I have the book Wheat Belly by Dr. Davis. I am getting through it slowly, but I did see him on a TV show and he makes alot of sense. His recipes look great too. I figure going wheat free can be done, but it will take some practice and some research to make acceptable bread substitutions. I don't think I can do it 100% but I'd like to try and at least decrease my consumption and dependence on wheat products.
So my first challenge was that I wanted a sandwich yesterday. Hard to do on a wheat free diet. I remembered a post from Dawn awhile back about the sandwich thins she made using a recipe from Elana's pantry. So I pulled up the link below and set off to make a "thin' for my lunch.
http://dawnsdailychocolate.blogspot.com/2012/01/elanas-pantry-almond-muffins.html
 |
| The main ingredients...eggs, almond flour, Swerve and a few other things. |
 |
| This handy 1/4 cp spoon measures out even amounts. |
 |
| Spread out the batter into a round shape. I sprinkled on some chia seeds for a poppy seed effect! Also, if you don't have a silpat or acceptable version of one, I highly recommend purchasing one for all of your baking needs. It makes an amazing difference! Easy clean up too! |
 |
| Carefull cut horizontally to make a top and a bottom. A serrated bread knife works great. See the spaghetti squash in the background? I nuked that for some "pasta". Great with a little butter and garlic....but I digress!! |
 |
| Enjoy with your favorite sandwich filling! Here I cut up some leftover meatballs from dinner and added some shredded cheese. I'd say it was a success!
Now I digress again. I love that word!!
|
Helpful tips for magazine lovers:
On a side note, and totally unrelated to the rest of this post, I have a little tip for all of you magazine readers. I LOVE magazines. Subscriptions are so cheap, that if you pick up even two of most magazines sold in the supermarkets, over the course of a year, a subscription will save you tons of money. Often if you web search, you can get magazine subscriptions for about $10 dollars and sometimes less than that. Always web search. This is a great site called Magazine search that will let you know the lowest prices offered. Sometimes there is a coupon code too that you can put in and get even more off.
Another great tip is to then go to Amazon and your amazon account and there is a place to put all of your subscriptions, even those that you didn't purchase through Amazon ( although often they have great prices), and you can keep a nice, handy, organized list. When you log on, you know what is coming up for renewal, what price it is, and how many issues are left.
And here is my last tip. I was having coffee the other morning, looking through a stack of the latest magazines, and couldn't even get to the content with the many pages of advertising. Since I was headed to the beach, I went throught the magazines and quicky and neatly, ripped out all of the double sided magazine pages of advertisements. Of course this only works if both sides are advertisements. If you love the advertisements, you can look at them as you are ripping out. What you are left with, is a surprisingly thinner magazine, and the ability to just have content available without having to leaf through pages of advertisements to get to the articles you want to read. And it only takes a few minutes to do this. It made reading the magazine a much more pleasurable experience.
This is what the double sided advertisements looked like from three magazines! There was so much paper, and the magazines were so much thinner.
Maybe there is a message here. Get the junk out and your magazine, and you too, will be so much thinner!!
Thought for the day:
Well you know how I feel about wheat.. I don't think there is anything wrong with it at all in moderation and don't feel the need at all to eliminate it from my diet. I don't care what books people come up with.
ReplyDeleteBut I have made stuff like that many times and love it. I love using almond and coconut and flaxseed flours in my baking. I love my silpat too.
Read the book Pattie - it's all there for you to read. Most of what he tells you is scientifically proven so no one can deny the effects of wheat on our bodies. Not to mention if you believe in BFC than you understand the keeping insulin levels low is the way to lose weight. Wheat raises blood sugar higher and faster than anything else so … You should hang out on the Wheat Belly FB page too. Dr. Davis is on there daily and usually has some very good info to share. Lots of people sharing recipes too. I was just commenting on Dawn's blog that the thought of giving up wheat is scarier than actually living it. Once I got there ... I never intend to go back. If both schizophrenics and autistic people have their symptoms decrease when taken off of wheat ... what does that tell you? But now I digress … lol … I’ve learned it’s impossible to convince anyone of this – like Dawn, you have to live it for an extended period of time and really notice how you feel for yourself. I’d be shocked if you didn’t feel amazing :) You would have to give it up completely for several weeks to really understand the true benefits … otherwise it just won’t be the same (but cutting back is certainly an improvement).
ReplyDeleteIronic timing ... Dr. Davis just posted this on his FB page today so I thought I would post here for you. Someone commented that there wasn't "a shred of evidence" that wheat is bad for us. Dr. Davis responded:
ReplyDelete"There are actually thousands of studies documenting the destructive effects of consumption of modern wheat. In the world of animal studies, for instance, if I feed 1 mg of wheat germ agglutinin to a mouse or rat, it experiences widespread destructive changes of the small bowel. (Wheat-eating humans consume 10-20 mg per day.) How about human data on blood sugar, small LDL, exaggeration of postprandial lipoproteins like VLDL due to delayed de novo lipogenesis, the emergence of new Glia-alpha9 sequences in modern wheat that trigger the growing number of gluten-sensitive people, the evidence linking gliadin to mind effects in susceptible people, the hypercalciuria (increased calcium loss) and sodium retention from gluten? What is incredible about this is not the LACK of evidence, but the overwhelming burden of EXISTING evidence that should have long ago damned this thing into oblivion, but instead is hailed as the healthiest component of diet by the USDA and U.S. Dept of HHS--who appear to be more on the side of growing the economy and Big Agribusiness than they are on the side of the consumer. After all, their advice to cut your fat and eat more "healthy whole grains" has contributed to the worst epidemic of obesity and diabetes ever experienced in the history of man."
I agree with Trina - make sure you give it a few weeks to get your body a chance to detox from the wheat. I think you'll be surprised at how much better you will feel. Love the look of your poppy thins! woo hoo! And I really like the magazine article advice. I have a stack of magazines that I need to read - it would feel more 'doable' without all the ads. :) Have a great week!
ReplyDeletePattie, I've actually been thinking of doing the same thing. I don't eat that much wheat as it is, for weight loss purposes, but was wondering how I'd do wheat free for awhile. You are right about the convenience factor though - it will take some planning to go completely wheat free. I still have to get and read that wheat belly book.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you can do for the rest of your life is the best plan to go with. If you are told by your Dr. that your life depends on giving up wheat, of course you would try for the rest of your life. I believe though that it would be like a diabetic who knows they can't have sugar, but they do it anyway. If wheat is bad, then I will be the loser at the end of this story. I have to do what I can realistically do forever, and that is not breaking up with wheat. Cut back? Maybe, eliminate, no way. Just like my potatoes are bad for me and I am not breaking up with them either. Pretty soon we won't be able to have anything!!! If you look through your diet and the only thing that you eat that could be considered "unhealthy" is wheat, go for it! If there are other culprits in there too, giving up wheat may intensify those. Just saying;)
ReplyDeleteI quit buying magazines because of all the adds! It used to be that Women's World was ad free and I think even it broke down and added them in.
Good blog and great advice all the way through:)