Wheat Belly

Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health

By: William David MD

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A provocative look at how eliminating wheat from our diets can help us lose weight, shrink unsightly bulges, and reverse a broad spectrum of health problems—from acne to diabetes to serious digestive disorders.

Since the introduction of dietary guidelines calling for reduced fat intake in the 1970s, a strange phenomenon has occurred: Americans have steadily, inexorably become heavier, less healthy, and more prone to diabetes than ever before. After putting more than 2,000 of his at-risk patients on a wheat-free regimen and seeing extraordinary results, cardiologist William Davis has come to the disturbing conclusion that it is not fat, not sugar, not our sedentary lifestyle that is causing America’s obesity epidemic—it is wheat. How this once-benign grain—now genetically modified almost beyond recognition and found in virtually every course of every meal—has come to have such a profound and deleterious effect on our collective well-being is one of the great untold health stories of our generation.

In Wheat Belly, Dr. Davis exposes the truth about modern-day wheat, deconstructing its historical role in the human diet and the agricultural evolutions that have created a hybrid grain that has a greater impact on blood sugar levels than pure cane sugar and many of the addictive characteristics of a narcotic. He sheds light on wheat’s connection to weight gain as well as to a host of other adverse effects from diabetes to heart disease to immunologic and neurologic disorders like celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and dementia. Finally, to help listeners dependent on wheat products make the move to a wheat-free diet, he presents a clear-cut action plan packed with food and lifestyle tips, meal plans, and recipes.

Informed by decades of clinical research and backed by case studies of men and women who have experienced life-changing transformations in their health after waving good-bye to wheat, Wheat Belly is an illuminating look at a familiar food as well as an affirmative life plan for regaining health and losing unwanted pounds.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2011 William Davis, MD (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Life Changing

If you are interested in nutrition or better health you must read this book. As the parent of a child diagnosed with diabetes 6 years ago and celiac disease 5 years ago, I have become pretty educated on nutrition out of necessity, Reading this book was more eye opening than perhaps anything I have ever read. Through practicing what I have learned in this book I have personally lost weight and become much healthier in a multitude of ways. The results are so noticeable and I talk about it so much that numerous friends and relatives have read the book and experienced the same results. My brother in law who is a physician has read the book, experienced the results and is literally dumbfounded as to why this information is not taught in medical school. I have never been one to believe in conspiracy theories, but why this information is not common knowlege is inexplicable.

Don't take my word for it, read the book and form your own opinion, it will be life changing.

Outstanding Information

Any additional comments?

This book was recommended to us by a family member who had gone "gluten free". We were on the fence in our thoughts about the gluten free frenzy, but decided to listen. In our early 50's, we were beginning to experience some negative health issues and figured we had nothing to lose. As it was a book for information, rather than pure pleasure, we didn't mind the narration being less than amazing. lol It was clear and easy to understand.We were absolutely amazed at what we learned and other sources have backed up the information.We took the plunge and went gluten free one week. In that 7 day period, we ate healthy, never went hungry and experienced the following: A 7 lb and 5 lb weight loss, respectively. My dermatitus on my hands completely cleared. My joint paint disappeared. The next week, our work (we are team drivers on the road) was chaotic, we weren't prepared and fell off the wagon. ALL symptoms returned. It was unreal. Needless to say, we will be following a gluten free lifestyle.Highly recommend this book to anyone truly interested in improving their health. It's easy to understand and logically presented.

Eye opening

It kept my interest and was very informative. I think everyone should be aware of the impact modern wheat has in our bodies. Who knew that everything from acne to osteoporosis could be attributed to wheat gluten. Slimming down is just icing on the gluten free cake.

A Bit Dry & Long

It was an okay book, but a bit of a one pony show. I felt it somewhat overemphasized wheat's role in disease, and while better geared for Celiacs and others with intolerance or allergies, it simply went on a bit long and far hammering wheat....also, most of the information was dry and hard to digest, as well.

But I did manage to listen to it all, and found it an interesting enough prospect to consider. I'll at least think of curbing some of my wheat tendencies.

Great read, ponderous and stuffy narration

This book inspired me to get back to the low-carb life that saved me 12 years ago.

Wheat Belly

An excellent book, in which to try the gluten free food method and see if it works for you.

Intriguing until the end

It was intriguing. I’ve thought about going gluten free in the past to help my autoimmune issues. However, he spent the whole book talking about benefits of going wheat/gluten free. Then, in the last chapter says oh and you shouldn’t eat rice, oats, corn, potatoes, beans, legumes, and you should minimize fruit intake. So does going gluten free help or do I have to restrict all those things to help? Waste of time.

Excellent book

I was very much impressed with this book and think it should be part of a library that includes "Why We Get Fat", "The End of Overeating", and perhaps "Good Calories, Bad Calories" if you want a longer version of Why We Get Fat. And if you want to know more what to do with what you are left w/ to eat, try The Perfect Health Diet or The Primal Blueprint (the author pretty much advocates this sort of eating, but uses a more scientific approach than eating that way because ancestors did)
As far as a review of the audio, it's in the upper half of good to me. Didn't put me to sleep, didn't overemphasize or dramatize things, and was read about how I would read it.
As far as the content: It seems impossible at first to consider that wheat could be bad since it's been used since bible times, but you'll find in the first few chapters how much our current version has been genetically (not just hybrid) modified to create a grain that produces a much more powerful blood sugar spike, has a much higher gluten content, and is problematic for most people. Reading this book, it is hard to not want to give up wheat. The problem lies in whether or not the individual is willing to make those changes.
The only cons I see is that he is less aggressive on complete avoidance of vegetable oils and is less strict on sugar, tho he does say to avoid and limit both. As to the previous reviewer, I have a medical background and have spent considerable time reading all the above mentioned books and following the current research. The more I read, the more I'm convinced that wheat is very much toxic and can be at least partially to blame for many of the diseases affecting our society. Type II Diabetes is related to diet, excess fat accumulation, etc and is very much preventable even if one does have a genetic predisposition to it (read "Why We Get Fat" and you'll see how our overweight mothers are partially responsible for this). There is a reason that the numbers are rising rapidly along with our waistline sizes. DM type II is a problem that can be prevented by diet and sent into remission if, like the author mentions, the beta cells that produce the insulin have not been so destroyed that they can not recover. I have helped and seen multiple diabetics get completely off insulin and have normal blood sugars and A1C after losing the weight and avoiding the carbohydrates that cause blood sugar elevation and also prediabetics who have had those numbers return to normal ranges after changes in diet and this book can help you get started in that direction or avoid it altogether.

lnteresting testimonies; weak science

Dr. William Davis is a passionate scientist and healer, who is convinced that wheat is the root of almost all that can go wrong with the body. He proceeds through maladies including but not limited to GERD, coronary artery disease, obesity, diabetes, Celiac disease, ED, and acne. Oh, I forgot arthritis. Davis supports each of these with whatever is available from anecdotal, correlational, or experimental research. His writing style is engaging and his anecdotes are inspiring. However, his leaps of faith based on correlational data make one realize that he must have missed the classes on correlational versus causal variance in the research course which he took. Still, the book caused me to do my own experiment and try his recommendations for ninety days. Here is to the new me.

Wheat Belly- A must read.

We found this book to be excellently researched and very informative about what has happened to our culture and its food. Wheat is no longer wheat like we ate as kids. Get off the wheat- lose weight, feel better and enjoy less aches and pains.