Wow Shirley, congratulations! I didn’t know you were pregnant. When are you due?

What do you mean Mary? I am not pregnant!

Maybe you know exactly how Shirley feels, because you have found yourself in this same scenario. I know I have! It was 8 months after having my first baby and someone who I hadn’t seen in a while thought I was still pregnant – and the comment was made in a lift full of people!

Dr William Davis, in his book “Wheat Belly”, claims that foods made with or containing wheat make you fat. He further admits that sugary soft drinks and sedentary lifestyles add to the problem, but for those health conscious people who exercise regularly and  watch what they eat  – the principal trigger for increasing weight is wheat.

That spare tyre around your middle is the surface manifestation of visceral fat. This is the fat surrounding your abdominal organs such as your liver, kidneys, pancreas and intestines.

While you might think it serves a useful purpose as a built-in flotation device for swimming – you need to understand that it is in fact very dangerous to your health.

This visceral fat is a metabolic factory and the more there is of it, the more abnormal (and inflammatory) signals are released into your bloodstream. So in other words, in the human body, all fat is not equal. Belly fat is special and does not play by the rules according to Dr Davis.

So what causes this unhealthy visceral fat? High blood insulin does.

Okay – and what causes high blood insulin? High blood sugar does. So the next obvious question is…..

What causes high blood sugar? Foods in our diet that quickly and easily convert to sugar, such as …… wait for it…….WHEAT  (and other grains).

Here is a little fact that might surprise you – wheat increases blood sugar and insulin more profoundly than table sugar, a candy bar or ice cream. (For those nutrition nerds out there, why don’t you go and Google “amylopectin A” to get more info on this. I fear eyes will start glazing over if I delve into any more detail about that now.)

Let’s look at the man boobs scenario for a minute.

Visceral fat is also a factory for oestrogen production in both women and men. The bigger a man’s belly the more oestrogen that is produced by visceral fat tissue. Oestrogen stimulates the growth of breast tissue – hence why some men acquire their very own B-cup man boobs.

Did you know that male breast reduction surgery is a booming business?

So what’s a girl or guy to do? Well, the obvious thing to try would be ditching the wheat in favour of vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, fish, chicken, meat and lamb etc. and see what happens. What do you have to lose – except maybe a few inches around your waist and those un-dude-like boobies.

Let me know how it goes people.

Reference: Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis

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