Wheat Belly Recipes: Your Complete Wheat-Free Cookbook

By Meredith Lane

Meredith Lane’s Wheat Belly Recipes: Your Complete Wheat-Free Cookbook brings you dozens of yummy wheat-free recipes to help you lose weight and beat disease.

We’re learning more and more about the toll wheat can take on our health, from skin rashes and high blood sugar to obesity and stubborn belly fat. Fortunately, we’ve also learned how to banish these health problems forever by saying goodbye to wheat.

Wheat Belly Recipes: Your Complete Wheat-Free Cookbook brings you all the delicious wheatless recipes you could want, from breakfast to snacks to dinner to dessert. You’ll enjoy all the favorites, including zucchini bread to cinnamon scones to pancakes to breakfast casseroles to roasted veggies to apple pork tenderloins to chocolate chip cookies.

You’ll also learn the HOW and WHY of going wheat free, the best wheat substitutes, easy ways to make wheat-free baking mixes (and how to use them) and much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meredith Lane
• Release date: Jul 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386617761

Book preview

1. Why Go Wheat Free?

Did you know that nearly twenty million people report dietary distress after eating products that contain wheat? That almost a third of Americans seek to eliminate wheat entirely from their diets? This is more than just a trend. Americans are waking up to the fact that many of the health conditions we thought we had to live with—things like headaches, digestive problems, allergies, and insomnia—can actually be treated in the simplest way imaginable—by not eating wheat! And when I say simple, I acknowledge that, sometimes, removing a behavior from your well-habited life is very difficult. After all, wheat is found in so many everyday foods, including breads, pastries, biscuits, pizzas, wraps, rolls and many other processed foods. However, as you’ll learn in this book, you can enjoy delicious foods AND the sparkling health that goes along with living a wheat-free life.

Wheat and Gluten

The terms wheat and gluten are often used interchangeably, but it’s important to note that wheat and gluten are NOT the same thing. All wheat contains gluten, but all gluten does not come from wheat. Gluten is also found in other grains, like barley, rye, oats, spelt and kamut grain.

Gluten is created when two molecules, glutenin and gliadin, combine and bond. The bond creates an elastic membrane, which is what gives bread its chewiness. Gluten also traps carbon dioxide, which causes the bread to ferment and adds volume to the loaf.

The Wheat Of Today

People have been eating wheat for thousands of years. A question that might be on your mind, then, might be this: how has gluten, which has been a mainstay in diets for such a long time, suddenly become so harmful?

Well, the answer is, there is no answer to that question. There are several theories, of course. Some researchers say that wheat has in recent history genetically evolved into something that has become toxic to humans. Other researchers point to the way wheat is processed. Still others theorize that wheat consumption has simply increased so that symptoms of wheat intolerance are more noticeable than they once were.

Why Gluten May Be Bad For You

Gluten intolerance awareness has increased dramatically in the past few years. One 2013 survey, in fact, shows that a third of Americans are actively attempting to eliminate gluten from their diets.

Why are people fleeing from gluten in droves? Well, it turns out that going gluten-free isn’t just some fad. Several high-profile studies have shown that gluten consumption can indeed have troubling health consequences. Specifically, research indicates that wheat is a common food allergen, causing digestive, immune-related, and weight problems in many people. Gluten also appears to be both addictive and an appetite stimulant. And wheat contains a starch called amylopectin A, which is quickly converted to blood sugar, leading to a sudden rise in blood sugar and insulin, a process commonly linked to diabetes, weight gain and obesity in the long term. Wheat also contains a lectin called WGA which is known to cause gut inflammation and digestive discomfort. Wheat consumption is known to contribute to a condition known as leaky gut which has been linked to heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune problems.

And that’s just for people who have no abnormal sensitivity to gluten. For those who are sensitive to gluten (celiac disease is the most severe form of gluten sensitivity), the picture is even more grim. With celiac disease, the immune system attacks