"Wheat Belly" Progress

I'm going to try some of your recipes with Emmer. I bought some a while back and I milled some and made tortillas. The flavor was good but they were fragile and tore easily. Mostly I have been cooking the whole grain about the same as I cook brown rice and it does cook quicker than the rice does. It is not gummy like some rice is. And you can throw all kinds of things into the cooked Emmer such as cooked meat, nuts, cranberries. I use quite a bit of New Mexico red chile powder and New Mexico chile caribe and that also goes well with it. Doesn't much matter what you add to it, it's all good.
I appreciate your recipes.

DH and I have eliminated grains, sugar, and processed food since Thanksgiving. There are occasional lapses (after which I usually feel crummy physically) but it really has not been that hard. You do have to cook your own food but we did that anyway. I did miss "crunchy" food but found a great recipe for crackers and tortilla chips. I don't have a scale, so not sure how much weight I have lost, but 1-2 clothing sizes and best of all, my middle aged "back fat" is gone!! Also I feel great and am sleeping much better.

There are lots of recipes and websites, but most of our regular recipes work for entrees and side dishes. If you want bread or dessert, you will have to try some flour alternatives such as almond meal or coconut flour. Both are available on Amazon.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I haven't been here for months for personal reasons. I just have to share my excitement. Thank you so much Alice for starting me on this journey, 9 months since I last posted that I was trying wheat-free. I have broken my self-loathing diet-binge cycle, because I can eat as much as I want, as long as it's not wheat. I think the biggest thing is not being so hungry all the time as my blood sugar is not peaking and crashing all the time, triggering hunger. I must have stretched my stomach by over-filling it all the time. I was exercising in bursts but not losing weight despite my effort, so I'd give up again. I used to think it was weak willpower and beat myself up over not being able to 'control' my appetite. The doctors said I was fine, not celiac or diabetic, so I should "just eat right and exercise" Ha! I'd been an athlete when I was younger and always liked my meat fruit and veg. I've had a few days off from time to time and feasted on burgers and pies. While it's lovely in the mouth, I feel rotten afterward and get back on track because a day or two of wheat causes belly bloats, hunger, flatulence and a few pounds go on. It's really noticeable.

I have lost 19 kgs (gone from 185 to 143 pounds) and I look and feel like I'm 20 again. I eat nuts and fruit or a fruit and goat milk smoothie for quick easy breakfasts, sushi or salty greasy roast meat and pumpkin for lunch, and a light dinner: anti-pasto, rice wraps, meat or eggs and salad, more fruit or nuts for dessert. Drink wine and eat a few squares of chocolate every day too without any guilt! I feel like I TASTE my food instead of urgently stuffing it in now.

I weigh in every day as I'm still sloooowly losing. I exercise a LOT now with running, playing, kickboxing and bootcamp, but that's because after the initial 2 month push of horrid gasping, I'm not carrying so much extra and it's joyful to move my body again instead of uncomfortable now. Yay! I look like an athlete again and I can breathe!

My parents are scientists, so any science not repeated and peer reviewed is sneered at. But I was just plain desperate and I don't sneer at peoples subjective experiences myself. My peers have now reviewed how my jeans fit me and my parents are having a hard time sneering at 42 pounds. Mum even started it too.

Sorry this turned into a ramble, but I am so thankful I found something that works because I was on a bad path. Thank you to all who posted about Wheat Belly/Paleo etc I'm another success story.

Congratulations on your results, way to go!!!

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Just a quick answer: for most nuts and grains (including corn) meal is normally a coarse ground and may have some of the germ/husk still on; and flour is fine ground and usually doesn't have any germ or husk unless it says "whole".

If all you have is meal and the recipe calls for flour, you can grind your meal into flour in one or two passes if you have a grain mill.

Special note on "flour" -- in some cases, what you're actually getting is the starch that's left over in the water after boiling (potato "flour" is sometimes starch not ground up dry potato). It's not common, but if your "flour" isn't reacting the way the recipe says, you might have misnamed starch instead.

Whole grain tortillas tend to work better if you left the dough ferment/rest at least overnight. The extra time reacting with the water and enzymes really helps keep them from falling apart.

If you make "tortillas" from durum wheat or sorghum flour, the result will be similar to a dumpling or wonton wrapper. These work great for perogies, potstickers and eggrolls.

I don't think grasses are pollinated. Wheat doesn't have blooms.

Grasses do indeed have "flowers"; they are just very small and have few (if any) petals, consisting primarily of only stamens and pistils. Some grasses also reproduce and spread by runners, but most species are wind pollinated and some by insects. Massive amounts of grass pollen in the air is what's responsible for hay fever.

I had problems with achy joints (esp my neck). My wife suggested I go gluten free. Felt great. As an experiment my wife suggested I try bread made with organic flour. Still felt great! If I eat anything made with non-organic flour my joints flare up really bad.

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I`m surprised nobody mentioned [ eziekel bread - very good and healthy ]

Yep, I need to get back on board. I ate like this when my DR thought I was diabetic (but she was wrong.) I lost a lot of weight and felt great. And my blood work was fantastic! My triglycerides were 60 : ) It was a good way to live, but I strayed, just too many temptations during the holidays.
I didn't gain any of the weight back though, but I do need to get going again.

I've been wheat-free since March. I've lost 30lbs, cholesterol and blood pressure is the lowest it's been since I was a teenager (about 30 years). I used to get, on average, 2 migraines per week, chronic reflux/heartburn, and had low energy. All of that went away the first week I quit wheat.

I started eating 2 eggs, bacon, a small amount of homefries (cooked in the bacon grease) for breakfast each day. I abstained from ALL wheat, barley, rye, triticale, spelt, etc. I cut back a little bit on other grains and complex carbs, and ate a lot of vegetables and red meat.

I went to the doctor a couple weeks after going wheat free and my labs were pretty good...cholesterol was below 200, HDL was about 50 and blood pressure was a little high, but better. Then at the end of Sept. I had a 6 month follow up appt. My total cholesterol was ~160 with my HDL about 80. My blood pressure was almost in the low range. My doctor almost seemed concerned...What are you doing different? Working out? vegetarian diet? No, I said...I'm eating a lot of eggs, cheese, red meat and vegetables. He just shook his head. I asked if I could come off my cholesterol statin meds and my high blood pressure meds? He said he wanted me to stay on them! I asked why? He said, "well, they're working!...just look at your labs!". You should have seen his face when I told him I hadn't taken any meds for the last four months.

I really don't have much of a problem with falling off the wagon or cravings. I can live without a burger on a bun, but being in a restaurant with a good selection of microbrews is agony. I really miss my IPAs and English brown ales...

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I dont have the books,sounds interesting....I usually eat Atkins like anyways but would like to get dh on this.
Just want to go wheat free at first....so what about oats is that allowed ? And what about cornmeal or flour ?
I eat flax meal sometimes,that's ok I think I read. He's gonna have a hard enough time already,lol!

I use to make homemade bread daily, pizza crust once a week. It has been over a year and I find I do not miss it often. I do use rice or quinoa pasta. When people are over they do not believe my Mac n cheese is homemade. The only thing I find I truly miss is sausage gravy and biscuits however the benefits are amazing.
Our family went wheat free after finding our daughter has a wheat allergy. I have read wheat belly and several other books but have found just removing wheat has worked for us. I still use other grains, potatoes etc. Just No Wheat.

what are your noodles made from for the mac and cheese?

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I've used elbow macaroni made from quinoa, beans, brown rice and corn (or combos of these). For regular mac-n-cheese or macaroni salad, I prefer the brown rice ones. For chili-mac/hamburger casserole, I prefer the bean or corn ones (although GM corn also has some issues). For plain pasta with sauce, I think the quinoa ones taste and feel closest to the "real thing". Pasta made with any of those alternates work great for lasagna & spaghetti, etc. Just a matter of finding which one you prefer most. The Barilla brand gluten-free pasta is pretty good and not as expensive as some of the others.

That being said, I have found that real durum wheat pastas don't give me the same wheat-belly symptoms. They aren't low carb or entirely gluten-free, but they are low gluten and the protein isn't altered the way modern wheat is.

Pizza crust made with durum wheat also works; but it doesn't rise much and is a little tougher than modern wheat, so it's better as a thin crust than a deep dish.

But you can make pizza dough, bread, biscuits, even pancakes without wheat. You just need to combine different types of flours and starches with a good binder (usually xantham gum or flax seed) to fascimilate the gluten-power in wheat. Here's one of my favorite recipe for all-purpose gluten-free baking mix.