Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty (15 page)
Read Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat After Forty Online
Authors: Suzanne Somers
Tags: #Health; Fitness & Dieting, #Aging, #Diets & Nutrition, #Diets & Weight Loss, #Weight Loss, #Women's Health, #General, #Diets, #Weight Maintenance, #Personal Health, #Healthy Living
Perhaps the gut discomfort you have been experiencing all your life has been a food intolerance, sensitivity, or allergy that started as a child. This is why I have included Camelia’s story. Had this gone unchecked, she could have ended up with Crohn’s disease due to gluten intolerance. Maybe this has been your impediment to losing weight your entire life. If her symptoms resonate with you, then it will serve you well to be tested for sensitivities or intolerances.
Both sensitivities and allergies can develop in response to anything in the environment, not just food. The offending substance might be corn, petrochemicals, or any of the numerous toxins that now contaminate the planet. The response to these antigens can affect any organ of the body, but the gut will always be involved. Poor digestion and food sensitivities are tied together. The more food allergies or sensitivities a person has, the more the body reacts and triggers the immune system to activate inflammation throughout the body (especially in the GI tract).
Also, the improper digestion of food can lead to an allergy-like response. When undigested food particles enter the circulation through the walls of the intestine, the body responds as if they were foreign invaders, forming what are known as immune complexes. Brenda Watson says: “Immune complexes are formed when an antibody binds to a water soluble antigen.
Clusters of these antibody antigens are immune complexes. They are cleared from the body via the macrophages in the spleen or the Kupffer cells of the liver. If this does not happen, they circulate in the blood and are deposited in the organs or joints, and they can cause autoimmune disease. For example, in people who are gluten sensitive, the gluten becomes an antigen and can create these immune complexes by the binding of the antibody formed in reaction to gluten. If the liver or spleen is not strong enough to clear these complexes, then inflammation occurs. This can also happen with other toxins.”
Food allergies and food sensitivities, along with toxic exposure, are yet another piece of the puzzle of why you can’t lose weight. You eat the offending food, it creates a toxic reaction, the toxicity drains your energy, you crave fattening and sugary foods to get some energy as an unconscious means of survival, and the offending food weakens your immune system, leaving you susceptible to various diseases. When you feel weakened, what quicker way to get energy than with bad carbs, sugar, or processed foods with chemicals? At this point, the body has no choice but to store the toxins in fat—everything that enters through your mouth or the skin must be used, eliminated, or stored, and since toxins can’t be used and your weakened lymphatic system means they cannot be easily eliminated, the body has little choice but to store them in fat. The more toxins you take in, the more fat you need for storage. Another vicious cycle. Now do you see that the more toxic the body becomes, the fatter you get … and the sicker?
According to Dr. James Breneman’s
Basics of Food Allergy
, published in 1978 when Dr. Breneman was chair of the Food Allergy Committee of the American College of Allergists—the number one professional organization for allergists in the United States—food allergy and sensitivity can cause arthritis, bursitis, low-back pain, hives, eczema, itching, asthma, fainting, flushing, dizzy spells, bedwetting, recurrent bladder infection,
canker sores, low blood sugar, diarrhea, attacks of gallbladder pain, aggravations of diabetes, indigestion, acid reflux and heartburn, constipation, abdominal bloating, crankiness, other personality changes, migraine headache, fatigue, learning disability, puffiness in the hands, feet, and face, and rapid water retention of up to 4 percent of body weight.
One easy way to determine if you’re food allergic or sensitive is to weigh yourself every day. If you gain two pounds or more overnight, it’s obviously water weight, fluid retention caused by food allergy or sensitivity. Fat doesn’t store that rapidly! Caution: Not everyone sensitive or allergic to food gains water weight; this self-test only finds food allergy or sensitivity for some of us.
I remember when one of my dear friends started having trouble with swelling feet and ankles. They would blow up so badly she could hardly walk. Once she took off her shoes, getting them back on was virtually impossible. Her stomach would also bloat. She had always been lean and lithe, even though she ate sugar night and day and drank Coke constantly. She was thin, so it never seemed to be a problem taking in so much sugar, like it is for the rest of us. But once this discomfort and swelling began (which I now realize was inflammation running amok) it never went away. It continued for years, and she gained a little more weight each year. I never thought much about it at the time, but now I realize that those were the first warning signs of an immune system that was breaking down from toxicity and no one understood the trigger.
Was an accumulated toxic burden in her body finally rearing its ugly head? Was it the enormous amounts of sugar she consumed? Was it hormonal imbalance? Or was it all of the above? Were these the early warning signs indicating issues that for her would one day end up as lung cancer and emphysema? Was it just bad luck, or was it toxicity and allergies?
Could it have been sensitivity to corn, sugar, dairy, or gluten? Swollen feet and ankles are indicators. A simple test early on would have identified the offending foods, and she might have been able to reverse the problems … if only we had known.
M
Y
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USBAND
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LAN’S
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TORY
From my earliest memories, I had serious stomach problems. In grade school, I would go to the nurse’s office with a bloated and aching stomach, and the diagnosis was always the same: spasmodic stomach, whatever that means. It never stopped, but it now had a name. All my life, until just a few years ago, I carried that awful burden. Even though I ate organic food, replaced my hormones, loaded up with supplements, and had a great marriage and family, my stomach bloated every afternoon around three o’clock, and sometimes I had to go to sleep from exhaustion. Why was I so exhausted? I slept eight to nine hours nightly. Then one of my many tests came back, and there it was; a serious gluten intolerance, with celiac disease just around the corner. I stopped all gluten instantly, and I have not bloated since then. And I am no longer exhausted in the middle of the afternoon, either. I lost 3 inches off my waist and my love handles all but disappeared. The biggest surprise was that my food intake dropped in half; I had been eating double the amount of food because the gluten problem did not permit proper absorption of nutrients. Once I stopped all gluten, I was a happy fellow. Almost half the population is gluten intolerant, but they don’t know it. They do what I did for most of my life: simply accept the fact that every day brings discomfort. I suggest everyone over forty get tested. It’ll change lives.
The good news is that a simple blood test is available to check for food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances. It will all be done in the same test. Go to
SuzanneSomers.com
and click on Life Extension. They offer this test at a reasonable price and will interpret the results for you.
My husband took this blood test and it changed his life. He never realized how bad he felt after eating certain foods until after he stopped eating gluten. Years of bloating and discomfort, fatigue, the need for frequent naps, unexplained weight gain, and a loss of vitality and energy—all was rectified once he gave up the offending foods.
W
HAT
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EED TO
K
NOW
A
BOUT
G
LUTEN
Gluten is a special type of protein found in rye, wheat, barley, spelt, triticale, and kamut. Therefore it is found in most types of cereal and in many types of bread. Gluten is also found in oats, but there is debate among physicians about whether oat gluten causes the same problems as gluten from other grains. Not all foods from the grain family, however, contain gluten. Wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, teff, soybeans, and sunflower seeds don’t have it. A gluten sensitivity is a condition in which an individual experiences an adverse reaction to the consumption of any substance containing gluten proteins. A gluten sensitivity can overlap many of the same symptoms as celiac disease. In cases of celiac disease, the reaction to gluten is obvious, sometimes with constipation, sometimes with multiple stools daily, diarrhea, gas, bloating, and cramps. Celiac disease is sometimes severe. What distinguishes gluten sensitivity from celiac disease is that someone with this type of food sensitivity is often able to consume small and infrequent amounts of gluten-containing products without exhibiting a severe reaction. By contrast, an individual suffering with celiac would have to avoid gluten in any form or run the risk of serious repercussions each and every time even a tiny amount of gluten is consumed.
If you are suffering from either gluten intolerance or celiac disease, you might wonder, what can you eat? A lot.
Gluten-free grains, including rice, wild rice, corn, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, teff, and sometimes oats (also, oats can be contaminated by wheat products during processing, so make sure to look for “gluten-free” products to avoid cross-contamination); unlimited amounts of vegetables; all fruits; all beans; all nuts; all poultry (chicken, turkey, duck, etc.), fish, and seafood. As far as dairy goes, most everyone can tolerate butter, but a test for milk allergy and sensitivity and a separate test for lactose intolerance (the former usually involves milk proteins, the latter milk sugar) is advised to be sure you can tolerate other cow products. Cheeses and
yogurt made from sheep’s or goat’s milk, however, are allowed. As for oils, flaxseed, hemp, avocado, extra virgin olive, and perilla are all good choices. Eggs are another great choice, unless an intolerance to them appears in your blood work. Most gluten intolerants can handle oat milk, almond milk, or rice milk. Extremely sensitive gluten intolerants may have a much wider range of food restrictions, which will be revealed in your test results.
For people with sensitivities (depending on the degree) the smallest bit of the offending food can cause a reaction like, say, a mini spoonful of poison. Who would feel well taking any amount of poison?
But how can we know if we are sensitive to or intolerant to any foods? The abovementioned blood test can identify many of the offenders. When my granddaughter took the allergy test we were shocked at the breadth of her sensitivities: everything from gluten and dairy to soy, brown rice, pinto beans, and countless other foods. Dr. Jonathan Wright was able to interpret her tests for her and asked that she give up all the offending foods until her body calmed down and was able to detoxify. Gluten was the only exception: she was so sensitive to it that he told her most likely she could never have gluten foods again.
According to Brenda Watson, there are certain foods you have to be careful of if you’re gluten intolerant, as these foods may be hidden sources of gluten:
- Modified food starch
- Thickening agents
- Caramel coloring
- MSG
- Malted milk
- Flavored and instant coffees
- Soy sauce
- Emulsifiers
- Stabilizers
- Hydrolyzed vegetable proteins
- Packaged rice mixes
- Creamed vegetables
- Nondairy creamers
- Prepared meats (sandwich meats, hot dogs)
- Premade salad dressings
- Vodka, whiskey, beer, gin, wine, malt liquor
- Ovaltine
- Ice cream
- Bouillon cubes
- Chocolate
- Catsup
- Pie fillings
- Baking powders
- Chewing gum
- Dry seasoning mixes
- Gravy mixes
- Processed cheeses
- Packaged dips
- Vanilla and flavorings made with alcohol
- Most condiments
Hate your cellulite? Think cellulite is a fait accompli that accompanies aging? Well, not necessarily so. Cellulite is most often caused by allergic reactions and an immune response to food proteins. A delayed allergic reaction to offending foods occurs within blood vessels, causing inflammation in the vessel walls, which subsequently can trigger clotting mechanisms. This increased inflammation in the arteries and capillaries contributes to poor circulation, which is a known cause of cellulite, and reduced lymphatic drainage. Avoiding food intolerances will diminish the appearance of cellulite and stop its formation for good … another great reason to eliminate toxins and toxic foods from your system!