OT - what are your thoughts on "wheat belly"

I eat very little bread but was thinking I was doing well by eating whole grains, wheat, et****il someone mentioned "wheat belly". When I looked into it, I don't like what I see. Is wheat really that bad for you??

I think it holds a lot of truths, and I made a decision to be 100% gluten free since I had surgery 10 weeks ago...no melba toast, no meatballs made with bread crumbs.  I'm very strict.  I feel great, and feel much lighter.  Wheat makes me feel heavy and many other people say this too when they go gluten free.

I haven't read the book, but I discovered through trial and error that I am gluten intolerant. Some people have no problems with wheat. Unfortunately, I have major problems. I think it's worth giving up and seeing how you feel. I was surprised at how good I felt after just a few days.

Even though I tested to not have Celiac's disease, my PCP put me on a gluten free diet almost 2 years ago because I am hypothyroid. She said that there are plenty of studies to suggest that gluten bothers people with thyroid issues.

I can tell you that my gut straightened itself out within a month of being gluten free. No more gas, bloating, upset stomachs, pain, or issues of digestion. It makes sense that humans are meat eaters and not eaters of grain.

It's really simple to live gluten free now a days. No pasta (although they make good gluten free pasta  for use at home) and no bread (they have gluten free bread but other than toasted, it's still pretty bad). I don't buy anything with wheat and if I want it, like soy sauce, there is usually a gluten free variety.

Give it a try for a month, you will be amazed at how you feel.

while I truly think there are some with legit sensitivities, I think MOST are jumping on the latest fad bandwagon & finding yet another easy excuse why the weightloss isnt happening like they think it should

Makes sense to me. the wheat we eat today is not the wheat our grandparents and generations further back ate. Our wheat is genetically modified to be addictive.

DH and I went on the wheat belly diet 15 months ago. we stArted it to try to drop our cholesterol levels without statins. My cholesterol levels have become normal and no statins. DH has yet to go get his labs.

I am totally sensitive to cars in all forms even in healthy but carby vegetables. I gained on the wheat belly diet...too much almond flour and fruit. DH has lost 20#.and about 10 inches from his "wheat belly". He no longer has the afternoon slump that he once had. He went from a 40 pants to a 36,an xl shirt to a medium. He has lost almost all of his "man boobs". The recipes are delicious and we plan to be wheat free indefinitely.

 

Be aware that "wheat free" and "gluten free" are two different things. there are many items,like rice flour that are allowed in gluten free diets that are not allowed on wheat/grain free  free diets. Not only does wheat belly promote no wheat,it also promotes no GRAIN.

Yes, wheat is horrible. Dairy is horrible. Don't you dare eat eggs or red meat or pork either or you'll drop dead of a heart attack. Or fi****'s full of mercury. Or sugar. Or any fats of any kind. Or fruit because fructose is bad for you, too. And don't eat anything processed or artificial or your nose will fall off. Or maybe it was your toes. I forget. 

Ha ha. Yes, I'm kidding.

IMO unless you are truly allergic to something or otherwise have some sort of intolerance, no food is really bad for you if you eat it in moderation and all foods are bad for you if you eat them to gluttony. As I tell my kids when they start down that Good Food / Bad Food path -- grapes are "Good for You" but if you ate nothing but grapes, you'd die.

That doesn't stop people from picking on a certain food and demonizing it. Then you read all sorts of horrible things about that food from those people. Most of what they say is exaggerated though and a lot of it isn't even true. Wheat is a great example.

For example, you read that Paleo man didn't eat wheat. This isn't actually true. The ones that lived in places where grains grew wild did eat them. They didn't farm them. Well, actually some Paleolithic cultures did engage in some beginnings of agriculture near the end of the Paleolithic period in some parts of the world but --- shhh -- don't tell anyone because details like that make the Paleo people go ballistic because it doesn't fit into their cherry-picked ideas of who and what Paleolithic Man was. Anyway, there's no reason to believe that Paleolithic cultures picked berries and nuts but didn't harvest the grains or root vegetables that grew around them. They ate anything edible they could get their hands on. In some parts of the world,  they - gasp - drank milk!

But even if they didn't, we've had plenty of time to adapt genetically to eating wheat. There are examples of animals that have adapted genetically in a matter of days and the rate that humans are adapting genetically has been accelerating throughout history.

OTOH, if *you personally* have an intolerance to wheat, then you shouldn't eat it. But if Joe Schmoe has an intolerance to wheat, why should that stop you from eating it?

Finally, I think most people who think they have a wheat or gluten intolerance are really experiencing that they just feel better if they eat less processed stuff. It's not the wheat per se. It's that a lot of stuff with wheat in it is processed crap with little nutritional value and a lot of empty calories. Of course you are going to feel better if you cut that stuff out of your diet and only eat it in moderation.