William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 68

The Gluten-Free Gimmick

Don’t be fooled by the marketing. Just because it’s on the shelf at Whole Foods Market doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

I want to begin by clearly stating that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity need to meticulously avoid all gluten sources, but they do not need gluten-free junk carbohydrate ingredients in their place. This is the sort of self-destructive thinking encouraged by the gluten-free food industry. This industry makes billions by filling grocery stores with overpriced junk carbohydrates.

Don’t replace one problem with another. Removing gluten but replacing it with excessive carbohydrate intake is causing diabetes, dementia, high blood pressure, obesity (need I go on?) to soar.

In both  Wheat Belly Total Health and Undoctored I discussed the need to avoid gluten-free foods made with “junk carb” ingredients like cornstarch, potato flour, tapioca starch, and rice flour. This bears repeating, because so many people continue to hear the Wheat Belly message as a “gluten-free” message. The Wheat Belly lifestyle means living a healthy grain-free life, not just going gluten-free.

The majority of gluten-free foods sold in stores pack on the pounds and impair your ability to lose weight. Just because they lack gluten does not make them healthy.

CORN STARCH, RICE FLOUR, TAPIOCA STARCH, OR POTATO FLOUR. These are the four ingredients most commonly used in gluten-free processed foods. They are awful for health and will completely shut down any hope of weight loss, often resulting in outright, sometimes outrageous, weight gain and inflammation.

Managing carbohydrates to improve control over metabolism and health means 100 percent avoidance of these terrible products marketed to an unsuspecting public believing they are eating healthy by avoiding gluten.

Nothing raises blood sugar higher than the gluten-free junk carbohydrates in gluten-free multigrain bread, crackers or gluten-free pasta — higher than even table sugar. Blood sugar that results from eating two slices of whole grain gluten-free bread made with potato flour, rice flour, or other unhealthy grains like millet can easily top 180 mg/ dL (in those without diabetes) over the first hour after consumption, regardless of the mayonnaise, meat, cheese, or other foods in the sandwich.

There are indeed some food producers who have developed gluten-free and grain-free products without junk carb ingredients that do not raise blood sugar and therefore are safe. However, they remain few and far between. This is why I promote Wheat-Free Market products to my community.

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The arithmetic of yogurt

I’ve been recently discussing how and why we make yogurt with two strains of Lactobacillus reuteri to augment our oxytocin status and thereby enjoy additional weight loss, reduce appetite, grow muscle, increase bone density, obtain younger more supple skin with increased collagen, accelerate healing, increase testosterone in males, etc.

I’ve received a considerable amount of feedback from people who have been making L. reuteri yogurt and consuming 1/2 cup per day: reduced facial wrinkles, smoother skin, dramatic reduction or elimination of appetite, increased energy, better mood, reduced bruising (specifically senile purpora), receding surface veins, increased libido—some fairly dramatic results.

But I’ve also been hearing comments like “I made the yogurt and let it ferment for 7 hours and it was still liquid.” Or “I fermented my yogurt for 12 hours, then put it in the refrigerator.”

Too little time allowed for yogurt to ferment will impair your results. The doubling time of L. reuteri, i.e., the amount of time required for, say, 1000 microorganisms to become 2000 microorganisms, is around 3 hours in the presence of prebiotic fibers. (Bacterial reproduction—doubling time—is shortened by fermenting yogurt by adding prebiotic fibers such as inulin or raw potato starch or sugar.) This means 8 doublings over the course of 24 hours.

So let’s say that you start your yogurt-making experience with one billion microorganisms (“CFUs”) of L. reuteri. Three hours later, you will have two billion. Six hours later, four billion. Nine hours later, eight billion, and so on.

You let fermentation proceed for 24 hours and now have 256 billion. (We are not accounting for bacterial death for simplicity. And, anyway, L. reuteri does not have to be alive to exert oxytocin release from the hypothalamus.) But look at the numbers after the initial 24 hours:

27 hours: 512 billion

30 hours: 1.26 trillion

33 hours: 2.52 trillion

36 hours: 5.04 trillion

Get the idea? At 36 hours, the initial one billion microorganisms have ballooned to over 5 trillion, far better than, say, the 8 billion present after only 12 hours. Such is the magic of exponential expansion of numbers. The most important period of fermentation to generate substantial bacterial counts is not the initial period, but the later periods as doubling allows exponential growth to very substantial numbers. This cannot go on forever, of course, limited by competition for available nutrients, such as the prebiotic fiber we add at the beginning, as well as increasing separation into curds and whey.

Longer fermentation time also allows production of more lactic acid that reduces yogurt’s pH, making it more acidic, more tart. Beyond the gustatory aspect, an acidic pH further denatures, or breaks down, the casein beta A1 protein, the potentially immunogenic protein of North American dairy. It also increases butyrate content produced by L. reuteri, the short-chain fatty acid believed to account for many of the beneficial effects of bowel flora such as reduced blood pressure, reduced insulin resistance, reduced triglycerides, and perhaps the mind-emotional effects, effects outside of the oxytocin-boosting benefits.

Bottom line: Allow fermentation to proceed for a minimum of 24 hours, preferably 30-36 hours, to extract maximum benefit. This is not so much about yogurt but about maximizing the population of L. reuteri and its metabolites. And the end-product is far richer and flavorful than anything you can buy at the grocery store.

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The most radical diet ever proposed

Worldwide, 20% of all human calories come from wheat products. 50% of all calories come from the Big 3 crops: wheat, corn, and soy. Of all the food choices in the world, from mongongo nuts in western Africa, to seafood in coastal areas, to coconut in the South Pacific, the Big 3 crops now comprise half of the human diet.

At what other time in human history has such a situation occurred?

None. Just as we’ve never seen the likes of Honey Boo Boo take center stage on broadcast media before, there is NO evolutionary precedent for such a grain-based lifestyle. Not in the 1800s, not in the Middle Ages, not in the time of the Bible, not in pre-Biblical Rome, Greece, or Egypt, not during the transition from scavenging-hunting-gathering to agriculture, not 50,000 years ago, not 100,000 years ago, not during the appearance of the first Homo sapiens, not during the very first Homo species nor pre-human predecessors . . . NO species of hominids has EVER existed on a diet that looks like the modern human diet.

Our own USDA argues, via the food plate and food pyramid, that we should increase intake of grains further to comprise 60% of human calories. In other words, they suggest that, not only should we consume “healthy whole grains,” but that we should allow them to further dominate diet.

Odd fact: The Big 3 crops that now dominate worldwide diets are also the recipients of most of the attention of geneticists to increase yield using techniques such as genetic modification (e.g., Bt toxin corn) and chemical mutagenesis, i.e., the intentional provocation of mutations (e.g., Clearfield wheat sold by BASF). Branded and patented forms of these monocrop grains therefore dominate the fields of farmers, who are also obliged (essentially forced via threat of legal action) to purchase the herbicides or pesticides that specific strains are tied to, such as glyphosate-resistant corn that requires use of glyphosate, or imizamox-resistant wheat that requires imizamox. Note that these strains have to be purchased every season, disallowing a farmer from saving seed at the time of harvest to use next season (as traditional farmers did for thousands of years). Such seed strains essentially “lock” a farmer into repeated purchase of seed and the herbicide tied to it.

Compare this system with that of locally produced, small scale farming, modest private operations with several dozen or several hundred heads of livestock or chickens, smaller plots of land to produce a variety of vegetables and fruit, many of them perennial. Scattered, independent food production is not amenable to centralized control.

What we have in our modern food system is a world increasingly dependent on monocultures of 3 crops, largely commanded by Big Agribusiness, that yields control over the producers (farmers) and the consumers (grain-eaters). Make no mistake: This is about money, lots of it. And our own USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are complicit.

This unnatural and unprecedented dietary situation, however, is something you can exert personal control over. Simply choose to not participate in this effort at global economic expansion and eat none of the three big crops and, at the same time, enjoy magnificent restoration of health and control over weight.

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Ten rules to get your vitamin D just right

Restoration of vitamin D is one of the most powerful health strategies to have come along in years. Combine this with other Wheat Belly strategies and you have an exceptionally effective way to reverse the factors that allow numerous modern health conditions such as diabetes (type 1 and 2), hypertension, bone thinning, arthritis, depression, and autoimmune diseases.

Vitamin D is such a crucial factor in health that you would therefore think that most doctors would be experts in vitamin D. Sadly, that is not the case. The majority of mainstream medical doctors are woefully ignorant, do not read the science nor try to understand the essentials, saying such silly things as “Your vitamin D blood level of 30 is just fine” or “Take this prescription for vitamin D” or even “You don’t need any vitamin D because you get enough from diet.” Such gross instances of ignorance are typically delivered with  authority, the peculiar way of my colleagues.

Getting vitamin D right is really very simple. Just be sure you’ve got it right for full benefit. But, because most conventional doctors bungle it, YOU need to be sure it’s done right.

Take oil-based gelcaps for assured absorption. Tablets are very poorly or erratically absorbed. For instance, I observed many people start with, say, a 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level of 15 ng/ml. They take 8000 units of vitamin D in tablet form and 2 or 3 months later, their blood level is 15–I’ve seen this happen countless times. Take 8000 units of vitamin D as oil-based gelcap and the level will more likely be something like 65 ng/ml, right where you want it. Liquid drops are okay and are better absorbed but tend to yield wildly erratic blood levels.
Take D3 or cholecalciferol only, the human form–The prescription form is D2 or ergocalciferol that is different and yields different effects. D2 is also usually the form added to foods such as dairy products. There is NO reason to take this non-human form over D3. D3 is also widely available, effective, and inexpensive.
Take higher doses if you are overweight–This is because fat cells sequester vitamin D and make it unavailable. Some overweight people need megadoses like 20,000 units per day, for instance. Conversely, as someone loses weight, there may be reduced need for vitamin D intake as the stored nutrient is released. And always rely on blood levels in these situations, never guess.
Don’t assume that sun exposure will raise your blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D, especially if you are over 40 years old. We gradually lose much of our capacity to activate vitamin D in the skin with sun exposure. When in doubt, have a blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D checked. Only an occasional person has to seasonally adjust their dose to accommodate summer sun exposure. And don’t assume that, if you live in Miami or Maui, you have an ideal level of vitamin D—once again, check a blood level.
Get your 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level to 60-70 ng/ml, not the 20-30 ng/ml typically quoted by laboratories. This approximates the levels achieved by young people with plentiful sun exposure, thereby telling us that this is a physiologically appropriate level. It is also the level at which risk for diseases like cancer and osteoporosis (via high PTH levels) are maximally suppressed.
Do not take vitamin D with calcium–Because numerous facets of the Wheat Belly lifestyle are associated with a marked increase in intestinal absorption of calcium (reduced urinary calcium loss from removal of gliadin, increased intestinal calcium absorption from vitamin D and cultivation of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria species in bowel flora) and because calcium supplementation has been associated with increased cardiovascular risk and is next to ineffective for prevention of osteoporotic fracture, we do not take calcium and certainly never take combination tablets of vitamin D with calcium.
Take a daily dose, not a weekly or monthly dose. Daily doses have been shown to exert greater beneficial effects.
Wait at least 2 months after starting vitamin D or changing the dose before you check a 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level, as it takes that long for the blood level to plateau (read “steady state”). Checking a level too soon will yield misleading results.
After 2-3 years of consistent supplementation, check a blood level–This is because many people develop a marked reduction in need at this point. I don’t know why, but speculate that all vitamin D receptors have become saturated, thereby yielding higher 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels allowing a reduction in dose.
Take vitamin D in the morning–Some people develop insomnia if vitamin D is taken at bedtime, an effect I assume means that the body somehow equates vitamin D ingestion with sunlight.

It’s really quite simple. Once you get it right, it readily becomes habit and something you don’t have to think about much (unlike, say, cultivation of bowel flora that requires frequent consideration).

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I’ve never met a glycemic index I liked

You’ve heard this before (though not from me): “For weight loss and health, choose foods with low glycemic index.”

Yes: And your sister is only half pregnant and your neighbor is a former murderer.

We don’t have to look far to find illogical ideas in nutrition—they are everywhere. And the concept of glycemic index is yet another. But if you understand why glycemic index is nonsense, you are empowered to obtain even greater control over weight and health.

Glycemic index, or GI, describes how high blood sugar climbs over 90 minutes after consuming a food compared to glucose.

The GI of three fried eggs? Zero: Blood sugar will barely budge at all. How about an avocado? Zero, too. This is true for meats, poultry, fish, oils and fats, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and non-starchy vegetables. Eat any of these foods and blood sugar doesn’t budge, no glycation phenomena follow, no glucotoxicity, no lipotoxicity. (The exception: People who have damaged pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin and/or severe insulin sensitivity. In these situations, even proteins can raise blood sugar a little bit.)

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea of measuring blood sugars after eating as glycemic index, nor of the related concept, glycemic load, a measure that also factors in the quantity of food. The problem is how the values for GI and GL are interpreted. The nutrition world breaks glycemic indexes down into:

High glycemic index: 70 or greater

Moderate glycemic index: 56-69

Low glycemic index: 55 or less

By this scheme, cornflakes, puffed rice, and pretzels have “high“ GIs, while whole grain bread, oatmeal, and rice have “low” GIs. A typical non-diabetic person consuming a serving of cornflakes, e.g., 1 cup cereal in ½ cup milk, will thereby experience a blood sugar in the neighborhood of 180 mg/dl—–very high and more than sufficient to set the process of glycation and glucotoxicity on fire, add to insulin resistance and adrenal disruption, cataract formation, destruction of cartilage, growth of visceral tummy fat, hypertension, heart disease, and neurological deterioration or dementia. In other words, that bowl of cornflakes was plain awful for health. (Blood sugars will vary, depending on body weight, degree of overweight, insulin sensitivity, time of day, and other factors, but this would be typical. Someone with pre-diabetes or diabetes will have a much higher blood sugar.)

How about a low-GI food, such as a bowl of oatmeal—yes: stone-ground, organic, no sugar added, 1 cup cooked, in ½ cup milk? A typical response: blood sugar 150-170 mg/dl—lower, yes, but still quite awful, triggering all the same undesirable phenomena triggered by the high-glycemic cornflakes. This is why I believe “low” GI is more accurately labeled “less-high” GI, not “low.” Recognize that any GI above single digits should be regarded as high because it’s not until you get to single digits or zero that blood sugars no longer range into destructive levels.

The concept of “glycemic load” tries to take this into account by factoring in portion size. Thus the GL of cornflakes is 23, while the GL of oatmeal is 13 and that of whole wheat bread is 10. GL is usually interpreted as:

High glycemic load: 20 or greater

Moderate glycemic load: 11-19

Low glycemic load: 10 or less

The GL for oatmeal is a misleading 9. Once again, this lulls you into thinking that foods like oatmeal or whole wheat bread don’t raise blood sugar—-but they do. They are not low GL; they have less high GL. And we haven’t even tackled the huge individual differences that exist between different people.

The value that truly appears to count and predict whether or not we will have a blood sugar rise? Grams of carbohydrate. Specifically, “net” grams of carbohydrate calculated by subtracting fiber:

“Net” carbohydrates = total carbohydrates – fiber

Net carbohydrates is a concept popularized by the late Dr. Robert Atkins, who recognized that fiber has no impact on blood sugar despite being lumped together with other carbohydrates. (Fiber is technically a carbohydrate, or polysaccharide, but humans lack the enzymes to digest most fibers into sugars.) In other words, there is really no need for manipulations such as glycemic index or glycemic load.

If you were to test blood sugars with a finger stick glucose meter 30-60 minutes after consuming a food, you would see that it takes most of us around 15 grams of “net” carbohydrates—regardless of GI or GL—before we begin to see a rise above the starting value. (This is especially true at the start of your Wheat Belly or Undoctored journey. As you get healthier—lose weight, regain insulin sensitivity, correct vitamin D and magnesium, cultivate bowel flora—your tolerance for net carbs may increase, something you can judge via your finger stick blood sugars pre- and post-meal. But the increase will be modest, certainly not something like 50 or 60 grams.) We check blood sugars at 30-60 minutes after consuming a food. The peak can actually vary in timing, depending on the mix of protein, fat, fiber, the amount of water or other liquids, pH of the food, and other factors. This is just an approximation that allows you to perform a single finger stick, rather than many to capture the peak. (What we do NOT do is check blood sugar two hours after consumption, as advised by most physicians interested in blood sugar control on diabetes medications.) Ideally, little to no rise in blood sugar is allowed, what I call “The No Change Rule.” In this way, you have turned off any excess levels of glycation and glucotoxicity, undo the effects of high insulin and insulin resistance, and allow fasting blood sugars to drift downward over time.

Less bad is not necessarily good. Feel free to count your carbs, but ignore the misleading concepts of glycemic index and glycemic load. Use those tables of glycemic index you might have to line your box of cat litter, but don’t use them to construct a healthy diet.

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Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring a game-changer . . . for DIET

Headlines over the past year have speculated over when Apple will finally release its non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) watch. Such a device has been hailed as a game-changer for people with diabetes, as no finger sticks are required, no needles, no blood.

It will indeed be a game-changer for ease of glucose management for people with diabetes, making blood sugar monitoring a snap. But it will also be a game-changer for diet. Let me explain.

NON-DIABETIC people wearing a CGM device will observe several phenomena:

They will see just how high blood sugar rises after a bowl of oatmeal. By finger stick, for instance, you can see a fasting glucose rise to 150-180 mg/dl within minutes in a non-diabetic. Diabetics can easily see 300-500 mg/dl. When non-diabetics see diabetes-like blood sugars after a bowl of unsweetened, stone-ground, organic oatmeal, they will understand just how destructive this food is.
They will see how whole grains raise blood sugar sky-high, hardly any different than white flour products. And they will see how frequently this happens, explaining why insulin resistance, visceral fat accumulation, and the phenomena of glycation develop (accelerated skin aging, cataracts, joint cartilage deterioration/arthritis, heart disease, dementia) with grain consumption.
They will see that fructose-rich foods such as agave nectar, high-fructose corn syrup-sweetened foods, etc. do not raise blood sugar immediately, but do so in a delayed fashion many hours to days later.
They will see how foods like pasta (i.e., durum wheat that is pressed and compressed) raises blood sugar less severely than bread or rolls (but still to high levels), but blood sugar stays high for many hours after consumption due to slower digestion of the amylopectin.
They will see how hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) results after high blood sugar. They will also understand that hypoglycemia is accompanied by intense hunger.
They will appreciate that low-fat or reduced-fat foods raise blood sugar higher than full-fat foods.
They will see that the common advice from dietitians to consume carbohydrate foods with proteins, fats, and fiber to blunt rises in blood sugar is nonsense: Blood sugar still goes high, but just a few milligrams lower than carbs in isolation. Remember: Less bad is not necessarily good.
They will see just how awful gluten-free processed foods made with cornstarch, rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato flour raise blood sugar higher than any other food, commonly making non-diabetics diabetic within a short time.

In other words, the ease and immediacy of a non-invasive CGM watch will expose the lies, misconceptions, and common misunderstandings of diet. It will spark a massive exodus away from the harms of low-fat foods and towards low-carb eating.

For our purposes, it will make becoming non-diabetic for type 2 diabetics darned easy, since the No Change Rule that we follow will be easy-as-pie to implement.

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O’NA HealthCare: A new healthcare insurance option?

I was recently invited to speak at David Wolfe’s Longevity NOW conference in Anaheim, California, where I gave a talk entitled “Germs, Muscle, and Pac-Man: New Strategies for Turning the Clock Back 10 or 20 Years” detailing some new strategies for maintaining youthfulness and vigor. (It was a longevity conference, after all. I shall be posting a similar talk on our Undoctored Inner Circle website in the next few days.)

Of the 40-some vendor booths that were part of the conference, there was one that caught my eye: O’NA HealthCare. They claim to provide coverage for functional medicine care, integrative health practitioners, chiropractors, Eastern medicine, biological dental care, etc., while also providing conventional healthcare insurance coverage at a fraction of the cost of other healthcare insurers. Because I have been actively exploring ways for us to opt-out of the disaster that is modern healthcare and healthcare insurance, this got my attention.

Beyond covering alternative care, it got even more interesting. The representative at the booth told me that the company got its start on native American Indian territory as a healthcare cooperative/Native American Tribal Community, founded by the Elders of the United Cherokee Nation – Aniyvwiya. O’NA HealthCare is therefore not subject to the regulations of conventional healthcare insurance, regulations that typically add substantially to costs. Now, that’s interesting.

Comparing their (casual—I have not yet made formal application) premiums to the premiums I currently pay (for a healthy 60-year old male), I would cut my costs by about 55% (while maintaining the same deductible)—not bad. Too good to be true?

Among the features of O’NA HealthCare:

They cover alternative healthcare practitioners and treatments such as functional and integrative medicine, chiropractic, acupuncture, Reiki, essential oils and nutritional supplements (with some limitations on supplements)
24/7 phone access to a nationwide network of several thousand healthcare professions is available
You are free to choose your healthcare providers, as there are no “in-network” or “out-of-network” limitations
Like other healthcare insurance, catastrophic coverage is included: emergency room visits, operations, imaging procedures like CT scans and MRIs, etc.
There are no co-pays
Available in all 50 states
Medical tourism is covered
365 days-per-year open enrollment

Because there is a $5000 deductible for individuals, $10,000 for families of 3 or more, they also provide access to a health savings account (HSA) option that allows you to place money pre-tax that remains yours year-over-year (unlike a flex-spending account). You can also choose to use your own HSA plan.

Incredibly, the company reports that health insurance premiums have not increased since the company got started in 2014.

Has anyone had any experience with O’NA HealthCare? Unless I uncover something completely unexpected, I believe that I am going to apply and replace my current health insurance. I use virtually no conventional healthcare: I refuse to take statin drugs, blood pressure drugs, acid reflux drugs, submit to absurd physical exams and screening efforts, so the high-deductible (no change to me) does not scare me. And it encourages me to pursue the HSA option, something I have indeed been meaning to do. I hope this will acquaint me with the process, something that we should perhaps pursue for our Undoctored Inner Circle members via group enrollment.

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There is no such thing as “healthy whole-grains”

We’ve been told for decades that whole grains are healthy, healthier than processed white flour products. 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.

The misconception that whole grains are not just better for you, but healthy is simply not true. If we replace something bad–white flour products–with something less bad–whole grains–and there is an apparent health benefit, and there is: less heart disease, less diabetes, less colon cancer, then the common conclusion is that including plenty of the less harmful foods must therefore be good. This is like telling people to smoke low tar cigarettes, because they have been proven to be less bad than regular cigarettes. Does that make sense?

This ignores the logic and the science demonstrating that removing both white and whole grain products is not only healthier, but reverses numerous health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes/high HbA1c levels, can induce remission in rheumatoid arthritis, reverses cerebellar ataxia, just to name a few examples.

Non-white grains still retain all the health destructive properties of gliadin-derived opioid peptides that drive appetite and impair emotion and brain function; the intestinal toxicity of wheat germ agglutinin; the iron-, zinc-, calcium-, and magnesium-binding effect of phytates that yield common mineral deficiencies; amylopectin A that sends blood sugar sky-high; and a multitude of proteins, such as alpha-amylase inhibitors and thioreductases that trigger allergic responses—they all remain present whether white or brown/whole grain. Whole-grain products have more fiber and B vitamins but still contain all problematic components.

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Make your own L. reuteri yogurt

Here is a summary on the Lactobacillus reuteri yogurt that I have been talking about over several blog posts, all put together for ease.

I’ve been discussing this idea of making yogurt by starting with a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri ATCC PTA 6475, based on the detailed studies conducted at MIT and elsewhere, both experimental animal and human, that have suggested dramatic effects. Those effects include:

Complete shut-down of appetite, an “anorexigenic” effect, that can be used to facilitate intermittent fasting or break a weight loss plateau. This, along with an increase in metabolic rate, explain why weight loss results.
Dramatic increase in skin thickness and skin collagen, along with acceleration of skin healing, a surrogate for overall youthfulness and health. I’m a big fan of dietary collagen, such as those provided by collagen hydrolysates, bone broths/soups, slow-cooking meats, eating the skin on chicken and fish, etc. This L. reuteri strategy amplifies this effect considerably.
Increased oxytocin–A doubling of oxytocin blood levels was observed in mice, the effect responsible for the extravagant skin benefits, reduced insulin resistance, dramatic increases in testosterone in males, increased estrogen in females (magnitude unclear), thicker and more plentiful hair (though the consistency of this effect is not yet clear). Other studies have demonstrated substantial weight loss, especially from visceral fat, increased muscle mass, and increased bone density (protection from osteoporosis/osteopenia).

Put all these effects together—caloric reduction, increased skin health, increased bone density, fat loss, muscle gain, reduced insulin resistance, etc.—and you have one of the most powerful anti-aging, youth-preserving strategies I have ever come across.

Because the most robust data were generated using the ATCC PTA 6475 strain of L. reuteri (and, to a lesser extent, the DSM 17938 strain), I have been confining my efforts to this strain. Other L. reuteri strains may mimic these effects, but we simply don’t know that for certain, as the studies have not been performed. Strain specificity can be a crucial factor. After all, all of us have several strains of E. coli in our intestines that live quietly and don’t bother anyone. But, get exposed to selected strains of E. coli from contaminated produce and you develop life-threatening diarrhea that can be fatal, especially in children. Same species (E. coli), different strains—strain specificity can be a critical factor.

So we start with L. reuteri ATCC PTA 6475 provided by the Swedish company, BioGaia, who has somehow locked this species up with patents (not sure how; I thought biological organisms were non-patentable). Their product is called Gastrus and combines the ATCC PTA 6475 strain with the DSM 17938 strain. (Just Google “BioGaia Gastrus” to find a retailer.) Problem: There are only 100 million CFUs (live organisms) per tablet. I have not observed any substantial health benefits by ingesting the tablets.

So I have been amplifying bacterial counts by making yogurt. The counts are further increased by performing fermentation in the presence of prebiotic fibers. Just as ingesting prebiotic fibers increases bacterial counts in your intestines, so it goes in making yogurt, as well.

The yogurt is thick, delicious, and contains a marked increase in bacterial counts, though I have not yet performed a formal count. Given the extraordinary thickness of the end-product, it is likely that trillions of CFUs are present, sufficient to convert the soupy liquid of your starting milk, half-and-half, cream, coconut milk or other starter to rich, thick yogurt, sometimes thick enough to stand up on a plate. People who consume 1/2 cup per day of this preparation (mix with blueberries, strawberries, etc.) are reporting the effects listed above. And this yogurt is so much richer and better tasting than products you buy in grocery stores.

There are probably many ways to make this yogurt and yield the bacterial counts you desire. But this is how I did it:

1 quart of organic half-and-half (or cream, whole milk, canned coconut milk, goat’s milk/cream, sheep’s milk/cream)

1 tablespoon inulin (or sucrose, glucose, potato starch, or other prebiotic)

10 tablets of BioGaia Gastrus, crushed

If you use coconut milk, you will need to add sugar, e.g., one tablespoon, to the prebiotic or use more sugar in place of the prebiotic, as there is no lactose to ferment in coconut milk. The probiotic tablets can be crushed using a mortar and pestle or other hard object (clean stone, bottom of a thick drinking glass, rolling pin, etc.). Don’t worry: The end-product should have little remaining sugar, as it is fermented to lactic acid. (If in doubt, just let it ferment a few more hours.) Just as the cucumbers you grow in your garden were fertilized with cow manure but ripe cucumbers contain no cow manure, so the final fermented yogurt product should contain little to no sugar.

In large glass/ceramic bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of liquid with the inulin, sugar or other prebiotic, and the crushed probiotic tablets. (We start by making a slurry, as inulin will form hard clumps if added to the entire volume.) Mix thoroughly and make sure the prebiotic and sugar are dissolved. Then add the remaining liquid and stir.

Maintain the mixture at 110 degrees F. This can be accomplished with a yogurt maker, Instant Pot, sous vide device, rice cooker, or any other device that allows maintaining a continual temperature in this range. I use my oven: Turn onto any temperature, e.g., 300 degrees, for about 60-90 seconds, just until a desert-hot temperature is reached. Turn off the oven; repeat every 4-6 hours—not precise, but it works fine when using dairy for fermentation. Fermenting coconut milk is much fussier and a continual precise control over temperature will be required, e.g., one of the other devices. I used a yogurt maker with good results.

The first batch tends to be a bit thinner with curdles, but subsequent batches tend to be thicker and smoother. To make subsequent batches, reserve a few tablespoons from the prior batch and use in place of crushed tablets, since your yogurt should contain plentiful microbes.

There are some uncertainties:

Is there reduction in bacterial counts or contamination by air organisms as you make yogurt from prior batches? Some people have “re-seeded” their yogurt by adding a few more crushed tablets of probiotic after several rounds of yogurt-making.
We’ve arrived at the 1/2-cup “dose” by trial and error, as judged by the anorexigenic effect that results when oxytocin levels increase. But is that the ideal dose? Don’t know yet.
Can we improve on taste/texture/bacterial counts by altering fermentation temperature, choice of prebiotic, or other conditions?

Despite the uncertainties, I am witnessing some very dramatic changes in the people following this idea. If you give it a try, be sure to come back and report your experience.

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The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox begins Wed April 18th!

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, April 18th 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.

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, April 17th (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. 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.

The post The next Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox begins Wed April 18th! appeared first on Dr. William Davis.