Jim wrote:

His patient responses led him to do the literature research on wheat
which led to his book. Of course he gives example case histories, as
most "diet" books customarily do, but the history of wheat illnesses,
including those derived from gluten and other proteins, are the primary
reasons to consider reading the book.

I had a recent diabetes scare when a single fasting blood glucose came
in at 135. I bought a meter and supplies and began home testing. The
book came out and I read it and adopted the wheat free notion.
Previously my fasting glucose numbers were "prediabetic" between 100 and
120 mg/dL.

My readings fell with time, and now over half of the readings are in the
80's and 90's. Going down into the "healthy" range. The next lab blood
test is next week, and that will hopefully calibrate the home glucose
meter somewhat.

I no longer have the "cookie" or sugar urges. It is too easy, now, to
skip meals if I am doing something interesting.

Is this real or placebo? Who cares, I like the current status.

Being wheat intolerant myself I am biased against eating wheat. That
said I think the current wheat scare is mostly a veiled push for low
carbing in general. Blaming wheat gets people to eat less carbs and
most people do better with less carbs.

The number of people who are wheat intolerant or gluten intolerant is
only a few percent of the population. Enough that it's vastly more than
the ones who know they have the issue. A percentage that is far too
small to tell people blindly to avoid wheat.

My view is the current push against wheat gets a lot of people to lower
their carb intake. That helps a very large minority of the population.
Among them is a small percentage who benefit from actually removing
wheat rather than just from reducing carbs.

It's not a bad approach but it misses the point that what is happening
in most cases is lower total carb intake and lower glycemic load. Pick
any high glycemic load food that's a sizable percentage of the typical
diet. Convince people to not have that. The result is good because the
typical diet is so high in carbs it's a problem. Convincing people to
drop sodas would generally have the same result.

Simple minded, effective, beneificial, but based on an idea that points
in the wrong direction.

One really good lesson - Glycemic load matters. Talk of "simple versus
complex carbs" has little to do with actually measuring glycemic load.
Very carby foods aren't beneficial in a culture that has already pushed
many of us to the point our bodies treat very carby foods as problems.