Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health (29 page)

In the world of grains, one grain stands apart, since it consists entirely of protein, fiber, and oils: flaxseed. Because it is essentially free of carbohydrates that increase blood sugar, ground flaxseed is the one grain that fits nicely into this approach (the unground grain is indigestible). Use ground flaxseed as a hot cereal (heated, for instance, with milk, unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or coconut water, or soymilk, with added walnuts or blueberries) or add it to foods such as cottage cheese or chilis. You can also use it to make a breading for chicken and fish.

A similar cautionary note that applies to nonwheat grains also applies to legumes (outside of peanuts). Kidney beans, black beans, Spanish beans, lima beans, and other starchy beans have healthy components in them such as protein and fiber, but the carbohydrate load can be excessive if consumed in large quantities. A 1-cup serving of beans typically contains 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrates, a quantity sufficient to substantially impact blood sugar in many people. For this reason, as with nonwheat grains, small servings (½ cup) are preferable.

Beverages.
It may seem austere, but water should be your first choice. One hundred percent fruit juices can be enjoyed in small quantities, but fruit drinks and soft drinks are very bad ideas. Teas and coffee, the extracts of plant products, are fine to enjoy, with or without milk, cream, coconut milk, or full-fat soymilk. If an argument can be made for alcoholic beverages, the one genuine standout in health is red wine, a source of flavonoids, anthocyanins, and now-popular resveratrol. Beer, on the other hand, is a wheat-brewed beverage in most instances and is the one clear-cut alcoholic drink
to avoid or minimize. Beers also tend to be high in carbohydrates, especially the heavier ales and dark beers. If you have positive celiac markers, you should not consume any wheat- or gluten-containing beer at all.

Some people just need to have the comfortable taste and feel of foods that are made of wheat, but don’t want to provoke the health headaches. In the sample menu plan that starts on p. 216, I include a number of possibilities for wheat-free substitutes, such as wheat-free pizza and wheat-free bread and muffins. (Select recipes can be found in Appendix B.)

Vegetarians will, admittedly, have a bit of a tougher job, particularly strict vegetarians and vegans who avoid eggs, dairy, and fish. But it can be done. Strict vegetarians need to rely more heavily on nuts, nut meals, seeds, nut and seed butters, and oils; avocados and olives; and may have a bit more leeway with carbohydrate-containing beans, lentils, chickpeas, wild rice, chia seed, sweet potatoes, and yams. If nongenetically modified soy products can be obtained, then tofu, tempeh, and natto can provide another rich source of protein.

Because wheat figures prominently in the world of “comfort foods” and the universe of processed convenience foods, and generally occupies a proud place at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, some people have a hard time envisioning what their life might look like without it. Going without wheat can be downright frightening.

Breakfast, in particular, stumps many people. After all, if we eliminate wheat, we’ve cut out breakfast cereals, toast, English muffins, bagels, pancakes, waffles, donuts, and muffins—what’s left? Plenty. But they won’t necessarily be familiar breakfast foods. If you regard breakfast as just another meal, no different from lunch or dinner, the possibilities become endless.

Ground flaxseed and ground nut meals (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts) make great hot cereals for breakfast, heated with milk, coconut milk or water, unsweetened almond milk, or soy-milk, and topped with walnuts, raw sunflower seeds, and blueberries or other berries. Eggs make a return to breakfast in all their glory: fried, over-easy, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, scrambled. Add basil pesto, olive tapenade, chopped vegetables, mushrooms, goat cheese, olive oil, chopped meats (but not cured bacon, sausage, or salami) to your scrambled eggs for an endless variety of dishes. Instead of a bowl of breakfast cereal with orange juice, have a Caprese salad of sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzarella, topped off with fresh basil leaves and extra-virgin olive oil. Or save some of the salad from the previous evening’s dinner for breakfast the next day. When in a hurry, grab a hunk of cheese, a fresh avocado, a plastic bag filled with pecans, and a handful of raspberries. Or try a strategy I call “dinner for breakfast,” transplanting foods you ordinarily think of as lunch or dinner foods into breakfast fare. While it may appear a little odd to uninformed observers, this simple strategy is an exceptionally effective way to maintain a healthy first meal of the day.

Here is a sample of what a week-long wheat-free diet approach looks like. Note that once wheat is eliminated and an otherwise thoughtful approach to diet is followed—i.e., eating a selection of foods not dominated by the processed food industry but rich in
real
food—there is no need to count calories or adhere to formulas that dictate optimal percentages of calories from fat or proteins. These issues, very simply, take care of themselves (unless you have a medical condition that requires specific restrictions, such as gout, kidney stones, or kidney disease). So with the Wheat Belly diet, you will not find advice such as drink low-fat or fat-free milk, or limit yourself to four ounces of meat, since restrictions such as these are simply unnecessary when metabolism reverts back to normal—and it nearly always will once the metabolism-distorting effects of wheat are absent.

The only common diet variable in this approach is carbohydrate
content. Because of the excessive carbohydrate sensitivity most adults have acquired through years of excessive carbohydrate consumption, I find that most do best maintaining daily carbohydrate intake to approximately 50 to 100 grams per day. An even stricter carbohydrate restriction is occasionally necessary if you are trying to undo prediabetes or diabetes (e.g., less than 30 grams per day), while people who exercise for prolonged periods (e.g., marathon runners, triathletes, long-distance bikers) will need increase carbohydrate intake during exercise.

Note that serving sizes specified are therefore just suggestions, not restrictions. All dishes accompanied by a recipe in Appendix B are in boldface and starred with an asterisk (*). Additional recipes are also included in Appendix B. Also note that anyone with celiac disease or other antibody-positive form of wheat and gluten intolerance will need to go the extra step of examining all ingredients used in this menu and in the recipes by looking for the “gluten-free” assurance on the package. All ingredients called for are widely available as gluten-free.

DAY 1

Breakfast

Hot coconut flaxseed cereal*

Lunch

Large tomato stuffed with tuna or crabmeat mixed with chopped onions or scallions, mayonnaise

Selection of mixed olives, cheeses, pickled vegetables

Dinner

Wheat-free pizza*

Mixed green salad (or mixed red- and green-leafed lettuce) with radicchio, chopped cucumber, sliced radishes,
worry-free ranch dressing*

Carrot cake*

DAY 2

Breakfast

Eggs scrambled with 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, basil pesto, and feta cheese

Handful of raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, or pistachios

Lunch

Baked portobello mushroom stuffed with crabmeat and goat cheese

Dinner

Baked wild salmon or seared tuna steaks with
wasabi sauce*

Spinach salad with walnuts or pine nuts, chopped red onion, Gorgonzola cheese,
vinaigrette dressing*

Ginger spice cookies*

DAY 3

Breakfast

Hummus with sliced green peppers, celery, jicama, radishes

Apple walnut “bread”*
spread with cream cheese, natural peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter

Lunch

Greek salad with black or kalamata olives, chopped cucumber, tomato wedges, cubed feta cheese; extra-virgin olive oil with fresh lemon juice or
vinaigrette dressing*

Dinner

Baked chicken or
three-cheese eggplant bake*

Zucchini “pasta” with baby bella mushrooms*

Dark chocolate tofu mousse*

DAY 4

Breakfast

Classic cheesecake with wheatless crust*
(Yes, cheesecake for breakfast. How much better does it get than that?)

Handful of raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, or pistachios

Lunch

Turkey avocado wraps* (using flax wraps*)

Granola*

Dinner

Pecan-encrusted chicken with tapenade*

Wild rice

Asparagus with roasted garlic olive oil*

Chocolate peanut butter fudge*

DAY 5

Breakfast

Caprese salad (sliced tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil leaves, extra-virgin olive oil)

Apple walnut “bread”*
spread with cream, natural peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter

Lunch

Tuna avocado salad*

Ginger spice cookies*

Dinner

Shirataki noodle stir-fry*

Berry coconut smoothie*

DAY 6

Breakfast

Egg and pesto breakfast wrap*

Handful of raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, or pistachios

Lunch

Mixed vegetable soup with added flaxseed or olive oil

Dinner

Parmesan-breaded pork chops with balsamic-roasted vegetables*

Apple walnut “bread”*
with cream cheese or pumpkin butter

DAY 7

Breakfast

Granola*

Apple walnut “bread”*
spread with natural peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter

Lunch

Spinach and mushroom salad*
with
worry-free ranch dressing*

Dinner

Flax burrito:
Flaxseed wraps*
with black beans; ground beef, chicken, pork, turkey, or tofu; green peppers; jalapeño peppers; Cheddar cheese; salsa

Mexican tortilla soup*

Jicama dipped in guacamole

Classic cheesecake with wheatless crust*

The seven-day menu is a bit heavy with recipes just to illustrate some of the variety possible in adapting standard recipes into those that are healthy and don’t rely on wheat. You can just
as well use simple dishes that require little advanced planning or preparation, e.g., scrambled eggs and a handful of blueberries and pecans for breakfast, baked fish with a simple green salad for dinner.

Preparing meals without wheat is really far easier than you may think. With little more effort than it takes to iron a shirt, you can prepare several meals a day that center around real food, provide the variety necessary for true health, and be free of wheat.

On the Wheat Belly diet plan, you will quickly break yourself of the habit of “grazing,” i.e., eating many smaller meals or frequent between-meal snacks. This absurd notion will soon become a remnant of your previous wheat-consumed lifestyle since your appetite will no longer be dictated by the 90- to 120-minute-long glucose-insulin roller coaster ride of hunger. Nonetheless, it’s still nice to have an occasional snack. In a wheat-free regimen, healthy snack choices include:

Raw nuts—Again, choose raw over dry roasted, smokehouse, honey roasted, or glazed varieties. (Recall that peanuts, a legume and not a nut, should be dry roasted, not raw.)

Cheese—Cheese doesn’t end at Cheddar. A plate of cheeses, raw nuts, and olives can serve as a more substantial snack. Cheese will keep at least a few hours without refrigeration and therefore makes a great portable snack. The world of cheese is as diverse as the world of wine, with wonderfully varied tastes, smells, and textures, allowing pairing of varieties with other foods.

Dark chocolates—You want cacao with just enough sugar to make it palatable. The majority of chocolates sold are chocolate-flavored sugar. The best choices contain
85 percent or more cacao. Lindt and Ghirardelli are two widely distributed brands that make delicious 85 to 90 percent cacao chocolates. Some people need to get accustomed to the slightly bitter, less sweet taste of high-cacao chocolates. Shop around for your favorite brand, as some are winey tasting, others earthy. The Lindt 90 percent is my favorite, since its very low sugar content allows me to enjoy just a bit more. Two squares will not budge most people’s blood sugar; some can get away with four squares (40 grams, about 2 inches by 2 inches).

You can dip or spread your dark chocolate with natural peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter for a healthy version of a peanut butter cup. You can also add cocoa powders to recipes; the healthiest are the “undutched” varieties, i.e., not treated with alkali, since this process removes much of the healthful flavonoids that reduce blood pressure, increase HDL cholesterol, and induce relaxation of arteries. Ghirardelli, Hershey, and Scharffen Berger produce undutched cocoas. Mixing cocoa powder, milk/soymilk/coconut milk, cinnamon, and nonnutritive sweeteners such as stevia, sucralose, xylitol, and erythritol makes a great hot cocoa.

Low-carb crackers—As a general rule, I believe we are best sticking to “real” foods, not imitations or synthetic modifications. However, as an occasional indulgence, there are some tasty low-carb crackers that you can use to dip into hummus, guacamole, cucumber dip (remember: we’re not limiting oils or fats), or salsa. Mary’s Gone Crackers is one manufacturer of nonwheat crackers (caraway, herb, black pepper, and onion) and Sticks & Twigs “pretzels” (chipotle tomato, sea salt, and curry) made with brown rice, quinoa, and flaxseed. Each cracker or pretzel has a little more than 1 gram of “net” carbs (total carbohydrates minus indigestible fiber), so eating several will usually not result in an
undesirable rise in blood sugar. More manufacturers are introducing crackers whose principal ingredient is flaxseed, such as Flackers, made by Minneapolis’ Doctor in the Kitchen. Alternatively, if you have a food dehydrator, dried vegetables such as zucchini and carrots make great chips for dipping.