[EagleRiverDee]

Originally Posted by sontaikle

After reading them you won't want to pick up another piece of bread, ever, haha. Just be careful. As I said I didn't have the amazing experiences that others had eliminating grains—and I'm not alone. Others suffered adverse health effects from doing so. I know when I was saying that I must be "weird" to need to eat grains that pixelllate showed me a blog of a woman who also had health problems from eliminating wheat. Unfortunately I can't find that link now.

Question: you had adverse effects from eliminating all grains, or just wheat? If all grains, do you think it was maybe the lack of carbs?

I actually do limit wheat in my diet. I follow an anti-inflammatory style of diet and try to not to eat too much of any one type of food and to rotate food types. I was reading a book by Jessica Black, ND called "The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book: Protect Yourself and Your Family from Heart Disease, Arthritis, Diabetes, Allergies - and More" and she made a great point that the American diet greatly overuses wheat. Many Americans eat wheat 3 or more times per day. For example, you might have pancakes for breakfast, a sandwich on wheat bread for lunch, and pasta for dinner. And of course wheat is in places you don't think about- breading on meats and seafoods, in soy sauce, in gravy, etc. We can actually develop food intolerances by eating too much of one type of food, and in the American diet wheat is a biggie.

[sontaikle]

Originally Posted by EagleRiverDee

Question: you had adverse effects from eliminating all grains, or just wheat? If all grains, do you think it was maybe the lack of carbs?

I thought that too, so I ate other sources of carbs and I had the same issue. Even now, when I have one day where I just don't happen to have any grains I notice that I'm tired.

I don't need much—and 90% of the time I make sure it's whole wheat—but apparently it matters.

Right now my diet is actually pretty lower carb; anywhere in the 100-150 range (so not traditional low carb, but not the standard higher carb diet either)

[HotMessMom]

I agree with everyone else. Everyone's system is different. We pretty much keep a wheat free house because my son is gluten intolerant. Not really low carb though, brown rice and oatmeal does not contain wheat/gluten.

[Alegria25]

Hi, gracesmomma. Kind of reiterating what others have said and coming at this from the perspective of someone who has Celiac, there's no point to eliminating wheat from your diet unless you have a problem with it. If you drop it and other grains for awhile to do the low-carb thing, that's one thing. But in general, there's not necessarily a health benefit to getting rid of wheat if you don't need to. Now, if you eliminate it, feels tons better, reintroduce it, and feel like caca you may have yourself a wheat problem. But those whose bodies can handle today's wheat alright won't have a problem with reintroduction.

(Gluten-free is not a weight loss diet. I was a fat Celiac. I didn't substitute all those fancy gluten-free products into my diet; instead I went the whole foods route. I gained and became a fatter Celiac, because my body was actually absorbing nutrients.)

[judipurple]

GREAT thread!!!! I have been toying with idea of cutting back (not completely) wheat - skipping the pastas, most (not all) breads.

I have been back on the diet wagon for the past month or so, and have reeeeeeally been honest on my fitday, and keeping the daily calories at 1300-1400 - with variable days (some 1650-1700, some 1200+/-). Thus far, I've seen about 5 pounds come off. But last week I decided to just cut out the pasta (I married an Italian man, and have two strapping sons, and if I didn't serve pasta at least once a week, I'd get the evil eye!) - I make it, but then I just eat a huge salad with chicken breast, or a bit of grilled tuna... and it seems that of that 5 lbs, 2 came off the quickest since I cut out that processed wheat.

Now, I am NOT ready to give up my homemade italian bread - after cooking for 25 years, I *finally* got the recipe right! I restrict myself, however, to just the crunchy ends.

Your postings on this thread led me to investigate alternatives to the modern day, genetically-adjusted wheat available to us. I found a company that offers the einkorn wheat berries, which is what was available several thousand years ago. I plan on ordering some of the wheat berries, and perhaps the preground flour as well, to test in my bread recipes (we grind our own for whole grain breads). They also sell pasta and cookies made with this wheat! Hmmm, might have to give that a try as well...

The company is Jovial Foods (even the name is cool) - easily found online.

Well, thanks again - I will continue this beta testing on my digestive routine, and see what comes of it - or comes off me!

[Sum38]

Originally Posted by Desiderata

So I have tested for an actual wheat sensitivity/intolerance, so that discounts my experience a bit. That said, I find the growing discussion out there extremely plausible.

Most people say, "We've been eating wheat for thousands of years." The most compelling counter-argument in a nutshell: The wheat we're eating today has been extremely hybridized and gene-altered in a rapid period of time, far faster than natural breeding/selection would allow for. It is NOTHING like the Einkorn wheat of 2,000 years ago - it literally has at least twice the chromosomes! The argument is that the proteins found in wheat today are very different, and some bodies react to them adversely.

Diet is highly YMMV - so some people may do just fine with this rapid turn of events, but it's not at all a stretch that a large segment of people may not be.

I haven't read Wheat Belly, but I'd recommend you look into if you're interested. This is a decent overview of some of the arguments - not necessarily an objective one, but decent in terms of explaining the argument:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mar...b_1274872.html

A great book and he also has a fab blog