Gillian McKeith's Food Bible (49 page)

Drink herbal teas and water instead of tea, coffee, or alcohol. These act as stimulants that raise blood-sugar levels initially,
followed by a slump, leaving you with cravings for another pick-me-up an hour or so later.

Move that bum of yours please. Daily, moderate exercise improves the cellular response to insulin and normalizes appetite.

Stress upsets blood-sugar levels. Learn relaxation techniques such as yoga, tai chi, qi gong, or meditation.

Take blood-sugar balancing nutrients such as chromium, amino acid complex, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, and B vitamins. Balancing herbs include nigella, lupin, cloves, cumin, sage, cinnamon, and fenugreek.

If you do get a fit of the cravings, the key is not to get flustered. Just take note of it like an observer. Instead, just say, “Oh, there’s that craving,” and allow it to go. A new you is on the way!

If you like chocolate, then go for the real thing. Raw cacao bean nibs or powder are from the raw bean that chocolate is made from, but they don’t have the added white processed sugar that makes up chocolate. You’ll find them in the health-food store.

Food intolerances

We often crave the same foods day in and day out. But if you eat the same foods every day, for years, in many cases you can become sensitive to those very foods, sometimes referred to as food intolerances. And usually the foods that we crave are the same ones that lead to weight gain. It is a vicious cycle.

If you are food intolerant, a delayed immune response may occur in your body. This can happen over several hours or days after the offending food is ingested. Side effects to these foods can be anything from irritable bowel–like symptoms (see page
315
) to skin eruptions, ulcerations in the mouth, Crohn’s disease (see page
239
), or inflammation of the digestive tract, colic, ear problems, and tiredness, to name a few. It is not always so obvious.
But food intolerances can have a direct effect on the assimilation of nutrients, digestive organ function, and weight management. The more common foods such as wheat, dairy, sugar, and corn are often implicated as food-intolerance triggers, simply because many of us eat too much of these same foods.

The problem is that when you eat foods to which you are intolerant every day, you may cause a drastic slowdown of metabolism. Digestive enzyme function might become impaired, which means that your body may not break down fat properly.

Moreover, by eating the same foods every day, you limit your intake of essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and co-factors. So my best advice here is:

Always rotate your foods. In other words, if you eat a food today, then try not to eat it again for, say, three or four days. Thus, you may prevent food intolerances.

It is a good idea to get tested for food intolerances or allergies (www.gillianmckeith.info). In this way, you can know exactly which foods are possibly causing you to gain weight or feel horrible or overly tired and lethargic.

Poor digestive function

Your digestive system is responsible for breaking down food into amino acids, glucose, and fats, releasing nutrients from food, and the elimination process. If it is not functioning optimally, you will feel unwell, and this can lead to overeating as your body starts to crave nutrients. You may well be constipated, too (you should be passing stools twice a day, even once a day is a sign of poor digestion). So improving digestion becomes a serious matter.

Poor adrenal function

When adrenal function is out of balance, then more stress hormones could be released. This hormone release can exacerbate blood-sugar fluctuations, which may cause further weight gain. Your adrenal glands can become compromised from a lack of sleep, a deficiency in B vitamins, and a poor diet high in sugary foods. A tell-tale sign of adrenal exhaustion is a beer belly even when you don’t drink beer.

Poor metabolic function

If you don’t eat on a regular basis, you could actually cause weight problems. Reduced metabolic rate can result from yo-yo dieting. Reducing food intake gives a message to the body that food is scarce. In order to ensure your long-term survival, your body reduces the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis. When you start eating more normal amounts again, you will store the extra calories as fat much more easily.

When you starve yourself, your metabolism could slow down to a trickle. I have seen many overweight folks who hardly eat anything. See page
327
of the A to Z for more info.

Sluggish liver

The liver is involved in many different body processes, including detoxification, blood-sugar control, the breaking down of old hormones, the manufacture and breakdown of cholesterol, and the absorption of protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

If the liver is struggling, absorption of nutrients will be compromised and blood-sugar levels will fluctuate. This can lead to cravings for the wrong kinds of foods and reduced energy levels. Boozing on the weekend—or at any other time for that matter—doesn’t help sugar cravings or weight either. Cravings get worse and weight piles on.

Thyroid

The thyroid gland controls the metabolism of your entire body by regulating energy production and oxygen uptake. Continual stress can negatively affect the thyroid gland, depressing its normal function. Overstimulation of the thyroid is caused by the consumption of sugar, coffee, and alcohol, sending the thyroid into an exhausted state, which can cause weight gain.

Solutions:

Kelp supplements can help an underactive thyroid, and so can green superfoods. Seaweed, which is high in iodine, can help bolster metabolism, too.

Eat tyrosine-filled food, such as pumpkin seeds, avocados, and almonds, to feed your metabolism.