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264 of 273 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A world shaking book that worked for me, September 3, 2011
This review is from: Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health (Hardcover)
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.
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147 of 151 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this and save your own life., September 30, 2011
This review is from: Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health (Hardcover)
I wasn't lucky enough to have a curious, clever, caring doctor like Dr Davis. My massive intolerance to wheat, you would think obvious from my extreme symptoms, went unrecognised and untreated for fifty years. By that time I had been following medically-prescribed, low-calorie, low- fat diets for most of my life. These were all based on wheat products - wholegrain bread and pasta - and completely and efficiently destroyed my health and my life. I became massively overweight, having been slender and attractive in my youth, and despite starving myself for protracted periods. I could not walk upright because of ataxia. I could barely breathe because of asthma. I could barely see. I couldn't focus my mind, despite previously having been a sharp-witted live broadcaster. I began to feel as if I were being possessed. I cried all day, for no reason. I suspected everyone of intending me harm, and wouldn't go out. I developed nerve damage, and often could not feel my legs or hands. My bloated stomach was so large that once, when I attended a POST-natal appointment, the nurses were asking me when my baby was due! I was so weak that I couldn't hold my newborn baby. In fact I couldn't hold my arms up long enough to wash my hair, and became dependent on carers. I developed tinnitus so loud that it could drown out the noise of overhead aircraft at an airport (and which, sadly, is still with me). I underwent many painful and pointless investigations, to try to find out what was wrong with me. My surgeons were as ignorant as my GPs. One took my appendix out, because he couldn't think what else to do. During one particularly horrific hospital stay, I remember a young doctor's standing at the foot of my bed, begging me to think what could be wrong with me, because it looked as if I might die. I was suffering from a massive peritonitis-like infection, an infection so bad that they simply sewed me up and said there was nothing more they could do. They didn't dare operate for fear of spreading it about. Imagine how frightening that was, and how heartbroken it made my desperate husband. Nothing made any difference. I was sent home to my fate. I would like to add here that on each occasion I visited either a doctor or hospital, it was either subtly or overtly expressed that I was fat, so therefore had been the architect of my own misfortune. By this time my husband was having to make all my meals, so he knew exactly how little I had been eating, and how "healthy" was my food. It made no difference. The doctors took even less interest in me than before, because they assumed I spent all my days sitting on a sofa eating candy. Like I say - they were no Dr. Davis! Because we had no other choice, we turned to the internet to try and save my life. We Googled all my symptoms, and quickly began to suspect that this was something to do with autoimmunity. Within about an hour we had found celiac disease, and knew this was it. We spent a week researching, before approaching a doctor. We knew we would need real proof in order to be taken seriously. I went armed with papers from The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine, and research from John Hopkins University. I was determined not to insult their intelligence, even though doctors had done that to me for the whole of my life. At that point I had a blood test, which was positive, followed by a biopsy - again positive. I had found my own disease, and I had saved my own life. The results, from a leading specialist, were met with sarcasm and disbelief. Even in the face of expert medical proof, my doctors could not accept that mere bread had been killing me. That is the crux of the problem today. Doctors have gotten into the way of dispensing pointless drugs, rather than their time and powers of deduction. I commend Dr Davis for wanting to reverse this trend. For the avoidance of all doubt, here it is. Eating wheat almost killed me. It cost me my appendix, an ovary and one kidney. It cost me my childhood to illness, and more than one lucrative job. I am, thankfully, and only just, living proof that wheat is a devastating poison. The food pyramid is on its head, and Dr Davis is being vilified for pointing this out. I love this book. I admire his courage in spreading the message. He is not alone. He finds himself facing up to the baying, illogical, unscientific wheat growers and food processing companies and wrong-headed doctors as did Robert Atkins in the past, and as does Gary Taubes now. There is a lot of money in wheat, so it's going to be quite a fight to be rid of it. These men come at the subject from slightly different angles, but agree about processed carbs, and the dangers of eating grains. The science backs them up. You have to ignore a great deal of science to conclude that wheat is safe to eat. Look how ill and fat people are becoming. How cynical for governments to be hounding the obese, whilst insisting they eat the cereal poisons which made them fat in the first place. To governments everywhere I ask why do you prefer to break your bank to meet the cost of drugs and healthcare for chronic illnesses, than to revise your outdated views on diet? If you aren't motivated by compassion, which I am sure you would wish to be, then be motivated by the prospect of financial savings, because I suspect, as do many people more knowledgable and well-informed than I, that your savings could be in their billions. Save money. Heed the low carb movement. Heed Dr Davis. We were all warned about tobacco products when it was realised smoking was dangerous. The government didn't order us to smoke MORE, whilst it investigated. But that's what's happening with wheat. If you read this book, and take on board the message, you will improve your health more than you could ever imagine. I have been left disabled by my intolerance of wheat - my system broke under the stress of so much poison, but even so, the transformation in my health has been miraculous. My neighbour described my recovery, a week after ditching wheat, like my being given anti venom for a snake bite! Don't let yourself become permanently handicapped by your love of toast and sandwiches. They are not worth it - not worth developing paralysis for, as did I, or heart disease or cancer, as do other unfortunate people. I have lost fifty pounds this year, simply by eating gluten and wheat free FRESH food. Eat this way and, as Dr Davis counsels, you can be slender (and healthy) without ever going hungry. Say goodbye to your wheat belly. Forever.
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233 of 248 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book - I May Not Eat Wheaties Again, August 30, 2011
This review is from: Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health (Hardcover)
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!
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