HarperThorsons
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in the USA by Rodale Inc. 2011
First published in the UK by HarperThorsons 2014
This edition 2015
© 2011, 2014 by William Davis, MD
William Davis asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Source ISBN: 9780007568130
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780007568147
Version: 2015-02-03
For Dawn, Bill, Lauren and Jacob, my companions on this wheat-free journey
In order to protect the privacy of patients, some names and personal details have been changed.
CONTENTS
Copyright
Foreword
Introduction
PART ONE WHEAT: THE UNHEALTHY WHOLE GRAIN
Chapter 1 What Belly?
Chapter 2 Not Your Gran’s Muffins: The Creation of Modern Wheat
Chapter 3 Wheat Deconstructed
PART TWO WHEAT AND ITS HEAD-TO-TOE DESTRUCTION OF HEALTH
Chapter 4 Hey, Man, Wanna Buy Some Exorphins? The Addictive Properties of Wheat
Chapter 5 Your Wheat Belly Is Showing: The Wheat/Obesity Connection
Chapter 6 Hello, Intestine. It’s Me, Wheat. Wheat and Coeliac Disease
Chapter 7 Diabetes Nation: Wheat and Insulin Resistance
Chapter 8 Dropping Acid: Wheat as the Great pH Disrupter
Chapter 9 Cataracts, Wrinkles and Dowager’s Humps: Wheat and the Ageing Process
Chapter 10 My Particles Are Bigger Than Yours: Wheat and Heart Disease
Chapter 11 It’s All in Your Head: Wheat and the Brain
Chapter 12 Bagel Face: Wheat’s Destructive Effect on the Skin
PART THREE SAY GOODBYE TO WHEAT
Chapter 13 Goodbye, Wheat: Create a Healthy, Delicious, Wheat-Free Life
Epilogue
Appendix A Looking for Wheat in All the Wrong Places
Appendix B Healthy Wheat Belly-Shrinking Recipes
List of Searchable Terms
Acknowledgements
References
About the Publisher
FOREWORD TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
WHEAT BELLY IS not what it used to be.
In the three years since the original Wheat Belly was published in the US, something astounding and wonderful has happened. What began as an experience in helping people reduce blood sugars, tame inflammation and regain control over appetite has evolved into a nationwide experience of lives transformed on an unprecedented scale. The few thousand people who understood this message in 2011 has now ballooned to the millions, and they are experiencing effortless weight loss and turnarounds in health across a whole spectrum of conditions.
Within weeks of its initial release, I was flooded with stories from people who, for the first time in years, finally understood why they had struggled with health, weight, appetite and pain – despite doing everything ‘right’. A man named Lucas sent a comment saying that he had tried with little success to get rid of his belly despite what he thought was a healthy diet and active lifestyle. ‘I’ve tried raw, vegan, low-carb, low-fat – and none of them had much effect and all left me with food cravings that never went away. In the month since I started Wheat Belly, I’ve lost 12 pounds,’ said Lucas. ‘The most remarkable thing for me, though – and I wasn’t really expecting it – is that after the first week of being completely grainfree, I have not had a single headache of any kind, and I have been a migraine sufferer since my teens.’
Another comment came from Cindy, a woman whose obsession with food was controlling her life. ‘I was in constant turmoil over eating; I couldn’t understand how the educated, intelligent, strongwilled person I believed myself to be could become totally defeated by food. I was completely exhausted by my preoccupation with eating, not eating, dieting, binging, crying, hating myself, dieting again, binging and hating myself more. I was at the end of my rope,’ she said. Then she found Wheat Belly and her life changed. ‘After cutting out the wheat, I could barely believe the feeling of calm that descended upon my life. The weight dropped off, my depression lifted and I too experienced all of the amazing things everyone else had reported. I now love my food, but I rarely think about it anymore.’
Multiply those wonderful