Essay of the Whatever

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, M.D.

On March 1, 2012, we begin a Two-Week No-Wheat Challenge adapted from Dr. Davis’s book. I’ll summarize Dr. Davis’s arguments below, but I recommend you get yourself a copy (you can hit the link above) because he delves into the science behind wheat metabolism and its effects.  It’s fascinating stuff and explains a LOT about why a bagel puts me into a virtual coma.

Why are we getting so much bigger when we’ve been trying so diligently to eat only whole foods and complex carbs?  “It’s more accurate to say that the advice we’ve been given to eat more ‘healthy whole grains’ has deprived us of control over appetites and impulses, making us fat and unhealthy despite our best efforts and good intentions,” writes Davis.  The big culprit is in the inflammation and insulin spiking caused by foods that break down quickly into high blood sugar.

If high blood sugar is the problem, why not just, say, give up sugar?  Because modern wheat is unique in its ability to convert quickly into blood sugar, and not making your insulin levels spike is the name of the game here. Okay, we know all the sugary stuff is bad because it, duh, converts into blood sugar.  But gram for gram, wheat—in its modern form—increases blood sugar almost as much–and more than the complex carbs in bananas, beans, and potatoes.  “Aside from some extra fiber, eating two slices of whole wheat bread is really little different, and often worse, than drinking a can of sugar-sweetened soda or eating a sugary candy bar.”

So the deal is, you want to eat foods with a low Glycemic Index (GI), because they don’t raise your blood sugar as much.  In theory, high blood sugar is what promotes diabetes and inflammatory illnesses like ulcerative colitis and arthritis.  More than that, foods that have high GI counts give  you those highs and lows—the intense food cravings, deep hunger, and “sugar coma” you feel in the late afternoon after that unfortunate Snickers attack.  All your favorite White Devils—wheat, rice, sugar, potatoes—have high GI counts.

“Wheat belly. Pretzel brain. Bagel bowel.  Biscuit face.” Yeah, they’re all real things.  Davis says that “wheat belly”—the excess of “visceral fat” that rises, Phoenix-like, above your waistband—can disappear in weeks if you go wheat-free  In fact, Davis claims you can lose ten pounds in two weeks by going really, completely wheat-free. Davis also offers evidence that wheat ages you, clogs your heart, fogs your brain, makes your skin break out (or worse), and makes you lose your hair! Hmm, you’ve got my attention.

“Be gluten-free but don’t eat ‘gluten-free,’” Davis advises.  Gluten is a culprit, but not the only culprit, in wheat.  So if you shop only in the “gluten-free” aisle of the store, you’re apt to scarf up products filled with powdered rice starch, cornstarch, potato starch, and tapioca starch—all rapidly absorbed carbs that convert into blood sugar and dump more fat onto your muffin-top.

So, let’s begin, shall we?  What do expect?  “Approximately 30 percent of people who remove wheat products abruptly from their diet will experience a withdrawal effect….fatigue, mental fogginess, and irritability…and a feeling of low mood and sadness.”  Um…bummer.  Apparently, this can last two to five days;, during which time your body is getting used to “mobilizing and burning fatty acids instead of more readily accessed sugars,” so I’ll allow it.

Here’s a summary of the actual eat this/not that recommendations:

Go Bat Shit Crazy With These!

• Vegetables (except starchy ones like potatoes and corn).  Mushrooms included
• Raw nuts and seeds
• “Good” oils like extra virgin olive oil, avocado, walnut, coconut, flaxseed, sesame
• Meats and eggs—preferably free-range and organic.  Shellfish included
• Cheese
• Non-sugary condiments
• Also:  Avocados, olives, coconut, spices, unsweetened cocoa or cacao, flaxseed

Have a Little, Not a Lot

• Non-cheese dairy—milk, yogurt, butter, cottage cheese
• Fruit—too much makes your blood sugar soar. Berries are best. Have a few slices of apple, not the whole shebang
• Whole corn—not corn products!
• Fruit juices—2 to 4 ounces of 100% fruit juice is okay
• Non-wheat grains—My beloved Costco quinoa, as well as sorghum, buckwheat, millet and oats are better than wheat, but stick to less than ½ a cup
• Rice—Best of all to cut out white, brown and wild rice.  If you must, limit to ½ a cup per meal or you’ll send your blood sugar into the stratosphere
• Soy products—tofu, tempeh, miso, natto, edamame, soybeans

Get These Gone, Satan!

Davis also recommends you cut out:

• Cornstarch and cornmeal—farewell tacos, tortilla chips and breakfast cereals
• Rye, bulgur, triticale, kamut, barley
• “Bad” oils like hydrogenated or polyunsaturated.
• Snack foods—goodbye potato chips, rice cakes and popcorn
• Desserts—duh
• Potatoes—no to white, red, or even orange
• Legumes—If you must, no more than ½ a cup
• Gluten-free foods—read the labels and don’t eat stuff with starch made from rice, potato, corn, or tapioca
• Soda
• Dried fruit—sorry to tell you that those cranberries, raisins, figs, dates, and apricots are too sugary
• Anything fried

But What About Booze, Doctor?

Obviously, beer is out because it’s pretty much always made with wheat.  Red wine—a little bit—might be okay; jury’s still out.  I was shocked!  Shocked!  that tequila and vodka aren’t even in the index!

My Game Plan

Davis’s book has meal plans and recipes, another reason why I think it’s worth a buy.  I went to Costco and stocked up on organic spinach and salad, tomatoes, salsa, salmon, tuna, steak, organic chicken, basil pesto, cheeses, cucumbers, celery, hummus, carrots, olive tapenade, bruschetta, organic eggs, and almonds.  Rumor has it that Trader Joe’s has flaxseed tortillas; I’ll have to read the labels and see if they’re kosher.

My plan is to be super-adherent the first four days—basically a ton of veggies along with fish, chicken, shrimp, or beef, with lashings of nuts and cheese.  I don’t want to screw around with a half-cup of the “kinda sorta okay” foods until after that.  Davis lets you have 1 or 2 squares of dark chocolate (he likes Lindt 90 percent), but since I’ve been feeling so much better off sugar, I’ll skip that. Maybe after Day 4 I’ll have me a glass of red wine.

My plan is to have  one of my favorite breakfasts often:  two eggs made with Pam on a bed of thawed frozen spinach.  Lunch and dinner will be salads, veggies, and fish/chicken/beef/shrimp.  Snack will be celery or carrots with hummus or some almonds. I’m going to stick with natural, unprocessed stuff as much as possible instead of trying to track down all those nonwheat crackers, etc.  I think I’ll feel better.  I remember when I was on Atkins that I spent hours upon hours reading labels and totting up “net carbs” and I just don’t want to go back to that dark place.

Good luck!  Shoot me your questions and I’ll research them!  And let me know how you’re feeling!

xxoo,

Betsy

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We’re devoting March 2011 to Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Body (4HB) Challenge.  Climb aboard!

PREPWORK

Step 1)  Order Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman and check with your doctor

Step 2)  Measure yourself. Tim Ferriss strongly recommends blood work and more sophisticated fat measurements (DEXA et al).  I know myself, I’m a lazy sort, and I’m going with ye olde tape measure.  BUT YOU MUST MEASURE BEFORE YOU START.  Tim says this is one of those diets where you could shed inches before the pounds register on the scale.  Don’t cheat yourself out of the triumph or motivation to continue—measure first!  For more motivation, take “Before” photos.  Post ‘em if you’re REALLY brave!

Step 3)  Consider the supplements. I’ve decided I’m going to try the PAGG route.  I’m reprinting below the correction on Tim’s blog (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/category/the-4-hour-body/

Policosanol: 20–25 mg
Alpha- lipoic acid: 100–300 mg (I take 300 mg with each meal, but some
people experience acid reflux symptoms with even 100 mg)
Green tea flavanols (decaffeinated with at least 325 mg EGCG):
325 mg
Garlic extract: at least 200 mg (I routinely use 650+ mg)

Prior to breakfast: AGG
Prior to lunch: AGG
Prior to dinner: AGG
Prior to bed: PAG (omit the green tea extract)

Tim lists resources on his website (he gets no kickbacks).  Janet pulled together an Amazon Listmania listicle with the book and supplements so you can do one-stop shopping:

4HB Challenge List: The book, the supplements

Here’s what I bought:

Jarrow Formulas Ultra Policosanols, 10 mg $23.95 for 100 softgels; I’ll take two per dose

Bluebonnet EGCG Green Tea Leaf Extract, 200 mg $12.95 for 60 capsules; I’ll take two per dose

365 Alpha Lipoic Acid, 100 mg $5.99 for 90 tablets; I’ll try three at a time to start but watch for acid reflux)

Nature Made Odor Control Garlic 1250 mg garlic equivalent, Costco, $12 for 300 tablets

You do this six days a week, with one day off, then take one week off every two months. Tim says that week off is critical.

Step 4)  Read the “Rapid Fat-Loss” pages in 4HB (98 pages) The basics of the Slow-Carb Diet begin on p. 70.

BASICS OF THE SLOW-CARB DIET

Rule #1:  No White Devils. Yeah, you guessed it—no white bread, rice (including brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, etc.

Rule #2:  Eat the Same Meals Over and Over

Each meal needs a lean protein (organic eggs or egg whites, chicken, grass-fed beef, fish, pork), a legume (lentils, black beans, pinto beans, red beans, soybeans) and a veggie (spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, sauearkraut, kimchee, asparagus, peas, green beans). Aim for 20 grams of protein per meal; try for 30 grams for breakfast.

Eat meals four hours apart.  For me, that would be:

7:00 am – breakfast (eat this within an hour of waking, preferably within 30 minutes)

11:00 am – lunch

3:00 pm – second lunch

7:00 pm:  dinner

Rule #3:  Don’t Drink Calories

Have as much water, unsweetened tea and coffee and other no-cal drinks.  NO milk (not even soy milk), no sugary soda, no fruit juice.  Tim avoids aspartame; he says it can “stimulate weight gain”.  Tim also has one or two glasses of red wine a day; he says it doesn’t seem to interfere with fat loss.  I say spot yourself on this; if drinking wine makes you eat crap, avoid.

Rule #4:  No Fruit

Tomatoes and avocadoes are okay.  Tim says the fructose in fruit leads to fat storage.

Rule #5:  Take one Dieters Gone Wild Binge Day a week.

Anything goes here.  No calorie counting.

SOME REFINEMENTS:

Potassium/Calcium/Magnesium: Apparently you lose more water/electrolytes on this diet, so Tim suggests supplementing.  Check with your doctor.  I’m going to be vigilant about taking my multivitamin.

Expect “Massive Weight Fluctuations” after Cheat Day. Up to 8 pounds for women!

No Whole Grains or Oats

DAMAGE CONTROL FOR BINGE DAYS:

• Make sure the first meal isn’t a binge meal
• Drink a small glass of grapefruit juice before your second meal—the first crap meal
• Use the supplements
• Consume citric juices
• Drink caffeine and yerba mate tea so you poop more
• Do 30 or so air squats, wall presses, and chest pulls BEFORE you binge

Honestly, the book has a ton of info and great links for even more details, so definitely check it out, but these basics will get you started.

I definitely recommend checking out Tim’s blog–(http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/category/the-4-hour-body/

He gives in-depth answers to a ton of questions and there’s great reader feedback.

Beloved BYT Poster Beez dug up this handy-dandy cheat sheet:



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Man, winter sucks. With darkness closing in around 4:30, I’ve found my brain sun-downing simultaneously, my energy fleeing, my body ready for bed at around, oh, 7:30 pm.  Janet’s scale has gone on strike, refusing to budge for the last few months beyond a parsimonious two-pound swing.  Two ailments, but only one diagnosis:  Not enough joy.

So we’re going to try something different for December.  Instead of trying a new exercise video or logging what goes into our pieholes or testing out some goofy new Shiny Object of a diet, for 31 days, we’re going to inflect ourselves toward joy.

Janet’s going hard-core, because that’s how she rolls.  Instead of posting her weight, every day she’ll be sharing a Joy Report describing a joyful activity from the previous day.  She’s committed—we’re talking 20 minutes of joy minimum, no excuses. Whenever she feels like stepping on the scale, she’ll do that, but we’re out to test the theory that when you’re really serious about moving toward your right weight, your right life, your right whatever, you really have to get serious about having a shit-ton of fun.  When you’re stuck, you need to remind yourself daily that you’re a playful person with choices. Get that going on, and the pounds will take care of themselves.

When you get your joy on, you won’t try so hard to find it in the Double-Stuf Oreos or nacho platter that makes you feel lousy ten minutes after it’s gone down the hatch.  You won’t “need” that Devil’s Lemonade to “recover” from a crap day. You’ll savor what you do choose to eat and drink.

Years ago, I edited a wonderful book by Martha Beck, The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life, in which Martha describes the 10 daily practices she enjoys to remind herself that every day is another chance to reward and romance your soul.  Two years ago, I started a month-long course called JoyQuesters, which I now run with fellow life coach Michael Trotta, designed to get folks to remember the joyful, creative, playful creatures we all were, are, and are destined to be.  For December, we’ll play with the ideas from both these playgrounds and see what happens.

I’m going to be issuing a daily Joy Jump-Starter—a suggestion for you to play with.  Do it if it feels fun, but for god’s sake, run for the hills if it doesn’t ring your bell.

Wanna join us for the December Joy Report?  Who’s in?

xxoo,

Betsy

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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
2:45 pm

“Y’know,” my young, gorgeous surgeon said, as she cupped my breast in her hand, “I don’t think your breasts are all that small.”

What?! This was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard in my life.

My breast inferiority complex started at home. My mom and sister had much bigger boobs. My dad, inappropriately, liked to point that out, and tell me I looked like a boy. Cue: body issues, enter stage right.

I never found bras that fit. I’d go into the store, try to find the smallest versions of an A cup, and sneak furtively into the dressing room with a dozen or so to try on. I can tell you which brands are generous in their interpretation of A cup (Bali), and which might actually fit me (Maidenform occasionally.) Once a dressing room attendant tried to help me. She looked at me in the bra I’d decided would do, and said, “Oh, honey, no, when it puckers and folds over on top, that’s not a good fit.” A good fit was not found that day.

I was in bed with a guy. He said he loved large breasted women. I was puzzled. I asked, “Do you think my breasts are large?” What did I know? Maybe everyone else he’d dated was a Lilliputian. He replied, “You have great legs.” Oh. Nope, he’d dated other women with real breasts. That was the last time I saw him.

On July 20th, 2009, I got a phone call at 11:13 am telling me that I had an invasive ductal carcinoma. Three hours later, my husband and I sat in the office of Martha, the Wonder Nurse, my Breast Advocate, who carefully explained the pathology and my treatment options. She asked, gently, “What’s your cup size?”

“Er, it’s easiest to describe as Minus A,” I replied.

“Yes, I thought you might be rather small breasted. Sometimes, a lumpectomy isn’t an option for small breasted women because there’s isn’t much left over,” Martha explained. “It can be better to go to a mastectomy in that case, because then you don’t have to do radiation therapy.”

That was the question my surgeon answered: Was my breast so small as to not be worth the bother of trying to save, given that saving it would mean a more arduous treatment? I was prepared to sign up for the bilateral mastectomy–heck, lop them both off. Nobody would notice.

The first thing I learned from breast cancer: My breasts aren’t all that small.

I opted for the lumpectomy with radiation option. The jury was out on whether or not I’d need chemo. Every doctor who looked at the initial pathology report said I probably wouldn’t need it. After surgery, I met with my medical oncologist. She said that my pathology was unclear: nobody could give me a clear indication of whether or not chemo would help more than it would hurt. There are some very nasty side effects involved in chemo, it’s better to not do it if you don’t have to.

My med onc encouraged me to sign up for the TailorX study, a huge study being run by the National Cancer Institute, to determine the benefits of chemo in cases like mine. In order to participate, I agreed to one more test, an oncotype test. This test looks at the expression of certain genes in the DNA and gives a score as its result. If the score is less than 11, no chemo is needed. If the score is greater than 25, chemo provides an obvious benefit. A score between 11 and 25 is the study’s sweet spot. For women who score in that range, the benefit of chemo is unknown. Women in the study who fall in that range are randomized to either receive, or not receive, chemo, through the luck of the draw. My med onc encouraged me to participate so that the cost of the test (three grand) would be covered. And, she pointed out, why not leave the decision to chance, given that nobody knows the answer.

I said, okay, and signed a bazillion disclaimers that let them keep tissue samples of me forever and share medical info and all that. I don’t really care. I just knew I was having a heck of a time figuring out if I should or should not have chemo, so: why not.

The oncotype score came back. I scored: 24, and I’d randomized to not have chemo. HOLY SHIT!!! Suddenly, I wanted chemo. I wanted it more than anything. My husband said, “Sometimes, when you get the answer you don’t expect, you figure out the answer you really wanted.”

I called every doctor I ever knew and asked their opinion. I hit up residents on the elevator: “Hey, if you had an oncotype score of 24, would you go for chemo? Or would you skip it?”

The second thing I learned from breast cancer: I wanted to kick it in the ass. Really, really hard. That reality contained a corollary lesson. I did, in fact, want to live. (The jury had been out on that one.)

Most of the doctors said they’d skip the chemo. The side effects can be devastating. One doctor abstained from giving me an opinion, saying she was not well informed enough to give one. The best opinion I got came from Martha, the Wonder Nurse. She explained it thus:

Suppose you don’t get chemo. Then, 10 years from now, if you have a relapse, you’ll bash yourself, telling yourself that you should have had chemo back then. But really, no doctor in the world will be able to say definitively that you’ve relapsed because you didn’t have chemo, and that you would not have relapsed if you’d had it. They just won’t know.

The third thing I learned from breast cancer: When doctor’s say, “I don’t know” that the breadth and depth of what they don’t know is mind boggling. They mean it when they say “I don’t know.” I let the study roll the dice for me, and went the no chemo route.

In addition to the support I’ve received from this blog, I also got support from an online group on Ravelry, Knitters with Breast Cancer. Through that group, I met (online) an amazing woman named Treena. She’d been diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer while pregnant. She went through treatment, had a mastectomy, and was still able to nurse her daughter with her remaining breast. A few months after I met her, her cancer relapsed. She died. Her daughter was two at the time of her mother’s death.

The fourth thing I learned from breast cancer: I am not immortal. One might think I’d have learned this earlier in the process, but no. In fact, I’m still not sure I fully believe it. I’ve landed in a weird place, where I’ve survived the first round of treatment and am “cancer-free”. I think I won’t die of cancer. Treena reminds me that this is a fatal disease.

I am now on a drug therapy that will go on for quite some time. The drug, an aromitase inhibitor, prevents output from my adrenal system from turning into estrogen. The tumor was estrogen positive, which means that estrogen binds to the cancer cells and helps them grow. I am now leading the estrogen-free lifestyle.

There are some down sides to the estrogen-free lifestyle. Any one of us gals who has been through menopause will report on the increased difficulty of losing weight. When living totally estrogen-free, one gets additional bonuses such as bone density loss, joint pain, and waking up to hands and feet cramped into arthritic, crab-claw stiffness that can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to wear off. I have gained about 7 pounds while on this medication. The docs won’t list weight gain as a Real Side Effect, they’ll only say it seems to happen to some women on the medication. My personal theory is that they won’t list it as an actual side effect because there are so many women who would rather be dead than fat.

In September, I started training to run a 5K race with two friends. I am being exceptionally careful, fearful of damaging my more-delicate joints. I have good shoes, I only run on a track. I fully anticipated that running would get me over the estrogen-free weight-loss stall. It has not. In the past week, I have pinged both my med onc and my GP doctor with the question: Why is it that if I’m eating pretty healthfully and increasing my exercise that I’m not losing weight? The med onc rolled his eyes and said, “yeah.” My GP doc ran some thyroid tests with the result that the numbers are all within normal range.

The other day, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror–post-shower, before getting dressed. I took a good look at myself. And thought: okay. I can live with this. I may never lose another pound, but I’ve never stopped being who I am because of what I weigh.

The last thing I’ve learned from breast cancer: I am better fat than dead.

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