Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Used - Very Good
$6.57$6.57
Ships from: ThriftBooks-Phoenix Sold by: ThriftBooks-Phoenix
Sorry, there was a problem.
There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.Sorry, there was a problem.
List unavailable.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Wheat Belly (Revised and Expanded Edition): Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
Purchase options and add-ons
“One of the most impactful nutrition-based books of modern times.”—David Perlmutter, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grain Brain
First published in 2011, Wheat Belly introduced the world to the hidden dangers of modern wheat and gluten, revolutionizing the conversation around health and weight loss forever. Nearly a decade later, Dr. William Davis’s provocative indictment of the dominant staple in our diet continues to inspire countless people to “lose the wheat.”
After witnessing thousands of patients regain their health after giving up wheat, Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic—and its elimination is key to drastic weight loss and optimal health. In Wheat Belly, Dr. Davis provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new wheat-free lifestyle. Now updated with refreshed recipes, new program guidelines, and cutting-edge nutritional findings, Wheat Belly is an illuminating look at what truly is making Americans sick and an action plan to clear our plates of this harmful ingredient.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRodale Books
- Publication dateDecember 10, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 0.98 x 9.1 inches
- ISBN-101984824945
- ISBN-13978-1984824943
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Frequently bought together

Deals on related products
Customers also bought or read
- Wheat Belly 30-Minute (Or Less!) Cookbook: 200 Quick and Simple Recipes to Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
Hardcover$14.60$14.60Delivery Jun 21 - 24 - Super Gut: A Four-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight
Paperback$11.79$11.79Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Wheat Belly Cookbook: 150 Recipes to Help You Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
Hardcover$12.98$12.98Delivery Jun 20 - 23 - Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox: Reprogram Your Body for Rapid Weight Loss and Amazing Health
Hardcover$12.99$12.99FREE delivery Jun 16 - 17 - THE SUPER GUT COOKBOOK: A Step-by-Step Guide with Gut-Healing Recipes to Restore Digestion, Boost Energy, and Support Lasting Weight Loss
Paperback$15.97$15.97Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life
Paperback$16.65$16.65FREE delivery Jun 16 - 18 - SUPER Body: A 3-Week Program to Harness the New Science of Body Composition and Restore Your Youthful Contours
Hardcover$15.85$15.85Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet
Paperback$9.78$9.78Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Cultured Food for Health: A Guide to Healing Yourself with Probiotic Foods: Kefir, Kombucha, Cultured Vegetables
Paperback$24.99$24.99Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - No Grain, No Pain: A 30-Day Diet for Eliminating the Root Cause of Chronic Pain
Paperback$10.13$10.13Delivery Jun 16 - 18 - UNHOLY TRINITY: How Carbs, Sugar & Oils Make Us Fat, Sick & Addicted and How to Escape Their Grip
Paperback$24.84$24.84Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - The Grain Brain Cookbook: More Than 150 Life-Changing Gluten-Free Recipes to Transform Your Health
Hardcover$22.51$22.51FREE delivery Jun 18 - 25 - Toxic Superfoods: How Oxalate Overload Is Making You Sick--and How to Get Better
Paperback$12.07$12.07Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Wheat Belly Slim Guide: The Fast and Easy Reference for Living and Succeeding on the Wheat Belly Lifestyle
Paperback$10.99$10.99Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Wheat-Free, Worry-Free: The Art of Happy, Healthy Gluten-Free Living
Paperback$11.43$11.43Delivery Wed, Jun 17 - Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health and How We Can Get It Back
Hardcover$16.80$16.80Delivery Jun 23 - 28 - Cultured Food in a Jar: 100+ Probiotic Recipes to Inspire and Change Your Life
Paperback$21.68$21.68Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - 2026 Gluten Free Buyers Guide: Your shortcut to the best gluten free foods. From everyday staples to hidden gems.
Paperback$24.99$24.99Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Metabolic Freedom: A 30-Day Guide to Restore Your Metabolism, Heal Hormones & Burn Fat
Hardcover$14.99$14.99Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance.
Paperback$26.49$26.49Delivery Mon, Jun 15 - Gluten Freedom: The Nation's Leading Expert Offers the Essential Guide to a Healthy, Gluten-Free Lifestyle
Paperback$13.27$13.27Delivery Mon, Jun 15
From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Fascinating, compelling, and more than a little entertaining, Wheat Belly may be the most important health book of the year.”—Dana Carpender, author of 500 Low-Carb Recipes
“Dr Davis’s comprehensive, readable and witty book reveals that wheat, far from being the staff of life, is in fact the stuff of nightmares. Take his advice to lose wheat from your diet and you'll likely be paid back many times over in the form of a slimmer, healthier body and a better functioning brain.”—Dr. John Briffa, BSc, MB, BS, nutritional physician and author of Waist Disposal
“Davis makes a compelling case.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHEAT: THE UNHEALTHY WHOLE GRAIN
CHAPTER 1
WHAT BELLY?
The scientific physician welcomes the establishment of a standard loaf of bread made according to the best scientific evidence. . . . Such a product can be included in diets both for the sick and for the well with a clear understanding of the effect that it may have on digestion and growth.
—Morris Fishbein, MD, editor, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1932
IN CENTURIES PAST, a prominent belly was the domain of the privileged, a mark of wealth and success, a symbol of not having to clean your own stables or plow your own field. In this century, you don’t have to plow your own field. Today, obesity has been democratized: Everybody can have a big belly. Your dad called his rudimentary mid-twentieth-century equivalent a beer belly. But what are soccer moms, kids, and half of your friends and neighbors who don’t drink beer doing with a beer belly?
I call it “wheat belly,” though I could have just as easily called this condition pretzel brain or bagel bowel or biscuit face since there’s not an organ system unaffected by wheat. But wheat’s impact on the waistline is its most visible and defining characteristic, an outward expression of the grotesque distortions humans experience with consumption of this grain.
A wheat belly represents the accumulation of fat that results from years of consuming foods that trigger insulin, the hormone of fat storage. While some people store fat in their buttocks and thighs, most people collect ungainly fat around the middle. This “central” or “visceral” fat is unique: Unlike fat in other body areas, it provokes inflammatory phenomena, distorts insulin responses, and issues abnormal metabolic signals to the rest of the body. In the unwitting wheat-bellied male, visceral fat also produces estrogen, creating “man breasts.”
The consequences of wheat consumption, however, are not just manifested on the body’s surface; wheat can also reach deep down into virtually every organ of the body, from the intestines, liver, heart, and thyroid gland all the way up to the brain. In fact, there’s hardly an organ that is notaffected by wheat in some potentially damaging way.
PANTING AND SWEATING IN THE HEARTLAND
I practice cardiology in Milwaukee. Like many other midwestern cities, Milwaukee is a good place to live and raise a family. City services work pretty well, the libraries are first-rate, my kids go to quality public schools, and the population is just large enough to enjoy big-city culture, such as an excellent symphony and art museum. The people living here are a fairly friendly bunch. But . . . they’re fat.
I don’t mean a little bit fat. I mean really, really fat. I mean panting-and-sweating-after-one-flight-of-stairs fat. I mean 240-pound eighteen-year-old women, SUVs tipped sharply to the driver’s side, double-wide wheelchairs, hospital equipment unable to accommodate patients who tip the scales at 350 pounds or more. (Not only can’t they fit into the CT scanner or other imaging device, you wouldn’t be able to see anything even if they could. It’s like trying to determine whether the image in the murky ocean water is a flounder or a shark.)
Once upon a time, an individual weighing 250 pounds or more was a rarity; today it’s a common sight among the men and women walking the mall, as humdrum as selling jeans at the Gap. Retired people are overweight or obese, as are middle-aged adults, young adults, teenagers, even children. White-collar workers are fat, blue-collar workers are fat. The sedentary are fat and so are athletes. White people are fat, black people are fat, Hispanics are fat, Asians are fat. Carnivores are fat, vegetarians are fat. Americans are plagued by obesity on a scale never before seen in the human experience. No demographic has escaped the weight gain crisis.
Ask the USDA or the Surgeon General’s office and they will tell you that Americans are fat because they drink too many soft drinks, eat too many potato chips, drink too much beer, and don’t exercise enough. And those things may indeed be true. But that’s hardly the whole story.
Many overweight people, in fact, are quite health conscious. Ask anyone tipping the scales over 250 pounds: What do you think happened to allow such incredible weight gain? You may be surprised at how many do not say “I drink Big Gulps, eat Pop Tarts, and watch TV all day.” Most will say something like “I don’t get it. I exercise five days a week. I’ve cut my fat and increased my healthy whole grains. Yet I can’t seem to stop gaining weight!”
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The national trend to reduce fat and cholesterol intake and increase carbohydrate calories has created a peculiar situation in which products made from wheat have not just increased their presence in our diets; they have come to dominate our diets. For most Americans, every single meal and snack contains foods made with wheat flour. It might be the main course, it might be the side dish, it might be the dessert—and it’s probably all of them.
Wheat has become the national icon of health: “Eat more healthy whole grains,” we’re told, and the food industry happily jumped on board, creating “heart healthy” versions of all our favorite wheat products chock-full of whole grains.
The sad truth is that the proliferation of wheat products in the American diet parallels the expansion of our waists. Advice to cut fat and cholesterol intake and replace the calories with whole grains that was issued by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute through its National Cholesterol Education Program in 1985 coincides precisely with the start of a sharp upward climb in body weight for men and women. Ironically, 1985 also marks the year when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking body weight statistics, tidily documenting the explosion in obesity and diabetes that began that very year.
Of all the grains in the human diet, why only pick on wheat? Because wheat, by a considerable margin, is the dominant source of gluten protein in the human diet. Unless they’re Euell Gibbons, most people don't eat much rye, barley, spelt, triticale, bulgur, kamut, or other less common gluten sources; wheat consumption overshadows consumption of most other grains by more than a hundred to one. Wheat also has unique attributes those other grains do not, attributes that make it especially destructive to our health, which I will cover in later chapters. And it’s not just about gluten—modern wheat is an impressive collection of dozens of dietary toxins. Once you come to appreciate just how toxic many of the components of modern wheat truly are, you will be amazed that most people even survive its consumption. While I mostly focus on wheat, the worst offender, I will also discuss how and why other grains that are, after all, genetic cousins, will not be left off the hook, either. Grains—really just seeds of grasses—are also uncommonly promiscuous, readily sharing genes across species. It means that, although wheat is the worst, genetically related grasses like rye, oats, or corn are not blameless.
The health impact of Triticum aestivum, common bread wheat, and its genetic brethren ranges far and wide, with curious effects from mouth to anus, brain to pancreas, Appalachian housewife to Wall Street arbitrageur. But recognize that this food, blessed by virtually all who provide dietary advice, star of nutritionally bankrupt “healthy whole grains,” lies at the foundation of struggles with weight, visceral fat, and, oh, just a few hundred common health conditions, and you will be on your way to undoing the entire mess.
If it sounds crazy, bear with me. I make these claims with a clear, wheat-free conscience.
NUTRI-GROAN
Like most children of my generation, born in the middle of the twentieth century and reared on Wonder Bread and Devil Dogs, I have a long and close personal relationship with wheat. My sisters and I were veritable connoisseurs of breakfast cereal, making our own individual blends of Trix, Lucky Charms, and Froot Loops and eagerly drinking the sweet, pastel-hued milk that remained at the bottom of the bowl. The Great American Processed Food Experience didn’t end at breakfast, of course. For school lunch my mom usually packed peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, the prelude to cellophane-wrapped Ho Hos and Scooter Pies. Sometimes she would throw in a few Oreos or Vienna Fingers, too. For supper, we loved the TV dinners that came packaged in their own foil plates, allowing us to consume our battered chicken, corn muffin, and apple brown betty while watching Get Smart.
My first year of college, armed with an all-you-can-eat dining room ticket, I gorged on waffles and pancakes for breakfast, fettuccine Alfredo for lunch, pasta with Italian bread for dinner. Poppy seed muffin or angel food cake for dessert? You bet! Not only did I gain a hefty spare tire around the middle at age nineteen (my version of the “freshman fifteen”), I felt exhausted all the time. For the next twenty years, I battled this effect, drinking gallons of coffee, struggling to shake off the pervasive stupor that persisted no matter how many hours I slept each night.
Product details
- Publisher : Rodale Books
- Publication date : December 10, 2019
- Edition : Expanded
- Language : English
- Print length : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1984824945
- ISBN-13 : 978-1984824943
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.98 x 9.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #16,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Wheat-Free Diet
- #5 in Gluten-free Diet
- #49 in Weight Loss Diets (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Dr. Davis provides solutions to health problems by addressing the microbiome, massively disrupted in modern people. He shows readers in his Super Gut book, for instance, how to restore important lost microbes lost such as Lactobacillus reuteri, restored by using a unique method of yogurt fermentation that smooths skin and reduces wrinkles, restores youthful muscle and strength, deepens sleep, reduces appetite and provides many other youth-preserving and anti-aging effects. In Super Gut and in his website, www.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com, he provides additional do-it-yourself-at-home strategies for benefits such as improved mood, improved athletic performance, better sleep, heightened immunity, and improved body composition.
Dr. William Davis is also responsible for exposing the incredible nutritional blunder made by "official" health agencies: Eat more "healthy whole grains." The wheat of today is different from the wheat of 1960, thanks to extensive genetics manipulations introduced to increase yield-per-acre. Eliminating wheat yields results beyond everyone's expectations: substantial weight loss, correction of cholesterol abnormalities, relief from inflammatory diseases like arthritis, better mood, reduced blood sugar with many type 2 diabetics being freed of insulin and other drugs, all articulated through his Wheat Belly series of books. He is also a champion of individual self-directed health, as discussed in his Undoctored book.
Dr. Davis lives what he preaches, not having indulged in a wheat-containing bagel, ciabatta, or pretzel in many years, while consuming various fermentation products that yield unexpected health benefits. Dr. Davis lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Related products with free delivery on eligible orders
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Generated from the text of customer reviewsSelect to learn more
Reviews with images
Age with dignity instead of suffering!
Top reviews from the United States
- 5 out of 5 stars
Information
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2026Explains the facts behind why American grains have become corrupted. Good to have if you're trying to educate yourself. Helps you on your journey to better health.
Sending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 5 out of 5 stars
Well worth a read!
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2026This is a great book, a classic. I have learned so much!
Sending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 5 out of 5 stars
I don’t want to believe it, but…
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2025Well written, easy to read. Plenty of practical guidance on how to ditch wheat, and even more importantly, the ingredients that spike blood sugar. A good read for anyone who is curious about the effects of everyday foods on the body.
8 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 4 out of 5 stars
The book is ok
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2026Dr Davis is very knowledgeable about L.Reuteri, different cultures, and the negative effects of wheat on our bodies, but some of the recipes, not all, but some I think an inexperienced cook put them together without trying them first. What you can do is upload the recipe to AI and just ask how you can make this recipe better. The book is good, but I think I could’ve found a lot of the information in other places.
5 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 5 out of 5 stars
A Guide to Better Health
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2025This is an insightful book. The main idea is to help people get healthy. He explains how the food industry has been making people unhealthy for years and the government was a part of that. He goes into how to change your diet to lose weight and improve your health. He has stories of individuals who have overcome serious health issues by just changing their diets. There are recipes in the book also. You can look the author up on YouTube to get an idea of his views first if you would prefer.
7 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 5 out of 5 stars
Wheat belly and pretzel brain!!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2025Lots of information on gluten and its side effects. Another slang term is ‘pretzel brain’ and I was highly addicted to pretzels but didn’t realize it at the time. Main focus of the book is about the weightloss once you ditch gluten. Enjoyed the patient testimonials and the author wrote it in a way that kept me engaged.
6 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 3 out of 5 stars
A good guide to get you thinking about what you eat
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2023Dr. Davis' book is worth a read and dispenses some good advice to those of us who were looking to change our diets for the better. Anyone can go online and find there is all kinds of commentary on every aspect of every claim he makes in this book so no need to go into it here. Unless you prepare and cook absolutely everything that will enter your mouth from it's very essence to your tongue, this diet is pretty impracticable to follow strictly. So impracticable to the point that unless you want to pay to eat just plain lettuce you can say goodbye to eating out. These things having been said, reading this gave me a lot of information to factor in to what I eat, especially just how profoundly additives and preservatives in both highly processed and even not so highly processed foods can wreak havoc on the human body. There are also some inconsistencies with the 'never eat' or 'eat sometimes' foods (like 'never' for bananas or apples but some recipies have....bananas and apples in them). Before reading this book my diet was craptacular. I followed the diet strictly for 14 days and lost 7lbs (although a lot of this can be attributed to losing bloat, etc). But no doubt about it, I look and felt much, much better all the way down the line. Friends and family noticed. 3 months in I adhere to a lot of the principles he lays out in this book especially regarding junk food, sugar and carbs. Contrary to his recommendations I do eat legumes, occasional potatoes, probiotic yogurt and other nutrition powerhouse foods he says to avoid so you don't spike your blood sugar. Well, and the occasional cheeseburger (I'm only human after all) but generally avoid all bread and grains and added wheat. I don't miss them in my diet and have no cravings at all for them. I also carefully read labels for everything. I am down 14lbs during this time and lose about 1/2lb a week with no calorie restrictions or counting calories, macros or any of that stuff. And I just feel better. I'd recommend this book as a guide rather than a bible unless you have serious issues with gluten in which case this information could be a godsend.
78 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again - 5 out of 5 stars
Necessary read for everyone
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2026Everyone should read this book, twice! Teach it in schools!
3 people found this helpfulSending feedback...Sending feedback...HelpfulThank you for your feedback.Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try againThanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
Top reviews from other countries
Luis Flores5 out of 5 starsRevelador e ao mesmo tempo assustador
Reviewed in Spain on November 4, 2025Livro muito bem suportado cientificamente com uma escrita cativante (li quase de seguida em 3 dias) que é ao mesmo tempo revelador e assustador.
Sending feedback...Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
Rolf Eberl5 out of 5 starsExactly as expected. A highly recommended read!
Reviewed in Canada on October 18, 2021I had already read the earlier version of this book so its revised form was just better than the first edition. Excellent book! I cannot recommend it highly enough. Lots of great information and supports my own experiences with wheat gluten intollerance - with all the supporting information presented in a clear fashion for every level of the reader's ability of understanding.
Sending feedback...Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
ste mar5 out of 5 starsTrès bon livre
Reviewed in France on June 13, 2023pour retrouver la santé
Sending feedback...Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
J. Weeks5 out of 5 starsEssential reading if you have a weight issue or want the lowdown on grain.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2020Dr. Davis has some fantastic resources around. This is an esential read for anyone who is interested in or who has issues with grain. It brings all his previous books under one cover, including historic changes and the modern manipulation of grass seeds that we are told to eat. Read it and make your own mind up.
Sending feedback...Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again
Grant O5 out of 5 starsGreat book
Reviewed in Australia on April 11, 2026Great read
Sending feedback...Thanks, we'll investigate in the next few days.Sorry, We failed to report this review. Please try again




















