Chapter 1

Breaking Down the Basics of Living Wheat-Free

In This Chapter

Recognizing the origins and problems of a wheat-heavy diet

Examining how wheat-free eating differs from conventional diet wisdom

Making the change and keeping an eye on the results

Getting started now

Imagine a world where diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and Alzheimer's are confined to a fairly small segment of the population. In this scenario, you know maybe one distant family member who suffers from or has died from one of these diseases. Being overweight or obese makes a person an outlier — definitely not the norm.

As fictitious as this world may sound, it was real. Those who grew up prior to the 1960s can usually confirm it. Ask someone from that generation whether he knew anyone back in the day who was overweight, and he can probably name one specific individual. That's how uncommon the condition was.

Unfortunately, the generations that grew up from the 1960s through the present day can be considered guinea pigs in a grand high-carbohydrate, low-fat experiment. Through the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, some misguided science and the resulting governmental guidelines recommended increasing consumption of wheat and grains of all kinds. Fat-free foods loaded with sugar became acceptable for a time, and vegetable oils were encouraged to replace animal fat. All in the name of eliminating fat, especially saturated fat.

To see how those recommendations have turned out, all you have to do is look around you. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and Alzheimer's are out of control with no end in sight. These diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Currently, 45 percent of the U.S. population has at least one chronic disease, and 26 percent has multiple chronic conditions. Chronic diseases account for over 80 percent of hospital admissions, over 90 percent of all prescriptions filled, and over 75 percent of all physician visits.

Our goal is to help you to take control of your health and your future, regardless of what current conventional wisdom has to say. Eliminating wheat and other grains, sugar, and vegetable oils will give you the foundation needed to reduce your risk for diseases normally associated with “getting older.” From there, you can tweak and modify your diet to fit your lifestyle and needs.

Throughout this book, we talk about the detrimental effects of wheat and other grains. Wheat does seem to cause the most sensitivity for most people, for many reasons we cover in other chapters. With that said, we advise eliminating all grains because of the similarity in their structures. Other grains may not have quite the effect that wheat has, but they still can elicit a response that's not conducive to good health.

How Did We Get into This Wheat Mess? A Brief History

Here's a quick quiz for you: what do George Washington, Ancel Keys, and George McGovern have in common? The answer is wheat.

Each of these men left a lasting legacy with regards to growing, eating, and recommending wheat. George Washington actually perfected growing wheat to take advantage of a shortage in Europe. U.S. exports of wheat totaled in the millions as far back as 1860, setting the stage over the next 150 years for the development of denser wheat plants and denser fields of wheat.

Ancel Keys was an American scientist known early in his career for inventing K-rations, the prepared boxes of food the military used in World War II. Ultimately, however, he became better known as the man who started the United States on a path to lowfat eating. His highly controversial beliefs in the 1960s and ’70s gained traction thanks to his political connections and convinced many to throw out the butter for a tiny bit of margarine and to up carbohydrate intake (including grains).

The last piece of the wheat puzzle involved the government, specifically Senator George McGovern. In 1977, he released “Dietary Goals for the United States,” which encouraged a high-carbohydrate diet (grains and sugar) and a decrease in dietary fat. The recommendations have been tweaked since then, but they essentially remain the same. The ramifications for telling an entire country how to eat can be enormous, especially if the recommendations are wrong. The United States has seen a steady decline in the health of its population since McGovern's guidelines as the prevalence of chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and Alzheimer's has increased. For a fuller history of wheat's rise to domination, flip to Chapter 2.

Surveying the Health Effects of Wheat and Gluten

“Healthy whole grains” are everywhere. Manufacturers are quick to slap that label across the front of a box regardless of what else is in the product in hopes of convincing consumers that that food choice is healthy. But that conclusion couldn't be further from the truth.

Another buzzword: gluten-free. Wheat and gluten currently are in the public eye more than they've ever been before. Science has revealed that they're responsible for maladies ranging from simple annoying allergies to more-severe conditions such as autoimmune diseases. Knowing the difference between wheat and gluten and where your sensitivities lie is critical as you change your diet.

In the following sections, we overview the true health cost of eating wheat and take a quick look at the wheat/gluten issue.

Glimpsing what wheat does to the body

You hear about the nutrients in grains and the all-important fiber content, but if you look closely, you can see these claims are a bit skewed. Milling and processing reduces many of the nutrients, and the plant's own defenses limit your body's ability to access the remaining nutrients. And grains’ insoluble fiber speeds things along the intestinal tract, making the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins more challenging. This scenario is especially important in low-fat, high-fiber diets.

Wheat's impact on blood sugar is shockingly huge. Many people think that to become diabetic, a person must overindulge in sweets and be overweight. It's simply not true. The food recommended by health experts has more of an impact on blood sugar than the candy at the checkout line. Sometimes we wonder whether doctors are even aware of wheat's blood glucose impact. If they were, we think there would be more of a pushback against conventional wisdom. Researchers are discovering blood sugar to be a major long term indicator of all sorts of disease. The consequences of chronically elevated blood glucose lead to gut and brain dysfunction.

Eating wheat may lead to a condition known as leaky gut syndrome and what can be called leaky brain syndrome. (See Chapter 4.) Both of these situations result from staples in many people's lives. Stress, wheat and grains, refined carbs, processed foods, antibiotics, NSAIDS, and lack of sleep all contribute to foreign items entering the bloodstream through the gut. When the foreign invaders go where they shouldn't, conditions such as asthma, migraines, arthritis, and depression can follow. These same causes lead to unwanted intruders crossing the blood-brain barrier, which can lead to dementia and Alzheimer's. Until recently, science didn't know the mechanism or testing procedures to determine the extent of this kind of invasion. The picture is quickly unfolding and opening up a whole new understanding of inflammation and its role in autoimmune disease.

With a wheat-free lifestyle, you'll be on your way to healing these possible breaches in your system. In addition, one of the many byproducts of these changes is a reduction in risk for metabolic syndrome, a leading indicator of heart disease (as we discuss in Chapter 4).

When you choose to go completely grain-free, you not only improve your health but also realize how poorly you felt when you were eating a grain-filled diet. Yes, going just wheat-free can help relieve any conditions associated with your past diet. But consider the recommendation to eliminate all grains with this analogy: Someone who has an alcohol problem would never be advised to eliminate only hard liquor but to continue drinking beer. This plan of attack doesn't fix the whole problem.

Heather's testimonial: Cutting out wheat to cope with chronic disease

The idea of giving up something as fundamental as wheat would've never crossed my mind until my doctor recommended it in 2009. After months of feeling sluggish and experiencing muscle pain, joint aches, and a host of other symptoms, my doctor looked at my most recent blood work and said, “I want you to go three months gluten-free.” Having followed her advice, I walked into that three-month follow-up appointment feeling noticeably better. Although I still had symptoms, they weren't as severe. I never expected that she'd tell me I had Sjogren's syndrome and give me prescriptions for six different medications.

After the diagnosis, I fell off the gluten-free wagon. I was too focused on trying to remember to take all my pills at all the right times. Like most patients who receive a diagnosis they're unfamiliar with, I spent a lot of time on the Internet, and I came across some recommendations about a completely wheat-free diet, which were further reinforced by a friend. I decided to...