In a recent report, 60 to 70 percent of Americans are experiencing some form of digestive distress, while one-third are obese, and more than 100 million adults are prediabetic and don't know it. While many like to blame all of this on wheat, many food scientists don't agree.

While the standard American diet, which includes processed wheat, is likely responsible for these health concerns, there is also plenty of science that links a diet rich in whole grains including whole wheat, to weight loss, better digestion, and lower blood sugar.

The Mediterranean Diet is still revered as one of the healthiest diets on the planet and is replete with whole grains and wheat. The centenarians (folks over 100) who live in the Blue Zones eat a nonprocessed whole-food diet, once again, rich in whole grains and wheat.

So, why are so many Americans having trouble digesting wheat? That's just it...they're not digesting it! Many who are gluten sensitive today digested wheat fine when they were young but are currently having trouble. Somewhere along the line, our ability to digest foods that are a bit harder to digest, like wheat and dairy, became compromised.

Remove all processed foods.

The first step in rebooting digestive strength is removing all the processed foods. A processed food diet has been linked to a 141 percent increase in belly fat, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol. In the same study, a diet of whole grains including wheat reduced the risk of these health concerns by 38 percent.

Fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne once told me the best way to eat is to never eat anything out of a package. The reason why processed foods are processed in the first place is so they can sit on a shelf for extended periods of time. Whole foods, as we all know, go bad quickly and it's not always possible to eat freshly cooked food. So, here are simple ingredient label navigation tips to avoid highly processed foods:

1. Avoid all added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Allow nothing over 6 grams of naturally occurring sugar per serving.
2. Avoid refined, cooked oils. (Anything baked with oils or fried, i.e., bread, baked goods, chips, etc.)
3. Avoid all chemicals. Don't eat it if you don't recognize the name in the ingredients.

Reboot liver and gallbladder function.

In the 1960's, when the FDA put cholesterol on the nutrient concern list, food manufacturers started boiling, bleaching, deodorizing, and refining vegetable oils. They were used as preservatives to keep bread squishy and "fresh" for weeks.

After almost 60 years of blindly consuming these indigestible oils, they remain the No. 1 reason for the great American digestive breakdown. The processed oils both congested the liver and gallbladder, rendering the liver's bile unable to break down both good and bad fats and insufficient to buffer stomach acids.

Without adequate bile production to neutralize stomach acid, the stomach will not produce the needed acid to digest proteins like gluten and the casein in dairy. This has resulted in a huge spike in gallbladder surgeries and epidemic levels of obesity, high blood sugar, and food intolerances.

It's natural to blame the hard-to-digest foods, but removing them only addresses the symptoms and leaves the cause—weak digestion left untreated only to haunt your health down the road.

Boost bile flow.

The first step in strengthening the stomach's digestive acid is to make sure there is plenty of bile flow from the liver and gallbladder. To boost bile flow, enjoy these foods daily:

1. Eat one red beet and one apple day. They can be raw, cooked, juiced, or blended.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil and 1 teaspoon of high-quality olive oil to your food daily. 
2. Eat more artichokes, celery, and leafy greens.
4. Drink fennel and fenugreek tea with meals.

Strengthen stomach fire.

Once the liver is making adequate bile and the bile ducts and gallbladder are less congested, then you can stimulate the stomach to make the stomach acid needed to break down hard-to-digest so-called allergenic foods.

The best test for bile flow is evaluating how you feel during or after a fatty food or greasy, hard-to-digest meal. Any sign of gas, bloat, heartburn, nausea, loose stools, or constipation in addition to pain or discomfort on the right side under the ribs are signs of poor bile flow. 

Instead of taking digestive enzymes or an HCI stomach acid pill, I prefer to stimulate the stomach to make its own acid, and the small intestine and pancreas to make their own digestive enzymes. This is best done with the following five spices:

• ginger
• cumin
• coriander
• cardamom
• fennel

Studies suggest that when these five spices are used together, they act as a total upper digestive reboot. They can be taken as a supplement or used to flavor food.

It's best to have a dose of these spices with each meal, so three doses a day for best results. You can use these five spices in your cooking, to spice your food while eating, mixed with warm water as a tea with meals, or as a capsule before the meal.

These five-star spices:

• Increase bile flow (no need for bile salts)
• Increase pancreatic enzyme activity (no need for digestive enzymes)
• Increase small intestine enzyme activity (no need for digestive enzyme supplements)
• Decrease gas and bloating (no need for HCl supplements)
• Increase fat and sugar metabolism
• Are powerful free radical scavengers
• Support optimal weight
• Support microbiology health (especially ginger)
• Improve gut health
• Support a healthy growth rate of good bacteria (especially ginger)
• Decrease H. pylori from adhering to stomach
• Are digestive stimulants
• Quicken the transit time in the intestines—supporting better elimination

Following these simple steps of nutritional navigation, boosting bile flow, and stomach strengthening, will set you on the right path to retrain your body to digest (and enjoy!) good-quality wheat again.

mindbodygreen.com

Author Photo
John Douillard, DC, CAP
Dr. John Douillard, DC, CAP, is a globally recognized leader in the fields of natural health, Ayurveda and sports medicine. Over the past 30 years, he’s helped over 100,000 patients repair their digestive system and eat wheat and dairy again.