The Virgin Diet: The US Bestseller. JJ Virgin

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      All of these symptoms together can make you feel as though your whole body is breaking down. You might be tempted to think that this is what happens naturally as you age. It isn’t. It’s what happens when you suffer from leaky gut. If you’ve been eating the wrong foods for years, you’ll probably develop more symptoms over time, as the problem worsens and symptoms build up.

      Ironically, your body starts to crave the very foods that are making you sick. That’s because if you keep eating high-FI foods, your body keeps making antibodies to protect you from them. If you try to cut out a particular high-FI food, you have all these antibodies roaming around in search of it, ready to zap it with their special protective chemicals. These would-be protectors actually cause you to crave the food they’re longing to zap, setting you up for a vicious cycle of inflammation and weight gain.

      Food intolerance can create leaky gut, but other factors can, too:

       Chronic inflammation

       Lactose intolerance

       Gluten as it triggers the release of the protein zonulin, which loosens the tight junctions in the gut

       A low-fibre, high-sugar diet, which lowers your levels of stomach acid and contributes to leaky gut

       Poorly digested food, which may be caused by speed eating or stress eating

       A compromised immune system or an autoimmune condition, such as asthma, allergies or rheumatoid arthritis

       Overuse of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), such as aspirin and ibuprofen

       Infections, including viral, bacterial, yeast and parasitic

       Antibiotics

       Accutane (a form of vitamin A used to treat acne)

       Acid blockers

       Excessive alcohol consumption

       Cytotoxic drugs and radiation

       Exposure to heavy metals

       Exposure to moulds

       Exposure to toxins

      If you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome or irritable bowel disorder, you almost certainly have leaky gut as well.

      The major cause of leaky gut, however – and the one that’s been most challenging for me personally – is stress because it causes your gut to become more permeable. So if you’ve been going through an especially tough time or if your life is chronically stressful, those extra pounds (and unpleasant symptoms) might well be caused by both leaky gut and inflammation.

      Leaky gut isn’t just caused by food intolerance, it also causes food intolerance. As undigested food leaks through those open spaces in your gut, it makes its way into your bloodstream, and your immune system goes wild. Eventually, even foods that you were not previously sensitive to can become problem foods for you. So, we’re looking at a vicious cycle in which leaky gut, inflammation and food intolerance all reinforce one another.

      Here’s the good news: if you remove the offending foods, your symptoms usually vanish, and the excess weight starts to come off. Once you heal your leaky gut, you might even become able to tolerate foods to which you are now sensitive. And the really good news is that you can heal leaky gut and perhaps also overcome at least some of your food intolerance through the Virgin Diet. When you drop the top 7 high-FI foods and load up on healing foods, you give your body a fresh, healing start. Meanwhile, you’ll drop up to 7 pounds in 7 days and look years younger. It’s a win-win.

      

      Much of the reason for our poor digestion is how we eat. We eat too fast. I tell people, “Be a slowpoke when you’re eating.” Put your fork down in between bites. You can improve your digestion by increasing your chewing. Chew more. If we eat with people who eat fast, we tend to pace ourselves with them, so eat with slow people.

      Mindful eating is not just taking the time to chew. It is also being calm while you’re eating. Take time for your meals. Focus on what you’re eating and the company around you – and don’t eat while you’re doing something else that needs your focus, such as driving or working. Keep your mind on the food and the pleasure of sharing it. You’ll enjoy it more – and you’ll eat less.

      

      I don’t want to gross you out, but now we need to talk about poops because they are a crucial part of digestion. Either diarrhoea or constipation can indicate that you have problems digesting your food, which could ultimately affect your ability to lose weight.

      Many people don’t realize that they are suffering from constipation. When I say, ‘constipation’, I want you to think three things:

      1. You’re moving your bowels less than once a day. Ideally, you should be going twice a day.

      2. You’re having to really struggle. Ideally, everything should come out nice and smooth.

      3. You’re producing poops that are tiny or don’t easily come all the way out. That is not good for your digestive tract or your overall health.

      What is a poop you can be proud of? It is a well-formed poop that you don’t have to struggle with. It comes out fully – it doesn’t stop halfway through and leave you stuck. Nor does it dive-bomb to the bottom of the bowl. It sinks to the bottom of the bowl. It doesn’t mark things up.

      If you have an oily residue or slick slides, you are not absorbing your fat well. If you have rabbit pellets or you’re straining, you don’t have enough fibre. If you have floating poops, it could be from excessive wind, produced by an overgrowth of bad bacteria lurking in your intestines.

      Now at this point, you might be wondering why I’m putting you through this kind of gross science lesson. The answer is, because if you don’t eliminate properly, you’ll be bloated and fat and setting yourself up for a permanent problem with both indigestion and obesity.

      Okay, I’ll get a little more gross and ask you to picture what would happen to a poop that just sat in the toilet for a few days. Ewww, right? Well, do you want that toxic mess sitting inside you? No, you don’t, and that’s why elimination is so important. If you aren’t having poops you can be proud of, you are holding a toxic mess inside your body every single day. That uneliminated poop is releasing toxins that are reabsorbed into your body, leading to bad breath, piles and acne, not to mention impaired digestion, inflammation and food intolerance. The net result is that you gain weight that you can’t lose, and you feel sluggish, tired and old before your time.

      Those toxins are also putting a terrific СКАЧАТЬ