Free Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis

cravings diminish, calorie intake decreases, mood and well-being increase, weight goes down, wheat belly shrinks.
    Understanding that wheat, specifically exorphins from gluten, have the potential to generate euphoria, addictive behavior, and appetite stimulation means that we have a potential means of weight control: Lose the wheat, lose the weight.



CHAPTER 5
YOUR WHEAT BELLY IS SHOWING: THE WHEAT/ OBESITY CONNECTION
    PERHAPS YOU’VE EXPERIENCED this scenario:
    You encounter a friend you haven’t seen in some time and exclaim with delight:
“Elizabeth! When are you due?”
    Elizabeth: [Pause.]
“Due? I’m not sure what you mean.”
    You: Gulp …
    Yes, indeed. Wheat belly’s abdominal fat can do a darn good imitation of a baby bump.
    Why does wheat cause fat accumulation specifically in the abdomen and not, say, on the scalp, left ear, or backside? And, beyond the occasional “I’m not pregnant” mishap, why does it matter?
    And why would elimination of wheat lead to loss of abdominal fat?
    Let’s explore the unique features of the wheat belly habitus.
WHEAT BELLY, LOVE HANDLES, MAN BOOBS, AND “FOOD BABIES”
    These are the curious manifestations of consuming the modern grain we call wheat. Dimpled or smooth, hairy or hairless, tense or flaccid, wheat bellies come in as many shapes, colors, and sizes as there are humans. But all share the same underlying metabolic cause.
    I’d like to make the case that foods made with or containing wheat make you fat. I’d go as far as saying that overly enthusiastic wheat consumption is the
main
cause of the obesity and diabetes crisis in the United States. It’s a big part of the reason why Jillian Michaels needs to badger
Biggest Loser
contestants. It explains why modern athletes, such as baseball players and triathletes, are fatter than ever. Blame wheat when you are being crushed in your airline seat by the 280-pound man next to you.
    Sure, sugary soft drinks and sedentary lifestyles add to the problem. But for the great majority of health-conscious people who don’t indulge in these obvious weight-gaining behaviors, the principal trigger for increasing weight is wheat.
    In fact, the incredible financial bonanza that the proliferation of wheat in the American diet has created for the food and drug industries can make you wonder if this “perfect storm” was somehow man-made. Did a group of powerful men convene a secret Howard Hughesian meeting in 1955, map out an evil plan to mass-produce high-yield, low-cost dwarf wheat, engineer the release of government-sanctioned advice to eat “healthy whole grains,” lead the charge of corporate Big Food to sell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of processed wheat food products—all leading to obesity and the “need” for billions of dollars of drug treatments for diabetes, heart disease, and all the other health consequences of obesity? It sounds ridiculous, but in a sense that’s exactly what happened. Here’s how.
    Wheat Belly Diva
    Celeste no longer felt “cool.”
    At age sixty-one, Celeste reported that she’d gradually gained weight from her normal range of 120 to 135 pounds in her twenties and thirties. Something happened starting in her mid-forties, and even without substantial changes in habits, she gradually ballooned up to 182 pounds. “This is the heaviest I have
ever
been,” she groaned.
    As a professor of modern art, Celeste hung around with a fairly urbane crowd and her weight made her feel even more self-conscious and out of place. So I got an attentive ear when I explained my diet approach that involved elimination of all wheat products.
    Over the first three months she lost twenty-one pounds, more than enough to convince her that the program worked. She was already having to reach to the back of her closet to find clothes she hadn’t been able to wear for the past five years.
    Celeste stuck to the diet, admitting to me that it had quickly become second nature with no cravings, a rare need to