I don’t think the companies that advertise their breads and cereals on CBS will be happy about this. Enjoy.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
Dr. William “Wheat Belly” Davis on CBS
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
Does he sound like Casey Kasem to anyone else? great interview!
With his top 40 reasons not to eat wheat.
I watched the vid (I almost never do) and was struck by how rushed it was, as if he absolutely had to get everything in inside a tiny deadline : and by the end that was very much the case!
Interesting message, although I feel that’s (if true) a small part of the jigsaw of why I have lost 16 kilos of stomach fat (and all hunger and all blood-sugar crashes) since March by mostly not eating starch and grains.
🙂 So funny how Orp thinks the Doc was chubby! Not at all, he’s … normal. Looks a bit asian if anything.
Dr. Davis has done enough TV to know that the time is very limited and you have to get your points out quickly.
He is a bit Asian. His mother was Japanese.
Re: Dr. Davis’s being chubby, he is half Japanese, which probably accounts for his face looking rather cherubic by American standards. (I hope nobody takes this as an insult, it’s an observation only.) As for the newscasters, let’s see where their weight is when they’re Dr. Davis’s age.
I was waiting for him to ask rhetorically how people got along for millions of years without grains.
Unless he’s gained a lot of weight since May, he’s not chubby by any stretch. He looked very fit on the cruise.
I’d like to see the craft-service on that set. Probably full of bagels and chips and muffins and…
That would be the typical craft-services fare.
@Orp
I think you are somewhat correct about wheat. For people who are either sensitive to it or have problems with carbs generally, removing wheat from their diet is one of the easiest paths to improved health. On the other hand, just by removing wheat/grain based products from your diet you will remove most of the high inflammatory foods and vast majority of people will benefit from this. But it does vary greatly and everyone should figure out what is best for themselves. Based on my own experience, I have reduced but not completely eliminated them from my diet.
Yeah, Dr. Davis is a very articulate speaker, and at the speed he talks he could probably be an auctioneer as well. 🙂 But yes, he sure did pack a lot of info into a short interview segment. And yes, Dr. Davis is not the least bit chubby. I’ve met him twice on the 2010 and 2012 low carb cruises and he was very fit looking both times. Remember that he is “normal” and the TV adds pounds – so you actually need to be underweight to appear normal on TV. People who are ACTUALLY normal probably do look chubby on TV. But I didn’t even think he looked chubby. As Tom said, he just has a round face.
TV and film cameras definitely add the illusion of weight. When I saw some actors and actresses in person in Los Angeles, I was surprised at how much thinner they appeared than they do on TV.
I’m not terribly surprised that Dr. Davis is so good at getting all that information through in a short span of time. Remember this is a guy who for years now has had to be able to explain all this to his many patients he sees (quite a few of whom will be very skeptical), and so he’s been able hone this in his private practice as well as while making his many hospital rounds.
One thing, I have to give the female host credit for asking a rather intelligent question: “Is it possible to go back to the older forms of wheat?” which gave Dr. Davis the opportunity to explain in part the economics behind all of this. Though I do wish he’d been able to go into more about the movement to eliminate this semi-dwarf “wheat” plant from the diet, which, among other things includes organic farmers and companies attempting to supply people with far less damaging ancient grains, like einkorn, emmer, spelt, and kamut.
Hi Lobstah
The long explanation is that plants (or anything) that invest energy and reources into providing protection to their offspring will have more successful offspring, and their genes will become more common in the population relative to those who provided less protection. It is always a trade-off, if they put too many resources into any one thing then they will have less for other areas, so there are various strategies. Bad taste, hard to digest seed coats, physical protection, so many seeds that they will not all get eaten, etc. But any plant whose seeds are tasty, edible and defenseless is not going to have many offspring. And having offspring is “the name of the game”. “Survival of the fittest” covers a lot of ground. Of course wheat treats us the way oaks treat squirrels, feed us a bit and get us to keep the species going.
Hi Neal
Re the Scots, coastal Scots certainly relied heavily on the sea, look at how many songs essentially say “I loved you and you drowned” (heard at a Celtic music festival). I have no idea whether or not the highand Scots did. When I look at museums from early Canadian times (i.e. the Chateau de Ramezy in Montreal) the French, English and Scots were all tiny by today’s standards. Running out of food in early spring can’t have heped.
“I loved you and you drowned.” Sounds like a perfect country-western song. Cue the slide guitar.
I just finished his book. Great read. I was eating low-carb wheat wraps and couldn’t lose any weight. As soon as I dropped the wraps, I lost about 5 lbs. This book ended up leading me to the Primal Blueprint. Now the weight is coming off again!
Does he sound like Casey Kasem to anyone else? great interview!
With his top 40 reasons not to eat wheat.
I watched the vid (I almost never do) and was struck by how rushed it was, as if he absolutely had to get everything in inside a tiny deadline : and by the end that was very much the case!
Interesting message, although I feel that’s (if true) a small part of the jigsaw of why I have lost 16 kilos of stomach fat (and all hunger and all blood-sugar crashes) since March by mostly not eating starch and grains.
🙂 So funny how Orp thinks the Doc was chubby! Not at all, he’s … normal. Looks a bit asian if anything.
Dr. Davis has done enough TV to know that the time is very limited and you have to get your points out quickly.
He is a bit Asian. His mother was Japanese.
I’d like to see the craft-service on that set. Probably full of bagels and chips and muffins and…
That would be the typical craft-services fare.
Yeah, Dr. Davis is a very articulate speaker, and at the speed he talks he could probably be an auctioneer as well. 🙂 But yes, he sure did pack a lot of info into a short interview segment. And yes, Dr. Davis is not the least bit chubby. I’ve met him twice on the 2010 and 2012 low carb cruises and he was very fit looking both times. Remember that he is “normal” and the TV adds pounds – so you actually need to be underweight to appear normal on TV. People who are ACTUALLY normal probably do look chubby on TV. But I didn’t even think he looked chubby. As Tom said, he just has a round face.
TV and film cameras definitely add the illusion of weight. When I saw some actors and actresses in person in Los Angeles, I was surprised at how much thinner they appeared than they do on TV.
Great stuff. Just like Wheat Belly, which was fantastic. Allow me to echo the remarks others have made in how fascinatingly articulate Dr. Davis is and how skillfully he compacts the information into a small amount of time, with no sacrifice in either rhetorical mastery or persuasiveness.
The only pause I take with Dr. D’s remarks is the singular nature by which he implicates wheat as a culprit of diabetes, inflammation, and so on (if not singular, then principal). While I am convinced by the case he’s made in terms of the frankenstein genetic manipulation and the ill effects therefrom, I feel by zooming in solely on wheat, he downplays the disastrous impacts of sucrose and HFCS (i.e. mega-loads of fructose), which other authors have implicated in the same chronic conditions beyond a reasonable doubt.
I can understand why he wouldn’t devote too much time and space to sugar, since his work is uniquely an exposé of the disruption of wheat’s genetic harmony. I just hope people who see that clip and read his book don’t come away thinking wheat is the only substance that causes those ailments, and they realize they ought to minimize (avoid if possible) sugar as well.
I agree. Wheat is a big part of the problem, but not the entire problem.
I just finished his book. Great read. I was eating low-carb wheat wraps and couldn’t lose any weight. As soon as I dropped the wraps, I lost about 5 lbs. This book ended up leading me to the Primal Blueprint. Now the weight is coming off again!
Hi Pat,
Most of Scotland is by the sea, in fact most of Scotland is water being comprised of thousands and thousands of lakes. The average height of Highlanders in the Jacobite and later British army (18th century) was about 5’4″ which was wee bit shorter than mainland Europeans but quite a bit shorter than English people of the time. Europe was quite a bit colder in the 17th-18th centuries which must have made arable farming very difficult and probably accounts for the widespread decline in stature at that time.
In general highlanders are described as being fairly meaty in their diets but the inuit show us that that doesn’t neccesarily lead to being tall.
Great stuff. Just like Wheat Belly, which was fantastic. Allow me to echo the remarks others have made in how fascinatingly articulate Dr. Davis is and how skillfully he compacts the information into a small amount of time, with no sacrifice in either rhetorical mastery or persuasiveness.
The only pause I take with Dr. D’s remarks is the singular nature by which he implicates wheat as a culprit of diabetes, inflammation, and so on (if not singular, then principal). While I am convinced by the case he’s made in terms of the frankenstein genetic manipulation and the ill effects therefrom, I feel by zooming in solely on wheat, he downplays the disastrous impacts of sucrose and HFCS (i.e. mega-loads of fructose), which other authors have implicated in the same chronic conditions beyond a reasonable doubt.
I can understand why he wouldn’t devote too much time and space to sugar, since his work is uniquely an exposé of the disruption of wheat’s genetic harmony. I just hope people who see that clip and read his book don’t come away thinking wheat is the only substance that causes those ailments, and they realize they ought to minimize (avoid if possible) sugar as well.
I agree. Wheat is a big part of the problem, but not the entire problem.
Hi Pat,
Most of Scotland is by the sea, in fact most of Scotland is water being comprised of thousands and thousands of lakes. The average height of Highlanders in the Jacobite and later British army (18th century) was about 5’4″ which was wee bit shorter than mainland Europeans but quite a bit shorter than English people of the time. Europe was quite a bit colder in the 17th-18th centuries which must have made arable farming very difficult and probably accounts for the widespread decline in stature at that time.
In general highlanders are described as being fairly meaty in their diets but the inuit show us that that doesn’t neccesarily lead to being tall.
Hi Neal
We seem to have veered off topic. However – lots of cold weather animals have short extremities to reduce cold exposure – look at snowshoe hares versus desert jackrabbits. So “short and chunky” may be an adaptation to conserve heat – hard to know with people, since we move around so much and control our own climate (clothing, fire). But the Masai are tall and thin, in a hot climate -who knows how much is genetic for getting rid of heat? On a related topic, the “Swiss Guard” for the Vatican were supposed to be tall, what were the Swiss eating back then? I would guess a lot of dairy (at least that is what they seemed to eat in “Heidi”) but anyone have any actual information? I don’t suppose Switzerland at the time was growing a lot of wheat either, but they were well situated for trade.
@Pat, Weston A. Price, DDS studied the traditional diet of isolated Swiss (and other people) in the 1920s or 1930s. The wheat they ate was soaked and sprouted, which helps neutralize anti-nutrients that bind to various minerals and prevents you from absorbing them.
Also OT, but since adopting a LC, low-grain diet, and taking vitamin D, I haven’t had any new cavities and my teeth quickly felt better. My dentist said the other day he’d have never known I had oral surgery (due to an accident) the week before.
Hi Neal
We seem to have veered off topic. However – lots of cold weather animals have short extremities to reduce cold exposure – look at snowshoe hares versus desert jackrabbits. So “short and chunky” may be an adaptation to conserve heat – hard to know with people, since we move around so much and control our own climate (clothing, fire). But the Masai are tall and thin, in a hot climate -who knows how much is genetic for getting rid of heat? On a related topic, the “Swiss Guard” for the Vatican were supposed to be tall, what were the Swiss eating back then? I would guess a lot of dairy (at least that is what they seemed to eat in “Heidi”) but anyone have any actual information? I don’t suppose Switzerland at the time was growing a lot of wheat either, but they were well situated for trade.
@Pat, Weston A. Price, DDS studied the traditional diet of isolated Swiss (and other people) in the 1920s or 1930s. The wheat they ate was soaked and sprouted, which helps neutralize anti-nutrients that bind to various minerals and prevents you from absorbing them.
Also OT, but since adopting a LC, low-grain diet, and taking vitamin D, I haven’t had any new cavities and my teeth quickly felt better. My dentist said the other day he’d have never known I had oral surgery (due to an accident) the week before.
This is very encouraging. Slowly but surely word’s getting out.
This is very encouraging. Slowly but surely word’s getting out.
I think he blew the anchors minds, but I actually think they believed him.
I thought his appearance was a tour de force.
I think he blew the anchors minds, but I actually think they believed him.
I thought his appearance was a tour de force.
@Pat
That some seeds don’t taste as good as others would first depend on who was eating them, and secondly it would be a matter of chance, not by design on the part of the plant. My point was just that the plant itself has no idea what happens to its seeds or how they taste. The seeds with a tougher shell survive better and reproduce. All plants go to seed in some way, but they don’t intelligently make decisions about how that’s done.
Lob
@Pat
That some seeds don’t taste as good as others would first depend on who was eating them, and secondly it would be a matter of chance, not by design on the part of the plant. My point was just that the plant itself has no idea what happens to its seeds or how they taste. The seeds with a tougher shell survive better and reproduce. All plants go to seed in some way, but they don’t intelligently make decisions about how that’s done.
Lob
Great video! Rarely do I ever see a video where an expert with REAL factual information actually get to SAY everything on his agenda! So many morning “hosts” cut off their guests, and constantly try to ad-lib into the conversation. You could see that these two hosts were either genuinely interested in what he had to say, or at the very least, respected the guest’s level of expertise.
It would be interesting to see, though, if these hosts read the book, and maybe do something about it.
Great video! Rarely do I ever see a video where an expert with REAL factual information actually get to SAY everything on his agenda! So many morning “hosts” cut off their guests, and constantly try to ad-lib into the conversation. You could see that these two hosts were either genuinely interested in what he had to say, or at the very least, respected the guest’s level of expertise.
It would be interesting to see, though, if these hosts read the book, and maybe do something about it.
I’m on a restricted carb lifestyle and am not eating any breads, no HFCS and have lost 34 pounds in 4 months and still losing, albeit a bit slower. I would like to eat the plant-based way but the beans, corn and whole wheat are too many carbohydrates.
What confuses me is, how can Dr. Esselstyn (plant-based diet advocate) get away with eating whole grain/wheat, sprouted breads, etc. and not have a wheat belly? All wheat, whether refined or whole grain spikes your blood sugar which causes your pancreas to release insulin and your body to store fat yet Drs. Davis, Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell (Forks Over Knives) seem immune to this phenomenom.
Well, there are a couple of issues there. One, those doctors recommend diets that exclude sugar, white flour, white rice, etc. That alone removes a lot of the carbohydrates the average American eats. Two, not everyone who eats a high carb diet becomes fat. In the Protein Power book, Drs. Eades and Eades state that about 25% of the population can eat almost anything without becoming insulin resistant or fat.
I’m on a restricted carb lifestyle and am not eating any breads, no HFCS and have lost 34 pounds in 4 months and still losing, albeit a bit slower. I would like to eat the plant-based way but the beans, corn and whole wheat are too many carbohydrates.
What confuses me is, how can Dr. Esselstyn (plant-based diet advocate) get away with eating whole grain/wheat, sprouted breads, etc. and not have a wheat belly? All wheat, whether refined or whole grain spikes your blood sugar which causes your pancreas to release insulin and your body to store fat yet Drs. Davis, Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell (Forks Over Knives) seem immune to this phenomenom.
Well, there are a couple of issues there. One, those doctors recommend diets that exclude sugar, white flour, white rice, etc. That alone removes a lot of the carbohydrates the average American eats. Two, not everyone who eats a high carb diet becomes fat. In the Protein Power book, Drs. Eades and Eades state that about 25% of the population can eat almost anything without becoming insulin resistant or fat.
my Bulgarian colleague told me that lot’s of farmers near his hometown are still growing einkhorn wheat (the most ancient strand).
so perhaps this dwarf wheat is less prevalent in Europe.
regards,
my Bulgarian colleague told me that lot’s of farmers near his hometown are still growing einkhorn wheat (the most ancient strand).
so perhaps this dwarf wheat is less prevalent in Europe.
regards,
I quit wheat. Why? Because I have coronary artery disease or a buildup of plaque in my arteries. For over 20 years I was told if I didn’t eat low fat/low cholesterol and take a statin drug I would have a heart attack. So I ate low fat-low cholesterol and took statin drugs. With a total cholesterol of less than 100 I, instead of being saved from it, in fact suffered 5 heart attacks over the course of 12 years. Now I have been able to achieve a reduction in the growth of coronary artery plaque and I give credit to removal of wheat from my diet and other remediatory lifestyle changes. I did loose 35 pounds and though that was nice it was not my objective, none-the-less a healthy result.
I’m sorry to hear about the heart attacks. I hope the better diet keeps your heart healthy for a long time to come.
I quit wheat. Why? Because I have coronary artery disease or a buildup of plaque in my arteries. For over 20 years I was told if I didn’t eat low fat/low cholesterol and take a statin drug I would have a heart attack. So I ate low fat-low cholesterol and took statin drugs. With a total cholesterol of less than 100 I, instead of being saved from it, in fact suffered 5 heart attacks over the course of 12 years. Now I have been able to achieve a reduction in the growth of coronary artery plaque and I give credit to removal of wheat from my diet and other remediatory lifestyle changes. I did loose 35 pounds and though that was nice it was not my objective, none-the-less a healthy result.
I’m sorry to hear about the heart attacks. I hope the better diet keeps your heart healthy for a long time to come.
Why are most “news” programming hosts idiots?
It’s a job requirement.
Why are most “news” programming hosts idiots?
It’s a job requirement.