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"  It&amp;#039;s something you see more and more: Brunch companions shunning the muffin basket. Houseguests calling ahead to ask if you&amp;#039;ll be serving pasta. Bakeries touting wheat-free goods. A facialist who tells you your bread habit is the reason your skin is blotchy. Wheat has been getting a bad name lately, and not just from those who have eliminated carbs and gluten (a protein found in wheat) from their diet. The loudest voice in the chorus likely belongs to William Davis, author of the best-selling book Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health and its companion, Wheat Belly Cookbook. Davis, a Milwaukee cardiologist, points an accusing finger at our most abundant grain, blaming it for (almost) everything, including the obesity epidemic, heart disease, diabetes, acne and other skin conditions, and even disorders like ADHD. Not to mention that &amp;quot;brain fog&amp;quot; many of us feel after eating a high-carb meal. At the center of Davis&amp;#039;s argument is the idea that modern-day strains of wheat have been genetically (and harmfully) altered to such a degree that they barely resemble the ancient strains or even 1950s wheat. Today&amp;#039;s varieties, he contends, have a higher glycemic index, a factor in blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as new forms of gliadin, a component of gluten that Davis says is bad for everyone. One of gliadin&amp;#039;s worst offenses, he explains, is its association with inflammation, in particular creating a &amp;quot;leaky gut.&amp;quot; Gliadin &amp;quot;unlocks normal intestinal barriers,&amp;quot; he says. That leads to toxins entering your bloodstream, which triggers inflammation. Davis claims too that gliadin overstimulates appetite to the point where people eat some 440 more calories a day than they need\u2014usually carbs. And, he adds, &amp;quot;gliadin binds to opioid receptors in the brain. It&amp;#039;s not the same response as you&amp;#039;d have to heroin or morphine; there&amp;#039;s no euphoria or pain relief. But there is appetite stimulation.&amp;quot; However, despite his diet&amp;#039;s name, Davis isn&amp;#039;t content to have us eliminate just wheat. Be prepared to also say goodbye to oats, rice, millet, corn, and other grains often used in gluten-free baking. &amp;quot;These nonwheat grains don&amp;#039;t have gliadin,&amp;quot; he notes, &amp;quot;but they do have one negative effect: elevated blood sugar,&amp;quot; due to high glycemic indexes. What&amp;#039;s left? &amp;quot;Almond, pecan, walnut, coconut flour, and seed meals, including flax, sunflower, sesame, and chia.&amp;quot; There&amp;#039;s no shortage of adherents to the wheat belly diet who have reported great results. Leah*, 42, noticed a change almost immediately. &amp;quot;My belly flattened, but what surprised me was how much better my skin looked\u2014glowing and breakout-free. There was a difference after two weeks.&amp;quot; Alycia Brudner, 41, says that the diet alleviated her joint pain, psoriasis, and PMS. &amp;quot;I feel like I&amp;#039;m 18 again.&amp;quot; And Shannon Johnson, 44, a type 2 diabetes sufferer, was able to get off her medications, and lost 22 pounds after five months on the diet. &amp;quot;My goal was to control my health problems,&amp;quot; Johnson says. &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t expecting to lose weight as a side effect.&amp;quot; Yet even with these success stories, Davis has many critics. &amp;quot;When diets are so extreme, they&amp;#039;re hard to maintain,&amp;quot; says Lori Rosenthal, a dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re going to have cravings,&amp;quot; adds Rebecca Solomon, a clinical nutrition coordinator at New York&amp;#039;s Mount Sinai Hospital. &amp;quot;Besides, starch carbs can be really good for you. People will miss out on fiber and important vitamins and minerals.&amp;quot; Julie Miller Jones, professor emeritus of foods and nutrition at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, recently published a paper that analyzed many of Davis&amp;#039;s claims. &amp;quot;The biggest point of contention is that the alleviation of so many ailments is not likely wheat related,&amp;quot; says Jones. &amp;quot;People cut calories and then lose weight. And when you lose weight, a number of other conditions will improve.&amp;quot; Countering Davis&amp;#039;s assertion that wheat is addictive because gliadin interacts with opioid receptors, Jones says, &amp;quot;A number of food proteins can break down and react that way. He didn&amp;#039;t mention that some proteins from milk, soy, and even spinach do it.&amp;quot; Davis is unfazed by his detractors, though. &amp;quot;They don&amp;#039;t have an appreciation for all the issues,&amp;quot; he says. With many happy converts, he will likely keep riding this wave\u2014at least until the next low-carb craze. *Name has been changed. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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