Wheat Belly. William Davis, MD

       CHAPTER 4

       HEY, MAN, WANNA BUY SOME EXORPHINS? THE ADDICTIVE PROPERTIES OF WHEAT

      ADDICTION. WITHDRAWAL. DELUSIONS. Hallucinations. Wild, unrestrained outbursts. I’m not describing mental illness or a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I’m talking about this food you invite into your kitchen, share with friends, and dunk in your coffee.

      I will discuss why wheat is unique among foods for its curious effects on the brain, effects shared with opiate drugs. It explains why some people experience incredible difficulty removing wheat from their diet. It’s not just a matter of inadequate resolve, inconvenience, or breaking well-worn habits; it’s about severing a relationship with something that gains hold of your psyche and emotions, not unlike the hold heroin has over the desperate addict.

      While you knowingly consume coffee and alcohol to obtain specific mind effects, wheat is something you consume for “nutrition,” not for a “fix.” Like drinking the Kool-Aid at the Jim Jones revival meeting, you may not even be aware that this thing, endorsed by all “official” agencies, is fiddling with your mind.

      People who eliminate wheat from their diet typically report improved mood, fewer mood swings, improved ability to concentrate, and deeper sleep within just days to weeks of their last bite of bagel or baked lasagna. I have been impressed with how consistent these observations are, experienced by the majority of people once the initial withdrawal effects of mental fog and fatigue subside. I’ve personally experienced these effects and also witnessed them in thousands of people.

      It is easy to underestimate the psychological pull of wheat. Just how dangerous can an innocent bran muffin be, after all?

      “BREAD IS MY CRACK!”

      Wheat is the Haight-Ashbury of foods, unparalleled for its potential to generate entirely unique effects on the brain and nervous system. There is no doubt: For some people, wheat is addictive. And, in some people, it is addictive to the point of obsession.

      Some people with wheat addiction just know they have a wheat addiction. Or they identify it as an addiction to some wheat-containing food, such as pasta or pizza. They already understand, even before I tell them, that their wheat-food-addiction-of-choice provides a little “high.” I still get shivers when a well-dressed, suburban soccer mom desperately confesses to me, “Bread is my crack. I just can’t give it up!”

      Wheat can dictate food choice, caloric consumption, timing of meals and snacks. It can influence behavior and mood. It can even dominate thoughts. A number of my patients, when presented with the suggestion of removing it from their diets, report obsessing over wheat products to the point of thinking about them, talking about them, salivating over them constantly for weeks. “I can’t stop thinking about bread. I dream about bread!” they tell me, leading some to succumb to a wheat-consuming frenzy and give up within days after trying to banish it from their lives.

      There is, of course, a flip side to addiction. When people divorce themselves from wheat-containing products, 40 percent experience something that can only be called withdrawal.

      I’ve personally witnessed thousands of people report extreme fatigue, mental fog, irritability, inability to function at work or school, even depression in the first several days to weeks after eliminating wheat. Complete relief is obtained by consuming a bagel or cupcake (or, sadly, more like four bagels, two cupcakes, a bag of pretzels, two muffins, and a handful of brownies, followed the next morning by a nasty case of wheat remorse). It’s a vicious circle: Abstain from a substance and a distinctly unpleasant experience ensues; resume it, the unpleasant experience ceases—that sounds a lot like addiction and withdrawal to me.

      People who haven’t experienced these effects pooh-pooh it all, thinking it strains credibility to believe that something as pedestrian as wheat can affect the central nervous system as much as nicotine or crack cocaine do.

      There is a scientifically plausible reason for both the addiction and withdrawal effects. Not only does wheat exert effects on the normal brain but also on the vulnerable abnormal brain, with results beyond simple addiction and withdrawal. Studying the effects of wheat on the abnormal brain can teach us some lessons on why and how wheat can be associated with such phenomena.

      “GOD, IS THAT YOU?” WHEAT AND THE SCHIZOPHRENIC MIND

      The first important lessons on the effects wheat has on the brain came through studying its effects on people with schizophrenia.

      Schizophrenics lead a difficult life. They struggle to differentiate reality from internal fantasy, often entertaining delusions of persecution, even believing their minds and actions are controlled by external forces. (Remember “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz, the New York City serial killer who stalked his victims on instructions received from his dog? Thankfully, violent behavior is uncommon in schizophrenics, but it illustrates the depth of pathology possible.) Once schizophrenia is diagnosed, there is little hope of leading a normal life of work, family, and children. A life of institutionalization, medications with awful side effects, and a constant struggle with dark internal demons lies ahead.

      So what are the effects of wheat on the vulnerable schizophrenic mind?

      The earliest formal connection of the effects of wheat on the schizophrenic brain began with the work of physician F. Curtis Dohan, whose observations ranged as far as Europe and New Guinea. Dr. Dohan journeyed down this line of investigation because he observed that, during World War II, the men and women of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, and the United States required fewer hospitalizations for schizophrenia when food shortages made bread unavailable, only to require an increased number of hospitalizations when wheat consumption resumed after the war was over.¹

      Dr. Dohan observed a similar pattern in the hunter-gatherer Stone Age culture of New Guinea, Micronesia, and the Solomon Islands, where he was a member of a team of field researchers. Prior to Western influence, schizophrenia was virtually unknown, diagnosed in only 2 of 65,000 inhabitants in one New Guinea population previously unacquainted with Western ways. As Western eating habits infiltrated these populations and wheat products were cultivated, beer was made from barley, and corn was introduced, Dr. Dohan watched the incidence of schizophrenia skyrocket sixty-five-fold.² On this background, he set out to develop the observations that established whether or not there was a cause-and-effect relationship between wheat consumption and schizophrenia.

      In the mid-sixties, while working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Dohan and his colleagues decided to remove all wheat products from meals provided to schizophrenic patients without their knowledge or permission. (This was the era before informed consent of participants was required, before the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment became publicized that triggered public outrage and led to legislation requiring fully informed participant consent.) Lo and behold, four weeks sans