William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 125

The initial Wheat Belly survey results are in!

Nearly 3400 responses came in within hours of releasing the first Wheat Belly Survey. Due to the number of responses, it will require some time to analyze and breakdown the results into, for example, the experiences of people before they begin, the first week when most people are struggling with withdrawal/detoxification phenomena, and long-term outcomes. But it will prove to be fascinating, perhaps teaching us some new lessons about the power of this lifestyle.

Nonetheless, if we lump everyone–beginners and experienced–together, some crude numbers jump out:

61% reported reduced or complete relief from joint pain
68.5% reported relief from acid reflux
67.5% reported relief from irritable bowel syndrome symptoms such as bowel urgency
59.3% reported relief from chronic constipation
69.2% reported increased energy
48.2% reported relief from headaches
77.6% reported being happier/improved mood
74.1% reported weight loss, 22.4% reported no change

Number of pounds lost ranged widely, though an impressive number exceeded 30 pounds lost.

Once the beginners are culled out, the numbers are likely to be even more impressive, since many benefits of the Wheat Belly lifestyle such as relief from joint pain and autoimmune conditions, can require months to fully develop. It is also unclear how many respondents have incorporated all the strategies that are important to us, such as vitamin D, magnesium, and prebiotic fibers to cultivate healthy bowel flora, all of which push the number of people with health benefits even higher. (A topic for a future survey perhaps.)

Anyway, the preliminary numbers were so astounding that I wanted to give everyone a sense of what they showed. Stay tuned for more news from the Wheat Belly Survey as the numbers are broken down!

 

 

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Barbara’s Wheat Belly makeover

After only 5 weeks of following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, Barbara’s appearance–and health–have changed so much that she is practically unrecognizable.

“I have a long, long, long way to go, but this is a before and after of 5 weeks following my new forever life plan. I am taking some of the medications you have described as those that make it difficult to lose, so my progress is slow, but every 1/2 pound DOWN is a step in the right direction.

“Here is a before and after 5 week pic that definitely shows that Dr. Davis sure does know what he is talking about. I am no longer suffering from the horrible pain of fibromyalgia and my psoriasis is clearing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Fibromyalgia and psoriasis are two forms of inflammation that are common in people who consume wheat and grains, sources of misery and pain for which plenty of barely-effective drugs are prescribed. Remove the cause–wheat and grains–and, even better, correct all the factors that persist that previously allowed (but not caused, what I call “permissive factors”) inflammatory conditions to arise in the presence of wheat/grain consumption, such as vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid deficiencies and dysbiosis, and you have an excellent chance of reversing such inflammatory/autoimmune conditions, including enjoying the reversal of skin/facial inflammation responsible for Barbara’s change in appearance.

The changes that develop with this lifestyle represent a virtual body and health makeover: dramatic transformations in the way you look and feel. It will be interesting to see future changes in Barbara’s appearance and health as she recovers further from this health disaster called “healthy whole grains,” changes so dramatic that I’ll bet that even close family and friends do a double-take when they see her.

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No more Wheat Baby for Jordi!

Jordi initially shared her story and photos with me because she had such a dramatic and rapid deflation in belly size just two months into her Wheat Belly experience:

“I’ve been asked if I was pregnant for years. Seeing your show has changed my life!

“I had gone to the doctor because I was having horrible stomach pain. I though the pain was female-related because I have had surgeries in the past. I was shocked when the Ob/Gyn doc prescribed me Donnatal. It helped, but after reading up on it, I discovered it contained phenobarbital, a highly addictive medicine. So to me, this pill was just paralyzing my intestines so they wouldn’t cramp. The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I became about taking a pill every day for the rest of my life.

“One day, I tuned into your show and decided that was day one for me. The first pic is from day one. The second pic is only 2 months later. I’m still wheat/grain-free and everyday is a learning experience. I’m still working out the kinks of what I can and cannot eat, but have never been happier. I’ve lost a total of 25 pounds! I didn’t try–It fell off! The best part is I stopped taking my medicine the 2nd week and haven’t had any pain since. I feel AMAZING! Thank you Dr. Davis!”

Another couple of months have passed since Jordi shared her story, now nearly 5 months into her Wheat Belly lifestyle. Here are some updated photos, this time a “before” and “after” of her facial changes:

Jordi provides an excellent example of how inflammation recedes body-wide when you reject all wheat and grains. She has reversed the awful gastrointestinal inflammation responsible for her wheat baby and you can now even see the characteristic changes we look for in the face: reduced cheek and around-the-eye swelling. Doesn’t she look terrific?

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Jane did NOT lose weight, but lost inflammation

Jane’s experience highlights an important aspect of the Wheat Belly lifestyle:



“I may have not weight but certainly lost inches!”

Despite no change in weight, there has been an obvious change in Jane’s appearance. In addition to the lost inches she describes, she has also undergone an obvious change in facial appearance.

Jane’s experience highlights an essential feature of the Wheat Belly wheat- and grain-free lifestyle: more than weight loss, it is a lifestyle that has the potential to powerfully reverse inflammation. But it’s not magical: it is simply a consequence of removing the indigestible or poorly digestible proteins of wheat and grains that trigger inflammation. Grain-provoked inflammation can express itself as joint pain, as acid reflux or bowel urgency, as autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, as skin rashes like psoriasis or eczema, and as fluid retention. Remove wheat and grains and an impressive retreat in inflammation results, one that we can read on the face of people like Jane.

So, for Jane, no weight loss, but a visible reversal of inflammation that makes her look many tens of pounds thinner. And it happened because she thumbed her nose at conventional dietary advice to eat more “healthy whole grains.”

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It’s not just weight loss we’re after: it’s HEALTH

Kristina shared her Wheat Belly experience since originally posting her “before” photo (left) a year ago:

“This pic (right) was taken August, 2015. I have now been wheat- and grain-free for a year and 10 days.

“I have learned a lot about myself and how my body reacts to different foods that I eat. I must say that I feel better, look better, and I am so glad to be living this lifestyle indefinitely. I have lost 53 pounds and almost 10 inches off my waist.”

Kristina makes an essential point: If you are attuned to the way you feel, you can identify many of the adverse effects that wheat and grains exert on the body. The problem is that most people have eaten them for such a long time that we have forgotten what it feels like to feel good again, or feel normal. We’ve forgotten what it feels like to have a clear mind, forgotten that healthy digestion should proceed effortlessly without the discomfort of heartburn/acid reflux or the urgent need to empty your bowels, how healthy skin looks and feels, and dismiss joint discomfort and stiffness as part of aging.

Followers of the Wheat Belly lifestyle come to understand that weight loss is just one aspect of this way of living; it’s the recovery of health that really matters. This is why we continue to witness such wonderful and striking transformations in the people who follow this lifestyle who, yes, lose substantial weight but also look and feel different. If, instead, you suffered the agony of reducing calories to lose weight, you might lose the weight, but you would not experience improved skin health, relief from acid reflux or irritable bowel syndrome. You would not experience relief from inflammatory joint pain or stiffness. Cutting calories but continuing to include wheat and grains in your diet means you are still exposed to all the inflammatory, autoimmune-triggering, appetite-stimulating, blood sugar-raising, bowel health-disrupting effects of wheat and grains.

Just take a good look at Kristina’s features: she has lost the puffiness around the eyes and cheeks that reflect skin inflammation, surely paralleled by reversal of inflammation in other parts of her body. These are the sorts of impressive results you can experience when you remove the cheap fillers, commoditized monoculture crops, seeds of grasses inappropriate for consumption by our species, yet the favorite of all “official” providers of dietary advice called wheat and grains.

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It’s not a “sweet tooth” . . . it’s a WHEAT-tooth

Remove wheat and other closely related grains, especially rye, barley, corn, and oats, and your taste perception changes: flavors are sharpened, more pronounced. It leads people to frequently say such things as “I used to hate Brussels sprouts, but now I love them.” Or “I can no longer eat fast food because of the excessive sugar, salt, and fake flavors.”

Removing the taste distortions of wheat and grains also sharpens your sensitivity to sweetness, making formerly tasty, sugary treats sickeningly sweet. Many find that candy bars, soda, or sugar in their coffee become intolerable, so cloyingly sweet that they are inedible or undrinkable.

Combine these alterations in taste perception with removal of the factors in wheat and grains that increased appetite, and those of us following the Wheat Belly lifestyle have no problem avoiding sweets: we lose our desire for them and they taste awful when we eat them, anyway.

So when people contemplating the Wheat Belly lifestyle declare “My problem is not wheat or grains—it’s sweets!” they are failing to understand the taste-altering and appetite-reducing benefits of banishing all wheat and grains from their lives. Having a persistent sweet tooth is distinctly uncommon after removing wheat and grains, though the effect may require several days to weeks to fully develop. The primary, driving problem is therefore not the sugars for most people; it’s the wheat and grains. Lose the wheat, lose the grains, lose the desire for sweets, even avoid them because of their excessive sweetness and synthetic feel.

I still recognize that an occasional lightly sweetened dessert or treat may be fun to have, or you need them to entertain company, enjoy a holiday dinner, or please the kids or grand kids—the social obligations you may have. This is why I provide the many recipes here, in our newsletter, and through the Wheat Belly Cookbooks. I learned years ago that have this occasional option for indulgences to navigate social situations increased adherence and satisfaction with this program without risking re-exposure to the awful effects of wheat and grains.

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The fatal folly of low-fat diets

Look for dietary advice from the likes of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Dietary Guidelines for Americans, or just any other “official” source of dietary advice, and you will see a striking uniformity in the details: reduce dietary cholesterol; reduced total and saturated fat intake; increase grain consumption, preferably whole grains; sugar and soft drinks in moderation, don’t sweat the fructose.

It is now clear that such advice was based on a handful of flawed studies, flawed interpretations of studies, combined with the efforts of several people who exercised personal agendas that allowed such advice to be codified and delivered through vehicles such as the USDA My Pyramid and My Plate. The last 30 years have borne out that such advice was not just ineffective, but wrong. Here is one such recent analysis, for instance, debunking the notion that reducing saturated fat reduces cardiovascular risk: it does not. (For excellent lay summaries of the history of blundering, demagoguery, and heavy muscle used to push through the low-fat agenda, see Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories, or Nina Teicholz’s The Big Fat Surprise. While the drama is entertaining reading, you will be shocked at how shallow the science was from the start, despite the firm convictions of an influential few.)

Despite these recent re-analyses, all such agencies continue to promote the idea that cutting total fat and saturated fat is necessary and beneficial for cardiovascular and overall health, even though diets, such as the American Diabetes Association diet, or the American Heart Association diet, have never been examined in a long-term clinical trial.

And we continue to see ignorance exercised in clinical studies, such as this recent study of low-fat vs. low-carb combined with calorie restriction for 5 days that caused many in the media to declare that either low-fat was superior for weight loss or that calories are the one real variable that count. They chose to ignore:

The overwhelming bulk of clinical data demonstrating that reduced carbohydrate consumption is superior for long-term weight loss and metabolic correction (reduction of blood sugar, insulin, HbA1c, small LDL particles, triglycerides, c-rective protein, postprandial lipoprotein metabolism)
Short-term effects represent a “honeymoon” effect that cannot be extrapolated to predict long-term effects
Calorie restriction, as used in this study, blurs the differences in macronutrient (low-fat, low-carb) intake–you cannot make any conclusions about differential weight loss effects, a blunder that plagues a number of such low-fat vs. low-carb studies.

It is also clear that such low-fat advice does not only NOT help reduce cardiovascular risk, but CAUSES metabolic distortions that INCREASE cardiovascular risk, since low-fat diets cause people to develop:

Lower HDL cholesterol, higher triglycerides, increased small LDL particles that persist for 7 days, rather than the 24 hours of large LDL particles
Exaggerated postprandial (after-meal) lipoproteins–such as chylomicrons and VLDL particles. This is a complex topic, but remember it by understanding that much coronary heart disease is caused during the after-eating period when such digestive byproducts flood the bloodstream, not while fasting.
Cause insulin resistance–due to repetitive high blood sugars of a low-fat, higher-carbohydrate diet.
Higher fasting glucose, higher after-meal glucose, higher HbA1c–the last parameter–higher HbA1c–is now widely recognized as a powerful predictor of cardiovascular events and death.
Greater inflammation–We see this every day in the Wheat Belly experience when body-wide inflammation recedes with the low-carb, grain-free approach.
Increase visceral fat and fatty liver–both of which magnify insulin resistance.

The low-fat era is slowly and quietly drawing to a close, despite nonsense studies like the 5-day study above and the appearance of a consensus among all such agencies. How do they retract advice that was so awfully, unscientifically, and tragically wrong? How do they retract such advice without incurring huge financial liability for the millions of people who developed type 2 diabetes, heart disease and heart attack, obesity, arthritis, cancer, dementia, and premature death from their advice? How do you maintain credibility and thereby continue to receive donations from the public, from Big Food, and Big Pharma? You can begin to appreciate their dilemma, one that we will like never hear any apologies about.

Just don’t you fall for this enormous, systematic blunder. Instead, enjoy astounding health, youthfulness, flexibility, weight loss, and metabolic health because you now understand that diet—when managed properly—can be amazingly effective.

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No grainer brainer

Among the most fascinating–and crippling–of the consequences of wheat and grains on the foolhardy humans who consume them are the brain and mind effects. The myriad forms these take are truly–can’t help it!–mind-boggling.

Some recent comments shared by people on the Wheat Belly lifestyle:

Lori: “Less foggy. Sleep better. More energy.”

Jari: “Concentration and mood are great. I’m never upset and I’m supercalm. Energy levels up and creative as hell!”

Linda: “Almost can’t believe it, but my memory is better. Also, my concentration. At almost age 60, this is a BIG deal!”

The brain/mind effects of wheat and grain consumption can be broken down into several categories:

Transient, reversible effects from gliadin-derived opioid peptides
Autoimmune destruction of brain/nervous system tissue via gliadin-activated autoimmunity (partially reversible)
Irreversible endogenous glycation via the high blood sugars resulting from amylopectin A grain starches

Followers of the Wheat Belly discussions understand that gliadin-derived opioid peptides (“opiates”) exert effects that vary depending on individual susceptibility. In kids with ADHD or autistic spectrum disorder, for example, they cause behavioral outbursts and further abbreviate an already-abbreviated attention span. In people with paranoid schizophrenia, they can worsen paranoia (“John is trying to kill me”) and cause auditory hallucinations (“Jesus is talking to me through the television”). In people with bipolar illness, it can magnify the severity or trigger the mania, or “up” phase. In people prone to depression, it can trigger depression, deeper depression, and suicidal thoughts (“I have to fight the impulse to drive into oncoming traffic” is a common one in grain-eaters). Others experience anxiety, phobias, and insomnia or disrupted sleep. In people without these conditions, gliadin-derived opiates trigger mind “fog” and appetite, especially appetite for junk carbs like chips, pizza, and candy. These effects are largely transient (meaning hours to days) and reversible–they recede with avoiding wheat and grains, though the opiate withdrawal syndrome will kick in for a week. (These effects make you wonder if there are many other forms of behavioral effects possible. I wonder, for instance, how often criminal behavior is unleashed or worsened by wheat/grains, or people with personality disorders, especially sociopaths, are compelled to do bad things. This raises some very trouble social issues, as such people are often incredibly also wheat/grain-dependent because of low-cost, availability, fast food, and may actually like the gliadin-derived opiate effects. Wheat products are a staple in prisons and mental health hospitals.)

Less reversible or even irreversible brain effects are less common though very important, as they represent conditions that are 100% avoidable or preventable with wheat/grain elimination. As with opiate effects, these also take on myriad forms, depending on genetic susceptibility and what part of the brain is involved. If the temporal lobe is involved (and often visible as an area of abnormal calcium deposition in the temporal lobe of the brain), temporal lobe seizures can result, a peculiar form of seizure that can involve odd, inappropriate, repetitive behaviors for which the sufferer has no awareness, such as staring off into space while lip-smacking. Many, if not most, cases of temporal lobe seizure reverse with wheat/grain elimination. Other forms of seizure, such as grand mal seizures, can also recede, though less commonly. (My friend and Wheat Belly supporter, psychologist Dr. Wayne Dyer, reported that his wife’s weekly adult-onset grand mal seizures, or at least weekly premonitory warnings, disappeared entirely with wheat/grain elimination.) If the cerebral hemispheres are involved, a rapidly lethal form of dementia, dubbed “gluten encephalopathy” by the Mayo Clinic research team who first identified this condition (most diagnoses made at autopsy–not a good method of diagnosis in my book), can result, with onset of symptoms to death occurring in about 2 years–an unusually rapid form of dementia. Nobody yet knows if the rapidly-progressive gluten encephalopathy is reversible. Both paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar illness may, in addition  to the gliadin-derived opiate effects, have some aspects triggered by an autoimmune response, as subsets of people with these conditions have higher likelihood of antibodies against gliadin (and thereby brain structures such as those containing the synapsin protein, a gliadin lookalike). Schizophrenia and bipolar illness do not go away with this lifestyle, but become less difficult, more manageable.

Endogenous glycation, i.e., glucose-modification of proteins that occurs within the body (as opposed to exogenous glycation/lipoxidation that is a byproduct of high-temperature cooking of certain foods such as French fries and meats), is irreversible. While the science remains preliminary, endogenous glycation is looking like a major player in senile dementia, accounting for the label “type 3 diabetes” some people have assigned it, meaning that glycation occurs at an accelerated rate when blood sugars range above normal—which they virtually always do after consuming wheat and grains, whole or white. And glycation is irreversible, as humans have no enzymatic mechanism to break down the glycated protein debris that physically accumulates. The inflammation triggered by gliadin-derived peptides, wheat germ agglutinin, and the collection of allergenic proteins such as serpins, thioreductases, gamma gliadins, and alpha amylase inhibitors, as well as the inflammatory mediators that derive from the visceral fat of the “wheat belly,” all impact brain health, as well, likely making another contribution to long-term risk for dementia.

All this—depression, suicidal thoughts, impulsivity, problem behaviors, seizures, dementia—from consuming foods that dietitians, most doctors, the USDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, etc. all urge us to eat more of, have at every meal, every day. Are you grasping the enormity of the blunder they’ve all made?

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Anne enjoying life again on the Wheat Belly lifestyle

Anne shared her 15-month Wheat Belly experience and photos:

“I have not been on the web often because I am out enjoying life more. No longer diabetic! I have lost 84 pounds in the last 15 months. I truly know that Dr. Davis and his books saved my life. I am no longer suicidal, either. My highest weight was 323 lbs, now I am 238 and I’m still losing!

“I look better now than in my 20’s.”

Wow. Anne began this journey with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and entertaining thoughts of suicide. And now she’s losing weight without effort, no longer diabetic, and has lost suicidal thoughts—a truly profound collection of changes.

And the changes Anne perceived, of course, as profound as they are, reflect only the surface changes; plenty more happens beneath the surface: receding inflammation (that you can even track with values such as c-reactive protein); dropping insulin levels that permit weight loss; reduced estrogen levels (from previously high levels that represented a risk for breast cancer); reduced blood pressure and thereby reduced risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease; reduced weight/inflammatory stress on joints and cartilage; improved nutritional status with higher levels of iron, zinc, magnesium, and calcium; reduced endogenous glycation that reduces potential for cataracts, heart disease, cancer, and dementia; reduced disruption of gastrointestinal health that permits the restoration of healthy bowel flora.

Removing grains is not “removing an entire food group,” as our dietitian critics like to say. It is removing a class of food that should never have been incorporated into the human dietary experience in the first place, with their adverse health consequences magnified by changes introduced by agribusiness. In some ways, I am grateful that the blundering of geneticists and agribusiness made wheat/grain matters worse, because it brought the issue to our attention. Perhaps had they not altered wheat and grains so profoundly, we would have continued to accept the previously lesser rates of obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disease, diseases of mental health, inflammation, and gastrointestinal disruption as just part of the natural human experience.

It explains why someone like Anne, struggling with very serious health conditions, can watch them all dissolve with this simple change in dietary habits. And doesn’t she also look terrific? As we see over and over again in our wheat/grain-free people, note the change in her eyes and cheeks that reflect receding inflammation.

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Wheat and hunger

Pauline read the recent Wheat Belly Blog post, the Top 5 Reasons You Still Have Cravings and shared her perspective:



“Everything you say is true, Dr. Davis. I’ve been following your advice for the last 18 months and it’s taken this long to get my gut right.

“I always know when I’ve inadvertently eaten something containing wheat, generally when I’m eating out with friends. It’s an almost instantaneous increase in hunger, making me go looking for something carb/sugary to eat a few hours later. It also causes gut and joint pain that comes within 24 hours.

“Other than that, I can go all day without food and no sugar crashes. I eat because food tastes so good now. I made a yummy chicken and vegetable curry with cauliflower ‘rice’ last night, so good and I had a second small serving. I’m still not hungry 14 hours later and will now wait until I get hungry before I eat again.

“Before Wheat Belly, I used to eat compulsively every few hours—bread, cracker biscuits, cakes. etc. I was hungry all the time. Now that the wheat and other grains are gone, I get hungry normally—when my stomach is empty, and not the gliadin-driven mess I was before.”

Wheat and closely related grains trigger hunger, often to extreme degrees, because:

Gliadin-derived peptides act as opiates on the human brain–It’s been known for over a century that opiate drugs like morphine increase appetite, an effect shared by gliadin-derived peptides that, like opiate drugs, bind to the opiate receptors of the brain. Susceptibility to this effect varies from individual to individual, but can be responsible for massive increases in appetite in some people. People with a tendency towards bulimia and binge-eating disorder are especially susceptible, experiencing 24-hour-a-day food obsessions.
Gliadin-derived peptides block leptin–Leptin is the hormone of satiety that tells you that you’ve had enough to eat. Gliadin-derived peptides, in addition to their opiate effects, also block leptin, thereby disabling the fullness signal. Wheat germ agglutinin, the lectin protein of wheat, rye, barley, and rice, is also suspected to exert a similar effect.
Amylopectin A raises blood sugar to high levels–Because of its highly digestible nature (unlike the indigestible or only partially digestible proteins from grains), amylopectin A starch of wheat and grains is a potent trigger for high blood sugar and insulin. High blood sugar and insulin are followed by low blood sugars, accompanied by mental “fog,” fatigue, anxiety, and a desperate feeling of hunger occurring in 90-120 minute cycles.

Put it all together: wheat and related grains are potent appetite stimulants and obesogens–foods that make you fat. To make matters worse, we are advised by “official” sources of dietary information to include grains in every meal and food manufacturers put wheat into nearly all processed foods from licorice to chicken soup. Wheat and grains for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, for snacks–is it any wonder Americans consume more food per capita than any other nation on this planet and are now the fattest population in the history of the world?

The bright side of all this is that, if you recognize these essential facts, you are set free from the incessant hunger and quest for food of the wheat/grain-eater, enjoying extended periods with no thought of food whatsoever just like Pauline, hunger just a soft reminder that you should eat for sustenance.

 

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