This kid is mad. And looks like Patton Oswalt.
Since I wrote it less than a month ago, my post entitled “Is Wheat Bad For You?” has been far and away the biggest driver of traffic to my site. This is fascinating to me, because while I write about following the Primal Blueprint on occasion, this is not the main topic area of my blog. But in less than a month, it’s coming up on 1,000 views.
People aren’t coming from direct links, either. They’re searching Google. They’re trying to figure it out. They want to know what the deal is with wheat. This tells me that this is an issue that is rising to the level of public consciousness. I’m willing to bet (prediction alert!) that within the next five to ten years, the problems wheat is causing in the Standard American Diet will be major health news. It will be the kind of thing you’re hearing about in major news outlets. It will become a focus of healthcare providers, in much the same way that a low-carb diet has become an increasingly standardized part of weight loss. Hopefully, we’ll even see additional science on this, which will shed further light on wheat-related health issues.
But until then, if you’ve chosen (choice being the key word here) to cut out wheat from your diet and you haven’t been diagnosed with a gluten issue or celiac disease (which would mean you have no choice), be aware that what you’re doing will appear to be nothing short of crazy to almost everyone around you. And you’re going to upset people. Your dietary restrictions will cause conflict. You will be a pariah at parties. I’m going to start busting into alliteration if I don’t stop now.
You can’t eat sandwiches. You can’t have fresh bread. No toast, bagels, or muffins. Crackers are a no-go. You can’t eat pasta. You’ve broken up with cakes, cookies, and doughnuts. You can’t even eat many cereals. If you’re like me and you’ve also given up (except for the occasional indulgence) all other grains, legumes, and most sugars, you also knock out anything made with beans, or rice, or potatoes, or oats, or barley, or rye, or…you get the picture. It’s not that there aren’t lots of things you can eat, it’s just that most of us have grown up eating most of the things that are on the forbidden list. Those are hard habits to break, especially if you don’t believe that it’s important.
Wheat is a staple in the lives of most people in Western Civilization. Taking out the daily bread is a big deal. Asking people not to bring wheat products over when they visit (this is especially important if you’ve taken your little kids off of it; I’d be less strict if it was just myself) or trying to politely tell people that you’ll have to avoid many of the foods they make can offend people. It can hurt feelings. It can break family traditions. It can cause fights.
When I chose to give up wheat, this was never what I intended to have happen. But I am strict about it – have to be strict about it – because my health and the health of my family is extremely important to me. My kids don’t know why they had to give up pancakes and spaghetti and rolls and cookies and cake and so many of the things that they loved. They don’t understand that with their family history of early heart disease, diabetes, and ADD (among other things) that it just isn’t worth it and the habits will be easier to break now rather than later. They can’t fathom why something so common in most people’s kitchens can be so bad. And they’ve been good sports about the alternatives we provide to them. My wife does a great job with the substitutions, and she’s a fantastic cook no matter what ingredients she’s working with. But if I put an almond flour cookie or a pumpkin pancake on their plate next to a plate with the real thing, I think they’ll still choose the real thing. If I have the option of giving them real spaghetti with meatballs or spaghetti squash with meatballs, I’m pretty sure they’ll pick the real spaghetti. So I try to keep those things off the table entirely until they’ve really adapted to this way of eating for the longer term. And when you have get-togethers with people who don’t get it, or don’t care, you’d be surprised how upset people will get.
When I commit to something, I go all-in. I’ve lost almost 30 lbs. in three months, and I’m not stopping. I feel better, I have more energy, I get more done. I have the desire to exercise on a regular basis, which is also new. I feel confident that I have vastly improved my health, and have improved my quality of life and life expectancy as well.
But I’ve started some arguments and hurt some feelings as well, which I regret. I’m passionate about this, and that’s sometimes good and sometimes bad. If you’re making this change in your life, expect some resistance, and plan to deal with it as diplomatically as possible. Wheat is something that millions of people are used to eating (and probably addicted to) and while choosing to eat it can be bad for your health, choosing not to can cause problems with your family and friends.
My advice? Try to tread lightly. And let the proof be in the results.
Could it be that you tweet linking to the same post every couple days?
I have a plugin on my site that tweets old posts every 24 hours. It may be pulling this up, but I’m not doing it directly.
I’m also getting the majority of my incoming traffic from Google searches, not referrals. And Twitter is my single lowest source of referral traffic.
Well, that certainly makes it notable. Natural search traffic is a good predictor of mindshare. What are the search terms and how are you ranked?
According to Google Analytics, among my top ten organic search terms driving traffic, my #1 term is “not provided.” That’s cute.
After that, in terms of wheat, I’ve got mutiple search term hits, ranked accordingly:
2. is wheat bad for you
4. wheat bad for you
6. is wheat bad
8. is wheat bad for you?
10. why is wheat bad for you
Interestingly, if you Google “is wheat bad for you” I am the #1 hit. I didn’t know that until right this second.
Wow… you must be doing something right with your SEO/SEM…
Yeah, I’m a little surprised myself. I’m trying to get better about SEO, but I wasn’t really expecting these results.
Hi Steve, as one of the many people who have stumbled across your webpage by searching the exact google catches you’ve listed above, I have already been interested in going wheat/grain/gluten free for a few months now. I was curious as to how you went about cutting this out of your diet in the first place? Did you go cold turkey? Or ween yourself off of it? Also, what played a part in determining that you also wanted to cut out rice, legumes, potatoes out as well?
Any information or advice you have on this will be much appreciated!
Thank you,
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for your comment. I recommend you visit Mark Sisson’s blog, and pay particular attention to his post “Why Grains are Unhealthy.”
We went cold turkey. It was easier that way, honestly. And then you go through your withdrawal all at once and get it over with. It wasn’t long before I would eat something with wheat in it and wind up having stomach cramps or other digestive issues not long after. Once it was out of my system, it got easier to stay away from wheat, not harder. Not that I don’t ever miss it, because I do. I’m a bread fanatic. But it’s been 3 and a half months and I haven’t had a single slice. And that’s just fine.
Mark’s book, the Primal Blueprint, was a determining factor in cutting out the other simple carbohydrates and legumes. Our kids still eat rice and potatoes two or three times a week, and we (my wife and I) occasionally have a little bit too. Those foods don’t have gluten, and they’re on the lower end of the bad-carb scale, nutritionally speaking. Kids can burn off the extra carbohydrate energy. If we were more physically active, we probably could too.
Legumes are still something I’m mulling. Sisson argues that they produce an insulin response that’s not too different than simple carbs. They’re also not easily digestible, and take a lot of prep work to make them edible, or even to make them non-toxic. Legumes are commonly associated with gas issues (remember “beans, beans, the magical fruit..””?) and there’s a school of thought saying that it’s because our bodies weren’t meant to eat them. I’m a big fan of hummus, and I’d like to bring that back into our diet at some point, but I’m wary. Lentils are another favorite, and they are supposed to be higher on the protein scale than other legumes, so once in a while we’ll throw some in a stew to bulk it up.
In general, though, we’ve decided to try to stay away from as much in the simple carb/grain/legume/sugar/high-glycemic index foods as we can, at least until we’ve lost the weight we want to lose. Then, we may experiment. Instant bloating is likely to follow, but I want to test my tolerances. I’ve lost 30 pounds so far this year, and my wife has lost 20. She’s got about 10 to go, but I’ve got another 40. It’ll be a while before we get back to that.
In any event, I recommend Mark Sisson as your first and foremost resource, but do check out some of the other folks on the paleo spectrum. Rob Wolf, Gary Taubes, and Dr. William Davis come to mind. Dr. Davis has written a book called “Wheat Belly” that I haven’t read yet, but would like to. I have a copy on my desk at home just waiting…
Other than that, do some Googling. This is an interesting movement. Paleo is a big tent, and Primal is a sort of modified subset, nutritionally speaking. It makes the most sense to me, so that’s where I’m sticking for now.
What? Shocked that you didn’t say .cause Wheat is a toxin, an opiate on the brain singillang you to EAT! lol Maybe once ppl get away from the constant cravings and the other sufferings due to wheat, smoking and other bad vices would fall away too .wanting to be completely healthy in the long run! Just sayin
If your articles are always this helpful, “I’ll be back.”
This insight’s just the way to kick life into this debate.
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You’ve captured this perfectly. Thanks for taking the time!
Legumes are still something I’m mulling. Sisson argues that they produce an insulin response that’s not too different than simple carbs. They’re also not easily digestible, and take a lot of prep work to make them edible, or even to make them non-toxic. Legumes are commonly associated with gas issues (remember “beans, beans, the magical fruit..””?) and there’s a school of thought saying that it’s because our bodies weren’t meant to eat them. I’m a big fan of hummus, and I’d like to bring that back into our diet at some point, but I’m wary. Lentils are another favorite, and they are supposed to be higher on the protein scale than other legumes, so once in a while we’ll throw some in a stew to bulk it up.
In general, though, we’ve decided to try to stay away from as much in the simple carb/grain/legume/sugar/high-glycemic index foods as we can, at least until we’ve lost the weight we want to lose. Then, we may experiment. Instant bloating is likely to follow, but I want to test my tolerances. I’ve lost 30 pounds so far this year, and my wife has lost 20. She’s got about 10 to go, but I’ve got another 40. It’ll be a while before we get back to that.