It’s my own anecdotal, personal, experiential, non-scientific, worth-what-you-paid-for-it opinion that for most adults 40+ who are not skinny as rails: the deliberate, conscious (not absolute) removal of carbs, bread being the absolute worst offender, will cause you to lose 10-15 pounds in 45 days. With ZERO other changes, meaning exercise.
Just do what you can to get rid of bread. Little rice is OK, potatoes are OK, but I like the idea of having very low carbs with meals. Steak, veggie, no potato. When I look at pizza (and don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff) I think about cutting it into long strips and just pasting it around my waistline. It has exactly the same effect as eating it.
You are absolutely right. Part of the reason for that is the wheat itself, and part of it is the sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other crap in the bread.
It really is hard to give up wheat. They stick either corn or wheat in almost every prepared food in one way or another. We were not made to eat this garbage. Solution: stop eating prepared foods. My diet is protein (meat, fish, fowl, nuts, cheeses), vegetables, and fruit. If it’s white, like bread, pasta, sugar, rice, potatoes, or stuff with flour in it, I don’t eat it.