Wheat Belly

Fast Results

Pumpkins

Yesterday, Monday night, I had to get to the grocery store. After the long Canadian Thanksgiving weekend of eating Roast Turkey and homemade Turkey soup, my refrigerator was running low on supplies. Around 5pm I announced that I’d be going to the grocery store, but somehow didn’t manage to get there until 7pm. I’m telling you this because it was due to this delay in timing that I ended up speaking with this woman (who would like to remain anonymous). I walked into the health section of the store, where this woman was looking around. She asked if I worked there, since there wasn’t any staff in that section at the time. “Do you work here?” Boldly, and actually quite surprising to me I blurted out, “No, but I can help you”. She laughed. We both laughed. The store was closing so we talked very quickly and covered quite a bit of information. She offered to send me the comment that you will read below.

Thank you for stopping and speaking to me and giving me encouraging advice. For the last 10 years, I have been suffering from:

  • extremely high blood pressure that did not respond to any medication;
  • excessive sweating;
  • extra weight;
  • arthritis in my hips and knees;
  • swollen legs, and especially feet;
  • sores that did not heal;
  • several acid reflux;
  • varied digestive problems.

This all resulted in many visits to my family doctor, every possible specialist (including cardiologist, skin specialist, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist) as well as many very expensive and time consuming tests.  Not one of the doctors seemed to help and my situation was getting worse and I was becoming quite desperate.

I am a very active female (both professionally and socially) in my late 60’s and I could not see going on like this for the rest of my life and did not see any solution.

Three weeks ago, I spent a weekend with friends and I mentioned to them how well I felt after it.  What I did not realize is that they have no wheat in their diet.  They lent me the book “Wheat Belly” and I decided to cut out the wheat.  In just two weeks, most of the symptoms disappeared and I have lost almost 10 pounds without trying.  In addition, I have no cravings for bread which I had before.  I can also go without eating for many hours, which I could not do before.

My advice: give it a try for a few months and see what happens.  I have started with the resolution to give up wheat for six months.  I may never go back to it although may miss the taste of the fantastic breads I have been buying over the years. I am not a vegetarian and eat everything else.  This has been much easier than I thought.  Today I had a most fantastic gluten free chocolate cake in a mainstream restaurant.  Everyone is becoming more aware of the problem and I am sure that as the time goes by, there will be more choices. So, thank you again for your help.

Wheat

Wheat (Photo credit: Big Grey Mare ~ on vacation for 2 weeks)

The big, heavy question that came up last night was: “Why don’t the doctors tell us?” The answer is that most of them don’t even know themselves. Doctors are put up on a pedestal, by us. They are human and get tired and have to deal with a lot. Most often their own health suffers as a direct result of their demanding profession. They believe what they are taught or told from the powers that be  (as do we) – it is a cycle. We should be grateful for those who are medically trained, who can help us in case of emergency. But sadly, our entire population has become ‘infected’ by a system of going-with-the-flow, more is better, all-you-can-eat type of mentality. With an attitude that THEY, those doctors and scientist will surely come up with something to fix our chronic state of disease to keep us comfortable as we age and decay.

We need to understand that we have to help ourselves. Banning certain foods, in my opinion, is not the answer. Rather, we need to educate ourselves and learn to make the right choices for our unique systems. And most likely, the direct result from choosing to NOT buy toxic food products is that they will lose their popularity and strong-hold on the market. If we don’t buy it they won’t produce it. No demand = no supply.

I’ve mentioned this article before: “Is Sugar Toxic?” by Gary Taubes and the video by Dr. Robert Lustig: “Sugar: The Bitter Truth“. The video is long (1.5 hour), but if you really want to be healthy and understand WHY what you are doing may not be working, then you need to watch this video (maybe many times) and read this article (maybe many times) until you really understand the information. My goal is to be able to explain this information to my children so that they are able to make their own decisions. Not just tell them that they can’t eat or drink certain things because those things are “bad for you”.

Slowly, I try to explain to my kids in basic terms what I have learned. This morning my daughter said: “Well, if you hadn’t given us those foods in the first place, we wouldn’t have gotten used to them.” My answer: “I didn’t know the information then, but now I do. We will educate ourselves and make these changes together.” Additionally, the important lesson for the kids to take away from this is that adults – even highly educated doctors – don’t know everything. We are all learning new things all the time. Each of us is an experiment of ONE. It is crushing when we discover that what we are doing is contributing to our disease. Belief is a powerful thing.

The natural state of the human body is to be healthy. You see how quickly this woman’s body responded to eliminating wheat/ gluten. She is not an isolated case. At a cellular level the human body tries so hard to maintain a natural homeostasis. But in order to do so, we have to participate and support an environment in which this incredible community of cells can do its work. Read Dr. Bruce Lipton’s book, Biology of Belief. He is an educator/cell biologist who explains this complex subject with ease.

Of course, I could go on forever but will end it with this one thought. In the day, do you hear yourself saying: “I can’t live without my…” or “I need my…” Consider that you actually can live without it. If you NEED it you are being controlled by it. It all takes practice.

I’ve embedded Dr. Lustig’s video for your convenience.

“A calorie is NOT just a calorie.”

What Is a “Wheat Belly”?
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) near Auvers-sur-Oise...

By chance I caught this audio segment from CBC Radio‘s The Current.  Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist from Wisconsin postulates that the wheat grain used in agriculture today is very different from the wheat grain grown from fifty years ago.  As a result of this difference, he believes (aside from the increase in sedentary lifestyles) that the consumption of this grain is actually addictive which not only leads to overeating but also to an increase in the “accumulation of deep visceral fat – that is fat that accumulates around the organs but is shown on the surface as a large belly…It is this visceral fat that is different – it is unique, metabolically different from the other fat, say, found on your back side or arm or leg – it is metabolically active, it produces inflammatory proteins, it causes diabetes, hypertension etc.”

He calls this large belly a Wheat Belly, which is also the title of his book.  You might imagine the controversy his theory is generating among grain farmers and others.  Of course, I find this most fascinating especially if you consider my latest post titled, Full But Empty?

He briefly talks about the fact that in an effort to be healthy we are encouraged to eat more whole grains or complex carbohydrates most often in the form of whole wheat…’because complex carbohydrates sounds healthier versus simple sugars,’ but in fact they (the whole wheat grain) may very well be the source of the problem.  He comments on how people or his patients who complain that since they’ve been eating ‘apparently healthier’ or exercising more they have strangely put on more weight and can’t seem to shake it.

Something we need to address is: what is a complex carbohydrate in the first place?  Do you know?  The first item that comes to mind for most people is GRAINS.  But in fact, complex carbohydrates abound.  Here is a list from Livestrong.com of some, not all complex carbohydrates:

“GRAINS millet, oats, wheat germ, barley, wild rice, brown rice, buckwheat, oat bran, cornmeal and amaranth.

FRUIT apricots, oranges, plums, pears, grapefruits and prunes.

VEGETABLES Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, turnip greens, eggplant, potatoes, yams, corn, carrots, onions, all types of lettuce, celery, cucumbers, cabbage, artichokes and aspragus

Soy milk made from soy beans is a complex carb and dairy products like low-fat yogurt and skim milk are also complex carbs.”

As you can see, complex carbohydrates are in abundance, we are not at a loss if we should eliminate wheat as an experiment.  In fact if you do, you may find that you end up eating more vegetables which is a better choice regardless.

Here is the link for the audio segment from CBC Radio’s, The Current featuring Dr. William Davis. It is 24 minutes long.  When you open the link, just below the title/ opening paragraph you will see a black bar which reads- Listen: (Pop-up). Turn up your volume.

Maybe whole grain wheat could be utilized for other things such as cleaning products? It must be useful for something other than food. I would LOVE to hear any comments or stories that are relevant to to this topic…please share your ideas below.

Related Articles:

Three Hidden Ways Wheat Makes You Fat, by Mark Hyman, MD