Give up wheat and gain good health.
That’s the message from Dr. William Davis, a
Wisconsin cardiologist and author of the best-seller, “Wheat Belly:
Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health.” He
tells Newsmax Health that if we banish wheat from our diet, we’ll also
lose weight, lower our blood sugar, relieve intestinal problems, reduce
dangerous inflammation, gain energy, and just plain feel better.
Why? Davis maintains that today’s wheat
products are made from genetically modified plants that contain harmful
compounds that contribute to weight gain and other serious health woes.
One of those substances is gliadin protein, which acts as an appetite
stimulant. When it was introduced in the mid-1980s, calorie consumption
skyrocketed by an average of 440 calories per day, per person, he says.
“This gliadin acts as an opiate, but this
opiate … does not cause pain relief; it only causes addiction and
stimulation of appetite,” he says.
"This is one of the reasons why wheat, and
not fat, gluttony, or a sedentary lifestyle, is to blame for soaring
rates of obesity and diabetes, he says.
Amylopectin A is another culprit. This
complex carbohydrate is unique to wheat, more easily digestible than
amylopectin B and C found in rice and beans, and can send blood sugar
sky high, higher than sugar and candy can, he explains.
“So two slices of whole wheat bread that
people often regard as healthy raise blood sugar higher than six
teaspoons of table sugar,” he says. “Is it any wonder we have a world
full of diabetes?”
Wheat germ agglutinin, another wheat
protein, causes intestinal destruction when given to rats in a purified
form. Humans eat much smaller amounts of the non-purified substance but
that also hurts intestinal health, contributing to acid reflux,
irritable bowel syndrome, and the worsening of ulcerative colitis and
Crohn’s disease, he says.
Davis was compelled to write his book after
realizing that 80 percent of his patients suffered from heart disease,
diabetes, or a pre-diabetes — and whole wheat bread was a big part of
their diets. He wondered what would happen if they stopped eating it.
“The benefits are much larger than you ever anticipate,” he says.
It’s common for many people to drop 18 to 20
pounds during their first wheat-free month, he says. Blood sugar and
appetite drop, and waistlines decrease by two to three inches during the
first four to six weeks.
“Because if you lose this gliadin opiate,
your appetite shrinks,” he explains. “You don’t have to eat breakfast at
7, have a snack at 9, snack at 11, lunch at 12, snack at 2, hungry
after dinner. All that goes away.”
What’s more, joint pain gets better and acid
reflux and other intestinal symptoms improve. Most organ systems
benefit from going wheat free, he says.
Considering the many food products that contain wheat, opting for a simplified diet is key to going wheat free.
“We become wheat free very simply by eating
real, single-ingredient foods. We eat meats and fish and chicken and
cheese and vegetables,” he says. “We return to real foods least
distorted by the shenanigans of agribusiness.”
Davis is quick to dismiss the idea that the
popularity of his book and the idea of going wheat free may be nothing
more than a fad. The interest stems from a growing desire of consumers
to have more control over what they eat, he maintains.
“This is really a response to what has been
going on in genetics research and agribusiness,” he says. “…I think if
anything this not a fad; it’s going to be part of a broad movement to
take back control over our health and diets, and to insist that we
understand what is being done to our food.”
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