William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 67

Will L. reuteri yogurt EXTEND life?

Among the many powerful and life-changing effects of Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 yogurt that increases oxytocin levels is a reduction in appetite, the so-called anorexigenic effect. If you experience this effect, you know that you have provoked oxytocin. And it can be quite profound. Food still tastes good, but you have far less interest in it.

Follow this reasoning: We know that, in numerous experimental models such as dogs and mice, reduction in calorie intake considerably lengthens life. Unfortunately, the same sorts of experiments have not been conducted in humans for obvious logistical reasons: length of time required, requiring participants to reduce calorie intake over decades, etc. Given the powerful cravings that emerge when calorie-restricted, is it even possible?

There are indeed people who engage in chronic caloric restriction. (You can find such groups through the CR Society website, for instance.) A relatively brief two-year long NIH-sponsored trial was conducted and yielded improvements in several metabolic markers but, of course, was not carried out long enough to prove whether or not longevity was achieved.

But here is a question: If oxytocin augmentation via our L. reuteri yogurt making results in reduction of appetite and calorie intake, could this, if conducted over an extended period, add, say, 10 or 20 years to your life?

Nobody knows, of course, but it is a tantalizing question to consider and not that far out of the realm of possibility, particularly in view of the extravagant improvements in health that we are witnessing. Everything resulting from our experience correlates with youthfulness: increased skin thickness, increased dermal collagen, thicker hair, accelerated healing, increased bone density, increased muscle mass, decreased visceral fat, decreased leptin resistance, increased testosterone and estradiol, reduced cortisol. Given the potent anorexigenic effect, does this mean those of us adding this unique strategy will also live longer in addition to regaining aspects of youth?

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Stay 40 years old . . . for the next 40, 50, or 60 years?

The images of the mice are from one of the elegant MIT studies from Poutahidis et al investigating the effects of Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475. Even if you are not a fan of reading such detailed experimental studies, I urge you to read these, as they are well-written, wonderfully detailed, and written by people who have a real understanding of the full implications of the work they are doing.

Specifically, the above photo shows what happens at 12 months of age in control mice (example on left) compared to mice fed L. reuteri in their water (example on right). Notice that the control mouse is fat, while the treated mouse is slender.

This and related studies demonstrate that:

While control mice got old—stopped playing, lost interest in mating or grooming each other, and got fat—L. reuteri mice stayed slender, mated more and continued to groom each other. In other words, L. reuteri mice stayed youthful as they aged.
Testicular size (specifically Leydig cell number) and testosterone production in L. reuteri mice was considerably greater
Sebum production, hair density, skin thickness, and dermal collagen were dramatically greater
Skin healing was hugely accelerated
Inflammatory measures (e.g., IL-10, neutrophil blood count) were lower
On an obesogenic diet, control mice got fat while L. reuteri mice stayed slender

Most of these effects were found to be mediated through  increased oxytocin blood levels, mimicking the findings of studies in parabiosis, in which immunologically compatible mice had their circulatory systems combined, one old and one young: the older mouse reverse-aged and became young again, mediated largely via oxytocin.

Other studies in mice and in humans have demonstrated that L. reuteri or oxytocin are associated with:

Marked weight loss without change in diet or exercise
Greater bone density or less bone loss
Increased muscle mass
Reduced insulin resistance, reduced visceral fat
More rapid skin healing
Increased empathy

To put this all another way, L. reuteri mice stayed young and slender until death (without life extension).

More and more of the findings in mice are being corroborated in humans. Will this youth-preserving effect also translate to humans? Could it mean that at, say, at age 40, you begin to supplement with L. reuteri (as we have been doing by amplifying bacterial counts with prebiotic-infused yogurt making) and you can remain 40 years old for another 40, 50, or 60 years with preservation of healthy, smooth skin, dense bones, high levels of testosterone and estrogen, thick hair, preservation of muscle, prevention of visceral fat accumulation, lower levels of inflammation, more youthful mentality, and slender? Could it mean that you are biking, dancing, and socializing at age 80 just as you are at 40 and not the one driving 20 miles per hour in a 45 mile-per-hour zone or asking the sales clerk to help you lift the gallon jug of milk?

I think that we are heading in that direction. And, because of the anorexigenic effect of L. reuteri/oxytocin, i.e., the loss of interest in food (though it still tastes good; you are simply freed from appetite, not taste) may lead us in the direction of caloric restriction that, at least in several experimental models, has been the most effective strategy to lengthen life.

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Make your own probiotic yogurt and save money

Probiotics are essential in your Wheat Belly lifestyle, especially in the initial weeks and months of engaging in the program (longer if you have gastrointestinal conditions). They are essential because prior wheat/grain/sugar consumption disrupts composition of bowel flora and restoration to something closer to normal is part of your recovery. While we still have plenty to learn—what species, what combinations of species, inclusion of fungi like Saccharomyces boulardii, which species help control/reverse small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and methanogenic species, etc.—there are unquestioned benefits to taking probiotics.

But they’re expensive. It’s not uncommon to spend $40 to $70 dollars per month for quality products. Is there a way to reduce costs?

One way is to take a probiotic for a finite period of, say, 2 months, while continuing enthusiastic consumption of fermented foods (that contain many of the same species as probiotics) and prebiotic fibers. Another way would be to space out dosing, e.g., take them every other day or every several days. While probiotic species typically do not colonize the colon permanently, they do reproduce and populate for up to several weeks.

Yet another way is to cultivate the various species in probiotics in yogurt. The conversion of thin liquid of, say, organic half-and-half or whole milk or coconut milk to thick, rich yogurt means that tens of billions of organisms at the start are multiplied to hundreds of billions to trillions. It also means that you have created a mix of bacterial metabolites that are beneficial for humans, such as butyrate and acetoacetate. It’s also delicious.

I have been discussing various facets of yogurt making lately, including cultivation of Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 that raises oxytocin; use of prebiotic fibers in yogurt making to amplify bacterial counts in the end-product (don’t use honey, as it contains its own collection of microorganisms); and why we start with higher-fat products such as half-and-half, rather than skim or low-fat milk, yieiding richer and tastier yogurt than the insipid watery stuff you buy from grocery stores. Making it yourself also means not having to read labels to dodge sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and thickeners/emulsifiers added for texture and mixability but adversely impact bowel flora and bowel health (via disruption of the mucous lining). We also ferment for extend periods of 30-36 hours to minimize lactose content (since it is fermented to lactic acid) and reduce pH that maximally denatures (breakds down) the casein protein.

But, provided your probiotic capsules do not contain a yeast such as any Saccharomyces species (which will ferment to alcohol, not lactic acid), you can put the Lactobacillus, Bifidobacteria, and other species to work to make yogurt. The yogurt you make will therefore contain the species contained in the capsule (though relative counts may shift, given the various species ability to proliferate and compete with each other for nutrients). I’ve had success making yogurt with the Renew Life brand, Garden of Life RAW, as well as single species/strains of L. reuteri and L. rhamnosus.

Because your yogurt contains hundreds of billions to trillions or microorganisms, consuming, say, 1/2 cup per day can take the place of a probiotic capsule. The yogurt will yield greater bacterial counts than the original capsule, even if divided into five or so servings. A quart batch of yogurt will therefore save you the cost of 5 days of probiotics while also serving as breakfast or snack and tasting delicious. And you can make successive batches of yogurt from prior batches, saving you even more money. (At some point, competition among the various species will likely change their relative numbers, and re-inoculation with the contents of a probiotic capsule can be used to restore to the original composition.)

I also find that, because the end-product contains little or no remaining prebiotic fiber (since the bacteria feasted on it), yogurt is a great vehicle for prebiotic fibers for YOU: add some inulin/FOS, acacia fiber, chopped up green banana, Wheat-Free Market’s Vanilla or Chocolate Prebiotic Fiber Mix, etc.

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Go Ahead and Eat Until You’re Satisfied

That’s a bold statement—eat until you’re satisfied—in a world in which just about every nutritional authority tells you the opposite. But conventional advice was created by the uninformed to deal with appetite-stimulating opiate effects from wheat and grains. Remove wheat and grains and appetite recedes dramatically and calorie intake drops off without effort. There will be no mad scrambles for food due to overwhelming hunger, no sneaking ice cream in the middle of the night, no hidden snacks around the house. No more anxiously counting minutes until lunch or dinner. There will be no rolling, rumbling stomach growling and gnawing at your resolve. You will be largely indifferent to food, hunger nothing more than a gentle reminder that it might be time to eat something. You will even forget to eat at times, unconcerned if you miss a meal. You’ll find the previously daunting prospect of fasting—not eating at all—effortless. You will also begin to recognize the manipulative nature of the constant barrage of food advertising, all meant to further fuel the insatiable appetite created by wheat and grains, advertising that you will increasingly find incomprehensible.

Compound this with the appetite-satiating effects of unrestricted fat intake, and you will find that you feel satisfied even without trying. Eat fat on pork, purchase high-fat ground meat (never lean), cook with lard or bacon grease saved from breakfast, eat egg yolks with the whites, and add organic butter and coconut oil to anything and everything, from morning coffee (whipped with an immersion blender) to smoothies. And while every- one else at the office nervously eyes the clock for lunchtime, you decide to go for a walk. They shamelessly pounce on the bagels and doughnuts while you walk right past them to enjoy the fresh air, trees, and birds.

Many people, so accustomed to not following dietary rules, ask questions like “How much fat can I eat?” or “How much food intake should be protein?” You are going to find that these are unnecessary concerns. Banish all wheat and grains, avoid added sugars, manage carbs, don’t limit fat, eat unprocessed food, and everything else falls in place.

The key factor here is to not just not limit healthy fats and oils but also consume more fats and oils. The greater your fat and oil intake, the more appetite is suppressed, the more blood sugar drops, the more insulin resistance reverses, the more weight is lost—and, no, you do not develop heart disease.

Sausage, pepperoni, bacon, salami, ham, and deli meats contain the preservative sodium nitrite that upon cooking reacts with proteins in meat, yielding nitrosamines that have been linked to gastrointestinal cancers. This is a confusing issue that is often misinterpreted. For instance, nitrates, a closely related compound, occur in green vegetables and are converted into nitrites, or NO2, in the body to nitric oxide, a beneficial compound that reduces blood pressure and yields other health benefits. This has caused some to dismiss the issue of nitrates and nitrites. The problem is not the direct ingestion of nitrites or nitrates but when the heat of cooking causes nitrites to react with the meat yielding nitrosamines, such as N-nitrosoproline and N-nitrosothiazolidine, and other compounds that cause gastrointestinal cancers in experimental models and are associated with cancers in humans. Nitrosamine exposure also occurs with cigarette smoking and is responsible for effects such as insulin resistance and nervous system damage.

Choose meats that are processed naturally without sodium nitrite, often containing nitrates that do not react to form nitrosamines in meat. Also avoid meats (particularly sausage and deli me meats) that contain wheat, cornstarch, and other hidden grain ingredients.

Don’t worry: You cannot overdo healthy fats. Understand that the widespread advice to cut dietary fat sets you up for health and weight-loss failure. Just give it a try: Eat a fatty cut of beef or pork, fattier than usual, and see what happens to hunger. I’d be shocked if you had room for dessert. I’ll bet your first response to hearing the details of this lifestyle was to declare something like “I can’t do this. I can’t just cut out entire food groups!” I hope that you now appreciate that, first of all, they weren’t meant to be food groups for humans in the first place. Second, cutting out fats that satiate sets you up for health and weight failure. Go completely against—yes, the grain—of conventional health advice, and you will be empowered in extraordinary ways.

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Premarin, whole grains, and why you can’t believe headlines

Imagine you have a friend named Justin. He is a schoolteacher. Honest, hardworking, doesn’t smoke, rarely drinks alcohol, sleeps well, doesn’t take drugs, shows up at work every day. He has also chosen to be vegetarian.

Another friend of yours, an auto mechanic named Tommy, eats fast food, loves fried chicken, drinks too much beer on the weekends, likes to drive fast cars, and sometimes gets into legal tangles. He smokes cigarettes, though has limited it to only half-a-pack per day. Late weekends, some weekday nights, sleep cut short to just two or three hours. Tommy is not a vegetarian, but likes his burgers rare with a big side of French fries and a can or two of Coca Cola.

Who will do better in the long-run and be more likely to be spared health conditions like high blood pressure, high triglycerides, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, psoriasis, or even a high-speed motor vehicle accident?

Justin the schoolteacher will, of course. Tommy’s hard-living lifestyle is much more likely to end in disease or disaster. If we didn’t understand that such a mixed bag of observations are virtually worthless, we could then conclude that, because Justin is a vegetarian, vegetarians are therefore healthier. Laugh, but that is how most observational studies are conducted. Potential “confounding factors,” such as Tommy’s drinking and smoking, are “factored out” via statistical manipulations, but his love for fried chicken, fast driving, and sleep deprivation are not.

This is precisely how Premarin became the number one most prescribed drug in the world for many years, earning manufacturer Wyeth billions of dollars per year. Observational studies, using methods similar to comparing Justin and Tommy, suggested that women who took Premarin experienced less heart attacks, endometrial cancer, and breast cancer than women who didn’t take Premarin. While some confounding factors such as smoking were factored out, many were not—sleep habits, quantity of visceral fat present, or vitamin D status, for example.

You probably know the rest. Two properly designed studies in which several thousand women were enrolled (The Women’s Health Initiative and the HERS Trial), then provided a pill that neither investigators nor participants knew was Premarin or placebo (double-blind, placebo-controlled) and the opposite was found: Premarin increased heart attack by 50%, increased incidence of endometrial and breast cancer, even accelerated Alzheimer’s dementia. In other words, the findings of the previous observational studies, trumpeted far and wide and used to influence physicians’ prescribing habits, proved to be tragically wrong. (This makes sense: After all, how in the world do you justify giving human females estrogens unlike human estrogens? Imagine your husband was given squirrel testosterone? The company did this for patent protection, not because horse estrogens are superior to human forms—the smell of money, once again, a familiar and recurring theme in Big Pharma.)

Premarin is not the only culprit to have been held up as beneficial only to prove the opposite. This happens more often than not with clinical studies involving placebo-control and blinding demonstrating outcomes radically different from the preliminary observations. In other words, observational data is about as good as no data at all. 

Observational studies are also the basis for the “eat more healthy whole grains” advice. People are administered dietary questionnaires to recall, for instance, the foods you ate over the prior 5 days, white flour vs. whole grain intake stratified. These people are then recontacted, say, 5 or 10 years later to see what became of them. Imagine Justin and Tommy were enrolled in such a study: Justin would once again come out on top. After “adjustment” for a handful of confounding variables like smoking and exercise, the greater whole grain content of Justin’s diet would be declared the reason why Justin lives to enjoy his grandchildren while Tommy ends up with a heart attack, colitis, and dementia at age 65.

Throw on top of this the issues that I have stressed over and over again—that if something bad is replaced by something less bad and there is an apparent benefit—you cannot conclude that a whole bunch of the less bad thing must therefore be good. Replace unfiltered, full-tar cigarettes with filtered, low-tar cigarettes and witness a modest reduction in lung cancer, heart disease, and death—should we then conclude that smoking low-tar cigarettes is therefore good? Of course not. But that is the line of reasoning applied in promoting “healthy whole grains” to the unwitting public. The observational Nurses’ Health Study of 47,000 women, for example, showed that women who consumed more white flour products gained substantial weight, but that women who consumed more whole grains also gained weight, but just by a couple less pounds—not weight loss, but less weight gain.

The notorious unreliability of observational data that should be used to achieve nothing less than to generate an hypothesis but virtually never establish cause-effect relationships, doesn’t stop the media from reporting the results of observational studies with bold headlines delivered as fact: “Coffee consumption linked to less Alzheimer’s dementia.” Or “Red meat consumption raises risk for colon cancer.” Reporting observational findings as fact has been the modus operandi of the media for as long as I can remember. It’s confusing due to frequent conflicting findings and it is misleading. It is essentially health fake news.

But don’t you fall for it. Don’t take Premarin, don’t eat any grains at all, and eat some pork chops.

 

 

 

 

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What do low-tar cigarettes, low-fat yogurt and healthy whole grains have in common?

Followers of the Undoctored and Wheat Belly books and lifestyle understand a basic truth in logic: Just because something is less bad does not necessarily make it good.

Low-tar cigarettes have less of the toxic compounds that leave the brown residue–“tar”–after tobacco is burned, but smoking low-tar cigarettes does not reduce risk for lung cancer, mouth/throat cancer, or cardiovascular disease.

From Stanford.edu  on the impact of tobacco advertising:

Claims of low ‘tar,’ less ‘tar,’ or even lowest ‘tar’ have been circulating in cigarette advertisements for decades. This theme features ads which revolve around deceptive low tar claims which try to out-do each other, some going as far as to claim less than 1 mg of tar per cigarette. By ‘tar,’ tobacco companies are referring to the brown, sticky accumulation of chemicals amassed when tobacco is burned. This residue is considered to be one of the most damaging components of smoking, as it contains a multitude of identified carcinogens and causes harmful build-up in the lungs. It is therefore no surprise that, early on, tobacco companies began to make their cigarettes appear less harmful by advertising reduced tar levels. Low tar cigarettes are intended to keep concerned smokers from quitting by providing these smokers with what appears to be a healthy alternative. Unfortunately, lower tar ratings have no bearing on the safety of the brand in question. As internal tobacco documents have revealed, tobacco companies have been fully knowledgeable that lower tar cigarettes were not actually safer or healthier. 

Something might be less bad, or contain less of an undesirable ingredient, but that does not necessarily mean that the product in question is therefore good.

Low-fat yogurt may have most or all the fat removed (the one truly healthy component of dairy products, by the way), but is typically loaded with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and has the whey protein that  stimulates weight gain or blocks weight loss  via insulin provocation. Low-fat yogurt is not a health food, but has the appearanceof being less bad.

Likewise, 14 epidemiological studies that graded consumption of white flour products (bad) versus whole grain products (less bad because of greater B vitamin and fiber content) demonstrated reduced weight gain, less type 2 diabetes, less heart disease, and less colorectal cancer with greater whole grain consumption–that is indeed true. But those studies did notdemonstrate that such conditions are less likely compared to NO grain consumption: less bad is not necessarily good. There are indeed many studies that compare grain consumption with no grain consumption, even if they haven’t received the sort of press given to, say, some new robotic surgical procedure or cancer treatment. But such studies demonstrate dramatic health benefits when no grains are included in diet, the sorts of benefits we see play out every day in the Wheat Belly community. (References can be found in Undoctored, Wheat Belly and Wheat Belly Total Health.) By removing grains entirely, we remove the appetite-stimulating, inflammatory, autoimmunity triggering, blood sugar raising, and hormonally disruptive effects   grains exert on humans.

Remember, wheat and related grains, whole or white, still contain:

Gliadin (and related proteins, such as zein in corn)–that trigger appetite via gliadin-derived opiate peptides and initiate the process of autoimmunity via intestinal “leak”
Phytates — that disturb digestion and block iron and zinc absorption by 90%.This is why grain consuming societies experience so much iron deficiency anemia, impaired immunity, and skin rashes.
Lectins — such as wheat germ agglutinin, grain proteins that exert disruptive effects in the gastrointesinal tract and gain access to the bloodstream, where it yields potent inflammatory effects.
D-amino acids — Humans, as well as other mammals, have the digestive apparatus to break proteins down in to L-amino acids. But many of the amino acids in grains are the mirror image D-versions. The implications of this peculiar clash between incompatible species–non-ruminant humans and the seeds of grasses–are just starting to be appreciated.
Amylopectin A — The carbohydrate of grains that is responsible for its extravagant potential to raise blood sugar higher ounce for ounce, than table sugar.

Keep this simple principle in mind—that less bad does not necessarily mean good—and you will see through numerous blunders made in nutrition.

This seems like a straightforward, common sense sequence of logic: remove something that is less bad from the diet and there will be benefit. Yet the flawed logic of replacing bad with less bad has thrown off an entire generation of dietitians, physicians, and government agencies charged with providing nutritional advice who have all embraced the less bad whole grains, going as far as urging all of us to make them the dominant ingredient in diet every day. In the Undoctored / Wheat Belly lifestyle, we eliminate the bad– white flour products– and the less bad– whole grains of all types. That’s when wonderful things happen.

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The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox Challenge begins Wed May 23rd!

Through my New York Times bestseller, Wheat Belly, millions of people learned how to reverse years of chronic health problems by removing wheat from their daily diets. But, after reading the original Wheat Belly or the Wheat Belly Total Health book, or even using the recipes from the Wheat Belly Cookbook and Wheat Belly 30-Minute Cookbook, people still said: “I’ve read the books, but I’m still not sure how to get started on this lifestyle.”

That’s why I wrote the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox and now help readers along in this Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox CHALLENGE. This is the quickest, most assured way to get started on regaining magnificent health and slenderness by adopting the Wheat Belly lifestyle.

This next CHALLENGE begins Wednesday, May 23rd to give you plenty of time to fit into a new slender wardrobe and reclaim control over numerous health conditions so that you can really enjoy this spring.

The Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox supplies you with carefully designed meal plans and delicious recipes to fully eliminate wheat and related grains in the shortest time possible. Perfect for those who may have fallen off the wagon or for newcomers who need a jump-start for weight loss, this new addition to the Wheat Belly phenomenon guides you through the complete 10-Day Detox experience.

In addition to this quick-start program, I’ll teach you:

How to recognize and reduce wheat-withdrawal symptoms,
How to avoid common landmines that can sabotage success
How to use nutritional supplements to further advance weight loss and health benefits

The Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox also includes:

Inspiring testimonials from people who have completed the program (and have now made grain-free eating a way of life)

Exciting new recipes to help get your entire family on board

To join the Detox Challenge:

Step 1

Get the book. And read it (at least the first 5 chapters). Detox Challenge participants should be informed and active in order to get the most out of the challenge and private Facebook group. READING THE WHEAT BELLY DETOX BOOK IS REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE. PLEASE DO NOT PARTICIPATE IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK or else the conversations will not make sense and you will not enjoy full benefit. It is a very bad idea to try and piece the program together just from our conversations. (Note that the Wheat Belly Detox program is NOT laid out in the original Wheat Belly book.)

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1JqzMea

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/wheatbelly10daygraindetox-bn

Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1KwcFTQ

Or grab the course from Rodale.

https://www.rodaleu.com/courses/wheat-belly-10-day-grain-detox

(The PLATINUM level INCLUDES the book.)

Using the code DETOX saves you $20+ when you checkout.

Step 2

Come join the Private Facebook Group.

http://bit.ly/WheatBelly-PrivateFBGroup

Step 3

Head back to the Private Facebook Group starting Tuesday, May 22nd (the day before the official start of the Challenge) and onwards for tips, videos, and discussions to help you get through your detox and reprogram your body for rapid weight loss and health. Dr. Davis will be posting video instructions and answers to your questions.

 

Need support? Lapsed and want to get back on board? Join the thousands of people who are losing weight and regaining health by following the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox Challenge. Join us if you desire support through the sometimes unpleasant process of wheat/grain detoxification and withdrawal or if you are among those who previously followed the program but lapsed, and now want to get back on board as confidently as possible, this Detox Challenge was made for you.

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Death by donut

I don’t mean that you will be struck down by simply stepping into a Dunkin’ Donuts. I mean that donuts and others things wheat and grains will substantially abbreviate y0ur life, or at least make your time on earth a lot more miserable.

I’ve been accused of exaggeration to get the no-wheat, no-grain message through. But if you see what I see every day, I think that you would agree: The consumption of wheat and grains is entirely inappropriate for humans; we exchange near-term calories for deterioration of long-term health that takes numerous forms. And when you see lives completely turned around by banishing this thing that should never been added to the human diet in the first place, let alone endorsed by all official providers of nutritional advice, you can’t help but appreciate that wheat and related grains underlie an extraordinary amount of human illness and suffering.

I’m picking on donuts here specifically, as they represent a combination of so much that has gone wrong in the modern diet: the proliferation of wheat flour and sugar. What potentially fatal diseases have been associated with consumption of wheat and sugar? Well, that’s awfully easy, like picking on a three-year old—it almost seems unfair.

Among the potentially fatal diseases caused by wheat and grain consumption are:

Coronary heart disease–Oodles of small LDL particles form after the consumption of the amylopectin A of grains and the fructose + glucose of sugar.
Colorectal cancer–Dysbiosis and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, i.e., disruptions of bowel flora lead to colorectal cancer over time.
Type 2 diabetes–Long-term, diabetes leads to coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, vascular disease and amputations/infections, peripheral neuropathies, blindness, and dementia, all of which can accelerate the end of life.
Dementia–Via several mechanisms including gliadin autoimmunity (“gluten encephalopathy”), endogenous glycation (i.e., glucose modification of brain proteins), insulin resistance (recall that dementia is often called “type 3 diabetes”).
Inflammatory bowel diseases–While not all inflammatory bowel diseases are initiated or perpetuated by wheat and grains, many cases are.
Celiac disease–If undiagnosed or if someone does not adhere to the diet, the risk for intestinal lymphoma skyrockets.
Autoimmune diseases–such as autoimmune hepatitis, pancreatitis, IgA nephropathy, type 1 diabetes in both kids and adults, and others
Neurological dysfunction–cerebellar ataxia that leads to progressive debilitation, then death; peripheral neuropathies that can lead to amputations and injury; seizures, especially temporal lobe seizures
Depression and suicidal tendencies–Some of the scariest examples of re-exposures reactions to wheat, for instance, are incessant suicidal thoughts after nibbling on, say, a sandwich.

Living the Wheat Belly grain-free lifestyle, you can appreciate, is not just a way to lose a few pounds or fit into a size 4 dress again. It can be a health- and life-changing experience that could even save or lengthen your life.

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Zero tolerance for low blood pressure

Just as we have zero tolerance for hypoglycemia in the Wheat Belly lifestyle, we also have zero tolerance for hypotension, or low blood pressure (BP).

Follow the Wheat Belly lifestyle free of ciabattas, penne pasta, and tortellini, and blood sugars plummet. If you are injecting insulin or taking other diabetes drugs, hypoglycemia is a risk and can be dangerous, resulting in loss of consciousness and injury. We therefore urge everyone to talk to their doctor about discontinuing or reducing insulin and diabetes drugs immediately upon starting the Wheat Belly lifestyle. Unfortunately, the majority of doctors don’t understand this and are skeptical that a type 2 diabetic can become less or non-diabetic. After all, they are the ones who put you on these awful drugs in the first place. (And note that injectable insulin is a marvelous weight GAIN drug.) People often end up managing their own insulin and drugs. Thankfully, the majority of people do fine and end up on NO insulin or diabetes drugs over time, confidently no longer diabetic with none of the long-term implications of high blood sugar (provided they stay on the program). But I cannot stress enough how crucial it is to absolutely avoid hypoglycemia (especially below 90 mg/dl) as you transition.

Likewise, we have zero tolerance for low BP in the Wheat Belly lifestyle. As with insulin, it is important to have your doctor reduce or eliminate one or more of your BP meds immediately upon starting the Wheat Belly lifestyle. Some drugs such as ACE inhibitors (e.g., enalapril, captopril), ARBs (e.g., olmesartan, telmesartan), calcium blockers (e.g., amlodipine, nicardipine), and diuretics (e.g., HCTZ, hydrodiuril) can simply be stopped. Others such as beta blockers (e.g.,atenolol, metoprolol) and clonidine should be weaned or reduced gradually over days to weeks to avoid withdrawal effects (e.g., “rebound” hypertension and heart attack). Once again, unfortunately, most doctors are incapable or skeptical that blood pressure drops after elimination of wheat, grains, and sugars. You may have to find a doctor adept at getting people off their BP meds, though I fear many people are left doing this on their own.

Regardless, I can’t stress enough that we should never allow blood pressure to drop below 90 mmHg in someone who was previously hypertensive. Susan recently commented on our Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox Facebook page “I have been feeling exhausted for the past two months on Wheat Belly. I checked my BP today: 98 over 52 … no wonder I feel like passing out all day and tired all the time.” Susan’s comments illustrate how people who were previously hypertensive can even develop symptoms at BPs that most of us would not notice. Thankfully, she only experienced exhaustion and lightheadedness but did not tumble down the stairs or pass out behind the steering wheel.

Buried in all this hand-wringing, of course, is terrific news: It is possible—actually highly probable—that the majority of type 2 diabetics and people with hypertension can say goodbye to their drugs and to their conditions simply by eating no wheat/grains or sugars and by incorporating all the Wheat Belly Total Health or Undoctored strategies, a synergistic combination of health strategies that remove the factors that allowed high blood sugars or high BPs to develop in the first place.

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Grain-free baking tips from Gary Miller, founder of Wheat-Free Market

If you are new to grain-free baking, or if you are struggling to get the results you want from your grain-free baking, here are some tips provided by Gary Miller, founder of Wheat-Free Market that develops and sells Wheat Belly-compliant foods:

 

If you’re like most of us, you didn’t get recipes and tips passed down from Grandma that used the typical ingredients we now use in our grain-free lifestyle. In fact, the majority of us had never really heard of almond flour until a few years ago, and it is very unlikely we had ever actually used it! So we have put together this list of things we have learned that we hope you can put to good use in your own home.

Bake at Lower Temperatures – We find that setting the oven 25-50 degrees lower and a little more patience with longer baking times greatly improves results, especially balancing the browning of the tops while thoroughly cooking the item itself.

Sift or Fluff-up Nut Flours – These nut flours are denser than grain-flours, so at a minimum use a fork to fluff the dry ingredients to get more air into the flour when you are baking something you’d like to be more light and delicate.

Whip Eggs and Egg Whites – If you are baking something you’d like to be more light and delicate, really whip the eggs to once again get more air into your batter or dough. Gently fold the eggs into the dry mixture.

Let Your Cookies and Muffins Cool – We are all eager to try our latest creation, but nut flour based baked items do not handle well when they are still hot. Your patience will pay off when your cookies don’t crumble by letting them cool down and “set.”

Rolling Dough – Wrapping your dough in plastic and sticking it in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes or so greatly enhances the ability of a grain-free dough to roll and fold without breaking.

Using Coconut Flour – Coconut flour quickly absorbs liquids, so it is often difficult to use as a base flour. Have the oven, pan, and everything else ready before mixing the liquids with the dry, and work quickly. You may need to add a little water during the process to keep the dough or batter moving.

Pancakes – These are perhaps the trickiest of all and our excitement can quickly turn to frustration when flipping them. Cook pancakes at a lower temperature for longer, and make them small enough so that you can get the ENTIRE spatula underneath them when flipping. There is no such thing as raising one edge and flipping it over like we would with wheat pancakes. And have the skillet completely ready before mixing the batter. Also, a flat griddle or surface makes getting the spatula underneath much easier. And the thinner the spatula the better!

When a Recipe Calls for Brown Sugar – If you are recreating a recipe that calls for brown sugar, use a teaspoon or two of syrup or molasses to impart the type of flavor that brown sugar would have provided. Just be mindful that you are adding 10-20 grams of carbs to the entire recipe. Spread over 20 cookies? No big deal. In one muffin? A big no-no for us.

Recreating a Recipe – When adapting a wheat and sugar recipe to your grain-free lifestyle, always add an egg beyond what the recipe calls for.

Using High Intensity Sweeteners – While they provide the sweetness you are looking for, they lack the baking properties of sugar especially in terms of bulk and browning. For baking, it is best to use these in blends with erythritol (like our Virtue Sweetener!).

Yes…the Microwave – The use of microwaves is a great controversy swirling with fiction mixed in with the facts. Microwaves cook at lower temperatures for shorter times which, especially for high fat content foods such as nut flours, can reduce the oxidation of the fatty acids. Often a wrap made in the microwave and then finished on the griddle or skillet is ideal. Whatever you are making will rise more, be lighter, and more moist and delicate. So it does well for breads and cakes. Of course heating anything in any way impairs nutrients to some extent. At home we gently steam our nutrient-rich vegetables, but don’t hesitate to make a Flaxseed Wrap in the microwave.

Bake-on, friends!

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