According to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist and author of Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health, says "Wheat is a big reason if not the biggest reason of all, why Americans are the most overweight population, and has the worst epidemic of diabetes
along with hypertension, heart disease, cancer, dementia, ADHD and autism. Wheat is making us sicker than ever."
Dr. Davis is a regular guest on The Dr. Oz television show and has helped the doctor reveal that obesity in America, and particularly the belly fat type of obesity, is caused by eating what he calls "Frankenwheat."
Dr. Davis says Frankenwheat is genetically modified wheat that is not the same type of wheat humans ate long go, but instead is now a genetic creation that delivers a double negative whammy of being both addictive and toxic to the body.
Davis says he calls today's wheat "Frankenwheat" due to the fact that "The wheat of today is not the same wheat your mom or grandma had, because what we have now is not the four and one-half foot tall traditional plant that we all think about, it is an 18 inch tall, high-yield, semi-dwarf creation of genetics research and that is why I call it "Frankenwheat." Davis said he thinks eating any wheat products today in any form, even whole wheat, is linked to illnesses in all of the body's organs and that modern wheat that has been genetically selected for maximum yields and pest protection has the serious unintended consequence of poisoning our bodies.
One reason Dr. Davis says wheat is highly addictive is that it works with the same receptors in the brain that narcotic drugs stimulate and causes people to eat more wheat than they should. More food equals more weight and it also often translates to excess fat build-up, especially in the visceral fat that is stored as belly fat around the abdomen. Davis also said that another reason wheat is addictive is a protein called "gliatin" that stimulates the brain much like heroin or cocaine, and it causes an increasing appetite that can result in people eating as much as 440 extra calories per day.
In response to the epidemic Frankenwheat problem, Dr. Oz says he has a new diet plan that will make people healthier overall and help them lose as much as 15 pounds in 30 days by simply eliminating all of the wheat from their diet. Dr. Oz's diet is not a starvation or deprivation diet though, and his approach is simply a replacement diet where wheat is replaced with a variety of other healthier carbohydrate choices.