Wonder about Wheat and Weight Loss?

"What is your position on wheat? Is it good for you, bad for you, essential for your diet? I know cutting out wheat is a big "fad diet" right now, but is there more to cutting out wheat than just weight loss? Are there potential problems, or is it necessary for your body to have wheat?"

Great Question!!

Big picture -- if you can eat wheat without symptoms, it is unnecessary to eliminate from diet -- you'll be missing out on lots of healthy foods and giving yourself a lot more work!  If, however, you do not feel your best, a change in your diet may really help!  READ ON!

WHOLE wheat, for many, our house for sure!, is a very healthy food -- as in it easily provides many nutrients that everyone needs!  It is a great source of FIBER, as well as a great combination of vitamins, minerals, and PHYTOCHEMICALS!  Fiber for one, has several ways to help with WEIGHT LOSS!  Click to see why!

That said, there are some people with a WHEAT ALLERGY (mostly children, and it's often outgrown), as well as those who are allergic to one protein called gluten found in wheat, barley, and rye, the condition is called CELIAC DISEASE (relatively uncommon, only a few in 100 people), and some have a gluten or wheat INTOLERANCE/SENSITIVITY (more common and more difficult to diagnose because symptoms may be delayed up to a few days!).

In individuals with these conditions, the body defends itself from what it mistakes as an enemy.  This causes inflammation that often negatively affects the WHOLE body.  Symptoms described below.

WEIGHT LOSS's association with wheat/gluten is often due to:

• The severe restrictiveness of the diet -- Resulting WHOLE foods diet!!
• Becoming educated about FOOD LABELS -- Click to see how!
• Hopefully eating less processed food -- Therefore eliminating many other substances harmful to your health
• If you do have Celiac Disease, you may very likely experience WEIGHT LOSS after you change your diet.  In addition to the first reasons listed, these individuals may lose weight as a result of the repair/healing of their body from the rest the whole body, immune and digestive systems especially, get from the absence of gluten in their diet!

Aside from often welcomed weight loss, overall changes in health, reduction in following symptoms are often LIFE-CHANGING!

If you experience SYMPTOMS of irritable bowel, such as unexplained bloating, gas, cramps, diarrhea, constipation, weight gain, joint pain, fatigue, asthma....as well as the traditional diseases that ail America, from diabetes to heart disease, you may want to see if you have a gluten or wheat intolerance.

You can test for this condition at HOME.  Simply, well it's not so simple, but it is straight forward: cut out ALL gluten for 2 weeks.  You must read labels carefully and you'll probably want to mostly eat at home.  If you are unsure about a product, or if you need to eat out, you can always call the FOOD company or restaurant to find out!

Laraballs, a yummy, fast, healthy treat in many flavors, are gluten-free!  

Try a NEW FLAVOR today!

Plus, here are some GLUTEN-FREE options:

Celiac Disease Foundation has a great website to further education you and get you started on a gluten-free diet: www.celiac.org and their Gluten-Free Resource provides many food companies and at the very bottom many other helpful websites.

You might also like Grains Galore! a post about MANY healthy grain options!

COMMENTS: Do you feel dramatically better?  Have your symptoms subsided?  Often, changes occur very fast, within a few days.

You may not even have a full blown allergy.  After giving your body the rest it needs (sleep will help too, but I'm referring to immune/digestive rest as described earlier), you may be able to re-introduce wheat into your diet without symptoms returning.  Though, as you'll see, you've probably cut a lot of unnecessary extras as well, so those might best stay out of your diet, at least for the most part!