If you are gaining weight or are just having trouble losing that last little bit of
belly-flab, there are a couple of things in your cupboard masquerading as health-foods
that you may want to consider getting rid of that could be causing your weight-gain.
I’m talking about soy & wheat.
“Say what??”
I know, shocking right? But let’s look at the facts.
Soy
What’s remarkable about the success of soy is only a few decades ago, the
soybean was considered unfit to eat – even in Asia.
If you’re gaining weight and can’t quite figure out why, you might want to look at
the amount of soy that you’re consuming, as well as the types of soy, as too much
of it can cause unwanted weight-gain in one or more of the following ways:
Soy Impacts Your Thyroid
The thyroid is what controls your metabolism. Anything that causes your thyroid to
be underactive could slow your metabolism causing weight-gain.
If you’re prone to low thyroid function or hypothyroidism, consuming foods that
contain soy can make this much worse. Since there are untold numbers of Americans
who are both hypothyroid diagnosed and undiagnosed this could be contributing to your
weight-gain.
Soy Increases the Effects of Estrogen
Soy contains phytoestrogens known as isoflavones, which are plant-based compounds
that have a similar function in the body as estrogen. Soy isoflavones appear to
influence estrogen receptors and thus the effects of estrogen in your body.
In this way, soy isoflavones can either decrease or increase the effects of the
hormone in your body, but not the amount of estrogen itself.
Estrogen is also associated with obesity and weight-gain. So although not yet proven,
theoretically, increased soy consumption could be causing your weight-gain.
GMO’s and Pesticides
Soy is the second most genetically modified crop following corn, so not only are
you receiving GMO’s, but food saturated with pesticides, as most soy plants are
tailored to resist high levels of pesticides that would quickly kill a normal plant.
If you are consuming soy based products regularly, your body will be in a state of
constant stress, as the body will have to respond to the multiple stimulations of
trace toxins, pesticides, genetically modified food, and hormonal imbalance.
Eventually, your health begins to rapidly degrade, and with this can come weight-gain.
If you’re gaining weight you may want to switch to traditionally fermented soy foods
found in Asian countries like Miso and Natto, but the generally processed and
packaged soy ‘veggie’ foods, unless otherwise stated, are likely to create
similar kinds of problems to that of a conventional diet.
Wheat
You’re probably thinking, wait a minute. Wheat!?!? It’s on the American healthy food plate!!
Everyone eats Wheat!! Ohh, you’re just referring to refined/white bread, right?
Nope.
Unfortunately, new research has shattered the notion of wheat, in all its forms,
including whole-wheat, as a health-food, much less a food that stabilizes body-weight.
Wheat is worse for weight-maintenance than a can of Pepsi.
Here’s how wheat contributes to weight-gain and why you may want to consider eliminating
it from your diet.
Wheat spikes your blood sugar worse than sugar.
The wheat our ancestors ate is not the same as the wheat we eat. Modern wheat is a
genetically modified dwarf-wheat that contains very high levels of a super-starch
called amylopectin A.
Ironically,the man who engineered this modern wheat won the Nobel Prize, as it
promised to feed millions of starving people around the world. And it has, but not
without making them fat and sick.
A starch in any case has a molecular composition fundamentally the same as sugar.
It is merely two sugar molecules stacked upon each other. So when you are consuming
a starch you are essentially just consuming refined sugar.
Bear this in mind: two slices of whole-wheat bread spikes your blood-sugar equally
to that of two table-spoons of sugar.
And whole-wheat is no better than refined bread as corroborated by a recent
study in people with diabetes in which it was observed that both white and whole
grain bread raises their blood sugar levels 70 to 120 mg/dl over starting levels,
which is high.
Foods with high-glycemic index causes people to store belly fat, and triggers
inflammation, thus weight-gain.
Wheat is Nutritionally Empty and Calorie-Dense
Although wheat a hundred years ago would have been a step-up from today’s wheat,
the reality is there is little in the high-calorie wheat that other foods don’t have
in a greater abundance.
People love to point out the meager 2 grams of fiber contained per slice of
bread. A nutrient-rich apple has 5.5 grams of fiber for the same calories!
A 1/2 cup of black beans has 8 grams!
The other things people love to point out are all the vitamins and minerals that are
contained in bread.
What they overlook is most of these vitamins and minerals are “fortified”; a euphemism
for – we added these nutrients into the bread afterwards. Bread, in its pristine state
contains few nutrients.
It does one thing well that has made it a staple of many ancient diets– it fills you up.
It also has the benefit of not having to be hunted and can be easily stored for future
eating. For this reason wheat is often partially, if not wholly credited with ushering
in the agricultural era and thus civilization.
But today, wheat is redundant and is just exasperating the obesity epidemic by
contributing unnecessary calories to our diets. Any vegetable would have far
fewer calories and far more nutrients.
Gluten sensitivity and Inflammation
Gluten in wheat can cause full-blown celiac disease in certain susceptible
individuals with gluten -sensitivity, which could cause weight-gain.
Although it was once thought that this only affected a small minority of
people, recent research has put an end to that fallacy.
It is now understood that even those who don’t have celiac disease have
low-level inflammation reactions to gluten which trigger the EXACT SAME
problems, even if you just have elevated antibodies.
This inflammation sparks insulin resistance, which is the main cause of
weight gain and diabetes.
To make the problem worse a NON-gluten glycoprotein or lectin
(combination of sugar and protein) in wheat called wheat germ agglutinin (WGA),
found in highest concentrations in whole wheat bread.
Yes, whole-wheat bread, increases whole-body inflammation as well. So buying
gluten-free and or whole-wheat bread is not a fix to this problem.
Wheat is an appetite stimulant.
As mentioned, wheat contains a super-starch that spikes your blood-sugar.
This causes you to crave sugary foods, which means binging and weight-gain.
The proteins in wheat are converted into exorphins. These are similar to
the endorphins you might get from running, or eating ice-cream. This gives
you a sugar rush, and this sugar-rush leads to addictive behavior in the
form of cravings for sugary or starchy foods.
These wheat polypeptides are absorbed into the bloodstream and get right
across the blood/brain barrier.
What’s telling is the fact that these cravings can be blocked with the
same drugs used to block heroin or morphine – naloxone.
Binge eaters have been shown to eat 30% food when given this drug.
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, prevent weight-gain, or maintain your
current weight, removing or eating these two foods sparingly diet alone can
help tremendously.
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Great read! I new that Soy was not all that great for your body, but, had no idea about the Wheat!!!