The Virgin Diet (11 page)

The runoff from these crops has to go somewhere. In the Midwestern corn belt, the runoff flows into the Mississippi River and then into the Gulf of Mexico, where it has already killed off marine life in a 12,000-square-mile area. Do you want to be part of that?

Genetically modified crops are built to withstand large amounts of pesticides.

EATING WHAT YOU ATE, ATE

Even if you’re not eating corn, you might be eating corn-fed beef or chicken. Most commercially produced beef and chicken falls into that category because it fattens up livestock fast. In fact, farmers call it “the swine-fattening formula.” So, when you eat meat or chicken, you are ultimately probably still consuming corn, and genetically modified corn at that. This is why I want you to avoid anything other than grass-fed beef and have a good relationship with your farmers and butchers so you know what the foods you eat were eating.

I’m a huge fan of grass-fed beef. It is harder to find and more expensive than corn-fed beef, but grass-fed beef is better for human health in a dozen different ways.

For example, a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina in 2009 found that compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was lower in total fat; higher in beta-carotene; higher in vitamin E; higher in the B vitamins thiamin and riboflavin; and higher in calcium, magnesium and potassium.

We also know that grass-fed beef is 2 to 3 times higher in anti-inflammatory omega-3s, plus it is lower in calories and leaner. As we saw in the previous chapter, it’s also higher in the amazing fatty acid CLA, which helps burn fat. Additionally, grass-fed beef is lower in saturated
fat. I am happy to call grass-fed beef a clean, lean protein and give it a place in the Virgin Diet.

SORRY, POPCORN IS
NOT
A HEALTHY SNACK

There’s a popular myth going around that popcorn is a healthy, low-cal snack. That is
not
true, but this is:

• Popcorn is generally made with damaged fats.
  
• Microwave popcorn may have toxins in the bag liners.
  
• Popcorn is high-glycemic (makes your blood sugar spike, setting up problems with hunger, leptin resistance and insulin resistance).
  
• Popcorn is a trigger food: it makes you want more salt, starch and fat.
  

WHERE CORN HIDES

Breakfast cereals

Cerelose

Corn chips

Dextrose

Dyno

Glucose

Grits

Hominy

Maize

Margarine

Popcorn

Puretose

Sweetose

Vegetable oil

Another supposedly healthy snack is peanuts. Although peanuts may not be as detrimental as some of the other 7 foods to avoid, they are one of the more potentially reactive foods, and there are far better options out there in the tree nut family. (Peanuts aren’t actually nuts, they are legumes!)

Why am I so antipeanut? Peanuts have a high risk for aflatoxin mold, which is toxic and provokes a lot of allergies. Other legumes offer more nutrients per calorie (think black beans, white beans, kidney beans, etc.), and tree nuts have a far superior fatty acid profile. Plus, most of the peanut butters out there have added sugar (so kids will like them) and added fat (often trans fat, the worst kind) to make it smooth.

Peanuts tend to trigger outright food allergies and IgE reactions—the immediate, severe, acute and potentially deadly allergic reactions. We are also seeing more IgG (the slower, food-sensitivity response) reactions with peanuts.

Peanut oil may be atherogenic, which means it may cause arterial plaque to form.

Peanuts are also high in phytic acid and lectins, which as we’ve seen, is not so good for the gut. Basically, you don’t miss anything by letting this food go. Where you’d normally eat peanuts, try raw or slow-roasted tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts or pecans), and where you’d normally have peanut butter, try tree nut butter (cashew, almond, macadamia or pecan—just make sure it’s sugar-free). This is one of those lateral shifts that you’re going to find you like so much better that you won’t miss peanuts at all.

WHERE PEANUTS AND PEANUT OIL HIDE

Baked goods

Baking mixes

Battered foods

Biscuits

Breakfast cereals

Candy

Cereal-based products

Chili sauce

Chinese dishes

Cookies

Egg rolls

Ice cream

Margarine

Marzipan

Milk formula

Pastry

Peanut butter

Satay sauce and dishes

Soups

Thai dishes

Vegetable fat

Vegetable oil

PEANUTS MAY BE LISTED ON LABELS AS:

Emulsifier (uncommon)

Flavoring

Ground nut

Oriental sauce

Peanut

Peanut butter

I’ve been on JJ’s plan for 1 year now. It has been a wonderful, life-changing experience.

Over the past 30 years, I have lost and gained a few hundred pounds. One year ago, all I felt was frustration, depression, fatigue and overall “overwhelm.” I was thinking seriously of having a surgical procedure to help me lose weight.

Then I got an email about JJ’s plan. After reading the details of the program, tears slowly trickled down my cheeks. This sounded like a new beginning for me. On October 4, 2010, I recorded my weight at 229 lbs. I wore a size 2X, or 20/22 women’s. Yet, my family and I had been eating organic food and a pretty healthy diet for about 10 years. I cook and bake from scratch and don’t eat processed foods. We haven’t eaten MSG, soy or high-fructose corn syrup in years.

JJ took gluten, peanuts, dairy and eggs out of my diet, on top of soy, which I’d already removed. I could not believe the results. In the first 14 days, I began to have more energy than I have had in years! My brain fog was lifting, and I felt light—not so heavy or depressed. I had suffered from sinus problems, headaches, infections and other symptoms. These symptoms became much less severe, and my headaches disappeared completely—a direct result of pulling out the dairy.

After 28 days on JJ’s plan, I had lost almost 14 pounds and felt like a new woman. Now, 1 year later, I have lost 50 pounds, and I wear size 12/14! I will continue to reach for my body’s perfect weight.

I have people ask me every day, “What are you doing? You look fabulous!!!” I always feel so grateful to JJ for giving me a life that’s worth living again!

My client Lisa was able to stick to her diet and exercise plan all day, but at night her discipline dissolved. As soon as she started to relax, her sugar cravings would kick in, and Lisa would hunt down all the sweet treats in the house like a junkie seeking her next fix. Once, she even stole her kids’ Halloween candy.

“I’m ashamed of myself,” she told me, “but I can’t stop.”

Now as it turns out, this is more than just an issue of poor willpower. In fact, I don’t believe in willpower at all. This was a situation in which Lisa’s genetics were making things tough for her because those big sugar cravings were partly due to her genes. As it turns out, our tastes are genetically determined to a large extent: some of us will like bitter, sour or sweet more than others. Lisa truly had been born with a sweet tooth.

Our tastes are genetically determined to a large extent.

Plus, Lisa had a second issue that was exacerbating that sweet tooth: she struggled with chronic stress because of poor sleep, young kids and a demanding job. This stress was depleting her serotonin levels, which also made her crave the carbs. So Lisa’s genetics plus her life circumstances had created a very challenging situation.

Lisa’s evening sugar consumption led to multiple problems: mood swings, blood sugar crashes, food cravings and sugar addiction. In effect,
poor Lisa had become a sugar hostage to her out-of-balance blood sugar and her genetic sweet tooth. So, we had to pull her off the sugar and feed her sweet tooth in other ways. We replaced her evening sugar binge with a hot bath and a great book, and we gave her some healthy, sweet-tasting foods earlier in the day to satisfy her sweet tooth without triggering her cravings.

The good news is that when Lisa saw how sugar was sabotaging her weight loss, her mood and her health, she was motivated to dump it. Let me share with you what I shared with her.

We are eating more sugar than ever. We eat 140 pounds of sugar a year, but 10,000 years ago, we ate only 22 teaspoons a year.

This is just not good for us. Period.

Look, I really get how good sugar tastes, but it doesn’t just contain empty calories. It is a secret saboteur that undermines your weight-loss efforts in a number of different ways:

We eat 140 pounds of sugar a year.

• Sugar puts you on a blood sugar roller coaster, where your hunger spikes and crashes.
  
• Sugar disrupts your insulin metabolism.
  
• Sugar raises your stress hormones, which raises the set point to burn off fat.
  
• Sugar feeds yeast, which contributes to yeast overgrowth and sugar cravings.
  
• Sugar feeds bad bacteria, which cause your body to extract more calories from the food you eat, store them as fat and create digestive problems, including gas and bloating.
  
• Sugar dampens your immune system, which sets you up for more food intolerance.
  
• Sugar makes you better at storing fat.
  
• Sugar creates more cravings: when you eat sweet, you crave sweet.
  
• Sugar depletes nutrients.
  

That’s a long, ugly list, but I believe in knowing your enemy. So let’s take a closer look.

Did you know that stress can actually raise your blood sugar? Fasting blood sugar is the measure of how high your blood sugar is after you haven’t eaten for at least 8 hours. It’s used to estimate your risk of diabetes. I have often seen clients with a good diet who are eating well and exercising, but if they are under chronic stress, they have a higher fasting blood sugar.

Did you know that stress can actually raise your blood sugar?

Higher fasting blood sugar leads to higher insulin, which creates inflammation. Inflammation reinforces insulin resistance and leptin resistance. (Leptin is the hormone that regulates feelings of hunger and fullness, so if you have leptin resistance, you are likely to keep eating even after you’re full.)

Stress also makes you crave sugar. That’s because stress lowers serotonin, the feel-good chemical that helps you fight depression, sleep well, avoid headaches and generally experience optimism, self-confidence
and strong self-esteem. It also lowers dopamine, the pleasure chemical that accompanies excitement. So when you’re under stress, you crave both sugar (to replenish your serotonin) and overall calories (to rev up your dopamine).

As a result, stress sets you off on a blood sugar roller coaster. You wake up tired and stressed, so you grab a big caffeinated drink and a large, sugary treat—maybe a muffin or a toaster pastry. Your blood sugar comes up, and insulin surges to bring it back down. Often, the insulin overcorrects, especially if you’re insulin resistant. So your body pumps out too much insulin, and your blood sugar drops again. Now it’s the middle of the morning, and you are wondering,
Where’s my second cup of coffee and my second muffin?

When you’re under stress, you crave both sugar and overall calories.

This isn’t good for your weight loss, your inflammation level, your mood or your stress levels because all that caffeine and sugar is not exactly calming you down. Plus, eating too many refined carbohydrates raises your levels of triglycerides and LDL (low-density lipoprotein, the bad cholesterol), putting you at risk of heart disease, hardening of the arteries and stroke.

Glucose is the main fuel source for your brain, and you want a slowly released, steady supply of it. The glycemic index is a rating system developed to measure how the food you eat affects your blood sugar levels. Glucose is set at 100, and all other foods are measured accordingly. The higher its glycemic index rating, the greater effect a food will have on
your blood sugar. Meanwhile, foods that are lower on the glycemic index are generally less refined and have more fiber, giving you a nice, slow release of energy. So, the best choice to keep your blood sugar balanced is to stick to low-glycemic foods.

Now, I should tell you that the glycemic index remains controversial. Some people claim that it has no clinical significance, whereas others have written entire books recommending we eat according to this rating system. I think it is useful, but within limits. The important thing to remember is that it is just one tool for understanding nutrition and is not the end-all.

For example, there are some foods that are healthy but have a high-glycemic index, such as beets and carrots. And there are foods that are low on the glycemic index that aren’t always healthy. For example, fructose—one of the types of sugar found in fruit, vegetables and some grains—is low on the glycemic index scale, yet we know it is the sugar most likely to cause arterial plaque and can also lead to insulin resistance. Milk is also low on the glycemic index, but it too can lead to insulin resistance (see
Chapter 5
, “Dump the Dairy”).

Another issue with the glycemic index is quantity. Beets and carrots may be high on the index, but you can only eat so many of them. Potatoes are also high on the glycemic index (although they are basically just big lumps of sugar), but unlike beets and carrots, you usually don’t eat just a tablespoon or two of them. Usually, you’re having a whole potato.

I think the glycemic index points you in two very useful directions:
eat real foods, rather than processed ones,
and
consume a lot of fiber.
That’s why I focus on low-glycemic, high-fiber carbs in the Virgin Diet. They’ll be way better for giving you a nice, steady supply of energy than high-glycemic items, like potatoes, or low-fiber items, such as juice.

A concept that is probably more useful than the glycemic index is the glycemic load, a concept that tells us more about how a carbohydrate actually affects your blood sugar. The glycemic load is the glycemic index multiplied by the amount of carbohydrates that is actually being consumed.

Remember how I said we eat just a few bites of carrot but a whole potato? Well, a single carrot has a glycemic index of 131 and contains only 4 grams of carbs, so its glycemic load is (1.31 x 4), or about 5. One mashed potato has a glycemic index of 104 and 37 grams of carbohydrates, so its glycemic load is (1.04 x 37), or just over 38.

In fact, recent research reveals that our health is not as much affected by the glycemic index of a single meal or snack as it is by the cumulative impact of the glycemic load we consume throughout the day. This is why 1 serving of roasted beets or a few baby carrots are fine, but a big glass of carrot or beet juice is not. The glycemic index doesn’t tell you the whole story. You have to look at the glycemic load.

So, what’s the best way to solve the sugar problem? Balance your blood sugar.

Following the Virgin Diet is going to help you with that. Eating regular, correctly sized portions of clean, lean protein; healthy fats; and low-glycemic, high-fiber carbs is the perfect recipe for balanced blood
sugar because the protein, fats and fiber keep the carbs from pushing up your blood sugar too quickly, and the carbs are mainly low-glycemic to begin with. (See “The Glycemic Index” and “Your Glycemic Load” on pages 128–130.)

You can also use supplements to help balance your blood sugar. The four horsemen for blood sugar balance are chromium, magnesium, vanadium and zinc. You want to take a good multivitamin and mineral formula with these or take a good blood sugar balancing formula that contains these nutrients. I like to have people take extra chromium—about 500 micrograms 3 times per day, for a total of 1,000 to 2,000 micrograms per day. You can also take berberine, a “two for one” supplement that both balances blood sugar and fights microbes in the gastrointestinal tract.

Finally, make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D. Have your doctor run a 25-hydroxy vitamin D test to see where your levels are (see pages 68–69 for more information). You should be in the 60 to 80 ng/ml range, and you need to watch this throughout the year. Vitamin D will vary depending on where you live and if you’re using sunscreen. Some people genetically have lower vitamin D levels. I find that most people need to supplement at least 2,000 IU to 5,000 IU per day on an ongoing basis. If your levels are low, you should take up to 10,000 IU per day until you reach ideal levels. You want to make sure that you’re taking vitamin D3—because that’s the kind your body makes and uses.

Here’s another supplement I love for combating sugar and carb cravings, 5-HTP, which stands for 5-hydroxytryptophan. This amazing amino acid is well absorbed and can cross the blood–brain barrier, where it is converted to serotonin. People who are overweight tend to have lower levels of serotonin because insulin resistance can keep serotonin from reaching their brains. Two separate studies of obese women have shown that the women experienced weight loss, reduced appetite and reduced
carbohydrate intake when they were given 5-HTP.
17
,
18
I recommend 100 to 300 milligrams 1 to 3 times per day.

Another great two for one is glutamine, my number one gut healer, which can also help with sugar and alcohol cravings. Alpha-lipoic acid is also amazing, both for improving insulin sensitivity and for healing the liver, which will help you metabolize fat better.

Finally, don’t forget your fiber! Fiber will slow the release of glucose into your blood, keeping those levels nice and steady, just the way we like them.

TAPERING OFF

If you’ve been eating a high-carb, high-sugar diet, the easiest way to switch over without crashing and burning is to taper off by using fruit. The first week of Cycle 1, have 2 extra servings of low-to moderate-glycemic fruits. The next week, go down to 1 extra serving. By week 3, you should be fine.

Another thing to help with sugar cravings is to get the right portions of clean, lean protein 3 times per day. You also need to make sure you’re digesting the protein you consume. I find that people are often eating their protein without properly digesting it, either because they’re drinking too much water with their meal or because they lack digestive enzymes.

The easiest way to check your stomach acid levels is to do a trial of digestive enzymes that contain betaine HCL and pepsin. Unless you have
a history of ulcers, you can do this type of trial to see if the enzymes help you feel better. If you feel uncomfortably full for a long time after you eat, suffer from acid reflux, routinely burp after a meal or suffer from rosacea, those are even stronger signs that you would probably benefit from enzymes. Your stomach acid lowers as you age and because of stress, so you should also consider an enzyme trial if you are over the age of 30 or under chronic stress.

Start with one enzyme taken with a meal and raise the dose by one with each meal until you feel the mildest warm sensation in your chest. Then, reduce your dose by one capsule: that is your standard dose to take with each meal. As you are healing your gut and handling your stress better, you may notice that you need less, so if you notice that mild warmth again, reduce your dosage further.

As part of your regular checkup, your doctor routinely tests your fasting blood sugar. You want that to be in the 70 to 80 milligrams range. When your fasting insulin is tested, it should be in the range of 2 to 5. You also want to be tested for hemoglobin A1c, which is a marker of what’s been going on over the last 3 to 4 months with your blood sugar. Has it been riding high too much of the time? Has it been at a normal level? You ideally want a number of 5.0 or less, but at least under 5.5. Remember, you are not striving for normal or “in range” here, you are striving for optimal numbers because that will help you achieve optimal health.

Now at this point, you might be freaking out and thinking,
I like sweet! Don’t blame me. It’s not my fault. I have a sweet tooth.

If you have a sweet tooth, I agree: it’s not your fault. If you have had a sweet tooth all of your life, you can bet that it is probably in your genes. I don’t think you should battle your genes. You should work with them. So if you have a genetic sweet tooth, I will be sympathetic to you. I get it.