I’ve been thinking about weight-loss quite a bit recently..
(beach body time! Better to feel happy and safe on the beach, rather than have a fleet of Japanese Whalers try to harpoon me!)
I’m totally absorbed and convinced by the work of Lyn Genet Recitas and her book The Plan.
She has been a nutritionist for many years, and has slowly built her theory, that weight-gain is down to “Inflammation”
(I think many doctors and researchers have come to the same conclusion, that inflammation underlies most illnesses)
Lyn’s work suggests that each of us has weak spots, where certain foods will “hurt” our digestive system making it hold onto water to protect itself, much like your skin does when it gets bruised.
It’s not the SAME collection of food for everybody, but your own personal list of things that upset your system. – Think foods that give you gas, digestive pains, loose stools etc.. these are just much more graphic illustrations of foods that upset you on a lower level.
There can be all sorts of daily foods that just irritate your gut… daily … for years… at a constant but low level..
Think about Irritable Bowel Syndrome – it’s an extension of this theory – blisters on your intestines..
There can be all sorts of daily foods that just irritate your gut… daily … for years… at a constant but low level..
Think about Irritable Bowel Syndrome – it’s an extension of this theory – blisters on your intestines..
Lyn has found a list of things she finds almost universally to be difficult to diet on, rather shockingly almost 80% of her clients have issues with – get this – Salmon and Green beans! (I would have thought this was the holy grail for dieters! There must be 10 million women having this diet lunch right now! And putting ON weight!) There quite a few other shocks such as Oats, Turkey, Yogurt and Tomato sauce!
It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle plan, find out what you react to badly, and skip or limit these for the rest of your life, you’ll gradually lose weight, till one day you are at your perfect weight.
I have lost 6 kg over any easy few months or never feeling hungry or deprived. (She embraces wine and chocolate which helps, and surprisingly I’m not really finding small amounts of sugar an issue – say yes to the occasional cake!)
Personally I found that eating chicken and beef made me put on weight, something that as a true carnivore really upset me.
I re-tested these foods a few days later, BUT crucially decided to go for Organic Chicken and Beef, not the usual supermarket brands. (Think ££££’s!)
I found that I consistently LOST weight on Organic meat, and consistently GAINED weight on intensively farmed food – just my luck!
This led me to ask the question – what are they putting in this meat that makes my gut inflamed?
There’s really only one or two answers to this, and it has to be antibiotics, or animal growth hormones..either way it’s something injected into my meat, and passed to me.
There’s really only one or two answers to this, and it has to be antibiotics, or animal growth hormones..either way it’s something injected into my meat, and passed to me.
I was interested to try searching for research to back this theory up – the theory being that a growth hormone for animals might make ME grow too – a fairly obvious conclusion I would have thought? There’s VERY little on the subject, just a few dead ends saying that the FDA hasn’t really looked into it very far – I’m sure they haven’t! Follow the money, honey!
What happens if the World’s obesity crisis is laid at the feet of the world’s meat producers? (To be fair I suspect that the chemicals that are used on vegetables disrupt our hormone systems too..)
I found this extract on the The National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website.. (USA)
Unfortunately, many of the “obesogenic” compounds in our food supply were added deliberately to enhance production instead of being added to enhance nutrition. For example, pesticides are added to ward off insects during farming; BPA is a strong, clear plastic that has ideal properties for making bottles and coating cans; and mono- and diglycerides are added to emulsify the fat and water in foods to achieve a favorable texture. Simple exclusion of these compounds may not be possible until alternatives are developed, but then these novel compounds must be tested. Like pharmaceuticals, thorough testing is time-consuming and expensive.
So, as per usual it feels that farming is all about profit, and not our health.
If you feel as I do that the consumer should come first, and NOT the share-holder, please suggest what we can do about it…
In the meantime, I’ll keep investing in organic meat for my body – I’m sure I’ll save a fortune on doctors bills in the long run…. it seems unfair that I should have to pay way over the odds just to eat food that’s not poisoned!