Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (7 page)
Read Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox Online
Authors: William Davis
EGGS.
Eggs are little powerhouses of nutrition and are an important part of a successful grain-free lifestyle. We do not limit eggs, since the alarms over the potential cardiovascular risks of eggs have been confidently debunked. Choose cage-free, organic sources whenever possible or, even better, purchase them from a local source. If you are allergic to eggs from chickens, consider goose, duck, ostrich, or quail eggs, if available.
RAW OR DRY-ROASTED NUTS AND SEEDS.
Almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and chia seeds are all great choices, as are dry-roasted peanuts (though they're really a low-carbohydrate legume, not a nut). Avoid nuts roasted in unhealthy oils, such as hydrogenated cottonseed or hydrogenated soybean oil, as well as wheat flour, cornstarch, maltodextrin, or sugar used to coat them. Should you choose roasted, none of these unhealthy oils or other ingredients should be listed. Cashews are the one nut that should be limited, as they are among the most carbohydrate-rich of nuts; consume lightly and use the carbohydrate management method discussed below.
FATS
AND OILS.
Choose coconut, palm, extra-virgin olive, extra-light olive, macadamia, avocado, flaxseed, and walnut oils, as well as organic butter and ghee. Don't be afraid of saving the oils from bacon, beef, and pork. You can also purchase lard and tallow, but make sure they are not hydrogenated. Minimize use of polyunsaturated oils (corn, safflower, mixed vegetable, and sunflower). Avoid hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils completely.
CHEESES.
Purchase real cultured cheeses only (not Velveeta or single-slice processed cheese), preferably organic and full fat, not skim or reduced fat. The cheese-making process minimizes the undesirable aspects of dairy (such as whey and unhealthy forms of casein). Be careful with blue cheese, Gorgonzola, and Roquefort, which are occasionally sources of wheat.
BEVERAGES.
Drink water (squeeze in some lemon or lime or keep a filled water pitcher in the refrigerator with a few slices of cucumber, kiwifruit, mint leaves, or orange), teas (black, green, or white), infusions (teas brewed from other leaves, herbs, flowers, and fruits), unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened coconut milk (the carton variety from the dairy refrigerator), unsweetened hemp milk, and coffee. Sip the
Coconut Electrolyte Replacement Water
as is or on ice. Avoid sodas and fruit drinks, even the sugar-free ones as they are typically sweetened with aspartame and have been associated with weight gain and unhealthy changes in bowel flora.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Look for guacamole, hummus, pesto, tapenades, olives, and unsweetened condiments, such as mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup without high-fructose corn syrup, and oil-based salad dressings without high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, or cornstarch.
ALCOHOL.
It is best to refrain from alcohol or keep it to a bare minimum (no more than one glass per day) during your detox. If you wish to keep some on hand, though, consider wine (the drier, the better); non-grain vodka (Cîroc, Chopin, others); rum; tequila; brandies and cognacs; and non-grain or gluten-free beers
(
Redbridge, Green's, Bard's, and others). Note that beers, in particular, can have small quantities of grain residues, even if gluten-free, and have potential for excessive carbohydrates, so go very lightly with them; one 12-ounce serving approaches your carbohydrate limit, so never have more than one serving. (There is a more detailed listing of safe alcoholic beverages in
Appendix B
.)
STEP
3: Manage Carbohydrates
The third step in the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox is to manage carbohydrates, even beyond those found in grains, as they are the darlings of the processed food industryâcheap, tasty filler that contributes to dietary helplessness and health distortions. Carbohydrates provoke blood sugar and insulin and slow, even stop, your weight loss and health efforts. Properly managing these foods allows you to squeeze additional benefits from the power of your grain-free nutritional program. It will supercharge weight loss and allow you to gain further control over metabolic disturbances, such as high blood sugars, fatty liver, triglycerides, blood pressure, and needing to shop in plus-size aisles.
We follow this simple rule: Never exceed 15 grams net carbohydrates per meal or per 6-hour (digestive) period. We calculate net carbs by the following simple equation:
NET CARBS = TOTAL CARBS â FIBER
Because most of your foods will not come with labels or nutritional panels, you will need a resource to look up the composition of various foods, such as an inexpensive handbook with tables of the nutritional content of foods. (Find these in the reference section of your local library or bookstore, often for less than $10.) There are also several terrific smartphone apps useful for this purpose. (Search for “nutritional analysis” in your application source.) In addition, there are many Web sites that list nutritional
analyses
of foods. Look up total carbohydrate and fiber content of the food in question, make the simple calculation, and you have net carbohydrate content.
Nothing matches the power of eliminating grains to reduce inflammation, recover gastrointestinal health, reduce appetite, and drop weight. But banishing all grains while feasting on a bag of potato chips or downing three cans of sugary cola every day can still trip up health and weight. Carbohydrate management helps you sidestep problem sources and compound the benefits begun with grain elimination. And because diabetes and overweight are concerns for so many people at the start of their detox, this step is also necessary to take control of these modern epidemic conditions.
Carb management is easier than it sounds once grains have been eliminated, even for people who begin this process with a sweet tooth. Recall that ridding your life of grain-derived opiates reduces appetite and reawakens taste, including heightening sensitivity to sweetness. The desire for sweet snacks diminishes or disappears, and goodies you formerly thought were irresistible will taste sickeningly sweet. Addiction to milk chocolate, gummy candy, or other junk indulgences will go the way of padded shoulders and harem pants. Good riddance.
We also do not use the misleading fiction of the glycemic index or glycemic load. (See “
The Fairy Tale of Glycemic Index
”.) Choosing low-glycemic index foods, for instance, will trigger blood sugar and insulin to high levels, cause weight gain, and prevent the health benefits of this lifestyleâvirtually no different than high-glycemic index foods. Don't fall for the health and weight booby-trap of glycemic index.
Your efforts to manage carbohydrates will limit rises in blood sugar. Contrary to conventional advice from most doctors (who typically advise that blood sugars should not exceed 200 mg/dL after a meal, a level associated with astounding levels of weight gain and health impairment), adhering to our 15 g net carb cutoff
keeps
blood sugars at or below 100 mg/dL at all times, including blood sugar after eating a meal. In other words, we aim to never allow blood sugar to rise over the level present prior to the meal.
If you have diabetes or prediabetes and start with higher-than-normal blood sugars, this approach will prevent additional rises in blood sugar with meals and allow even future fasting blood sugars to drop over time. We therefore work to keep blood sugars at healthy levels when you rise in the morning; before and after breakfast, lunch, and dinner; before bedtime; when you wear open-toed shoes, high heels, or go barefoot; as well as all other times of the day.
By avoiding spikes in blood sugar, insulin release is minimally triggered. Insulin is the root of much dietary and metabolic evil; it is a hormone that causes weight gain and blocks mobilization of stored fat from fat cells. Not triggering insulin allows the opposite to occur: mobilization of fat and weight loss from fat cells. Over time, insulin resistance is reduced, allowing weight loss to progress further. Along with it, inflammation, fatty liver, blood pressure, high triglycerides, inappropriate questions about your baby's due date, and other distortions all strike a retreat.
It is important that, as part of your carbohydrate management effort, you do not limit fats or oils. In the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, there are no limits on fat or oil intake, provided you choose your sources wisely. It means you should enjoy the fat on meats, just like your grandparents did. Don't buy meats lean; buy fatty cuts. Don't trim the fat off beef, pork, lamb, or poultry; eat it. Eat dark poultry meat, as well as white. In addition:
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Save fats from cooking beef, pork, and bacon in a container and refrigerate to use as cooking oil.
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Save the bones (or buy them from a butcher) to make soup or stock and don't skim off the fat when it cools.
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Consider enjoying bone marrow.
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Don't limit egg consumption. Have a three-egg omelet, for instance, with lots of extra-virgin olive oil, pesto, or olive oilâsoaked sun-dried tomatoes.
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Use the oils listed above generously in every dish possible.
The
Fairy Tale of Glycemic Index
The Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox is a hard-hitting natural approach for gaining incredible control over weight and health in as short a time as possible. There are no fictions or fairy tales here. But some popular nutritional fairy tales could confuse you or undo the benefits you are trying to achieve. The concept of glycemic index (GI) is one good example: a fictional notion that, if believed like a fairy tale, could have you kissing frogs to make princes.
GI assigns values to foods that describe how high blood sugar climbs over 90 minutes after consuming that food compared to glucose. The GI of a pork chop? Zero: no impact on blood sugar. Three scrambled eggs? Also zero. A plate of kalamata olives and big wedge of feta cheese? Zero again. A zero glycemic index applies to all other meats, fats, oils, most nuts, cheeses, mushrooms, and nonstarchy vegetables. Eat any of these foods and blood sugar won't budge and insulin will not be provoked beyond a minimal level.
While there is really nothing wrong with the concept of GI or the related concept of glycemic load (GL), which factors in quantity of food, the problem lies in how values for GI and GL are interpreted. Standard practice is to (arbitrarily) break GI levels down into high GI (70 or greater), moderate GI (56 to 69), and low GI (55 or less), while GL is broken down into high GL (20 or greater), moderate GL (11 to 19), and low GL (10 or less).
Can you be a little bit pregnant? Can you have a little nuclear war? The same applies to GI: There should be no “low” or “high” distinguished by such small differences. All GI levels are associated with blood sugars that are too high if weight loss and ideal metabolic health are your goals. Applying the flawed logic of the GI, cornflakes, puffed rice, and pretzels have high GIs (above 70), while whole grain bread, oatmeal, and rice have low GIs, resulting in the conventional advice to includes lots of these low-GI foods in your diet.
A typical nondiabetic person who consumes 1 cup of oatmealâa low-GI foodâin ½ cup of milk without added sugar will experience a blood sugar level in the neighborhood of 160 mg/dL. This is a high level that provokes the weight-loss blocking effect of insulin, not to mention also triggering (over time) adrenal disruption, cataract formation, damage to joint cartilage, hypertension, heart disease, and neurological deterioration or dementia when provoked repeatedly, as with oatmeal for breakfast every morning. A blood sugar of 160 mg/dL may not be as high as, say, the 180 mg/dL that occurs after consuming a high-GI food, such as a bowl of cornflakes or
puffed
rice cereal. But it is still high enough to provoke all the destructive effects of high blood sugar.
Low GI would therefore be more accurately labeled as “less-high” GI. Even better, we could just recognize that any GI above zero or low single-digit values should be regarded as high.
The concept of glycemic load that factors in portion size is no better. Under this system, the GL of cornflakes is 23, the GL of oatmeal is 13, and the GL of whole wheat bread is 10, once again lulling you into thinking that foods like oatmeal and whole wheat bread don't raise blood sugar. But they do. Foods like oatmeal and whole wheat bread don't have low GLs; they have less high GLs.
Is there a value that better predicts whether there will be a blood sugar rise? Yes: grams of carbohydrates. Specifically, net grams of carbohydrates obtained by subtracting fiber (since fiber, while included in the total carbohydrates value on nutritional panels, is not digested to sugar):
NET CARBOHYDRATES = TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES â FIBER
If you were to test blood sugars with a fingerstick glucose meter 30 to 60 minutes after consuming a food (when peak blood sugar usually occurs, not 2 hours as advised by physicians for diabetic blood sugar control), you would see that it takes most of us 15 g net carbohydrates before blood sugars rise, regardless of whether they are high-, medium-, or low-GI. We have based all Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox dietary choices and recipes on this limit.
Let's dash another fairy tale commonly offered by the dietary community that can trip up your weight-loss efforts. They often tell us that if a high-GI food is consumed with added proteins, fats, or fiber, the glycemic effect will be reduced. As often occurs in the fictional tales of nutrition, this is an example of something being less bad but not necessarily good. A typical blood sugar after consuming two slices of multigrain bread on an empty stomach might be 170 mg/dLâhigh enough to provoke insulin, cortisol, insulin resistance, visceral fat accumulation, and inflammation. Consume two slices of multigrain bread with some slices of turkey, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomatoes, and blood sugar will be around 160 mg/dLâbetter, yes, but still pretty high.
Less bad is not necessarily good. The wolf can wear Grandma's nightie, but he's still a big, bad, ugly wolf.