Wheat Belly: A Wheat Free Diet

Background

In, Wheat Belly, preventive cardiologist William Davis, MD, explains how eliminating wheat from our diets is the key to achieving permanent weight loss and relief from a wide range of health issues including digestive disorders and immune problems.

Davis says that excess fat is not related to inactivity or high-fat diets, but instead is due to our love of foods like bread, pasta, muffins and cakes. In this book he offers dieters a step-by-step plan to creating a wheat free diet lifestyle so as to achieve dramatic weight loss and optimal health.

Wheat Belly Basics

William Davis explains that there are many dangers associated with a diet containing wheat. He states that wheat has a unique composition of complex carbohydrates – 75% amylopectin and 25% amylose – that has an especially negative effect on the regulation of blood sugar. While all carbohydrate foods have an influence on our blood sugar levels, our response to wheat is more severe due to its composition.

He also says that when we eat wheat it not only triggers an insulin response that promotes the storage of fat – especially belly fat – but due to the presence of compounds called endorphins, it also increases your appetite so that you eat more calories.

Wheat also contains a protein called gluten that causes celiac disease, a condition that Dr. Davis describes in detail, as it is the most commonly diagnosed wheat allergy. However, gluten has also been implicated in many other disorders including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, arthritis, neurological conditions, Candidiasis and gastrointestinal cancer.

A wheat free diet has been associated with many benefits including:

• Weight loss of up to fifty pounds within the first few months.
• Alleviation of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
• Recovery from ulcerative colitis and celiac disease.
• Improvement in blood cholesterol levels.
• Reduced inflammation and pain in rheumatoid arthritis.
• Alleviation of hair loss and psoriasis.

Most dieters experience cravings and withdrawal symptoms when they first eliminate wheat from the diet but you can soften the blow by gradually tapering off your wheat intake over a week.

Wheat Belly advises dieters that many of the wheat free foods available on the market are not truly healthy foods because they contain ingredients like cornstarch that will make you fat and diabetic. So the recipes in this book replace wheat flour with ingredients like coconut flour, ground flaxseed and nut meals because these are nutritious foods that don’t produce abnormal responses similar to those of wheat.

Because Davis believes that a low carbohydrate diet is healthier for us he advises limiting gluten-free grains like oats, quinoa, millet, and amaranth, as well as legumes. He says they are best restricted to ½ cup servings and only consumed once used the wheat withdrawal process is over and ideal weight has been achieved.

Even fruit is limited on this program because it is high in sugar but small servings are permitted such as two strawberries, ten blueberries or a few wedges of apple.

Recommended Foods

Chicken, turkey, beef, buffalo, ostrich, salmon, eggs, cheese, spinach, tomato, eggplant, mushrooms, onions, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, apples, oranges, avocado, raw nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, coconut flour, Shirataki noodles, olive oil, coconut oil, mustard, herbs, spices, tea, coffee, red wine.

Sample Wheat Free Diet Meal Plan

Exercise Recommendations

Wheat Belly does not include exercise guidelines.

Costs and Expenses

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health retails at $15.

Click here to purchase Wheat Belly at discounted price.

Pros

• Provides unique information about the potentially negative health effects of wheat.
• Encourages the consumption of vegetables, raw nuts and seeds.
• May assist with the alleviation of a wide variety of chronic health conditions.
• Includes a seven-day meal plan with wheat free recipes.

Cons

• Most dieters experience cravings and withdrawal symptoms when they first eliminate wheat from the diet.
• Limits the consumption of many healthy foods including fruit, legumes and gluten-free grains.
• Encourages the consumption of artificial sweeteners.
• The Wheat Belly Meal plan is relatively high in fat.

Conclusions

Wheat Belly explains how eliminating wheat from our diets can be the key to achieving permanent weight loss and the alleviation of a wide range of chronic health conditions. This book includes detailed information about the potentially negative effects of wheat and offers guidance on how to get started with a wheat free diet.