What Happens When I Reintroduce Grains

I am currently reading Wheat Belly: Total Health by William Davis. I'll post a review once I am finished reading the book but so far I can say that this book is jam-packed with more information than I will be able to fully absorb in a single read so if you are looking for a comprehensive text on the history of grains and how they interact with the human body this may be your book. Since I was spending so much time delving into the complexities of wheat as a food stuff I was wondering how much my avoidance of wheat was truly the reason I was feeling so much better as the book states... so I posed an experiment. I re-introduced grains for one week, 7 full days. I made sure that I was keeping as many other factors the same as possible within my diet but I added in bread and other grain products. For instance, when I ate a hamburger I ate the bun instead of my usual bun-less burger. I didn't go crazy and change my diet 100% back to the Standard American Diet, just a few servings of grains per day. All in all the week went exactly as I expected... here's the breakdown:

Monday: I reintroduced wheat by choosing a small portion of mushroom stuffed ravioli at lunch but kept everything else the same in my diet. I felt more tired that evening and had a touch of the insomnia I had previously kicked while being grain free.

Tuesday: I had a biscuit at breakfast and a slice of pizza at a work gathering at lunch but dinner stayed the same as usual and was nearly carb free as I was feeling pretty poorly. My stomach began acting up and I started to bloat.

Wednesday: My POTS started acting up with tachycardia and nausea. I also had to take some headache medication and was exhausted by the time I came home from dinner. I did not have grains with lunch or dinner, only at breakfast.

Thursday: Still feeling poorly in general, my stomach was still acting up- IBS was back in full swing- and I needed to lie down at work for a few minutes as I had a tachycardia attack with nausea and vertigo. I didn't make it to my after work activity (choir) as that was out of the question... I simply went home to lay down on the couch. 

Friday: I had been noticing that it was more difficult to think as clearly this week but now it was quite pronounced. I could only read a few pages at a time without a break today as I typically had to re-read sections to fully comprehend the complex subject matter of my grad class. I fell asleep early tonight.

Saturday: Today was a bust... I woke up with a migraine which meant that I didn't move or do much of anything until well after lunchtime and then was exhausted and still in pain/nauseous for most of the day- even with 3 different migraine/pain medications. For this reason I ended up ordering a pizza and calling it a wash- I was already on the eating grains bandwagon for two more days and it was easy to be honest. I have been craving sugar like it's nobody's business since about Wednesday as well I realized.

Sunday: Since I fell asleep at nearly 4am due to the copious amounts of sleep I got on Saturday and the physical and mental exhaustion that has been the week in general I missed church in the morning. I was still sluggish for most of the day and trying to do homework was ridiculous in the evening. I was looking forward to stopping the grains again on Monday but not looking forward to the possible withdrawal symptoms triggered by coming back off the grains.

Symptoms that came back on grains:

• More tachycardia/POTS incidents
• Brain fog and concentration issues were very apparent. There was even an increase in the frequency of speech issues (not being able to find the word I want, stumbling over my words, sentence articulation issues).
• IBS symptoms including bloating and bowel issues in general (don't really want to get into this in detail, let's just leave it as 'not pretty')
• I bloated more than an inch on my waist and several pounds within the first three days. I had only had about 3-4 servings of grains total at that point... it got worse as the week progressed.
• Nausea
• Fatigue
• Low grade headaches were present on several days and several days where I needed to take tension headache medication.
• Worst migraine I have had in nearly 6 months 
• Allergies worsened
• Immune system suppression as I ended up with a slight cold including a slight fever and ear ache
• My joint pain and pain in general increased 
• Increase cravings for wheat containing foods and sugar in general
• Acne breakouts

So, basically, I'm going to be sticking to my grain free lifestyle from now on. There might be a time occasionally where I have a bite of something here or there or choose a dish that I shouldn't but it will be with full awareness that there will be consequences to those choices. It's hard to imagine that feeling like I did this past week used to be my norm and that I could have felt better by just eliminating grain earlier. My experience may not be everyone's experience as I tend to be more 'sensitive' to my body but it is definitely worth giving a try... try going Paleo for one month and see what a difference it makes. I'm not going to lie to you, the first two weeks kind of suck as you have withdrawal symptoms from the grains, sugars and in some cases other chemicals you may have had in your past lifestyle but then by the end of week 2 you start feeling pretty amazing, the cravings diminish, and your health starts improving daily. I'm very happy with my choice... even if it does means forgoing the apple pie at Thanksgiving and bread sticks at Olive Garden.

If you are interested in purchasing Wheat Belly: Total Health I am including a link below. Your local library likely has several books on Paleo and grain-free living as well. Happy reading!