News Taffy

My husband is always interested in finding ways to help his patients become healthier. He understands that for many of his patients, losing weight, stopping smoking or exercising is difficult if not impossible. Doctors and medical intervention can only accomplish so much in repairing health problems, therefore, my husband preaches prevention as the key to leading a healthy life. He has recently become obsessed with a book he just read, “Wheat Belly” by Dr. William Davis.

You may have heard of this book or even read it since it was first published in 2011 but I don’t think it received the media attention that some other diet books like “The South Beach Diet” or “The Paleo Diet Cookbook” have. At least it didn’t cross our radar. My husband seldom gets interested in most diet books but this one presented several studies to back up its claims which got his attention. Two thirds of the book discusses the studies and the ways in which wheat is bad for you.

I have not finished the book but am deeply interested in it’s claims. Dr. Davis says that wheat, more than any other food, is responsible for the obesity epidemic and skyrocketing diabetes. His research says the rise in obesity in the U.S. coincided with the effort to eliminate fats in the American diet and the switch to eating carbohydrates and wheat products. He points out the wheat we eat today, which has been genetically modified to produce greater yields, is bad for us in many ways, causing a significant amount of health problems like acne, heart disease and celiac disease.

He further claims that wheat is highly addictive, causing us to crave more and more wheat products like crackers, bread and cereal. Many of his patients, though overweight, claim to exercise and watch what they eat, yet can’t lose any weight. When they accept Dr. Davis’ challenge to eliminate wheat from their diet, they easily loose the weight. Or so he claims.

Barry and I seldom duck away from a challenge. I’ve tried (and failed) at many diets in an effort to evaluate them for myself. If you remember, I failed miserably at the no sugar challenge recently. This time my husband decided he would give this diet a try and see for himself how he felt, how easy it is and whether he lost any weight, not that he needs to loose weight. Of course, I am participating too so I can share our findings with you.

I confess that a few years ago, I had a love affair with cereal. I had it for breakfast and a night seldom passed that I didn’t have another bowl before bed. I also ate my share of bread, crackers, pretzels, cakes and cookies. I was disciplined enough not to overeat and I was very active which kept the weight off. Finally the weight did start to creep up on me so I started to eliminate excess snacks, including the cereal.

I promise to report back soon with our findings and more information on “Wheat Belly”.