Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health

by William Davis

But today’s bread bears little resemblance to the loaves that emerged from our forebears’ ovens.

Wheat ain’t just gluten, any more than southern cooking is just grits.

(As you will see later, there is no lack of variety with elimination of wheat; there is plenty of great food remaining in a wheat-free lifestyle.)

But remember: Foods made with cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch are among the few foods that increase blood sugar even more than wheat products.

In short, don’t replace wheat calories with rapidly absorbed carbohydrates of the sort that trigger insulin and visceral fat deposition.

About 1 percent of the population is unable to tolerate wheat gluten, even in small quantities.

People with celiac disease are more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, connective tissue diseases such as lupus, asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, as well as other inflammatory and immune disorders.

Diabetics can become nondiabetics, prediabetics can become nonprediabetics.

Physiologically, the relationship of wheat to diabetes makes perfect sense.

If I were to sum up the views of the ADA toward diet, it would be: Go ahead and eat sugar and foods that increase blood sugar, just be sure to adjust your medication to compensate. But while

After all, some carbohydrate sources, such as blueberries, raspberries, peaches, and sweet potatoes, provide important nutrients and don’t increase blood glucose to the same extent that more “obnoxious” carbohydrates can.

The higher the ratio of protein intake from vegetables to the protein intake from animal products, the fewer hip fractures occur.

In fact, loss of bone strength is the rule over time, largely due to the chronic low-grade acidosis we create with diet.

The same inflammation that issues from the visceral fat of the wheat belly and results in diabetes, heart disease, and cancer also yields inflammation of joints.

The more wheat products you consume, the higher and more frequently blood glucose increases, the more glycation occurs.

People with rheumatoid arthritis, a disabling and painful arthritis that can leave the sufferer with disfigured hand joints, knees, hips, elbows, and shoulders, can blend with wheat sensitivity.

While eggs don’t increase blood sugar, nor do raw nuts, olive oil, pork chops, or salmon, carbohydrates do—all carbohydrates, from apples and oranges to jelly beans and seven-grain cereal.

So meats are not intrinsically bad; but they can be made unhealthy through manipulations that increase AGE formation.

Whenever possible, avoid well-done and choose meats cooked rare or medium.

Anything that keeps blood sugar from increasing, such as proteins, fats, and reduction in carbohydrates such as wheat, reduces small LDL particles.

Someone suffering with undiagnosed intestinal celiac disease can have odd cravings for the food that damages their small intestine, but also show diabetic blood sugars with wheat consumption, along with wide mood swings.

Others may become helplessly tired, overweight, and diabetic, yet suffer neither intestinal nor nervous system immune effects of wheat gluten.

Any dermatologist can tell you that skin is the outward reflection of internal body processes.

In other words, cultures without acne consume little to no wheat, sugar, or dairy products.

There is no nutritional deficiency that develops when you stop consuming wheat and other processed foods.

B vitamins are present in more than ample quantities in meats, vegetables, and nuts.

A quarter cup of spinach or four asparagus spears, for instance, matches the quantity of folic acid in most breakfast cereals.

In addition, eliminating wheat from your diet actually enhances B vitamin absorption.

In my experience, the most effective and, ultimately, the easiest way to eliminate wheat is to do it abruptly and completely.

Avoiding wheat means taking your own food to work and using a fork or spoon to eat it.

Greater dependence on vegetables and fresh fruit can also mean going to the store, farmers’ market, or greengrocer a couple of times a week.

I believe these grains are safer than wheat, but small servings (less than ½ cup) are key to minimize the blood sugar impact.

You can’t overdo nuts, provided they’re raw.

Use healthy oils liberally, such as extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and cocoa butter, and avoid polyunsaturated oils such as sunflower, safflower, corn, and vegetable oils (which

Use ground flaxseed as a hot cereal (heated, for instance, with milk, unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or coconut water, or soymilk, with added walnuts or blueberries) or add it to foods such as cottage cheese or chilis.

Ground flaxseed and ground nut meals (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts) make great hot cereals for breakfast, heated with milk, coconut milk or water, unsweetened almond milk, or soymilk, and topped with walnuts, raw sunflower seeds, and blueberries or other berries.

Eggs make a return to breakfast in all their glory: fried, over-easy, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, scrambled.

gluten-containing grains: rye, barley, spelt, triticale, kamut, and bulgur.

Couscous, matzo, orzo, graham, and bran are all wheat. So are faro, panko, and rusk.