Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (10 page)

A great habit to start the day right is to drink 16 ounces (2 cups) of (filtered, nonchlorinated, nonfluoridated) water immediately upon awakening, since we wake up dehydrated after lying flat and mouth breathing during sleep through the night. You can recognize proper hydration if your urine is nearly clear, not a
dark,
concentrated yellow. The best liquid to hydrate with is water. Drink it plain or with a twist of lemon, lime, or a few drops of flavored stevia. Also, see
Coconut Electrolyte Replacement Water
recipe.

If you are taking a prescription diuretic for high blood pressure, such as hydrochlorothiazide or chlorthalidone, speak to the prescribing doctor about the possibility of stopping it during your withdrawal process and onward, as diuretics force you to be dehydrated to do their work, which is obviously counterproductive (not to mention diuretics deplete potassium and magnesium, raise blood sugar, and barely work anyway).

Use Some Salt

Sprinkle sea salt or other mineral-containing salt on your food to compensate for the loss of urinary salt that develops due to dropping insulin levels. Salt, along with hydration, addresses the light-headedness and leg cramps that commonly occur during
withdrawal.
(Factor in a sodium restriction if you have kidney disease or other reason to limit salt, however.)

Strict limitation on salt use is another widely held notion that, along with limiting fat and eating grains, dissolves with the health transformations of wheat and grain elimination. Have some salt: You will feel better if you do. (If you use iodized salt, it is still worth supplementing iodine as a nutritional supplement, as discussed in
Chapter 4
, since iodized salt is a fairly unreliable source of iodine, particularly if the salt canister sits for more than a few weeks, since iodine evaporates quite quickly.)

Get Over Your Fat Phobia and Eat Fat

It's built right into the three steps of the detox, but despite that, many people really struggle with following through on this strategy and shutting out the crippling dietary advice of the last 30 years. To make matters worse, the world of food has so deeply taken “cut your fat and cholesterol” to heart that it is often difficult to find, for instance, full-fat dairy products or be served a fatty cut of meat at a restaurant.

If you are hungry or experience cravings during your detox, it nearly always reflects failure to take in sufficient fat. While this can also reflect the withdrawal process from grain-derived opiates, it can be compounded by the failure to take in enough fat.

You may shock your family and friends as you proceed to not trim the fat off your meats, or eat a big hunk of full-fat cheese, or prepare your eggs swimming in bacon grease, but you're not doing this for their approval. You are doing it for health. You might consider carrying some Fat Blasters (see recipes in
Chapter 6
) around with you in a sealable, water- and oil-tight container (in case the oil melts) to consume when hunger or cravings strike. You can also purchase single-serve pouches of coconut oil that can be conveniently carried during travel.

Supplement
Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency is widespread and is associated over time with osteoporosis, hypertension, higher blood sugar, muscle cramps, and heart rhythm disorders. Magnesium deficiency is common and can magnify some of the symptoms of withdrawal from grains, particularly leg cramps and sleep disruption.

Magnesium supplementation can therefore have dramatic benefits during withdrawal. Unfortunately, most magnesium supplements are better laxatives than sources of absorbable magnesium, responsible for loose stools without relief from any of the health issues. Among the best absorbed with the least laxative effect is magnesium malate at a dose of 1,200 mg two or three times per day (weight of the magnesium + malate, not just “elemental” magnesium, i.e., the magnesium by itself; this provides 180 mg elemental magnesium per 1,200 mg tablet or capsule, or 360 mg per day).

Another way to get supplemental magnesium is to make your own inexpensive and wonderfully effective magnesium bicarbonate, the most absorbable form of all, if you don't mind a bit of effort. Because it is very hygroscopic (water absorbent), no manufacturer sells magnesium bicarbonate in dry form, so you have to make it yourself. The formula for Coconut Magnesium Water can be found
here
.

While we are introducing magnesium supplementation to smooth the grain withdrawal process, it is something you should consider continuing for the long term, well after the withdrawal process subsides.

Supplement Tryptophan or 5-Hydroxytryptophan

Brain serotonin levels can drop with weight loss, resulting in food cravings, low mood, irritability, anger, and argumentativeness. While the conventional medical answer is to prescribe brain
serotonin–
increasing antidepressant drugs, you can increase serotonin levels a natural way and reduce the negative emotions and cravings of the withdrawal process. Some people like the effects of these supplements so much, especially the favorable effects on mood, that they continue taking them long after the wheat and grain withdrawal is nothing more than a bad memory.

Brain serotonin levels can be increased by taking the nutritional supplements tryptophan or its closely related 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP). These supplements have proven effective in clinical trials where they have been used to combat depression and even alcohol withdrawal, resulting in improved mood (helping people become less argumentative and less aggressive), fewer negative thoughts, and reduced carbohydrate cravings.

Tryptophan can be taken during the day, e.g., 500 to 1,000 mg three times per day. Alternatively, it can be taken at a higher dose once per day at bedtime to encourage sleep at a dose of 1,000 to 3,000 mg. Tryptophan is most effective taken on an empty stomach.

If tryptophan is not available to you, the more widely available 5-HTP, taken at a dose of 50 to 100 mg three times per day, exerts similar effect. Or, as with tryptophan, a single daily bedtime dose of 100 to 300 mg can be used to improve sleep and obtain the daytime benefits.

BREAKTHROUGH

You may remember your personal experience of detoxification from “healthy whole grains” as among the more awful things you've had to endure in your lifetime, alongside quitting cigarette smoking or being audited by the IRS. You now know that grain detox is not about a sorrowful break with nostalgia, just cutting carbs, or denying yourself calories. It is about breaking the physiologic addiction of dietary opiates, shaking off the hold they had over you and your behavior and health, and detoxifying from their effects.

Emerge
on the other side, however, whether it required a few days or a few weeks, and you encounter a brighter, happier side of life that you may have thought you'd lost. It starts your journey back to health, as well, as the pounds fall off, visceral fat mobilizes, the gastrointestinal tract heals, skin clears, and retained water is released, while your mind becomes clearer, appetite shrinks, sleep becomes deeper and restorative, and daytime energy soars. It is truly like a glorious rainbow after a dark storm, a genuine breakthrough for a new future.

The opiate withdrawal process that occurs with ceasing all wheat and grains was something you had little control over, having to endure it whether you liked it or not. But, after this period of helplessness, you are now in wonderfully complete control over appetite, weight, and health. That, perhaps, is among the most satisfying aspects of this lifestyle: No longer are you controlled by food, food manufacturers, or marketing. This lifestyle puts
you
back in control.

But you're not finished. Removing a dietary toxin and reorganizing your daily meal routine are your big first steps. Next we'll discuss the additional steps required to reverse all the adverse health consequences that, although initially caused by wheat and grains, can persist even in their absence. Recognize and then correct these additional factors, and you will take health, weight, and appearance to even higher levels.

CHAPTER

4

A SUCKER PUNCH TO THE WHEAT BELLY

You now hopefully understand why 100 percent elimination—not 90 percent reduction, not 6 days out of 7, not every day except holidays, but total elimination, down to the very last bread crumb—of wheat and grains packs such a powerful punch in launching your detox process. And you now understand why it is the unavoidable and absolutely necessary initial step before the rest of your detox program can unfold properly and naturally, allowing a virtual reprogramming of your body's physiology.

Let's talk about some simple nutritional methods that accelerate your progress, restore health even further, support your body's healing, and will build up momentum that continues well beyond the initial 10 days. We are going to address the crucial health-restoring issues of bowel flora, the status of vitamin D and other nutrients, iodine and thyroid health, and the role of fiber.

SMASH
THROUGH YOUR HEALING CEILING

With grains, the cause of all your problems, now removed, healing can finally proceed. But because your body has taken a beating at so many levels—gastrointestinal, metabolic, joints, immune system, and others—from years of grain consumption, removing them does not fully reverse every abnormal situation they created. There's more to do to ensure recovery. Failing to take these additional steps will deprive you of the full benefit of the detoxification process, and you will hit a healing ceiling. You must therefore find ways to incorporate these strategies to ensure that you take health and weight all the way through to your goals.

It's not very different than recovering from alcoholism. If an alcoholic takes her last swig of whiskey on Tuesday, will she be back in perfect health by Wednesday? Thursday? Next week? Obviously, no. Beyond the first week or so of alcohol detoxification and withdrawal, she has plenty of healing to do: recovery of her liver, heart, brain, and gastrointestinal system—just about every organ damaged by the toxic effects of excessive, daily alcohol coupled with the nutritional deficiencies of a neglectful diet.

The dramatic lifestyle shift of wheat and grain elimination will take you through similar changes. You may have to endure the emotional and physical uproar of grain-induced opiate withdrawal and start feeling tons better, but health will not be fully restored until additional efforts are undertaken. These efforts are not required because removing grains leaves you lacking something; they are necessary because you need to undo all unhealthy effects caused by grains that can persist even in their absence. But your detox process will proceed faster, be more complete, and bring you closer to ideal health, upping the chances that you will also look the picture of perfect health.

Let's
focus on the issues that emerge front and center in this 10-day detox period that must be managed for you to experience full and enduring success.

MANAGE YOUR GARDEN OF BOWEL FLORA

From consuming grains as well as sugary foods and soft drinks for years, eating meats laced with antibiotic residues, being exposed to genetically modified foods containing built-in pesticides, and taking intermittent prescription antibiotics or acid reflux drugs to drinking chlorinated tap water and aspartame in diet soda and ingesting emulsifying agents in processed foods—people today have managed to utterly discombobulate the composition of microorganisms inhabiting their intestines. These organisms, however, are not only important for bowel health but also critical for overall health. Having a healthy, diverse profile of microorganisms in your intestines helps control weight, improves metabolic factors (reduced triglycerides, blood sugars, and insulin), reduces blood pressure, encourages bowel regularity, prevents colon cancer, and even influences sleep quality and mental health. When you remove grains, a major factor disrupting bowel flora has been removed. This represents a wonderful time to reestablish bowel flora that facilitates health and brings you closer to achieving your goals.