The Dangers of the Wheat Belly – Gluten Combination
Dr. William Davis wrote the book, Wheat Belly, to make the public aware of the downside of wheat consumption. Gluten, a natural component of wheat, also imposes health risks to some who consume it. In this video, in an interview by Jennifer Fugo of the Gluten Free School, Dr. Davis explains some of the concepts and facts contained in his book. Wheat Belly is getting a lot of attention and as of September, 2011, was #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Dr. Williams decided to write this book after finding out that, with hundreds of his patients, removing wheat from their diets provided huge positive improvements in their health.
To begin with, Dr. Davis makes it clear that wheat has been changed dramatically over the last 40 years. Wheat has become a genetic monstrosity – a Franken-Grain, due to these genetic changes in the very basic organic makeup of the grain. This was done for all the right reasons starting back in the 60s and 70s – to increase the crop yield for wheat growers in order to economically feed the growing world population. The modern, genetically modified wheat we eat today is a modified, semi-dwarf, high yield plant, much different than the original strain of wheat, called einkorn. The original wheat plant was 4 to 5 feet tall, whereas the current semi-dwarf plant is only 2 feet tall, genetically engineered to produce heavier, stockier stalks to support more wheat production per acre. Along with this outward appearance change in wheat, the biological makeup of this plant is much different than the wheat our grandparents ate as children. This entails 10s of thousands of changes in the plant biology. These changes were made by developing hybrids in the early days (by pairing different kinds of wheats to produce variant strains of wheat) and more recently by direct gene manipulation. Also included in the list of changes is chemical mutation to modify genetic characteristics (mutagenesis).
Watch the video to understand what Dr. Davis says has been done to the wheat many of us eat every day. He believes that we should all stop eating it – not just the ones who are seeing symptoms of wheat or gluten intolerance. As a teaser on what Dr. Davis covers in this video, these are just some of the surprisingly bad things wheat does when we consume it.
- It is more glycemic (raises insulin levels) than many foods, including sugar, leading to weight gain and other problems
- It increases appetite.
- It causes or contributes to many illnesses, including celiac disease at the top of the list.
- It worsens the symptoms of schizophrenics.
- It dramatically increases the risk of weight gain or obesity, which then increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other health problems.
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First and foremost if the flight offers a meal, gluten-free is now often an option. Second the only restrictions on food, apply to liquid foods, in other words anything not too liquidy you take with you through security and everything. I usually take some carrot sticks, crackers, pretzels, sometimes a sandwich, a bar of some sort, whatever you like, as long as it’s not apple sauce texture, the worse they can do to you is make you toss it out at security. I even take an empty canteen, so i can fill it with water once pass security.
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Ah the triumphant wheat belly, another low carb paleo dogmatic bible for those searching for diet nirvana.
Lets take a look
First off he states that spiking insulin will ware down the receptor sites and lead to insulin resistance. Unfortunately this is not true. His theory is x=y and y=z thus x=z. We all know that this is not good science and there are plenty of high carb societies that do not become fat or develop IR(i.e the kitavans or the societies in nortern russia.)
Next he says “One of the side benefits of removing wheat is that “you will simultaneously experience reduced exposure to sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial food colorings and flavors, cornstarch, and the list of unpronounceables on the product label” (p. 195). Could it be that these are the factors that are driving obesity and not wheat. According to the most recent data we are consuming less wheat then we did 100 years ago. Yet we are getting fatter from consuming LESS wheat and there is a rise in celiac disease? Lets look at what consumption has gone up, soy bean oil, HFCS, and soy lectin. Whole wheat from properly farmed sources has been shown to reverse type 2 diabetes. (please also remember that gluten does not cause celiac disease, A breakdown in secretory Iga from chronically elevated blood sugar does, see the work of Dr. Haas)
Dr. Davis also states that wheat has shown to be addictive in test studies. Well meat, dairy, coffee, green tea, cabbage, and chocolate have all been shown to have opiate like qualities and affect the brain the same way. I think the better conclusion would be if wheat affects the brain in a different way not based on “addiction” per say. Also if wheat is so addictive why do companies need to add food additives to bread? I believe dr. lustig pointed out that bread is no longer kept in bread boxes because it is filled with…HFCS.
Don’t get swept away by these biased conclusions, instead of fearing gluten all together, A) don’t eat as much of it, eat a variety of foods i.e potatoes, beans, non-gluten grains etc as a source of starch, B) if you want to use wheat don;t use whole wheat garbage from safeway, look for spelt and kamut more ancient forms of wheat that are much more nutritious then the nutrient stripped dwarf wheat.
“My own experience provides an example of a race, unsurpassed in perfection of physique and in freedom from disease in general, whose sole food consists to this day of grains, vegetables, and fruits, with a certain amount of milk and butter, and goat’s meat only on feast days. I refer to the people of the State of Hunza, situated in the extreme northernmost point of India. So limited is the land available for cultivation that they can keep little livestock other than goats, which browse on the hills, while the food-supply is so restricted that the people, as a rule, do not keep dogs. They have, in addition to grains — wheat, barley, and maize — an abundant crop of apricots. These they dry in the sun and use very largely in their food. ” – weston A Price
Just Eat Real whole Food, it’s not that hard. Cook your meals at home and keep the junk to a minimum.
Good points Scott. You’ve hit on some valid points. I personally think that getting off of wheat will help quite a few people, but am not confident it will help everyone. If wheat is a large proportion of the carb intake it makes a lot of sense. In fact I’m hearing more about the “no bread” diet, which, again, should work for quite a few but not all.
…Joe…