Wheat Belly

Wheat BellyI came across a blog online when trying to figure out how to get rid of that extra layer of belly fat in order to show a full six pack, which I’ve still not quite achieved yet. I have a 4-pack, but there is still this tiny bit of belly fat left to trim off.

I decided to read this book Wheat Belly after reading the summary of it on his blog. I’m about 50% through the book right now and it is outlining a handful of compelling reasons to eliminate wheat from your diet. So far the author has talked about the original wheat grain and how it changed the last 50-60 years due to cross-pollination and genetic modification of the original Einkhorn wheat seed.

The wheat we eat today is totally different than the wheat that our grandparents and great grandparents ate in the early 1900s.

Wheat was essentially unchanged for thousands of years until the mid-1900s. The original tall amber waves of grain have been replaces by new dwarf wheat that has a much higher yield per acre. The entire middle sections of the grocery store was born, all chock full of processed products containing wheat.

In the 80s there was a big push with the food pyramid. I remember it being taught in schools when I was a kid. The push was to have the bulk of your diet consist of grains, along with a small percentage of fat at the top of the pyramid. The interesting thing about it is that around the time when Americans started replacing fat in their diet with “healthy whole grains”, the obesity problem in America started to spiral out of control.

I still haven’t decided exactly where this journey will take me in regards to my diet, but I have started to eliminate wheat from my day-to-day diet and have actually felt much better and had more energy. I may still have wheat as a splurge every now and then, but I’m moving more towards a hunters and gatherers type of diet with nuts, fruit, vegetables, and meat.