Authors: Yuri Elkaim
*Considered a garnish more than a consumed fruit, these are exempt from serving size simplifier guidelines.
Fibrous Veggies
This class of veggies is the secret to amazing health. You can enjoy these nutrient-rich vegetables to your heart’s content on any day within our 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula except for your 1-Day Fast.
| Spinach |
| Kale |
| Swiss chard |
| Lettuce and salad greens |
| Collard greens |
| Arugula |
| Broccoli |
| Cauliflower |
| Brussels sprouts |
| Cabbage |
| Bell peppers |
| Celery |
| Mushrooms |
| Sprouts (bean, broccoli, etc.) |
| Cucumber |
| Zucchini |
| Eggplant |
Optional Foods
These foods can be eaten in small amounts on this program. They won’t hurt you, nor will they derail your fat-loss efforts. Yet I would
keep
them to a minimum since high amounts will not support your health and weight-loss goals.
| Goat’s milk and yogurt |
| Maple syrup |
| Honey |
An Important Consumer Awareness Message Regarding Beans, Legumes, and Gluten-Free Grains
I love a good black bean chili on a cold winter day. I also love adding sprouted lentils to my salads or sipping on a thick and filling lentil soup. And why not, considering that beans and legumes provide so many health benefits, including high amounts of protein, fiber, and low-glycemic carbohydrates?
The trouble is that, for years, many people (especially within the Paleo community) have demonized beans, legumes, and even gluten-free grains because they contain “anti-nutrients” like phytic acid. The thinking is that phytic acid binds itself to minerals such as iron, calcium, and magnesium and leeches them out of your body. In
The Adrenal Reset Diet
, Dr. Alan Christianson puts this argument to rest.
Phytic acid does bind with minerals, but it does so within the foods before you eat them. Therefore, it cannot take minerals out of your body that you have already absorbed. The main negative factor involving phytic acid is that it hampers the absorption of iron in the foods that contain phytic acid. This means that if your only source of iron is plants, as in eating beans and spinach, you may not absorb enough iron. But if your diet includes animal sources of iron, such as dark-meat poultry and red meat, you will absorb the iron just fine, even if you eat foods with phytic acid, such as beans, in the same meal.
6
If you’re scared to eat beans and legumes, then hopefully this information will put your mind at ease.
Aside from the fiber, protein, and good carbs they contain, beans and legumes have some really neat, lesser-known benefits. For instance,
white
beans like navy beans and cannellini are the most abundant plant-based source of phosphatidylserine. This tongue-twisting component of your cell membranes plays a key role in communication between your cells, and specifically in the programmed death of damaged cells.
7
It basically sweeps the bad cells out.
The anti-bean brigade might be surprised to learn that a 2014 meta-analysis in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
found that legume consumption was inversely related with heart disease among the 501,791 individuals studied. Basically, eating more legumes lowered people’s risk of heart attack.
8
Hmmm. I wonder why? Could it be because they’re so full of fiber and high-quality carbohydrates? Another 2014 review of the literature set out to examine the effect of non-soy legume intake on markers of inflammation in the body, including C-reactive protein. The researchers compiled all the studies on the topic and found that nonsoy legume consumption contributes to reductions in C-reactive protein concentrations. In English, that means less deadly and fat-inducing inflammation in the body!
9
These findings have been supported by previous research, like a 2011 study in the
European Journal of Nutrition
in which overweight and obese subjects were randomly assigned to either a calorie-restricted, legume-free diet (the control group) or a calorie-restricted, legume-based diet (the legume group) for 8 weeks. The legume group was asked to eat only four weekly servings (160 to 235 grams total per week) of lentils, chickpeas, peas, or beans in addition to their regular food. At the end of the 8-week study, the legume group saw significant reductions in inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein. They also lost more weight and benefited from significant improvements in blood lipid profiles and blood pressure, compared with the control group.
10
So can we lay this bean and legume issue to rest? It’s quite clear that they facilitate weight loss and are great for your cardiovascular health. It turns out that old playground song is true after all.
Beans, beans, good for your heart . . .
You know the rest. If you don’t, give it a Google. We’re moving on.
Superstarches
As of this writing, carbs are considered the enemy in the traditional weight-loss doctrine. Starches of any sort are villainous substances that stick to your hips and fill you out all over. They are to be avoided at all costs.
That’s actually not true at all, and there are, in fact, superstarches (or “fat-burning fibers,” if you like) that will accelerate your fat loss. You heard that right.
These starches fall under the heading of resistant starch. It’s a type of fiber not digested in your stomach or small intestine, proving hardy enough to reach your gut (colon) intact. Thus, it “resists” digestion and, unlike other carbs, does not spike your blood sugar or insulin level. Furthermore, it doesn’t provide any significant calories. Yes, this is
actually
a real thing. What makes it even more special is the fact that it’s digested only by the good bacteria in your gut. In other words, it is not food for you, but for your gut flora. We call this amazing food a
prebiotic.
The normal human gut has hundreds of bacterial species, some good and some not so good. The overall number and proportion of each type have profound effects on our health and well-being. Research has shown that resistant starch selectively stimulates the good bacteria in our intestines, helping to maintain a healthy balance of bacteria.
11
When you eat resistant starch, the good bacteria in your gut feed on it and produce short-chain fatty acids (through fermentation), the most significant of which is butyrate, which you might remember from our discussion on butter. It has numerous beneficial effects on intestinal and overall health.
Butyrate is important because it’s the ideal energy source for the cells that line your intestinal tract. There, it acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent for your delicate intestinal cells and improves their integrity by decreasing intestinal permeability (bye-bye, leaky gut) and therefore keeping toxins in the gut and out of the bloodstream.
12
,
13
But wait, there’s more.
Butyrate, produced by resistant starch consumption, also decreases inflammation throughout your body because whatever amount your intestinal cells do not use enters your bloodstream. It is then sent to your liver, from which it spreads throughout the body, where it exerts additional anti-inflammatory effects.
The most abundant food sources of resistant starch are:
•
Green (unripe) bananas
•
Plantains
•
Cooked and cooled parboiled rice or legumes
•
Cooked and cooled potatoes
You can also supplement with unmodified potato starch (not potato flour), as it is one of the best sources of resistant starch, with approximately 8 grams per tablespoon. Plantain and green banana flour are also excellent sources of resistant starch. Rotating among all three
might
be your best option to get a full spectrum of various resistant starch strains. These supplemental options don’t have much flavor and can thus easily be added to cold or room-temperature water or mixed into your smoothies. To maintain the benefits of resistant starch, these sources should not be heated above 130°F.
If you choose this supplemental route, start with small doses of about ¼ to ½ teaspoon once daily and gradually increase the amount over time. If you don’t experience any of the gas or bloating that can occur when consuming resistant starch—or all fiber, for that matter—as your gut flora changes and adapts, you can likely increase your dosage. About 4 tablespoons per day is all you need for maximum benefit. If you experience too much discomfort, decrease the amount you’re taking for a few days until your symptoms resolve, then gradually try increasing it again.
The health benefits of resistant starch usually start to kick in when consuming around 15 to 30 grams daily (equivalent to 2 to 4 tablespoons of potato starch). This may be too much for you to tolerate, especially if your gut bacterial balance is out of whack, but over time it can make a noticeable difference to your health and waistline. A 2005 study in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
compared 4 weeks of supplementation with 30 grams of resistant starch per day with a placebo, and found that it decreased blood sugar, decreased insulin, and increased the ability of the muscles to utilize glucose by 65 percent—independent of any diet or exercise changes.
14
Not too shabby.
Michelle’s Story
“During my pregnancy, I developed preeclampsia and gained approximately 60 pounds. Having always been thin, I was very frustrated when I could not lose the weight, even with 5 to 7 hours of exercise a week. My daughter turned 3 and I still was carrying around pregnancy weight, plus I started to develop digestive disorders. I thought there was nothing I could do. Then I read
The All-Day Energy Diet
.
“When I started this diet, I had already had great success with the All-Day Energy Diet. I had gone from 187 pounds to 163 pounds in 4 months. However, I still had many cravings and slowly increased my cheat meals, and I was consuming alcohol and caffeine. I felt I wanted to do something extra to get back on track. Once I decided to give up coffee and alcohol completely, it was not as difficult as I’d thought. In general, I sleep better and have more energy than before. I have become accustomed to healthy food and prefer my morning smoothie to the bagel and cream cheese I used to have most mornings. I love that I feel in control of what I eat, and I am consistently making better choices. I don’t feel that my cravings for sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and wheat products control me any longer.
“I am fitting into clothes that I wore before I was pregnant, and I’m down to 151 pounds. I can see more muscle and less fat and am starting to feel like myself again!”
YOUR NEW KITCHEN
By taking a day or two to remove all the junk from your diet and replace it with the beneficial foods I’ve just listed, you will have taken a massive leap toward the more slender, healthy body you’ve been dreaming of for such a long time. However, the real magic is yet to begin. You have all the pieces you need, so now you just need to see the big picture they compose before you put them all together. That, my friend, is the heart of this very program, the 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula.
CHAPTER
5
STEP 3: FOLLOW THE 5-DAY FOOD-CYCLING FORMULA
Y
ou probably won’t be surprised to hear this, but you have terrible eating habits.
If it’s any consolation, so does almost everyone you know. These days, eating seems to be far more about entertainment and indulgence than nourishment, and the evidence can be seen in our waistlines. The solution is not to stock up on low-fat foods from the supermarket or commit to suffering through a fad diet, but to rewire your entire relationship with food and even hunger itself.
To get you on the right track, we’re not only going to address what you eat, but also how often you eat. Don’t worry, there won’t be any weeklong fasts on this program, but we will get you accustomed to eating only when you’re truly hungry. We often have a meal only because the clock tells us it’s time to, not because our stomach does. We’re putting an end to that.
The notion that we need three square meals a day to properly function is a relatively modern one that emerged from the Industrial Revolution of the mid-1800s. The advent of factory life made long,
standardized
working days a norm in Western society, and with this shift came the fashion of eating at the beginning, middle, and end of each day. It has been made even worse by food companies that push their cereals and other unnecessary breakfast options on you, making you feel like you “need” to eat breakfast. You don’t, especially if you’re not hungry in the morning.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with three meals a day, but as you’ll come to see, sticking to this schedule is not always necessary. In fact, we’re going to reschedule your eating according to what I call the 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula. This is the schedule that you’re going to follow for the next 21 days, and it’s specifically designed to help you shed the excess weight you’ve been carrying around. Why 21 days? That’s really the minimum amount of time it takes to form a habit. You’ll quickly see that you can do this for much longer, but 21 days is a great starting point. What’s more, during this time period, your relationship with food will evolve, as the plan trains you to eat the foods you truly need when you truly need them, all without sacrificing taste or your enjoyment at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can still be a foodie on this program.