It’s a common complaint: “I exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet, why can’t I lose this belly?” Why is it that you eat a healthy diet and work out for hours each week, yet you still can’t get the extra flab to go away?

The answer is right under your nose. Do you see it? It’s wheat. Bread, crackers, pretzels, and a million other products all marketed as “healthy whole grains”. They are sabotaging your weight-loss efforts.

Wheat Increases Blood Sugar Levels

The most significant way that wheat feeds belly fat is by spiking blood sugar. Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly, says “wheat products elevate blood sugar levels more than virtually any other carbohydrate, from beans to candy bars”.

When blood sugar levels increase, so do insulin levels. High insulin levels mean that more calories are feeding your fat cells. Your abdominal fat cells, along with those around your organs, are the ones that receive most of this increase.

Wheat Increases Appetite

As your blood sugar rises and drops, you quickly go from fully satisfied to famished within a short period of time. This drop ushers in cravings that tend to be for the very foods that cause this unpleasant cycle.

It has been shown repeatedly that people who eliminate wheat from their diets consume less calories. When people quit eating wheat, they cut hundreds of calories from their diets, without any other dietary restrictions. Without the ravenous appetite produced by the effects of blood-sugar swings, you feel satisfied and full for longer.

Wheat Affects the Gluten Intolerant

Celiac disease can cause great fluctuations in weight. Some who are test positive for celiac can’t put on weight, while others can’t lose it. Many doctors and researchers are finding that even when people don’t test positive for celiac, they may still have some level of gluten intolerance.

Cutting wheat from the diet has helped many to lose weight, whether they have celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or none of the above. Simply by removing a substance that increases your appetite and spikes your blood sugar can have a profound effect on your weight-loss goals.

Today’s Wheat is Not Your Grandparents’ Wheat

People often question–and rightly so–how something that has been in our food supply for thousands of years could possibly have such a devastating effect on health. The answer lies in the fact that the wheat in your snack crackers and morning cereal is not the same wheat that people were eating years ago. Only in the past several decades have people been eating the wheat that is on supermarket shelves today.

Today’s wheat has been engineered to produce more, resist pests and disease, and withstand the elements. This new wheat also contains new strains of gluten proteins that have never before existed, nor have they been tested for human safety.

The effects of wheat in the diet are most obvious around the waistline. Dramatic fluctuations in blood sugar, increased appetite, and gluten intolerance are three ways that wheat can add to an expanding midsection. Give a wheat-free diet a trial run and say goodbye to the flab!

>> Recipe Tip: Try this Wheat-Free Pasta Primavera

Primavera NoOodle™

Ingredients

3 oz chopped mushrooms
3 oz fresh spinach
3 oz chopped squash
3 oz chopped carrots
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine
1 tbsp garlic- minced
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
8 ounces NoOodle™

Preparation

Heat olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Saute garlic for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, squash, carrots, and white wine. Saute for 2 minutes. Add spinach and continue to saute for another minute. Toss in Shirataki No-Calorie NoOdle™ and mix thoroughly. Remove from heat and sprinkle with parmesan cheese, serve and enjoy!

>> Nutrition Information