30-Day No Wheat Challenge: It Begins

Starting today, Chelly and I are forgoing the consumption of wheat for 30 days. It was my idea, and I was definitely motivated by the recent book "Wheat Belly", although I haven't read it don't even plan to. I have, however, read that the book claims that modern-day wheat has been genetically altered to such an extant that it's no longer so good for us to eat. I find that to be an interesting claim, and utterly believable on its face, and for some reason I want to know if it's true. But if I read the book, I'll probably just be convinced by it's rhetoric and become a smug conversational know-it-all about yet another topic I have no first-hand experience with. That's why I have impetuously decided to challenge myself (and Chelly) to 30 days of eating no wheat and experiencing for myself the effects.

I definitely did not know what a challenge I was setting when I did it; I've done some reading on what foods I have to eschew in order to avoid wheat, and I wasn't expecting to see entries like 'ice cream' and 'chocolate'. Flour, as it happens, is a common thickening agent in lots of foods I don't immediately think of being bread-y or startchy. Vigilance and constant Googling will obviously be the order of the day until I get used to things.

For what it's worth, I'm not viewing or approaching this experiment as a diet. I could use a diet, to be sure, but the next 30 days are strictly about wheat as far I'm concerned. I'm very eager to know how my metabolism will be affected by its absence, and grimly curious about how many food-choice-related hassles this experiment will cause.

I'll know pretty soon, I bet. I'll be blogging here about my experience, the challenges of the Challenge, and anything cool I learn about wheat along the way.