Are we suffering from "Wheat Belly" in North America?

a reply to: jonnywhite

Yes, I had to edit my post as it was sent incomplete.

a reply to: ThreeNF

ThreeNF, thank you for bringing this thread back up. I had read the book in the title and try to remove gluten from my diet only to fail miserably at it.

More recently I modified my diet to just remove "wheat" and keep other grains in. Finding a brand of bread that is mostly made from rye flour (with sunflower and sesame seeds) and substituting it for whole wheat breads. I enjoyed the taste and it was very filling, however, I found myself suffering from constipation more and more. I have come back to my Whole Wheat bread from the grocery store, but try to limit the amount I eat.

I admire you for cutting all grains from you diet, but would find it rather hard to follow given my carb addiction. Look forward to more postings from you.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

a reply to: PeterMcFly

PeterMcFly, I tend to agree with you that the author seems obsessed with modern wheat but it does make sense to me. And given the success some of my family members had (see my OP) with following diet change based on his claims I thought I would give it a try as well. My problem is that I'm just not as dedicated as others who have posted are.

We are moving into a "Wellness Challenge" at work for the month of June. I may just revisit the book and see if I do better this time around. Thanks for the nudge to get me back at it.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

a reply to: jonnywhite

Jonnywhite, thank you for that link and as I mentioned in my above post taking the whole wheat out of my diet had a negative effect on my daily elimination process.

It is so very hard to bring just the right balance into our daily lives. Oh to have a personal trainer and dietitian at my disposal.

Thank you for your contribution to this thread.
Namaste,
YogaGinns

a reply to: YogaGinns

no - wheat has been the same for centuries - whats wrong is zero exercise and supersized portions - its not rocket science

a reply to: YogaGinns

PeterMcFly, I tend to agree with you that the author seems obsessed with modern wheat but it does make sense to me. And given the success some of my family members had (see my OP) with following diet change based on his claims I thought I would give it a try as well.

Yes go ahead, you probably won't regret it.

My problem with Dr. Davis's book is that his discourse is that it is solely wheat that is bad and I am a hardcore proponent of low carb and ketogenic diet. So I'm not against his book, I just find it goes not far enough.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

I can't ignore the fact that the wheat is different, visually shorter than what I remembered it being when I was young. And Dr. Davies is not the only one to bring up that fact or the additional number of chromosomes today, compared to what my parents were raised on.

I do agree that today's lifestyle of overindulgence and minimal activity the the main contributing factor in our bulging waistlines. Just observing the younger generation has emphasized that well enough, I never had a muffin top in my 20's that came later on.

A few links to back up the "change in wheat"
Fox news clip
Grainstorm
Underwood Gardens

Thanks for your input.
Namaste,
YogaGinns

originally posted by: YogaGinns

Originally posted by troubleshooter
reply to post by YogaGinns

 

I think there may be something to this...
...I removed breads, cakes, biscuits, and breakfast cereals from my diet just before Christmas 2011 and gradually returned to my normal lean weight.

Those are the things I love the most, I even bake cookies to give as Christmas gifts, take a week off work to do it. Wondering if you went through a withdrawal or did you do it gradually. Also, did you give up pasta as well?

Like I said before, I think quitting smoking was easier than giving up wheat would be.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

We do always have a loaf of bread and some tortillas and a bag of chips around the house, but it's not at all uncommon that about half the loaf of bread is uneaten and the chips are unopened. We are much more likely to make free use of the tortillas for things like tacos or quesadillas, but even then, it's maybe one or two in an evening if we are using them.

This works for me. My weight has been stable now for a long time, years, and my BP is low.

We still indulge during the holidays and other special occasions, but I never have had a sweet tooth, so I don't notice that it "wrecks" my diet.

I think like anything, you are going to have to experiment and find what works best for you. Some people are totally different than where I am.

a reply to: ketsuko

Hi ketsuko, thanks for posting your thoughts. I think if I were to clear my cupboards of wheat products it would be much easier to wean myself off of them, but that is always easier said than done.

We still indulge during the holidays and other special occasions, but I never have had a sweet tooth, so I don't notice that it "wrecks" my diet.

If I knew which one of mine WAS the sweet tooth I'd get it pulled out for sure. Growing up there were always homemade bake goods in my house, I've come to my addictions from and early age. Old habits die hard.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

a reply to: YogaGinns

Truth be told, I much prefer to get my sweets from fruit than from refined sugars.

Although I have a weakness for chocolate.

originally posted by: PeterMcFly
a reply to: ThreeNF

Yes, it's definitely a low carb diet. I try not go above 50g of net carbs on any day, and no more than 15g net carbs during any meal.

If you're not ketogenic, you're not far! You should definitively do control using Ketostix and use a glucometer occasionnaly to check glucose in blood.

I have a thread here somewhere on the subject of low carb diet. It is a little bit technical but I recommend you check it.

Thanks, I'll look for it!

a reply to: YogaGinns

It's hard, and I do cheat from time to time. People at work sometimes bring in cookies, cakes, etc., and I'll have a little and haven't seen any negative consequence of doing so. I think in general eliminating grain from each meal, along with regular exercise helped to drastically reduce my weight. At this point I'm just maintaining and can't imagine losing anymore. If I do, I'll have to go to the little kids section to buy clothes!

My blood pressure is pretty good, typically around 107/68 (that was the average when taking it for a period of 3 weeks). However, my cholesterol did go up significantly when actively losing weight to 305 in February. It's now at 215. I had a VAP test done that takes a look at the LDL particle sizes, which according to Dr. Davis, is a better test. So I'm not overly concerned with the 215 number.

a reply to: ThreeNF

In many earlier posts I see people who recommend the Paleo and Atkins type diets to lower carb intake, but I also worry about the cholesterol. Plus, am not a huge meat lover, no where near a vegetarian but can't make a meal out of steak and salad. I like my starches.

When my doctor said my cholesterol was high* and wanted to put me on Lipitor I begged off and began reducing the amounts of meat and fat ... mostly increasing the fruits and fiber. At a follow appointment she was thrilled that the "Lipitor" worked, when I told her I never took the drug she then informed me that my sugar was high and I was pre-diabetic and should be on Metformin. Well I pretty much told her NO, and I would modify my diet again. After six months my sugar was once again good, but I needed a statin drug to reduce cholesterol. Arrrrrgggghhhh! No wonder people just eat what the want and hope for the best.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

*I never had problems up until that point, nor is there a history of it in my family so I asked the nurse why it would change all of a sudden. Apparently when I turned 55 there was a new calculation used for LDL/HDL levels and that put me into the "warning" category.

Someone mentioned cancer. My sister has brain cancer and craves fruit constantly. Fruit is a natural sugar but the doctor said it is likely feeding her cancer, not helping the body to heal as was hoped. As far as cookies and other grains, she isn't craving/consuming those like she did before this diagnosis but did eat a lot of them pre-cancer. I believe those caused her weight gain over the years and resulted in the contribution to cancer. Toxic foods are within our midst and they are cheap and plentiful. How sad.

a reply to: Dianec

I am sorry to hear about your sister and the cancer diagnosis. I wish I had and answer for you on that, maybe someone else here can help.

I am aware that the brain uses large quantities of glucose just to function but would that aggravated the cancer? Does she eat organic produce, it is possible the chemicals and pesticides used could be a factor.

If you find out anymore on this, please come back and share with us. Hope she recovers from this soon.

Namaste,
YogaGinns

a reply to: Dianec

... the doctor said it is likely feeding her cancer ...

Not often we hear of a doctor who understand what cancer is!!! Tell her she's in good hand.

Fruit is a natural sugar but ...

Natural sugar, refined or synthetic ... It's all the exact same molecules. All carb are polymers of simple sugars and will ultimatly be digested back into these simple sugars.

Tell your sister to ask her doctor about ketogenic diet while continuing her treatments.

a reply to: YogaGinns

I am aware that the brain uses large quantities of glucose just to function

True but something that most peoples (and doctors) don't know/remember is since unlike others organs, the brain cannot reduce its consumption of glucose, so, evolutionnary process made provision for the brain to use other "fuels", namely ketone bodies and amino acid.

So when starving, the brain can adapt to use ketone bodies when glucose is scarce. However this adaptation take some time. This is why people can go comatose due to hypoglycemia, they did not had the time to get adapted to ketone bodies.

Once adapted to ketone bodies, the brain have just a minimal of glucose requirement that can be provided by gluconeogenesis, the synthesis of glucose by fat or protein. I have read in some research papers that someone can goes as low as 1mmol/L of glucose in blood without any cognitive effect. An unadapted person would normally be in coma! This is why brain cancer respond well (allegedly) to ketogenic diet, it's easy to starve it of glucose.

originally posted by: PeterMcFly
a reply to: Dianec

... the doctor said it is likely feeding her cancer ...

Not often we hear of a doctor who understand what cancer is!!! Tell her she's in good hand.

Fruit is a natural sugar but ...

Natural sugar, refined or synthetic ... It's all the exact same molecules. All carb are polymers of simple sugars and will ultimatly be digested back into these simple sugars.

Tell your sister to ask her doctor about ketogenic diet while continuing her treatments.

I've often wondered about fruit. I will share this with her but her cravings for it are strong (stage 4 cancer). I know when I eat just proteins and veggies my health and energy are completely different. It is a marked difference. This thread has reminded me to recommit to a paleo diet for awhile. There is a problem with an Atkins type of diet in that I lose too much weight and ketones get high so I'll be working on which carbs will keep those keystones low while also not spoiling the energy I get from low carbs.

a reply to: Dianec

There is a problem with an Atkins type of diet in that I lose too much weight and ketones get high so I'll be working on which carbs will keep those keystones low while also not spoiling the energy I get from low carbs.

Interesting, my spouse also have the same problem. Ketone bodies goes very high. She is not diabetic, so they should maxup at 4 to 8 mmol/L like me. I ear this story from time to time and I have no explanation. I have remarked that it seem frequently associated with autoimmune disease. One thing to check is if you take level of ketone bodies from urine using dipstick, you must make sure you are correctly hydrated. Urine measurement is just to give an idea and is strongly affected by dehydration causing low volume of urine produced. ketone bodies are best measured in blood.

Also, if you remove carb from a diet, you must absolutly replace them by fat. You cannot draw the bulk of your energy from protein, you will strain your kidney and have high level of nitrogenous compounds in blood. It is called protein poisonning or rabbit starvation.

I have a thread somewhere in here about low carb. It include info on ketogenic diet also.

a reply to: PeterMcFly

Should those on a low carb diet check their ketone levels?