Wheat-free Lifestyle

[zylon]

An excerpt from "Life Without Bread":

Observations recorded throughout modern history reflect the benefit of low-carbohydrate nutrition. Herodotus tells of the meeting between a Persian delegation and the king of Ethiopia in the fifth century B.C., and of the curiosity of the Ethiopian king concerning Cambyses, the Persian king:

Finally (the Ethiopian king) came to the wine and, having learnt the process of its manufacture, drank some and found it delicious; then, for a last question, he asked what the Persian king ate and what was the greatest age that Persians could attain. Getting in reply an account of the nature and cultivation of wheat, and hearing that the Persian king ate bread, and that people in Persia did not commonly live beyond eighty, he said he was not surprised that anyone who ate dung should die so soon, adding that the Persians would doubtlessly die younger still, if they did not keep themselves going with that drink - and here he pointed to the wine - the only thing in which he admitted the superiority of the Persians.

The Persians, in their turn, asked the Ethiopian king how long the Ethiopians lived and what they ate, and were told that most of them lived to be 120, and some even more, and that they ate boiled meat and drank milk.

http://www.amazon.ca/Life-Without-Br.../dp/0658001701

[brad]

The Persians, in their turn, asked the Ethiopian king how long the Ethiopians lived and what they ate, and were told that most of them lived to be 120, and some even more, and that they ate boiled meat and drank milk.

This is probably an example of the well-documented practice in ancient times of giving exaggerated life expectancies; legends are rampant with this stuff. One of Noah's ancestors, Enoch, was said to have lived 365 years. When you look at anthropological studies based on analysis of skeletal remains it's pretty clear that life expectancies back then in most of the world were typically in the 20-40 year range.

As a modern-day counterpart, consider the Blue Zone studies, which are areas of the world with higher life expectancies and a much higher likelihood of people living to 100 than they do in most of North America. Guidelines based on studying the diets and lifestyles of these people are "Go ahead and eat meat if you want. But consider it a condiment and try the leanest, finest meat you can afford. Try to limit it to a portion the size of a deck of cards and only twice per week. Beans, including fava, black and soy and lentils are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Snacking on nuts–about a handful a day has been associated with and extra 2-3 years of life expectancy." See http://www.bluezones.com/live-longer/power-9/

[humble_pie]

zyl don't you think this is going too far

boiled meat & milk - or was that boiled milk & raw meat - sounds like premium dog food to me.

how about hildegaarde of bingen. The venerated 11th century abbess reportedly never ate one thing for many decades. Just like plants, she had learned to live on sunlight plus the love of the onlybegotten son.

[zylon]

Ah yes, I suppose it's human nature to make everything as complicated as possible; especially when it comes to giving up something tasty!

Several years ago, I started avoiding the cookie and snack-food isles in grocery stores, so I was already half way to being “wheat-free” as most of the stuff there has wheat flour in it. So eliminating wheat entirely is not much of a stretch for me. The other day, I was about to buy a loaf of “organic rye” bread, but upon reading the ingredients I saw that it also contained some “enriched wheat flour”. It looks like the next step for me will be “life without bread”, which shouldn't be so difficult. It helps a lot that I don't have to pack a lunch to work.

Regarding “boiled meat and milk”:
The book I'm reading makes reference to Vilhjalmur Stefansson and his time spent with Eskimos. This snip from Wiki:

Stefansson is also a figure of considerable interest in dietary circles, especially those with an interest in very low-carbohydrate diets. Stefansson documented the fact that the Inuit diet consisted of about 90% meat and fish; Inuit would often go 6 to 9 months a year eating nothing but meat and fish—essentially, a no-carbohydrate diet. He found that he and his fellow European-descent explorers were also perfectly healthy on such a diet. When medical authorities questioned him on this, he and a fellow explorer agreed to undertake a study under the auspices of the Journal of the American Medical Association to demonstrate that they could eat a 100% meat diet in a closely observed laboratory setting for the first several weeks, with paid observers for the rest of an entire year. The results were published in the Journal, and both men were perfectly healthy on such a diet, without vitamin supplementation or anything else in their diet except meat and entrails. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson

I wonder how it is that Eskimos didn't get scurvy?


Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (November 3, 1879 – August 26, 1962)

[steve41]

Remember, there is a lot at stake here.... Big Sugar, Big Grain (Kellogg's, Cargill....) the whole animal rights lobby (Vegans, PCRM....)

Anything that smacks of re-emphasizing meat/fish/eggs in our diet... is going to get a lot of push-back.

[brad]

Anything that smacks of re-emphasizing meat/fish/eggs in our diet... is going to get a lot of push-back.

But I don't think we even have to invoke conspiracies -- certainly mainstream nutritionists have long advocated fish and even eggs (once the dietary cholesterol scare was shown to be misguided) as part of a healthy diet. It's mainly red meat and saturated fat that are the issue here in terms of health impacts, and the jury is still way out on those questions despite many people claiming prematurely to know the truth.

I've been reading an interesting book called The Instinct Diet, by Susan B. Roberts, a nutritionist at Tufts University who has published more than 200 peer-reviewed studies; she uses low carb/high protein as a component of her recommended diet, but not the main feature. She focuses on the basic human instincts that lead us to overeat, one of which is that we seek variety. A high protein/low carb diet can get boring after a while, and our variety instinct starts tempting us to cheat; one of the reasons why people on high protein/low carb diets tend to lose an awful lot of weight in the first year but gain it back in subsequent years. So she mixes it up to try to create a diet you can maintain for life. She claims that 90% of the dieters she's worked with using her methods are maintaining their weight loss. Check it out if you're interested at http://www.instinctdiet.com/science.html.

[steve41]

The only reason I get cranked up about diet and Taubes' book is that 15 years ago I went full-on Atkins. I lost over 60 pounds and I never felt better in my life. I have kept half of it off, mainly due to 'carb/beer/ice cream' slip-ups, but I will always remember my Doc looking at my cholesterol numbers after I rattled off my butter, bacon and rib-eye weekly intake stats and shaking his head in amazement. This stuck with me, although I have fallen (somewhat) off the lo-carb wagon.

[zylon]

Emphasis mine:

Naturally I went to Gordon with my plateau problem. He then suggested a protein/fat diet and provided a similar “to do” list with food prep and eating. This diet eliminated the grains completely and focused on lean meats and healthy fats. I was motivated to achieve optimum health and dutifully followed the diet for 6 weeks. After going through additional symptoms of the “low carb flu”, where your body attempts to convince you it needs carbohydrates from sugar and grains but is really an addiction withdrawal, I did then achieve my weight loss goal (and ultimately 17% BMI!).

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/you-w...#ixzz1ndnY9TXv

[brad]

There is zero controversy about the fact that a low-carb diet is very effective for weight loss; some comparative studies have found it to be more effective than any other diet. If you want to lose weight quickly, or if you've hit a weight plateau and want to get past it, a low-carb diet is a great choice.

The only controversies lie in two areas: 1) how healthy is a low-carb diet over the course of a lifetime, and 2) are people who follow a low-carb diet any more (or less) successful in keeping the weight off than those who follow other diets.

Most people focus on a short-term weight loss goal without thinking about how they're going to change their diet and eating habits over the long run. Once they hit their weight goal, the diet is over and they typically slip back to their old habits; many studies have shown that more than 90% of people who lose weight on a diet gain it back (and more) within a year. The ones who are successful are those who monitor their weight regularly, control their portion sizes, and live on a diet that is sustainable over a lifetime. One of our food instincts is to favour variety in our diet, and because a low-carb diet can get monotonous after a while it becomes harder and harder to maintain it as the years go on.

As for the long-term health effects of a low-carb diet, the only way we're going to get a clear understanding of that is by following the health outcomes of people who've stuck with diets such as Atkins or South Beach for decades on end. I'm sure there are studies underway to do just that, but the results probably won't be known for another 20 years.

What I like about Susan Roberts' approach (The Instinct Diet) is that she focuses on giving you the basic skills you need to keep your weight from getting out of control. She focuses on five basic food instincts (Hunger, Availability, Calorie Density, Familiarity, and Variety) that affect our drives to eat, and shows you how to deal with those instincts constructively to shift yourself into a diet that's uncomplicated, varied, satisfying, and sustainable over a lifetime.

[zylon]

Hey Brad, thanks for the input. It's all quite new to me, and I'm happy to say that being “wheat-free” is quite easy for me.

The thing that got me interested in this topic was Dr Davis's claim that the gliadin protein of wheat stimulates the appetite, and it makes sense to me that if a person eliminates wheat from the diet, thereby reducing appetite, and especially getting rid of cravings, would be a good thing.

Am still reading “Life Without Bread” which has way more detailed info than I would ever need, but I suppose many people appreciate reading all the nitty gritty research results. The authors recommend keeping carbohydrate intake to 72 utilizable grams per day. There is an “Appendix: Carbohydrate Table” in the book which can be viewed by clicking on the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Without-B.../dp/0658001701

There are carbs in abundance in a wide variety of food. Even if one eliminates all bread, pastry, junk food, and sweet fruit, there are still lots of foods to choose from to get the desired amount of carbohydrates.