Wheat Belly: Theory with a Dash of Low-Carb

Cardiologist William Davis, author of The New York Times bestseller Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health, thinks that all modern wheat (no matter the healthy label on it) is so sinister it can cause your body to practically self-destruct. Davis believes that about 80 percent of us would benefit from eliminating all wheat from our diets, and up to 50 percent of us would experience the positive results of wheat elimination right away. What’s new in Wheat Belly is the idea that modern wheat is a monster, and not just because it can make you fat. It can drive the daggers of illness deep into your body.

Is Davis on to something, or on something?

First of all, you have to realize that the wheat we eat today isn’t the same wheat our ancestors grew. During the last century, wheat was genetically altered. I suppose no one ever wrote a press release about it though. Those folks who altered our wheat did so without testing how it might affect all of us rats who eat it. And that’s why Wheat Belly appears to have such appeal. Dare I call it a conspiracy theory?

Can anyone really prove that the genetic changes to wheat aren’t making us all sick and fat? Probably not, but at the same time, Davis may not be able to make his case that this Frankenstein wheat is, in fact, making us ill.

Davis has lots of theories about how wheat affects us. It may be the cause of the rise in gluten sensitivity and celiac disease we see today. Compounds like gliadin or amylopectin A in wheat make us hungry and trigger all kinds of atrocities like sharper spikes in blood sugar, inflammation and even behavioral disorders.

Anecdotal Evidence

The author’s “proof” is that he’s watched his patients lose weight, experience less joint pain, improve their blood test results, and no longer need inhalers, all from eliminating wheat. This is what’s known as “anecdotal evidence,” and it’s good enough for some readers.

Davis also cites several studies, but has he presented the evidence in an honest manner? One of the authors of the new book, The Gluten-Free Edge, Peter Bronski, writes in his blog post “Wheat Belly, Busted,” that “Sections of the book Wheat Belly amount to propaganda, fallacies, and unsubstantiated claims.” Bronski gives three examples of how Davis misrepresents the studies he cites.

But let’s say that wheat really is evil. So, what’s to be done, then? One of the criticisms of Davis’ book is that he spends a lot of time vilifying wheat, but he doesn’t offer all that much in terms of an alternative diet plan. Davis himself insists that there’s no such thing as a “Wheat Belly diet,” yet he does present some recipes in his book. Other critics are quick to point out that, as far as diet advice goes, what’s offered in Wheat Belly is really just a rehash of Atkins and Paleo.

While Paleo followers maintain that man didn’t originally consume grains, so we should avoid them, in the Wheat-Belly world, grains were much better for you until they were genetically altered. Yet, Davis doesn’t leave it at just eliminating wheat from your diet. Things aren’t as simple as that. Davis also wants followers to go low-carb and limit foods like beans, brown rice, starchy veggies and fruit.

Is wheat really the monster here, or could it be that simply limiting carbs is helping some Wheat-Belly followers? If modern wheat is the monster that Davis makes it out to be, it seems that we’d all be able to rid ourselves of the “wheat belly” by simply shunning Frankenwheat.

In his blog post, “Mind Games, Man Boobs and Muffin Tops,” Davis notes that Wheat Belly isn’t a diet, and he didn’t call it that. Then, he comments that a diet is “articulated.” And, of course, he then goes into what makes Wheat Belly so unique, writing that his book is “first and foremost, about the changes introduced into modern wheat by the work of geneticists during the 1960s and 1970s, the same kind of research that led to the creation of Agent Orange, DDT, and other ‘better health through chemistry’ types of efforts.”

Are you as confused as I am? Wheat Belly isn’t a diet, but it’s kind of a diet, and it’s mostly about how we’ve all been fooled into thinking we’re eating normal, healthy wheat. And don’t forget to not eat a lot of carbs!

(By Peggy Rowland for CalorieLab):

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Wheat Belly: Theory with a Dash of Low-Carb is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/07/11/wheat-belly-william-davis/

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