 | Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health |
Average customer review:
(103 customer reviews)
Product Description
A renowned cardiologist explains how eliminating wheat from our diets can prevent fat storage, shrink unsightly bulges, and reverse myriad health problems.
Every day, over 200 million Americans consume food products made of wheat. As a result, over 100 million of them experience some form of adverse health effect, ranging from minor rashes and high blood sugar to the unattractive stomach bulges that preventive cardiologist William Davis calls "wheat bellies." According to Davis, that excess fat has nothing to do with gluttony, sloth, or too much butter: It's due to the whole grain wraps we eat for lunch.
After witnessing over 2,000 patients regain their health after giving up wheat, Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic — and its elimination is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health. In Wheat Belly, Davis exposes the harmful effects of what is actually a product of genetic tinkering and agribusiness being sold to the American public as "wheat" — and provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new, wheat-free lifestyle.
Informed by cutting-edge science and nutrition, along with case studies from men and women who have experienced life-changing transformations in their health after waving goodbye to wheat, Wheat Belly is an illuminating look at what is truly making Americans sick and an action plan to clear our plates of this seemingly benign ingredient.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #259 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-08-30
- Released on: 2011-08-30
- Format: Kindle eBook
- Number of items: 1
About the Author
WILLIAM DAVIS, MD, is a preventive cardiologist whose unique wheat-free approach to diet allows him to advocate reversal, not just prevention, of heart disease. He is the medical director for Track Your Plaque, an online heart disease prevention program, and writes frequently for national publications and health websites. He lives with his wife and three children in Fox Point, Wisconsin, where there are no bagels or muffins in his cupboards.
Most helpful customer reviews
141 of 145 people found the following review helpful.
By Pamela R. Merritt
This extraordinary book will explain how the bread in the Old Testament, the bread scattered throughout human history, even the bread your grandma made for the family; isn't what we are eating today as "bread." Not only is the wheat a distant genetic relative, but industrial food processes have put it in EVERYTHING.
We are not eating the backbone of the agricultural revolution. We are eating its Frankenstein's monster.
With history and self-experimentation and case histories and lots of well explained science, Dr. Davis lays out his experience, and his contention: that every single human will experience health improvement by giving up modern wheat. In a fascinating chapter, he even explains why we find it so difficult to "live without bread." It has natural morphine-like qualities that makes us act like any sick and despairing junkie!
Even though this book just came out, I have been reading Dr. Davis' blog for almost a year. I came from years of happy low carbing. But it was his writing that eliminated my occasional "cheats" with wheat products. I went totally gluten free.
I didn't expect much of anything... I'd already lost sixty pounds and kept it off, gotten the blood sugar & triglyceride & blood pressure improvements, and was sleeping well with better moods.
But I got my world rocked all over again.
By completely eliminating all grains, I lost ten more pounds without even trying. My rosacea, dwindled but still subject to flareups, now told me what had been causing the flareups; it was wheat and their accompanying seed oils. People spontaneously started saying, "What did you do? You look great!"
And I was someone who wasn't eating wheat much at all. Dr. Davis is right.
After all the genetic manipulations of recent decades, it's no longer the "staff of life." It's poison.
165 of 175 people found the following review helpful.
By Bill Cashell
William Davis, MD, is a preventive cardiologist who blames Low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides and small LDL particles for the rise in heart disease. This also leads to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, diabetes and pre-diabetes, increased inflammation, increasingly blood clot-prone blood. This is caused by the condition Dr. Davis calls "wheat belly".
Wheat belly is the much like the "beer belly" with the same protruding, sagging abdomen that develops when you overindulge in processed carbohydrates. It represents visceral fat that laces the intestines.
While nearly everyone knows that candy bars and soft drinks aren't good for health, most Americans have allowed processed carbohydrates, but especially wheat products like pretzels, crackers, breads, waffles, pancakes, breakfast cereals and pasta, to dominate diet.
Nutritionists have warned against plain white bread and steered us in another direction. According to the author, today's health-conscious decision to eat more whole grains may be more of the problem than the solution. In his view, it is some grains (like wheat) that are largely behind the obesity and diabetes epidemic. Grains like oats and flaxseed don't seem to contribute to weight and the associated patterns like small LDL.
Dr. Davis suggests we eliminate all forms of wheat - no breakfast cereals, no breads of any sort, no pasta, crackers, pretzels, etc. Instead, increase your vegetables, healthy oils, lean proteins (lean red meats, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese), raw nuts like almonds, walnuts, and pecans, and fruit. Of course, avoid fruit drinks, candy, and other garbage foods, even if they're wheat-free.
According to Davis, most people will report that a cloud has been lifted from their brain. Thinking is clearer, they have more energy and they sleep more deeply. Most people lose the insatiable hunger pangs that occur 2-3 hours after a wheat-containing meal. Sounds good, doesn't it?
Why such an impact from a "natural" food source like wheat? Because this is not the same grain your parents ate. Food engineering may create more food but not always better. If you want more information on this, I suggest reading Food, Inc. : Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. To get a better view of the business of food, you may want to watch the video "Food Inc" and then read The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply. It was interesting to read about the effects on people from a doctor's point of view.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed Dr. Davis' writing style, not like you might expect from a doctor. His experiences with his patients are fascinating. It is evident that he is passionate about this, and not just trying to promote a book.
I agree with Dr. Davis that processed foods are the major cause of obesity in America. This was a fascinating book to read but I also found it alarming that just about everything is made with wheat. Dr. Davis's research has proven that by eliminating wheat from our diets we can eliminate the dreaded fat tire around our midsection. Unfortunately, some people may still have a hard time giving up their favorite foods because wheat is so prevalent.
I have found through muscle testing that a large percentage of people are sensitive to wheat. Could the elimination of wheat from your diet really eliminate the "wheat belly" around your middle? Read this book and find out!
161 of 174 people found the following review helpful.
By Russell G. Moore
Wheat Belly is absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who will listen.
The book starts with sort of a history of wheat; how wheat is part of the fabric of all human cultures. The first couple chapters move a little slowly, but are written so well that even the most mundane facts and figures kept my interest. History of wheat, some talk about how wheat has evolved since the wheat of the Old Testament, and how it is not really wheat at all today.
In the United States, the acreage wheat occupies is larger than the state of Ohio (go Buckeyes!) and the amount of space wheat takes up on the globe is larger than the area of western Europe. It has a permament place in our lives - so it seems. But is today's wheat really something we should be putting in our ovens? On our tables? In our bodies?
Wheat has not actually gone through any evolution over time, but it has gone through some rigorous genetic alterations. The amber waves of grain, growing on stalks topping four feet high, represent only 1% of the world's wheat production - rare to say the least. The wheat we see in the bread and cereal ailses grows a mere 18 inches, allowing not only for a second crop each year, but contains insecticides and fungicides right in the seed heads. Genetic engineering allowed for inclusioin of these things without so much as a single test for nutrition, safety or consistency.
Gluten, the fatty protien in wheat (and numerous other grains) is produced many times the amount in old-school wheat. Gluten fosters very stubborn belly fat, hence the term "wheat belly".
After the history and culture lesson, Dr. Davis goes on to tell us not only why wheat is so bad for us, but what we can do about it; alternatives and resolves. Everyone should read this book. I'm sold on Wheat Belly and I'm off wheat for good!
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