Start by not shopping for obvious sources of wheat, corn, and other grains and avoid the bread aisle, the bakery, frozen food freezers, the breakfast cereal aisle, and the internal aisles stocked with packaged foods. Confine your shopping to the produce section, the butcher counter, and the dairy refrigerator; venture into the inner aisles only for spices, nuts and seeds, laundry detergent and other household supplies, and dog or cat food (though you might consider looking for grain-free pet food, as well). You may wish to consult the day-by-day shopping list for the 10-Day Menu Plan in Appendix A to be sure you have the ingredients on hand to create the plan’s recipes.
You are aiming to achieve a diet filled with foods that are least processed. The most confident means of avoiding foods with grains is to choose foods that are naturally grain-free, such as vegetables, eggs, olives, and meats. That points us toward a solution, a policy that helps you easily navigate your new grainless life: Avoid processed foods that bear labels and return to real, unprocessed, naturally grain-free, single-ingredient foods without labels.
STEP 2: Choose Real, Single-Ingredient Foods
An avocado, intact in its skin, can be chosen with confidence, as no food manufacturer added grains to it. Eggs in their shell likewise. In other words, foods left more or less intact and unmodified by a food manufacturer should top your list of foods to choose from that are safe for your empowering grain-free lifestyle. Avocados and whole eggs are real—not fake, multiple-ingredient marketing conceptions of some food manufacturer—and there’s no chance of exposure to grains, added sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, or other no-no’s.
You will find the majority of real, single-ingredient foods in the produce section, butcher counter, and dairy refrigerator. Depending on the layout of your supermarket, you may have to venture into those hazardous internal aisles for some of your baking supplies, spices, and nuts, but do so while ignoring all the packaged, processed, glitzy, eye-catching products.
Avoiding foods with labels simplifies the task of label reading. Cucumbers, spinach, and pork chops, for example, don’t come with labels (except to display weight and date). Avoiding labels means you’ll be buying foods in their basic, least modified forms. Sure, the pork chops were sliced from a larger piece of the meat from the animal, but they should not have been changed in any other way.
This simple policy of choosing real, single-ingredient foods has served prior Wheat Belly followers well, served our detox panelists well, and will serve you well, particularly as you are learning to navigate this lifestyle at the start.
Choosing real, single-ingredient foods that are nourishing and don’t yield land mines in your Wheat Belly 10-Day Detox means enjoying unlimited quantities of the following:
VEGETABLES. Enjoy all the fresh or frozen veggies you want, except for potatoes (see “Step 3: Manage Carbohydrates”—unless you’re consuming the potatoes raw, as suggested in Chapter 4). Explore the wonderful range of choices: spinach, chard, kale, broccoli, broccolini, collard greens, lettuces, peppers, onions, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, courgettes, squash, and so on. It may also be time to revisit vegetables you didn’t previously like because of the change in taste perception you will undergo when grain-free. Don’t be surprised if the Brussels sprouts you once despised now become your favorite. Minimize reliance on canned vegetables, especially tomatoes, due to bisphenol A, an endocrine-disrupting chemical, in the can’s lining.
MEATS. Choose from beef, pork, lamb, fish, chicken, turkey, buffalo, ostrich, and wild game. Consider pasture-/grass-fed, free-range, and organic sources whenever possible to minimize exposure to antibiotic residues, hormones, and other contaminants, as well as to do your part in encouraging a return to more humane livestock practices. There is no need to look for lean cuts; look for fatty cuts, often less expensive and full of the fats you need that facilitate success in this lifestyle. And try to overcome the modern aversion to organ meats, such as liver, heart, and tongue, the most nutritious components of all, especially liver and heart. Uncured liver sausage or ground liver added to meat loaf are easy ways to resume organ consumption. Only over the last 50 years have people developed an aversion to organ meats. Get over it: Have some liver. (Just as with humans, if an animal was raised in contaminated circumstances, the meat and organs will be contaminated likewise, so look for pasture-fed, organic sources here, as well.) Save bones in the freezer to make soups and stocks, excellent for joint, hair, and nail health.
EGGS. Eggs are little powerhouses of nutrition and are an important part of a successful grain-free lifestyle. We do not limit eggs, since the alarms over the potential cardiovascular risks of eggs have been confidently debunked. Choose free-range, organic sources whenever possible or, even better, purchase them from a local source. If you are allergic to eggs from chickens, consider goose, duck, ostrich, or quail eggs, if available.
RAW OR DRY-ROASTED NUTS AND SEEDS. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, and chia seeds are all great choices, as are dry-roasted peanuts (though they’re really a low-carbohydrate legume, not a nut). Avoid nuts roasted in unhealthy oils, such as hydrogenated cottonseed or hydrogenated soybean oil, as well as wheat flour, cornflour, maltodextrin, or sugar used to coat them. Should you choose roasted, none of these unhealthy oils or other ingredients should be listed. Cashews are the one nut that should be limited, as they are among the most carbohydrate-rich of nuts; consume lightly and use the carbohydrate management method discussed below.
FATS AND OILS. Choose coconut, palm, extra-virgin olive, extra-light olive, macadamia, avocado, flaxseed, and walnut oils, as well as organic butter and ghee. Don’t be afraid of saving the oils from bacon, beef, and pork. You can also purchase lard and tallow, but make sure they are not hydrogenated. Minimize use of polyunsaturated oils (corn, safflower, mixed vegetable, and sunflower). Avoid hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils completely.
CHEESES. Purchase real cultured cheeses only (not single-slice processed cheese), preferably organic and full fat, not skim or reduced fat. The cheese-making process minimizes the undesirable aspects of dairy (such as whey and unhealthy forms of casein). Be careful with blue cheese, Gorgonzola, and Roquefort, which are occasionally sources of wheat.
BEVERAGES. Drink water (squeeze in some lemon or lime or keep a filled water pitcher in the refrigerator with a few slices of cucumber, kiwifruit, mint leaves, or orange), teas (black, green, or white), infusions (teas brewed from other leaves, herbs, flowers, and fruits), unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened coconut milk (the carton variety from the dairy refrigerator), unsweetened hemp milk, and coffee. Sip the Coconut Electrolyte Replacement Water as is or on ice. Avoid sodas and fruit drinks, even the sugar-free ones as they are typically sweetened with aspartame and have been associated with weight gain and unhealthy changes in bowel flora.
MISCELLANEOUS. Look for guacamole, hummus, pesto, tapenades, olives, and unsweetened condiments, such as mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup without high-fructose corn syrup, and oil-based salad dressings without high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, or cornflour.
ALCOHOL. It is best to refrain from alcohol or keep it to a bare minimum (no more than one glass per day) during your detox. If you wish to keep some on hand, though, consider wine (the drier, the better); non-grain vodka (Cîroc, Chopin, others); rum; tequila; brandies and cognacs; and non-grain or gluten-free beers (Redbridge, Green’s, Bard’s, and others). Note that beers, in particular, can have small quantities of grain residues, even if gluten-free, and have potential for excessive carbohydrates, so go very lightly with them; one 12-ounce serving approaches your carbohydrate limit, so never have more than one serving. (There is a more detailed listing of safe alcoholic beverages in Appendix B.)