can sure say goodbye to wheat.
Welcome to the Wonderful State of Wheatlessness
If modern wheat is associated with addictive behaviours, appetite stimulation, and so many abnormal health conditions, then removing it completely from the diet should result in reversal of the whole kit and kaboodle.
And indeed it does. The contrast is so dramatic that I give the wheat-free lifestyle a name: I call it wheatlessness.
Say goodbye to wheat and you say goodbye to the appetite-stimulating protein, gliadin, that acts as an opiate on your brain. You say sayonara to the altered forms of gliadin that cause coeliac disease, such as the Glia-α9 sequence, now found in nearly all modern forms of wheat. Say adios to the lectin, wheat germ agglutinin, that directly damages the intestinal lining and acts like a Trojan horse for foreign substances to gain access to your bloodstream and organs. Say arrivederci to amylopectin A in wheat that provokes a roller-coaster ride of high blood sugar, followed by plummeting blood sugar and the mental ‘fog’ of hypoglycaemia and insatiable hunger. Say au revoir to unique alpha amylase inhibitors in wheat and lose many wheat allergies.
Remove onions and . . . you remove onions – nothing more, nothing less. There is no withdrawal process, no weight loss, no relief from any pain, no religious epiphany, nothing except no onions with your fried liver or bratwurst.
But remove wheat . . . and it’s like removing a poison from your body. After withdrawal subsides, health transformations result.
Critics of Wheat Belly have argued that these ideas represent nothing more than a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss in disguise. But they’ve missed the essential point: Eliminating modern wheat, this product of genetics research, is about so much more than weight loss. Sure, you lose weight – often a lot of weight – but it’s all the other stuff that results from wheatlessness that makes this approach such a powerful and life-changing concept. (For those of you interested in maximizing weight loss in as short a time as possible, or trying to undo severe carbohydrate intolerance, as in diabetes or pre-diabetes, we will discuss how going beyond elimination of wheat and restricting all carbohydrates provides additional benefits.)
It’s part of what I call wheat’s ‘whole is greater than the sum of the parts effect’. Despite all we know about this destructive high-yield, 24-inch mutant, the benefits of removing it from diet exceed expectations. Although we already know plenty about the destructive health effects of gliadin, lectin, amylopectin A and other components of wheat, get rid of the whole package and health benefits enjoyed by the majority are greater than you’d ever anticipate.
Let’s be clear: This is not about gluten elimination for gluten-sensitive people. Given wheat’s effects that spare no one, I am advocating wheat elimination for everybody.
Downside: Tell this to the average wheat-eater and they find it a bit difficult to swallow, to say the least. You may be on the receiving end of yelling, swearing, sobbing and physical confrontation. No other food elicits such forceful reactions because no other food has such a hold over the consumer’s mind. Imagine taking a trip into the inner city and swiping the stash from a heroin addict – it wouldn’t be pretty. Remember: You are, in effect, trying to persuade a wheat-eating opiate addict that their source of comfort in times of good and bad is really undoing health, making them the unwitting victim of a ‘food’ that gains access to the brain to influence behaviour.
So what can modern wheat-consuming individuals expect when they rid themselves of this thing? Let’s discuss that next.
Happier Joints, Happier Bowels, Happier Minds
Your body is healthier and happier when all things wheat are removed.
But before we get to the ‘hard’ observations, the effects on various diseases and conditions that we can expect with elimination of wheat, let’s talk about the many ‘soft’ – but not to say insignificant – effects that develop, the subjective experiences many or most people report on saying goodbye to modern high-yield, semi-dwarf wheat. Subjective effects are tougher to measure but are nonetheless consistent and reproducible. I’ve personally witnessed these subjective effects unfold many thousands of times.
Typical subjective observations that emerge with elimination of wheat include:
Thinking is clearer. Most people describe a lifting of mental ‘fog’. (I personally experienced this effect to a dramatic degree.) The constant struggle to maintain concentration is replaced by the ability to focus for prolonged periods.
Mood is improved, dark moods lessened. People are happier and less depressed. I’ve witnessed many people with lifelong struggles with depression who were able to reduce or stop antidepressant drugs.
Energy increases. Not only is energy increased throughout the day, but the cycles of ups and downs diminish or disappear.
Sleep is deeper. It becomes closer to the profound, restful sleep that children experience.
Appetite is reduced. The predictable 2-hour cycle of hunger is replaced by eating followed by many hours of no interest in food. When you redevelop hunger, it seems to match physiologic need, providing interest in just obtaining what you need to live and function – not the bizarre excess of calories typical of modern habits and exemplified by such phenomena as all-you-can-eat buffets and food bars. The effects are especially fascinating in people who’ve been labelled with eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia and binge eating disorder, many of whom experience normalization of appetite and food perceptions.
People feel younger. Twenty years younger is the most common observation. (I truly don’t fully understand why this happens – reduced inflammation, shifts in hormones – but it is incredibly consistent.) At the very least, the perceived sense of youthfulness seems to be the combined result of increased energy, deeper sleep and reduced stiffness and pain.
Menstrual cycles are milder. Women experience reduced cramping and moodiness.
The ‘heartburn’ of acid reflux improves or disappears in the majority of people. Those labelled with irritable bowel syndrome typically experience less bloating, less gas and less unpredictability in bowel habits.
Less joint pain and swelling. Most characteristically, this involves reduced pain and swelling in the joints of the fingers, hands and wrists, but also in the elbows and shoulders. Tenderness and swelling of the shins and ankles also recede, as do leg and ankle swelling.
Naysayers, of course, jump on unquantifiable subjective benefits as mass hysteria, a group placebo effect that develops because I have such incredible powers of persuasion. But the experience that counts is yours and that of your family and friends. The wonderful thing about this is that you can decide for yourself: Just eliminate all things wheat. There are no prescription drugs, no nutritional supplements, no meetings to attend – just no wheat.
But there is a complicating factor, because when you deny your body all things wheat, there is . . .
Wheat Withdrawal
Removing wheat, for many people, is downright terrifying.
If the gliadin protein of modern wheat acts as a morphine-like opiate, then halting the flow of wheat can generate withdrawal. Aside
