Avoiding wheat when no sensitivity? page 4

[magicmerl]

I am amazed at this claim that whole grains are empty calories. Here is NutritionData's breakdown of 100 grams of whole wheat floor

Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Wheat flour, whole-grain

Just look at the B vitamins, manganese, iron, selenium, phosphorus, potassium... and compare it to 100 grams of carrots

Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Carrots, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt

I haven't eaten wheat flour for 3 years - but looking at this, I am tempted to try making long fermented sourdough bread and see if I can tolerate it.

What an easy way to get hard to obtain minerals into the diet!

I'm not actually going to add wheat back - since ditching grains I've improved asthma, lowered blood pressure, felt SO much fitter, and largely got rid of psoriasis (had totally gone but puzzling little flare up recently!) and lost lots of weight. But whole wheat flour is far far from an empty calorie.

I see that the wheat flour is 407 calories, while the carrots you are comparing them to is 3 calories (it changes to 340 calories vs 30 calories if you standardise them both at 100g). So in terms of nutrition per calorie, yeah, wheat flour is pretty much the definition of empty calories.

[ms sage]

I grew up on a farm. Grains are what we fed the critters to fatten them up for market. Works on humans too!

[Dirlot]

@ Breadsauce - What JoanieL, magicmerl, and ms sage said. We could play the game with other fruits, vegetables or meat but at the end of the day it is just empty calories.

[Sunnivara]

My hair was dirty for the first time in 6 months. Since going primal about 6 months or so ago I am amazed how much longer my hair, teeth, and skin feel clean. I can go 3-4 days between showers without feeling gross. But after a few days of wheat I noticed for the first time in months my hair was greasy and dull. How can wheat do that?

[Pamsc]

I notice no effects when I eat something with wheat, though it is only a small amount. But giving up grains has the result that I wear clothes 2 sizes smaller and am still slowly losing weight without restricting how much I eat, after nothing else I tried helped the post-menopausal weight gain. I was already low carb and I now eat more fruit and dairy, so my carb level has stayed about the same.

[paleo-bunny]

What? You gained weight but not eating wheat? I thought it was usually the other way around. What do you think would cause that? Compensation by eating more of other stuff to try and curb cravings?

Nope. I had irritable bowel syndrome when I ate gluten. Malabsorption of micronutrients and amino acids. Celiacs are usually stick thin.

I used to maintain a so-called healthy weight (circa 133 lbs) eating around 3500 calories a day back in the days when I ate gluten.

But now I am much fitter and healthier with a higher muscle mass. Now I only need 2500 calories to maintain a higher weight.

[Hilary]

I'd have said 'I have no issues with wheat,' too. I only felt a bit bloated after meals, I only hobbled with aching joints for the first few steps out of bed in the morning, my ankles only started hurting after standing for an hour or so in the kitchen, the seborrhoeic dermatitis was pretty much under control with essential oils and not bad enough to be conspicuous, and I only got slightly breathless if I exerted myself too suddenly in cold air. I wouldn't have counted any of that as an 'issue'. All gone since I went Primal.

[Sunnivara]

I notice no effects when I eat something with wheat, though it is only a small amount. But giving up grains has the result that I wear clothes 2 sizes smaller and am still slowly losing weight without restricting how much I eat, after nothing else I tried helped the post-menopausal weight gain. I was already low carb and I now eat more fruit and dairy, so my carb level has stayed about the same.

I notice no effect from wheat if I eat a little just once. But in this case I ate it several days in a row. It takes a few doses to build up a reaction I guess.

[CrazyCatLady]

Read Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD. I am in the process of reading it right now, and one of the main arguments (as in that video link to an interview with him) is that selective breeding for shorter, more drought resistant and herbicide resistant is that changes have occurred to the wheat plant other than the intended changes and that it has developed mutations that make it more likely to cause humans issues than the older eikorn style wheat. These changes are causing more people to end up having issues with modern wheat than people had in the past. There have been studies done comparing blood samples taken 50 years ago that support this. There is more to the book than what I have stated, but I am only part way through.