This post initiates a series I call “Wheat Watch,” an effort to expose sources of wheat in the diet that you might not expect. Getting wheat out of the diet can be like getting sand out of your bathing suit, hiding in every nook and crack imaginable.
Wheat is in many more places than you’d ever expect–and for a very good reason: It stimulates appetite.
The popular red licorice Twizzlers lists “enriched wheat flour” as the second ingredient after corn syrup–yes, Twizzlers are essentially sweetened bread.
Twizzlers are therefore, like all wheat-containing products, a source of the wheat protein, gliadin. Gliadin is degraded to morphine-binding compounds, the so-called exorphins, that provoke auditory hallucinations in schizophrenics, behavioral outbursts in children with autism and ADHD, the “up” phase of bipolar illness, and stimulates appetite. This explains why people don’t say “I had one Twizzler.” Instead they say “I ate the whole bag of Twizzlers.”
Wheat makes you want more wheat. Wheat makes you want more of everything else. Wheat stimulates appetite and creates a desire for, on average, 400 calories more per day. Say toodaloo to wheat and calorie intake drops 400 calories per day–with less hunger, less cravings, no more 90-120 minute cycles of hunger and satiety.
I never like Twizzlers anyway….but I loved Red Vines. Sorry, WHEAT flour in Red Vine Licorice too!! Unbelievable. Would have never guessed it. Thanks for the warning. I gave up sugars too so I would not have been diving into the Costco size Red Vine tub, but it is good to know. I always thought they were pretty harmless, packaged as low fat etc. Yikes!!
Also, I like this Wheat Watch section. Great idea.
Waaaahhh, this was me Saturday night. Result? I went to bed AND woke up 10 hours later feeling like I was going to explode, feeling like I wanted to slice my guts open and clear out all the twizzlers I ate. Because there is never “one twizzler.”
Never again.
Yup. Never going there again is precisely the correct solution.
Perhaps we need a song: “Kiss them Twizzlers goodbye!”