William Davis, MD, is a preventive cardiologist whose unique approach to diet allows him to advocate reversal, not just prevention, of heart disease.
He is the founder of the 
Your colon–yes, that 4-foot long tube residing in the deep recesses of your abdomen, ugly, slimy, kind of smelly, hardly something you’d think would represent the spoils of any battle–is a battleground.
The combatants? Bacteria.
Billions of bacteria live, work, fight, and die in your colon. Their work contributes in no small way to creating the stuff you emit into the toilet every day. Normally, they live in happy symbiosis with their host, even making useful contributions to our health, such as converting vitamin K1 in vegetables to vitamin K2 to play a role in bone and heart health.
But the normal bacteria have been fighting off the invading colon-equivalent of Al Quaeda: wheat lectins.
Nearly all plants contains lectins, proteins that provide the plant protection from predators like mold, fungus, and insects. And most lectins ingested by humans are harmless or have only minimal effects. Not so wheat lectins.
Wheat lectins are oddly impervious to digestion. What you eat is what you either absorb into the bloodstream or pass out in your stool. It means that, after other proteins, carbohydrates, and fats have been digested, the remnants making their way through your colon become concentrated in wheat lectins. It’s here where the high concentration of wheat lectins do their Weapons of Mass Destruction thing and cause good bacteria to die and encourages bad bacteria, like Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus lactis, to fluorish, a condition called “bacterial overgrowth.”
Wheat lectin-induced bacterial overgrowth causes gas, cramping, malabsorption of nutrients, and can lead to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis when the normal barriers to unwanted proteins are unlocked. The number of evil bacteria can grow a thousand-fold, overwhelming the helpless good bacteria. The evil bacteria winning the battle then invade northward, making their way as high as the duodenum and stomach. That’s when it gets really ugly.
Dietitians advise us to get more fiber, such as that in wheat like wheat bran. That’s how wheat lectins Trojan horse their way into your bowels.
Conventional response: antibiotics. Unconventional response: probiotics that repopulate the good guys. My response: Rid yourself of the colon WMD, wheat lectins and take back control of your colon!
i hathis has me curiousve always eaten wheat and i am overweight and have most weight in belly
Does the environment in the colon allow the K2 to be taken up? I have read that rats eat what they pass and this keeps them topped up with K2.
Hi, Paul–
I’m not aware of any data to this effect. I, too, have some burning questions I’d like answered about vitamins K1 and K2 behavior in the intestinal tract.
Thankfully, this line of research is gaining speed. I’ll be we’ll have plenty to talk about over the next 2-3 years.
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Do we need to give up all grains or just gluten containing grains? Is brown rice ok? I tend to get hypoglycenia like symptoms when go grain free.
Ah, be careful, Gina. The only reason to be hypoglycemia is if you follow a carbohydrate-overloaded diet, wheat or not. It also means you are careening towards diabetes.
The solution: Ditch the carbs, even if it sounds healthy, like a “multi-grain gluten-free bread.” Read: junk carbohydrates.
Hi Dr. Davis,
I have been following your diet since early October of this year. I have found a huge difference in cravings and much less bloating. I have lost a few pounds but I am still having loose stools and it seems like I am having a hard time digesting fats and I am still tired all the time. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Susan.
Hi, Susan–
Sounds like:
1) A thyroid issue. Hypothyroidism is becoming increasingly common. A thorough evaluation that includes free T3, free T4, TSH and perhaps reverse T3 is in order.
2) Consider probiotics and pancreatic enzymes that includes lipase. Some people have had such awful disruption of intestinal health, including intestinal microbiota, that they require additional steps for recovery.
Hello Dr. Davis,
I am writing to comment specifically on the bacterial overgrowth. I am in complete agreement that bacterial overgrowth can wreak havoc on your digestive system. By controlling the over growth you will avoid all of the nasty toxins that some of these bugs can produce. One amazing little factoid; 10 % of our bodies are comprised of human cells and 12 % of our body mass is actually a symbiotic microorganism such as bacteria, yeast etc. So I my feeling is that feeding the 12 % that should be there is best for our health. And therefore any deviation from this balance is likely to cause greater health issues than we can imagine, or have proven empirically.
I applaud your willingness to go against the grain and have really enjoyed reading your book. I have however gone wheat free for a different reason. My husband was recently diagnosed with Cohn’s and we have decided to eliminate all processed foods from our diet. He has sufferred from loose bowel movements his entire life and it was onlyon the Atkins diet that he found he was having formed stools. However, this time around we have eliminated all highly processed and complex carbohydrates. Those foods that are highly branched and complex leaving the bacterial in our guts a feast of undigested polysaccharides. I would recommend those that continue to see very loose stools following elimination of wheat to look further at other complex carbs. Intact, the only carbohydrates we now consume are naturally occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables. No table sugar, no wheat or grains, not even rice. The goal is to starve the bacteria in our intestines that are not meant to be there in order to allow the growth of the appropriate 12%.
I do believe however that wheat may be the catalyst for all of these digestive issues that have grown significantly over the years. I have also developed food sensitivities and it makes sense having read your book that gluten may have created that “leaky gut” environment allowing foods to be exposed in it’s undigested form to my immune system. For otherwise, why would someone develop antibodies to banana’s and pineapples.
I hope that the future will bring more medical professionals, such as yourself, who see food as the route to take for wellness rather than a medication which causes sometimes severe side effects. The medication my husband was on, I am convinced, is what landed him in the ICU touted as a severe Crohn’s flare. And this is the reason we are choosing to eat the way we were meant to.
All the best to you and once gain thank you for your pioneering vision.
JEnn
Very well said, JEnn!
We need better documentation of the bowel flora-altering effects of wheat consumption in non-celiac people to go to battle more effectively with the Wheat Lobby.
In the meantime, I agree: Say goodbye to wheat, then say goodbye to junk carbohydrates and your body will be far better off, as will the populations of non-human organisms inhabiting our bodies.
JEnn, have you read “Breaking the vicious Cycle?