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Glad I stumbled on this thread as just yesterday I was thinking have to give up that bread. Had whole grain bread for lunch and was so bloated & tired after eating it, didn't even eat the entire sandwich...
very interesting posts on this subject in this thread
I was at the health food store yesterday and talking to the cashier about something and she looked at me and immediately asked me if I'd heard about the book, Wheat Belly. I have not and I felt a little insulted b/c I do have a pot belly--always have had--was looking at pix with my bro the other day and even from early childhood I've had this. It's gotten worse over the last year with stress eating and I've gained around 10 lbs with all of it going to the front of me. The funny thing is that I've been low-carbing for the past week and that means of course that I've not eaten any bread and I do feel some better of course, though that could be due to other things.
Thinking back, I've always been a bread-head. I was raised on a pretty crappy diet and the main thing that I liked to eat for a snack was toast. I became a bread baker and I make really good bread and that's b/c I like to eat it so much, along with the homemade from scratch cookies and cakes that taste so good, though I don't bake those as much. Also when I was young, I had a lot of health problems--allergies and asthma sent me to the ER more than once, and I had really bad moods and was cranky and irritable and depressed. In fact, I just apologized to my brother this past weekend for some of the things I said or did and that was 40 years ago! After I got away from home and started to eat a higher quality diet, many of those things improved, but I still have a host of minor health problems. This doctor seems to think that a lot of health problems can be cleared up by going off wheat so I'm interested. He also says that people who have problems with wheat tend to carry a lot of belly fat.
So anyway, I think I'm going to stay off bread for a little while and see how it goes--the doc who wrote the book seems to believe that wheat is not good for anyone--esp the modern hybrid varieties that are on the market now and if you look around you, wheat is in so many foods, and esp the convenience ones--I mean, it's so much more convenient to reach for a box of crackers than it is to make a salad or cook a burger, even both of those are fairly easy to make. I figure the only thing I will lose will be some weight, and hopefully most of it off the front of me!
So, I'm posting this in case anyone else has tried going off wheat (who doesn't need to medically) and how it went and all. It sounds terribly hard to me right now though it helps that I've been low carbing all week anyway. Or maybe you're thinking about it?
While everyone is different and one diet may work for one and not another. I've tried most diets, exercised 6 days a week (rigorously), been to nutritionists, yada, yada. I have a double whammy against me (thyroid issues and going through pre-menopause) which made it virtually impossible to lose weight. My doctor told me about the Ideal Protein Diet and FINALLY after almost 10 years of struggling with my weight, the weight came off. It is pretty expensive like the Nutra System and Jenny Craig but the food is actually excellent and tastes good contrary to what I've read about the other more popular plans. If you go on the idealprotein.com website, you can find a facility to get the food in your area but if it's too expensive, the premise of the diet is no sugar, no carbs and no dairy. You do get all those foods back in moderation when you hit your goal weight. If you want more info, pm me and I can tell you more about it. I am not in maintenance phase yet. I believe good carbs (whole grains) are supposed to be eaten in the morning only giving your body plenty of time to burn them off. Anyway... this diet is the real deal. You will not lose muscle, just fat. Now when I work out, I burn right to the fat where as the first twenty minutes, you burn your sugar then your carbs and THEN your fat storage. Like I said, not every diet works for all but I am glad I figured out what my enemies are (sugar and carbs). I will only have these two very, very sparingly. Oh, just thought I would mention, my energy level is through the roof. I always thought carbs gave me the energy I needed... WRONG, it was making me sluggish and tired all the time. I've never felt healthier with my enemies bogging me down.
Oh stop already. I eat grains and have eaten them all my life. I'm female, 50 years old, 5'9" and about 143 lbs. Haven't measured my body fat in years but when I was in my 30's and very thin (while eating grains) it was 17%. I doubt if it's much higher than that now.
For the vast majority of people, all foods are fine in moderation. It's the "moderation" part that is key.
Wheat is another strike against you if you have a lowered metabolism due to say for example eating a low protein diet, not enough saturated fats, etc. Gluten certainly doesn't *help* anyone's metabolism.
Also, research suggests wheat also has a negative impact on leptin which ultimately controls whether you get fat or stay skinny.
Moderation is quite overated imo- just look all around. It doesn't work, some foods should be eliminated on the basis that they do more harm than good and aren't worth it.
I'm glad you're having success, but I would guess that by cutting out wheat you've lowered carbs. I would respectfully disagree that it is "...not about low carbs." Wheat is a carbohydrate. It is about eating good carbs (veggies) and eliminating bad carbs (including, but not limited to, wheat).
One of my favorite restaurants doesn't serve enough starch (or veggies) . I always have plenty of meat leftover and little by the way if veggies or starch if at all. The burger comes with a salad. The roast chicken has a huge chicken breast and maybe 1 cup of potatoes or whatever. It is pretty funny. Mashed potatoes typically have a larger serving. When they do roasted potatoes it is more like 6-8 baby potatoes. They skimp on the cheap stuff at this restaurant, except the salads are big.
There is a French takeout place in my neighborhood that serves main dishes without starch. You need to buy them a la carte. The entrees come with veggies only.
The only time I feel like I get a ton of starch is when I go to an Asian place these days. I don't know I'd you have been to an Ethiopian place. If you ask for more injera (the bread) they look at you like you are crazy. It is do filling that if you try to eat more than a little bit they'll need to roll you out.
Also, watch out, those of you who are avoiding wheat or gluten. Most restaurants put flour into their mashed potatoes. I personally think that is a sin that should be punishable my imprisonment and a stiff fine.
If you go to a restaurant that adds flour to their mashed potatoes you need to find a new restaurant. No self respecting chef would EVER put flour in their mashed potatoes.
Have you seen the ads for ....is it I-Hop?......that say their omelets are fluffy because they add a little pancake batter to them?
Guess you never know when you aren't cooking it yourself.
Good timing on this topic. I recently completely cut out wheat (really gluten all together) from my diet. At first I wasn't seeing much results, and then it suddenly hit me.
Between 6-8 weeks of being completely gluten free, even avoiding trace amounts, I not only feel better but I really started to thin out. I've never been fat, but usually had that baby fat except for times when I actively worked to get abs. My level of exercise has not gone up much at all, and I've been eating large and late meals ( so I obviously was not trying to lose weight), but I somehow started noticing my stomach slimming down. If I actually ate smaller portions, watched what I ate, and what times I ate, coupled with exercise, I think it would be a remarkable change.
I noticed this all on my own, I never read the book "Wheat Belly", and have no other explanation as to the weight loss other than my dietary changes being a significant factor. Its not about low carbs, its about wheat.
EDIT - I do not have celiac, I dont even know if I have a clinically diagnosed allergy to gluten, as I haven't gone to a doctor about it. I'm doing this on my own. I will say that I went to a restaurant and my "rice noodles" seemed funny and may have been regular noodles. I fell asleep by 11 that night which is very early for me. I woke up at 4am feeling like I drank 5 cups of coffee, and the whole next day I was sick to my stomach. Maybe coincidence, I don't know.
Celiac disease takes on many forms ... from extremely mild to severe degrees.
In my experience, many people remain undiagonosed with celiac because their reaction can be very minimal, masked by other symptoms which they accept as normal for their food intake. Many won't even make a connection to their gluten intake and their overall health. As well, for many, even the blood test for celiac won't show a positive because it's not very sensitive.
However, a rotation diet where you have eliminated gluten for a period of time and then reintroduce it can be very telling.
Where I'm going with this is that you eliminated gluten from your diet for a period of time, and then when you ate it again ... had a reaction which included being sick to your stomach after waking up somewhat wired .... you may actually have a mild case of celiac disease.
For some folk, this can be tolerable. But be aware that it can progress slowly and get worse as time goes by, and is commonly misdiagnosed for other seriously debilitating conditions. Common treatments for those other conditions will not address the cause of your possible problem, gluten intolerance with gluten intake.
If you have doubts about your sensitivity at this time, repeat the gluten elimination diet for a couple of weeks, then reintroduce a modest amount of gluten at a meal. See what reactions take place ... this is not anything to fool around with, the consequences are subtle but can be dangerous over time, especially if misdiagnosed as another ailment which is treated with meds that have their own side effects while not treating the underlying causation of your real problem.
Another update lol: I believe in my last post I said that gluten didn't seem to make enough difference for me to consider going off of it, but I may have to rethink. For the past 10 days or so I've been doing intermittent fasting, which just basically means that I wait till I'm good and hungry to eat and that may be not till lunch or supper. The other day I fasted till about 2:00 and then had a tomato sandwich and other veggies and then for supper later I had a healthy homemade pizza with homemade dough. That evening my stomach just burned and I blew up like a balloon. When I was eating gluten free I had almost no gas but when I eat it, I have problems and I guess I was used to it before. Also I'm noticing that some allergies are coming back.
Another update lol: I believe in my last post I said that gluten didn't seem to make enough difference for me to consider going off of it, but I may have to rethink. For the past 10 days or so I've been doing intermittent fasting, which just basically means that I wait till I'm good and hungry to eat and that may be not till lunch or supper. The other day I fasted till about 2:00 and then had a tomato sandwich and other veggies and then for supper later I had a healthy homemade pizza with homemade dough. That evening my stomach just burned and I blew up like a balloon. When I was eating gluten free I had almost no gas but when I eat it, I have problems and I guess I was used to it before. Also I'm noticing that some allergies are coming back.
You sure it wasn't the tomatoes?
Tomato sandwich + pizza sauce = stomach burn.
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