What If You Stop Eating Bread For 30 Days?

Hello Health champions.

What would happen if you stopped eating bread for 30 days?

There's Ezekiel Bread, white bread and wheat bread whole grain bread sprouted bread sourdough

bread and you probably heard that some of these breads are considered junk food, but

you've also heard that some are supposed to be health food so how does that really work?

Let's talk about bread.

First of all bread is about 80% of the weight is starch and starch is a polysaccharide,

meaning, many sugars.

So if you take individual glucose molecules and you string them together in chains and

branches hundreds and thousands, then it becomes a starch, a polysaccharide and this is what

a lot of people refer to as a complex carbohydrate.

So they tell you individual sugars are bad for you but complex carbs are good.

Well the problem is that within seconds you start breaking off some of these individual

glucose molecules and they quickly get into the bloodstream and that glucose is the same

as sugar which raises your blood sugar and that blood glucose is going to spike insulin.

So not all of this starch is going to be broken down quickly but the process to raise blood

sugar and insulin starts instantly.

And therefore if you were to cut out bread for 30 days you would see some blood sugar,

some glycemic benefits.

You would lower blood glucose.

You would lower your A1C.

Even though that's a three to four month average within 30 days you would start seeing benefits,

some changes in that number.

You’d see a lower fasting insulin and based on glucose and Insulin we can compute your

HOMA-IR which is a measure of your insulin resistance and you would also probably see

that that number starts coming down.

Now, bread is not the only thing that will do this but if you are more on the diabetic

end of the spectrum and you cut out the bread you would probably start seeing your values,

your blood values start moving more into a healthy range.

A lot of people have trouble with gas so where does that come from?

It's made by bacteria in your digestive tract but in order for them to make gas you have

to feed them and they love all kinds of different carbohydrates, not just bread and sugar but

all sorts of carbohydrate.

So the way this works is the glucose is absorbed rather quickly but complex carbs are absorbed

slower so when you eat something it's first ends up in your stomach that's number one

it sits there for a while and the glucose, the individual glucose, some of it starts

getting absorbed already in the stomach but most of it and all of the complex carbs are

going to continue down into the small intestine that's number two and it takes many hours

to go through this maze this long, long tube that’s called the small intestine.

And the further it goes through the small intestine the more the complex carbs get broken

down and the more of it gets absorbed as glucose.

And the whole idea is that all of it or virtually all of it is supposed to be broken down and

absorbed before it makes it to the large intestine which is number three.

And the large intestine is where most of your bacteria is your gut flora the large intestine

has billions of bacteria per milliliter the small intestine is only supposed to have thousands,

alright.

So by the time it gets to the large intestine it is supposed to be absorbed.

There's not supposed to be any carbohydrate left except fiber that we can't break down.

So when it comes to carbs there's basically a trade-off that you can either raise blood

sugar or you can feed your bacteria.

So if it’s simple carbs they're going to be absorbed very early they’re never going

to make it down to feed the bacteria.

So if it's simple carbs then it's going to raise blood glucose, but if it’s complex

carbs now it's going to feed the bacteria.

So therefore a lot of problem with digestive complaints they're going that whole wheat

is worse because it take longer to break down so it's going to make it further down the

digestive tract.

And a special case that affects a lot of people that gives them severe problems is called

SIBO.

That's small intestine bacterial overgrowth.

And like I said, we're supposed to have lots of bacteria in the large intestine and virtually

none in the small intestine but if we don't have a really tight Ileo-Cecal valve here

then some of that bacteria can backflow and now instead of thousands we might have tens

or hundreds of thousands of bacteria in the small intestine and now there is a whole lot

of carbohydrates that aren't fully absorbed that they get to munch on and they produce

a lot of gas.

Now if you truly have SIBO then you probably have to cut out a lot more stuff than just

bread but for most people if you cut out bread in 30 days you will notice a lot less bloating.

And a lot of people will say well what else is there to eat bread has been around forever

for thousands of years right well humans have been around for about a quarter million years

in our current make up our current DNA is about a quarter million years old and during

that time we had hunter-gatherer DNA because most of our lifestyle during that time was

hunting and gathering so whatever those people did whatever your ancestors did is what your

DNA is still designed to do and it's not that they didn't have any grains at all but there

were only a couple of species of grain and they didn't eat a whole lot of it they didn't

cultivate it they didn't grow it they might stumble across a few grains here and there

and they might put them in a soup or eat them the way they were but we did not eat a whole

lot of grains but that changed about 10,000 years ago.

So on this big long spectrum 10,000 years is this red area and that's how long we've

had agriculture we've been cultivating and growing it on purpose.

So if we blow up that little area 10,000 years to a larger scale then we can see that's now

how long we've had agriculture but even though we were growing the grain on purpose there

was still only a handful of different grains there were still just a few species of grains

to choose from and they had been around for a good while.

They didn't change very fast.

And through the millennia and through the centuries that didn't really change from the

Egyptians to the Romans and so forth until the last 50 years now we started hybridizing

and changing and playing around with the DNA of those grains and now we have modern wheat

and we have over twenty-five thousand different types of wheat before we arrived at these

modern versions and if you can see this yellow little line that’s just about a pixel wide

that's how long on this 10,000 year scale that we've had that modern wheat.

So the point of all that is that eventhough grains have been around for a long while we

haven't eaten very much grain until we started agriculture and even then those grains were

very very different from the stuff that we eat today which is basically an experiment

that has lasted a blink-of-an-eye.

So now that we have these modern wheats, they are optimized for yield.

They have the best yield.

They have the best durability, they're resistant to cold and floods and drought, they have

the best pest resistance and they have the best baking properties they hybridized, they

developed these to have more gluten and create more elastic and more fluffy, bouncy bread.

What they haven't been concerned about at all is how humans tolerate these grains and

how it affects our health so just because something is relatively new doesn't guarantee

that it's bad for us but it is also not very reassuring because we know meat and vegetables

have been around for 250,000 years.

Our DNA knows how to deal with that with grains it's kind of a toss-up and the more we change

it the less likely that we tolerate it well.

I'm sure you can agree that the main purpose of eating is to get nutrients.

So all these different foods have nutrients, but plant food and especially grains also

have something called anti-nutrients.

That means they contain chemical compounds that prevent us from absorbing the nutrients

in the food one of those is called phytates, and phytates bind very strongly to minerals

and when it's bound to a phytate we can’t absorb it.

So it basically blocks that portion of our nutrition they also contain enzyme Inhibitors

so your DNA is coded to produce enzymes that fit specifically into breaking down certain

foods and if we have Inhibitors of those enzymes then we can’t break down the food or not

break it down completely, and it’s primarily protein digestion that's affected.

Some of those Inhibitors are oxalates, tannins and gluten, and we’ll come back to gluten

separately, cause that's a big one and another anti nutrient is lectins which we’ll also

cover separately.

Gluten has gotten almost all the attention when it comes to the pros and cons of grain

and bread, but gluten is really a mixture of hundreds of different proteins and then

we can break those proteins down into two classes of protein where one group is called

glutenin and it's more like strands and they provide the elasticity you can stretch the

dough and the other class is called gliadins which helps the dough rise, help the bread

rise during baking.

And the type and quantity of gliadins and gluten in wheat is unique and that's why only

wheat can make really fluffy bread and that's why it's so desirable.

And a lot of people now they would say well but I don't have celiac disease I thought

that wheat is just something that celiacs people should avoid and that everyone else

should eat it as a health food but it's a little bit more to it than that there's something

called intestinal barrier resistance so it's not like you have a barrier that's on or off

it's not like a door that you just open or close.

It's a gradual thing that goes from like a hundred percent of optimal barrier to 0 % where

it's basically totally leaky and dysfunctional and if you have celiac disease which affects

about 1% of the population then your intestinal barrier is already in pretty bad shape and

anytime that you eat gluten then it makes it worse so just a smidgen of gluten is just

going to put everything on fire but then there's the group called non-celiac sensitivity that's

getting more and more attention because there's a lot of people who notice that they feel

bad they get symptoms even though they don't test for celiac’s.

So what's happening here is these people basically go from okay to bad so whatever your level

is you're compromising it by eating something that increases the intestinal permeability.

So if you go from okay to bad then you're likely to have some symptoms and there's about

13% of the population that are reporting symptoms and that's why so many people stop eating

gluten and they notice that they feel better.

But notice that this is self-reported that means only the people who pay attention and

have symptoms severe enough are going to actually tell anybody so that number in reality is

much much higher and in my office we find that wheat is the number one sensitivity for

most people so what about everybody else Well if you have a good intestinal barrier resistance

and you eat gluten if you're still going to compromise it you're still going to affect

it not maybe to the point where you have symptoms or maybe not to where you're going to notice

the symptoms right away but this is the reason most people will benefit from limiting gluten

whether you notice that it affects you or not.

And then there's the class of lectins the one in wheat is primarily called wheat germ

agglutinin and what is that?

It's a very sticky protein that attaches to epithelial cells.

And epithelium is a type of cell that makes up barriers or surfaces so you have epithelium

on the outside of your skin but it's the same type of cell that is on the inside of you

as well.

So any type of barrier or surface is typically going to be an epithelial cells and what happens

is that these sticky proteins they attach to little carbohydrate antennas on top of

these microvilli So you have larger villi that's like little fingers tiny tiny fingers

on the inside of your gut to increase surface area to absorb things but they're on the top

of each little

Each little cell you have microvilli also called the brush border and on top of those

there's little carbohydrates antennas and these wheat germ agglutinins, these lectins

they’re very sticky they grab on and they won't let go so now that causes a lot of stress

a lot of inflammation and they start destroying that brush border.

As a result these lectins are very strongly associated with leaky gut and when you have

a leaky gut your gut lets through particles that are too big that your immune system reacts

to and now you're more prone to autoimmunity.

But that's not the only place that you have these epithelial surface cells you also have

them on the inside of blood vessels and when these agglutinins stick to the blood vessels

now they create the same thing they increase the permeability the leakiness and now some

of these small oxidized damaged LDL particles that I talked about in some other videos they

can get through these gaps and contribute to cardiovascular disease and to plaquing.

But it doesn't even stop there these lectins also affect your brush border enzymes so you

make enzymes to digest and break down food and some of these enzymes are cultivated,

they’re grown in the brush border but if the lectins attach and compromise the brush

border, they’re also going to compromise your enzymes and now you can't digest and

absorb food and nutrients as well.

But lectins have even been shown to stimulate insulin receptors which means that they push

you toward insulin resistance and lipogenesis, meaning you make more fat and you store more

fat, and they can even block leptin, the activity of leptin which is a satiety hormone, your

fat cells make leptin to tell the body that hey you know we're pretty good here we don't

need any more fat right now.

But if you block that leptin now they don't signal and you don't feel the satiety so you

just keep on eating.

So if you reduce bread or cut it out for 30 days, You’re going to reduce phytates which

means you'll be able to absorb minerals better.

If you cut out the bread you’ll also avoid lectin and gluten so you will improve the

permeability.

Your leaky gut will get better.

It will reduce the inflammation in your gut.

Therefore you will improve the absorption of nutrients in general because your brush

border is going to be allowed to regenerate and heal and then you will also lessen your

chances of autoimmunity of irritable bowel syndrome and just about any other digestive

complaint that you have.

Most of them are going to be likely to improve it's not the only thing that can disturb your

gut, but it's one of the absolute most important ones.

And furthermore you will improve your leptin and Insulin signaling function.

Therefore you will reduce the tendency or the degree of type 2 diabetes.

You will reduce your risk of heart disease.

You will probably reduce your blood pressure and because of leptin signaling better you'll

have less cravings and better satiety and of course because of those two it will also

probably result in weight loss.

Now a lot of people will say but we can’t give up bread.

It’s too important.

It’s a staple.

It’s shaped the world.

It’s helped us create the civilization as we know it and that is true that for humans

to develop the cultures and the type of society that we have, cultivated grain and agriculture

was absolutely necessary, because it allowed people to not spend all of their time hunting

and gathering, instead they could specialize they could delegate the farming to some people

and other people could go ahead and learn things and become teachers and merchants and

so forth.

And the grain has also helped to feed the masses which is responsible for having the

masses of people that we have on the planet today.

But that doesn't mean that were stuck in that model because we have a new world, the population

growth is slowing down is plateauing in the next couple of decades we have more technology

we have more resources we have more know-how than we've ever had before, so if we want

to we can create smaller and sustainable farms that don't just rely on grains.

We can grow a variety of crops and we can come back to some of the ancient grains that

don't have all of these negative side effects.

But then you ask isn't that going to be more expensive and yes anytime that you improve

the quality it will probably increase the cost a little bit but not as much as most

people think not if we can develop systems and scale this and the way you want to think

about it is either you spend the money up front on quality food or you pay later for

the consequences.

So in the United States right now we spend 8% of all of our spendable income on food

but we spend more than 20% of all our income on sick care.

So we're super cheap about feeding ourselves so we get really sick and then pay for all

that sick care but it's not really solving the problem it's just patching it up and keeping

us alive.

And if you get your bread from a grocery store it's probably going to have some additives

in it because they love to put things in there like seed oils and trans fats and various

forms of chemicals like dough conditioners and emulsifiers and preservatives and one

in particular is potassium bromate that is banned in a lot of countries.

So by giving up the bread for 30 days you will get additional benefits in terms of less

toxic burden and the organs that are going to thank you the most are your liver and your

kidney.

Now let’s dig in a little bit on the stuff that gets really confusing to most people,

like the different types of bread.

Some is supposed to be bad and some is supposed to be good and a lot of people don't even

realize that white and wheat are the same thing, it's just processed differently.

They’re not different types of grain.

It's all wheat now if it's white that means it's processed and they peel off the bran

and they take away the germ and they only keep the inside called the endosperm which

is where the starch and the gluten is.

If they make a whole grain bread whole grain wheat then they use the whole kernel and they

grind it all down.

But what does that mean in terms of the items that we talked about the blood sugar, nutrients

etcetera?

Well, for blood sugar, white and wheat processed and whole grain is going to be roughly the

same.

I know that you've heard differently cuz they're trying to promote the whole grain as healthy

but there's like a 1% difference between the two.

It's so slight that they're really the same when it comes to nutrients then the white

is much worse.

It's kind of on the level of processed sugar.

It’s white sugar, white flour.

It's the white trash.

it's been processed and taken away the things that will spoil so when they process it they

take away the germ and they take away the bran so now you don't have any minerals you

don't, you lose a lot of the vitamins and you lose the fiber.

But then we have to account for the anti-nutrients the things that prevent you from absorbing

the nutrients in there and now the wheat is worse but of course that doesn't really matter

much because the white didn't have much nutrients to start with after we process it.

Then we get to the celiacs and gluten effects and they're about the same because all the

gluten is in the middle that you keep when you make the white bread.

As far as allergies and lectins now this is actually a lot worse with the whole grain

because most of the defenses of the plants the lectins are in the shell on the surface

and therefore if you eat the whole grain there's also going to be more things to be sensitive,

more things to be allergic to.

But obviously when it comes to fiber the whole grain is going to be better because the white

hardly has anything anymore.

Now I'm not a fan of white flour, white bread by long shot because it's barely better than

white sugar, but if we talk about the real reasons that most people would benefit from

avoiding bread other than the glucose which is about the same the other important aspects

are reactions to gluten and allergies and lectins and when we look at those they're

either same or worse for the whole grain wheat so you really want to avoid white but wheat

might be even worse.

But all of this so far has been about modern hybridized wheat which is what most people

get if you go out of your way and you look for some of these ancient grains how are they

going to compare?

Well, blood sugar wise They’re going to be much better because the ancient grain had

a lot more protein.

They had often times 2, 2 1/2 times more protein.

The nutrients, anti-nutrients I don't know they're probably similar to the whole grain,

if you eat the whole grain, but in terms of celiacs allergies and lectins they're going

to be much better, because a lot of the glutens in the modern grains were developed on purpose

every time they crossbred something they had new kinds of gluten and they tried to develop

more gluten so they could get fluffy bread and whenever people have trouble with the

modern wheat and they try some of the ancient I'm not saying that it's a free-for-all but

a lot of people will find that they have no problem with the ancient grains they have

no reactions even though they can't tolerate regular bread.

Now if you have severe problems, sensitivities or celiacs to the regular wheat then you're

not going to be able to tolerate ancient grain either but if you're just a little bit sensitive

then the ancient might be a better way for you and be much better tolerated.

And sometimes people say so I know I can't have bread but what if it's organic?

Well obviously that makes no difference because all of the factors that we talked about are

going to be exactly the same.

The difference is that with Organic you’re probably getting a little bit less chemicals

and pesticides, but everything else is going to be the same.

And then there's a very popular version of bread called Ezekiel and is that really different?

Not really is it better yes because it's sprouted and very often they will use ancient grains

not always but sometimes.

But when they sprout it they will break down some of the starches they will enhance some

of the nutrients with the sprouts and they'll have less of some of these irritating factors

some of the lectins will break down as well but it's not going to be night and day they're

still going to have most of those issues present.

And for a certain percentage of people it's almost impossible to stop bread.

It’s so hard to kick the habit because it's like a drug.

What’s going on here?

It has to do with exorphins.

So your body has all these chemical Messengers like people who run they get a runner's high

from endorphin those are morphine like compounds generated inside the body but if you add something

from the outside that has the same effect that's called an exorphin - from the outside.

And the gluten breaks down into smaller pieces called polypeptides and some of those have

been named gluteomorphins because they act as morphine they cross the blood-brain barrier

and then they bind into opiate receptors into pleasure receptors in the brain.

Now is that seems a little out there consider the following that if you have a heroin addict

who takes an overdose and ends up in the emergency room they will treat him with an antidote

called naloxone and that will block the opiate receptors and the effect of the heroin so

they can hopefully survive but the same thing happens to these gluteomorphins.

that the naloxone will also block the effect of the gluteomorphin which means but these

substances are very related.

And the way they tested that was to give this drug to some people at a buffet with lots

of bread and it ended up that these people ate 33% less calories so now they got super

excited and they thought hey we got the perfect weight loss drug and they frantically started

researching for something that they could mass-market but not so fast.

Why does that work?

Because it blocks a natural desire in the body.

It blocks our reward pathway we don't have don't have these receptors randomly they're

there because we're supposed to have desires were supposed to have a drive to pursue things

and if we block that reward pathway we also block the desire to pursue rewards.

So a side effect of that drug is that it depresses the mood as well but I can only imagine that

they still would want to put this on the market and then they would have some directions for

usage and they say number one make sure to take your anti heroin drug with wheat but

don't forget to take your antidepressant along with it.

And that's how it usually works in the medical model that they see something that they can

affect.

They go in and they push it or block it and then it puts an imbalance on it and now they

go in and they try to affect that and then they have to compensate for something else

and something else and something else and the only way the body is going to work in

the long run is if it can create its own balance.

So what might happen if you cut out the bread for 30 days is a lot of people are going to

have some withdrawal, but if you understand this and you understand that the body is designed

to find balance and it rewires very quickly then in just a few days you will actually

feel a whole lot better.

You will feel more calm, your mood will be more stable.

You’ll have better focus and you have more stability in your life.

So I recommend that you just try it don't take my word for it stop bread for 30 days

and then you notice the changes even better write them down so it's really clear to you

and then after 30 days now you can choose do you want to stay off or do you want to

try to reintroduce this.

Chances or you're not going to have nearly the craving or desire for it but if you decide

to try it again to some degree then try some of these more ancient ones because they’re

going to be so much better on your digestive system so a few of them are Einkorn, Emmer,

Spelt, Kamut and Rye and the other recommendation would be that you'd do it once in a while.

Do it as an add-on to your meals.

Do not reintroduce it 8 to 11 times per day.

If you enjoyed this video you're going to love that one.

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