The hCG diet does not offer a long-term guarantee to stay slim. Indeed, you will completely undermine any successful weight loss by making one common mistake. It is the worst thing you can do.
And the mistake is: Eating Wheat
Yup. When you eat wheat or wheat products you give your body a double whammy of a dietary jolt that you don’t want. The first jolt, and the easiest to understand, comes from the complex carbohydrates that are the darlings of dietitians. The term “complex” just refers to a repeating chain of glucose molecules that comprise the starch in wheat.
The Problem with Wheat Starch
Conventional dietary wisdom advises us to increase our intake of complex carbohydrates such as wheat starch and to reduce our intake of table sugar (sucrose) or other such simple carbohydrates. (A molecule of sucrose contains only two simple sugars – one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose).
Here is the problem with wheat starch: It consists of a complex of glucose molecules, together called amylopectin A, that is far easier to digest than any other form of amylopectin. This just means that glucose hits your bloodstream faster when you consume wheat than when you consume other starchy foods such as bananas, beans, or potatoes.
In fact, whole wheat bread causes a greater spike in blood sugar (glucose) than sucrose itself. Eating a sandwich with two slices of whole wheat bread is no different, and often worse, than drinking a can of sugary soda or eating a sugary candy bar.
You probably (hopefully) already know that drinking sodas and eating sugary foods will add unwanted pounds of fat to your body after the hCG diet. Now you know that wheat-based foods will do the same. Indeed, these are the foods that, more than likely, got you into the position of having to do the hCG diet in the first place: breads, pastas, breakfast cereals, bagels, pastries, crackers, tortillas…and all manner of wheat-containing foods regardless of whether they are refined or whole-grain.
Oh, and here is one more kicker about wheat starch that makes it the worst food you can eat for weight-management: the surge in blood glucose (and insulin) from eating wheat causes a 2-hour roller coaster ride of satiety and hunger that continues throughout the day. Hunger hits a couple of hours after a breakfast of cereal and toast, which drives the consumption of lousy snack foods (more wheat!), which results in more hunger a couple of hours later, followed by more snacking, etc., etc. Bad news all around!
The bottom line is that daily consumption of wheat, in any form, repeatedly triggers high blood sugar, leading to the accumulation of storage fat. This is the worst mistake that you can make after the hCG diet.
Bad News About Wheat Gluten
Carbohydrates such as the amylopectin A in wheat are bad enough by themselves on weight management. However, the second jolt of the double whammy that you get from wheat comes from its gluten. Gluten is a normal storage protein, from the point of view of the wheat kernel, which has the added property of being sticky or elastic. Breads, bagels, pastas, pastries, and other processed wheat products are basically held together by the gluten they contain. If fact, bagels are famously chewy and dense because they have extra gluten added to them.
Without gluten, a modern jelly donut would be a crumbly mess that could not hold its filling. And pizza dough could never be tossed into the air and come back down intact.
The question of whether gluten causes weight gain, or whether eliminating dietary gluten helps weight loss, is almost moot because it is not a variable that is easily isolated from wheat starch. What we do know is that modern wheat gluten makes bad health worse. Its most debilitating effects probably stem from its ability to make your intestines permeable. Intestines are not supposed to be freely permeable.
The most commonly recognized disorders that can be triggered or made worse by permeable intestines (or ‘leaky gut syndrome’) are: Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and asthma. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Leaky gut syndrome is also at the root of systemic yeast infections, or candidiasis, in men and women.
Candidiasis has now become recognized to be so prevalent that millions of people suffer from a dizzying array of symptoms that are associated with it. Some of the symptoms that are linked to candidiasis include:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Heartburn
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Mental fog
- Allergies
- Migraines
- Acne
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Lupus
- Multiple sclerosis
- Type 1 diabetes
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular disease
Although this seems to be a long list of health problems, it is still incomplete. Indeed, many doctors are finally recognizing that a large number of chronic health problems that defy diagnosis and treatment are associated with candidiasis.
Why isn’t obesity on this list? In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before scientists provide firm links from gluten to all of the above inflammatory disorders and, ultimately, to obesity.