weekend read: Wheat Belly

Full disclosure: my mom paid me $50 to read this book.

For real. She was so moved by the book, it’s impact on our health, and how it changed her way of eating that she offered all her children and their significant others $50 each to read this book.

So I read it for the cold, hard cash. Let’s be honest.

But it did cause me to look at food and what I’m putting in my body (and more importantly, my daughters’ bodies) a lot closer.

Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD is based on the idea that wheat, all wheat, is bad for our bodies and cutting out the wheat will help us lose weight and the majority of our health problems.

And his case is pretty compelling. The way science has transformed wheat over the decades (to make it easier to grow, for mass production, to make it “better” for us) has changed its makeup enough that what we think is the wheat of our ancestors is nothing close. And that change is what had lead to the boom in waistlines and health problems in the past twenty five years.

He presents case after case of people making changes to their diets that result in massive improvements in health and weight loss because people are eating more “real” food and less filler.

The book was convincing and eye-opening. It’s causing me to feed my family differently and better. We have not cut out all wheat and gluten from our diets, it’s definitely a process and even cutting down is a better than nothing. Over spring break, I went wheat and gluten free and it felt great. But it was too hard to continue when I returned to school and I quickly fell off the wagon. But the first meal I had with wheat back in my diet did produce the whole-body cramping and uncomfortable feeling that Davis talked about (but dang, that Chick-fil-A sandwich was good).

So I’m convinced this wheat I’m putting in my body is doing more harm than good. And I’m working on making meals that don’t focus so much on wheat. Literally, every meal before this book included something wheat-filled at our house. Now it’s less, but my kids are still extreme lovers of all breads. So that’s going to be a battle to eliminate. But I plan on spending my summer figuring what less wheat looks like for our family.

I definitely recommend reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD. It alternates between interesting and dry, with some chapters tough to get through, but the overall message and knowledge is beneficial and powerful. Martin also has a companion cookbook (Wheat Belly Cookbook) that might even be better than the book, more helpful and with practical ideas. Worth your time even if your mom isn’t offering you $50 to read it.

DISCLOSURE: AFFILIATE LINKS USED. And my mom paid me to read this book.