The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week (4 page)

When you think of inflammation, you might think of the swelling you see when you mistakenly hit your thumb with a hammer. As painful and frustrating as that may be, it’s a healing mechanism your body has in place to help heal the injury. What you might not realize is that inflammation happens inside the body as well, where you can’t see it. When this hidden inflammation is ongoing, it can lead to all kinds of health problems. Can you imagine your whole body swelling up on the
inside?
It’s an unpleasant thought, and the scary reality is that many of us live day to day like this without knowing it.

Plenty of things give rise to this situation, and gluten is one of them. Gluten creates a cascade of low-level inflammation reactions throughout your body that, over time, can lead to a host of bigger problems. At the highest level, gluten can lead to full-blown celiac disease—an autoimmune disease that triggers body-wide inflammation leading to insulin resistance, which causes weight gain, diabetes, and more problems.

Celiac disease results when the body creates antibodies against gluten that attack the lining of the small intestines, the main absorptive area in your body, which also provides a barrier separating you from your poop. This can lead to cramping, diarrhea, yellow stool, or even no symptoms at all in many cases. Over time, the destruction of the intestinal lining diminishes the amount of nutrients you can absorb from your food, leading to many nutritional deficiencies.

The protein in wheat, gliadin, has been shown to trigger the release of a protein called zonulin, an important gatekeeper of intestinal permeability.
⁸
The more wheat you eat, the more zonulin you activate, and the weaker the tight junctions become in your small intestines. This broken-down intestinal lining then allows the protein components of wheat (and other food proteins) to seep into the bloodstream, where a range of nasty immune and inflammatory responses begins.

But there is another kind of gluten sensitivity that results from a generalized hyperactivated immune system. This means that you can be sensitive to gluten without having full-blown celiac disease and still have inflammation and many other symptoms. On top of all this, a nongluten glycoprotein in wheat called wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), found in highest concentrations in whole wheat, increases whole-body inflammation. And whole-body (or systemic) inflammation is strongly related to heart disease and cancer.

A study in the
Journal of the American Medical Association
revealed that hidden gluten sensitivity (elevated antibodies without full-blown celiac disease) was shown to increase risk of death by 35 to 75 percent, mostly by causing heart disease and cancer.
⁹
Remember, gluten can
trigger
these same problems even if you don’t have full-blown celiac disease. Many people have elevated antibodies to gluten without even knowing it. The best course of action is to simply assume you do, too, so that you avoid the deleterious effects of gluten.

And a word of caution: Don’t be fooled by all those boxed and packaged “gluten-free” products you see scattered throughout the grocery store. Many of them simply replace gluten with other unhealthy, fattening ingredients like cornstarch, palm oil, and sugar. Don’t fall for the manufacturers’ sneaky tricks or eat too many of the foods I call gluten-free junk food, such as gluten-free cookies, cakes, and processed food. Processed food has a high glycemic load. Just because it is gluten-free doesn’t mean it is healthy. Gluten-free cakes and cookies are still cakes and cookies! Vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds, and lean animal protein are all gluten free—stick with those.

Gluten Addiction

It’s hard to eat just one doughnut, isn’t it? I’ll be very honest with you—pizza is my nemesis, and I know why. At some level, I’m addicted to it, and that’s likely because I’ve eaten tons of it over the course of my life. I certainly don’t eat much of it now, but I scarfed so much of it in my childhood that a deep craving for it has probably embedded itself inside me. Even now, it returns from time to time, especially in moments of stress when my body just needs a comforting “fix.”

Wheat’s addictive properties are largely due to the fact that, upon digestion, its proteins are converted into shorter opioid-like proteins called gluten exorphins or gluteomorphins. They act in similar fashion to the endorphins you get from a runner’s high by binding to the opioid receptors in the brain. That process is also responsible for the high you get after taking an illegal drug, setting the stage for an addiction similar to but probably less intense than heroin addiction.

Every now and then I get an intense craving, and when that happens, I’ll bake myself a gluten-free pizza. I make a damn good pizza, but even that doesn’t completely satisfy me. Even with all the fixings, that pie simply doesn’t fool the reward center in my brain, which
swiftly
issues a gnawing craving, egging me on to get the real deal. Thankfully, I’ve become aware of these patterns, which makes it easier to put a stop to them when they arise. You can learn how to do the same thing by reading this book.

I hope by now you have a much better understanding of why wheat is terrible for your health and your ability to lose weight. It has no redeeming qualities, no matter what any dietitian, the American Diabetes Association, or even the latest food pyramid may tell you. Some of these authorities will likely tell you that if you don’t have the HLA-DQ gene or specific antibodies against gluten, you’ll be fine eating copious amounts of bread. I’m here to tell you otherwise. Let me save you the hassle of going through all sorts of blood and genetic tests. Let’s just agree that wheat is not good for your body, okay? For that reason, none of the recipes in this plan—or any others that I ever create—will contain wheat or gluten. You don’t need it, and you certainly won’t miss it when you’re enjoying delicious meals that help you drop a few pounds in the space of a few days.

Dairy

I don’t often speak poorly of others, and I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist. However, when it comes to dairy, I consider it my duty to let you know about some pretty shocking schemes that have led you to believe that milk is not only necessary for good health, but also helps you lose weight.

Before I blow the whistle, let me first tell you why, despite some suspicious research and misleading ads, cow’s milk really doesn’t do a body good. The trouble with cow’s milk (and its cheese and yogurt by-products) is the inflammation that it causes inside our bodies as a result of the proteins it contains, such as casein. Additionally, many people are lactose intolerant, which means they lack the enzyme
lactase
that digests the lactose sugar molecule. This can lead to many gastrointestinal symptoms like cramping, gas, diarrhea, and more.

If your gut is compromised, you’re even worse off. If you have compromised intestinal permeability, or “leaky gut,” it’s more likely that your immune system will respond to potentially allergenic components
in
milk such as alpha- and beta-casein, casomorphin, and butyrophilin. This is especially true for people who are gluten intolerant, because it has been shown that milk proteins commonly cross-react with gluten. To put it another way, if you react to gluten, it’s more likely that you’ll also react to milk.

The other reason I discourage dairy consumption is that I personally think it’s quite odd that we feel the need to drink another animal’s milk to meet our protein and calcium needs. We’re the only species on the planet that does this. Obviously, other animals don’t have the means to milk another animal, but I’d be surprised if they would even if they had the capability of doing so.

As I discussed in
The All-Day Energy Diet
, the main issue with dairy is that it’s the most acid forming of all foods. Considering that too much acid in our bodies—a condition known as
metabolic acidosis
—has been shown, like inflammation, to be at the root of many health problems we now face, it’s a smart idea to minimize your intake of such foods. What’s the problem with too much acid, and how does it make losing weight more difficult, you ask? When you eat any food, it is eventually metabolized by your kidneys, where it leaves either an acid or alkaline “ash.” With continued consumption of acid-forming foods (dairy, grains, sugar, lots of animal products), we develop low-level acidosis, which must be buffered at the expense of alkaline reserves like bicarbonate and calcium.

Instead of allowing excess acid to ruin your delicate blood vessels and organs, your body looks to store this acid to prevent further damage. And guess where it goes? That’s right—into your fat cells. Foods that contain more protein and phosphorus and fewer alkaline minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium are more acid forming, while those that have the opposite makeup are alkaline forming. Dairy products (especially cheese) are the most acid forming of all foods. This is due to the large amount of protein and phosphorus they contain. Even though dairy also contains a substantial amount of calcium, its phosphorus impairs calcium absorption and utilization in the body.

When you look at bigger, unbiased studies, dairy’s true colors are revealed. Take, for instance, the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, which
included
more than 77,000 women. It found that women who drank three or more glasses of milk a day had no reduced risk of hip or arm fractures during a 12-year follow-up period when compared with women who drank little or no milk.
¹⁰
Or consider a large review in the journal
Osteoporosis International
involving a total of 39,563 men and women. It revealed that people who consumed less than one glass of milk a day were at no greater risk of bone fracture.
¹¹
And many studies show similar results.

What’s interesting is that our Paleolithic ancestors didn’t drink milk, and yet osteoporosis was almost nonexistent in their time. Instead, they got plenty of natural sunlight, regular weight-bearing exercise, and lots of whole foods—the perfect recipe for strong bones. Yet, today, we continue to be misled by big-money lobby groups who want us to believe that milk is required for good bone health.

We’ve been duped, and it’s all thanks to efforts like the $200 million campaign several years ago claiming that drinking milk was helpful for weight loss. You have to wonder where that conclusion came from, as a review of 41 randomized clinical trials, including a Harvard Medical School study, demonstrated that milk did nothing of the sort. The review asserted that the idea “has been totally discredited by research not funded by the National Dairy Council (NDC).”
¹²
And yet, for some reason, the NDC was allowed to run ads for years that featured slogans like “Milk your diet. Lose weight!” and suggested that three daily servings of dairy products could contribute to weight loss. It wasn’t entirely untrue. After all, the more milk you drank, the more money ended up in their pockets, leaving yours lighter.

You may recall their other ads, like the highly visible “Body by Milk” campaign, which was aimed at teenagers and featured celebrities such as baseball star Alex Rodriguez and
American Idol
winner Carrie Underwood. It was quickly followed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine asking the FDA to prevent packaged dairy products from claiming links between weight loss and dairy consumption. (That ad campaign, like many others, based its ludicrous claims of weight loss on a select number of tiny studies—involving fewer than 100 people!—conducted at the University of Tennessee by Dr. Michael
Zemel,
who received $1.68 million in grants since 1998 from the NDC. How is that even possible?)

Eventually, thanks to increased pressure, very little proper science to back up these claims, a significant lawsuit, and a reprimand from the US Department of Agriculture, the milk industry abandoned their ridiculous campaigns.
¹³
They may have received a much-needed scolding, but the damage was already done. Millions of people still believe that dairy products are good for your bones and help you lose weight. To this day, you’ll find ads claiming this. It boggles my mind. Given that dairy is such a common allergenic food that can lead to a host of digestive and inflammatory issues—all of which can make losing weight more difficult—you should avoid it on this program if you truly want great results.

FAT TRIGGER #2:

A Sedentary Lifestyle and Exercise Extremism

My kids love the movie
Wall-E
. Okay, I do, too. It’s pretty awesome. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll undoubtedly remember the grossly overweight humans on the spaceship being transported around in what seem like floating wheelchairs. In the slothful future in which the movie is set, they had become so lazy that they no longer knew how to walk. They say the best comedy is born of tragedy, so maybe that’s why it’s so funny. If you ask me, we might not be too far from this ridiculous scenario if we continue on our current path.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if we don’t move enough, we won’t be burning calories, and thus we will have trouble losing weight. In fact, we’re much more likely to gain weight, especially if we continue eating higher amounts of the wrong foods. Check out these frightening statistics: According to a 2008 Vanderbilt University study of 6,300 people, it was estimated that the average American spends 55 percent of his or her waking hours (7.7 hours) sitting or sedentary.
¹⁴
A 2010 study by the American Cancer Society found that women and men who were inactive and sat for more than 6 hours a day were 94 percent and 48 percent more likely to die prematurely, respectively, than their counterparts who sat less than 3 hours a day.

We
also have to take into consideration what happens inside our bodies when we’re sitting down. Sitting decreases the activity of an enzyme called
lipoprotein lipase
(LPL), which helps burn fat.
¹⁵
Too much sedentary time decreases bone mineral density without increasing bone formation, which raises the risk of fracture. Furthermore, excess sitting increases blood pressure and decreases the diameter of your arteries, both of which make heart disease more likely.
¹⁶