question on WHEAT.....

[Souljah]

Whats the deal/problem with wheat?
Its just that anyone I see trying to lose weight seems to stay away from wheat products.....though I havent had the chance to ask them y.....

anyone know?

[yenhoi]

Not sure, water retention? Prolly has to do with keeping the carbs down.

[Repulsive Monkey]

From TCM perspective it is known to be damp forming meaning that it will create lethargy and muzzy headedness and limb fatigue but most of all it will create weight problems and yes water-retention-like conditions.

[wooha]

I read a book a while ago that talked about wheat. If I remember right, there's a lectin in wheat that mimics the effects of insulin. It binds to your fat cell receptors, causing them to stop burning fat and to store extra calories as fat.

Plus I don't think wheat has that much of nutritional value in it anyway. Most of the processed foods made from it like pasta and white bread are pretty much worthless.

[Aramus]

Fix your back (Chiroprator, yoga, physical therapy, accupressure or puncture). You'd be ripping us off (not really :) ) if you didn't work out while experimenting with Wheat. Are you doing whole wheat or the other stuff?

That sounds funny to write. "Dude, you've been experimenting with wheat...I can tell, you've been drinking more water and using the restroom more." I agree, enriched may taste better but it isn't good for you. All the good stuff was taken out.

Back to cereal, I think most people eat it because it is cheap and easy to fix.

[Souljah]

would eating alot of shredded wheat cereal be 'bad' in this case?

Like 3-4 times a day?

[Repulsive Monkey]

Absolutely, thats too much as far as a Wheat intake is concerned. If you had it once a day and ate some damp dissolving foods just as regularly like pears, ginger etc then that would be fine. However 3-4 times a day is too much of a wheat intake, as far as TCM is concerned.

[Souljah]

cool, Ill cut down then, at the moment im eatin like 2-3 bowls a day, its like aramus said theyr cheap and easy to fix.....plus they rock with ice cold milk.
But your right it is too much, I'll have to find a sub.....

soul

[TigerJaw]

My wife did bio-chemistry as an undergraduate so I know a little bit about this from a western science perspective. Here's what I think I know.

There's an awfull lot of pseudo-science talked about nutrition. Especially when it comes to wheat.

Lot's of people cut out wheat because Dr. Atkins says that carbs make you fat. We all know that if you eat few carbs you'll loose weight but it's very bad for your liver.

Other people think it's just bad for you and that our bodies aren't designed to process it, this is tied in with the blood group diet fad and is, IMHO a load of rubish. Some people have a wheatgerm allergy, they're called Celiac, my grandmother had it, it causes IBS, water retention, flatulence and all sorts of nasty symptoms but these simptoms are only manifest in people that are either allergic to wheatgerm or eating FAR too much fibre. It is not a cause to cut wheat out of your diet anymore than the existence of lactose intollerence is a reason to cut milk out of your diet unless you are a sufferer yourself.

As for the old Lectin argument. Sorry Wooha, I don't believe that one either. This is another thing that sprang out of the blood-group diet theory. The phenomena that you describe can happen in a test-tube in a lab but doesn't happen in you blood-stream. If the effect happened in your body, you'd be very seriously ill, and possibly dead after only a moderate ammount of wheat intake. We don't die from eating wheat for two reasons; cooking destroys lectins, and they don't absorb well into your body. They are a problem in foods with very high lectin content, like kidney beans which is why you have to cook them first.