Eliminated wheat? Please share your story.

[Hopefulmama]

I just started reading "Wheat Belly". So very interesting. It has prompted me to stop eating wheat. Have you give up wheat? If so, what have you noticed? Positive/negative side effects? I have heard from so many people that they were finally able to lose weight. I am hoping it will help with a myriad of other issues as well.

[nettlesoup]

I gave up wheat a couple of years after discovering the Primal diet. It's one of the best things I ever did! quitting wheat cured my almost life long chronic constipation, I stopped getting chronic mouth ulcers, I lost a bit of weight, the allergy I had to my engagement ring disappeared, and I stopped getting stomach pains after eating.

It was well worth giving up and I don't miss it at all.

[Chula13]

I have been reading wheat belly as well and have been thinking of giving up wheat too. Are you planning on making the whole family wheat free?

[BellinghamCrunchie]

I gave up wheat 5 years ago and my restless legs syndrome completely disappeared, and I found I had more energy overall. I think there are probably a lot of other benefits that were too mild to notice.

[Hopefulmama]

We are working towards the entire family eliminating it. I don't see my DH or kids being completely wheat free when out of the house. I figure that if we don't have it in the house then we won't eat nearly as much though.  This is my first week and I don't miss it at all. We were totally gluten free a few years ago and used a lot of substitute products and did not find them satisfying. They aren't really good for you either. So this time around, we are focusing on a lot more WHOLE foods. Instead of making brownies from a gluten free box mix, we made raw brownie bites from nuts, dates, vanilla, and cocoa. They were delicious and the kids liked them better than the box stuff. Instead of having GF bread for a sandwich for lunch, I make two soups each week and we have those for lunch. That way we don't miss "the real thing" because we are eating a gross substitue. (I know not all GF substitutes are gross or unhealthy-just saying that most of the ones we tried were.) We are also avoiding dairy for a number of reasons, so that makes things more of a challenge. It has only been a few days, but so far, my kids don't even realize we aren't eating wheat. I guarantee that if I gave them GF bread, they would have fussed-that's what happened before. I think the key is finding other foods that are tasty and wholesome and having those around instead. We do have the GF crackers from Sams Club and everyone likes them. DH started taking dinner leftovers for lunch for work. I was shocked. I never thought he would give up his sandwiches. So far, he has been enjoying having a hot lunch not that the weather is cold here.