Plaque is the stuff of coronary heart disease. It is CONTROLLABLE, it is STOPPABLE, it is REVERSIBLE.
But you must be equipped with the right information on diet, nutritional supplements, and hopefully the avoidance of medication.
This is the blog that accompanies the 
Readers: Please feel free to reproduce and disseminate this letter any way you see fit.
To:
Ms. Ashley Reynolds
490 Bear Cub Drive
Ridgway, CO 81432
Phone: 617.226.9927
ashley.reynolds@mullen.com
Ms. Reynolds:
I am writing in response to the press release from the Grain Foods Foundation that describes your effort to “discredit” the assertions made in my book, Wheat Belly: Lose the wheat, lose the weight and find your path back to health. I’d like to address several of the criticisms of the book made in the release:
” . . . the author relies on anecdotal observations rather than scientific studies.”
While I do indeed have a large anecdotal experience removing wheat in thousands of people, witnessing incredible and unprecedented weight loss and health benefits, I also draw from the experiences already documented in clinical studies. Several hundred of these studies are cited in the book (of the thousands available) and listed in the Reference section over 16 pages. These are studies that document the neurologic impairment unique to wheat, including cerebellar ataxia and dementia; heart disease via provocation of the small LDL pattern; visceral fat accumulation and all its attendant health consequences; the process of glycation via amylopectin A of wheat that leads to cataracts, diabetes, and arthritis; among others. There are, in fact, a wealth of studies documenting the adverse, often crippling, effects of wheat consumption in humans and I draw from these published studies.
“Wheat elimination ‘means missing out on a wealth of essential nutrients.’”
This is true–if the calories of wheat are replaced with candy, soft drinks, and fast food. But if lost wheat calories are replaced by healthy foods like vegetables, nuts, healthy oils, meats, eggs, cheese, avocados, and olives, then there is no nutrient deficiency that develops with elimination of wheat. There is no deficiency of any vitamin, including thiamine, folate, B12, iron, and B6; no mineral, including selenium, magnesium, and zinc; no polyphenol, flavonoid, or antioxidant; no lack of fiber. With regards to fiber, please note that the original studies documenting the health benefits of high fiber intake were fibers from vegetables, fruits, and nuts, not wheat or grains.
People with celiac disease do indeed experience deficiencies of multiple vitamins and minerals after they eliminate all wheat and gluten from the diet. But this is not due to a diet lacking valuable nutrients, but from the incomplete healing of the gastrointestinal tract (such as the lining of the duodenum and proximal jejunum). In these people, the destructive effects of wheat are so overpowering that, unfortunately, some people never heal completely. These people do indeed require vitamin and mineral supplementation, as well as probiotics and pancreatic enzyme supplementation.
I pose several questions to you and your organization:
Why is the high-glycemic index of wheat products ignored?
Due to the unique properties of amylopectin A, two slices of whole wheat bread increase blood sugar higher than many candy bars. High blood glucose leads to the process of glycation that, in turn, causes arthritis (cartilage glycation), cataracts (lens protein glycation), diabetes (glycotoxicity of pancreatic beta cells), hepatic de novo lipogenesis that increases triglycerides and, thereby, increases expression of atherogenic (heart disease-causing) small LDL particles, leading to heart attacks. Repetitive high blood sugars that develop from a grain-rich diet are, in my view, very destructive and lead to weight gain (specifically visceral fat), insulin resistance, leptin resistance (leading to obesity), and many of the health struggles Americans now experience.
How do you account for the psychologic and neurologic effects of the wheat protein, gliadin?
Wheat gliadin has been associated with cerebellar ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, gluten encephalopathy (dementia), behavioral outbursts in children with ADHD and autism, and paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations in people with schizophrenia, severe and incapacitating effects for people suffering from these conditions.
How do you explain the quadrupling of celiac disease over the last 50 years and its doubling over the last 20 years?
I submit to you that, while this is indeed my speculation, it is the changes in genetic code and, thereby, antigenic profile, of the high-yield semi-dwarf wheat cultivars now on the market that account for the marked increase in celiac potential nationwide. As you know, “hybridization” techniques, including chemical mutagenesis to induce selective mutations, leads to development of unique strains that are not subject to animal or human safety testing–they are just brought to market and sold.
Why does the wheat industry continue to call chemical mutagenesis, gamma irradiation, and x-ray irradiation “traditional breeding techniques” that you distinguish from genetic engineering? Chemical mutagenesis using the toxic mutagen, sodium azide, of course, is the method used to generate BASF’s Clearfield herbicide-resistant wheat strain. These methods are being used on a wide scale to generate unique genetic strains that are, without question from the FDA or USDA, assumed to be safe for human consumption.
In short, my view on the situation is that the U.S. government, with its repeated advice to “eat more healthy whole grains,” transmitted via vehicles like the USDA Food Pyramid and Food Plate, coupled with the extensive genetic transformations of the wheat plant introduced by agricultural geneticists, underlie an incredible deterioration in American health. I propose that you and your organization, as well as the wheat industry and its supporters, are at risk for legal liability on a scale not seen since the tobacco industry was brought to task to pay for the countless millions who died at their product’s hands.
I would be happy and willing to talk to you personally. I would also welcome the opportunity to debate you or any of your experts in a public forum.
Wiliam Davis, MD
Author, Wheat Belly: Lose the wheat, lose the weight and find your path back to health (Rodale, 2011)
Change your life in 60 seconds
Hi Dr. Davis,
I’m convinced that lectin proteins like wheat gluten are responsible for virtually all autoimmune diseases ……either via direct reaction, or via cytokine inflammation. I’m also convinced that these proteins are primary causes of cancer.
I’ve been reading how one of cancer’s main metabolic pathways has cells importing free glutamine from the extracellular matrix. In an insulin resistant environment glutamine subverts the citric acid cycle, making it create mutated tissue instead of energy. Normally glutamine is held in the extracellular matrix by tissue transglutaminase (tTg). Glutamine becomes free when the immune system removes tTg. This happens in people with wheat-caused autoimmunity.
Wheat is a prime cause of insulin resistance and of free glutamine. I’m convinced. Wheat causes cancer. There are important chemicals missing from this explanation, like mTOR, tyrosine, PKM2 and mRNA.
Hi Bob. Interesting connections.
Do you think you could provide me with some references, as they would be very useful for my work.
Thank you!
I’m with you, Bob. I’ve had that same suspicion that wheat is an extravagant cause of cancer.
Unfortunately, if you just compare white flour to whole wheat, whole wheat comes out shining. But NO wheat, I think we’d both predict, would come out as an important and miserably underappreciated risk for cancers of all sorts from mouth to anus.
With Dr. Davis’s indulgence…..
Recently Dr. Davis blogged, saying that low dose naltrexone (LDN) causes wheat eaters to lose
weight. This weight loss happens because LDN blocks nerve endorphin receptors.
http://www.trackyourplaque.com/blog/2010/11/why-do-morphine-blocking-drugs-make-you-lose-weight.html
Wheat protein is a cornucopia of exogenous opioids which mimic endorphins. These exorphins
plug into cells and organ transduction nerves all over the body ……including pancreas islet cells.
Using LDN to block interaction between wheat and nerves restores control of metabolism.
A curious side effect of LDN is that it severely curtails the growth and spread of cancer.
http://fourfoldhealing.com/2010/06/10/a-holistic-approach-to-cancer/
Massive population study shows increased correlation between wheat and cancer
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
Large scale study shows up to 5-fold increased cancer incidence among type 2 diabetics:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100521102629.htm
Beta endorphin in the human pancreas:
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/49/4/649.abstract
Wheat causes insulin release:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7637543
Wheat causes insulin resistance:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=4510292&ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Cachexia is the underlying disease of cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6145877
Cells become cancerous by fermenting sugar:
http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2009/warburg-effect-against-cancer.html
mTOR scouts for free glutamine:
http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(08)01519-5
Afinitor chemotherapy works by inhibiting mTOR.
http://alberghi-portofino.info/page/49/
Glutaminolysis in tumor transformation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaminolysis
tTg protects against cancer
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/4/1/33
Wheat induces autoimmune attack against tTg. It goes back so far that it’s hard to nail down.
Anti-tTg antibodies, both IgA and IgG, are part of every celiac test panel.
Hi, Bob-
Sherlock Holmes would have a field day with wheat, wouldn’t he? Fingerprint, footprints, motive, opportunity . . . wheat sure looks guilty to me!
Dear Dr. Davis,
I and very interested in reading your book, but I’m still waiting for it to arrive from Amazon. Since I haven’t read it yeat, I don’t know if you have included in your book data from the DART Trial published in Lancet a long time ago.
We have recently pointed out that data in a review paper (and before our paper, Dr. Staffan Lindeberg had included it in his Food and Western Disease book and I believe Stephan Guyenet had also included it in his blog a few years ago), but unfortunately this data is forgotten by many nutrition researchers, who use epidemiology (which can’t show cause and effect) and trials with soft end points to support whole grains.
The DART study was one of the very few human controlled dietary intervention trials with hard end-points, and it found a tendency towards increased cardiovascular mortality in the group advised to eat more fiber, the majority of which was derived from cereal grains [1]. Of relevance, this non-significant effect became statistically significant, after adjustment for possible confounding factors (such as medication and health state) [2].
There’s also the Women’s health Initiative trial.
Whenever someone throws epidemiology or trials with soft end points regarding whole grains and CVD, I would simply show the data from the DART study and the Women’s health Initiative trial, because RCTs with hard end points are the best we have to draw significant conclusions and these seem to go against the grain, although I would like to see more RCTs where wheat or gluten grains in general is the only variable manipulated.
Pedro Bastos
I forgot the references regarding the DART study:
1. Fish and the heart. Lancet. 1989 Dec 16;2(8677):1450-2
2. Ness AR, Hughes J, Elwood PC, Whitley E, Smith GD, Burr ML. The long-term effect of dietary advice in men with coronary disease: follow-up of the Diet and Reinfarction trial (DART). Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002 Jun;56(6):512-8
On a final note, I too believe that wheat (and perhaps also other gluten grains) are the main problem with grains and the reason why the DART study found that increasing fiber from whole grains had a negative cardiovascular outcome. In western countries, increasing whole grains normally means increasing whole gluten grains. IN many countries in Asia, the main grain is rice and not wheat and that could be another explanation for the better health profile of Asians compared to westerns.
We are trying to conduct a pilot study with a gluten, alcohol, dairy, trans and isolated sugar free diet, high in fish, vegetables and low fructose fruits in RA patients here in Portugal and we will allow them to eat rice and tubers (to be able to do this properly we have to compromise).
Hi, Pedro–
Wow! That particular interpretation of the bothersome DART outcome had never occurred to me!
Please keep me informed on how/when/where of your study. I’d be very interested in your investigators and outcomes.
Purely hearsay anecdotal story from my dad. Last year, at the age of 65, He cut all grains and sugars from his formerly bread/pasta dominated diet and dropped 25 lbs in just 3-4 months. His sinus problems cleared up, many of which were apparently due to grain sensitivity. I had mentioned anti-grain literature (Rob Wolff et al.) to him, so can’t help but take a bit of credit. Of course my Pops must have struggled mightily to ditch some things that had dominated his diet. I will follow up with him on his blood work and see if he even needs to keep taking the statins he was on.
Hi, Court–
Anecdotal, yes, but very consistent with what I’ve witnessed over and over and over again.
Dear Dr. Davis,
I almost died of undiagnosed coeliac disease, after a lifetime’s following medically-prescribed, high-carbohydrate, wholegrain, low-calorie diets. By the time I was diagnosed I was 100lb overweight (despite my long periods of disciplined near-starvation), unable to breathe, unable to walk unassisted, unable to keep my balance owing to ataxia, barely able to see through my double-vision, unable to feel any of my limbs owing to nerve damage, doubly-incontinent, agoraphobic, claustrophobic, depressed, anxious, and paranoid. (I used to be a live broadcaster, sought after for my humour and quick-wittedness.) I was fatigued to a degree I never thought possible. I once stared at my computer for an entire day, unable to remember how to open a document, having previously taught computing to university standards. I couldn’t even hold my baby. I missed his entire babyhood and toddlerhood, having desperately wanted him. I didn’t even have the strength to lift a newborn. I began to suffer regular episodes of shock, all requiring the attendance of doctors, none of whom recognised the shaking, cold-sweating and collapsing as being related to the wholewheat sandwich I was usually eating when it happened. My organs began to be affected, one by one. I underwent surgeries in an attempt to control abdominal pain. I developed gallstones; the agony’s only being relieved when one grew so large it lodged in Hartmann’s (sp?) pouch. According to my surgeon, one ovary and one kidney had effectively rotted. Investigations had to stop when I was found to have suffered massive internal injuries from an unexplained, peritonitis-like acute illness. I was sewn up, and told that nothing could be done. The internet saved my life. I Googled my symptoms, and soon suspected autoimmune problems. A biopsy confirmed my suspicions. In the wake of my diagnosis, my two sons were able to be diagnosed with wheat and gluten intolerances, too. (My elder son was twenty three and autistic. He was depressed, vomiting after his breakfasts (cereal), had a giant beer gut (despite never having tasted alcohol), and the swollen ankles of a seventy year old drunk. My younger son, then nine, was so unfocused that I was being called in to school to explain his daydreaming and falling asleep in class. His fatigue was nearly misinterpreted as child neglect on my part – this for a child who asked to go to bed so early that he sometimes could not keep awake for his evening meal at 5pm. He had so little strength that his arms could not support his own tiny bodyweight, so he was never able to do gym or games, which was stigmatising.) Both my boys have vastly improved health now. The day after removing grains and gluten from my own diet I was able to see properly, and could get out of bed by myself. It has been a slow recovery, and I now know it will not be complete. I have been left disabled. But compared to the nightmare I lived before, my low-carb life is fabulous. I am proof that you are right. Wheat and other cereals are deadly to many, and, I believe, damaging to all. Biology is biology, and science is science. Why do other doctors, the food industry, and governments pay no attention to it? My own experience was dramatic. Others are probably dying slowly, and by degrees. Doctors don’t do gluten testing when they sign death certificates. Perhaps if they were allowed to, we would see what role grains are really playing in the lives, and deaths, of long- suffering people. I view them as poison, not nutrition. My own reactions to wholegrain ranged from kidney damage to fertility problems, via a skin coated in open, running sores – not forgetting the arthritis. What is it doing to others? Please let me know if I can ever stand beside you as proof of your arguments. In denying that toast and tortilla wraps almost killed me, that is also to deny the evidence in my medical notes, my ultrasound scans, and my xrays. And, for anyone still unconvinced, perhaps I could demonstrate my persisting inability to walk a straight line when I am tired, my failure to get through a whole day without soiling myself, and – for a finale – give a tour of the horrific, cruel scars carved into my body in the name of grains? Sending warm wishes.
Sorry, I meant coeliac testing, not gluten testing.
PS I’ve lost 30lb already this year, without dieting, or perhaps I should say without counting a single calorie.
Yes, indeed: Not dieting, but removing this perverse product of genetics research called modern “wheat”!
Thank you, Ali, for having the strength to relive and retell your long struggles.
You are a reminder of the gravity of these issues. This is not about some diarrhea and cramps; this can be about incapacitating, life-ruining diseases that doctors often fail to recognize.
I would like to post your story in my Success Stories area. I will indeed need articulate people with powerful stories to bring to the broader media. Please let me know if you are interested.
Hello Dr. Davis,
I will email you my full name and address for your own records, and so that we can arrange this offline. You probably guessed that I posted without my full name only so that I could retain a modicum of privacy – after all, I am talking about my bodily functions on the internet! Because of the length of the post, I omitted other symptoms and illnesses that you may feel important to include in any story. For example, according to my gastroenterologist, the severe latex allergy I developed, twelve years before being diagnosed with wheat and gluten intolerances, was attributable to coeliac disease’s beginning its final rampage. It was a clue my GP, and even my consultant immunologist, missed at the time. Even putting aside all the functional bowel problems I still have, and the fibromyalgia that dictates I live my life in the one, precious hour a day I have energy, the anaphylaxis is “the biggie”. I had to change my career to avoid running into rubber in the environment. I’ve been hospitalised for anaphylactic shock. I’ve survived some terrifying near-misses (always in hospitals or doctors’ surgeries), and live a very restricted life because of it. I carry an adrenaline shot, and must be accompanied everywhere new that I go: All from coeliac disease… all from bread… all from grains.
Glad I might be of some help.
Ali
I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with this letter. Or wheatstalk, rather
Mullen is a huge advertising agency. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullen_Advertising http://mullen As you can see from their client list, The Grain Foundation is like pretty small potatoes.
Ms. Reynolds is the Mullen account executive and a registered dietician. I assume you’ve seen this? http://www.bakingbusiness.com/News/News%20Home/Business/2011/9/Foundation%20sets%20strategy%20to%20deal%20with%20Wheat%20Belly.aspx
Better to target The Grain Foundation’s higher-ups. http://www.gowiththegrain.org/about/ This is like so many industry PR-based groups purporting to bring “information based on sound science”. But private exchanges are of limited value, this will be public and it won’t have anything to do with sound science or rational debate. Just look at the member companies. They still remember the distinct pain the industry suffered during the short-lived low-carb “fad”.
They are going to bring out the big guns, it’s just a matter of time. Their goal will be to turn you into, well, toast
The upside is that they are worried enough that your book is on their radar.The downside is that they are worried enough that your book in on their radar. But as they say, bad publicity is still publicity.
Your strongest argument to the book-buying public isn’t even justifying the science or counting studies cited, you can simply say “Be your own one-rat science experiment and try it for yourself for a month, then make up your own mind.” Savings will pay for the book and then some.
Good luck!
P.S. On Mullen’s client list: the ADA (American Diabetes Association).
HI, Michia–
This reminds me of the movie, Michael Clayton: Layers of intrigue, bad people in high places plotting evil doings.
I’m putting my ear to all packages to listen for any ticking!
Dr Davis,
Recently you blogged, saying that low dose naltrexone (LDN) causes wheat eaters to lose weight. This weight loss happens because LDN blocks nerve endorphin receptors.
http://www.trackyourplaque.com/blog/2010/11/why-do-morphine-blocking-drugs-make-you-lose-weight.html
Wheat protein is a cornucopia of exogenous opioids which mimic endorphins. These exorphins plug into cells and organ transduction nerves all over the body ……including pancreas islet cells. Using LDN to block interaction between wheat opioids and nerves restores control of metabolism.
A curious side effect of LDN is that it severely curtails the growth and spread of cancer.
http://fourfoldhealing.com/2010/06/10/a-holistic-approach-to-cancer/
A massive population study shows increased correlation between wheat and cancer
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
A arge scale study shows up to 5-fold increased cancer incidence among type 2 diabetics:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100521102629.htm
Beta endorphin in the human pancreas:
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/49/4/649.abstract
Wheat causes insulin release:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7637543
Wheat causes insulin resistance:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=4510292&ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Cachexia is the underlying disease of cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6145877
Cells become cancerous by fermenting sugar:
http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2009/warburg-effect-against-cancer.html
mTOR scouts for free glutamine:
http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(08)01519-5
Afinitor chemotherapy works by inhibiting mTOR.
http://alberghi-portofino.info/page/49/
Glutaminolysis in tumor transformation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaminolysis
tTg protects against cancer
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/4/1/33
Wheat inducement of autoimmune attack against tTg goes back so far that it’s hard to nail down. Anti-tTg antibodies, both IgA and IgG, are part of every celiac test panel.
I am 78 year old who has been on the Ornish reversal diet for 21 years, thinking that if it could reverse heart disease that it must be good for the long-term. Boy from what I have learned in the last 3 months since my son put me on to limiting carbs shows just how wrong I was. In the meantime, in the last 10 years I have developed a partially blocked artery, the rhymbus intermedius (which I may have misspelled). (I have had two catheterizations, in 2000 and 2009, after suspicious stress tests. In neither case did the catheterization confirm the doctor’s suspicion. No blockage at all in 2000.) I may not have been following the latest version of the diet, since I understand that Ornish said stay away from at least some wheat. I was eating rolls and bread in great quantity. Now two points: Despite my diet, I was not overweight. I am 72.5 inches tall and weighed about 158. Nor do I have yet developed Type II diabetes, though my fasting glucose is around 100. (In the 1960′s I was diagnosed as a borderline diabetic and underwent numerous glucose tolerance testing, but after starting distance running my fasting glucose has always been OK. I have no idea yet how high the glucose spike goes now or went before I starting limiting carbs. My more normal weight may be because I have always been a heavy exerciser, once running up to 40 miles a week. Now I get aerobic exercise virtually every day and lift weights three days a week. I walk over 4 miles 4 days a week over hilly streets and use an aerobic machine at the gym for 20 to 30 minutes at a pretty high level, despite being on atenolol to control supra ventricular tachycardia (spelling?) and blood pressure. My HR gets into the mid 120′s. Before the SVT, I routinely achieved a HR of 150. Now since I started controlling carbs and eating meat for the first time since 1990 I have lost almost 10 pounds in about 6 weeks and I haven’t felt hungry. Of course, I stopped eating a big bowl of popcorn or a bowl of shredded wheat and grape nuts covered with raisins as an evening “snack”. Before, I really needed four high-carb meals a day to keep my weight up to 158 or so. I have pretty much eliminated wheat, but fresh sweet corn on the cob is still in season, though I have cut back on that also. No more oatmeal covered with shredded wheat grape nuts and raisins for breakfast either. Obviously I must have cut my calories significantly. Now I guess I am going to have to start counting calories and maybe add a much more calorie rich snack in the evening. Any comments?
Hi, Sam–
It sounds like someone needs to help you conduct a metabolic analysis on your current status. It’s really quite easy.
It should include measures like HbA1c, glucose, and lipoproteins. Also, strongly consider apo E. You will then know what the ideal balance of carbs/protein/fat is.
I see my PCP October 3. I don’t think I reported that in February my cardiologist put me on simvastatin. After noticing pains in both calves and an inability to lift as much in the gym as before, I stopped simvastatin about July 15. I told my cardiologist on August and he wasn’t happy. He obviously believes in statins and referred me to the Heart Protection Study (Lancet, 2002?), which I found unconvincing. Because of the statin I have had two recent blood tests, but they did not include HbA1c (see below) or apo E. The statin brought my total cholesterol from 187 to 133 and my Trig. from 130 to 83. My fasting glucose was 94 mg/dl. It was 102 on 08/11/2010 and 115 on 01/19/2010 which seems borderline high. Other values from the test about 3 weeks before I stopped the statin: HDL 40 mg/dl (about as high as I have ever measured since the Ornish diet); LDL 131 to 76.2 mg/dl:ALT 23 U/L: AST 28 U/L; CK 62 U/L; Hemoglobin A1C 5.6% IIs this the same as HbAic?) The previous numbers are from 02/09/2011 except for glucose. From what I’ve read, total Cholesterol below 160 is associated with increased canser risk and also that the elderly love longer with higher cholesterol. In any case I won’t risk a statin also damaging my heart, which being a muslce also must be vunerable. I also want to know what my small dense LDL is and I would like also to be able to monitor my glucose to see what I can eat without huge spikes in blood glucose. I suspect I may have been spiking well above 150 and that over the years could have lead to my partial blockage. I sent my PCP a letter with documention to tell him that I stopped simvastatin and that I have changed my diet to low carbohydrate, though I’m not quite there yet. I referenced Ravnskov’s book, but since have erad Su’s and have ordered Wheat Belly which I shall have read before I see him. I’ll have them all with me in case he is interested. I suspect he is pretty conventional not into low carb. I am counting on him to at least cooperate with my experiment and prescribe the necessary blood tests. I consulted with a Highmark dietician and it became clear that I know more about modern diet science than she did. We are dominated here in Pittsburgh by big medical UPMC and Highmark. I have read Dr. Ufe Ravnskov’s and Dr. Su’s books and now think that medical-diet science is just as corrupt as climate-change science, which I have been studying for 5 years. After being a high-carb Ornish-diet guy for 21 years, I have now changed to at least restricted carb. I just need to get my wife to read the books and other references to make things easier. As I said above, I have to eat more meat to keep my weight around 150. Today I enjoyed my first Big Mac (without the bun) for lunch in a long time! Thanks for your response.
Yup, Sam: You will find that YOU know more about nutrition than your doctors and dietitians . . . combined!
You are well on the right track. Your HbA1c of 5.6% tells all: You have been overexposed to carbohydrates that have led to high triglycerides, reduced HDL, and small LDL lurking beneath the surface.
Don’t forget your vitamin D!
At least he has that right. My PCP when I first transferred to him from my previous PCP (who was drinking erratic, and may now be out of practice, but otherwise a very knowledbable guy) he tested for D and I and my wife now take 2,000 units a day of D3. What should HbA1c be? 5.6% is right in the middle of the “acceptable” range on the test report.
Thanks
I don’t see how those people on the 6 servings website sleep at night in the face of such overwhelming evidence. And all they have is “appeal to authority” arguments.
I guess they sleep as well as the tobacco industry.
Yes, indeed, Dave. They are scrambling to carry out damage control from attacks coming from several directions. Then, all of a sudden, this cinderblock hits them on the side of the head called “Wheat Belly.”
I almost–almost–feel sorry for them.
They want to ignore all the issues associated with wheat consumption by saying that there are nutrients in it? Wow. That’s an intelligent rebuttal. lol.
Good for you for standing your ground here against the Grain Food Foundation.
Well played Doc.
-JK
Thanks, JK.
Yes, I found their arguments fairly silly. I’ve had better debates with 5-year olds.
How much of the wheat now eaten is GMO? The hybrid “dwarf” high yielder – hybrid or GMO, both???
Hi, Anita–
Surprisingly, none. But let me qualify.
Genetic modification refers to the insertion or deletion of a gene or genes. Wheat has not been genetically-modified. But here’s where the geneticsts start to play games. Wheat has been the recipient of “traditional breeding methods” that includes extensive hybridization (with other wheat strains and non-wheat grasses), back crossing to bring out specific genetic traits, chemical mutagenesis (using toxic chemicals to induce mutations), gamma irradiation, and high-dose x-ray. Ironically, these “traditional breeding methods” are WORSE than genetic-modification, but have been going on for 50 years and are still being used–but not questioned or scrutinized.
Dr. Davis,
Do you recommend eating other types of grains besides wheat? Like oats, quinoa, brown rice, etc? I am a vegan so I get a lot of my protein from things like quinoa in addition to beans and soy. I am also a medical student so I was very interested when I ran across your book. I have noticed that gluten-free foods have recently become very popular and I was wondering why all of these people suddenly realized that they had celiac disease. One other question, is it the gluten protein that is causing all of this trouble or other components of wheat? Thank you.
Taylor
Hi, Taylor–
A common point of confusion: It is NOT about celiac disease or gluten intolerance. It is about a variety of reactions to this corrupt and genetically-manipulated thing called wheat.
I would refer you to my Wheat Belly Blog, as well as the book, Wheat Belly, for further discussion.
Sometimes I think having celiac disease is one of the best things in my life; I have no more joint pain and enough energy to do sprint triathlons (started at age 42) and now CrossFit (at age 46). Sadly, I wonder how much of this grain focussed diet contributed to my mother’s dementia.