I wish I had known about this book years ago. I would've saved money on diet books and peace of mind because I would have found what I have spent the past 40 years looking for -- a slimmer, healthier me.
Say what you will, but it is hard giving up something you considered to be so necessary and healthy, especially when you decide to bake your own bread and leave out the sugar and other supposedly healthy ingredients. I was wrong.
Yes, I am a woman and I can easily, loudly, and publicly proclaim I was wrong.
Four months ago I gave up bread. It was a conscious choice because I had signed on with a food delivery service, Splendid Spoon (splendidspoon.com), and they did not include any bread in their vegan, plant-based food choices. I loved the smoothies and the choices for soups, especially once I noted that I would not include soy beans (GMO much?) in the choices. I did leave out a soup that was made with black beans, but that was a small price to pay. Opting out of bread was a much harder choice. My cabinets were full of rye, pumpernickel, whole grain wheat, and other wheat-based flours. It wasn't the cost of the ingredients that stuck in my throat, but giving up fresh baked bread. I had found Steve's No-Knead overnight proofed, or quick proof method, bread and I loved the fresh from the oven smell of whole grain bread. I even purchased seven grain flour and seven grain seeds to top my home-baked bread from King Arthur Flour (kaf.com) because KAF offered organic and non-GMO flours. I was giving it all up - voluntarily. I chose to go without bread for the sake of nutritions vegan meals 5 days a week with a day of soup cleanses. It was expensive, but my health was more important. I signed up, paid for 2 months of meals, and didn't look back.
I was surprised to discover that I was sleeping better on the Splendid Spoon meals, 2 meals a day (breakfast and lunch). When I noticed I was waking up after a restful night's sleep without having to get up once during the night to go to the bathroom and that I was rested and ready for work every day, I was sold.
My reason for the drastic change of diet, going vegan with Splendid Spoon, was realizing I had pre-diabetes. I suddenly had the reason for those times, about once a month, when I got up every hour to urinate (I called them my P dancing days). I had no issues with frequent urination or those dragged out days when I craved a couple slices of home-baked bread slathered with butter or artisanal and organic peanut (or any kind of tasty nut) butter, sometimes with raw, unfiltered, natural honey drizzled on. I didn't even miss the stack of whole wheat pancakes I craved once in a while. I was content, fed, and enjoying better health than I had since I discovered my pre-diabetes.
But Splendid Spoon is expensive and the medical transcription business is not what it was when I began 33 years ago. I had finally given in and took my skills to a company that paid me less than I was paid when I started 33 years ago, which meant I would have to pay off some credit card debt in order to afford another month or two of Splendid Spoon's vegan meals. I'd go back to a paleo derived diet that was mostly plant-based and still organic, but still without bread since I had done well on a more meager food plan. That is when I discovered Wheat Belly written by Dr. William Davis.
Since I'd already given up wheat and noticed over the first couple of months of a vegan diet I had lost a vast amount of weight, so much that I could finally wear the green velour house coat without having it cut off the circulation in my fat arms, I bought the book, read up on the included recipes and food plan, and was favorably impressed by what I found within its pages.
The real reason behind the GMO labeling issue that had sent millions into the streets to protest was detailed in Wheat Belly. The agribusiness corporations did not want America to know the real reason behind the obesity crisis in the nation wasn't because of glyphosate contaminated foods (Monsanto) but the fact that wheat, one of the most genetically modified seeds on Earth and contained at the base of the food pyramid, would also have to be outed. Nutritionists and agribusiness corporations would be gutted, vilified, run out of business if the truth were known. Even those poor families who receive food stamps would finally be told the root cause of their obesity and their diabetes, heart disease, immune deficiencies like Alzheimer's and fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, chronic pain syndrome, and all the gastrointestinal based ailments that keep doctors wealthy and the contention and violence over universal health care is wheat.
Yes, glyphosate contamination of our food is also an issue, but the origins of the common variety of wheat, whether red wheat or white wheat, and its inclusion into our world wide food consciousness is criminal, especially when you consider that scientists have done more than get the genetic jump on decades of breeding for a wheat seed that is drought-resistant, fast growing, and provides vast amounts of wheat for small amounts of seeds. These brilliant scientists did create a wheat seed that has done more for alleviating hunger world wide, but they never stopped to test the results of food made with the resultant wheat seed on people. Isn't that the point of wheat . . . to feed people and do so with less money? What asset is a wheat seed when the result is death, obesity, and diseases that cost more to manage than the wheat could feed in a million years?
None.
That is the dirty truth at the heart of GMO labeling lawsuits and the fear that drives corporate agribusiness. Scientists have perfected their genetically modified wheat but never stopped to consider the human cost.
How could the French be happy and well fed if the French baguette was removed from the menu. How would the French economy and their world famous bakers survive if they were forced to return to the ancient, non-GMO wheats and flours made from emer, triticum, and einkorn. The breads would not be the soft and oh-so-affordable wheat breads now available. Un-genetically modified wheat has a mere 14 gene pairs while the modern wheat contains double or more genes thanks to scientists creating the GMO version of wheat that has replaced the ancient grains that sustained us since the beginning of time. The bread of life has become the bread of disease, obesity, and death. Check it out for yourself.
Meanwhile, some countries are giving farmers a boost in the right direction paying farmers to plant their fields with non-GMO crops. I watched a documentary once on how GMO foods end up with people eating information and not food with the result that information in food form can be detrimental to human health and continued life.
Dr. Davis's book is about what genetically modified wheat has done to our health, our waistlines, and our hunger.
Yes, you can prove anything if you cherry pick the data, but the results are visibly evident. Over the past four months I have lost more than 100 pounds and I'm still losing despite changing from vegan to paleo with a plant-based (non-GMO of course). My pre-diabetes is under control. I sleep better now when I discover a healthy, non-processed, and non-GMO tainted source of natural, raw, unrefined honey and I don't mind too much the choice to avoid reasonable facsimiles of pancakes and gluten-free breads and cakes while I continue my journey to long-lasting health and vitality.
Check out the Wheat Belly book and recipes and read the fascinating inserts from case files from Dr. William Davis's patients who gave up wheat and live a healthier and sustainable life. Check out the Wheat Belly Cookbook and recently revised Wheat Belly book with its updated information.
Do not skim the book as my aunt did when I sent her a copy. Read it slowly every single word. Read it again and again. Keep Wheat Belly on your shelves and buy another copy to give to friends, family, and loved ones so they can reap the benefits of a wheat-free life. You -- and they -- will be glad you did.
I have bought several copies and sent them to people I care about and I continue to urge people to READ it. This is the life changing book that will turn your life -- and your health -- upside down and should be required reading in schools and homes all over the world. Definitely 5 STARS and I would give it more. Dr. Davis and the book deserve 1000 stars, but 5 will also do if it means more people pick it up, buy it, and read it. Wheat Belly is the Sustainable Health Bible for the world.
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