Wheat Free?

Yesterday, while waiting in line at Wal-Mart, I spotted the November 12 issue of First for Women and picked it up.  I am a reformed (most of the time) magazine junkie.  I admit it.  I read this one from time to time.  Recipes, health stuff, do-dads, you know the drill.  I have played around with the idea of going wheat-free from time to time.  I know that I do not react very well to carbohydrates in large doses.  I read the six page article, looked at the meal ideas, and it just seemed to click.  (Mind you, though, that this was just after I ate two handfuls of Wheat Thins for lunch...) Two women give their testimonials.  One is Melissa.

After reading the article, I went to my trusty Kindle and downloaded Dr. William Davis' book, Wheat Belly.  I have had the flu or a sinus infection or something for most of the past week making me feel lousy so I attempted to take a nap but instead read most of the book.  Some of the science of it is over my non-Science inclined head, but the fact that the wheat we eat now is a far cry from the wheat our ancestors ate makes plenty of sense in these days of genetically altered crops.  I went to Melissa's blog SatisfyingEats.Blogspot.com and checked out her recipes.  Wow.  She has come up with some amazing creations using alternate flours-- coconut and almond.  She has gone grain-free and sugar-free, yet she manages to come up with some really yummy looking recipes.  Ground flax seeds, not just gluten-free foods, but completely wheat-free, cheese, protein (emphasis on grass-fed beef which I firmly believe in thanks to Seth at Bull City Burger and Brewery), eggs, fish, dark chocolate, Greek yogurt.  You get the picture.  

If you are a regular reader, you know that I love to cook.  I love to make desserts, but after licking the bowl, I don't often eat them.  I love France and everything about the food there, but when I am there, I rarely eat pastries, preferring to look at them lovingly in shop windows and snap their photos.  As I was contemplating this whole shift of food thinking yesterday, I realized that while living there, I didn't eat that much made with wheat.  Chef Érick is very sensitive to wheat so we ate corn pasta that he found at a shop outside of Arles.  We had bread for our guests and crêpes for breakfast, but I rarely ate any.  I was more likely to eat something left over from dinner the night before or some of the leftover cheese.  I hadn't really thought about that until yesterday.  In my six months' stay there, I gained not an ounce.  And I ate really well.  But can I go wheat-free in real life?  

Upon further research, I found Pete Bronski, a blogger who really busted Dr. Davis and the studies he uses in his book.  Bronski is gluten-free and has written a book about it.  His blog looks very interesting.  I don't really think that there has to be a right and wrong here.  I think that there needs to be healthy advice for everyone.  And it is difficult to get that in a doctor's office these days.  When I attempted to talk about my weight gain in spite of walking three miles a day and trying to watch what I eat, my endocrinologist cut me off and told me that it wasn't due to my thyroid condition.  End of discussion.  (I haven't been back to her.) 

So, day one started with sautéed onions, ratatouille vegetables (I already had this in the refrigerator-- eggplant, zucchini, green and red peppers, tomatoes, garlic and herbes de Provence) and eggs in an omelet of sorts.

I think I will give it a 4 week trial.  Yes, Thanksgiving is coming, but the turkey and cranberry sauce are my favorites anyway!

Bon appétit to everyone searching for a healthy lifestyle without sacrificing taste!