feel even better after this process, reporting that feelings that they’d come to accept as just part of life, such as rashes, foot pain, or mental fog, have disappeared. People will say “I didn’t realize that I really didn’t feel that great, but now I feel better than I have in 20 years.” In addition to feeling 20 years younger, many actually look 20 years younger.

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From health disaster to health success

Andrea endured a lot of health problems, never receiving any real answers from doctors, although plenty of medications were prescribed. Then she stumbled on the Wheat Belly lifestyle:

“I learned in 2005 (27 years old) after having my 2nd child that I was hypothyroid. I was put on Levothroid. I complained often to my doctor that I felt no different a few months after starting this prescription. They ordered some labs and adjusted my dosage. Still no changes. I still felt extremely forgetful, sluggish, unable to concentrate. Instead of losing weight, I gained weight very easily. This went on for years!

“I was never advised to change my diet, just my calorie intake. I was always made to feel fat and lazy by any doctor I saw. I was always told I needed to exercise more, even though I upped my physical activity and exercised 3 hours a week.

“I had eczema on my arms, as well as ‘chicken skin,’ toenail fungus, dry hair with hair loss, and always had red, itchy welts on my neck. I would get easily agitated. I always felt very tired and drowsy after eating. I have suffered from constipation and insomnia since I was a kid. These past few years my heavy eyelids have really bothered me. I also had miscarriages, suffered from infertility, and my ‘normal’ menstrual cycle was once a year. I have emailed and met with several doctors under my insurance plan since 2006.

“In November, 2015 I finally got tired of being tired (so cliché, I know). I went to the library and picked up a ton of books, one was Wheat Belly. The name looked familiar (I follow you on Facebook), so I read that one first. Eye-opener! I panicked. All of the issues I was having were detailed right there in the book!

“I immediately switched my diet, eliminated ALL wheat. No more eczema, I have energy, and I don’t feel like an exhausted zombie. My concentration and mood have improved. Eczema is gone. No more itchy red neck. The chicken skin on my arms and toenail fungus is nearly all gone. My periods are regular (darn lol). Constipation and insomnia are also gone.

“I’m 37 now and feel like the last 10 years of my health have been wasted, but I am extremely thankful I finally decided to take charge of my health. I have lost 23 pounds since November.

“PS: I stopped taking Levothroid and had my thyroid tested last Monday. It was normal!”

As happens every day around here, not only does Andrea feel different, she also looks different. You can appreciate from her story how inflammation from wheat and grains affected virtually every organ system: gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system, thyroid, reproductive system, and—evident on the skin and face—skin inflammation. See the typical “deflation” of her cheeks and around the eyes, leaving the eyes bigger?

One unusual feature about Andrea’s story: while wheat/grain elimination can allow the autoimmune inflammation of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis to subside, most people are left with a need for thyroid replacement, preferably Armour Thyroid or Naturethroid that provide both the T4 and T3 thyroid hormones, not just the T4 of Levothroid. Andrea says that her thyroid recovered and she no longer needs any form of thyroid replacement. Just bear in mind that most people aren’t as luck as Andrea this way and will need thyroid replacement to compensate for the damage done during wheat/grain consuming days.

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Even your LIVER is fat

Wheat Belly Blog reader, Denise, posted this question:

“My doctor has prescribed a low fat diet due to a barrage of tests that ended up showing I have a very fatty liver. I am overweight, have high blood pressure, IBS and acid reflux. In all the reading I have done on here, I keep seeing to add fats . . . healthy ones . . . to your daily eating. How do I eat these and also stick to a low fat diet to please my doctor? I am 59, female, and really need to try to get healthier.”

Sorry, Denise, but it’s not your job to please your doctor. It’s your job to do what’s right for your health. Sadly, your doctor is doing more harm than good.

A low-fat diet CAUSES fatty liver because cutting fat increases carbohydrate intake which, in turn, increases liver de novo lipogenesis, the conversion of carbohydrates to fats that are then deposited in the liver.

In other words, feeding your liver more carbohydrates and less fat encourages the formation of triglycerides, some of which are released into the bloodstream as VLDL (very low-density lipoproteins), the rest of which remain in the liver. Triglycerides are fats, fats are triglycerides. As you eat more “healthy whole grains” and other foods that fit into a low-fat diet, your liver makes more triglycerides, your liver––along with your intestinal tract, pancreas, kidneys, and heart (pericardial fat)––accumulates fat, gets larger, increases markers of liver damage like AST and ALT. Over many years, this can lead to cirrhosis, identical to the disease generated by excessive alcohol consumption (alcoholic cirrhosis).

If dietary fat is made of triglycerides, doesn’t this also cause fatty liver? No, because your liver’s capacity to manufacture fats outweighs your ability to consume fat. Fats in the diet do indeed increase triglyceride levels in the blood . . . a little bit. But carbohydrates in the diet increase triglycerides . . . a lot (though the effect is delayed for several hours).

This is the overly-simplistic thinking of most doctors: If there is fat being deposited in the liver, it must be from eating fat. Your doctor prescribed a diet that is not only ineffective, but actually causes the problem it was meant to treat. This is like telling a smoker that he’s short of breath because he doesn’t smoke enough. Or telling an alcoholic that she’s woozy and uncoordinated because she’s not drinking enough bourbon. Your liver is fat because you eat too much fat? Wow.

And the “overweight, high blood pressure, IBS and acid reflux” you’re experiencing are highly likely to be a consequence of our favorite carbohydrates to bash: wheat and grains. Lose the wheat/grains, lose the weight, lose the hypertension, lose the IBS, lose the acid reflux, lose the fatty liver. Fish oil helps, too, as EPA and DHA (not linolenic acid) helps clear triglycerides.

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Wheat-watch: Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato Soup

You thought tomatoes were good for you?

They are . . . unless, of course, some peculiar ingredients are added.

Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato Soup contains:

tomato puree

high fructose corn syrup

wheat flour

sea salt

vegetable oil

ascorbic acid

citric acid

What is wheat flour doing in tomato soup? Isn’t tomato soup supposed to be, well, tomato? Add a little salt, or some herbs like cilantro or basil––but wheat flour? And high-fructose corn syrup? “Vegetable oil” means corn, cottonseed, canola, or soybean—you know, the ones that disrupt inflammatory pathways.

Examine the can and you will notice that it comes complete with an endorsement from the American Heart Association because it’s low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Oh, boy. And it has 36 grams total carbs per cup, 2 grams fiber: 34 grams net carbs per cup, an awful lot, enough to provoke oodles of small LDL particles within a few hours, the most common abnormality leading to heart disease.

Even though “wheat flour” is down the ingredient list as third item, it still contains the gliadin protein that stimulates appetite and makes you want to eat more soup, more bread, more total food. It still contains lectins that increase intestinal permeability and trigger inflammatory responses. It still contains the unique wheat-related carbohydate, amylopectin A, that increases blood sugar and insulin more than nearly all other carb-rich foods.

For all practical purposes, Campbells Healthy Request Tomato soup is . . . wheat. If you think this is an accident, then take a look at this commentary by a public relationships expert. Mmm mmm good!

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