Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (28 page)

People who have tried melatonin often declare that it doesn't work, but a little finesse in its use can go a long way in obtaining the desired effect. If difficulty falling asleep is the problem, take it approximately 2 or 3 hours before the desired bedtime. If staying asleep is your struggle, then taking it right at bedtime may work better to discourage early awakening; consider a time-release preparation for sustained effect. It also helps to experiment with different doses. While some people have wonderfully restful sleep with just 0.5 mg, others require 3, 5, 10, even 20 mg to obtain the same effect.

TRYPTOPHAN.
Taken at doses in increments of 500 mg (e.g., 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,500, 3,000 mg), the amino acid tryptophan enhances sleep. Supplementation increases brain serotonin and melatonin, which benefits sleep at night and mood during the day. Tryptophan can be taken by itself or in combination with melatonin and tends to not leave any residual effect upon awakening. Tryptophan should not be used if you are taking certain antidepressant medication, as excessive levels of serotonin can result.

PREBIOTIC FIBERS/RESISTANT STARCHES.
Yes, the fiber strategies discussed in
Chapter 4
and incorporated into the Detox Shakes that add wonderfully to your overall health recovery also enhance sleep. By taking their fibers before bedtime, some people experience deeper, more restful sleep filled with vivid dreams. This is a great time to use inulin powder, fructooligosaccharides, or other
products
(see
Appendix B
), rather than a gut-busting Detox Shake, to avoid going to bed with a full stomach. Many people describe some pretty wild and entertainingly creative dreams following this strategy.

Thyroid Chaos

Like the speed dial on your blender, the thyroid controls the “speed” of your metabolism. Too high and you lose weight despite eating like a horse. Too low and no matter how meticulous your diet or how many calories you cut back, you fail to lose weight or gain weight. Just right and your efforts are rewarded by natural weight loss when nutrition is managed properly. Thyroid dysfunction sufficient to impair weight loss is, unfortunately, very common, much of it initiated by wheat and grains (though not entirely reversed with their removal), as well as other causes. Thyroid issues are often undiagnosed, underappreciated, and misunderstood by doctors.

About 20 percent of people starting the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox are deficient in iodine, the trace mineral required by the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones. This is why iodine is included in the list of essential strategies to add after wheat and grain elimination discussed in
Chapter 4
. If iodine is the cause for failed weight loss, as well as hypothyroid symptoms such as cold hands and feet, hair loss, and low energy, then iodine supplementation is the fix. (The only people who should not take iodine on their own are those with a history of autoimmune thyroid disease; see the cautions discussed in
Chapter 4
.) For many people, though, there is more to the thyroid question than iodine.

Of all endocrine glands, the thyroid gland is the most susceptible to autoimmune damage, i.e., damage from your immune system that misguidedly attacks it and impairs its production of thyroid hormone. The most common trigger of autoimmune
thyroid
diseases such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis? The gliadin protein of wheat and related proteins of other grains. Getting rid of wheat and grains therefore removes the trigger for autoimmune thyroid damage in the majority. But the vulnerable and delicate thyroid gland and its production of thyroid hormones typically do not recover from the beating, and prescription thyroid hormones are usually still necessary, even long after autoimmune inflammation has subsided.

The problems with thyroid health are worse than that of just iodine deficiency and grains. We live during a peculiar era, a time when industrial compounds have proliferated to such an extraordinary degree that everyone is exposed to chemicals that disrupt the network of hormonal signals that determine thyroid status—a form of endocrine disruption. Disruption can occur at the brain level (hypothalamus and pituitary that control the thyroid), at the thyroid gland level, or even at the level of tissues, such as fat cells, liver, and muscle, dependent on thyroid hormones. Thyroid disruption can originate with perfluorooctanoic acid residues from Teflon in your cooking, restaurant food, or groundwater. It can be caused by triclosan in antibacterial hand soaps and hand sanitizers. It can be due to polybrominated diphenyl ethers from the flame retardant in carpeting. There are hundreds more.

If visceral fat is present in the tummy, then this unique fat also disrupts thyroid function due to the flood of inflammatory proteins it releases that interfere with the function of thyroid hormones. This can occur with or without interference of thyroid function by autoimmune inflammation.

In other words, thyroid dysfunction sufficient to impair weight loss is common. But there is yet another problem in this tangle of thyroid issues: Most doctors are unaware of the above issues, unaware that the old rules for diagnosing thyroid dysfunction no longer apply due to disruption by industrial chemicals. It
means
that, even if doctors manage to diagnose hypothyroidism (low levels of thyroid hormone), they will only prescribe the T4 thyroid hormone but neglect to address T3, the truly active form of thyroid hormone. This results in someone taking T4 as levothyroxine (Synthroid), being told that their thyroid status is fine, yet continuing to struggle with hypothyroid symptoms such as weight gain, cold hands and feet, hair loss, even increased cardiovascular risk due to disruption of T3 function or blocked conversion of T4 to T3 (how most T3 in the body is produced).

The key is to identify a health care practitioner who is enlightened on thyroid issues if you have such symptoms or if you have been prescribed T4 without T3. Look for a functional medicine practitioner, a naturopath, or someone who uses a compounding pharmacy to mix individualized thyroid prescriptions (ask the pharmacist at a compounding pharmacy in your area, one that is licensed to mix its own individualized prescriptions). The solution is usually as easy as replacing the T4 with a T4/T3 combination preparation (such as Armour Thyroid or Nature-Throid) or adding T3 (as liothyronine or Cytomel). The restraint on weight loss from thyroid dysfunction will be released.

The Weight Booby-Trap of Emotional Stress

When you are stressed, the stress hormone cortisol is released at higher-than-normal levels. This can be like taking the cortisol-like drug prednisone, which is often prescribed to reduce inflammation and results in dramatic weight gain. A course of prednisone prescribed for a few weeks for an asthma attack, for instance, can result in 10 to 20 pounds of weight gain in that short period.

If you are under prolonged and substantial stress, high levels of cortisol can make it virtually impossible for you to lose weight. The fix for this issue may not be easy, as it means finding ways to
deal
with the stress. I recognize that it is not always easy to accomplish this if, for example, stress originates with caring for an aging parent, an impaired child, an unhappy marriage, or other situation that you cannot easily brush off or walk away from. In many such situations, there are no quick and easy fixes. The solution involves finding ways to manage the stress to try to reduce the physiological toll it's exacting on your body. It will involve solutions that require ongoing, long-term effort such as exercise, the companionship of friends and family, counseling, yoga, meditation, biofeedback, and getting time away from the source of stress, if possible.

Don't
Booby-Trap Your Health with Exercise Carbs

Here's a common tripping point: Someone who likes to exercise by jogging several miles or engaging in aerobic exercise for prolonged periods (with, say, jazzercise or Zumba) will say, “I need to load up on carbohydrates before exercise to have energy.” Or they adhere to the habit of carrying an “energy bar” or other sugar/carbohydrate source to ensure sustained energy levels during exercise. Or they use some form of high-carb “recovery” drink or food after finishing. All of these strategies turn off your ability to lose weight and have adverse consequences for long-term health. This is true for the casual exerciser as well as for elite athletes who are training for a marathon, triathlon, or other sustained endurance effort. It applies to everybody. Carb loading or exercise carbs are not only unnecessary, they are harmful; eventually, the harmful effects will catch up to them, despite the healthy practice of exercise.

One of the goals of engaging in the 10-day detox, as well as the long-term Wheat Belly lifestyle, is to become less reliant on the sugar stored in your liver as glycogen for energy. Glycogen is the lengthy chain of sugars that can be “burned” for energy on demand, such as during exercise. The average person has no more than around 40 minutes' worth of energy stored as glycogen in the liver. Once it's depleted by biking vigorously for 12 miles, for example, a dramatic drop in energy will be encountered, which some call hitting the wall or the bonk.

Conventional “wisdom” is to therefore load up on carbohydrates and sugars ahead of the effort (thus the pasta dinners traditionally held the night before a marathon) or to carry ripe bananas, energy gels, sports drinks or bars, or other commercial products created for this purpose. While these strategies do indeed work to provide a constant flow of sugar to replenish liver glycogen, they also result in surges in blood sugar to high levels, as well as an osmotic effect (pulling water into the intestines)
from
the plentiful sugar in the gut. This is why there are so many portable toilets along the marathon route and people experience vomiting and diarrhea with their efforts. It also keeps you dependent on a constant flow of sugars to replenish liver glycogen, while turning off the capacity to draw energy from stored fat.

A better solution consistent with the Wheat Belly lifestyle that will enhance health and not impair your ability to lose weight: Avoid all such sugary products before and during exercise. This approach works only if you have engaged in the Wheat Belly lifestyle of consuming no grains or sugars, have limited carbohydrates to no more than 15 g net per meal, and have endured your detoxification/withdrawal process and then waited an additional 4 to 6 weeks. This last component of waiting a month or longer represents the time required for your body to convert from relying on liver glycogen as a primary source of energy to fat mobilizing for energy. In other words, while your liver contains energy sufficient to sustain around 40 minutes of vigorous physical effort, energy stored as fat—even on a slender person—is sufficient to provide energy for weeks. High-performing athletes therefore should be burning fat, not liver glycogen. (Doesn't it make more sense to draw off the considerable energy in your body stored as fat? That's how humans have done it for millions of years—they didn't have energy products to fuel their hunt for dinner—and that's how healthy modern humans should do it.)

A few of our detox panelists fell into this trap, observing that they “needed” to load up on some carbohydrate/sugar source prior to or during exercise in order to perform. Do not give in to this. Accept that your running, biking, or other performance will be impaired during the 4- to 6-week period. But once that period is over, your exercise performance will match or even exceed the level you'd achieved before engaging in this lifestyle—that's when you'll know that your body has successfully made the transition.

The only time I have seen that some form of carbohydrate or sugar
might
be helpful is during extreme endurance efforts, such
as
mile 14 of a marathon, mile 50 of a biking trip, or a similar intensive, long-term effort—but never for an hour of dancing or a 3-mile run. Even with extreme endurance, only a modest quantity of sugar is required in the midst of the effort, such as 25 g in the form of a banana or a sip of a sports drink, to maintain energy. This concept of sustained low-carb performance is catching on among a greater number of elite athletes, and more of them are observing that they need only water and electrolytes to fuel their effort, not carbohydrates or sugars.

Am I Too Skinny?

Yes, it happens. In the midst of the worst epidemic of obesity ever witnessed in the history of mankind, there are people who (1) don't want to lose weight yet desire the health benefits of the Wheat Belly lifestyle, or (2) have already achieved their desired weight and want the weight loss to stop. This is, of course, not an issue for most people during their 10-day detox, but it can become a question in the coming months. Should this question arise, consider the following: