Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (25 page)

So
let's discuss many of the body changes that you may experience that result from banishing the bran cereal, bagels, popcorn, and tacos from your life. If you better understand the benefits you obtain with this lifestyle, you will better appreciate how far off your health and appearance were diverted by wheat and grains, and be more motivated than ever to never wander back down that path. Life goes on after the detox process as you continue the detox principles in your long-term Wheat Belly lifestyle, and it helps to understand that health gets better and better in so many wonderful ways the longer you follow this lifesyle. There are also some additional issues to discuss, such as what to do with prescription medications, the peculiar issue of grain reexposure, and how to manage weight-loss plateaus.

MIRROR, MIRROR . . .

As you proceed through your Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox, you are likely to see some changes when you look in the mirror, changes you'll find empowering, encouraging, even thrilling. While weight loss, of course, brings its own collection of improvements, there is more that changes in some wonderful ways.

Yes,
if you lose, say, 5 to 7 pounds over the 10 days of your detox, your face is going to look thinner. But you will likely notice that your face changed more than those few pounds would explain. You may observe reduced swelling or edema over your entire face and reduced puffiness around your eyes. If you compare your before-and-after photos, you may notice that your eyes look larger. If you started with redness or the wheat/grain signature seborrheic rash on your cheeks or along the sides of your nose, you will likely see this rash recede, then disappear, during the first week. Facial contours will change more than you expect, with sharpening of the jawline and cheekbones. Don't be surprised if friends ask whether you've undergone expert cosmetic surgery to achieve such dramatic effects. These are the changes that lead people on Wheat Belly social media to say that the before-and-after pictures look like two different people. (The photos are of the same person, of course, but the contrast reflects the often breathtaking transformations of this unique anti-inflammatory lifestyle.)

Be prepared to buy smaller belts as well as pants and skirts many inches smaller. Of all areas of the body that shrink in size, it's the waistline that shrinks most, reflecting the loss of inflammatory visceral fat created by grain consumption. Sometimes the deflation of abdominal size is dramatic, beginning even during the first few days, reflecting healing of the gastrointestinal tract and reduced bloating from the removal of bowel-disrupting grains, as well as loss of fat. Over days, weeks, and months, visceral fat continues its retreat, a wonderful effect that compounds the health benefits that develop in the wake of wheat and grain removal while sparing you any more questions about when you are “due.”

You may also observe the following:

•
Loss of cellulite.
Many women experience a reduction or elimination of the cellulite on their thighs, a curious development that can have dramatic effects on the appearance of
the
legs. The retreat of cellulite can begin during the 10 days of your detox and continue over a longer period.

•
Thicker hair.
People experience thicker hair over time. Because hair grows slowly, this effect will take longer than the 10 days of your detox to notice. Women with thin patches typically experience a gradual filling in. (Men generally do not enjoy this effect, unfortunately, since male hair loss develops for different reasons.) Much less commonly, some people experience hair loss early in the process, but then their hair grows back thicker and fuller over time. This likely reflects the reversal of skin inflammation with wheat and grain removal followed by a regrowth phenomenon.

•
Changes in your nails.
Fingernails and toenails often become thicker and smoother over time as they grow, reflecting the improvement in skin health along with hair (since nails and hair are really forms of skin). Many report that fungal toenail infections—evidenced by chronic discoloration, thickening, and nail separation and usually treated with toxic medication—recede and disappear.

•
Teeth improvements.
I predict that you will experience dramatic changes in dental health: improvement in gum health and gingivitis and less plaque formation. Incredibly, even breath can change for the better, a reflection of the change in oral flora that parallels the shift in bowel flora (see
here
).

•
Breast changes.
Breast size can be reduced a cup size or two, changes that are not explained by weight loss alone. While the effect is variable, this phenomenon is due to correction of hormonal distortions, especially reductions of the formerly high levels of estrogen and prolactin (prolactin = pro + lactation, meaning a hormone that encourages breast growth) with removal of grains. While some women may find this undesirable, recognize that the abnormal stimulation of breast tissue from grain consumption, compounded by the hormonal distortions of visceral fat, are risk factors for breast cancer, now corrected with grain elimination. Males, of course, celebrate the reversal of this embarrassing situation.

Here's a happy dilemma: How do you manage your wardrobe if you have this wonderful problem of needing smaller and smaller dress, pants, jeans, and shirt sizes? If you lose 5 pounds during your 10-day detox initiation, then another 12 pounds the rest of that month, then 20 pounds over the next several months, and 55 pounds over a year, how do you accommodate such evolving changes? Most people, of course, still have clothes from their thinner days in the back of the closet. It's worth pulling those out. I've seen other people put clothes, such as jeans, in the dryer to get them to shrink, or use thrift shops and discount stores to buy clothes they may need for only a matter of weeks or months to tide them over. Some choose pants or skirts with elastic waists or drawstrings, new belts that cinch in farther, and stretchable pants and tops. It may be worth having some of your nicer pieces, such as dresses, coats, or suits, tailored to fit as you approach your goal weight. It will indeed be necessary at some point to commit to new clothes to fit your new size and simply risk continuing changes. Unlike diets and weight-loss drugs that result in weight loss only to allow weight
regain
once you go off of them, living the Wheat Belly lifestyle is a sustainable way to maintain your goal weight once achieved. The new wardrobe is likely to be one that fits for a long time, even in low single-digit sizes.

Let's now describe further some of the other unique changes that may develop during your Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox.

MENSTRUAL FOLLIES

If you are having menstrual cycles, there can be changes in the timing of your cycle, as well as in their intensity and the amount
of
discomfort and bleeding as you engage in this lifestyle. While our 10-day timeline is obviously too short to experience the full range of changes that can develop, you may nonetheless notice a difference as soon as your next cycle.

Wheat and grains can be blamed for making cycles more painful and irregular, worsening premenstrual emotional symptoms, and even affecting fertility. By removing wheat and grains, you are removing these hormonal disrupters and the many abnormal phenomena they provoked, month after month, year after year. With wheat and grain elimination, cycles become more regular, often with reduced discomfort, anger, irritation, and other emotional excesses; over time, even fertility can be restored. The benefits of this lifestyle are compounded further as visceral fat is lost, recognized as a shrinking waistline and reduced body-wide inflammation (such as that reflected on the face), removing the hormonal distortions introduced by inflammatory fat.

Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) will notice the same sorts of changes, though to a greater degree, especially as visceral fat dissolves. Anyone with PCOS will need to keep their health care provider in the loop, as there will be a need to rapidly reduce any blood pressure or diabetes medications being taken to avoid low blood pressure or low blood sugar as your body changes. (See “
How to Manage Prescription Medications
”.) I have witnessed many women with PCOS completely turn off all the abnormal health phenomena of the condition with the strategies discussed in the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox program, including the so-called masculinizing features of excess body hair, benefits that develop from receding insulin and inflammation.

Women in the perimenopausal or menopausal phases of life often report reduction in the intensity of hot flashes, occasionally experiencing complete relief. Most report improved mood, and many report increased sexual interest. While women have lower
levels
of testosterone than males, women can experience a rise in testosterone levels (just like the guys) and a reduction in estrogen, phenomena that account for improved mood, assertiveness, and sexual desire.

Hormonal corrections play out over a period longer than the 10 days of your detox. But recognize these changes as a shift back to the way it was supposed to be all along.

LET'S NOT FORGET THE GUYS

Let's face it: Guys are less likely to engage in discussions about health, certainly anything beyond exercise. But they stand to gain as much as women do by following the strategies discussed here. Guys have this strange affliction called “I've gotta die of something” that causes them to pooh-pooh the value of any health habit. Well, it's rarely as clean and easy as that. Life for an aging male is much more commonly that of progressive weight gain; acquiring a collection of prescription medications for blood pressure, high cholesterol, failing libido, and erectile dysfunction; and years of becoming more and more dependent on the medical system, medical procedures, and, eventually, their wives.

Because of the peculiar male attitude toward health, the majority of people engaged in the Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox process are women, and I therefore focus most of my comments on the female perspective. But I also recognize that many women are interested in learning more for the benefit of their male partners. And then there may be the occasional brave and fearless guy who is actually reading this book.

Just as women undergo tidal waves of hormonal changes as they proceed through this lifestyle, so can males. Male breasts, as mentioned above—a common sight in combination with visceral fat and surely an embarrassing feature that many men work hard to conceal—recede in parallel with a shrinking belly and waistline. Visceral fat contains high levels of an enzyme called aromatase that
converts
testosterone to estrogen, thereby resulting in low testosterone levels and high estrogen. Parallel to the situation in women, the A5 pentapeptide opiate that results from digestion of the gliadin protein of wheat has the unique ability to stimulate prolactin release from the pituitary gland, the hormone of pregnancy and lactation—but in males, a reflection of just how perversely grains affect us and are hormonally disruptive.

Remove wheat and grains and visceral fat recedes, aromatase activity drops, the A5 pentapeptide is no longer available to stimulate breast growth, and wonderful things happen: Man breasts shrink, testosterone goes up, estrogen goes down, libido returns, and capacity for erections can be restored. Throw in the improved vascular (blood vessel) health that results from this lifestyle, and you have the dietary equivalent of an erection-enhancing drug. (Vitamin D restoration and omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are also important components of this equation, both of which contribute to vascular health. Both nutrients are discussed in
Chapter 4
.)

Men therefore experience just as many benefits as women, though somewhat different because of differing hormonal circumstances. For a man to know that a shrinking tummy and breasts, along with enhanced capacity for erections, are among the changes that develop with this lifestyle can be highly motivating. We'll just keep the big “I told you so” to ourselves.

THE
SCOOP ON POOP

Some important changes are going to occur in the region of your body just below your diaphragm as you proceed through the detox experience. While the healing of your poor grain-battered gastrointestinal tract largely occurs on its own with wheat and grain elimination, there are issues to address specifically that ensure and accelerate your healing process.