Eat Fat, Lose Fat (22 page)

DAY FOURTEEN

Now it’s time to turn to Chapter 9, for luscious coconut recipes, and Chapter 10, for savory recipes using traditional foods, to get started on a diet plan that won’t feel like dieting!

This chapter presents Health Recovery, a plan that enhances recovery from a wide range of health problems by emphasizing digestibility and concentration of nutrients. All the Eat Fat, Lose Fat plans will gradually upgrade your immune system, stabilize your blood sugar, help prevent illness, and increase your energy long term. However, if you have a more serious (or chronic) illness, or are recovering from any of the serious health issues outlined below, you should follow Health Recovery, an intensive version of our program.

Health Recovery focuses on relatively simple meals. Homemade bone broths are critical, as are lacto-fermented foods and beverages. The plan also emphasizes raw animal foods. If necessary, you can consume four to six smaller meals a day instead of three larger meals.

Continue on Health Recovery until you gain more strength and appetite. Once your health has improved, move on to Quick and Easy Weight Loss if you need to lose weight, or to Everyday Gourmet if you want to maintain or increase your weight.

The Eat Fat, Lose Fat principles can have a profound impact on turning around serious and chronic illnesses. You should consider Health Recovery if you have any of the following conditions:

• Adrenal weakness: reduced libido, low energy, fatigue, difficulty handling stress
  
• Allergies and hay fever
  
• Asthma
  
• Attention-deficit disorder
  
• Chronic fatigue syndrome, anemia
  
• Colds and flu
  
• Constipation
  
• Diabetes and insulin resistance
  
• Emotional problems: anxiety, depression, mood swings
  
• Food cravings
  
• Fungal infections: candida
  
• Gallbladder ailments
  
• Hormonal imbalance/women’s diseases
  
• Hypoglycemia
  
• Immune system/autoimmune disorders
  
• Irritable bowel syndrome, gas, Crohn’s disease
  
• Skin problems: eczema, dry skin, wrinkles, scaly patches, hair loss
  
• Thyroid imbalance
  
• Viral infections: Epstein-Barr, herpes, HIV/AIDS
  

Note:
For any of these conditions, you should be under the care of a qualified health practitioner. The advice below is not intended as a substitute for medical counsel. Be sure to consult with your health-care provider before beginning the plan.

You’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to follow Health Recovery (and two weeks’ worth of menu plans) in this chapter. Recipes are provided in Chapters 9 and 10. Because some of the foods, preparation techniques, and supplements we’ll recommend in Health Recovery may be new to you, be sure you’ve read Chapter 4, on our nutritional approach to weight loss, and Chapter 5, on traditional foods and superfoods, to understand our reasons for including these items in the diet. While some may seem foreign to a Western diet, they actually are time-honored traditional nutritional strategies used successfully in many cultures throughout the world for health recovery. It’s definitely worth the effort to learn about these new foods and techniques if you’ve been struggling with your health.

Core Elements of Health Recovery

The core elements of this plan build on the principles of Quick and Easy Weight Loss, but with several differences. Let’s see first how they resemble our weight-loss program. As on Quick and Easy Weight Loss, you will:

1. Correct metabolic fat disturbances through upgrading your fat intake by
   
   • consuming coconut oil and coconut products;
     
   • supplementing with cod-liver oil to obtain vitamins A and D, as well as the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA; and
     
   • eliminating harmful trans fats and commercial vegetable oils.
     
2. Emphasize nutrient-dense foods.
   

The difference is that for Health Recovery, there is much more emphasis on the following:

• Homemade bone broths
  For Health Recovery, you need the nutrient-dense, gelatin-rich goodness of real stock or bone broth. The gelatin in such broths is key to relieving digestive disorders, fatigue, diabetes, asthma, and allergies.
  
• Increased dosage of vitamins A and D
  by taking cod-liver oil along with high-vitamin butter oil. for tips on taking cod-liver oil painlessly, either as a liquid or in capsules.
  
• Lacto-fermented beverages
  Providing nutrients and beneficial enzymes, these are key to relieving digestive disorders, kidney problems, skin disorders, allergies and asthma, and alleviating food and alcohol cravings.
  
• Raw animal foods
  to provide vitamins B
  ₆
  and B
  ₁₂
  . Raw dairy products and/or raw and marinated meat and fish are a key part of the Health Recovery strategy.
  
• More superfoods
  Increased amounts of liver, fish eggs, and other nutrient-dense foods that nourished healthy traditional peoples.
  
• A supplement of desiccated liver
  (in addition to cod-liver oil) to increase strength, stamina, and energy as you recover from illness.
  
• Soaked grains
  Many digestive disorders stem from the inability to digest grains and legumes. In Health Recovery, we allow only grains that have been thoroughly soaked or breads that are genuine sourdough. It is particularly important to avoid cold breakfast cereals, granola, and any other grain products that are likely to irritate the digestive tract. If your health problems stem from an allergy to wheat, even soaked whole-grain products should be eliminated, at least until you recover completely. Use rice crackers instead of whole-wheat crackers.
  
• More frequent meals,
  particularly for people who have difficulty taking in high levels of calories at one meal.
  

If You Need to Lose Weight

In Health Recovery, calorie restriction takes a backseat. This is because, in order to maximize the diet’s health benefits, you’ll more intensively incorporate a variety of traditional foods like those in the list above. For most people with health problems, it is more important to nourish the cells with these healthful foods than to worry about calorie counting.

If you need to lose weight,
and
your weight is connected to your health challenge (for example, if you have diabetes, food cravings, or chronic fatigue), we advise you to follow Quick and Easy Weight Loss, eating three meals per day (that is, avoiding the between-meal snacks in Health Recovery) but adding in the following features of Health Recovery:

• Bone broths
  
• Increased coconut dosage
  
• Increased dosage of cod-liver oil accompanied by high-vitamin butter oil
  
• More raw animal foods
  
• Supplement of desiccated liver
  
• Increased use of lacto-fermented beverages
  

Major Health Challenge or Convalescence

If you are struggling with any of the following, whatever your weight, do not attempt caloric restriction until you are stronger:

• Recovery from surgery
  
• Life-threatening illness
  
• Debilitated, weak condition
  
• Chemotherapy
  
• Serious digestive disorder
  
• Malnutrition
  

Obviously, this is not a license to eat indiscriminately. Instead, you should carefully follow the recommended diet in order to rebuild your health.

Adrenal Weakness: Reduced Libido, Low Energy, Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Difficulty Handling Stress

If you are experiencing low energy or any of the above conditions, lowered adrenal function is probably the culprit. Your adrenal glands produce a variety of hormones that regulate various bodily functions, such as mineral metabolism, glucose balance, and response to injury and healing. In addition, your adrenal glands produce the stress hormones, which means that difficulty dealing with stress often accompanies adrenal weakness.

What Your Adrenals Need

The special fatty acids in coconut oil give quick energy and prevent low blood sugar. And the nutrients in cod-liver oil are vital for hormone production, along with vitamin and mineral absorption.

Vitamin A
To do their job, your adrenal glands (and the entire hormone production pathway) need the nutritional building-block cholesterol along with plentiful vitamin A, obtained through the foods on our diet.

In a 2001 study reported in
Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids,
researchers found that people with adrenal disorders that respond to corticosteroids (synthetic adrenal hormones) also respond to EPA and DHA, which are amply present in cod-liver oil, as well as in the other traditional foods we recommend. The efficient absorption and use of these fat components is guaranteed by the saturated fat in this diet.

Vitamin D
According to a 1996 study published in
Brain Research: Molecular Brain Research,
activated vitamin D in the adrenal glands regulates an enzyme needed to produce dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, substances in the brain that help us feel good and help provide energy.

That’s how, acting in synergy with other foods, cod-liver oil, by supplying vitamin D and vitamin A, will boost you out of a low-energy state.

Vitamin C
To maintain optimal function, our adrenals need the vitamin C complex, provided in this diet by fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly those that have been lacto-fermented. When cabbage is fermented to make sauerkraut, its vitamin C levels increase tremendously. You’ll learn how to prepare fermented foods in Chapter 10. We also recommend acerola powder or amla tablets, as a natural vitamin C supplement.

Salt
Since the adrenal glands need salt to function properly, people with adrenal fatigue need more salt in their diet. You can use unrefined salt liberally, even drinking beverages with a pinch of added salt (quite helpful for insomnia in people with adrenal problems).

What to Avoid

Trans fats
Key to healthy adrenal function is avoiding all trans fatty acids in processed foods, for these interfere with the enzyme systems that the body uses to make adrenal hormones.

Sugar and caffeine
It’s also crucial that people with adrenal problems avoid sugar and caffeine. These substances are stimulants that activate the body’s stress response, causing the adrenal gland to produce adrenaline. The result is an outpouring of adrenal hormones. The body develops a cycle of adrenaline energy surges followed by exhaustion, forcing the adrenals to produce compensating hormones to recover from the adrenaline surges.

Over time, this cycle leads to adrenal exhaustion. Remember: Your body was not designed to produce adrenaline all the time, so don’t hype your energy with caffeine or sugar. These stimulants may buy you fast energy cheaply in the short term, but you’ll pay dearly for it over the long term.

For most of us, the main energy “drain” is actually the digestion of our food. Processed foods, pasteurized milk products, and excess carbohydrates (even whole grains) exhaust our reserves, so that when we assimilate foods more easily (as we do when they are properly prepared), we suddenly have a huge reserve available for tasks such as muscular function, thinking, exercise, and other more creative pursuits.

Using raw milk, eating lacto-fermented foods, soaking grains, and consuming gelatin-rich bone broths greatly improve digestion and thus help combat low energy.

Anemia

If anemia is contributing to your fatigue, the vitamin A in cod-liver oil will help this condition. We actually cannot absorb iron from our food without vitamin A. In third-world countries, anemia is very common, even though the foods eaten contain adequate iron. Public health officials have discovered that the best way to treat the anemia is not by giving iron, but by giving vitamin A, preferably in the form of cod-liver oil.

Allergies and Hay Fever

You may not realize that allergies and hay fever are closely related to adrenal function. In fact, adrenal hormones (like cortisol) control your body’s response to allergens. An overactive response will produce inflammation, which can manifest as asthma, rashes, or hay fever.

Since the adrenal cortex is very sensitive to blood sugar levels, eating refined carbohydrates (like bread, pasta, doughnuts, soda, and chips) can cause allergies, with allergic reactions triggered by low blood sugar.

Therefore, the best treatment for allergies is not the conventional therapy, cortisone, a drug that suppresses and eventually weakens your adrenal glands, but a natural program of nutrition and supplements that rebuild and rebalance your adrenal cortex.

If you are prone to allergies, we recommend that you do the following to rebuild your adrenal strength:

• Absolutely avoid all refined carbohydrates—bread, pasta, and sugar—as well as fruit juices and most sweet foods, even natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and honey, if you have any allergic symptoms.
  
• Use coconut oil, along with other traditional fats, to provide satiety and keep your blood sugar stable and within the normal range.
  
• Take your coconut and cod-liver oils: many studies have shown that the omega-3 fats in cod-liver oil relieve allergy symptoms. Remember that your body uses omega-3 fatty acids much more efficiently when you are also eating saturated fats.