Wheat Belly Wheat Belly Wheat Belly Wheat Belly Wheat Belly Wheat Belly. Wheat Belly. Wheat Belly Cookbook. Wheat Belly Recipes.*
People leave reviews on My Cookbooks saying the recipes are “not Wheat Belly compatible.” Right. They're totally not Wheat Belly compatible, silly! But that's when I knew: Wheat Belly will not be ignored! So I'm not gonna ignore it. I bought a copy of the Wheat Belly Cookbook ebook, & I started reading. Is the science sound, and will it bring you long-lasting health & happiness? No clue here. I'm just a baker. So after the reading, I began the baking. I really just wanted to know how it all shook out.
And by the way if you care to see, I developed some recipes that are fabulous and very Wheat-Belly recipe friendly. Try:
Healthy Almond Flour Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Healthy Almond Flour Gluten Free Brownies
Healthy Almond Flour Gluten Free Muffins (possibly my favorite of the bunch)
Healthy Almond Flour Vegan Protein Bites
Now, just because I'm dipping a toe into the world of grain-free baking doesn't mean I'm planning to eat like a dinosaur or feed my kids like cavepeople. I'm not ditching rice flour. I'm not gonna 86 sugar completely, or starting touting the benefits of eating a hamburger in a lettuce wrap (which by the way and not for nothing is not the same as a bun). I'm just … curious. I want to be where you are, see what it's like. I want to come over to your house and poke around, open up the cabinets and talk to your husband or wife. I want to look at the spines on your bookshelf. If you're Wheat Belly curious, well then I am too!
*Real Disclaimer: I will not reprint the recipe here. I'm a recipe developer and a cookbook author myself, and I simply won't violate a copyright like that. Not up for discussion, I'm afraid.
The Verdict
It's not-bad. But it's not really bread, either.
Pros: 1. You can slice the loaf and sandwich something between the slices and then eat them. You can! 2. It tastes better than it smells (see Cons below). Don't judge it against actual bread made with grains. It just doesn't compare, but … how could it? 3. My eldest child who is nearly 11? She loves it. Can't get enough of the stuff. She can't really explain why, but it just goes to show that you really don't know if your family will like this stuff until you try. 4. If you're grain-free, I bet you'd be happy to have this at your disposal. 5. It inspired me to start baking grain free, and refined sugar free (even though it uses sugar alcohols) – some fab almond flour recipes to follow (think: grain-free & refined-sugar-free cookies and muffins that are good by any measure).
Cons: 1. The garbanzo bean flour smells just horrible. Seriously. I might have a particular sensitivity to it since I started baking GF nearly a decade ago, and a bean flour blend was de rigueur. So I didn't appreciate the flashback. It smells like long-forgotten overcooked peas. In the corner of your kitchen. Under the cabinets. From years ago. 2. The ingredients are pricey. Pffffft. 3. Too many eggs! My whole house smelled like an omelet for 2 days. Seriously. And I like eggs.
Your Turn
What do you think of Wheat Belly and Paleo and Grain Free and South Beach (which I'm right now reading and it's so interesting) and Atkins and everything else? Keep it clean folks: Heavy-handed comments and personal attacks will be deleted promptly.
Love,
Me
P.S. Don't forget your copy of Gluten-Free on a Shoestring Quick & Easy! With your help, I can keep the blog going and going and going….
booklass says
I happen to love hummus and garbanzos in their natural habitat. Turn them into flour, though, and something insidious happens!
Ponymama says
. Tried Glutrn free. Still was not able to live a normal life .I am totally grain free now(about 6 months). And only use natural sugurs. I can finally go days with out takeing a nap. And can keep up with a very active 10 year old. I have not bought a bottle of advil in mounths. I have not lost weight but as long as I feel like I do. I will stay a way from all grains.
April says
I’ve also been experimenting with the wheat belly recipes. I don’t use Xylitol because I’m nervous that my dog might eat some off the floor or from the compost heap out back (it’s toxic for dogs!), and I also don’t care for a very eggy bread. I’ll still use gluten free grains for treats, and try to incorporate almond flour/flax seed recipes for my breakfast staples, since I do worry about the glycemic effect long-term of eating large amounts of high-carbohydrate foods. That’s been my compromise. I’m trying to get the family off all cereals, though. That would be a great start in reducing carbs. Thanks for trying the wheat belly recipes and reporting on them! Oh, and Paleo Indulgences has some great recipes that I’ve been using for my diabetic father recently. The breads are very good. I look forward to getting your 3rd cookbook when it comes out!
April
Tiffany @ Kerrville, TX says
Yes, indeed, I did read the book “Wheat Belly” and there was a compelling reason why I read it! For more than 10 years (I’m now 72 yo) I suffered immensely from Rheumatoid Arthritis visiting my Rheumatologist religiously and on several drugs. The drugs changed nothing. The RA was getting worse as the years passed and I was personally aware of friends and/or their husbands who had died on the drugs I was taking. Hubby bought me the book and I thought I was reading about myself. Everything mentioned in the book fit me. On that day I went off gluten and have never looked back. If I have even smidgen of gluten I will have a what is called in the RA community, a flare-up of RA symptoms and the last instance gave me new foot problems that I really don’t need. Always did miss my “no-knead” artisan bread I had been making before this GF change. This is the reason I purchased your cookbooks. During this year and a-half GF process, I’ve actually become a better cook and both my husband and I eat way more vegetables than we had been eating. Today we started planting our garden so we can have fresher veggies. I’ve tried the Honeyville Almond flour and it is of very high quality but I do not use it You can make some really good tasting breads and cupcakes from this stuff but since no yeast is involved (nor ACV) your loaf pans need to be really small to achieve anything with a high rise. Tried all the Namaste brand flour mixes and like none of them. Have used 1-2-3 Gluten Free mixes and find them expensive but superior in taste. Only thing I like from the King Arthur Flour line is their GF pancake mix, which I add a lot of stuff to, to make it taste even better and fry them in coconut oil. Have tried CheBe pizza mix and roll mixes and like the pizza mix the best. Hate the Udi’s GF bread but like the Udi’s Bagels toasted with peanut butter on them. These bagels are quite thick and tough, so I slice them into 3rd’s and only toast them and put PB on top. Do not like any of the rice pastas. Like the quoina pastas the best. (Thanks for your post on how to cook these “faux” pastas…a live saver for sure) Love making your recipes, Nicole. Love reading them too. Cook and bake every day without fail. Make my own GF bread every other day for the two of us. Do not use BB flour, or rice flours. Have some BB flour but have not used it yet. I exclusively use Maninis’ ancient grain flours and have made pasta from their pasta flour ancient grain mix (turned out to taste better than the real Italian pasta and it was the 1st time ever I’d made pasta). I’m really looking now to make a Cinnamon/Raisin bread that I’ll like, however, I think it really needs more sugar than I’m willing to add into the mix. Seems sugar causes inflammation for me (no good), so I watch my sugar consumption pretty closely.
Thanks Nicole for being there to help me understand the GF baking process.
Ecvirik says
You are a baker, so am I and a celiac to boot. During my professional cake decorating courses my celiac diagnosis comes through. Looking forward to seeing some almond flour recipes. Have enjoyed some of your recipes. I eat half celiac and half paleo. Don’t love the idea of arsenic levels in rice. Love almond and other nut flour recipes. Looking for more natural uses with coconut sugar too. :)
Michelle says
I really like what a lot of people have posted. It sounds like many of us try to make healthy choices most of the time (within the limits of our various allergies etc.) and enjoy occasional treats. (like bittersweet chocolate cookies, thank you for the recipe!!) I know some of you can’t eat grains at all, and I am glad these recipes will give you treats you are able to eat, but my concern with some of the Wheat Belly recipes is that they remind me a little of past dietary movements.
I confess I haven’t read Wheat Belly yet because I didn’t think I needed to since I knew about the genetically engineered wheat study (my doc told me years ago that it was a theory as to why non-celiacs like me (especially those of us who have Hashimoto’s) make huge numbers of antibodies to gluten) but I did request it at the library and will read it to see if there is new information for me. When I looked for the book, I became concerned when so many of the featured recipes I saw were for cakes and other desserts. I remember the low-fat movement, where every food was made fat-free and people ate boxes of Snackwells thinking it was health food. I also remember the low-carb movement, where people ate all kinds of low-carb cookies etc. thinking that was a healthy choice. This morning, my friend at the gym was talking about all of these people in her diet class who have gone gluten-free to lose weight, but are just buying their cookies in the gluten-free aisle instead of the regular cookie aisle. I have a friend who has decided to go casually gluten-free (so not really) because she thinks gluten free= health food. I guess it bothers me because I think whether your processed treat is fat-free, low-carb, sugar-free or gluten-free, it is still a treat, and I think that gets lost sometimes.
I hope this is appropriate to post, as I am interested in other people’s opinions about this.
Hillsoftheking says
I am in total agreement with what you are saying– there has been so many diet things–or — what I see is that someone will try something that has worked (for lowering weight, health–you pick the reason) for someone else and they set about doing it thinking it will make them better (looking, skinnier, healthier– you can pick) — but not everyone is the same, It is OK to try them but be inform and cautious. But, I can’t help but wonder if that is why all the fads are so popular. In addition, I am– like you- amazed that people will trade one treat for another so easily– just because it is included on the diet plan? But, then they will eat more of it…. besides for all the allergies we deal with– not to even mention the health conditions- Gluten-Free, Grain -Free, Fat-Free, Low-Carb, sugar-free Etc. doesn’t always mean good health for us– as the ingredients used to make those products often have our allergens in them. I cannot help but wonder if we arent’ the only ones who have the same problems that’s why they head for the treat ailse and yet acheive no progress. If a diet plan has treats in it it seems to be more popular. ; ) Diet plans are big businees not just for the claim to loose weight but also for the claims for good health. ( I am NOT including the things we have to do because of something like Celiac’s- or some other condition that makes eating certain things impossible- I am talking about the plans people follow when they can choose) But–Hey! don’t get me wrong— we LOVE treats here— I guess since we have to make everything from scratch — we don’t eat alot of them. But, when we do they are enjoyed! Too much of anything isn’t good. Just recently I had to make some coconut candy for a Ladies High Tea we were attending and couldn’t get the ingredients– so we made our own base ingredients– they sure tasted great! And what was wonderful is my husband liked them also! ; ) Anyway– just wanted to respond. Theresa
gfshoestring says
100% appropriate, Michelle! I’m so glad you spoke your mind, and you did so in such a respectful way. Thank you for that. I totally remember Snackwells! The low-fat craze of the 1990’s has long seemed to me to be one of our dumbest, for all the reasons you describe. At least fat is satisfying and makes you less likely to eat and eat. Sugar does the opposite! Not that I’m vilifying sugar, mind you. Everything in moderation is my general rule of thumb. But I do hear you about the easy-answer fads. Thanks for your thoughts!
xoxo Nicole
marian says
I do like seeing what else you’re trying and what you find that works in your house. I think for some of us, eating “paleo” wouldn’t be a big leap. But I’m not particularly interested in eating that way all the time. How have I never heard of “Wheat Belly”?? I honestly can’t give more time to obsessing over diets and spending tons of money on potentially unliked food – right now, at this point in my life (working full time, 3 kids, one of them a celiac, one of them a nursing new baby, etc.). However, I’ve just been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, and am reading that I should go gluten free (especially since my son has celiac)…you are still my #1 resource for our family’s bread, treats and meals. And I trust you. Even if I end up eating whatevereo, your blog is a huge inspiration and I keep coming back to read what you’re writing (because I like your style), and make your recipes (I haven’t tried one that failed). Your “quick and easy” book couldn’t have come at a better time in my life!!
gfshoestring says
Okay, Marion, I can’t stop giggling about “even if I end up eating whatevero…” I think I’m going on the Whatevero Diet. And I’m going to be totally strict. No cheating!
I’m so glad you trust me, as that hopefully brings you a measure of comfort. You have other things to concentrate on (and I remember those nursing days!)—let me cover the recipes! ;)
xoxo Nicole
Tara0802 says
I for one am very very interested in alternatives like nut flours etc. mainly because im a bit concerned w how much extra sugars/starches are in some gf baked goods and foods. I have seen some things w 96g of starch per serving etc. its just crazy!! I also want to try to eat lower glycemic index foods because i feel like high ones dont keep me feeling full and lead to a crash later. For me sugar/starch gives me more cravings for sugar/starch. I guess ive just noticed my cravings for sugary things haa increased after going gf. At first i thought that waa bcuz i wanted what i couldnt have (until finding ur blog!). But they havnt really gone away much. My doctor haa told me to try alternatives like almond flour etc and try to add more fiber since compared to while wheat a lot of gf foods dont have as much fiber. So im trying…and would love recipes and honest feedback on any recipes u try. I say the more i have in my arsenal when it comes to gf baking the better!!!
gfshoestring says
I agree, Tara! The more information we have, the better!
xoxo Nicole
Terry says
Tara, I eat gluten free strictly, and I find that putting a rounded teaspoon of ground flaxseed meal into my food, gives me some help in not having a glucose crash. The extra fiber helps me a lot, and makes the food ‘stick to my ribs’, as the saying goes, so I don’t not get so hungry more quickly. If I eat a banana sliced in skin milk, I will add the flax meal, and add a little bit of sweetner. The flax has a nice nut like flavor.
Anna says
I think all alternative flours deserve a chance. People with CD need options.
I went strictly dairy, grain, and gluten free when I was diagnosed because I was told it would help me to heal. I was so very sick, it was easy. I dropped 30# pounds without any effort at all. (Yes, I was a fat celiac. We exist.) Two years later, I began to eat gf grain foods again. Not only did I gain weight, I had a return of joint pain I had prior to going gf. Paleo eating sounds silly, but it is how I stay well. I don’t think of it as a diet, just eating whole foods. I tell people if I can’t just wash the dirt off or gut and skin it and eat it, I mostly don’t eat it. MOSTLY. For the times I want to have something, I come here. It isn’t an all or nothing propositon for me like gluten, just something I mostly avoid to improve how I feel on a daily basis.
I will be watching and trying the recipes. There are plenty of good and easy almond and coconut flours recipes around.
Jennifer S. says
I got the book. It made my head swim. I’m giving it away to a friend who’s family is having horrible wheat belly.
I prefer your stuff – it’s easy, it’ doesn’t make me stress out and I get good results. keep it coming girl!
gfshoestring says
I hear you, Jennifer. It can be a bit involved. And I have read plenty about the supposed holes in the science behind Wheat Belly, but I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole!
Glad to alleviate stress, and not cause any for you. :)
xoxo Nicole
Chris says
I actually like coconut flour…and made a (sort of) coconut crepe recipe that tastes really good when you roll up some Nutella in it!!! In all fairness, I even liked it with chicken salad so….. I also have a coconut cookie recipe that adds a bit of coconut flour (with other flours and starches) that is downright delicious! Going grain-free is good for those who MUST but my taste buds are definitely happier with plain ol’ gluten-free, thanks!
I read Wheat Belly…am in the middle of reading it a second time. Yep, the ‘new’ wheat is gross. Very scary. But giving up my gluten-free wraps and cookies and muffins?!?!? NO WAY! I must say, though, that reading this book has given me great pause when using the starches and rice flours…..subbing out as much as I can to still make recipes work now.
The “all in moderation” idea still sounds good to me!
Hillsoftheking says
Hey! I am a homeschololing mother with four who are still at home. I REALLY have appreciated your recipes. I did like your first book and at sometime hope to get the second. I just wanted to encourage you.
I have gluten intolerance, but also am VERY allergic to soy. We deal with many other intolerances at our home such as: dairy, potato, annato and tomato, not to mention we have to deal with hypoglycemic problems in two of my children. Needless to say I have found myself in the kitchen alot. Experimenting, and finding out how I can make things that taste good and my family likes on a limited budget. Sometimes, it is exsaperating, definitely a challenge but all rewarding as I am sure you would agree. I have found that your recipes are wonderful. They are easily adaptable if I need to which is huge plus. Thank – you For all your hard work and effort. A litttle comment on the books you mentioned. They all seem to have things to learn from — –maybe I should say bits of wisdom. But, I found that I needed more than what these authors could tell me due to our food considerations. Sometimes there is so much that sounds good but yet– doesn’t apply to what we are dealing with at home. But, hey, it is fun to learn! Keep on baking! ; ) Theresa
gfshoestring says
I couldn’t agree more, Theresa. There is always some tailoring that has to go on!
xoxo Nicole
Michele says
Nicole, I too thought Paleo was nonsense until I woke up after 12 years of being gluten free (diag with Celiac) with bloating and a rash that spread like wildfire over my entire body. This is not the first time I’ve had this reaction, when its happened in the past, I would go to an allergist and they would put me on am elimination diet and give me steroid cream for the rash. Over time I took out cows and goat milk, peppers and corn. This time I went to a holistic practice where they performed muscle testing and was told I cannot tolerate grains, sugar and cannot absorb B vitamins. Awesome! I pulled grains and sugar for the past 10 days and I have to tell you, my Raynauds symptoms are gone, bloating has diminished and the depression I’ve been suffering from over the past 3 months has lifted. I feel so much better and am convinced that for me, Paleo makes a lot sense because grains aren’t good for me. I do bake for my 2 babes which are both intolerant to gluten and cows milk. They love your recipes! Thanks for all you do.
gfshoestring says
Oh, I’m not calling Paleo nonsense, Michele! In fact, rather than dismiss these new diets out of hand, I figured the better part of valor was to educate myself by digging in. Glad you found something that works for you!
xoxo Nicole