Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It! (5 page)

The latest discoveries
in genetic research are all the rage these days. Genes are touted as the miraculous great hope and the future of health and happiness. Science, medicine, and technology are all getting on the Gene Train. But when things go wrong with our health, genes often get all the blame. Whether it’s cancer, alcoholism, cheating, or a fat ass, we’re quick to pass the buck to our go-to scapegoat. As Dr. Dean Ornish suggested so eloquently in the foreword to this book, our genes are not our destiny. In fact, the relatively new science of epigenetics proves that our daily choices (diet, lifestyle, and environmental stressors) can actually change the way our genes express themselves—without changing our DNA. These non-genetic factors can literally switch disease, obesity, and other health issues on and off.

For example, only 5 to 10 percent of all cancers are caused by inherited genetic mutations, according to researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. They, along with other top tacos, believe that between 70 and 80 percent of cancers are linked to diet and other behavioral factors like tobacco and alcohol—and not genetics. According to a 2009 study by the American Institute for Cancer Research, excess body fat alone causes more than 100,000 cancers every year. But here’s the good news: If we can screw it up, then there’s a good chance we can fix it, too. Nature meets nurture and beyond. Olé!

But not everyone agrees. After I gave a recent speech at a hospital in Georgia, a woman in the audience raised her hand to tell me I was wrong. In her mind, lifestyle choices didn’t matter; if our name was in “God’s book,” we got sick. It’s the book that matters, not the pepperoni pizza. I can’t think of a more disempowered way to look at life. If that were the case, why bother trying to do anything other than pick lint out of your belly button? Didn’t God give us free will? Isn’t that the beauty and the bitch of being human?

Each of us has a genetic predisposition for something. Sometimes life flows by with no rough edges. George Burns lived to a hundred and certainly had a ball with his cigars, steaks, and highballs. He also had an incredible attitude (“Happiness is: A good martini, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman … or a bad woman, depending on how
much happiness you can stand.”) that might have made up for the meat and martinis. The George Burnses of the world are very rare, however. Genes load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger. Think of it like seeds and soil. Without fertilizer, the seed can’t always take root. You are the seed and your diet and lifestyle are the fertilizer.

This very important fact can freak a lot of folks out. Educating ourselves and taking charge of our health doesn’t mean we’re taking the blame. There’s no need to point fingers or feel guilty. I’ll never know what made me “sick.” But it helps for me to ponder how I may have participated so that I can stop participating in my illness.

Next time you fill out your medical history, pause for a minute. Think about what runs in your family and also what’s served on your family dinner table. A teacher of mine once gave me a helpful wisdom nugget. “Heart disease and diabetes don’t run in my family,” he said. “Sausages and doughnuts do!” It takes guts to look at the messy pain and truth in order to reevaluate the game you’re running, but you can do it, sunshine!

As Joni Mitchell
, the high priestess of hippie, says, we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden. Nature is the source of all things healthy; it is the ultimate surgical table and the basis of the Crazy Sexy Diet.

So what is this revolutionary game plan I’m gabbing about? Well, I gave you a snapshot earlier, but let’s circle back. And don’t worry, it’s simple. You don’t need a granola stigmata to figure it out. The Crazy Sexy Diet is a low-fat, vegetarian (or vegan) program that reduces inflammation and balances the pH of your gorgeous body with whole foods, low-glycemic fruits, raw veggies, alkalizing green drinks, and superpowered smoothies. On the CSD I encourage you to reduce or, better yet, eliminate all animal products, refined sugars and processed crap, and anything (other than an exotic vegetable) you can’t pronounce. By decreasing the amount of acidic foods you eat, you give your body the chance to heal and repair naturally.

Your new mantra: Clean food in and waste out. An alkaline diet has the power to release stored bullshit and toxins and truly set you free. As a result—and this is important—your pH comes into balance as does your overall health, your sinuses clear (and so do your zits), your taste buds resuscitate, your eyes sparkle, the dimples on your thighs will be gone (bye-bye!), sex will be better (ooohhh!), and so will your memory (especially good when you dig the person you have sex with), and your elimination system will work like a Ferrari (vroom!).