Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox (30 page)

Inulin powder

Nut and seed butters—almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower seed butter

Nuts—raw almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts; chopped walnuts or pecans for baking

Oils—extra-virgin olive, coconut, organic butter, ghee, avocado, flaxseed, walnut, extra-light olive, nonhydrogenated lard or tallow

Seeds—raw sunflower, raw pumpkin, sesame, and chia

Shirataki noodles (in the refrigerated section)

Spaghetti squash

Sweeteners—liquid stevia, powdered stevia (pure or with inulin, not maltodextrin), monk fruit, powdered erythritol, xylitol

Zucchini

10-DAY MENU PLAN DAY-BY-DAY SHOPPING LIST

Here are the ingredients required if you adhere to the 10-Day Menu Plan as written. Obviously, to save time and effort, shop for several days at a time. The ingredients that are used repeatedly or in more than one recipe are listed at the top as “Frequently Used
Ingredients.”
Each day's shopping list assumes that you have already purchased the frequently used ingredients and that your kitchen is already stocked with common items such as eggs and ground pepper.

Be prepared for greater up-front costs as you discard grain products and restock your kitchen with grain-free, healthy ingredients. Once you stock your shelves and refrigerator and accumulate all the tools you need, the costs will drop.

Frequently Used Ingredients

Ingredients for Detox Shakes—white potatoes, green bananas, inulin powder, unsweetened coconut/almond/hemp milk, coconut oil, raw pumpkin seeds, stevia drops or your choice of safe sweetener, as well as the ingredients for each unique shake (e.g., unsweetened cocoa powder, unsweetened applesauce, unsweetened pineapple chunks)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Butter, organic

Hot-pepper sauce

Mayonnaise

Gluten-free soy sauce or tamari

Almond extract

Onions, yellow

Garlic cloves

Raw sunflower seeds

Raw pumpkin seeds

Raw almonds, sliced

Raw pecans, chopped or whole

Raw walnuts, chopped or whole

Shredded unsweetened coconut

Ground golden flaxseeds

Coconut flour

Ground ginger

Onion powder

Ground cinnamon

Ground cloves

Ground nutmeg

Dried rosemary

Dried basil

Dried oregano

Garlic powder

Sea salt

DAY
1

Apricot Ginger “Granola”—dried apricots (5), allspice

Cream of Broccoli Soup—chicken stock (4 cups), broccoli (1 pound)

Italian Sausage and Bell Pepper Pizza—shredded mozzarella cheese (2 cups), Italian sausage (loose or in casing, 8 ounces), red bell pepper (1), green or yellow bell pepper (1), pizza sauce (1 cup), crushed red-pepper flakes

DAY 2

Berry Coconut Quick Muffin—fresh or frozen mixed berries (¼ cup)

Wheat Belly Herbed Focaccia Bread—shredded mozzarella cheese (1 cup), black or kalamata olives (½ cup), sun-dried tomatoes (¼ cup, preferably in oil)

Eggplant Lasagna—eggplants (2 medium), marinara sauce (26-ounce jar), fresh or dried basil, fresh or dried oregano, ricotta cheese (16 ounces), mozzarella cheese (16 ounces)

DAY 3

Mediterranean “Pasta” Salad—zucchini (1 pound), cherry tomatoes (8 ounces), cucumber (1 medium), scallions (5–6), black or kalamata olives (½ cup), pepperoni (8 ounces), fresh or dried basil, fresh or dried oregano

Bacon-Topped Meat Loaf with Mushrooms and Gravy—ground beef (1 pound), ground pork (1 pound), carrots (2 cups shredded), green bell pepper (1), bacon (4 strips), button mushrooms (4 ounces), beef broth (1 cup)

Mashed “Potatoes”—cauliflower (1 large head)

DAY
4

Spicy Italian Frittata—Italian sausage (8 ounces loose or in casing), spinach or kale (2 cups), red bell pepper (1)

Spaghetti with Meatballs—ground beef (1½ pounds), fresh or dried basil, fresh or dried oregano, zucchini (1½ pounds), tomato sauce (28-ounce jar)

DAY 5

Curried Chicken Soup—chicken breasts (1 pound), shiitake mushrooms (4 ounces), chicken broth (1 quart), cilantro (2 tablespoons chopped)

Fettucine Alfredo—zucchini (2 pounds), heavy cream or canned coconut milk (½ cup)

Chocolate Avocado Pudding—avocados (3 large ripe), unsweetened cocoa powder (½ cup), optional fresh berries (½ cup)

DAY 6

Eggplant Mini Pizzas—eggplant (1 medium), pizza sauce (1 cup), pepperoni (2 ounces), shredded mozzarella cheese (4 ounces)

Pork Thai Stir-Fry—scallions (4–5), pork (your choice of cut, e.g., pork chop, tenderloin, ham; 1 pound), fresh ginger (1 tablespoon grated), broccoli (1 large head), shiitake mushrooms (4 ounces), red curry sauce (1 tablespoon), fish sauce (¼ cup), cilantro (2 tablespoons chopped)

DAY
7

Chorizo, Pepper, and Avocado Skillet—radishes (1 pound), scallions (4), chorizo sausage (12 ounces), green bell pepper (1), kale or spinach (2 cups), avocado (1 large)

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Roasted Red Peppers—chicken breasts (4 breasts, about 2 pounds), portobello mushrooms (4 ounces), roasted red peppers (½ cup), spinach (4 cups fresh or 10-ounce package frozen), bacon (8 strips)

DAY 8

Spicy Minestrone—chicken broth (1 quart), diced tomatoes (14-ounce can), tomato paste (6-ounce can), celery (2 ribs), green beans (8 ounces), pinto beans (15-ounce can), button mushrooms (4 ounces), spinach (4 cups chopped fresh or 10-ounce box frozen chopped), fresh basil (¼ cup)

Shrimp Fried “Rice”—cauliflower (1 head), scallions (5–6), shrimp (1 pound cooked), fresh ginger (1 tablespoon grated), carrots (1 cup grated), green bell pepper (1), fish sauce (2 tablespoons), sesame oil (2 tablespoons)

DAY 9

Jumbo Gingerbread Nut Muffins—all ingredients are in the Frequently Used Ingredients list

Bratwurst with Bell Peppers and Sauerkraut—caraway seeds (1 teaspoon), celery seeds (½ teaspoon), bratwurst or other spicy sausage (1 pound), green bell peppers (2), sauerkraut (2 cups)

“Potato” Salad—turnips (2 pounds), white onion (1), dill pickles (2), Dijon mustard (2 teaspoons), paprika (1 teaspoon)

DAY
10

BLT Wrap—lettuce or spinach (½ cup), bacon (2 strips), tomato (1)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Ham Skillet—Brussels sprouts (1 pound), portobello mushrooms (4 ounces), sweet potato (1 medium), ham (precooked, 12 ounces)

KITCHEN DEVICES

•
A spiral-cutting device to create “noodles” from zucchini, such as Spirelli, a spiralizer, Veggetti, the Benriner Spiral Cutter, or the Sur La Table Vegetable and Fruit Spiral Slicer.

•
A grinding device: While a food processor works great to grind nuts and other foods, cleanup can be a hassle. I use a simple food chopper (KitchenAid sells one for around $35, among others) to grind efficiently with quick cleanup. Even a coffee grinder can get the job done with less cleanup.

•
A powerful blender: It helps to have a blender with a motor powerful enough to not stall when we make our Wheat Belly Detox Shakes, which include ingredients like a coarsely chopped potato or green banana. A Vitamix handles these ingredients easily. I also used a less powerful NutriBullet, which handled the job without problems.

•
Parchment paper: Grain-free baking involves less hassle with quicker cleanup if you use parchment paper to bake pizzas and other dishes.

APPENDIX
B

Additional Resources

RECOGNIZE HIDDEN SOURCES OF WHEAT AND GRAINS

You will see from the following lists that grains come in an incredible variety of forms, often hidden as some additive, thickener, or coating. The variety of colorful names can falsely lull you into thinking that no wheat is present: couscous, matzo, orzo, graham, faro, panko, and bran, for example. But all are wheat. A similar situation applies to corn.

Be aware of the potential for grain contamination from utensils, airborne particles, or liquids. Cross-contamination is most problematic for people with extreme gluten sensitivities or an allergy to a grain component. If a food is labeled “gluten-free,” then it should have been prepared in a facility where cross-contamination would not have occurred. Very few restaurants have the ability to avoid cross-contamination, though an increasing number are taking on the challenge as the market for these foods grows.

To qualify as “gluten-free” according to FDA criteria, products must be both free of gluten and produced in a gluten-free facility. The FDA's cutoff for qualifying as gluten-free is that the food should contain no more than 20 parts per million. This means that, for the seriously sensitive, even an ingredient label that does not list wheat or any buzzwords for wheat such as “modified food starch” can still contain some measure of gluten. When in doubt, contact the customer service department for the product to inquire whether a gluten-free facility was used. More
and
more manufacturers are starting to specify whether products are gluten-free or not gluten-free on their Web sites.

Note that “wheat-free” does not equate with “gluten-free” in food labeling. “Wheat-free” can mean, for instance, that barley malt or rye is used in place of wheat, but both are sources of gluten and other grain-sourced contaminants. Also recognize that, even though corn products are often used in gluten-free foods, the zein protein of corn can mimic many of the effects of the gliadin protein of wheat; we therefore avoid all sources of corn.

Here are some not-so-obvious foods that can contain wheat, as well as some wheat-based ingredients in foods that might appear benign. A question mark (?) following an item means it is either variable (some products contain wheat while others do not) or uncertain (given manufacturers' reluctance or inability to specify the source).

Hidden Sources of Wheat

Baguette

Beignet

Bran

Brioche

Bulgur

Burrito

Caramel coloring (?)

Caramel flavoring (?)

Couscous

Crepe

Croutons

Dextrimaltose

Durum

Einkorn

Emmer

Emulsifiers

Farina

Faro

Focaccia

Fu (gluten in Asian foods)

Gnocchi

Graham flour

Gravy

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

Hydrolyzed wheat starch

Kamut

Maltodextrin

Matzo

Modified food starch (?)

Orzo

Panko (a bread crumb mixture used in Japanese cooking)

Ramen

Roux (wheat-based sauce or thickener)

Rusk

Rye

Seitan (nearly pure gluten used in place of meat)

Semolina

Soba (mostly buckwheat but usually also includes wheat)

Spelt

Stabilizers

Strudel

Tabbouleh

Tart

Textured vegetable protein (?)

Triticale

Triticum

Udon

Vital wheat gluten

Wheat bran

Wheat germ

Wraps

Hidden Sources of Corn

Identifying sources of corn is also not always so straightforward. While foods like corn on the cob, cornmeal, high-fructose corn syrup, and popcorn are obvious, there are also many hidden or nonobvious sources of corn.

One of the difficulties with corn products is that, in addition to the above sources, there are literally hundreds of common food ingredients derived from corn—such as dextrose, dextrin, maltodextrin, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, maltitol, polydextrose, ethanol, caramel coloring, and artificial flavorings—that will not be identified as being sourced from corn. However, the process to generate these products from corn reduces protein content to negligible levels, and they are therefore generally not a problem for grain exposure for the majority (though these products, especially sugars, pose other problems of their own). Also note that many medications and nutritional supplements contain wheat or corn.

Because of the many ways that corn-derived ingredients can make their way into processed foods, the best policy for the ultrasensitive is to avoid processed foods as much as possible. Be aware of the potential of corn-derived ingredients if there is suspicion of ongoing exposures.

Among
the most common hidden ingredients from corn are:

Hominy

Hydrolyzed corn protein

Hydrolyzed cornstarch

Maize

Mixed vegetable oil, vegetable oil

Modified food starch

Polenta

Zea mays

Zein

SAFE PREMIXED SWEETENER COMBINATIONS

•
Truvía—Available widely in major supermarkets, Truvía is a combination of rebiana, an isolate from stevia with less bitterness, and erythritol. Though the erythritol is sourced from corn, which we try to avoid, the corn protein residues are negligible.

•
Swerve—This is a combination of erythritol and inulin. The inulin can act as a prebiotic fiber to feed bowel flora.