Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis

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Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis

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Buy Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Category: Lifestyle
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Reviewed by Sue Magee
Summary: A detailed look at how wheat affects the body adversely. If you consume wheat regularly, you'll find this frightening.
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320 Date: January 2015
Publisher: Harper Thorsons
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0008118921

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Dr William Davis poses an interesting question: why is it that people who are leading an active life and eating a healthy diet are putting on weight despite all their best efforts? He has a simple and worrying answer: wheat, which he argues increases blood sugar more than table sugar. The problem isn't restricted to weight gain, either: there's evidence to suggest that wheat affects psychosis and autism too. In fact - the more that you read, the more you'll wonder if there's an organ in the body which isn't adversely affected by wheat.

Davis is a preventative cardiologist and does seem to know what he's talking about. Two distinct lines of thought brought me to this book. Firstly a close relative has been diagnosed as coeliac and I wanted to know more about the problem and how it could be safely accommodated. Secondly, a health scare last year forced me to take a serious look at how my diet was affecting my health. Changes I'd made without professional assistance seemed to have cured the problem, but as with many of these situations I'd begun to look into other improvements which could be made. One that I really needed to understand more about was that a couple of books had just about begun with the first thing that you need to do is to cut wheat out of your diet - but didn't really explain why.

Davis does explain why and he explains it in detail. It sounds critical to say that a lot of what is said is unsupported opinion but it's an unfortunate fact that clinical trials are not often pursued when they're likely to prove that a drug need not be used (in this case they could prove that health problems could be cured by removing wheat from the diet) - so more exploration of the benefits of not eating wheat would be useful. I also wondered why governments didn't push this as a solution to the obesity problem which we're facing if - indeed - it is the magic bullet which Davis would have us believe. Davis has based what he says on the science and the effects of wheat abstinence on patients he has treated. His explanations are a curious mixture of technical jargon and jokey asides, but once you get used to the style it's almost endearing.

I'm not going to attempt to go into the science behind what is said: it's far from my area of expertise and if you are interested then you really should read Wheat Belly (try and ignore the curious glances which you'll get if you read it on public transport) for yourself. I did wonder if eliminating wheat might be too much of a mountain to climb, but Davis gives sample menus for a week with some supporting recipes. Usefully he also gives lists of foods which might contain wheat where you might not expect it. The subtitle of the book is a little misleading: if you are going down this route then it is not going to be effortless. For most people eliminating wheat from their diet will require a lot of effort and planning. I don't show any of the symptoms which would suggest that I have a medical need to avoid wheat, but I am planning on giving it a go.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

The two books which I mentioned earlier which brought me to Wheat Belly are Deliciously Ella: Awesome Ingredients, Incredible Food That You and Your Body Will Love by Ella Woodward and Eat. Nourish. Glow.: 10 easy steps for losing weight, looking younger and feeling healthier by Amelia Freer.

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Buy Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
Buy Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial by Dr William Davis at Amazon.com.

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