Gillian McKeith's Food Bible (113 page)

Take a digestive enzyme supplement with meals.

EXTRA TIPS

Combine food à la Gillian. That means eat fruit on an empty stomach but never for dessert. Wait 30 minutes after eating fruit before you eat any other foods.

Do not mix dense proteins and dense carbohydrates at the same meal. That means no meat and potatoes at the same meal, no fish and chips, no pasta and tuna together. Mixing too many different types of foods together at the same meal makes it tough on digestion. Bloating, abdominal pain, and stomach distension may result, not to mention plenty of gas from both ends.

Eat at more or less the same times each day if possible, otherwise you can end up bloated. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Missing breakfast and then catching up with a croissant makes you bloated.

Eat dinner early. Eating late at night depletes the stomach of fluids at a time when its energy is at its weakest. You could end up with indigestion and will not absorb nutrients properly.

Eat when relaxed. Total relaxation while eating renders maximum digestion.

Food needs to be chewed thoroughly until it becomes liquid in your mouth for proper digestion to occur.

Close your mouth when you eat. If you take in too much air with your food, the gases from the air travel to your stomach along with your food.

If your stomach is in agony from the bloated feeling, lie down on your back and draw your knees in close until the stomach pressure eases.

BOWEL CANCER

see also CANCER, page 215.

Also known as colon or colorectal cancer, bowel cancer is a malignant disease of the large bowel (colon) or rectum. It is the second largest cause of cancer death in the UK and the third most common cancer after breast and lung cancers. Every year over 35,000 people in this country are diagnosed with the disease, which affects men and women equally. Although around one in 20 people will get bowel cancer at some point in their life, if caught early enough it is highly treatable.

CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS

Age: About 83 percent of cases occur in people over the age of 60. However, bowel cancer incidence in younger people is on the increase.

A strong family history of bowel cancer.

People with a history of inflammatory bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.