Have you considered a wheat free nutrition plan?
Maybe these are 5 reasons athletes should consider a wheat free plan will help to change the way you think about wheat being your best carbohydrate option.
You can start an inflammatory plan or see how to get started here.
Maybe you haven’t even thought about an anti-inflammatory plan or why trying a wheat free plan – but it may be helpful for both athletes and non-athletes alike.
Here is a video with my top 5 reasons to consider a wheat free plan, which is usually part of the Anti-Inflammatory Plan and often is part of the Table To Race plan for athletes.
- More energy, less fatigue – wheat is hard to digest for most people. It takes more energy for your body to break down the wheat so you may feel depleted rather than energized even though you had whole grains and adequate calories!
You may even find you have more energy to put into the workouts and have better quality sessions – bonus! - Better blood sugar management – less blood sugar spikes, fewer sugar cravings or bouts eating of girl scout cookies. In The Wheat Belly blog, Dr Davis talks about how wheat spikes the blood sugar more than any grain. And it doesn’t matter if it is enriched white flour or whole grain flour.
- Weigh less – less hunger, less sugar cravings translates to you, the athlete, having less weight to carry! This can translate to a better power-to-weight ratio. But just eliminating wheat and replacing it with other grains is not going to be the solution. You do need to implement a more balanced meal approach like the Metabolic Efficiency plan I have. Balance the blood sugar better with better quality meal combinations so your body starts to burn fat stores, not create more of them!
- Improved recovery – Wheat can be inflammatory as is sugar and a few other food ingredients. If you eliminate the inflammatory food like wheat, you will have less aches, pains, and stiffness in joints. This translates into a greater ability to train but without the aches and pains you associate with training, you feel like you recover faster. Less aches, stiffness and pain means you can train more, train harder and get stronger and faster! yay.
- Better nutrient absorption – The intestines are the main location for us to absorb nutrients. Wheat has a lot of gluten in it. With the GMO (cross-breading wheat in the lab vs out in nature) ) has resulted in a much higher level of gluten in wheat than ever before. Wheat also has phytates which are also common in some green leafy vegetables like spinach. So what? you say!
Well, this gluten acts like glue and gums up the intestinal lining so the villi can no longer absorb the nutrients they once could. Phytates tend to bring to various minerals so they cannot be absorbed. Once we remove the gluten, the villi are able to return to absorbing nutrients as they were designed to! When we cook some of the phytate rich foods, we can break down the phytates and render the foods more absorbable. Some of the nutrients lost commonly are B12, magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc. Read more about it here.
Wheat is not always a terrible ingredient. But it can be a trigger for many.
When I do teh Nutrition Response Testing, I can verify if wheat will be an ingredient to include or one to avoid. I also test the other grains so we don’t substitute lets say brown rice….and then you have the very same issues with brown rice that you did with wheat.
I do have some clients who notice absolutely no difference when they remove wheat.
I have others who have life changing experiences.
I personally eat wheat sparingly if at all. It has been a problematic food for me and once I removed it 8 years ago during my Detox Plan for Athletes plan and booklet, I stopped eating it and all grains for 2 weeks. It was when I reintroduced it that I noticed all the symptoms that I had with it – brain fog, GI issues, stiffness, skin issues, constant hunger and cravings for more wheat, etc. As an athlete, despite training all the time, I could also struggle with losing weight. Removed the wheat, and I don’t have the weight issues, can maintain my power-to-weight ratio and feel (and look) like I am 32 instead of 52.
If these 5 reasons to start a wheat free diet intrigue you, schedule your 15 minute chat today We can review your symptoms and see if a wheat free plan or Anti-inflammatory plan may be right for you.
What kind of wheat you talking? What was the ingredient list of the ones that made you feel sick? Whole Wheat takes awhile to digest because it’s a polysaccharide. Some love that due to insulin. But, wheat flour (not whole wheat) with enriched flour and fillers will cause weird stuff to happen. Brown rice is denser than white rice (carb wise).
For me and many of my clients, it doesn’t actually matter if it is whole wheat or white flour wheat, it could also be beer. There are many studies, too that show some do worse on whole wheat even with the fiber in tact, while others do worse on enriched flour.
I also have some clients who do not get the inflammatory response from wheat at all.For me personally, I don’t have any stomach issues unless I eat more than 2 ounces of anything with wheat. No gas, bloating, GI distress, constipation, diarrhea but I may get an acidic stomach. The next day I can get a headache or brain fog, and have a hard time concentrating. My joints are also very stiff in the mornings after I eat wheat. It can be different for every person.
I do take a Spectrazyme Gluten Digest enzyme if I know I will be consuming more than my 2 bites of wheat anything. jchodorowska.metagenics.com/spectrazyme-gluten-digest i think is the link
Does anything change when you change your protein intake?
In terms of my reaction to wheat? No. Adding protein or fat doesn’t change it. Sometimes adding dark leafy veggies which are higher energy foods help or blessing the food. For me and many of my clients, there can be a tolerance level with wheat. For some it is zero tolerance. For some they can eat some, like me. And others seem to have little issues with wheat regardless of how they combine it …oh wait, not true. When with sugar like a cookie, then it can be a challenge to digest and also highly inflammatory. But that becomes a sugar issue more than just wheat.
Not always a cut and dry answer as we are all different!