William Davis's Blog: Dr. Davis Infinite Health Blog, page 74

The Dangers of Carb Loading

Carb loading is viewed as an essential practice by people who engage in vigorous exercise. But it is a practice that can lead, over time, to disastrous health consequences, including heart disease, dysbiosis, and fatty liver.

And it is also entirely unnecessary, a dietary mistake created by a misinterpretation of scientific studies conducted 70 -80 years ago.

About Undoctored:

We are entering a new age in which the individual has astounding power over health–but don’t count on the doctor or healthcare system to tell you this.

We draw from the health information of the world, collaborate, share experiences, collect data, and show how to apply new health tools to achieve levels of health that you may have thought unattainable. We do all this at a time when conventional healthcare costs have become crippling.

The result: personal health that is SUPERIOR to that obtained through conventional means.

Start with the book:

Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor

Join the movement to take back personal control over health:

InnerCircle.Undoctored.com

Transcript:

Let’s talk about the dangers of carb loading. Carb loading is a very common practice, right? People who ingest large quantity of carbohydrates in preparation, say, for a marathon, or a triathlon, or other intensive physical effort. Well, carb loading is very destructive, when practiced repeatedly over an extended period, meaning months to years.

It’s also unnecessary. It was based on false science, on misinterpretation of the science, that dates back about 80 years. Back in the 1930s and 1940s there were studies conducted on athletes who consumed an average American diet. When carbohydrates were removed from their diet, their exercise performance dropped, over a period of a week. When carbohydrates were added back, exercise performance was restored. When additional carbohydrates were added, their exercise performance improved further. So in those week- to 10 day- or so -long observations, it was concluded that loading up with carbohydrates was necessary for high exercise performance.

That led to 80 years of carb loading, to the point where now modern athletes go berserk with pasta-night prior to a marathon, for instance; drinking those sugary drinks, and energy bars during the course of a competitive race. Well, what adverse effects can develop when you do these kinds of things? Well, one, it’s unnecessary. We’ll talk about why that is.

Small LDL particles

You provoke formation of small LDL particles. Recall that small LDL particles, that are uncommonly persistent for a long time of the bloodstream, uncommonly adherent to the arterial wall, are very prone to oxidation, and other reasons — are perfect triggers for heart attack and heart disease. So those carb loading episodes cause an excess of small LDL particles, for about a week, in your bloodstream, unlike benign large LDL particles that are provoked for only 24 hours after consuming fat. So you raise your risk for heart disease when you carb load.

Fatty liver

You also add to fatty liver. When you take in large quantities of carbohydrates, your liver doesn’t know what to do with them, so it converts them to stored energy. It does that as triglycerides, and that raises blood triglycerides, but also raises liver triglycerides. When triglycerides accumulate in the liver, through a process called de novo lipogenesis, the conversion of sugars to triglycerides or fats, you get fatty liver over time. Every time you carb load, you add to fatty liver. That’s not good, because over time that means a cirrhosis and liver failure, and also makes you resistant to insulin, with all the implications of that, including increased visceral fat (despite your exercise schedule and demands). It leads to increased risk for dementia and cancer and heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Carb-dependence

Carb loading makes you carbohydrate-dependent. It means you have to constantly ingest carbohydrates, because whenever your glycogen stores in your liver (that’s how sugars are stored, at least in a sugar form, not just triglycerides) but as glycogen stores drop, you need more carbohydrates to restore glycogen stores. You need this constant flow of carbohydrates, which is a very unhealthy practice.

Grain consumption

And of course you’re exposed all the adverse effects of grains — beyond that of sugars and carbs, such as inflammation, phytates take that bind to any positively charged minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, and the direct toxic bowel effects of gliadin derived peptides, the appetite stimulation of gliadin derived opioid peptides and the behavioral emotional distortions that they introduce, the triggering of autoimmunity by the gliadin protein and on and on and on. You’re exposed to all those things. Maybe you don’t have lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis now, but you can have it down the road if you engage in this crazy and unproductive practice called carb loading.

The truth of it is, when you do a lower carb program, like the Wheat Belly approach, where we eliminate all grains, and cap our net carb intake to no more than 15 grams per meal, it takes about 6 weeks for your body to convert from being carbohydrate-dependent to being a fat-mobilizing creature. It takes about that period of time, 4-6 weeks, for you to become very efficient at mobilizing energy from fat.

You only have about 40 minutes of energy in your liver as glycogen and then you have to ingest those drinks and bars if you’re carb-dependent. But if you’re dependent on body fat, even a slender person has weeks to months of energy stored up in fat.

So recognize carb loading as (1) unnecessary, if you make the conversion to a fat burning individual (which is far healthier, by the way) and that pushes you closer to being ketotic intermittently, and (2), it rids you of all those silly energy bars and drinks and carb loading practices, and frees you from all the adverse health effects of this very unwise health practice called carb loading.

The post The Dangers of Carb Loading appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

The Secrets in Your Triglycerides

Of the four measures available on any standard cholesterol blood panel, triglycerides are the most neglected. Yet that one value contains a wealth of information and insight into your health, information about your diet, insulin status, even a sign that you could have fatty liver–but I’ll bet, of the many times you’ve had a cholesterol panel drawn, your doctor never thought to even mention any of this.

Don’t let the medical system’s misguided obsession with cholesterol (because of the influence and marketing of the drug industry) keep you from learning and benefiting from the secrets in your triglyceride value.

About Undoctored:

We are entering a new age in which the individual has astounding power over health–but don’t count on the doctor or healthcare system to tell you this.

We draw from the health information of the world, collaborate, share experiences, collect data, and show how to apply new health tools to achieve levels of health that you may have thought unattainable. We do all this at a time when conventional healthcare costs have become crippling.

The result: personal health that is SUPERIOR to that obtained through conventional means.

Start with the book:

Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor

Join the discussion and be freed from the profit-driven healthcare system:

InnerCircle.Undoctored.com

Transcript:

You know there are four values reported back to you in your cholesterol panel, a typical standard cholesterol panel. They’re total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol.

By the way, of those four measures, only the first three are actually measured: total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. The LDL cholesterol, the value that is the focus of statin drug treatment, is a fictitious number. It’s not measured. It’s calculated from those other three values, using an equation that is miserably outdated, imprecise, and subject to all kinds of errors — not in the calculation — but in the assumptions made to generate that equation. That is the source for billions and billions of dollars and millions of prescriptions given to people for this number that’s not even a real value. But anyway back to the point …

That triglyceride value is often neglected. It’s often not even mentioned by many doctors. Yet, buried in that value is tons of useful information. So when you get that cholesterol panel, I recommend you ignore the LDL cholesterol — and the Total cholesterol by the way (that’s whole other conversation; you’ll find the Undoctored book and Undoctored Blog and some of the older conversations in the Wheat Belly materials as well), but that triglyceride value — often neglected — is packed with useful information.

For instance, it gives you an index of your carbohydrate consumption and tolerance. If your triglyceride value is above the ideal (the ideal is 60 milligrams per deciliter or less); if it’s above that, say, 180 or 300, it suggests you are substantially over-consuming carbohydrates, and you’re developing metabolic distortions as a result. So high triglycerides give you an idea about that.

High triglycerides, above 60, also give you an idea about how resistant you are to insulin — not as precise as measuring insulin resistance by other measures, but it’s a crude and easy number that just about everybody has. If your triglycerides are high, 180, 200, 300, 400 mg/dL, it means you have insulin resistance. You are not responding to your body’s own insulin. It means your pancreas has to work harder and produce higher levels of insulin. If you were to measure blood insulin, it would be high. It’d be 30 micro units, or 40, or something, and that’s not good. That causes visceral fat (inflammatory fat) to accumulate. It leads to phenomena like dementia risk, cancer risk, heart disease risk, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, weight gain, etc. So that triglyceride value above ideal is a problem.

High triglycerides also give you an idea of whether you have a lot of visceral fat. Now you may just know that by looking of course, or pinching your waist, but because fat, stored fat, serves as a depot, a storage place for triglycerides and fatty acids, and they’re always transacting or releasing those fatty acids and triglycerides into the bloodstream. If triglycerides are high, or even high-ish, like 90 or 120 mg/dL, it means your fat is transacting triglycerides, and you should lose some that visceral fat.

Having higher triglycerides also means that you’re likely to have an excess of small LDL particles. Recall that small LDL particles are the real cause for a lot of heart disease (not high cholesterol; that’s ridiculous) — small LDL particles, caused by carbohydrate consumption. Well, the series of reactions in the body that lead to formation of small LDL particles requires triglycerides, because triglycerides float in the bloodstream as what are called VLDL particles (very low-density lipoprotein particles, rich in triglycerides).

Those VLDL particles interact with LDL particles (not LDL cholesterol; that’s the kindergarten version of how heart disease is understood by most doctors, because they believe the sales reps in their office). No, LDL particles, low-density lipoprotein particles interact with those VLDL particles, and they become enriched in triglycerides (the LDL particles do) and then a series of modifications that particle lead to small LDL. Point being, if you have triglycerides above the ideal 60 mg/dL, it means you have increasing numbers of small LDL particles that lead you to heart attack and stroke. So we want those triglycerides down.

Having higher triglycerides also often suggests you have a fatty liver, because it’s triglycerides that gum up the liver in fatty liver. That’s why it’s called fatty liver; not because fat consumption causes fatty liver; because fat accumulation causes fatty liver, and it’s triglycerides (triglycerides are fats, but those triglycerides come mostly from carbohydrates and sugars. It’s the process of liver or hepatic de novo lipogenesis. Don’t remember that. Just remember that the liver converts sugars (like the amylopectins of grains, or the sugars in sugary foods and soft drinks), converts sugars to triglycerides. It raises blood triglycerides. It raises liver triglycerides (fatty liver).

So in that triglyceride value, often neglected, is a ton of useful information, for you — to empower you in crafting a diet, in managing weight, and gaining better health. But you want an ideal triglyceride value which is no higher than 60 md/dL.

The post The Secrets in Your Triglycerides appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

The Trouble With Magnesium and Migraines

Getting magnesium supplementation right can make the difference between magnificent relief from migraine headaches or no benefit at all.

In the Wheat Belly, now the Undoctored program, we use the best form of magnesium available, magnesium bicarbonate, that we make ourselves using the Magnesium Water recipe. But it is important to recognize that, even if you have a normal blood level of magnesium, profound magnesium deficiency can be present and will sustain migraine headaches. Long-term consistent use is therefore crucial for effect.

Magnesium Water: https://blog.undoctored.com/magnesium-water-undoctored-style/

About Undoctored:

We are entering a new age in which the individual has astounding power over health–but don’t count on the doctor or healthcare system to tell you this.

We draw from the health information of the world, collaborate, share experiences, collect data, and show how to apply new health tools to achieve levels of health that you may have thought unattainable. We do all this at a time when conventional healthcare costs have become crippling.

The result: personal health that is SUPERIOR to that obtained through conventional means.

Start with the Undoctored book:

Undoctored: Why Health Care Has Failed You and How You Can Become Smarter Than Your Doctor.

Find the full Undoctored Advanced Concepts for migraine headaches in the Undoctored Inner Circle:

InnerCircle.Undoctored.com

Transcript:

In the Undoctored Inner Circle website recently we released an Advanced Concepts discussion about how to better deal with migraine headaches.

You know, lots of people are plagued by migraine headaches, that can be incapacitating. They’ve had them for years, or even decades, and have submitted to all kinds of medications, even often going to the emergency room to get relief and often just plagued by these things, and become very reliant on the medical system. The truth is there are many very effective strategies you can pursue on your own, don’t need a doctor to follow, that can be quite effective, and obtain a partial if not complete relief from migraine headaches.

I’ve seen this play out many times. We talk about all those additional strategies to consider in the Undoctored Inner Circle, Advanced Concepts report on migraine headaches, but I want to focus here on this idea that magnesium is critical for preventing or reversing migraine headaches. Many people don’t get it quite right, because there are problems with magnesium.

First of all, most tablet forms are better laxatives than they are at restoring magnesium. For that reason, if you have a problem that’s very troublesome, like migraine headaches, I would urge you to use the magnesium water recipe. I have that recipe posted on the Undoctored Blog, the Undoctored book, the Wheat Belly Blog, Wheat Belly Total Health book, and the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox book. There’s lots of places to find that very simple recipe.

It’s a recipe simply that uses magnesium hydroxide (that’s milk of magnesia, which must be unflavored, because the flavoring used in the milk of magnesia blocks the reaction we want) — so, milk of magnesia and carbonated water — typically seltzer water (we don’t want some of the sweetened forms of seltzer, that have a lot of sugar or high fructose corn syrup) — we don’t want that. The proportions are in their recipe. It’s very very simple.

Make the magnesium water. Magnesium bicarbonate: that’s what results when you when you react the magnesium hydroxide and the carbonated water. You get magnesium bicarbonate and water. Magnesium bicarbonate is the best form of magnesium you can get. It is the most effective and quickest at raising tissue levels of magnesium.

We start with 4 ounces, or ½ cup twice a day. Each ½ cup or 4 ounce serving provides 90 milligrams of magnesium. A ½ cup serving twice per day adds only 180 milligrams magnesium per day. We’re trying to get to at least 400 milligrams per day in order to obtain relief from migraine headaches. Build up to 8 ounces or 1 cup twice a day. Even that’s only 360 milligrams per day, so it would help you to add a midday dose; of at least 4 ounces, if not 8 ounces.

You do this for weeks, months, even years, because the profound magnesium deficiency that allows migraine headaches is not reversed within days or weeks. It’s reversed over months to years, so you have to stick with it. Now if you say “well, I have a normal blood level of magnesium” that’s not helpful, because the body has a way of protecting your blood level of magnesium. That is, it will sacrifice magnesium stored in your bones, for instance, to maintain a normal blood level of magnesium.

A normal blood level, whether it’s a serum level (the most common test), or RBC (red blood cell level; that’s somewhat better), even if that’s normal, you can still have profound body depletion of magnesium, particularly in the bones. That results in osteoporosis and fractures over time. So do not be falsely reassured by a normal blood level of magnesium can still have profound magnesium depletion, including deficient enough to allow migraine headaches.

So the key with magnesium is, if you have a problem like a migraine headache, use the best form of magnesium we have, which is magnesium bicarbonate you make yourself, by following the magnesium water recipe. Do it consistently. Build up the dose. As you build up the dose, if you encounter loose stools — back down on the dose. But over time try to build that dose up. Try to get at least 400 if not 500 milligrams of magnesium per day, because that’s where you start to get relief from that from migraine headaches. Keep in mind just what a powerful strategy you have in your hands, just by having this access to this magnesium water recipe. But you’ve got to stick to it, and you got to get it right.

The post The Trouble With Magnesium and Migraines appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Count Your Blessings – Not Your Calories

For years you’ve been wrongly told that: “To lose weight, eat less and exercise more.” “Calories in, calories out.” “A calorie is a calorie.”

These gems of conventional dietary wisdom aimed toward controlling weight are simply not true. All calories are far from equal. For example, 1,000 calories of baked goods are not the same as 1,000 calories of, say, meat, vegetables, or olive oil. When it comes to calories, I suggest you forget that you can count at all.

It is true that extreme calorie reduction (e.g., starvation) will result in weight loss. It is also true that when the macronutrient (carbohydrate, fat, protein) composition of a diet is held constant but total calories vary, lower calorie intake can achieve weight loss (as well as create hunger and misery).

But striking differences develop when the relative proportions of macronutrients within those calories are varied, so that a diet of 1,000 calories per day of one macronutrient composition may achieve the same weight loss as another diet of 2,000 calories per day of another composition.

Carbohydrate content is the variable that determines whether a dietary approach permits weight loss or not. Clinical research has already disproven the notion that all calories are equal. Studies have demonstrated that if calories are kept constant, these are the results:

Slashing carbohydrates but leaving fat and protein results in substantial weight loss.
Cutting fat that leaves a preponderance of carbohydrates and proteins results in either less weight loss or even weight gain depending on the number of calories.
A diet of pure carbohydrates is also associated with extreme hunger, while a diet of nearly all fat is not.

In one British study, even when calories were limited to a near-starvation level of 1,000 calories per day, if those calories were 90 percent carbohydrate, weight would increase, while 1,000 calories as 90 percent fat or 90 percent protein would result in substantial weight loss.

The differences hinge on whether or not insulin is provoked and far less on the calories themselves. Insulin causes sugars (glucose) to enter cells and be converted to fat, while suppressing mobilization of fat from fat cells. Foods that trigger insulin the most are therefore the most potent for weight gain, while their absence allows weight loss; the equation is quite simple.

Carbohydrates, of course, provoke a vigorous insulin response.
Proteins provoke a modest insulin response.
Fat provokes no insulin response at all.

Carbohydrates from sources of grains are particularity dangerous.

The partially digested by-products of gliadin and related proteins in grains stimulate the appetite, causing you to feel hungry all the time.
Grain amylopectin A has the exceptional capacity to send blood sugar higher, ounce for ounce, than table sugar.

What goes up must come down. Blood sugar highs are inevitably followed by blood sugar lows with shakiness, mental cloudiness, and hunger, a 2-hour cycle that sets the poor grain-consumer in an endless 2-hour hunt for food. The combination provides a perfect formula for weight gain, effects that have caused me to accuse wheat and grains of being “perfect obesogens”—foods that are perfect for causing weight gain and obesity.

Despite the fact that I am telling you to not count calories or restrict portion size, when you remove grains from the diet while not restricting calories or fat, calorie intake drops effortlessly by 400 or more calories per day, often much more. By removing sources of gliadin protein–derived opiates, addictive relationships with food dissolve, while the period between, say, lunch and dinner is no longer filled with anxiousness over the next meal. You will find that you rarely even think about food between meals.

Calorie intake therefore drops effortlessly and naturally with grain elimination, and food intake reverts back to that of providing sustenance; you eat what you require, nothing more, nothing less. So calories in, calories— who cares?

The post Count Your Blessings – Not Your Calories appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Gingerbread Breakfast Cakes

Here’s a holiday recipe from the Wheat Belly 30-Minute Cookbook.

These cakes taste like gingerbread cookies and will delight big and little kids: They’ll feel like they’re having dessert for breakfast! Minus wheat and sugar, we create healthy cakes that have no nutritional downside.

Spread cream cheese, butter, fruit butters, or Raspberry Chia Jam or Plum Jam (recipes in Cookbook) over the top.

If you don’t have the All-Purpose Baking Mix, you can substitute 2 cups almond meal/flour.

Makes 6 cakes

2 cups Wheat Belly All-Purpose Baking Mix or Wheat-Free Market All-Purpose Baking Mix

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

2 tablespoons Virtue Sweetener (or other natural sweetener equivalent to ½ cup sugar)

1 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon lemon juice

¼ cup water, warm

1 large egg, whisked

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In medium-sized bowl, combine baking mix, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and sweetener and mix thoroughly.

In small bowl or mug, combine molasses, lemon juice, water and mix. Pour molasses mixture into dry mixture and mix. Wait one minute, then stir in eggs.

Divide into 6 mounds on parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick withdraws dry.

The post Gingerbread Breakfast Cakes appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

The Next Wheat belly 10-Day Detox Challenge Begins Wednesday, November 29th!

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. Now, I have created an easy and accessible 10-Day Detox Program.

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.

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 Wednesday, November 28th (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 Detox Challenge Begins Wednesday, November 29th! appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Wheat Belly Pumpkin Pie

Well, the holidays roll around once again . . . and it’s time for everything pumpkin!

Here is a reminder of how us grain-free folk make a wonderful and delicious pumpkin pie that is wheat- and grain-free. Without grains, it does NOT stimulate appetite, does NOT send blood sugar sky-high, does NOT add to arthritis/joint pain, acid reflux, irritable bowel symptoms, leg edema, depression, moodiness, migraine headache, hypertension, dementia, heart disease, or cancer. You can just have your nice big slice of pumpkin pie, even with a big dollop of whipped cream, all without worries.

The pumpkin puree poses only a slight potential carbohydrate challenge. The entire pie contains 36 grams carbohydrates; if divided into 8 pieces, that yields 4.5 grams carbohydrate per slice–-a tolerable level for most people. Heck, even two pieces yields about the same carbohydrate load as half an apple.

Makes 8 servings

Pie crust

1 1/4 cups ground walnuts (or pecans or almonds)

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 large egg

4 ounces butter or coconut oil, melted

Pie filling

2 cups pumpkin puree

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 large eggs

1/2 cup coconut milk (canned variety)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 cup Virtue Sweetener (or other natural sweetener equivalent to 1 cup sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In large bowl, mix together ground walnuts, flaxseed, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. In small bowl, whisk eggs and add butter or coconut oil. Pour liquid mix into dry mix and blend by hand thoroughly.

Grease a 9-inch pie pan with coconut oil or other oil. Transfer mix to the pie pan and spread evenly along bottom and up sides. If mixture is too thin, place in refrigerator for several minutes to thicken. For ease of spreading, use a large metal spoon heated under running hot water. Set aside.

In another large bowl, combine pumpkin, cream cheese, eggs, coconut milk, and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly by hand. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sweetener and continue to blend by hand.

Pour pumpkin mix into pie crust. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until toothpick or knife withdraws nearly dry. Optionally, sprinkle additional nutmeg and/or cinnamon, top with whipped cream or whipped coconut milk.

The post Wheat Belly Pumpkin Pie appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

Wheat Belly Holiday Recipes: Healthy Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy: the ultimate comfort food . . . one you thought you’d never have again!

The familiar dish of breakfast and holiday meals is recreated here with a delicious gravy that you can pour over freshly-baked hot biscuits. Because it contains no wheat or other unhealthy thickeners like cornstarch made with junk carbohydrates, there should be no blood sugar or insulin problems with this dish, nor joint pain, edema, acid reflux, mind “fog,” or dandruff—–life is good without grains!

Grain-free biscuits and gravy are also much more filling than their grain-based counterparts. It means that, should you prepare these biscuits as part of a larger holiday meal, you may get by with preparing fewer dishes, as your family and guests will find themselves full with less food.

While the gravy is also dairy-free for those with dairy intolerances, the biscuits are not, as there are cheese and butter in the biscuits, both of which are optional, e.g., leave out the cheese and replace butter with coconut or other oil.

Makes 10 biscuits

Gravy:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound loose sausage meat

2½ cups beef broth

½ can (13.6 ounces) coconut milk or cream

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

Dash ground black pepper

Biscuits:

1 cup shredded cheddar (or other) cheese

2 cups almond meal/flour

¼ cup coconut flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 large eggs

4 ounces butter, melted (or other oil, e.g., extra-light olive, coconut, walnut)

To make gravy:

In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté sausage, breaking up as it browns. Cook until thoroughly cooked and no longer pink.

Turn heat up to medium to high and pour in beef broth. Heat just short of boiling, then turn down to low heat. Pour in coconut milk and stir in well. Add onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make biscuits:

Preheat oven to 325° F.

In food chopper or processor, pulse shredded cheese to finer, granular consistency.

Pour cheese into large bowl, then add almond meal, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt and mix thoroughly. Add the eggs and butter or oil and mix thoroughly to yield thick dough.

Spoon out dough into 10 or so ¾-inch thick mounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and toothpick withdraws dry.

Ladle gravy onto biscuits just before serving.

The post Wheat Belly Holiday Recipes: Healthy Biscuits and Gravy appeared first on Dr. William Davis.

What’s the story with zinc?

In the several decades since the need for dietary zinc was discovered, it has proven to be far more important to overall health than initially thought. And deficiency is proving to be common.

You may recall that the phytates of wheat and grains block nearly all absorption of dietary zinc, along with blocking iron, calcium, and magnesium (all positively-charged cations). Just as iron deficiency anemia with hemoglobin values of 7 or 8 g/dl resistant to iron supplementation commonly develops in grain-consuming populations, so a parallel zinc deficiency also develops (although not well reflected by blood levels of zinc, which underestimates tissue levels). Zinc appears to be nearly as important to overall health as iron.

You can also appreciate that there is no shortage of conventional health advice to correct what is nothing more than nutritional deficiencies caused by grain consumption: women take calcium for bone health (a very bad idea), the varied phenomena of magnesium deficiency (e.g., migraine headaches, hypertension, heart rhythm disorders, osteoporosis) are managed with prescription drugs, etc. Zinc deficiency likewise shows itself in many ways, rarely recognized as zinc deficiency but treated, for instance, as IBS, eczema, or pre-diabetes.

Zinc, like magnesium, is an essential cofactor required for thousands of reactions in the body and thereby plays a crucial role in many aspects of health, with zinc deficiency evident in many varied ways. We now appreciate that zinc deficiency, for example, adds to insulin resistance, inflammatory diseases, hormonal disruption, and even cognitive impairment and dementia, and can be responsible for hair loss, diarrhea, impaired growth and development in children, impaired sexual function, skin rashes, and increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections. Reflecting the myriad functions for zinc, 3% of the human genome codes for zinc-containing proteins/enzymes.

Note that zinc, like vitamin B12, is obtained primarily from animal products and is therefore one of the major deficiencies that plague people who are vegan/vegetarian. Humans, through our adaptation and substantial reliance on carnivory, have developed reliance on nutrients that are obtained exclusively or primarily via consumption of animal organs and flesh.  A listing of zinc-rich sources (from the USDA Nutrient Database):

Zinc is not stored in any organ and regular daily intake is therefore required to maintain all zinc-related functions. The national nutritional NHANES III survey determined that around 45% of Americans do not obtain sufficient zinc, even if they consume foods from the above table.

A quick review of some of the evidence involving zinc:

Inflammatory markers, c-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were reduced with 30 mg (elemental) zinc as zinc gluconate in obese women with higher starting levels of these markers compared to normal controls.
The combined data of 6 clinical trials demonstrate reduced measures of insulin resistance with zinc supplementation.
Zinc supplementation of 30 mg (elemental) as zinc gluconate increased T-cell number and proliferative response as reflections of immune response (with impaired T-cell driven immunity previously demonstrated in other studies).
In experimental models, zinc deficiency is associated with the pathological hallmarks of dementia, including oxidative injury and accumulation of beta amyloid plaque, the signature abnormality of Alzheimer’s disease.
Zinc acetate supplementation reduced production of beta-amyloid plaque in the brains of mice.
People with Alzheimer’s dementia (and Parkinsonism) have lower serum zinc levels compared to controls.
Blood levels of  zinc fall as we age (for unclear reasons).
Zinc sublingual lozenges (for enhanced delivery to the sinuses) abbreviate the duration of viral illnesses by about one-half if initiated at the start (for total of 75 mg per day during the illness). This presumably reflects improved immunity.

There is plenty we do not yet know about zinc. For example, if zinc deficiency is associated with the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s dementia in experimental models and zinc supplementation reduces the beta-amyloid plaque of dementia, should zinc be a component of any program to prevent human cognitive decline? A human clinical trial has not yet been performed to provide an answer.

Nonetheless, you can appreciate that zinc plays a crucial role in human health and that deficiency—intermittent or chronic—is common. Banishing all wheat and grains from your life is a terrific start, as this alone allows you to absorb the zinc in, say, pork roast or salmon. Because blood levels (both serum and RBC) are such a flawed means of assessing tissue zinc status, we are left with no satisfactory way to assess individual zinc status (though if a serum or RBC level is low, you are indeed profoundly deficient, but a “normal” level can still conceal substantial deficiency), it is worth obtaining zinc in some way, either by being cognizant of your consumption of zinc-rich foods (eat 8 ounces of beef for lunch, for example, and you have obtained your necessary daily intake) and/or including zinc supplementation in your daily routine. Given the RDA of zinc of 11 mg per day in adult males, 8 mg per day in adult females, supplemental intake of only 10-15 mg per day suffices to supplement dietary intake, though greater quantities are necessary if you avoid animal products or are foolish enough to continue consuming phytate-containing grains. Consider zinc supplementation in particular if you are over 60 years old, have struggled with skin rashes or repetitive infections, or have concerns about cognitive decline. At these low doses, there is no toxicity from zinc supplementation.

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Healthy Wheat Belly Cranberry Sauce

In anticipation of Thanksgiving, here’s a zesty version of traditional cranberry sauce, minus the sugar. The orange, cinnamon, and other spices, along with the crunch of walnuts, make this one of my favorite holiday side dishes. (More holiday recipes are coming!)

There are 31.5 grams total “net” carbohydrates in this entire recipe, or 5.25 grams per serving (serves 6). To further reduce carbs, you can leave out the orange juice and, optionally, use more zest.

Makes 6 servings

1 cup water

12 ounces fresh whole cranberries

1/4 cup Virtue Sweetener (or other natural sweetener equivalent to 1 cup sugar)

1 tablespoon orange zest + juice of half an orange

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

In small to medium saucepan, bring water to boil. Turn heat down and add cranberries. Cover and cook at low-heat for 10 minutes or until all cranberries have popped. Stir in sweetener. Remove from heat.

Stir in orange zest and juice, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

Transfer mixture to bowl, cool, and serve.

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