Paula posted this comment, a tale of skepticism, withdrawal, health transformation, and re-exposure. Because her story captures so many facets of the wheat-free message, I thought everyone would love to read about it.

I have to admit that, when I first met someone who was living “wheat free,” I was skeptical. That was August of 2012. In December, 2012 I picked up a Cliff notes of sorts of the Wheat Belly book. It was very interesting. So I bought the Wheat Belly Cookbook.

Going wheat-free seemed very daunting, since everything I looked at in the grocery store had wheat of some sort in it–-canned soup, cereal, salad dressings, etc. I thought we ate pretty healthy and that I just ate too much. But no matter how little I ate, eating what a conventional nutritionist tells you, I couldn’t lose weight because I’d give in at night since I was hungry!

The first week was pure HELL! My body reacted to the caffeine and sugar withdrawal [WD: actually gliadin withdrawal, though the caffeine and sugar likely made it worse] and my mind wanted to eat all the time because that’s what it was used to. But I made it 7 days and shed 8 lbs. The 8 lbs was the motivation I needed. I found that, by adding a bit more fat (butter, avocado) into my diet, I was not hungry and the cravings were going away. I was feeling better.

Now at 5 months I’m down 40 lbs. My heartburn is completely gone. I no longer have headaches. I no longer have muscle twitching. My body doesn’t ache. I can do more active things with my kids. I’m less tired and able to concentrate better. My moods have improved and I don’t fly off the handle as quickly with my kids and hubby. I still have some pain and stiffness in my ankles in the morning, but I attribute that to all the scar tissue from having sprained and broken them a number of times over the years.

I did make the mistake of eating a casserole my mother-in-law made one evening a few weeks back. It was a hamburger, potato, mushroom with canned soup. Now I know there is wheat in the soup but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. OMG . . . I must be sensitive to gluten because, within 3 hours, I had the worst gastrointestinal pain of my life, worse than any actual illness. I won’t be making that mistake again.

Wheat-free is the way for me. My whole body is better because of it. I even had a man tell me he thought I was late 20′s, when I’ll actually be 42 soon.

Paula rejected conventional health advice to eat more “healthy whole grains” and rediscovered health, slenderness, and freedom from a variety of aches and pains. Critics of the Wheat Belly arguments would say that Paula is either experiencing an elaborate deception or just got better because she reduced calorie intake. One story does not make a case–but how about thousands? And the phenomenon of re-exposure: Is that pure imagination?

Anyway, Paula found that the message to eat more “healthy whole grains” is not only ineffective for maintaining health, it destroys health. And it should come as no surprise that Paula, a fine specimen of Homo sapiens, not a ruminant, i.e, a creature possessing specific adaptations to allow it to consume grasses, would experience a return to the natural human state of slenderness and health by removing the seeds of grasses, especially the most destructive grass ever created–modern wheat–from her life.