“Wheat Belly” (TM) Diet- When it’s Not Working for You

Have you heard about the ““Wheat Belly” diet? Basically, the idea is that you should avoid all wheat and related grains. If you’ve tried this and benefited, that’s great. You should stick with what works. If “Wheat Belly” isn’t working for you 100%, maybe are still having some headaches, intestinal problems, rashes, or other health problems, we are here to explain why and to help.

The idea of wheat causing ““Wheat Belly” types of problems is nothing new. For more than 20 years, we have been working to fine tune yeast free diets. For some people, the “Wheat Belly” idea, cutting out wheat and gluten, is a part of a yeast free diet.    Because we incorporate these ideas in our diet, more than 80% of our recipes in Feast Without Yeast, and 100% of our recipes in Extraordinary Foods for the Everyday Kitchen are gluten-free and wheat free.   We just treat wheat and gluten in a different way than “Wheat Belly” . Instead of being the first thing to eliminate, we make it Stage III of our diet. We recognize that cutting out wheat is hard, and not as effective as cutting out yeast-related foods in solving health problems.

The reason why “Wheat Belly” doesn’t work for everyone is there are many other things allowed in the “Wheat Belly” diet that can cause lots of problems for people. For example, on the “Wheat Belly” diet, you can drink wine and certain vodkas.

In reality, wine and vodka and other alcoholic drinks can cause lots of problems for people with yeast problems. When you drink them, the alcohol goes through your digestive system. The alcohol kills the bacteria in your gut, but leaves the yeast alone, which also gives a place for the yeast to grow. Yeast then make a lot of toxic chemicals which make you feel miserable. You may get headaches, stomach aches, digestive problems, skin rashes and other problems.

So “Wheat Belly” isn’t bad. Far from it. It’s just part of the solution for many people. As I stated, following “Wheat Belly” puts you on one stage out of four stages of our diet, and not even the first stage. You might feel better on “Wheat Belly” because “Wheat Belly” incorporates a major part of a yeast free diet when you cut out baked goods and commercial wheat flour that contains malt. As we explain on another page, one of the worst foods for you is barley malt. Because barley contains gluten, many—but not all- wheat free diets eliminate it. Barley in itself is not so bad. What’s bad is the product made from barley, called barley malt or just malt.

Malt is terrible for you because it contains more than 20 toxic chemicals that put your brain to sleep. Not only is malt bad for you directly, but it is also bad for you because it “feeds” yeast. This means that studies have shown that yeast love to eat malt. So when you eat malt, and you have yeast in your gut, you are giving the yeast in your gut their own favorite food. The yeast multiply, and cause even more of the types of problems that you read about in ““Wheat Belly” .

If you are looking for an easier solution than cutting out wheat, try just cutting out malt. We have found that cutting out malt gives many people so much relief that they don’t need to cut out wheat. To find out the whole story of malt and why it’s bad for you, click here.

So, what do I suggest? If you have tried or are on “Wheat Belly” and have solved all of your health problems, that is terrific.   Stay there. If “Wheat Belly” hasn’t worked for you 100%, check out Feast Without Yeast.