The secret to losing weight and getting healthy

Have you ever been so excited about something and had a lot to say that it all comes gushing out in a confused mishmash of verbiage?

Last week I kinda tripped over my own tongue trying to say too much too fast. For those of you who struggled through my column, you have my applause and my sympathies. I was trying to impart the wisdom of seven books into one 950-word column and it didn’t work well.

As a refresher, I wrote about diet and how modern foods are killing us. Most of the stuff we buy in supermarkets isn’t real food, and a lot of the stuff that is real has become contaminated through processing and packaging. Rather than opening the firehose of facts again, let me simplify what I have learned on my journey to better food health.

According to Dr. William Davis, author of the books “Wheat Belly” and “Super Gut,” the absolute worst thing people can eat is wheat. Yes, wheat (flour) is in a lot of the food we consume and it would mean a fundamental change in the food industry to rid ourselves of this gastric monstrosity.

What’s wrong with wheat?

Davis explains in his books that there is a direct correlation to the rise of diabetes, obesity and other weight-related health problems and the cross-breeding and genetic manipulation of wheat that began in the 1940s and 1950s. Davis said as scientists began cross-breeding types of wheat and later doing genetic manipulation, it was done with the noble intention of increasing yields to help fight world hunger.

Yields of wheat rose substantially, but in the process, no one bothered to see if the altered wheat was safe to eat. While our government (Food and Drug Administration) insists that it is, Davis says otherwise (and so do other experts whose books I’ve read). He says modern wheat is radically different than the wheat we had less than a century ago and how our bodies react to it is astonishing.

The body converts modern wheat into blood sugars at levels higher than sugar itself. That becomes stored as body fat. It is also highly addictive and causes cravings that turn many people into eating machines.

Lose the wheat, lose the weight

Davis’s “lose the wheat, lose the weight” catchphrase is true. Weight loss is a symptom or byproduct of going wheat-free. While that might be a motivating factor for most people, a healthy diet without wheat has many more benefits than the scale will tell. He reports that many (but not all) patients he sees with diabetes, prediabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, problems with internal organs (heart, liver, kidney, etc.) and other maladies find their symptoms vanish when they eliminate wheat from their diet.

I can believe him because my son has celiac disease (an allergy to gluten, a major component of wheat and other grains). He grew up without eating wheat and consequently has not struggled with his weight or had other related health problems.

There is new research coming out that connects modern wheat to a host of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders as well, including most dementias. I mentioned that in last week’s ramblings. Eliminating wheat may or may not reverse some of these conditions, but it seems to keep them from getting worse.

Simple but not easy

To stop eating wheat sounds simple, but it’s not. Because my family has 19 years of experience preparing meals for our son that do not include wheat, we know the trials and difficulties of menu planning, grocery shopping, and selecting restaurants where it is safe for him to eat. It requires constant vigilance and the reading of ingredients, but after a while it becomes second nature. Four years ago, I began a keto diet. I lost 60 pounds, but every time I reintroduced wheat back into my diet, my weight would rise rapidly.

What to eat or not to eat

Listening to the advice of Davis, Dr. Mark Hyman (“Food: What the Heck Should I Eat”) and others, I have made life-changing decisions about what I put in my mouth. In addition to avoiding wheat, I do not consume soft drinks or sport drinks, sugar, artificial sugar, high fructose corn syrup, starchy foods (potatoes, rice, corn, peas, etc.), fried foods, vegetable oils (only extra virgin olive oil), anything with trans fats, most all snack foods, and so on. Yes, this eliminates a large chunk of the American diet.

As Dr. Hyman recommends, I do eat whole, natural, organic foods (or as close to that as I can). He says if comes from a plant, eat it. If it’s made in a plant, leave it. That means eating vegetables, some fruits, organic meats and dairy, eggs, wild caught seafood, nuts, etc. If a food has an ingredient list that contains any chemicals, dyes, preservatives, and long words you can’t pronounce, leave it alone.

Once again, you do not have to take my word for it. This is a list of the books and authors that I trust and have relied on. Check them out for yourself.

• “Wheat Belly” and “Super Gut” by William Davis;

• “Formerly Known as Food” by Kristin Lawless (just ignore her hyper-socialist, ultra-feminist rant in the last couple chapters);

• “Brain Food” by Lisa Mosconi;

• “Unlocking the Keto Code” by Steven Gundry;

• “End of Craving” by Mark Schatzker; and

• “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat” by Mark Hyman.

Joe Southern is the managing editor of the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express. He can be reached at news@journal-spectator.com.