Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself (20 page)

Breakfast is the hardest meal to change, because bread, cereal, milk, and eggs are not allowed. Try a liquid breakfast like the Energy Smoothie with Almond Butter and Cardamom. You could also eat fish, chicken, or vegetables from the previous evening’s meal; make a bowl of brown rice or quinoa “cereal” with some fruit and nuts or have some almond butter on fruit.

For lunch, eat salads containing the permitted protein types, soups, or other dishes using beans, lentils, and permitted grains, instead of sandwiches, wraps, and burritos or other typical meals.

For dinner use some of the Clean recipes here as guidelines and add green vegetables and quinoa instead of white rice, pasta, or potatoes. Steamed fish, grilled chicken, and baked or roasted vegetables are common meals during this phase.

Note that this is the time to begin decreasing your caffeine use. You may drink green tea if you need it and you can also try yerba mate, which has a stimulating effect similar to that of coffee. The more you can avoid caffeine, however, the better. In general, drink plenty of pure water during this preparation phase. You can add lemon, cucumber, and mint to it to make it more interesting. Herbal teas help substitute for black tea and coffee but need to be taken in addition to plenty of plain water, not instead of it.

Buy organic products whenever possible. These few weeks of preparing for and doing the Clean program are an opportunity to significantly reduce the toxic load in the body. Reducing exposure to toxins in your food is a no-brainer if you have access to and can afford organic produce. The most important thing to spend money on are organic animal products, because toxins accumulate as they go up the food chain. Look for organic, hormone-free chicken and meat and choose wild fish over farmed fish. When buying plant foods, spend money on organic fruits such as peaches, apples, and berries, and organic vegetables such as celery, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, and beans before worrying about thick-skinned produce like avocadoes and squash. Do the best that you and your wallet can, and always wash your produce very well.

Remove the Obstacles, Add What’s Missing

Eating according to the Elimination Diet will achieve the following important detox goals:

1. Remove from your diet the packaged and processed foods and drinks that contain additives, preservatives, and other chemicals, including “hidden sources” you might not think about, such as condiments and sauces.

YES INCLUDE THESE FOODS NO EXCLUDE THESE FOODS

Fruits: whole fruits, unsweetened, frozen or water-packed, diluted natural juices Oranges, orange juice, grapefruit, strawberries, grapes, banana

Dairy Substitutes: rice, oat and nut milks such as almond milk and coconut milk Dairy and eggs, milk, cheese, cottage cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream, nondairy creamers

Non-gluten Crains and Starch: brown rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth, buck wheat Wheat, corn, barley, spelt, kamut, rye, couscous, oats

Animal Protein: cold water fish, wild game, lean lamb, duck, chicken, turkey Raw fish, pork, beef, veal, sausage, cold cuts, canned meats, hot dogs, shellfish

Vegetable Protein:split peas, lentils, legumes Soybean products (soy sauce, soybean oil in processed foods, tempeh, tofu, soy milk, soy yogurt)

Nuts and Seeds: sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds; hazelnuts; pecans; almonds; cashews; walnuts Peanuts, peanut butter, pistachios, macadamia nuts

Vegetables: preferably fresh, raw, steamed, sautéed, juiced, roasted Corn, creamed vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers

Oils: cold pressed olive, flax, safflower, sesame, almond, sunflower, canola, pumpkin, walnut Butter, margarine, shortening, processed oils, salad dressings, mayonnaise, spreads

Drinks: filtered or distilled water, green tea, herbal teas, seltzer or mineral water, yerba mate Alcohol, coffee, caffeinated beverages, soda pop, soft drinks

Sweeteners: brown rice syrup, a gave syrup, stevia Refined sugar, white or brown sugars, honey, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, evaporated cane juice

Condiments: vinegar, all spices, sea salt, pepper, basil, carob, cinnamon, cumin, dill, garlic, ginger, mustard, oregano, parsley, rosemary, turmeric, thyme Chocolate, ketchup, relish, chutney, soy sauce, barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, other similar condiments

2. Reduce potential irritants and allergens in the diet. Some of the most common foods in the American diet have hidden irritating effects. The nightshade family of vegetables—tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplants, and potatoes—can cause sensitivity. In Ayurvedic thinking they cause the buildup of amma in some body types when eaten in excess, suppressing digestive strength. Strawberries, chocolate, shellfish, and certain nuts are also common allergens.

3. Reduce acidity and create a more alkaline inner environment. Red meat, milk products, bananas, and excessive grains such as wheat are all acid-making foods. These are also the main “mucus-making” foods that cause the stickiness in the intestines that is counter to healthy nutrient absorption and elimination. During and after Clean, the more you can avoid acidifying foods and fill the diet with alkalinizing ones, the better.

4. Remove foods that have an inflammatory effect in the body. Simple carbohydrates such as sugars and grains, especially refined grains (white flour, white rice), cause the body to release greater amounts of insulin into the blood to regulate absorption of the sugars into the cells. Insulin is a proinflammatory hormone. The hydrogenated cooking oils known as “trans fats” also cause inflammation. (Cold-pressed oils are not hydrogenated.)

5. Fill the diet with anti-inflammatory nutrients: omega-3 fatty acids from fish; polyphenols (plant-based compounds) from berries; and many plant-based compounds that boost liver detoxification.

6. Remove foods, such as grapefruits, that tend to suppress certain reactions in the liver detoxification function.

7. Remove foods that tend to have fungi on them (peanuts) or that feed the yeast in the intestines causing dysbiosis (sugars, alcohol, and dairy products). Remember, alcohol is made by fermenting grain or fruit sugars into ethanol. Its yeasty mix contributes to dysbiosis. It also contains its own mix of preservatives (sulfites in wine) and is a depressant.

8. Remove caffeine, alcohol, and, ideally, cigarettes, all of which tax the adrenal glands, negatively impact liver detoxification, and create free radicals that can damage cells (especially DNA and RNA), particularly when used daily and in quantity.

9. Remove the most pesticide-laden crops and hormone-and antibiotic-filled meat, dairy, and egg products. Also remove the main sources of genetically modified foods that go unlabeled into our food supply, the damaging effects of which we are still learning about (especially in the soy, corn, and wheat supply stream).

The pH Factor

Some foods actually contain acids or alkalis (soluble salts) and other foods create acidity or alkalinity in the body when combined with juices and digestive acids (acidic lemons have an alkalinizing influence). As mentioned earlier, a diet rich in alkali-forming foods is a key to ongoing good health. It helps with detoxification, as the body is already working to eliminate the acidic waste products of metabolism—you don’t want to add to the burden. The desired state within the body is slightly more alkaline than neutral. You can easily check your own pH state by using litmus paper strips to test your saliva. They are available at vitamin stores.

A very basic guide to common acidifying and alkalinizing foods can be found on the next page.

The health implications of our acidic lives is currently being seen in the loss of bone density. More and more women are being diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis. Most doctors prescribe supplemental calcium for this and instruct their patients to consume more dairy products to get “bone-building” calcium. What is not understood is that the bone is like an Alka-Seltzer tablet and will fizzle and release its salts in an attempt to alkalinize blood that has become chronically acid. The bones are dissolving because the blood is already acidic—and then dairy, an acid-forming food, is prescribed as a treatment. Moreover, calcium is not deposited in the bones without adequate levels of vitamin D, yet a test of vitamin D levels is rarely ordered by primary-care physicians. If a diagnosis of toxicity and testing for overly acidic conditions were the first response, a life-building, not life-harming, protocol could be advised, which could help the body reverse its harmful course.

ACID-FORMING FOODS ALKALI-FORMING FOODS

Alcohol Most ripe fruits

Bananas Most vegetables

Beans (most kinds) Barley

Beef Buckwheat

Chicken Soy beans

Corn Lima beans

Dairy products Azuki beans

Eggs Brazil nuts

Fish Sprouted almonds

Grains Honey

Lamb Millet

Nuts

Pork

Plums & Prunes

Rice

Sodas

Shell fish

Sugar

Sweet potatoes

Tomatoes (processed)

Turkey

Unripe fruit

Eating Out During the Elimination Diet

It is not hard to eat outside the home while you are on the Elimination Diet. You will have to make smart choices about where you go—and then spend a moment with the menu before choosing. A pizza and pasta restaurant will make it harder, though not impossible, to avoid the “no” foods.

Some of the common restaurant meals that will not fit the Elimination Diet requirements include sandwiches, hamburgers, pizza, wheat pasta, sushi, tomato-based sauces, tofu dishes, wheat-noodle dishes, anything with Asian soy sauces, baked potatoes, omelettes and egg-based breakfasts, wheat and corn tortillas, burritos, empanadas, lattes, cappuccinos, all coffee drinks, and desserts of all kinds unless they are fruit salad or plain fruit.

There are still plenty of options to choose from when you go out. Pick a meal on the menu that has protein, vegetables, and a permitted grain such as brown rice. (Indian restaurants, with their wide array of vegetarian foods and lentil and bean dishes, are a good bet.) Just ask the waiter to take your wine glass away and not bring the bread basket, naan bread, or corn chips, and you will find this way of eating much easier than you might have imagined.

Marco, a native of Italy, came to see me a few days after he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. His cancer had already spread (metastasized) to other organs. He was coughing, short of breath, tired, and depressed. He looked sick, with a grayish color to his skin. Doctors in Europe had told him that he had a few weeks to live and offered him chemotherapy as a last-ditch treatment. He took a plane and came to New York.

As I listened and responded to Marco I measured my every word carefully. Marco had been a heavy smoker all his life. He ate mostly red meat, pasta, wine, bread, butter, cheese, and rich deserts. He had a sweet tooth. Occasionally he ate vegetables when disguised in heavy creams.

Many cases have been reported of people who beat the odds—patients who outlive the doctor’s predictions that they have days to live, sometimes by decades. “It’s not over till it’s over” is their war cry. But when you look at these miraculous survivors, almost all of them have one thing in common: in order to recover, they made a radical change from what they were doing before. Highly stressed people became serious meditators. Atheists turned into devoted followers of faith. Burger munchers transformed themselves into vegetarians.

Marco frowned when I talked about vegetable juices as a way to deliver nutrients, antioxidants, and blood alkalinizers. He thought it almost impossible to imagine whatever was left of his life without enjoying his daily wine and meat. He said he did not want to give up on life—but what he really didn’t want to give up on were his habits.

This is when I said to him, “There are no incurable diseases, only incurable patients, Marco. Whatever you have been doing until now is not working for your body. So much so that it is threatening you with extinction, should you continue.” This finally got his attention, and there was a sudden shift in his attitude, even in his thinking. He had an “Aha!” moment that resulted in a willingness to try something new, to consume food not as a means of pleasure but as one would consume a medication. Food as chemotherapy. Big dietary shifts offer no guarantee of curing anything. I certainly did not recommend that he turn his back on all conventional treatments. But what Marco’s story exemplifies is that the most powerful tool in healing is the willingness—the openmindedness—to try a new way when what you’ve been doing before is not helping you live as healthily as you could.

THE CLEAN PROGRAM

Now that you have prepared your body, your living environment, and your mind, you are ready to begin to change your life.

Clean requires a fairly radical reorientation toward food, toward eating habits, and toward the experience of hunger. The Elimination Diet will have prepared you well for this. You will be in a clearer mind to begin and will have the confidence that comes from successfully changing some old patterns.

Ready to Start: Set Your Intention

Take a few moments to ponder and set your intention. Setting your intention is the root of success. Do you “have” to do it, or do you “want” to do it? A strong desire guided by the right intention will get you started powerfully. It is very important that you set the right frame of mind and the way to think about the program you are about to start. If you think about this program as something you have to do for your health it will not be as powerful as thinking about it as something you want to do. Obligation isn’t nearly as strong a driving force as desire.

We always make time for what we want. When we have a burning desire for something, we will go the extra mile or turn the planet upside down to get it. Think about it: whatever you have spent time wanting in life, you probably already have. But consider also how wanting something is usually an unconscious impulse. You see something and have to have it. The “want” is triggered almost unconsciously, and the stronger it is, the quicker you tend to get the object of your desire. Yet there are ways to cultivate or build up that desire for something—even if you feel hesitant or resistant about it at the beginning. Setting an intention is how you actively cultivate desire, so that it can propel you to success and get you over hurdles. Though these exercises seem simple, I have used them many times with patients. They can be the secret to achieving in a few short weeks a goal that may seem difficult or even impossible to you now.