The Body Doesn't Lie (22 page)

• Boosts your mood
  
• Stimulates your creativity
  
• Sharpens your memory
  
• Decreases your stress
  
• Increases your alertness
  
• Speeds up your motor performance
  
• Cuts your risk of diabetes, heart attack, and stroke
  
• Helps you lose weight
  
• Enhances your sex life
  
• Improves your perception, stamina, motor skills, and accuracy
  
• Improves your decision-making ability
  
• Diminishes your cravings for fatty, sugary foods
  
• Cuts your need for caffeine and other stimulants
  
• Improves your body’s ability to regenerate skin and tissue
  
• Increases your levels of anti-aging growth hormone
  
• Keeps you looking younger
  

Miraculous, huh? In other cultures, naps are considered a normal part of the business day—yet taking a nap in the United States is somehow synonymous with being a child. Start with one or two naps this week. There’s no perfect time; just choose a time that fits your schedule and your energy level. Some enlightened workplaces have a quiet room where you can escape for fifteen minutes of shut-eye. If yours doesn’t and you work in a safe area, spend a few minutes dozing in your car or on a blanket in the park. If weekday naps seem absolutely ludicrous to you, stick with weekend naps for now—but both days. And if you have kids, you have the perfect setup: Surrender to the deliciousness of a nap with your kids—you’ll all love it and you’ll get an oxytocin boost from cuddling to boot.

With these new structure practices in place during the Release stage, you’ve given your body more chances to downshift, calming your nervous system. Now let’s dive into the meat of the Release week: letting go of toxic foods.

You know by now that many of our problems with pain—not to mention overweight and chronic disease—are due to inflammation. And I firmly believe that inflammation itself is primarily caused by the large quantities of sugar and wheat we ingest in the U.S. diet.

I’ve designed the Release Meal Plan for maximum detoxification. During the Radiate week and beyond, you’ll have a wider range of food options. (For a meal-by-meal breakdown of these Positive Feedback Meal Plans, please see chapter 7.) For best results, follow the initial cleansing regimen for seven days. On the Release plan, you’re going to delight in fresh, delicious, whole foods such as a spinach salad with eggs and pomegranate seeds. Even more important than adding such foods to your diet is releasing those that have been affecting you in detrimental ways for years. In this chapter, I’ll focus the discussion primarily on the foods that you need to
release
—the things you eat that make pain worse. In chapter 6—“Week 3: Radiate”—I’ll speak at length about the delicious anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, beauty-restoring foods that you’ll be eating in their place.

Heavily processed foods (including processed meats), trans fats, and sugars turn up the heat on the inflammation in your body. Refined white-flour foods are a national addiction. Pasta, white bread, white rice, bagels, pretzels, and pizza dough are among the starchy foods that trigger the release of excess inflammatory cytokines. Trans fats—found in hydrogenated oils, margarines, shortenings, and many processed foods—damage the cells in the lining of blood vessels, contributing to heart disease; furthermore, they’ve been proven to increase depression by 48 percent,
⁵
not to mention increasing irritability and aggression,
⁶
insulin resistance, and bad cholesterol.
⁷
Drinks and foods flavored with various types of added sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup) cause the spikes in blood sugar and insulin that are well-established triggers for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
All
such foods are inflammatory: You must begin to think of them as poisonous and, to the very best of your ability, eliminate them from your diet.

Remember that this isn’t a diet program in the sense of weight loss; you’re not specifically trying to lose weight by eating less. You’re releasing your pain and your negative thoughts and emotions by not feeding your emotions toxins such as sugar. In addition to reducing pain-causing inflammation and releasing toxins from your body, getting rid of disease-promoting foods will lower your blood levels of insulin, a hormone that, in excess, can encourage fat accumulation, diabetes, and even cancer. And while it’s not the objective of the Release plan, many of my patients are thrilled to lose up to five pounds in their Release week.

Getting rid of toxic food can be the first step toward releasing other toxins in your life, be they people, jobs, or unhealthy influences. Rooting out and tossing negative hidden sugars and other inflammatory poisons will help you feel free of pain, grounded, and able to make the right decisions for yourself. Your body knows when you’re happy—and when you’re miserable. And all of that information comes to you from processes in the gut.

It’s also important to remember that weight gain is just one effect of giving in to food cravings. Those late-night binges not only add weight, but also affect your mood, keeping you stuck in the negative. And even more alarming, toxic foods eventually wreak havoc on your overall health.

A major part of our immune system—populated with over a thousand different species of “good” bacteria—is contained in the gut. Over one hundred trillion of these intestinal microbes do very important work in the body, controlling inflammation, protecting intestinal health, and boosting immunity. What we eat has an immediate impact on our neurons, our hormones, and our immune system, all because of our personal reactions to foods.

Some foods cause reactivity in many people; others rarely cause problems. Even when people dutifully steer clear of processed foods and simple carbs, however, they may still have food-related problems that are specific to their body. When people have an intolerance to certain foods, such as gluten or dairy, eating those foods can cause inflammation in the gut. This intestinal inflammation directly affects the entire body and eventually shows up in my office (or that of another health professional) as pain, especially lower back pain. Here are some common symptoms associated with inflammatory foods.

• Digestive upset (excess gas, abdominal pain)
  
• Hyperactivity (in children)
  
• Lethargy or irritability
  
• Loss of sleep due to pain
  
• Lower back pain
  
• Muscle and joint ache
  
• Skin sensitivities (such as eczema)
  
• Water retention (puffy face, ankles, fingers)
  

Look again through your Food Diary to see if your mood significantly altered between one meal and the next. If so, make a note of what you ate that day. Is there a pattern? Do you notice any specific symptoms from the list above that seem to come and go, such as bloating in your face, or aching in your neck or wrists, or swollen fingers, with specific foods?

If you notice that a specific type of food causes a negative response like those listed above, remove that food from your diet for the Release stage (even if it’s in the Release Meal Plan), to test whether that food was causing the issue. For example, Virginia, a patient who was struggling with some extra pounds, really wanted to eat more vegetarian meals. But she found that whenever she ate mushrooms (a vegetarian staple), she felt off—her stomach would bloat and she would get a slight headache. Sure enough, when we did a full food sensitivity profile for her, we found that she had a sensitivity to mold—and mushrooms are a type of fungus. The problem was, her husband absolutely adored mushrooms; he wanted them for every meal. We tested her with various types of mushrooms and discovered that her reactivity was much more pronounced with certain kinds (including shiitake and portobello). Now Virginia eats those only very rarely; and, armed with this information, her husband now buys innocuous button mushrooms and modifies the way he prepares them.

When we get to the Radiate stage of the program, I’ll show you how to test your sensitivity to a certain food by reintroducing it on a day that you eat only foods you know your body absorbs readily. Combined with the full list of Radiate foods, this information will help you build an eating plan that will work to keep you healthy and inflammation-free for the rest of your life.

Now it’s time to begin your seven-day Release Meal Plan. Review the meal-by-meal breakdown in chapter 7 first and check out the shopping list in appendix C, to ensure that you have all the supplies necessary in the house. You may also want to rid your cupboards of
un
wanted supplies—those toxic sugars and starches you’ll be avoiding. Some people prefer to get started on the eating program right away, and then do their kitchen cleanse; others prefer to toss out all the garbage first, and then begin the program with a clean slate. I leave that choice up to you. We’ll begin here with the Liver Flush, the first element of the Release Meal Plan, but feel free to skip ahead a few pages, to the section titled “Release the Toxic Inflammatory Foods,” if cleansing your kitchen
first
feels more natural to you.

The Release Meal Plan begins with a three-day Liver Flush, as noted above. The aim of the Liver Flush is to cleanse the body and allow the immune system to heal. The cleanse, or detoxification, is an age-old process that’s a part of many cultural and religious traditions. The premise is simple: When we stop eating for a significant period of time, the body has time to heal itself naturally. The amount and type of foods in the standard American diet overwhelm the body’s resources and put us in a state of constant digestive processing. We’re born with powerful self-healing capabilities, but for many us, the body literally doesn’t have the time or energy to do the necessary healing work. With this liver cleanse, we provide the body the time and nutrients to flush out all the toxins and restore natural balance.

This is a fail-safe and important regulatory process. When my patients are in pain and showing some of the symptoms of toxic overload (such as extra weight gain, puffy eyes, irritability, blotchy skin), I advise them to just drink water and have no food for the remainder of the day. The next day, they inevitably feel much better. No medication necessary! The Liver Flush is designed as a more livable way to get that important cleansing done over a three-day period.

Before we turn to specifics of each meal during the Liver Flush, let’s talk about water. The word “flush” implies water—and rightly so. You’ll want to drink eight to ten glasses of water over the course of the day. (More on calculating the exact amount
you
should drink in a few pages.)

During the three days of the Liver Flush, either eat no breakfast or wait one hour after rising before eating a smaller-than-usual portion of millet or oats. (Having no breakfast increases the cleansing action, but it can be challenging for some people.) With either approach, you’ll have enough nutrition and calories to get through your day, but the slight reduction in food and the alteration in the nutritional profile will mildly challenge your system and stimulate the Adaptive Response. In place of breakfast (or in addition to your oatmeal), have a Liver Flush Smoothie (recipe below).

Feeding your body lighter meals is the only way to heal. The three-day period of the Liver Flush is a gift to your body and health. For these three days, your lunch and dinner should be limited to leafy vegetables, vegetable-based soups, and raw or lightly steamed vegetables, along with fruit. Eat baked sweet potatoes or squash and as much sprouted seeds and grains as possible: alfalfa, mung beans, black-eyed peas, and so on. Sprouted seeds, whole grains, and beans have high levels of fiber, protein, and antioxidants, as well as some digestive enzymes.

(Note: Once you’re out of the Release week and into Radiate and beyond, you can bring back the Liver Flush whenever you’re feeling bloated and in need of a little cleanse. Aim to eat soups and vegetables for two to three days to cleanse; then slowly introduce other foods over the next three to four days. You’ll look clean and feel clean and lighter.)

Stick to fresh fruit, seeds, and nuts for snacks and treats during this period.

And don’t forget:
Drink plenty of water!

Some of the most beneficial chemicals in vegetables and fruits—your main foods during the cleanse—evolved first as toxins to ward off insects and other predators; and these same chemicals activate an adaptive stress response in our cells. Certain phytochemicals, such as resveratrol (in red wine), sulforaphane (in garlic and onions), and curcumin (in curries and mustards), are thought to protect cells against injury and disease by stimulating antioxidant enzymes, growth factors that foster brain cell growth, and proteins that help cells withstand stress.
⁸

By limiting the foods you eat during Release, both in type and quantity, you tap into your body’s innate self-cleansing properties as well. New evidence suggests that sporadic fasting or food restriction can actually have a very therapeutic effect on your blood sugar and lipid profile, not to mention your weight.
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Sporadically limiting your foods in this way may allow you to reap the same health benefits—fewer pounds, better blood sugar regulation, less inflammation and belly fat—as someone who restricts their calories every day.
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