William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 138

Connie’s 4-month Wheat Belly transformation

Connie shared her “before” and 4-month “after” photos following the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle.

You’re likely able to identify the changes we see: less facial edema, reduced puffiness around the eyes, larger appearing eyes.

Doesn’t Connie look terrific? But go to the mall or your nearest Walmart and you will see countless “befores,” puffy and edematous on the face while lugging around the characteristic big barrel of visceral fat around the waist.

We’ve still got plenty of educatin’ to do!

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Kristina a new woman on the Wheat Belly lifestyle!

Kristina shared her “before” and “after” Wheat Belly photos revealing a pretty astounding facial transformation, despite not being perfect on the program.

“I have been tempted and gotten off track too at times, have been doing Wheat Belly since August, 2014. I’m staying on this way of eating because it makes me feel great!”

Despite a less-than-perfect adhere to the lifestyle, I believe you will agree that Kristina has experienced a dramatic change in appearance, almost looking like another person. Notice in particular the reduction in facial edema and how her eyes appear larger.

Please don’t interpret Kristin’s wonderful success, however, to mean that you can do well by adhering to the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle, say, 6 days out of 7, or following it 90%. For most people, reduction but not elimination of wheat and grains really compromises success because of the long-lasting appetite-stimulating, inflammation-activating, and bowel flora-disrupting effects of grain components such as gliadin. For greatest chances of a genuinely successful health and weight transformation, 100% wheat/grain elimination is your goal. So I suspect that Kristina has actually adhered to the program quite less, though less than perfect by her own admission.

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Tom’s dramatic loss of abdominal fat

Tom shared his photos chronicling his Wheat Belly progress.

“On the left, October 2013. On the right, summer 2014. Thank you Wheat Belly!”

He also tells us that, since the second photo was taken, he has lost an additional 10 pounds.

While many people have bravely shared their Wheat Belly facial transformations, fewer people are bold enough to share their tummy transformations. Tom is among those courageous enough to show his waistline to us.

Tom is one of the people who, in following the Wheat Belly lifestyle, loses weight primarily from abdominal fat, meaning loss of visceral fat. Recall that visceral fat that encircles the abdominal organs (and heart as pericardial fat) is paralleled on the surface by a “muffin top” or “love handles.” Losing this fat is accompanied by some pretty astounding metabolic changes, including reduction in blood levels of insulin, glucose, triglycerides, c-reactive protein, blood pressure, and other measures. It means that Tom has likely reversed conditions such as pre-diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, “high cholesterol,” and multiple forms of gastrointestinal disruption.

So what were the critics saying about wheat/grain elimination being only helpful for people with celiac disease?

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The Wheat Belly lifestyle: The eyes tell the story

Rebecca shared her “before” and “after” photos, another terrific example of how appearance changes with this lifestyle.

“It has been almost a year on Wheat Belly, and down 30 lbs and several inches.”

Looking back over the many facial transformations people have shared, you will see that one of the recurring themes is larger eyes. With less facial edema and less around-the-eyes puffiness, the eyes appear larger and more prominent. It happens in women, it happens in men, it happens in the young, it happens in the not-so-young.

But remember: While we see the wonderful changes of wheat- and grainless living on the face and in the eyes, these are only the visible changes. They are paralleled by equally powerful changes in other body parts, especially the gastrointestinal tract. This is why acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), for example, disappear in the majority of people within the first week of saying goodbye to all grains.

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Jacek took a trip on the Wheat Belly time machine

Jacek shared his “before” and “after” photos after following the Wheat Belly lifestyle for 3 months in Poland. (Wheat Belly is now published in 33 countries and Poland is one of the countries in Europe where this message has caught fire.) He tells us that his weight is down 20 kg (44 pounds).

But just look at his physical transformation: Sure, he’s thinner, but you can readily see the vibrant, YOUNGER appearance he has taken on.

Weight loss alone does NOT do this. This is the result of removing the inflammatory components in wheat and grains that result in facial and body-wide edema (water retention), fatigue, joint stiffness, and the multitude of other phenomena that make us look–and feel–old and recede with wheat/grain elimination.

Jacek did not share his age, but I would venture a guess that his “before” age looks about late 40s, his “after” age early 30s. That is the power of the Wheat Belly lifestyle–in any part of the world.

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The battle for bowel flora

3d render illustration of colorful bacteriaThere is no longer any debate: the composition of bowel flora in the human gastrointestinal tract is a critical aspect of human health, both bowel health and overall health.

The status of bowel flora can spell the difference between having an autoimmune condition and not having an autoimmune condition, being diabetic or not being diabetic, being emotionally happy or not being happy, and developing colon cancer or not developing colon cancer. The composition of bowel flora and their ability to metabolize prebiotic fibers/resistant starches to butyrate and other fatty acids play important roles in insulin responses, nourishing and maintaining intestinal health, and intestinal permeability.

Problem: We are surrounded by factors that disrupt bowel flora, killing off beneficial species, reducing species diversity and allowing the proliferation of undesirable or pathogenic (disease-causing) species. Such disruptive factors can be in food, medications, and water. Being aware of such disruptive factors can begin your journey to regaining control over the health of your bowel flora.

Unfortunately, we cannot eliminate, only minimize, exposure to such factors. Our efforts to “seed” and cultivate healthy bowel flora can then have better chances for success.

Wheat and grain consumption–In addition to grain amylopectins that alter oral flora, the seeds of grasses contain multiple indigestible or only partially digestible proteins, such as wheat germ agglutinin and gliadin, that disrupt bowel health and digestion, thereby setting the stage for changes in bowel flora that have evolved over the 300 generations since humans made took this dietary detour.

Solution: eat no wheat or grains.

Antibiotic residues in factory farm-raised meats–Tetracycline, doxycycline, sulfonamides, and other antiobiotics, administered to livestock to accelerate growth and/or treat infections, can be encountered in most non-organic beef, chicken, and pork if the farmer allows the animal to be slaughtered before the recommended waiting period off antibiotics. (There is also the bigger problem of creating antiobiotic resistance with the agents used as growth accelerants.)

Solution: choose organic, free range meats whenever possible.

Chlorinated, fluoridated water–Despite the widespread addition of halogenated antibacterials in water, there are no clinical studies examining the bowel flora consequences of their ingestion. But, given their direct entry into the gastrointestinal tract and the potent antibacterial effects of chlorine, the more persistent chloramine, trihalomethanes that result from chlorine reactions, and fluoride, bowel flora effects are likely, particularly in the small intestine.

Solution: filter your water or drink water sources without added chloride and fluoride.

Bt toxin corn–We know that Bt toxin, a pesticide genetically engineered into corn, is absorbed by humans, such as pregnant mothers and fetuses and, if ingested, exerts damaging changes on the ileum. Bt toxin is regarded as among the more benign pesticides when applied to plants. But almost nothing is known about the effects of actual direct human ingestion of Bt toxin in the form of corn genetically modified to express Bt toxin, thereby yielding ingested pesticide in your sweet corn, grits, and taco shell. We know that Bt toxin has antimicrobial effects, as well, but unfortunately the logical and highly likely effects on the bowel flora of humans ingesting it have not been examined.

Solution: eat no corn.

Glyphosate and other herbicides/pesticides in food–While glyphosate in herbicides such as Roundup are promoted as being benign for human health, among the problems that are showing up in preliminary research are changes in bowel flora and in liver detoxification of environmental toxins. Glyphosate appears particularly lethal to beneficial bacterial species, while permitting proliferation of undesirable species. Glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals are ubiquitous, our exposure only reduced by relying on organic foods.

Solution: eat organic vegetables and fruits whenever possible, or grow them yourself.

Prescription antibiotics–An obvious connection, antibiotics have been prescribed fairly liberally for decades. Like many other facets of bowel flora issues, this practice has not been fully studied, but it is clear that bowel flora do not return to the their pre-treatment state and can have implications for a lifetime, such as increased potential for obesity and diabetes if administered to young children.

Solution: only take antibiotics when absolutely necessary but continue your probiotic/prebiotic program even while taking them.

Emulsifying agents–These common processed food ingredients (such as carboxymethylcellulose) that keep components from separating, have potential to change bowel flora and disrupt the protective mucous lining of the intestinal tract. This research remains preliminary but one with some very broad and concerning implications. Total avoidance is, however, not practical, as there are natural emulsifiers in otherwise healthy foods, such as eggs (due to lecithin) and mustard can have emulsifying properties.

Solution: minimize (absolute avoidance is tough) exposure to carboxymethylcellulose, polysorbate-80, sodium steroyl lactylate, carageenan, and others.

Prescription drugs—Acid reflux drugs and anti-inflammatory NSAIDS are among the drugs that, by altering intestinal pH, increasing intestinal permeability, and direct damage to the intestinal lining, change bowel flora. There are probably plenty of other prescription drugs that change bowel flora, but this is typically not an issue that is explored and very little data exist.

Solution: follow the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle, along with the nutritional supplements that make up for the deficiencies of modern life, such as vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium, and you will slash your need for drugs.

Artificial sweeteners–Specifically aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose modify bowel flora, helping explain why sugar-free soda drinkers are no more slender, perhaps heavier, than sugared soda drinkers.

Solution: avoid anything sweetened with aspartame, saccharine, or sucralose

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The Wheat Belly Facial Transformation Gallery

In case you’ve missed them, here is a compilation of many of the people who have posted their “before” and “after” photos that reflect the striking facial changes experienced with the Wheat Belly wheat/grain-free lifestyle.

You will see some common phenomena. Yes, people lose weight, but there are changes over and above that accounted for by weight loss, such as loss of cheek and along-the-nose redness (seborrhea), less facial edema that is especially evident around the eyes (the eyes thereby appear larger), and sharpening of facial contours. Facial changes are paralled by other health changes, especially reversal of gastrointestinal inflammation.

Just take a look at these wonderful transformations:

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Commercial prebiotic fiber supplements

Our efforts to obtain prebiotic fibers/resistant starches to cultivate healthy bowel flora means recreating the eating behavior of primitive humans who dug in the dirt with sticks and bone fragments for underground roots and tubers, behaviors you can still observe in hunter-gatherer groups, such as the Hadza and Yanomamo. But, because this practice is inconvenient for us modern folk accustomed to sleek grocery stores, because many of us live in climates where the ground is frozen much of the year, and we lack the wisdom passed from generation to generation that helps identify which roots and tubers are safe to eat and which are not, we rely on modern equivalents of primitive sources. Thus, green, unripe bananas, raw potatoes and other such fiber sources in the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

There is therefore no need to purchase prebiotic fibers outside of your daily effort at including an unripe green banana, say, or inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), or small servings of legumes as a means of cultivating healthy bowel flora.

HOWEVER, convenience can be a struggle. Traveling by plane, for example, makes lugging around green bananas or raw potatoes inconvenient. Inulin and FOS already come as powders or capsules and they are among the options for a convenient, portable prebiotic fiber strategy. But there are others that can be purchased. This is a more costly way to get your prebiotic fibers and you do not need to purchase these products in order to succeed in your bowel flora management program. These products are therefore listed strictly as a strategy for convenience.

Most perspectives on the quality of human bowel flora composition suggest that diversity is an important feature, i.e., the greater the number of species, the better the health of the host. There may therefore be advantage in varying your prebiotic routine, e.g., green banana on Monday, inulin on Tuesday, PGX on Wednesday, etc. Beyond providing convenience, these products may introduce an added level of diversity, as well.

Among the preparations available to us that can be used as prebiotic fibers:

PGX–While it is billed as a weight management and blood sugar-reducing product, the naturally occurring fiber–α-D-glucurono-α-D-manno-β-D-manno- β-D-gluco, α-L-gulurono-β-D mannurono, β-D-gluco-β- D-mannan–in PGX also exerts prebiotic effects (evidenced by increased fecal butyrate, the beneficial end-product of bacterial metabolism). PGX is available as capsules or granules. It also seems to exert prebiotic effects at lower doses than other prebiotic fibers. While I usually advise reaching 20 grams per day of fiber, PGX appears to exert substantial effects at a daily dose of half that. As with all prebiotic fibers, it is best to build up slowly over weeks, e.g., start at 1.5 grams twice per day. It is also best taken in two or three divided doses. (Avoid the PGX bars, as they are too carb-rich for those of us trying to achieve ideal metaobolic health.)

Prebiotin–A combination of inulin and FOS available as powders and in portable Stick Pacs (2 gram and 4 gram packs). Quite costly, given the generally low cost of purchasing chicory inulin and FOS separately.

AcaciaAcacia fiber is another form of prebiotic fiber. RenewLife and NOW are two reputable brands.

Isomalto-oligosaccharides–This fiber is used in Quest bars and in Paleo Protein Bars. With Quest bars, choose the flavors without sucralose, since it has been associated with undesirable changes in bowel flora.

There you go. It means that there are fewer and fewer reasons to not purposefully cultivate healthy bowel flora and obtain all the wonderful health benefits of doing so, from reduced blood pressure, to reduced triglycerides, to deeper sleep.

Disclaimer: I am not compensated in any way by discussing these products.

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Thad’s triple-digit weight loss

Thad shared these astounding photos of his 133 pound weight loss success following the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

All of you following the Wheat Belly conversations understand that there is much more to the health benefits of living without wheat and grains than weight loss. BUT weight loss is something we can show. Thad has likely enjoyed dramatic improvement in gastrointestinal health, absorption of nutrients such as vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and magnesium, and reduced inflammation–but we can’t show those phenomena so readily.

Also, recall that weight loss, even extravagant successes like Thad’s, develops because:

Wheat and grains yield opiates that drive appetite for junk carbs. This effect is due to the partially digested peptides that derive from gliadin and related prolamin grain proteins.
Wheat germ agglutinin blocks leptin, the hormone of satiety. With leptin blocked, grain eaters don’t know when to stop.
Amylopectin A, the carbohydrate of grains, is responsible for very high blood sugars that trigger insulin. Triggered repeatedly and insulin resistance develops, setting the stage for growth of visceral fat (“wheat belly”). High blood sugars are also followed by low blood sugars accompanied by irritability, fatigue, and cravings for junk carbs, creating a two-hour cycle of hunger.

Minus all wheat and grains, and all these effects disappear and, with it, the excess weight. You revert back to eating for sustenance, eating just what you need, which is typically many hundreds of calories less per day, even though we NEVER talk about restricting calories in the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

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Wheat Belly for athletes

Many people have fallen into the trap of believing that carbohydrates are necessary for exercise. This is why you see marathoners and triathletes hosting pasta dinners the night before an event, while sponsors of high-sugar sports drinks and energy bars line up to tell them that their products enhance performance. But carb loading or carbs during exercise are not only unnecessary, they have harmful effects that eventually catch up with you—-despite years of engaging in the healthy practice of exercise.

It all started about 50 years ago when exercise researchers noted that, when athletes following an unrestricted diet were deprived of carbohydrates, exercise performance during the first week dropped: lower time to peak exhaustion, longer times to complete a specific biking, running, swimming or other task. This was corroborated many times and led to the belief that loading up on carbs before and during exercise improved performance because of the observations of reduced first week performance.

What those early studies failed to recognize is that, if carbohydrates are sharply restricted, but then 3,4, or more weeks are allowed to pass, then athletic performance recovers and can can even exceed the level of performance present before the carb restriction (though true mostly in non-athletes). Even trained athletes maintaining a no-carb, ketotic state do not suffer impaired performance.

Carb loading and exercise carbs are therefore used to restore muscle and liver glycogen as it is depleted. Glycogen is the lengthy chain of sugars that can be “burned” for energy on demand. The average person has no more than around 40 minutes worth of energy stored as glycogen. Once depleted by, say, biking vigorously for 12 miles, a dramatic drop in energy will be encountered that some call “hitting the wall” or “the bonk.” Conventional wisdom is to therefore load up on carbohydrates and sugars ahead of the effort or to carry rapidly-absorbed sugars from ripe bananas, sports drinks or bars, energy gels and other commercial products. While these strategies do indeed provide a constant flow of sugar to replenish glycogen, they also result in surges in blood sugar to high levels, leading to glycation (glucose-modification of body proteins) that, if it recurs over and over again over time, results in cataracts, visceral fat accumulation, degradation of joint cartilage and arthritis, early dementia and other effects. Repeated ingestion of such sugary products also exerts an osmotic effect in the gastrointestinal tract (pulling water in). This is part of the reason why there are so many portable toilets along a marathon route or people experience vomiting and diarrhea. It also keeps you dependent on a constant flow of sugars to replenish muscle and liver glycogen, while turning off the capacity to draw from stored fat for energy.

One of the goals of engaging in the Wheat Belly lifestyle is to become less reliant on the sugar stored as glycogen in liver and muscle. A better solution consistent that will not impair health but enhances health and does not impair your ability to lose weight: avoid all such sugary products before and during exercise. But this approach only works if you have engaged in the Wheat Belly lifestyle of consuming no grains or sugars, have limited carbohydrates to no more than 15 grams net per meal (net carbs = total carbs – fiber), have endured your several day-long detoxification/withdrawal process, then waited an 4 to 6 additional weeks. This last component of waiting a month or longer represents the time required for your body to convert from relying on glycogen as a primary source of energy to that of fat mobilization for energy. In other words, while muscle and liver contain energy sufficient to sustain around 40 minutes of vigorous physical effort, energy stored as fat—-even on a slender person—-is sufficient to provide energy for weeks. High performing athletes therefore should be preferentially burning fat, not liver glycogen. (Imagine living in the wild, having to chase down your next meal of, say, an injured animal, over 4 hours of a chase—-do you think you’ll have energy drinks or gels to fuel your body? Doesn’t it make more sense to draw off the considerable energy in your body stored as fat? That’s how humans have done it for millions of years, and that’s how healthy modern humans should do it–until misinterpretations of the evidenced screwed it up.)

You may have fallen into this trap noticing that, even after wheat/grain removal and limiting carbohydrates, taking in some additional carbohydrate source was necessary to achieve your prior level of performance, maybe even required to allow you to finish your workout. But this effect disappears by continuing to stay on the low-carb course for 4-6 weeks, the time required to maximally ramp up your ability to mobilize fat for energy.

So if high physical performance are part of your ambitions with the Wheat Belly lifestyle, there is an obligatory 4-6 week long period during which your exercise performance will be impaired. After this time, performance rebounds, even occasionally exceeds pre-Wheat Belly levels.

The only time I have seen that some form of carbohydrate or sugar might be helpful is during extreme endurance efforts, such as mile 14 of a marathon, mile 50 of a bike trip, or similar intensive, long-term effort, but never for an hour of Zumba or a 5-mile run. Even then, only a modest quantity of sugars are required in the midst of the effort, e.g, 25 grams as needed to maintain energy as a banana or sip of a sports drink.

As this newer concept of sustained low-carb performance is catching on among a greater number of elite athletes, more are observing that they need nothing more than water and electrolytes to fuel their effort–not carbohydrates or sugars–yet are able to sustain optimal effort for hours, not just 40 minutes. Throw in the other health benefits of wheat/grain-free living, such as greater joint and muscle flexibility, less water retention in the legs and elsewhere, clearer thinking, less gastrointestinal disruption, and accelerated post-effort recovery, and this lifestyle will become the new standard for athletic performance.

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