William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 110

Mary looks and feels different on Wheat Belly

Mary’s facial changes living the Wheat Belly lifestyle reveal the typical changes we expect: facial edema/swelling reversing, around-the-eyes puffiness regressing, bigger eyes, causing Mary to change her facial appearance quite dramatically. But she has also experienced some important changes in her emotions, appetite, and thinking:

“I think I am becoming sane. My moments of clarity are becoming more frequent. I really think wheat was messing with my brain chemistry.

“My cravings are gone. I can approach food rationally and make choices based on my health and not some carnal urge to consume. It is weird. Is this what normal people live like all the time? When people said push yourself away from the table, I would laugh. They obviously did not understand my addiction to food. Now I can stop. I’m so grateful. My life has changed.

“I have features again. I’m calmer too.”

We see this time and time again: Shift your choices in foods away from wheat and grains and appetite plummets. Pushing the plate away seems effortless, inadvertently missing meals becomes common, all of it adding up to weight dropping without having to cut calories or fight cravings. For Mary, it was an addictive relationship with food that was defeating her health, now all dissolved without gliadin-derived opiates driving the phenomenon. She now has also been freed of the mental “fog” that is so common with these opioid peptides from wheat and grains, now replaced with clarity.

And look at the changes in Mary’s face reflecting the drop in inflammation—no amount of calorie-counting can accomplish that.

Unlike any other approach to health and weight loss, the wheat/grain-free Wheat Belly lifestyle restores an astounding degree of control to your life. And look at how terrific Mary looks.

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Christine’s breathtaking Wheat Belly transformation

This is Christine’s impressive Wheat Belly transformation: weight down, back pain, migraines, sinus infections all gone.

“This picture of me in the rocking chair was the day I bought your Wheat Belly book. My Uncle had told me about it. I now tell EVERYONE I meet to buy & read it!

“My health is amazing. My blood pressure is down and I was borderline diabetic and my doctor wanted to put me on medication. I was suffering SEVERE lower back pain, migraines and suffered CHRONIC sinusitis.

“Also, need to add I was exhausted ALL the time and had horrible acid reflux and swallowing problems. My husband got on board, down 30 lbs., my sister down 27.5 and my father down 25!”

Can you see why I stress over and over again: the Wheat Belly lifestyle is a path back to HEALTH, weight loss just being a happy side-benefit. Christine reversed a list of chronic health conditions that stumped doctors or prompted prescriptions, each with its own set of health consequences.

Why not instead simply remove the cause of so many health problems?

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Mirror, Mirror . . .

Here is another brief excerpt from the new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book, a discussion about the changes you may see in the mirror in the days and weeks of your program.

Mirror, Mirror . . .

As you proceed through your Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, you are likely to see some changes when you look in the mirror . . . changes you’ll find empowering, encouraging, even thrilling.

You will start to see changes in your face. Yes, if you lose, say, 5 to 7 pounds over the 10 days of your Detox, your face is going to look thinner. But you will likely notice that your face changed more than those few pounds would permit. You may observe reduced swelling or edema over the entire face and reduced puffiness around the eyes. If you compare a “before” and “after” photo, for example, you will often notice that your eyes look larger. If you started with redness or the wheat/grain signature seborrheic rash on the cheeks or along the sides of the nose, you will likely see this rash recede, then disappear, typically during the first week. Facial contours will change more than you expect, with sharpening of the jawline and cheekbones. Don’t be surprised if friends ask whether you’ve undergone expert cosmetic surgery to achieve such dramatic effects.

These are the changes that lead people on Wheat Belly social media to say that our “before” and “after” pictures look like two different people, reflecting the dramatic changes in facial appearance. (The photos are of the same person, of course, but the contrast reflects the often breathtaking transformations of this unique anti-inflammatory lifestyle.)

Of all areas of the body that shrink in size with this lifestyle, it’s the waistline that shrinks most, reflecting the loss of inflammatory visceral fat created by grain consumption. Sometimes the deflation of abdominal size is dramatic, beginning even during the first few days, reflecting healing of the gastrointestinal tract and reduced bloating from the removal of bowel-disrupting grains, as well as loss of fat. Over days, weeks, and months, visceral fat continues its retreat, a wonderful effect that compounds the health benefits that develop in the wake of wheat and grain removal while sparing you any more questions about when you are “due.”

Among the other body changes that you may observe with your Detox include:

Loss of cellulite—Many women experience a reduction or elimination of the cellulite on their thighs, a curious development that can have dramatic effects on the appearance of the legs. The retreat of cellulite can begin during the 10 days of your Detox and continue onwards over a longer period.

Thicker hair—Many people experience thicker hair over time. Because hair grows slowly, this effect will require longer than the 10 days of your Detox. Women with thin patches typically experience a gradual filling in. (Men generally do not enjoy this effect, unfortunately, since male hair loss develops due to different reasons.) Much less commonly, some people experience hair loss early in the process, which then grows back thicker and fuller over time. This likely reflects the reversal of skin inflammation with wheat and grain removal followed by a regrowth phenomenon.

Nails—Fingernails and toenails often become thicker and smoother over time as they grow, reflecting the improvement in skin health along with hair (since nails and hair are really forms of skin). Many report that fungal toenail infections, evidenced by chronic discoloration, thickening, and nail separation, usually treated with toxic medication, recedes and disappears.

Teeth—I predict that you will experience dramatic changes in dental health: less plaque formation, improvement in gum health and gingivitis. Incredibly, even breath can change for the better, a reflection of the change in oral flora that parallels the shift in bowel flora. (Discussed further below.)

Breasts—Breast size can be reduced a cup size or two out of proportion to the weight lost. While the effect is variable, this phenomenon is due to correction of hormonal distortions, especially reductions of the formerly high levels of estrogen and prolactin with removal of grains. While some women may find this undesirable, recognize that the abnormal stimulation of breast tissue from grain consumption, compounded by the hormonal distortions of visceral fat, are risk factors for breast cancer, now corrected with grain elimination. Males, of course, celebrate the reversal of this embarrassing situation.

 

This is why I call the detoxification process from wheat and grains a head-to-toe total body makeover, as there is no organ system or body part that does not change for the better in some way with this lifestyle, from hair to toenails. Add it all up and you’ve got the formula for a dramatic change in appearance.

Here’s a happy dilemma: How do you manage your wardrobe if you have this wonderful problem of needing smaller and smaller dress, pants, jeans, and shirt sizes? If you lose 5 pounds during your 10-day Detox initiation, then another 12 pounds the rest of that month, then 20 pounds over the next several months, 55 pounds over a year—how do you accommodate to such evolving changes?

Most people, of course, still have clothes from their thinner days in the back of the closet. It’s worth pulling those out. I’ve seen other people put clothes, such as jeans, in the dryer to get them to shrink, or use thrift shops and discount stores to buy clothes they may need for only a matter of weeks or months to tide them over. Some choose pants or skirts with elastic waists or drawstrings, new belts that cinch in further, and stretchable pants and tops. It may be worth having some of your nicer pieces, such as dresses, coats, or suits, tailored to fit as you approach your goal weight.

But it will indeed be necessary at some point to commit to new clothes to fit your new size and simply risk continuing changes. Unlike diets and weight loss drugs that result in weight loss only to allow weight regain once you go off of them, living the Wheat Belly lifestyle is a sustainable way to maintain your goal weight once achieved. The new wardrobe is therefore likely to be one that fits for a long time, even in low single-digit sizes.

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Dying, obsessing, scheming for food

 

Those of us living in this magnificent Wheat-Free Zone have been hearing incredible tales of freedom from eating disorders. Remember TJ’s story of her release from lifelong bulimia?

Michele tells this story of her release from the binge-eating bonds of wheat and its appetite-stimulating hold over her life.

I have to write. When I read the post from TJ, the woman who suffered from bulimia and various forms of eating disorders for years, I totally related. My first diet started when I was 12 years old. I was not overweight, but my mom and dad always warned me that, if I kept eating the way I was eating, I was going to be fat. My dad said Omar the tentmaker would have to make my clothes. That first diet ended within a couple days with a binge.

“My first ‘successful’ diet happened when I was 17 years old. I went from 126 pounds at 5 feet 3 to 85 pounds. I was emaciated and felt fat. I would writhe in pain at night as my body ached with cramps and hunger pains. I lasted about 2 years like this. Then I went off to college and discovered laxatives. My roommate chose vomiting. I was not that ‘lucky’ to be able to vomit. At my worst I took 100 laxatives and ended up in an eating disorder unit for 6 weeks. When I got out of the eating disorder unit I knew absolutely no more than I did going into it about how to prevent myself from binging. I spent the next 27 years thinking about food every single day and how ‘this would be the day I would successfully diet and not binge.’ But every single day ended up in another binge. Binges could get as bad as several donuts, pizza, pretzels, cookies–anything I could get my hands on.

“Over the years I tried every diet known to man. I spent many hours in counseling. Each counselor told me that, if I would resolve the abuse of my past, then the binging would go away. Somehow I knew this was not true. You see I am making strides in my life from painful childhood and abusive marriage. However, the consistent part is that I kept on binging. After each of my three babies I abstained from binging long enough to get the weight off. However, in recent years I ballooned up to 160. This is much too much on my frame. I was at my wit’s end. I knew I was addicted to something. I have been a slave to food for so many years. I felt if only I could stop eating altogether, like an alcoholic who abstains altogether from alcohol.

“I recently was online and stumbled upon Wheat Belly. I downloaded it to my Audible app. I listened and listened, again and again. I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’ I need to try to give up wheat and see if my urge to binge improves.

“Well, after exactly 5 weeks, I can tell you that, for the first time in my life, I have gone to bed for the past 3 weeks without dying for food. Without obsessing and scheming to get food. Last night I went to bed and had not eaten since 5 pm. This is unheard of for me. I have always–and I mean always–had late-night binges.

I have lost 6 pounds. I am no longer bloated. I am no longer having a daily stomache and headache. I am most excited about the fact that I have discovered that I am truly addicted to wheat and I can eliminate a ‘food’ and not food as a whole and live as a normal human being. I could never understand how people could push away from the table. I get it now. I am very thankful to you for writing this book.”

Update:

“I have been wheat-free for almost 8 weeks now.

“Still no night time cravings. I have now lost 10 pounds. I just found that my triglycerides are 73 and my HDL 45. My overall cholesterol is down to 207 (which it was when I was 22 years old. It was around 245 in my 40’s.) My LDL is 150 and my VLDL is 14.

“When I was addicted to wheat like a crack addict, I might have seemed lazy by my body size. However, I have always worked out. I have always been on one diet or another. It was part of my eating disorder. I have ran marathons. It did not matter. Until I eliminated the ‘crack,’ I was never going to lose weight. I only believe it because I tried it and for the first time in my life I have FREEDOM.”

People with eating disorders—binge eating in Michele’s case and bulimia in TJ’s case–are the extreme end of the spectrum. Most of us do not endure 24-hour a day food obsessions, nor have we had to suffer the emotional swings and turmoil to the degree Michele and TJ have. By eating modern wheat, we have some of this experience—but not as bad. You may experience it as the hunger at 9 a.m. after a full breakfast at 7 a.m. Or the need to snack just 2 hours after a full dinner. Or the nighttime cravings that make you regret eating an entire bag of potato chips.

The gliadin opiate in wheat binds to the opiate receptors of the brain and thereby stimulates appetite, much as other opiates do but without the pain-relieving or euphoric effect . . . “just” appetite stimulation. And, in people susceptible to the effect, it triggers eating disorders that can be physically and emotionally crippling.

The cure for many is simple.

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You’ve Been Rolled, Tossed, and Baked

Here’s another brief excerpt from the new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book. In this book, I bash all the conventional notions of healthy eating that have impaired the health and weight of a generation, replacing them with strategies that actually work . . . really fast.

“Follow a balanced diet low in fat.”

“You need whole grains for B vitamins and fiber.”

“It’s unhealthy to eliminate an entire food group.”

This should all sound familiar to you because these nutritional mantras have been repeated over and over again by dietitians, doctors, and the media. And, like many such pieces of conventional wisdom, there is a germ of truth in each of them—but just a germ and nothing more. Adhere to such advice and, not only do they not help control weight or obtain health, following such pearls of conventional “wisdom” destroy your grasp over weight and health. Following such advice can be as ineffective or disastrous as believing that total health is restored by taking a prescription drug, subjecting yourself to a 4-week program of “cleansing” enemas, wearing a tighter girdle or concealing bulges under a new set of Spanx.

Don’t feel bad if you fell for it, cutting the fat off meat, choosing low-fat yogurt, and opting for whole grain breads, muffins, and bagels. Many ideas, once accepted as gospel, have fallen by the wayside over the years, trampled over and kicked to the curb by new discoveries, new science, new understanding. It wasn’t all that long ago that you would have been burned at the stake for believing that the earth revolved around the sun, prosecuted for voicing the “wrong” political views during McCarthy era purges, or cheered for Milli Vanilli’s “Girl You Know It’s True” win at the Grammy Awards. Human history is filled with such campaigns of misinformation. But only in the recent past has such misinformation permeated nutritional advice on such a grand scale.

Half-baked

Eat more healthy whole grains, thereby lose control over health and weight, doctors stumped over why you feel so awful despite doing everything “right,” prescribing drugs with effects that create “need” for more prescription drugs—this is the modern downward health spiral that most people find themselves trapped in today. Once you understand this absurd and self-defeating situation, you are empowered to change it. And you can begin to powerfully reverse this situation over the next third of a month, the number of days it takes your husband to stop procrastinating over fixing a leaky kitchen faucet—just 10 days. I call this a head-to-toe body and health makeover, reprogramming your body and health at so many levels, both internal and external. Your body and health will undergo a transformation that may even have friends and family not believing it’s you.

With the bad science and politics that drove the “cut your cholesterol, fat, and saturated fat” agenda of the latter half of the twentieth century, the bonfire lit even brighter by over-the-top profit opportunities for Big Food, the low-fat message gained a huge following. In its wake now lies the result: obesity, diabetes, arthritis, dementia and other health disasters on a scale never before witnessed in the history of mankind—an unprecedented man-made social and health apocalypse that make reports of tornadoes and radiation spills seem banal. The low-fat message, because it eliminated a source of satiating calories from fat, caused everyone to resort to more carbohydrates, particularly the carbohydrate source that most nutritional authorities felt to be the healthiest: whole grains, such as whole wheat, oats, and rye.

But, like the message to cut fat and saturated fat—now debunked by more recent studies showing us that fat and saturated fat have nothing to do with cardiovascular disease—so the “eat more healthy whole grains” message was also based on flawed science and misinterpretations. The purported health benefits of whole grains were based on epidemiological studies, i.e, studies of health in large populations demonstrating that, if white flour products are replaced with whole grains, there is less diabetes, less weight gain, less heart disease, less colon cancer—that is indeed true and not in question. Careers and entire university departments of nutrition have been built on this premise. But the next question should have been: What is the effect of removing grains, white and whole, altogether? We cannot answer that question with the same “replace one with the other” epidemiological studies, but have to look elsewhere. Such grain eliminating studies have indeed already been performed.

What happens when we remove grains? Clinical studies have shown:

Not less weight gain, but weight loss

Reduction in overall calorie intake

Drops in blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c ( a long-term measure of blood sugar). Many diabetics can become non-diabetic.

Reduction of blood pressure

Increased likelihood of remission of rheumatoid arthritis

Reversal of neurological conditions such as cerebellar ataxia, some forms of seizures, and peripheral neuropathy

Reversal of multiple forms of skin rash

Reductions in paranoia and hallucinations in people with schizophrenia

Improved attention span and behavior in children with attention deficit disorder and autistic spectrum disorder

Relief from the bowel urgency and disruption of irritable bowel syndrome

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Caroline’s fabulous skin changes with the Wheat Belly Detox

Caroline shared her “before” and “after” photos after completing the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox.

“Day 10 of the Detox. Lost 6 pounds and 6 inches! Loving what I feel like and what I eat…..going to stay on for another 10 days and see what happens! I can feel the difference more that I can see it, but I love it! Left: before. Right: today.”

Take a look at Caroline’s facial skin: she has lost the around-the-mouth rash in the 10 days of the Detox. It’s no wonder she is feeling better: she is reversing skin and body-wide inflammation by following the strategies of the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox. Nearly EVERY strategy included in the 10-Day Detox plays a role in reversing inflammation: removing the inciting causes (wheat and grains), vitamin D restoration that reduces release of cytokine inflammatory mediators (e.g., IL-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor, TNF), EPA and DHA from fish oil to address the prostaglandin axis of inflammation, cultivation of bowel flora to reduce intestinal “leak” to inflammatory bacterial lipopolysaccharide, and other effects.

Here’s another look at Caroline’s skin after completing her Detox:

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The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox CHALLENGE starts Thurs, Feb 4th!

Slim down and feel great for Valentine’s Day! The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox challenge starts THURS, FEBRUARY 4TH. 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 3rd and 4th 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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Billy sets a new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox weight loss record!

Billy shared his “before” and “after” photos after completing the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox.

“We started the 10-Day Detox on 01/24/16 and I’ve lost a total of 21 pounds and 15.5 inches total!

“I no longer have pain in my feet, knees, and I wake up every morning refreshed and full of energy. I’m never going back to Grains! Looking forward to a healthier, longer life!”

Critics say that losing two pounds a day, as Billy has, is physically impossible, a violation of the laws of thermodynamics. But that is not true.

As Billy has experienced, the reversal of visceral fat and the relief from joint and feet pain reflect the impressive reversal of inflammation and the water retention that accompanies it. Yes, Billy has also mobilized fat stores and lost fat weight, but he mostly lost a huge amount of inflammatory edema—a terrific development for health, as well as appearance.

Billy has more to lose, but I’d say he’s had a pretty darned successful Wheat Belly Detox process!

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The Wisdom of the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox

I will be posting some brief excerpts from the new Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book here to highlight some of the information in this new way to begin (or resume) the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

Don’t Exercise

That may sound odd, given the benefits of exercise. But exercising during the withdrawal process is like trying jog, swim, or jump rope while suffering the flu: it will be a miserable experience minus the sinus congestion. Don’t torture yourself—and don’t feel guilty for not exercising during this process. At most, do something at a leisurely pace: go for a walk in the woods or around your neighborhood, or take a casual bike ride. But it would be counterproductive to force yourself to run, bike hard, or strength train, as the effort will make you feel worse. Rest assured that, once the fireworks of withdrawal are over, you will feel so wonderful that physical activities and exercise will not just be possible again without all the discomfort, but you will feel eager for the freedom and movement of vigorous physical activity.

Some people are skeptical that this might be true. After all, most people feel terrific after a round of vigorous exercise. But I’ve found this to be true over and over again: exercise during your wheat/grain detoxification and withdrawal, and you will be nauseated, lightheaded, poop out way earlier than usual, and even provoke joint and muscle cramps/pains you’ve not had before. It is simply not worth it. So I really mean it: no exercise during the first week!

You will get beyond this phase of the Wheat Belly lifestyle, and it is a small price to pay to feel and look wonderful.

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Marcie: Body by Wheat Belly

Marcie originally posted her progress living the Wheat Belly lifestyle back in May, 2015 when she told us about her loss of 50 pounds and freedom from previously severe insomnia.

She’s back now with an update, now down a total of 85 pounds and feeling better than ever:

“Wheat Belly has been a blessing in 2015, and I will forever be grateful to Doctor Davis for showing us this vital information to get my health and happiness on track.

“In September 2014, I weighed 232 pounds, tired and lacking energy to even sleep soundly through the night. I began the steps to get my health back by finding the weight loss support group and preparing myself with a new way of eating. I decided that, in 2015, I was going to give Wheat Belly my full attention and to try and follow this. I do have to tell you that it was not easy at first—I did not realize how addicted I was to wheat products.

“I now sleep better at night and have alleviated foot pain along with heartburn. I just love walking now with a minimum of 10,000 steps each day and find that I can fit more projects into my daily tasks with increased energy.

One of the surprising things I noticed since going wheat-free is how my skin has cleared up. I no longer have a rash rimmed around my face and my arms are no longer covered with hives and rough skin. Another surprising aspect of cutting out wheat is my ability to eat certain foods again without a reaction to them.

“I now feel very healthy at 146 pounds and I know that being wheat-free gives me the freedom to be healthy and happy.”

Here she is holding up an old outfit up against her new slender Wheat Belly body:

Freedom from foot pain, insomnia, heartburn, cravings/hunger, skin rash—not only does Marcie look terrific, she feels terrific after having removed all the inflammatory and brain/neurological effects of wheat. THAT is why the Wheat Belly lifestyle is so powerful. Despite the spectacular weight loss successes I share here (because you can see weight loss), it’s really the transformations in health that are the most fascinating.

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