Alan Chasen

Living a wheat-free lifestyle means eliminating wheat from your diet. To get the most health benefits, you should also cut back on the amount of processed sugar you consume. When you follow these guidelines, you return to a low-to-no-grain, low-sugar, high-fat diet that was far more common many decades ago.The idea is to enjoy real food and limit the foods you eat from a box or a drive-through window.

Does cutting out wheat from your diet help your heart? Don’t forget the need to look at the big picture when evaluating lipid panel results. That's not only because the individual numbers aren't necessarily indicative of heart disease but also because they can vary quite dramatically. The lipid panel doesn't actually measure the LDL number at all; rather, it estimates it with an equation using the total cholesterol, HDL, and triglyceride measurements.

Read on to find out how wheat consumption can affect your cholesterol levels. Probably the best test for LDL particle number is called the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test. It uses a simple blood test that can be drawn at all major labs. Although most people treat LDL as one reading, it actually has two components: LDL-C and LDL-P.

Having conversations about your new wheat-free diet can become one of the most rewarding and frustrating aspects of your change experience. Some people will ask you legitimate scientific questions, while others will ask condescending questions and mock your answers. The types of questions most often heard typically refer to the effects wheat has on your health.

Family celebrations and holidays can be a tough time to eat wheat-free, besides being a time to come together with family and friends and rejoice in the occasion. However, with these celebrations come dietary challenges that can wreak havoc on your health if you don't confront them. An awareness of these challenges and how they affect you is the first step in heading them off at the pass: Copious amounts of easily accessible food: From the proverbial fruitcake in the mail to wedding cake and tables of buffet food, food is often a central part of celebratory occasions.

When you’re changing to a wheat-free lifestyle or diet, it’s important to think about not only what you eat, but what you drink. Whether you're meeting for drinks after work or over a business dinner to close a deal, alcohol is usually at the center of the gathering. Calling the bar or restaurant to see whether it's equipped to meet your wheat-free needs and/or you can bring your own bottle lets you stay wheat-free and enjoy a glass of your favorite alcoholic beverage.

Eating wheat-free and traveling can be difficult without planning. At first, traveling to a foreign place and eating different food in unfamiliar restaurants seems like an impossible task. However, planning ahead can make the impossible possible. Having a plan in place rather than leaving your meals to chance helps you to stay on track with your wheat-free or grain-free diet.

Although having a meal out that's all wheat-free, organic, grass-fed, wild-caught, is prepared without vegetable oil, and contains little or no wheat or sugar (or, ideally, grain of any kind) is next to impossible, you can achieve a couple of these ideals if you do some homework before you head out the door. After you get the hang of eating wheat-free at various restaurants, dining out is a snap.

Some of the most challenging times you experience on your wheat-free journey include eating with people who haven't seen the wheat-free light (at least not yet). What do you do when meal preparation is completely out of your hands or traditional holiday foods that don't fit your lifestyle surround you at every turn?