William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 132

Joan provides a lesson in wheat/grain withdrawal

Joan reminds us of an extremely important aspect of our wheat- and grain-free lifestyle: the need to correct common distortions of bowel flora.

Wheat and grains are known to disrupt gastrointestinal health causing, for instance, impaired gallbladder release of bile, impaired pancreatic release of digestive enzymes, damage to stomach parietal cells that produce acid, exert direct toxic effects via gliadin-derived peptides, wheat germ agglutinin, and others. Combine grain consumption with exposure to such things as intermittent antibiotic use, antibiotic residues in meats, sweeteners such as aspartame, perhaps chlorinated drinking water, and many others, candida and other undesirable species multiply and create an entire collection of health problems of their own, called dysbiosis or, if ascending up the small intestine, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Joan clearly starts her Wheat Belly transformation with such a bowel health disruption underway:

“These are my comparison photos after six months grain-free.

“The first two months in January-February were the hardest. When eliminating grains and sugar, I did not instantly feel fantastic like many others report. Instead, I felt miserable. Luckily for me, I realized I was experiencing candida die-off (nausea, fatigue, brain fog, aches, and insomnia). Once I got through it, I slowly lost some weight (15 pounds to date), and slowly my energy increased.

“People should understand that weight loss and improvements are not always instantaneous. If they feel worse in the beginning, it could be a good thing. I just kept plugging away, day by day, because I knew going back to my old way of eating wasn’t an option. The bonus: when seasonal allergy time rolled around in April, I breezed through with very minor, if any, symptoms!”

Joan’s reference to candida simply means that this fungus is one of the undesirable microorganisms that we all have in our bodies and gastrointestinal tract that is allowed to proliferate to high levels. As healthy microorganisms are suppressed by wheat/grain consumption and all the other factors listed above, undesirable pathogenic (disease-causing) species are allowed to take over.

When you begin the Wheat Belly lifestyle in which we remove the bowel flora disruptive effects of wheat and grains, while raising awareness of the other factors that disrupt this community, it provides a terrific opportunity to re-establish a better population of bowel flora. This is why I compare your bowel flora with having a spring garden in which you must plant “seeds”–probiotics and fermented foods–and “water and fertilize” your seeds–nourish the preferred species with prebiotic fibers/resistant starches. Joan was unaware of this aspect of the Wheat Belly formula and did it the old fashioned way: grin and bear it and hope for a gradual return to healthier bowel flora.

Joan now understands that our efforts to cultivate healthy bowel flora would have abbreviated her period of post-wheat/grain misery. It is not too late: As she may not have staged a full natural recovery of healthy bowel flora, there is still great value in introducing the “garden”-cultivating strategies even after she has enjoyed many health benefits. But she still looks terrific, doesn’t she?

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In pursuit of sweetness: an updated list of Wheat Belly safe sweeteners

In our wheat-free lifestyle, having an occasional sweet indulgence can be nice. Recipes such as cheesecake or cookies, for instance, require some amount of sweetener. So how can we choose our sweeteners and minimize adverse physiologic consequences? Understanding the use of these benign sweeteners can be especially helpful for holiday cooking, entertaining family and friends, keeping the kids happy, as well as for enjoying an occasional indulgence. (Surely you’ve tried my Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake!)

Choose sucrose (common table sugar) and we are exposed to the 50% fructose contained in the glucose:fructose molecule. Fructose is so awful at so many points in metabolism that it is worth absolutely minimizing. This is why we banish sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, agave, and minimize honey and maple syrup. We also avoid the sugar alcohols sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol, and mannitol; they cause vigorous rises in blood sugar and provocation of small LDL particles, not to mention gas and diarrhea. Beware of the common usage of these sugar alcohol sweeteners in “sugar-free” ice cream and frozen yogurt, and sugar-free candy.

There are several good choices among benign sweeteners, but navigating among them can be confusing. You should be aware that non-nutritive and otherwise benign sweeteners, due to their sweetness, have the potential to increase appetite. Use these sweeteners sparingly, adding only enough to make your recipe slightly and pleasantly sweet. Also, recall that the majority of people who are wheat- and grain-free experience heightened sensitivity to sweetness and the need for sweeteners of any sort diminishes over time and only modest amounts are needed.

More recently, sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose (Splenda) have been shown to introduce unhealthy changes into bowel flora that can contribute to insulin resistance, so these sweeteners are on the “avoid” list.

Here is my list of sweeteners that have proven to be benign and can be used in the Wheat Belly and other healthy wheat/grain-free recipes:

Stevia and rebiana

While stevia has been around in the U.S. for decades as a “nutritional supplement,” it recently received a boost into mainstream use with the FDA’s “Generally Recognized As Safe,” or GRAS, designation in 2008 for its rebaudioside component, also known as rebiana. Stevia plants are naturally sweet, often called “sweet leaf.” Some people grow the plants and chew the leaves for their sweetness or add the leaves to recipes.

Stevia is widely available as powdered and liquid extracts that, in addition to the rebiana, have the other sweet components of the stevia leaf. But be careful: Many of the powdered extracts are made with maltodextrin to add volume or to mimic the look and feel of sugar. Maltodextrin is a polymer of glucose produced from corn or wheat. The maltodextrin may therefore represent a potential source of wheat gluten exposure for people who are extremely sensitive, as well as a source of sugar, since it is essentially a chain of glucose molecules. Stevia in the Raw is one such brand made with maltodextrin that we avoid. Ideally, use stevia extracts that are pure liquid or powdered stevia or made with inulin that can contribute to positive prebiotic fiber effects on bowel flora.

Liquid stevia extracts are highly concentrated with little else but stevia and water. The quantity required to equal the sweetness of sugar varies from brand to brand. The SweetLeaf brand, for instance, claims that two drops of their Stevia Clear extract equals one teaspoon of sugar, while some other brands require five drops for equivalent sweetness.

Some people experience an unpleasant aftertaste with stevia. If you experience this, you can reduce this effect by combining sweeteners, e.g., stevia + monkfruit, or stevia + erythritol, of purchase a pre-mixed product (listed below).

Monkfruit (lo han guo)

Monkfruit is a relatively newcomer. Like stevia, it is a natural product obtained from a fruit that grows in China and Thailand, causing it to be available in only limited supplies. Of all the sweeteners, this is the one that, to my palate, provides the nicest level of sweetness without the aftertaste that some people experience with stevia. I’ve been using a liquid extract that bears the Skinny Girl label, $2.99 at a mainstream grocery store. I’ve used it in a variety of ways and have not encountered any negative aspects in flavor, baking, etc.

Monkfruit has been studied extensively and no adverse effects have been identified.

Erythritol

Erythritol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol, i.e., a carbohydrate with an OH group attached and thereby labeled an alcohol, though it has nothing to do with ethanol. It is found in gram quantities in fruit. In commercial production, erythritol is produced from glucose with a process using yeast. Some brands are sourced from corn; you should be aware of this in case you experience an adverse effect that may be due to the small quantity of corn protein residues, though they should be negligible and not a concern for most of us. Also like xylitol (below), osmotic gas and bloating generally does not occur as it does with common sugar alcohols mannitol and sorbitol.

Over 80% of ingested erythritol is excreted in the urine, the remaining 20% metabolized by bacteria in the colon. For this reason, it yields no increase in blood sugar even with a “dose” of 15 teaspoons all at once. There are less than 1.6 calories per teaspoon in erythritol. Limited studies have demonstrated modest reductions blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c (a reflection of the previous 60 days’ blood sugar) in people with diabetes who use erythritol.

Erythritol is somewhat less sweet than table sugar. It also has a unique “cooling” sensation, similar to that of peppermint, though less intense. It may therefore confer a cooling sensation to your baked products. It also does not hold up in baking quite as well as stevia.

Xylitol

Xylitol, like erythritol, is a form of sugar alcohol but without the gastrointestinal effects like sorbitol (unless extreme quantities are used, which we do not). Xylitol is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. It is also produced by the human body as part of normal metabolism.

Teaspoon for teaspoon, xylitol is equivalent in sweetness to sucrose. It yields two thirds of the calories of sucrose and, because digestion occurs in the small intestine rather than the stomach, triggers a slower and less sharp rise in blood glucose than sucrose. Most people experience minimal rise in blood glucose with xylitol. In one study of slender young volunteers, for instance, six teaspoons of sucrose increased blood sugar by 36 mg/dl, while xylitol increased it 6 mg/dl. Interestingly, several studies have demonstrated positive health effects, including prevention of tooth decay and ear infections in children, both due to xylitol’s effects on inhibiting bacterial growth in the mouth.

Xylitol can be used interchangeably with sugar in recipes. It also has the least effect on changing baking characteristics. While traditionally produced from birch trees, more recent large scale production uses corn as its source. While I am no fan of corn, particularly genetically-modified corn, the purified xylitol, as with erythritol, likely does not provide substantial exposure to corn proteins. You should know that xylitol is toxic to dogs and they should not be allowed to ingest any at all.

Inulin

Inulin is available as a white powder. While classified as a fiber, it provides a mild sweetness while also providing a useful prebiotic fiber/resistant starch effect for cultivation of bowel flora. It is most useful as a sweetener when combined with another safe sweetener such as stevia or monkfruit.

There are also combinations of safe sweeteners that you can purchase. Among the best are:

Wheat-Free Market Sweetener–A combination of erythritol and monkfruit that uniquely yields sweetness 4-times that of sugar, meaning a little goes a long way.

Swerve–A combination of erythritol and inulin useful for baking.

Truvia–While I am not fond of the manufacturer (Cargill), this is a pretty good product, a combination of rebiana (from stevia) and erythritol.

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Janie, 2 sisters, and cousin are down 215 pounds

Janie is a regular on the Wheat Belly Facebook page, having joined the conversation with the release of the original Wheat Belly that upset the dietary community and made nutrition faculty break out their Tums.

She posted this impressive “before” and “after” comparison of her and her 2 sisters and a cousin, having lost an astounding 215 pounds over their 3 1/2 years of engaging in the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

“Many of you know that I started a way of eating called Wheat Belly over 3 and 1/2 years ago. At that time, my sisters and our cousin, Mickey, started it, too.

“The first one pictures the four of us at the port of San Diego before the three of us departed on a Panama Canal cruise in April of 2011. We all started Wheat Belly six months later.

“Now, here are the four of us 4 years and 3 months later. What you are seeing is a total weight loss of 215 pounds!”

Another photo of the 3 sisters at their Santa’s Texas Workshop Christmas shop:

In the “after” photos, these ladies are 4 years older, but they sure look like they’ve not aged a day—in fact, I believe they look like they’ve turned the clock back at least 10 years! Don’t they look terrific?

What I love especially about Janie’s experience is that she was able to do it with the comraderie and cooperation of her sisters and cousin, all of them experiencing dramatic weight loss and health benefits, while also enjoying the wonderful youth-regaining effect of this lifestyle.

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Wheat Belly is an anti-inflammatory lifestyle

Zheeta from the U.K. shared her 9-week facial change following the Wheat Belly lifestyle. This is a perfect example of what happens when you remove the inflammation provoked by wheat and grains. Putting aside the lighting differences in the “before” and “after,” there are obvious changes: less eye puffiness resulting in larger eyes, less edema (water retention and inflammation) in the cheeks and around the mouth.

While Zheeta doesn’t mention it, I will bet that she experienced relief from some other forms of inflammation, such as leg edema, joint stiffness and discomfort, and rough, red skin.

Remove wheat and its closely related seeds of grasses, and you remove powerful causes of body-wide inflammation. This reduces risk for diabetes, for coronary heart disease, for autoimmune diseases, for cancer, for Alzheimer’s dementia. Banish wheat gliadin, rye secalin, barley hordein, corn zein, oat avenin, as well as gliadin-derived peptides, omega-gliadin, wheat germ agglutinin, the blood sugar-insulin raising amylopectins, the wide collection of allergy-provoking proteins such as alpha amylase and trypsin inhibitors, and the hormonally-disrupting and bowel flora-disrupting effects they bring, and the complex web of metabolic responses we label “inflammation” recedes. You can witness this as dramatic drops in tests such as levels of c-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), interleukin-2, white blood cell count, and many others . . . as well as see it play out on the face of the happily wheat- and grain-free like Zheeta.

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Denise is not gluten-free—she’s grain-free!

Denise shared her photos and comments chronicling her first few weeks on the Wheat Belly lifestyle:

“In February when this first pic was taken, I had been just gluten-free for 2 weeks. My endocrinologist introduced me to Wheat Belly.

“The progress pictures are from today after strictly following Wheat Belly just for the past few weeks. Overall I’m down 21 pounds. I’ve lost 6 in the past 2 weeks! I have Hashimoto’s and am finally starting to have more energy and not feel as bloated.

“I’ve even got my husband on board (reluctantly) but, even though he hasn’t been as strict as I have with lunches, we can tell a difference in his face and belly!”

Thank goodness Denise figured out that just being gluten-free is not good enough–going grain-free is the answer. Her appearance has been transformed. Had we tracked metabolic blood markers, we would have witnessed equally impressive improvements in such measures as insulin, blood sugar, inflammatory markers, triglycerides, HDL, small LDL particles, and many others.

I feel kind of bad that I have been guilty of being critical of endocrinologists as a specialty, as I generally find them a close-minded, dogmatic, my-way-or-the-highway sorts of medical practitioners, the first to adhere tightly to the pharmaceutical script set for them by industry and to completely ignore issues of real health, certainly never trying to empower the individual in taking back control over personal health. But Denise found one of the exceptions: extraordinary! Maybe he’ll even address her T3 thyroid hormone without Denise having to insist on it!

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Wheat, Graham crackers, and lust

Wheat and grains, having been incorporated into the human dietary menu 10,000 years ago, is the subject of many trials, tribulations, and misadventures along the course of human life. Looking back with our enlightened view of diet, recognizing the enormous blunder we made as humans by incorporating such grasses as food, or at least the compromises we struck in order to fend off starvation, make for some entertaining stories. Here is an interesting piece of wheat history from the 19th century, a perfect example of the mix of truth and fiction that characterizes thinking about grains that continues even today.

Mr. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister from Connecticut, promoted the philosophy that bread should be made from unrefined flours without additives such as bleaching agents. Some of his early ideas were articulated in his 1837 book, Treatise on Bread, and Bread-Making (graphic above with full text posted by Google here.)

 

“Thousands in civic life will, for years, and perhaps as long as they live, eat the most miserable trash that can be imagined, in the form of bread, and never seem to think that they can possibly have anything better, not even that it is an evil to eat such vile stuff as they do.”

From Treatise on Bread, and Bread-Making

He advocated wearing loose-fitting clothing, taking frequent cold baths, was a student of phrenology (the practice of discerning character from the shape of the head), and promoted a diet of breads prepared by the Graham philosophy. He believed that many social evils of the first half of the 19th century got their root from excessive sexual urges, too frequent sexual intercourse, and masturbation, and urged the public to consume more of his unrefined Graham bread and crackers to subdue these urges. Such breads and crackers, bland and unsweetened unlike the modern sugared, mass-produced version sold today, became a dietary staple for many of Graham’s followers.

From what we now know, this was an impressive example of nutritional prescience. Mr. Graham was ahead of his time, recognizing the hormone-disrupting effects of wheat 150 years ago. We now know that eating plenty of grains (though “coarse” is now known to be every bit as bad as finely-ground or white and bleached) does indeed result in a range of hormonal effects that include:

Expansion of visceral fat that overexpresses the aromatase enzyme responsible for converting testosterone to estrogen.
Impaired libido in males and females due to lower testosterone, higher estrogen levels
Growth of breasts in both males and females–This causes man breasts in males, increased breast cancer risk in females. In addition to the visceral fat aromatase effect, this is worsened by the A5 pentapeptide derived from the gliadin protein of wheat that stimulates pituitary gland release of prolactin that causes growth of breast tissue.
Exaggeration of the phenomena associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)–Such as increased mustache hair, higher testosterone levels, higher blood insulin and blood sugar, and infertility.

Hoping to subdue excessive sexual urges, Graham managed to identify an important aspect of this peculiar, endlessly fascinating, but health-impairing thing called wheat. Though he may have been wrong about lust lying at the base of all human problems, or the practice of discerning personality from features of the head, he was absolutely correct in advocating the consumption of foods made of wheat as a means of suppressing sexual urges.

Ironically, the graham crackers of today that still bear his name are far from being unrefined and the stuff of abstinence. Nonetheless, Graham’s insight subsequently served as the inspiration for a huge wheat and grain empire, as it was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a disciple of Graham’s, who embraced both the perceived sanctity of grains, as well as the need to quell excessive sexual instincts in humans, and invented the anti-aphrodisiac of the 20th century: breakfast cereals.

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The New York Times makes a big, bad mistake

 

The New York Times ran a silly piece entitled The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten by journalist Moises Velasquez-Manoff, yet another defense of the “eat more healthy whole grain” status quo. I enjoy reading most pieces from the New York Times, but they blundered in published this piece of simple-minded tripe.

I keep on hoping that some of the critics of Wheat Belly finally get their facts straight so that we can actually have a meaningful debate on the issues. Mr. Velasquez-Manoff–as so many other journalists and paid authors before him–fails to deliver, instead providing a misguided, anemic discussion that makes no unique new arguments.

The author failed to do his homework and was completely unaware that gluten is just one wheat component amount dozens, if not hundreds, of factors in this grain that pose dangers to humans who consume them. Or, as appears to be happening quite frequently, this piece is meant to be diversionary, hoping to draw attention to this relatively limited issue of gluten while ignoring all the other issues, like arguing that tar is the only concern with cigarette smoking, misleading you to believe that low-tar cigarettes must therefore  be healthy. Take your pick but, either way, this piece is yet another in a long line of articles that, I believe, fail to acknowledge all the other issues that arise when human try to consume the seeds of grasses, i.e., “grains.”

He starts by drawing comparisons of wheat consumption with consumption of products from bovine mammary glands, i.e., dairy products, pointing out that humans have made genetic adaptations that allow them to consume the lactose sugar not just as breast-feeding infants, but as adults, so why not similar adaptations to consuming grains? He makes the crucial point that consumption of the product of mammary glands is not foreign to humans: after all, we are mammals meant to consume such a food, at least as infants. So the adaptation of one gene in some populations of the world to the persistence of the lactase enzyme is a relatively modest, single change in gene expression that can indeed develop within a few thousand years to accommodate to a sugar that we all as infants were able to digest.

He neglects, however, to mention all the other factors in dairy products that humans have not fully adapted to, such as forms of the casein protein (casein beta A1) that have been linked to autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes in children–for which there have been no such adaptations.

Unlike the consumption of the products of mammary glands, there is no such precedent in the consumption of the seeds of grasses. Humans added grains less than 1/2 of 1% of our time on earth, a mere blink of the eye in evolutionary time. The seeds of grasses were never instinctively viewed as food by hungry humans until we watched the ruminants we domesticated eating them–but never before. Nonetheless, there have been limited genetic adaptations in an “effort” (my apologies to those of you aware of teleology) to adapt to the consumption of the seeds of grasses. One such adaptation is the gene variant for hemochromatosis. Modern people with one such variant gene absorb excess iron and must donate blood every few months to reduce the excessive quantity of red blood cells that result. People with two such gene variants are at considerable risk for blood clotting and liver failure. Anthropologists believe (via gene mapping studies) that this gene variant appeared 6000 years ago in people of Northern European descent to adapt to increased consumption of wheat and grains, exposing them to grain phytates that are potent blockers of iron absorption, a gene now carried by approximately 7-8% of people with those origins.

Because wheat and grains are also rich in the amylopectin carbohydrate, explaining why they raise blood sugar so enthusiastically, it is also believed that grain consuming populations have also acquired more copies of the AMY1 gene for the amylase enzyme, making them better able to tolerate the carbohydrate load. There may also be a handful of genes that help protect against the development of diabetes (though we’ve got to question the value of these variants given the epidemic of diabetes and pre-diabetes now engulfing two-thirds of the North American population).

But that’s it. There are plenty of other components of wheat and grains for which we have no adaptations. What about tolerance to those phytates in the other 90% of people who continue to have iron, zinc, magnesium, and calcium absorption blocked? What about tolerance for the people who are susceptible to the mind and emotional effects of the gliadin protein that cause paranoia in schizophrenics, mania in people with bipolar illness, behavioral outbursts and abbreviated attention spans in kids with ADHD and autistic spectrum disorder, or 24-hour-a-day food obsessions in people with bulimia and binge eating disorder? What about adaptation to the central nervous system damage inflicted by the gliadin protein that is responsible for deterioration of the cerebellum resulting in cerebellar ataxia, or peripheral neuropathy (50% of unexplained peripheral neuropathies have now been associated with wheat gliadin), or temporal lobe calcification that results in “absence” seizures, or the recently described “gluten encephalathy,” i..e, dementia from wheat? How about majority of people who, regardless of number of AMY1 genes, still experience high blood sugars from wheat and grain consumption? How about the direct gastrointestinal toxicity of wheat germ agglutinin and the endocrine disruptive and inflammatory effects it exerts when absorbed in microgram quantities? What about adaptation to common wheat and grain allergies manifested as skin rashes, asthma, and gastrointestinal distress?

I could go on, but I believe  you get the point: adaptation to components of wheat and grains, plants that were never instinctively viewed as food by humans until the practice was inspired by observing the behavior of ruminants with their unique adaptations that allow them to eat grasses, is limited at best. There are simply too many other damaging components in wheat and grains that would require hundreds of thousands of years to even begin to approach something close to full adaptation. In the meantime, we experience an astounding amount of diabetes, autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal conditions, psychiatric and neurological conditions from this crazed and misguided notion of consuming the seeds of grasses ad lib.

And to accuse the “gluten haters” of claiming that the gluten content of wheat has increased is silly. I certainly never made that claim . . . because it’s not true. There have been no substantial changes in the quantity of this one protein, gluten, in modern compared to traditional strains of wheat. But recall that the structure of the gliadin protein within gluten was changed by geneticists and agribusiness: the gliadin proteins of the 21st century are not the gliadin proteins of even 1960–they are quite different, as are hundreds of other wheat and grain proteins. Adaptation or no, humans have been introducing their own collection of unique changes into gliadin and hundreds of other wheat proteins faster than any human can adapt to those changes. Traditional forms of wheat and grains have been problematic for humans for as long as we have consumed them, in desperation or in celebration–but it was all made worse when agribusiness and geneticists got into the business of introducing their own collection of alterations.

Mr. Velasquez-Manoff concludes with an argument that I would agree with: that the human microbiome has changed and that it likely underlies a multitude of health problems. But he fails to acknowledge the science (summarized in Wheat Belly Total Health) that documents that at least some of the changes in the human microbiome, oral and gastrointestinal, have been tracked back to grain consumption. There is more to the modern epidemic of dysbiotic microorganisms than grains, but grains are the prototypical disrupter of this crucial component of human-bacterial symbiosis.

In short, the author makes a few empty assertions, fails to acknowledge the bulk of evidence documenting the enormous destructive potential of grains, ignores the newest changes introduced by agribusiness into wheat and other grains (what about genetically-modified corn?), and concludes that there’s nothing to worry about. Go back to your books, Mr. V-M, because you clearly failed to even scratch the surface of the issues, despite the audacity to have it published in the New York Times. Shameful, truly shameful.

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Wheat Belly safe thickeners

In the Wheat Belly lifestyle, we’ve removed all the standard gravy and sauce thickeners from our kitchen shelves: no wheat flour or cornstarch, despite their widespread use in culinary practices. Even though cornstarch is mostly amylose/amylopectin carbohydrates, there are zein protein and other protein residues that are problematic in a grain-free lifestyle, not to mention the excessive carbs, as well.

But, when looking for alternative ingredients to use as thickeners, it would be silly to replace one problem ingredient with another problem ingredient, like replacing unfiltered cigarettes with low-tar cigarettes–not a good switch. Oat flour, rice flour, or other grain flours would not be good replacement choices, as they all share high carbohydrate content and proteins that can mimic some of the effects of wheat gliadin, such as triggering autoimmune inflammation and appetite-stimulation.

Here are my top choices for safe thickeners (in no particular order):

Coconut flour–Coconut flour makes a great roux or gravy. The key is to add slowly and sparingly while heated at low temperature, e.g., low simmer in a saucepan, stirring in one teaspoon every minute or so. Much more so than conventional thickeners, coconut flour is very hygroscopic, or water-absorbent, and impatience can lead to a pan of concrete rather than a nicely thickened gravy. If any coconut flavor shows through, it is easily concealed by adding some sea salt, ground pepper, onion powder, ground thyme or other ground seasonings. The end-product will be a bit more gritty than that made with cornstarch or wheat flour (because of protein and fat content), but the flavor will be wonderful, especially if drippings or homemade stocks are used.
Butter–Dairy does not figure prominently in the Wheat Belly lifestyle, as there are issues with hormone content, whey, some forms of casein, as well as lactose. But butter, especially if organic, is among the least problematic, since it is mostly fat. Because the Wheat Belly lifestyle does not involve any restrictions on fat, saturated fat, or calories, you can go to town with butter and enjoy its rich flavors and ability to thicken. As your taste sensitivity heightens the longer you are wheat- and grain-free, however, making formerly tasty sweets sickeningly sweet, you may find that butter is a bit too sweet and may need to cut back for that reason (but not to limit fat or calories).
Heavy cream–Not my first choice due to the above mentioned reservations about dairy products that contain more than dairy fat. But, for occasional use, it is a versatile and delicious thickener. You can also add egg yolk for a liason for added richness (but kept below boiling temperature to avoid coagulating the egg yolk), just as you would in traditional French cooking.
Pureed eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, pumpkin, squash–Just be mindful of your carbohydrate exposure with the higher carb choices such as squash. I love these for soups, in particular. Zucchini is the easiest and safest choice for most dishes, both sweet and savory.
Okra–Unlike other veggies, okra does not have to be pureed, but can be added to, say, gumbo, as it cooks on the stove and will yield a wonderful thickening effect that avoids the use of traditional cornstarch or wheat flour.
Nut butters–Aside from peanut butter in Thai dishes, I find these more useful for thickening non-savory dishes, such as a smoothie.
Avocado–In addition to nut butters, avocado is a marvelous thickening agent for smoothies and puddings.
Chia, ground golden flaxseed–These are best reserved for thickening puddings, jams, and smoothies as they tend to yield a not-so-desirable gooey texture you may not like for, say, a gravy. Chia, however, does make a wonderful thickener for jams or preserves (several every easy recipes in the Wheat Belly 30-Minute Cookbook).

Arrowroot, is a non-grain choice but is virtually pure carbohydrate. If used in more than the most minor quantities, it can spike blood sugar and yields other health problems, so go very lightly with this thickener.

There you go: a fairly wide choice of healthy thickeners that can accommodate any cooking need you may encounter, whether it’s a rich roux for a roast, gravy for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or green smoothie or raspberry jam, all while avoiding all the health impairment presented by traditional thickeners.

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The freedom of the Wheat Belly lifestyle

Zeffrey posted this wonderful description of the relief he has obtained from a number of chronic conditions by removing the inflammatory, allergic, bowel-disrupting, and mind-controlling factors that come from wheat and grains:

“To me wheat-free is to breathe free. No more stuffy and running nose. Relief from just these two issues alone saved me a lot of money–no more boxes of facial tissues, no more antihistamines: Dayquil, Nyquil, Benadryl and the ‘so you can sleep’ pills and all the other cold symptom remedies that I have used over the years.

“To me wheat-free is to live food craving-free. I am no longer a slave to the food cravings and the set timings to eat food. I do not desire food anymore or to eat at any particular time of the day. The words breakfast, lunch and dinner are meaningless and annoying.

“To me wheat-free is restroom-free. I no longer have to deal with bowel urgency. The bowels are no longer in charge, I control them now.

“Thanks to the wheat-free and grain-free diet, which I followed 100% from 06/02/2014, I have experienced many more health benefits in addition to the above. I have no more skin rashes or itching, gout-like symptoms, sugar levels are down to pre-diabetic levels, good cholesterol is up and bad cholesterol is down, small-LDL is low. I sleep well without the need for ‘so you can sleep’ medications. I can now mow the lawn without wearing a protective mask. The grass pollen no longer triggers the allergies that I have suffered over 25 years.

“My doctor says, ‘I am betting on a new horse.’ Well this new horse is winning the race. If the new horse allows me to die of old age and not from complications of a disease, I am all for it.”

Zeffrey makes no mention of weight loss. Some people view the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle as nothing more than reducing carbs or calories. But a reduction in either would not provide relief from allergies (due to omega gliadins, glutenins, alpha amylase and trypsin inhibitors, serpins, thioreductases, and others), incessant hunger (gliadin-derived opioid peptides), bowel urgency (gliadin-derived peptides and wheat germ agglutinin), skin rashes (intact gliadin inducing abnormal intestinal permeability). As those of you following the extraordinary experiences of people following the Wheat Belly lifestyle already know, weight loss can indeed be a big part of the life and health transformation of this lifestyle. But there is so much more to this lifestyle than just weight loss.

I love Zeffrey’s way of expressing the life and health transformation he has undergone: he has been “freed” of so many daily, chronic health problems, all created by eating the foods that we are all advised to eat every meal, every day, the more the better: wheat and related seeds of grasses that NO human is able to digest and process. Remove them and he reverts back to the healthy guy he should have been all along, no longer reliant on symptom remedies and treatments that never addressed the real cause.

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The secrets hidden in your triglyceride value

I’ve previously discussed how you can send your HDL cholesterol on a standard cholesterol/lipid panel through the roof, signaling great changes in health and longevity. Let’s now discuss another often neglected value from the same panel, triglycerides. In my HDL post, I related how, in my own personal experience, I raised my HDL from 27 mg/dl to 94 mg/dl, while reducing my triglycerides from 350 mg/dl to 47 mg/dl. Plenty more people have done likewise following the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

This single triglyceride value holds a ton of useful information. It is surprising that, given the conventional practice to focus only on total cholesterol (generally useless) or the calculated–not measured–LDL cholesterol value that is wildly inaccurate, the world of useful health information captured by the triglyceride value is typically ignored. So let’s talk about what you can learn from this value.

Among the keys to understanding triglycerides are several basic facts:

Triglyceride blood levels go up from fat consumption (since fats are triglycerides by definition), but carbohydrates are converted by the liver (de novo lipogenesis) to triglycerides. Carbohydrates make a much larger contribution to fasting and after-meal triglycerides than fats in the majority of people.
Triglycerides are stored in human fat cells, but are very active. Fat therefore serves as an active repository, constantly releasing triglycerides back into the bloodstream. This is part of the reason why overweight people have high triglyceride levels.
Most triglycerides in the bloodstream are contained within particles called very low-density lipoproteins, or VLDL. Triglyceride-packed VLDL particles  interact with other lipoprotein particles, especially LDL particles and HDL particles, contributing triglycerides to them. Triglyceride-enriched LDL and HDL particles go through changes that make them much smaller in size and change their behavior. Small LDL particles, in particular, are uncommonly persistent in the bloodstream (5-7 days, rather than the 24 hours of large LDL particles), are very adherent to artery tissue, and more inflammatory. Triglyceride-enriched HDL loses much of its protective capacity and is cleared from the bloodstream more quickly, resulting in a drop in total HDL cholesterol values.
Triglycerides from carbs and body fat, in turn, block insulin, raising blood sugar, and cause artery constriction/hypertension. This is why type 2 diabetics typically also have high triglycerides and hypertension, as well as high blood sugars.
Triglycerides manufactured by the liver do not all leave as VLDL particles, as some stay in the liver (for unclear reasons), causing low-grade liver damage reflected in common liver tests, such as AST and ALT; this is called fatty liver.

If you cut the fat in your diet while increasing grains and carbohydrates, the net effect will be a rise in triglycerides, sometimes substantial, from increased de novo lipogenesis. The increase in carbohydrate intake also grows visceral fat that, in turn, releases more triglycerides, sending them even higher. HDL levels drop, LDL particle number increases, especially of the small LDL variety, and linger longer. Over time, blood sugar goes up, blood pressure goes up, fatty liver begins to show—a very, very familiar scenario.

At what blood triglyceride level do these effects begin to kick in? 60 mg/dl (though this can vary from individual to individual). At a triglyceride level of 150 mg/dl, for instance, the level generally felt to be safe quoted in national guidelines, there is typically a substantial drop in HDL and its protective function, oodles of small LDL particles, and insulin and blood pressure effects–150 mg/dl is not ideal. It is also clear from clinical studies that cardiovascular risk of heart attack begins to rise even with triglyceride levels in the 80-90 mg/dl range.

So how can you drop triglycerides substantially, even achieving values of 40 or 50 mg/dl, as is common around here. Easy:

Eat no wheat or other grains
Manage carbohydrates–I advocate consuming no more than 15 grams net carbs per meal
Supplement omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, from fish oil only–never krill, not flaxseed or chia. The dose is 3600 mg EPA + DHA (total) per day, divided into two doses.
Manage bowel flora–Feeding and cultivating bowel flora with prebiotic fibers/resistant starches drop triglycerides even further.

Do the above and visceral fat begins to shrink, also. In other words, follow the Wheat Belly lifestyle and triglycerides–as well as so many other health phenomena–all fall into place. I’ve used this formula many times in both face-to-face patients, as well, and watched triglycerides plummet. I virtually never had to use any drugs to achieve triglyceride values of 60 mg/dl or less.

And don’t forget that, in the midst of active weight loss and for several weeks afterwards, triglycerides can be higher than desirable, dropping after weight loss has subsided.

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