William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 30
December 14, 2019
An excerpt from the Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly
The original Wheat Belly book rocked the nutritional world with its revolutionary ideas. But, as time has passed, I’ve added new strategies and concepts that have expanded the overall program and taken the health, weight, and youth-preserving benefits even further. I have therefore collected all this new material into a new Revised & Expanded Edition. The new Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly is now available at all major bookstores.
Here is a brief excerpt from the new foreword:
Wheat Belly began as my modest effort to help people with heart disease stop relying on the revolving door of angioplasty, stents, and bypass surgery. The lifestyle that evolved from this effort did indeed bring a halt to chest pain and heart attacks, converting my procedural practice into one that was purely preventive with virtually no need for heart procedures or hospitals. But it proved to accomplish far more than that. Drugs to reduce blood sugar or blood pressure? Gone. Drugs for acid reflux or diarrhea? Flushed down the toilet. Statin drugs with all-expenses-paid trips to Orlando for the prescriber? Phooey. These efforts evolved into a comprehensive program that addressed a long list of common modern health conditions, from excess weight to type 2 diabetes, from autoimmune conditions to irritable bowel syndrome, along with hundreds of others. The explosive success of this approach, not just in the reduction of heart disease, but in improvements in so many other areas of health, means that the world of nutrition and health will never be the same.
This new and expanded edition of Wheat Belly contains the latest version of this lifestyle, so readers can follow the strategies within as a stand-alone program. I detail the nutritional supplement program that compensates for nutrients deficient in former grain-eaters, as well as nutrients to compensate for deficiencies arising from living modern life. I introduce an in-depth discussion of the hormonal disruptions introduced by consuming “healthy whole grains” that I call Mr. and Mrs. Wheat Belly, showing how readers can take back personal control over hormonal health. I’ve updated the advice and added new recipes to incorporate all the lessons learned along the way as this lifestyle has been adopted by millions of people, making the message even more powerful and effective.
This book includes material never before published in any of the books in the Wheat Belly series. After all, we are trying to unlearn the many lessons drilled into us, now realizing it was all wrong, learning new lessons along the way. And, you know what? It is liberating, exhilarating, and enormously empowering. The problem all along was not you.
The new Wheat Belly Revised & Expanded edition is available from:
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December 12, 2019
Monk fruit–More than a healthy sweetener?
Because I wanted a benign and healthy way for followers of the Wheat Belly lifestyle to recreate dishes such as chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, and pies with none of the health problems of grains or sugars, I helped Wheat-Free Market develop its Virtue Sweetener product.
Yes, you could do without such sweeteners. But I learned long ago when I introduced Wheat Belly concepts to patients in my cardiology practice that having options while entertaining friends, during holidays, and pleasing kids was important for staying on course on this lifestyle. Before I understood how to use such natural sweeteners, patients would come back from, say, the Thanksgiving holiday 14 pounds heavier with disastrous changes in blood sugar, triglycerides, blood pressure, and small LDL particles that increased risk for heart attack. Given access to benign natural sweeteners, patients would come back with no weight gain, no change in blood sugar, no rise in small LDL, or any other measure—they would just enjoy the holiday with no observable downside.
It has also become clear in the last two years that synthetic sweeteners such as sucralose, saccharine, and aspartame have unhealthy implications, specifically adverse changes in bowel flora composition that explain why these sweeteners have been associated with weight gain and increased type 2 diabetes risk.
So Virtue Sweetener has emerged front and center because it allows you to end your wonderful grain-free meal with, say, a delicious German Chocolate Brownie or Peanut Butter Fudge while not dealing with any adverse health effects. This remains true even if you are strictly limiting carbs on your low-carb diet or even ketogenic lifestyle.
There are two components in Virtue Sweetener: monkfruit and erythritol. Let’s talk about each one:
Monk fruit–More than a healthy sweetener?
Among our choices of natural sweeteners, monk fruit is the clear winner: zero calories, no weight gain, clean taste without bitter aftertaste, and—because of its concentrated sweetness—can slash cost when combined with other natural sweeteners like erythritol. But there are effects of this interesting non-caloric sweetener that go beyond its ability to just help us create healthy muffins or cookies. Scientific studies are now identifying important effects that add to health.
Much of this research got underway because of monk fruit’s long history as an effective home remedy to relieve sore throat and cough. Research studies have documented an anti-inflammatory effect of monk fruit. But there are additional beneficial effects that have been identified, including reduced blood sugar, an antioxidant effect, blocking fat accumulation in fat cells, and anti-inflammatory effects. A number of studies have also pinpointed effects that reduce potential for cancer. To date, these observations have only been made in experimental models and not through any human trials, but those will be emerging near-future. A sample of the scientific observations that have been made are listed below.
In the meantime, enjoy your coffee sweetened with monk fruit, or cookies or pies in which sugar has been replaced by this clean-tasting, non-caloric sweetener. Perhaps you will also obtain some important health benefits from monk fruit, as well.
Monk fruit is labeled Siraitia grosvenori or Momordica grosvenori in scientific studies. The active components of monk fruit are called mogrosides.
Diabetes
Experimental animal models suggest that monk fruit mogrosides provide protection from developing diabetes and reduces blood sugar:
Qi XY, Chen WJ, Zhang LQ, Xie BJ.Mogrosides extract from Siraitia grosvenori scavenges free radicals in vitro and lowers oxidative stress, serum glucose, and lipid levels in alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Nutr Res. 2008 Apr;28(4):278-84.
Suzuki YA, Tomoda M, Murata Y, Inui H, Sugiura M, Nakano Y. Antidiabetic effect of long-term supplementation with Siraitia grosvenori on the spontaneously diabetic Goto-Kakizaki rat. Br. J. Nutr. 2007; 97: 770–5.
Suzuki YA, Murata Y, Inui H, Sugiura M, Nakano Y. Triterpene glycosides of Siraitia grosvenori inhibit rat intestinal maltase and suppress the rise in blood glucose level after a single oral administration of maltose in rats. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2005; 53: 2941–2946.
Weight control
Monk fruit-derived mogrosides appear to block the cellular changes that lead to fat accumulation:
Harada N1, Ishihara M1, Horiuchi H1 et al. Mogrol derived from Siraitia grosvenorii mogrosides suppresses 3T3-L1 adipocyte differentiation by reducing cAMP-response element-binding protein phosphorylation and increasing AMP-activated protein kinase phosphorylation. PLoS One. 2016 Sep 1;11(9):e0162252.
Antioxidative effects
Monk fruit is an antioxidant, including blocking oxidation of LDL particles that can lead to heart disease:
Chen WJ, Wang J, Qi XY, Xie BJ. The antioxidant activities of natural sweeteners, mogrosides, from fruits of Siraitia grosvenori. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2007 Nov;58(7):548-56.
Takeo E1, Yoshida H, Tada N et al. Sweet elements of Siraitia grosvenori inhibit oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein. J Atheroscler Thromb. 2002;9(2):114-20.
Wang M, Xing S, Luu T et al. The gastrointestinal tract metabolism and pharmacological activities of grosvenorine, a major and characteristic flavonoid in the fruits of Siraitia grosvenorii. Chem Biodivers. 2015 Nov;12(11):1652-64. doi: 10.1002/cbdv.201400397.
Anti-inflammatory effects
Monk fruit mogrosides are anti-inflammatory:
Di R, Huang MT, Ho CT.Anti-inflammatory activities of mogrosides from Momordica grosvenori in murine macrophages and a murine ear edema model. J Agric Food Chem. 2011 Jul 13;59(13):7474-81.
Shi D, Zheng M, Wang Y et al. Protective effects and mechanisms of mogroside V on LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice. Pharm Biol. 2014 Jun;52(6):729-34.
Cancer preventive effects
Akihisa T, Hayakawa Y, Tokuda H et al.Cucurbitane glycosides from the fruits of Siraitia gros venorii and their inhibitory effects on Epstein-Barr virus activation. Nat Prod. 2007 May;70(5):783-8.
Liu C, Dai LH, Dou DQ et al. A natural food sweetener with anti-pancreatic cancer properties. Oncogenesis. 2016 Apr 11;5:e217.
Matsumoto S, Jin M, Dewa Y, Nishimura J et al. Suppressive effect of Siraitia grosvenorii extract on dicyclanil-promoted hepatocellular proliferative lesions in male mice. J Toxicol Sci. 2009 Feb;34(1):109-18.
Takasaki M, Konoshima T, Murata Y et al. Anticarcinogenic activity of natural sweeteners, cucurbitane glycosides, from Momordica grosvenori. Cancer Lett. 2003 Jul 30;198(1):37-42.
Ukiya M, Akihisa T, Tokuda H et al. Inhibitory effects of cucurbitane glycosides and other triterpenoids from the fruit of Momordica grosvenori on epstein-barr virus early antigen induced by tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Nov 6;50(23):6710-5.
Safety
Marone PA, Borzelleca JF, Merkel D et al. Twenty eight-day dietary toxicity study of Luo Han fruit concentrate in Hsd:SD rats. Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Mar;46(3):910-9.
Pawar RS, Krynitsky AJ, Rader JI. Sweeteners from plants–with emphasis on Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) and Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle). Anal Bioanal Chem. 2013 May;405(13):4397-407.
Erythritol–A natural fruit sugar
Along with monk fruit, erythritol is one of the two natural sweeteners contained in Virtue Sweetener. Erythritol is one of the best choices among natural sweeteners because of its clean flavor, lack of effect on blood sugar or insulin, and even provides modest health benefits.
Erythritol is a sugar found naturally in fruit such as apples and oranges but is produced from glucose in greater quantities through a fermentation process using yeast.
Erythritol yields no increase in blood sugar even if as much as 15 teaspoons are ingested all at once. Unlike monkfruit that has no calories, erythritol has a small number of calories: less than 1.6 calories per teaspoon—90% less than regular table sugar. It also does not stimulate insulin release, unlike synthetic sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda) and aspartame. Studies have demonstrated modest reductions blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c (reflecting the previous 90 days’ of blood sugars) in people with diabetes who use erythritol as their preferred sweetener.
Like monkfruit, erythritol is not just safe, but also has modest beneficial health effects. Erythritol yields protective effects on dental health, shown to reduce the number of cavities and plaque in several clinical studies, unlike sugar that, of course, promotes tooth decay.
Unlike most other sugar alcohols, such as sorbitol, mannitol, and maltitol, erythritol does not cause bloating, gas, or loose stools when used in the quantities specified in our recipes. This is because only a small proportion of erythritol passes through the intestinal tract.
Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as table sugar. It also has a slight “cooling” sensation, similar to that of peppermint, though less intense. It may therefore confer a modest cooling sensation to baked products and other sweets.
In Virtue Sweetener, we rely on a greater proportion of monk fruit, which is much sweeter than erythritol. Erythritol is thereby used to add bulk, or volume, to Virtue Sweetener, while the monk fruit with its intense sweetening power allows you to use far less total combined sweetener, thereby yielding a considerable cost savings.
References
Bornet FRJ, Blayo A, Dauchy F, Slama G. Gastrointestinal response and plasma and urine determinations in human subjects given erythritol. Regulatory Toxicol Pharmacol. 1996;24, part 2:S296–S302.
De Cock P, Mäkinen K, Honkala E et al. Erythritol is more effective than xylitol and sorbitol in managing oral health endpoints. Int J Dent 2016;2016:9868421.
Honkala S, Runnel R, Saag M et al. Effect of erythritol and xylitol on dental caries prevention in children. Caries Res 2014;48(5):482-90.
Ishikawa M, Miyashita M, Kawashima Y et al. Effects of oral administration of erythritol on patients with diabetes. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 1996 Oct;24(2 Pt 2):S303-8.
Munro IC, Berndt WO, Borzelleca JF et al. Erythritol: an interpretive summary of biochemical, metabolic, toxicological and clinical data. Food Chem Toxicol 1998 Dec;36(12):1139-74.
Wölnerhanssen BK, Cajacob L, Keller N et al.Gut hormone secretion, gastric emptying, and glycemic responses to erythritol and xylitol in lean and obese subjects. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2016 Jun 1;310(11):E1053-61.
Putting aside taste, safety, and potential health benefits, how about cost? Here is a cost comparison I did recently: Virtue is the clear winner, costing as much as 80% less than other natural sweeteners. You can enjoy dishes naturally sweetened without destroying your grocery budget.
Given its natural sourcing, safety profile, potential health benefits, and cost, Virtue Sweetener is everything I intended it to be, an advantage to all of us following the Wheat Belly lifestyle to reclaim control over health and weight.
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December 11, 2019
Polish deli
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December 8, 2019
“Wheat Belly hit like a bomb”: Author Dana Carpender reviews the Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly
Dana Carpender, friend and author of many low-carb cookbooks, provided this review of my new Revised & Expanded Wheat Belly, below.
For more of Dana’s signature wit and conversation, you can join her on her engaging Facebook page “Hold the toast press” or visit her Amazon page that lists all her wonderful low-carb cookbooks.
It’s funny how things happen. Nine years ago I had already been eating a low carbohydrate diet for 16 years. During that time I had occasionally eaten low carb tortillas and low carb bread. These things were hardly a staple of my diet, but I kept ’em around for the occasional late-night grilled cheese sandwich or whatever. But the longer I ate low carb, the less I cared about them and the less often I ate them. Which is why, by January of 2011, it had been at least 8 months since I’d bothered eating either low carb bread or tortillas.
I was working on slow cooker recipes and came up with a recipe for slow cooker mu shu pork. As you may or may not know, mu shu dishes are served wrapped in Chinese pancakes. I figured low carb tortillas would be a fine substitute. So I made a supper of it, having two low carb tortillas wrapped around my meat and vegetables.
I woke up feeling like grim death. Bleary, thick-headed, exhausted, achy all over. It felt like a combination of a bad hangover and going hypothyroid. It was two days before I was back to my usual cheerful, energetic self.
Serendipitously, within a week or two I received a review copy of Dr. William Davis’s Wheat Belly in the mail.
As I wrote in my original review of the book, I have read a lot of books since I first became interested in nutrition in the summer of ’78. I generally learn a little something new from each one. But Wheat Belly? Wheat Belly hit like a bomb. Every page brought information I simply had not known, had not even suspected. I knew about celiac disease, but wheat linked to schizophrenia? Seizures? Dementia? Cancer? And a more, in a long and scary list? I had had no idea.
Completely new to me, too, was the information regarding the extreme hybridization of wheat — not the genetic modification that’s the current nutritional boogeyman, just crossing various strains of wheat, to the point that modern wheat is genetically a completely different plant than our grandparents ate — and one that has never been proven safe for human consumption. (Please note: even ancient grains were not good for humanity. The adoption of agriculture resulted in a drop in stature — humans are just recently beginning to reach the height of their hunter-gatherer ancestors — the weakening of bones, and the narrowing of the pelvic outlet, making childbearing far more dangerous and painful than it had hitherto been.)
Add to that the news that wheat is physically addictive — like, really, truly, similar-to-opioids addictive. And you wondered why you have cravings?
So I’ve been gluten-free ever since. Oh, I may get a tiny bit now and then by mistake, but then, I don’t have celiac. I’m not one of the people who is going to become desperately ill from a single crumb. But eat anything made with gluten grains deliberately? Nope.
It’s not just gluten, as Wheat Belly makes clear. Amylopectin A found in wheat (and other grains, like corn) turns out to be a super-carb, jacking blood sugar up worse than table sugar or corn syrup. Phytates bind up minerals, so those “healthy whole grains” actually lead to deficiencies.
Gluten itself can be broken down into gliadin which, among other charming tendencies, attacks the intestinal wall, causing everything from irritable bowel to leaky gut, and eventually autoimmune disease. Another gut-ripper is wheat germ agglutinin — which agricultural science has deliberately increased in the name of pest control. And you were worried about pesticides on your food! (As a long-time nutrition buff, I remember when wheat germ was the wonder-food du jour. Brrr.)
And exorphins! You know about endorphins, of course — the happy-juice your brain creates in reaction to exercise and such. Exorphins are just what they sound like — drug-like compounds from outside the body. Yes, wheat can get you high and is physically addictive.
In short, everything made of wheat, from an Oreo cookie to 100% whole grain bread, contains as pretty a package of poisons as you’re likely to find posing as food.
Which leads me to one more issue: Since Wheat Belly was first published in 2011, many, many people have chosen to quit eating gluten. Many other people have, for reasons that pass understanding, decided to be honked off about this. “I don’t mind people with celiac asking for gluten-free stuff. But those people who just pretend to be gluten-sensitive are muddying the waters! How can we know if it’s really important that their food is gluten-free? Why do they have to jump on the bandwagon?”
Why do you freaking care?! Do you question why Jewish folks don’t want their eggs scrambled in bacon grease?
My experience with the tortillas tells me that my body does not like wheat. Isn’t that enough? Can I eschew gluten grains (and grains in general) not because I have celiac but because I’m convinced they are not wholesome food for humans?
I should add that despite the deluge of important and often disturbing information, Wheat Belly is far from a grim read. Bill Davis is a fine writer; he makes the science easy to comprehend, even entertaining — and often funny.
If you’ve wondered what the whole shift away from gluten is about, you need to read Wheat Belly. If someone close to you has gone gluten-free and you cannot understand why you need to read Wheat Belly. If you have been toying with going gluten-free because a lot of your health-conscious friends have gone gluten-free, you need to read Wheat Belly. If you have, indeed, gone gluten-free because you’ve heard various information going around, but would like to bring the reasons into laser-sharp focus, you need to read Wheat Belly. If you’re tired of family and/or friends giving you grief over eschewing wheat and want sound, scientific information to argue with you need to read Wheat Belly. And if like me, you’re just a big health-and-nutrition geek, you have really, really got to read Wheat Belly.
For those of you who read the first edition, there is new info to be had; science marches on. I was pleased to learn of new tests for various wheat sensitivities, all of them less alarming than a bowel biopsy via endoscope. That said, I don’t need a test, I’m convinced.
Because of the new tests, they’ve found a whole lot of people have markers for celiac without the classic symptoms — but increased rates of all kinds of other ugly health consequences. I emailed Dr. Davis partway through reading the new edition of Wheat Belly with the inelegant subject line “Holy s***, Bill.” I had read a few reports recently of alarmingly increased rates of death among younger Americans starting in their 20s. The opioid epidemic is implicated but does not account for all of it. Then I read that celiacs have 29% increased mortality — and that celiac has nearly doubled in the past several decades. (Wait until you read how they discovered that!)
Dr. Davis started a movement 9 years ago, one that has improved the health of thousands. Wheat Belly was important then; it is only more so now. Read it.
The post “Wheat Belly hit like a bomb”: Author Dana Carpender reviews the Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly appeared first on Dr. William Davis.
December 6, 2019
The new Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly released!
The complete updated Wheat Belly program is now available in the Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly! (For availability, see below.)
In the original Wheat Belly, I recounted how agribusiness and geneticists altered traditional strains of wheat, yielding the high-yield semi-dwarf strain that now dominates supermarket shelves. Consuming modern foods made from this plant yields peculiar, sometimes crippling, health effects, while dramatic benefits develop upon removing it from the diet. If you’ve been following the Wheat Belly conversations, you are no stranger to the huge successes people have shared on this lifestyle.
But lessons have been learned along the way in the marvelous worldwide grain-eliminating experience, lessons shared in subsequent books: Wheat Belly Total Health, Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, the Wheat Belly cookbooks. The list of strategies we use has grown, strategies that have helped many more people lose the weight they want to lose, address residual health problems, address deficiencies caused by grain consumption but persist after their removal, go further in efforts such as cultivating a healthy microbiome.
So I have rewritten the original Wheat Belly, added the complete prescriptive program we now follow, expanded on discussions about hormonal health and efforts to cultivate a healthy microbiome, tweaked details of the diet, and added new recipes. Anyone who read the original Wheat Belly will recognize a lot that’s familiar, but you will also find plenty that is new. This means that the entire Wheat Belly program is now available in this single Revised & Expanded edition.
Wheat Belly has therefore been completely updated with new material that includes:
The FULL Wheat Belly program that we now all follow
New and delicious recipes to suit your Wheat Belly lifestyle
New discussions on topics such as hormonal health and cultivation of a healthy microbiome
Wheat Belly was the original book that turned the nutritional world topsy-turvy and exposed “healthy whole grains” as the genetically altered Frankenwheat imposed on the public by agricultural geneticists and agribusiness. The tidal wave of astounding health and weight loss successes has created a nationwide movement away from the destructive effects of wheat products. The Revised & Expanded edition now takes you to the next level for health, weight loss, and freedom from numerous diseases and prescription drugs.
Removing products made with modern wheat yields astounding and often unexpected benefits in health and weight loss.
Autoimmune, gastrointestinal, and mind effects top the list for conditions that improve or reverse with wheat elimination.
Weight loss can occur at a surprising rate, typically 15-18 pounds over the first month, when wheat is eliminated.
The new Wheat Belly Revised & Expanded editions is available for pre-order for release on Tuesday Dec 10 from:
The post The new Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly released! appeared first on Dr. William Davis.
The new Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly being released!
The complete updated Wheat Belly program is now available in the Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly! (For availability, see below.)
In the original Wheat Belly, I recounted how agribusiness and geneticists altered traditional strains of wheat, yielding the high-yield semi-dwarf strain that now dominates supermarket shelves. Consuming modern foods made from this plant yields peculiar, sometimes crippling, health effects, while dramatic benefits develop upon removing it from the diet. If you’ve been following the Wheat Belly conversations, you are no stranger to the huge successes people have shared on this lifestyle.
But lessons have been learned along the way in the marvelous worldwide grain-eliminating experience, lessons shared in subsequent books: Wheat Belly Total Health, Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, the Wheat Belly cookbooks. The list of strategies we use has grown, strategies that have helped many more people lose the weight they want to lose, address residual health problems, address deficiencies caused by grain consumption but persist after their removal, go further in efforts such as cultivating a healthy microbiome.
So I have rewritten the original Wheat Belly, added the complete prescriptive program we now follow, expanded on discussions about hormonal health and efforts to cultivate a healthy microbiome, tweaked details of the diet, and added new recipes. Anyone who read the original Wheat Belly will recognize a lot that’s familiar, but you will also find plenty that is new. This means that the entire Wheat Belly program is now available in this single Revised & Expanded edition.
Wheat Belly has therefore been completely updated with new material that includes:
The FULL Wheat Belly program that we now all follow
New and delicious recipes to suit your Wheat Belly lifestyle
New discussions on topics such as hormonal health and cultivation of a healthy microbiome
Wheat Belly was the original book that turned the nutritional world topsy-turvy and exposed “healthy whole grains” as the genetically altered Frankenwheat imposed on the public by agricultural geneticists and agribusiness. The tidal wave of astounding health and weight loss successes has created a nationwide movement away from the destructive effects of wheat products. The Revised & Expanded edition now takes you to the next level for health, weight loss, and freedom from numerous diseases and prescription drugs.
Removing products made with modern wheat yields astounding and often unexpected benefits in health and weight loss.
Autoimmune, gastrointestinal, and mind effects top the list for conditions that improve or reverse with wheat elimination.
Weight loss can occur at a surprising rate, typically 15-18 pounds over the first month, when wheat is eliminated.
The new Wheat Belly Revised & Expanded editions is available for pre-order for release on Tuesday Dec 10 from:
The post The new Revised & Expanded Edition of Wheat Belly being released! appeared first on Dr. William Davis.
December 5, 2019
December 4, 2019
Smoother, moister skin?
The post Smoother, moister skin? appeared first on Dr. William Davis.
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