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Wheat Belly
mattiefras
Posts: 29 Member
Anyone ever hear of this book "Wheat Belly"? What do you think? What are your experiences?
25
Replies
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Woo.18
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I think my belly likes wheat as much as I like delicious, fresh bread, warm, straight out of the oven spread with good salted butter.26
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No.
No.
Complete and utter BS.
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He has videos online. It looks impossible to follow which makes it a diet. And diets don't work.
Hard to eliminate all wheat, including bread, pasta, cereal, pretzels, doughnuts, etc (these I "could" do short term). You may not eat anything made with wheat, barley, rye, spelt, or certain oats.
I'm making barley w/ sweet potato tonight. And I love wheat pasta (a small amount fills me up).
-I can see a benefit to giving up donuts.6 -
I've read it, along with Grain Brain, and I thought they were both rubbish. I eat 5-6 servings of grains a day, following the DASH protocol, and I'm in excellent health and have a current bmi that's under a 20. My stomach is also completely flat (like 24 inches circumference flat).
eta: here's my 'wheat belly' (just took this). I eat grains/wheat every single day
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I bought it... Have yet to read it... I really like pizza though so probably just not gonna read it6
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It's full of garbage pseudoscience and misinterpretations of studies that don't prove what the author claims.16
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »I think my belly likes wheat as much as I like delicious, fresh bread, warm, straight out of the oven spread with good salted butter.
Drooling at the fresh bread and real butter.5 -
There is a lot of science behind it. It isn't just to lose weight - it's about protecting your cardiovascular system, your brain, the turnover rate of your cells and even hormone balancing. I just finished Grain Brain and the Bone Broth Diet and they were fascinating. I just completed 21 days of no grains of any kind jor any processed sugars and the difference in how I feel is dramatic. I think if you go into the venture just to lose weight, then it is going to be very tough. But if your goal is to improve your overall state of health, then this might be for you. Everyone is different. You just have to make an honest evaluation of your goals and your priorities and then make a decision. If you are going to try it though you need to give it at least 3-4 weeks because you probably will feel worse before you feel better, but the advantage is that once you get past that initial detox you really do feel fantastic.63
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efrensgirl2015 wrote: »There is a lot of science behind it. It isn't just to lose weight - it's about protecting your cardiovascular system, your brain, the turnover rate of your cells and even hormone balancing. I just finished Grain Brain and the Bone Broth Diet and they were fascinating. I just completed 21 days of no grains of any kind jor any processed sugars and the difference in how I feel is dramatic. I think if you go into the venture just to lose weight, then it is going to be very tough. But if your goal is to improve your overall state of health, then this might be for you. Everyone is different. You just have to make an honest evaluation of your goals and your priorities and then make a decision. If you are going to try it though you need to give it at least 3-4 weeks because you probably will feel worse before you feel better, but the advantage is that once you get past that initial detox you really do feel fantastic.
But my health markers are excellent consuming wheat/grains every day. I also feel great. Grains have all sorts of nutrients, taste great and have high satiety levels for many people. Cutting them out just doesn't make sense to me, (barring a legitimate medical condition like celiac).
Look at the Blue Zones, the healthiest and longest living people on the planet -they have grain heavy diets.22 -
efrensgirl2015 wrote: »There is a lot of science behind it. It isn't just to lose weight - it's about protecting your cardiovascular system, your brain, the turnover rate of your cells and even hormone balancing. I just finished Grain Brain and the Bone Broth Diet and they were fascinating. I just completed 21 days of no grains of any kind jor any processed sugars and the difference in how I feel is dramatic. I think if you go into the venture just to lose weight, then it is going to be very tough. But if your goal is to improve your overall state of health, then this might be for you. Everyone is different. You just have to make an honest evaluation of your goals and your priorities and then make a decision. If you are going to try it though you need to give it at least 3-4 weeks because you probably will feel worse before you feel better, but the advantage is that once you get past that initial detox you really do feel fantastic.
Please provide lots of science.19 -
efrensgirl2015 wrote: »I just completed 21 days of no grains of any kind jor any processed sugars and the difference in how I feel is dramatic.
By processed sugars I assume you mean added sugars, as the actual sugar (glucose, fructose, which together make up sucrose) are largely the same. Processed seems to be a buzz word.
Anyway, I did this, I cut out grains (which I mostly don't care that much about) and added sugar for a month, and felt no different. Well, at first I thought I did, but then I reintroduced them and realized it was feeling good from being focused on eating a calorie-appropriate and healthy diet and making progress. I later did the same thing again and felt the same--no different.
This idea that grains are inherently bad for you is not particularly credible, IMO. I think the reality is that a lot of people who cut them out were eating lots of high cal/lower nutrient things with grains in them or just find that some of the foods they tend to overeat are grain based, and when they cut them out they may improve their diet and cut calories (especially if they also do other health conscious things at the same time).
I also did not feel bad cutting out grains, for the record -- I think this "will feel worse before you feel better" stuff is odd. Unless you mean going low carb and having the low carb flu (which I didn't really either, but obviously many do, has nothing to do with grains specifically).12 -
I was lectured on it by this psychopathic woman I used to know. Oh lord, the rambling about frankenwheat and yaddda yadda yadda. She then saw my 1L bottle of Mountain Dew and just about lost her mind. She also had her kids drinking this koolaid (ha). I worry about those kids. They are (or at least "were") pretty heavy, and she was trying to get them on this "wheat belly diet." Most likely, all she managed to do was to get them on an endless cycle of yo-yo fad dieting for years to come.
Ok, so that was a bit of a tangent. OP, if you have some sort of wheat intolerance or Celiac, talk to a doctor and a dietitian. The book won't likely be of any use to you. If you don't, then why cut out wheat, except for your own personal preference? And you don't need a book for that.13 -
I know people who have followed it and continue to have improved health.
I'm a celiac so I avoid grains anyways, and feel better doing so too.
7 -
No probs here and I would even venture to say I have a grain based diet.2
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TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »He has videos online. It looks impossible to follow which makes it a diet. And diets don't work.
Hard to eliminate all wheat, including bread, pasta, cereal, pretzels, doughnuts, etc (these I "could" do short term). You may not eat anything made with wheat, barley, rye, spelt, or certain oats.
I'm making barley w/ sweet potato tonight. And I love wheat pasta (a small amount fills me up).
-I can see a benefit to giving up donuts.
If you have celiac disease, eliminating gluten suddenly becomes doable
This is just more fear-mongering in the name of selling diet woo. A small segment of the population has celiac disease, and ingesting any gluten results in small intestine inflammation and damage. If you don't have gluten intolerance/sensitivity/celiac disease you don't have to avoid gluten unless you want to. The general population is not walking around with terminally inflamed guts because they eat cake and pasta.10 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT96WWEMN_A
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I read that as a bra size for a second.23
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efrensgirl2015 wrote: »There is a lot of science behind it. It isn't just to lose weight - it's about protecting your cardiovascular system, your brain, the turnover rate of your cells and even hormone balancing. I just finished Grain Brain and the Bone Broth Diet and they were fascinating. I just completed 21 days of no grains of any kind jor any processed sugars and the difference in how I feel is dramatic. I think if you go into the venture just to lose weight, then it is going to be very tough. But if your goal is to improve your overall state of health, then this might be for you. Everyone is different. You just have to make an honest evaluation of your goals and your priorities and then make a decision. If you are going to try it though you need to give it at least 3-4 weeks because you probably will feel worse before you feel better, but the advantage is that once you get past that initial detox you really do feel fantastic.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/wheat-belly-diet-review
http://www.cbc.ca/news/wheat-belly-arguments-are-based-on-shaky-science-critics-say-1.2974214
Diets like "Wheat Belly" have a kernel of truth that are then spun into a fantasy...8 -
Speaking for myself, i do not do well on a diet with the gov's recommended dose of carbs. I read Wheat Belly (and a few other similar books) ages ago and while I don't medically need to cut wheat and it's ilk out completely, cutting down has definately made a massive difference to me.
Apart from putting on a poop-tonne of weight if I eat 'normal' levels of carbs, I also have an incurable/untreatable medical condition which, bizarrely, reacts to eating too much carbs (mostly wheat, and refined sugars) despite the condition having nothing to do with digestion. Normal levels of carbs and sugars for me, makes my condition worse. 'Too much' fat or protein doesn't affect me at all, luckily (ignoring the meat-sweats).
I wouldn't dismiss wheat belly out of hand though, everyone reacts to chemicals differently because (epi)genetics, if we didn't there wouldn't be a need for thousands of different pain killers, one would do the job. Doses would be the same. People wouldn't have allergies, or we would all have the same allergies. Big up to the folk who are allergic to water... severe lack of luck there. Food is chemicals, we all react to them differently.
Unless you have a medical condition, there's no need to go cold-turkey. Slowly reduce the amount you eat of one food, say bread, find alternatives, add them in at the same rate. Get used to eating other things and find new favourites. Then move on to the next food and do the same.
If it wasn't for wheat belly, i'd never have found the magic that is 'ugly beans'!!
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Speaking for myself, i do not do well on a diet with the gov's recommended dose of carbs. I read Wheat Belly (and a few other similar books) ages ago and while I don't medically need to cut wheat and it's ilk out completely, cutting down has definately made a massive difference to me.
Apart from putting on a poop-tonne of weight if I eat 'normal' levels of carbs, I also have an incurable/untreatable medical condition which, bizarrely, reacts to eating too much carbs (mostly wheat, and refined sugars) despite the condition having nothing to do with digestion. Normal levels of carbs and sugars for me, makes my condition worse. 'Too much' fat or protein doesn't affect me at all, luckily (ignoring the meat-sweats).
I wouldn't dismiss wheat belly out of hand though, everyone reacts to chemicals differently because (epi)genetics, if we didn't there wouldn't be a need for thousands of different pain killers, one would do the job. Doses would be the same. People wouldn't have allergies, or we would all have the same allergies. Big up to the folk who are allergic to water... severe lack of luck there. Food is chemicals, we all react to them differently.
Unless you have a medical condition, there's no need to go cold-turkey. Slowly reduce the amount you eat of one food, say bread, find alternatives, add them in at the same rate. Get used to eating other things and find new favourites. Then move on to the next food and do the same.
If it wasn't for wheat belly, i'd never have found the magic that is 'ugly beans'!!
The fact that you have a medical condition that requires you to cut back on carbs is not relevant to the premise of the book which is that no one should eat grains because terminal inflammation. Would you recommend everyone stop eating wheat because it's bad for you?12 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I read that as a bra size for a second.
Ditto. Glad I wasn't the only one. LOL7 -
Think about it: if you had a choice between losing weight while eating bread and losing weight while not eating bread, what would you choose? I personally would never say no to this unless a had a damn good reason.
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Wynterbourne wrote: »
Ditto. Glad I wasn't the only one. LOL
HA! Me too.1 -
AngryViking1970 wrote: »
HA! Me too.
I too had a "does not compute" pause...thought Crazyravr was gettin' a little sassy there for a moment.
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If loving wheat is wrong, I don't want to be right...13
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If it wasnt going to be 34C this weekend I would be baking a loaf.
Quick question: is it that you can't be fussed to bake in this heat or is that hot weather harms the breadmaking process in some way? I'm asking because mom will be coming in a few days and I want to make her a loaf of her favorite sourdough bread but it looks like it's going to be hot.
P.S (and I know people will kill me for this): I don't like grass fed store bought butter. I grew up with two kinds of butter: the kind we churned ourselves from the milk of our own (grassfed) cows back when I was a kid and spent the summer at my grandparents, and Lurpak. So any store bought butter has to be Lurpak or it tastes odd to me. Store bought grass fed butter taste NOTHING like what I remember freshly churned butter tasting.3 -
efrensgirl2015 wrote: »There is a lot of science behind it........ once you get past that initial detox you really do feel fantastic.
Science and detox in the same paragraph.......
cbc.ca/news/wheat-belly-arguments-are-based-on-shaky-science-critics-say-1.2974214
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0
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Your brains works in F not in C, so it's understandable 3
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