Humans have been walking the Earth for many thousands of years now and while hunting and gathering in small groups was the common lifestyle on those first 10 thousand years of our existence, the discovery of agriculture during the Stone Age dramatically changed the way we live and feed today. We went from being nomads and hunting for survival to living a settled life while working the land for growing plants and domesticate animals upon our will and needs.
Today, half of the habitable land on the planet is used for an agricultural purpose which includes livestock, meat and dairy produce as well as crops. Wheat is grown on more land area than any other food crop making it more popularly consumed than all other crops combined.
Wheat is the most common source of carbohydrates as we can find it in bread, pasta, desserts, crisps, breakfast cereals, biscuits and all kind of sauces and condiments. Globally, it is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food but its protein quality is relatively low.
The most important thing I want you to understand about wheat is that it’s mostly made up of carbohydrates which is the same as sugar. And let me tell you a secret: sugar is not good for you. Knowing that and given that wheat is pretty much in every food we eat every day, it doesn’t say anything good about our diet, don’t you think? And don’t forget about the gluten thing because this protein within the wheat and some other cereals may provoke very ugly reactions to many people out there.
Now, I would like to share with you a very interesting experiment I underwent myself. For more than a year I followed a diet free from wheat, gluten and low in carbohydrates. After that, I came back to a normal diet but a couple of months went by before I gave up and came back to enjoying my gluten-free food. Do you want to know what happened during that time? Keep reading then.
What I’m about to share with you is not a fantasy, I didn’t make it up and obviously, nobody is paying me to say it; it’s just my personal experience.
So what's the primary change from giving up bread, pasta, biscuits and all that tasty stuff for over a year? I think you know the answer to that already; I lost weight. But that wasn’t the only consequence. I got thinner, yes, but I also gained muscle definition. In general, I was feeling stronger and more energetic and I also could feel much better during any kind of physical effort, not only as a result of an increase in muscle performance but because I could catch my breath much faster than before. In terms of running, for example, that means running faster for longer.
So, you’ve got an increase in stamina and performance, is that it? No, that’s not everything. See, this diet thing...most of the people don’t give too much importance to what they put into their mouth but I can tell how wrong they are. The changes you can experience are not only at a physical level; it also affects the chemistry of your brain and even your immune system.
I do remember that the first couple of weeks into the new diet were a bit tough. My brain was struggling in processing the different type of food coming to my digestive system and I confess I could catch myself day-dreaming with loaves of bread, pasta dishes and lovely biscuits as the perfect match for my tea. But after a while, those feelings became much easy to handle and I wasn’t even salivating like Pavlov’s dog when walking by a bakery display full of pastries and goodness of that kind.
My mood was also better during this new diet and I could feel my mind working more actively, getting more ideas and stuff like that. I was more inspired, I guess.
Talking about my immune system, I have to confess that during that period of over a year, I did catch a regular cold. Just once. But you know what, it happened when I was away on holidays and I was cheating on my diet, although just a little bit. However, I could recover completely in only 48 hours. So tell me, when was the last time you went through a cold in just a couple of days?
After 18 months I was ready to come back to a normal diet and see how my body and my brain was going to accept the change. I have to say that the first bite of bread and the first biscuit tasted like heaven.
Days went by eating anything and everything without getting crazy as I was never a person who eats much. Within a couple of weeks, I could already start to experience some significant changes. I gained weight, as I expected it would happen, but I also did lose a bit of muscle tone and my physical performance was already not that good. My mind felt sluggish, I appeared more tired and needed to sleep for longer periods, some days I couldn’t go without a mid-day siesta even having slept more than 8 hours straight that night.
My mood was also sensibly affected as I could appear grumpier than usual - my partner can confirm this fact. So in general, I was fatter, lazier, with a sluggish mind, always tired and with irritable mood. Now you can guess why I went back to that healthy diet, don’t you?
I can see you thinking: ‘This cannot be possible. There’s must be some kind of downside to all this diet thing because it sounds too good to be true’. You are right. I would say the most difficult thing is to be brave enough and make such a big change in your life. We have to bear in mind that our diet makes up a very good deal within our lifestyle. Just think of the times you eat something throughout a regular day. It can be from three times a day to five or even six, counting meals and snacks. Now try to swap all the stuff you eat containing wheat and carbohydrates for a healthier alternative. Not easy, uh? But that’s not 'really' the most difficult thing to do. The real challenge is to have the will to be persistent and stick to that new diet.
Tell you what, I’m going to challenge you, dear reader, to try this yourself. Don’t worry, you don’t need to give up the good tasty stuff for too long. In just 2-4 weeks, you should start feeling the results on your body and mind. In case you try this new venture, I advise you to contact first a nutritionist. However, I can assure you that we can survive perfectly fine without carbohydrates. Our ancestors lived for thousands of years hunting and eating from the trees and they were in a much healthier condition than you and me.
So what do you say? Do you dare to try it?
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