Wheat Belly Blog | Lose the Wheat Lose the Weight

You asked for it, we've got it.
Buy your Wheat Belly T-shirt Here

Nuts.com, has more than 30 types of Certified Gluten-Free flour. Click Here to view our selection.

Join us on Facebook
Click Here

View our Video Channel on YouTube
Click Here

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 Track Your Plaque program. He lives in Wisconsin. Nothing here should be construed as medical advice, but only topics for further discussion with your doctor. I practice cardiology in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Free recipes delivered to your inbox.

Sign up now!

Visit our companion site, TrackYourPlaque.com

Change your life in 60 seconds

Your liver is fat

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Dr. Davis

Wheat Belly Blog reader, Denise, posted this question:

My doctor has prescribed a low fat diet due to a barrage of tests that ended up showing I have a very fatty liver. I am overweight, have high blood pressure, IBS and acid reflux. In all the reading I have done on here, I keep seeing to add fats . . . healthy ones . . . to your daily eating. How do I eat these and also stick to a low fat diet to please my doctor? I am 59, female, and really need to try to get healthier.

Thanks, Denise

Sorry, Denise, but it’s not your job to please your doctor. It’s your job to do what’s right for your health. Sadly, your doctor is doing more harm than good.

A low-fat diet CAUSES fatty liver because cutting fat increases carbohydrate intake which, in turn, increases de novo lipogenesis, the conversion of carbohydrates to fats that are deposited in your liver.

In other words, feeding your liver more carbohydrates and less fat encourages the formation of triglycerides, some of which are released into the bloodstream as VLDL (very low-density lipoproteins), the rest of which remain in the liver. Triglycerides are fats, fats are triglycerides. As you eat more “healthy whole grains” and other foods that fit into a low-fat diet, your liver makes more triglycerides, your liver–along with your intestinal tract, pancreas, kidneys, and heart (percardial fat)–accumulates fat, gets larger, increases markers of liver damage like AST and ALT. Over many years, this can lead to cirrhosis, identical to the disease generated by excessive alcohol consumption (alcoholic cirrhosis).

If dietary fat is made of triglycerides, doesn’t this also cause fatty liver? No, because your liver’s capacity to manufacture fats outweighs your ability to consume fat. Fats in the diet do indeed increase triglyceride levels in the blood . . . a little bit. But carbohydrates in the diet increase triglycerides . . . a lot (though the effect is delayed for several hours, sufficient to allow de novo lipogenesis to proceed).

Your doctor prescribed a diet that is not only ineffective, but actually causes the problem it was meant to treat. This is like telling a smoker that he’s short of breath because he doesn’t smoke enough. Or telling an alcoholic that she’s woozy and uncoordinated because she’s not drinking enough bourbon. Your liver is fat because you eat too much fat? Wow.

And the “overweight, high blood pressure, IBS and acid reflux” you’re experiencing is highly likely to be a consequence of our favorite carbohydrate to bash: wheat. Lose the wheat, lose the weight, lose the hypertension, lose the IBS, lose the acid reflux . . . lose the fatty liver.

Posted in Carbohydrates, Metabolic markers | 95 Comments

Wheat Belly Focaccia Bread

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Dr. Davis

This recipe provides an unusually sturdy focaccia bread suitable for a variety of dishes. I used it to make a Reuben sandwich, for instance: a thick layer of corned beef topped with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing sandwiched between two pieces of this focaccia bread. Delicious!

Shape this focaccia dough into whatever shape suits your recipes. I usually make two focaccias, each approximately three inches wide by six inches long and 1/2-3/4 inches deep, to use as the two bread slices to sandwich ingredients between. However, this recipe yields such an incredibly filling bread that the two slices can easily be cut in half to yield two very satisfying sandwiches to serve two.

Spread focaccia bread with pesto or mustard, lay smoked turkey, corned beef, pastrami, or other meat in between, some cheese, and you have a delicious and filling sandwich.

Ingredients:
2 cups almond meal
1 cup shredded mozzarella or other cheese
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1½ teaspoons dried rosemary
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ cup sundried tomatoes, finely sliced
2 large eggs, separated
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin oil

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In food chopper or food processor, pulse shredded cheese until reduced to small granule-sized consistency, similar to couscous.

In medium bowl, combine almond meal, cheese, xanthan gum, baking soda, sea salt, rosemary, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and sundried tomatoes and mix together. Set aside.

With electric mixer, whip egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Blend in egg yolks and 2 tablespoons olive oil at low speed. Pour egg mixture into almond meal mixture and mix together.

Divide dough in two and form into desired shape by hand. Smooth edges with knife or spoon. (You may need to place your knife or spoon under hot running water to help mold the dough.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and take blunt handle of spoon or other small rounded instrument and make small depressions in the surface every inch or so. Brush surface with remaining olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt on top. Return to oven additional 15 minutes.

Posted in Recipes | 66 Comments

Let’s get high

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Dr. Davis

Some things in life are best kept to a minimum: war, crime, debt, rap music, and . . . insulin.

High levels of insulin–”hyperinsulinemia”–is among the fundamental steps that lead to so-called resistance to insulin that, in turn, leads to the cascade of events resulting in visceral fat accumulation, i.e., deep abdominal fat that encircles organs and is a virtual factory for inflammatory signals. Foods that trigger insulin to high levels thereby can be expected to contribute most to growing that belly hanging over your belt.

Below is a graph of blood insulin responses after oral glucose, white bread, whole wheat bread, and bread made from a finely-ground flour that the investigators called “ultra-fine-ground whole-grain wheat flour.” This was done by a group at the USDA to study whether the particle size of wheat made any difference on blood sugar, insulin, and other measures, but I think it demonstrates something different.

Here’s the effect of these 4 challenge foods on insulin:

From Behall et al 1999. Full text here.

Note that all 4 challenge foods increased insulin approximately four-fold–400%. That’s an awful lot. But did you notice what food increased insulin the most? Yup, whole wheat bread, even without the fine-grind.

Eat wheat-containing grains for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks and guess what? You’ll have sky-high insulin levels triggered repeatedly throughout the day. Given a few years of day-in, day-out high insulin and you will grow this collection of visceral fat I call a “wheat belly.”

Posted in Appetite stimulation, Gliadin | 42 Comments

Jelly beans and ice cream

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Dr. Davis

What if I said: “Eliminate all wheat from your diet and replace it with all the jelly beans and ice cream you want.”

That would be stupid, wouldn’t it? Eliminate one rotten thing in diet–modern high-yield, semi-dwarf wheat products that stimulate appetite (via gliadin), send blood sugar through the roof (via amylopectin A), and disrupt the normal intestinal barriers to foreign substances (via the lectin, wheat germ agglutinin)–and replace it with something else that has its own set of problems, in this case sugary foods. How about a few other stupid replacements: Replace your drunken, foul-mouthed binges with wife beating? Replace cigarette smoking with excessive bourbon?

Sugary carbohydrate-rich foods like jelly beans and ice cream are not good for us because:

1) High blood sugar causes endogenous glycation, i.e, glucose modification of long-lived proteins in the body. Glycate the proteins in the lenses of your eyes, you get cataracts. Glycate cartilage proteins in the cartilage of your hips and knees, you get brittle cartilage that erodes and causes arthritis. Glycate structural proteins in your arteries and you get hypertension (stiff arteries) and atherosclerosis.

2) High blood sugar is inevitably accompanied by high blood insulin. Repetitive surges in insulin lead to insulin resistance, i.e., muscles, liver, and fat cells unresponsive to insulin. This forces your poor tired pancreas to produce even more insulin, which causes even more insulin resistance, and round and round in a vicious cycle. This leads to visceral fat accumulation (Jelly Bean Belly!), which is highly inflammatory, further worsening insulin resistance via various inflammatory mediators like tumor necrosis factor.

3) Sugary foods, i.e., sucrose- or high-fructose corn syrup-sweetened, are sources of fructose, a truly very, very bad sugar that is metabolized via a completely separate pathway from glucose. Fructose is 10-fold more likely to induce glycation of proteins than glucose. It also provokes a (delayed) rise in insulin resistance, accumulation of triglycerides, marked increase in formation of small LDL particles, and delayed postprandial (after-eating) clearance of the lipoprotein byproducts of meals, all of which leads to diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis.

I think we can all agree that replacing wheat with jelly beans and ice cream is not a good solution. And, no, we shouldn’t have drunken binges, wife beating, smoking or bourbon to excess. So why does the “gluten-free” community advocate replacing wheat with products made with:

rice starch, tapioca starch, potato starch, and cornstarch?

These powdered starches are among the few foods that increase blood sugar (and thereby provoke glycation and insulin) higher than even the amylopectin A of wheat! For instance, two slices of whole wheat bread typically increase blood sugar in a slender, non-diabetic person to around 170 mg/dl. Two slices of gluten-free, multigrain bread will increase blood sugar typically to 180-190 mg/dl.

The fatal flaw in thinking surrounding gluten-free junk carbohydrates is this: If a food lacks some undesirable ingredient, then it must be good. This is the same fatally flawed thinking that led people to believe, for instance, that Snack Well low-fat cookies were healthy: because they lacked fat. Or processed foods made with hydrogenated oils were healthy because they lacked saturated fat.

So gluten-free foods made with junk carbohydrates are good because they lack gluten? No. Gluten-free foods made with rice starch, tapioca starch, potato starch, and cornstarch are destructive foods that NOBODY should be eating.

This is why the recipes for muffins, cupcakes, cookies, etc. in the Wheat Belly book and in this blog are wheat- and gluten-free and free of gluten-free junk carbohydrates. And put that bottle of Jim Beam down!

Posted in Carbohydrates, Gluten-free, Low-carb diets | 70 Comments

The Wheat Lobby Smokescreen

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Dr. Davis

The Wheat Lobby has been busy.

The Grain Foods Foundation, the Whole Grain Council, and other lobby/trade groups for the wheat industry are in panic mode. After all, a recent 4.5% reduction in bread sales for the year were just reported. While 4.5% is not a big percentage, it is a percentage of a huge number. This is big. Food Business News comments:

According to SymphonyIRI Group (a Chicago-based market research firm), unit sales of fresh bread declined 4.5% in the 52 weeks ended Jan. 22 [2012] . . . The one-year volume decline likely was the steepest in the history of sliced bread. [Emphasis mine.]

So the Wheat Lobby and trade groups have been organizing behind several counterarguments to maintain the “healthy whole grain” franchise, including:

“Wheat is not genetically-modified.”
Dr. Glenn Gaesser of the Grain Foods Foundation recently offered this “counterargument” on a TV interview I did. This statement has also cropped up a number of times in various articles and reports that aim to counter the claims I am making, suggesting that it is part of a concerted, planned defense.

They are correct: Wheat is not genetically-modified. In the language of geneticists, “genetic modification” or genetic engineering refers to the use of gene-splicing technology to insert or remove a gene. While wheat has indeed been extensively genetically-modified in laboratory settings, no genetically-modified strain of wheat is on the open market. And I never said it was.

But that does not mean that the genetics of wheat have not been changed. Its genetics, in fact, have been extensively changed using techniques that include hybridization, repeating backcrossing (to winnow out specific characteristics like short height or seed head size), embryo rescue (to rescue otherwise fatal mutations), and chemical, gamma ray, and x-ray mutagenesis (induction of mutations, used for instance to create the popular Clearfield strain of wheat that is herbicide-resistant). These techniques, as any geneticist will tell you, are far less predictable, less controllable . . . far worse than the act of inserting or removing just one gene. But that is conveniently left out of the sound bites that come from the Wheat Lobby.

“Grains have been eaten by humans for thousands of years.”
Well, humans have been enslaved for thousands of years, children put to work and abused, the strong dominated the weak . . . but that doesn’t justify any of it.

Whole grains of 2012 are also not the whole grains of 1950, the 19th century, the Bible, or pre-biblical times. Modern wheat, in particular, is genetically distant from its predecessors, thanks to the extreme genetic changes (not genetic modification!) inflicted on wheat in the 1960s and 1970s in the name of increased yield-per-acre.

“Healthy whole grains have repeatedly been shown to reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease, and colon cancer.”
That’s is true . . . if whole grains are compared to processed white flour products. It is guilty of the kind of flawed logic that dominates nutritional thinking:

If something bad for you is replaced by something less bad and there is an apparent health benefit, then a whole bunch of the less bad thing is good for you.

This flawed logic is used to justify replacing high-glycemic index foods with low-glycemic index foods (more properly called less-high glycemic index foods), hydrogenated fats with polyunsaturates.

If “healthy whole grains” are compared to no grains, i.e, no wheat, then dramatic turnarounds in health are witnessed. The 1% of people with celiac disease are not the exception; they are the “canaries in the coal mine” telling us that wheat is inappropriate for any human to consume . . . especially the semi-dwarf strains made worse by geneticists.

Surely the experts know all this!

Nope. They are, to an incredible degree, ignorant. I recently debated a PhD Professor of Nutrition at a major university, who was also Director of Research at a major agricultural corporation, who offered up the usual defenses of wheat, while accusing me of ignoring the evidence. So, when I informed him that the wheat of today is a high-yield, semi-dwarf variant that stands around 2-feet tall, with marked changes in its genetic code, he answered with . . . silence. After a bit of hemming and hawing, he finally blurted, “Well, the farmers did that so they could see over the tops of the fields!” Farmers, of course, did not introduce these changes to create the dwarf strain of wheat. In other words, the fact that modern wheat is the markedly altered product of genetics research was entirely new to this “expert.”

Posted in Wheat Belly counterattacks, Wheat industry | 49 Comments

Asparagus Tomato Frittata

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Dr. Davis

Celebrate your freedom from wheat with some good old eggs!

Frittatas are essentially quiches without the crust. While they require a bit of preparation, they are wonderfully useful to prepare, say, on the weekend and eat slice by slice during the week when you are pressed for time.

Variations on the basic recipe are easy. Add leftover chicken, pork, or steak, chopped into ½-inch pieces; trade the Romano cheese for grated Parmesan, crumbled feta, or mozzarella; add ½ cup heavy cream for added richness. Add minced garlic or shallots.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
8 large eggs
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ yellow onion, chopped
8 medium asparagus spears, cut in 1-inch lengths
1 cup artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes (soaked in oil)
¼ cup fresh basil, finely chopped
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup grated Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk eggs, stir in two tablespoons olive oil. Set aside.

Over medium heat, sauté onions in one tablespoon olive oil using an oven-safe skillet until softened and slightly browned. Add the asparagus, artichokes, tomatoes, basil, onion powder, salt and pepper. Sauté another 3 minutes.

Pour in egg mixture and mix together. Cover at low to medium heat for 3 minutes.

Remove cover and sprinkle Romano cheese over top. Place pan in oven for 15 minutes.

Remove (using oven mitt!) from oven. Cool for five minutes then, using a spatula, release the frittata around the edges and under the bottom. Slice and serve.

Posted in Recipes | 34 Comments

Wheat is hebetudinous

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Dr. Davis

Darin posted this comment about his wheat-free experience in obtaining relief from depression:

I’d never heard of celiac disease before reading your book. I”d always sort of rolled my eyes at the black helicopter hysteria about GMO in general and wheat in particular. I”d just finished Why We Get Fat and had embarked on a LC [low-carbohydrate] way of living. Then I started reading your book. Within the first 50 pages of your book I was wheat-free. Within a few days (I think) of removing wheat from my diet I quit getting headaches and heart burn. In 5 months (approximately) I”ve dropped 65 pounds (wheat-free and LC) and I feel better than I’ve felt in many, many years.

Although I still get the occasional headache I haven”t had one iota of heartburn since dropping wheat and most gluten. The lassitude and hebetude that has plagued me for going on 20 years is gone! I was suffering from some very serious depression, which is a secret that I shared with no one and I”m willing to admit now because it has totally been erased from my life . . .

Darin’s post makes me wonder how many other people are silently experiencing depression, the sad, hopelessness that keeps you from performing optimally or just being happy, due to wheat consumption.

There is a real lack of formal research data on the association between depression and wheat consumption, except as depression can complicate celiac disease. But, going back over the many testimonials here and on the Wheat Belly Facebook page, you will see that many, many people are reporting substantial relief from longstanding, even lifelong, depression, most of whom likely do not have celiac disease.

If you are depressed or have suffered bouts of depression, there is nothing to lose in saying goodbye to wheat. Perhaps there are brighter days ahead without it.

Posted in Depression, Wheat-elimination success stories | 51 Comments

Breaking bread and beating wheat

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Dr. Davis

An anonymous commenter left this post on Amazon:

I wanted to post this review because I am absolutely shocked at how quickly and easily the no-wheat advice worked (which I just did as an experiment that I was SURE would fail). The book isn’t quite a “how to” diet book – but it is instead focused on getting the message of why wheat is bad out there. Here is some of my timeline since reading:

In the first week, my cravings for wheat and sugary foods (particularly chocolate) were diminished.
In 3 weeks, I lost 10 lbs (without working out) that I could not lose in the last 6 months despite diet and extensive exercise. (At least 10-15 miles a week of running).

By week 4, I was sleeping less and had more energy . . . cravings were even further diminished to virtually zero. I am normally a huge fan of Easter candy this time of year – but I just walked by the aisle in CVS unfazed. I have no idea how that happened. I also lost about 15 lbs by now.

On the other side of the coin . . . to “prove” things to myself, I suppose . . . I ate a big piece of pita bread tonight, and I am now paying the price with lethargy and brain fog. Then, I had a massive craving for a Snickers bar hidden away here (which I ate . . . great . . . ) None of this happens when wheat is out of my diet.

I will say that I have had wheat on and off in the last month (when it was really worth it to me personally . . . like a really good Italian restaurant), but then the weight loss stops and the lethargy set in . . . so it’s a trade off. And, I am making this trade off less and less these days.

In the beginning, it’s hard to transition but then it starts becoming obvious how awful wheat can be. The cravings come back too. Suddenly after eating wheat, then I wanted chocolate and ice cream. It’s so bizarre that this happens, but he explains this in the book (e.g., the exorphins and probably other chemicals we don’t even know about in wheat do these things)

I have not had a single GI issue since removing wheat, but I am also feeling that I over-rely on dairy a bit too much now. It’s hard to formulate a great diet – though that might sound silly . . . Unfortunately, I am transitioning out of a 50% wheat diet (yes I was that bad) and it is not that easy. So, the only reason I took off a star is because I wish the book had better tips on what to do. He makes his argument very strong – but there’s a bit of an “uh oh now what” feeling at the end. I’ve been eating eggs, fruits, vegetables, meat, etc… but it seemed to be an awkward transition that had me questioning a lot of things too (are fruits too high glycemic? Is oatmeal okay? Can I occasionally have crackers? etc…)

This book is incredibly important though, in the grand scheme of things and in the American diet. Wheat is SO ubiquitous. Cutting down on it could drastically improve heath (and waist size) of everyone in the country – but “breaking bread” is so integral to our culture. At least the celiacs have started raising awareness of gluten intolerance. I hope more people become aware of the message here.

Spread the word! Everyone thinks I am nuts when I talk about this, but they cannot deny I am a LOT thinner!

Here’s another interesting comment from Wheatbeater (great name!):

This book really is life-changing. I can’t express how much happier I have been since giving up wheat — and it’s only been one week! I am a young female, 129 lbs, and pretty slender, so I didn’t pick this book up to lose weight (although I wouldn’t mind that). I have had terrible allergies my entire life (hayfever, dust, pets) and recently they have gone out of control. I thought it might be diet related so I decided to give this a try.

Here’s what I’ve noticed so far: While my allergies have remained *sigh* I have SIGNIFICANTLY more energy. I have always been pretty lazy, not going to lie, and now I feel like I actually want to get up and do things! I had no idea wheat was killing my energy level. Also, my mind is much clearer. I notice things that I didn’t notice before (e.g., I never realized how much of a slob I really was). Now I keep things clean and don’t just let the house get filthy.

I’ve lost 1.6 lbs this week alone. I have now, out of nowhere, taken an interest in cooking and making creative meals like caprese salad, Parmesan chicken, and wheat free muffins. I now avoid the big chain food store and stay local as much as possible. My depression and anxiety symptoms have almost completely lifted. I walk more, rather than drive. I am more “regular,” but I also attribute that to adding coconut milk to my diet which is a diuretic. It tastes great in coffee!

The only thing that I don’t like about this diet is that it’s a little expensive to follow initially. There is a definite startup $$$ needed to begin and all your old wheat products are now of no use.

Overall, I highly recommend reading this, or simply just going wheat-free.

If you’re at all interested in following my journey, you can check out my new blog which I’m using to document my progress (and post yummy wheat-free recipes) at wheatbeater.wordpress.com.

Posted in Emotional effects, Weight loss, Wheat-elimination success stories | 32 Comments

April 23rd, 1979

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Dr. Davis

“Hey, Stan: You’re not going to believe this!”

“What”?

“One of the food science guys, Finkel-something or other down in R&D, told me they had this funny thing happen in one of their taste tests.”

“What’s that?”

“So they get, like, 15 women in a room to taste their new baked whatevers. The ladies eat them, say, yeah, yeah, they’re okay. Not a whole lot better or worse than other stuff on the shelves. But Finkelstein notices that, after they’re all finished, they all start asking for more–every last one of them!”

“So what’d he do?”

“So he gives them more! You know, he’s got tons of this stuff they cooked for other taste tests. Well, they’re talking and talking and talking. Before you know it, these Mary Janes have eaten something like three, four times the usual amount!”

“No kidding? What the heck?”

“That’s not all of it! So they’re all packing up their purses and fixing their lipstick, when they start grilling Finkelgruber to find out when and where they can start buying his stuff!”

“Wait a minute here. You mean to tell me that they didn’t think it tasted all that good . . . but they still ate a ton and wanted more?”

“Yeah! That’s it! Don’t you get it? It doesn’t taste all that different, but there’s something in the ingredients that turns on their appetite!”

“Gold mine! Ka-chingggg! Wait: So what’s the ingredient?”

“So I grill Finkelnuts on just what the heck is in the food. He hems and haws, talking about some new process they’re using, but he says he’s not really sure—except that they have a new supplier for flour. The supplier says they’ve been getting flour from some new sources that they’re growing from a new strain of wheat that’s supposed to be higher yield but cheaper. So they just switched over.”

“Alright. This is too big to just let go. Tell Finkelman to do it again, but try another test food but use the same flour. If it works, man, this is golden: Eat more of this flour, the ladies can’t control themselves. You know what this means if we take it on the market?”

“Oh, yeah!”

Posted in Wheat industry | 60 Comments

Can gluten-free ever be . . . good?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Dr. Davis

Are there every situations where gluten-free foods can actually be healthy for us?

Readers of Wheat Belly and of this blog know that conventional gluten-free foods:

–Make you fat–They especially cause visceral fat accumulation, i.e, Gluten-Free Belly.
–Spike blood sugar–Few foods can beat the extravagant blood sugar-raising effect of the amylopectin A of wheat . . . except gluten-free foods.
–Increase glycation–i.e., glucose-modification of proteins that leads to cataracts, arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, partially reflected by increased glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)
–Trigger small LDL particles–the number one cause of heart disease in the U.S.
–Increase triglycerides
–Likely add to cancer risk–via glycation and inflammation

In other words, processed gluten-free foods made with the usual suspects–cornstarch, rice starch or brown rice starch, tapioca starch, or potato starch–are awful for health. Yeah, yeah, they’re often marketed as a healthy alternative: “gluten-free multigrain bread made with only wholesome ingredients” sure sounds great. But just because they don’t trigger abnormal immune responses to gluten does not mean they are otherwise healthy. In fact, they are the opposite.

So when is “gluten-free” healthy? There are a couple of exceptional examples:

–When naturally gluten-free–Asparagus is naturally gluten-free, as are olives. So are garlic and basil, salmon and shellfish, eggs and avocados.
–When wheat- and gluten-free ingredients are actually healthy. The biggest mistake made with conventional gluten-free products is overexposure to processed carbohydrates. This is why in the Wheat Belly recipes I use ground almonds, walnuts, pecans, coconut flour, ground flaxseed and other ingredients that do not trigger all the undesirable effects of excessive carbohydrates. This simple change means we can eat cookies, cupcakes, and muffins with none of the health-destroying effects of wheat, none of the carbohydrate overexposure issues of conventional gluten-free foods. It means you can have something indulgent like Mocha Walnut Brownies and not feel guilty for an instant, nor gain weight, experience high blood sugars, or trigger small LDL. For those of you who do not need to monitor carbohydrate intake (like children and endurance athletes), then non-wheat gluten-free grains can be healthy, such as buckwheat, millet, and quinoa.

So most gluten-free food solutions are little better than low-tar cigarettes as a solution for smoking. What you want is wheat-free, gluten-free . . . and truly healthy!

Posted in Gluten-free | 87 Comments

BUY THE BOOK

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

GLUTEN FREE ALMOND FLOUR

JOIN US

VIDEOS

ABOUT DR. WILLIAM DAVIS

RECIPES

TRACK YOUR PLAQUE

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Wheat Belly Blog Visitors

Archives

Categories

Meta