The Virgin Diet (7 page)

Let’s be clear. If you see it, you’ll believe it. So, what would you look like if you were your ideal weight? There are great websites out there where you can actually scan in a picture and then see yourself looking thinner. (See the Resources section on my website.) Or find a photo of a body that you really like—your ideal body. Replace the person’s head with your own via Photoshop or good old cut and paste. Make some copies of your new you. Put it in places where you need a little motivation and support. If you can see what you look like at your ideal weight, then you will start to live like a healthy, lean person. Think of that picture as your defender, your reminder and your support system.

Look, I know this program isn’t easy. It’s simple, but it isn’t easy. There are going to be times when you feel like giving up. So, when you feel like you need motivation and inspiration, remember your top three goals. Why are you doing this? So you can have the relationship of your dreams and not feel self-conscious naked? So that you can play with your kids? What are those three things? Write them down and carry them around with you. Carry that picture, too. You need to see it to believe it.

If you follow my instructions, you will have amazing results. I promise.

I want you to think,
If not now, when?
When is tomorrow going to happen? Don’t you deserve for
it to happen now? You have to say, “I’m ready for the Virgin Diet. I’m all in.” You can’t be a little in on my program. You’re either all in or you’re not doing this.

So, come on in. I’m here to support you, every step of the way. If you follow my instructions, you will have amazing results. I promise.

Thanks to the Virgin Diet, I have had tremendous physical changes in my energy and strength. I have been moving a lot more and feel great from feeling strong again. I feel very happy to know that I have been and will continue to feel and look better. This has been a great inspiration to my friends and family. One friend even quit smoking! My sister and I have all kinds of new things to talk about regarding exercise, food and nutrition. I feel a tremendous amount of freedom because I am stronger, and I also feel disciplined, but it is because I want to be, not that I have to be. I understand exactly what I need to do.

I turned 50 last year, and the perimenopause thing really seemed to kick in. Then I was bitten by a brown recluse spider, and it really affected me badly. The poison went to my lungs, kidneys, stomach, all over—plus I had to take antibiotics, which wreaked havoc on my system. I have felt extremely weak since then, and my stomach had been more of a wreck than it usually is. The bite was behind my knee, so I was benched for a few months. As a result,
I gained a bunch of weight and couldn’t shake it. I didn’t know what to do or where to start.

Enter the Virgin Diet to the rescue! After dropping the 7 foods that JJ recommends we drop, I began to feel better immediately. This whole program has given me my life back. I am actually feeling strong again. JJ’s online forum and having a coach have been very supportive in so many ways. I am just beginning to realize the subtleties of that support and how important it is.

The greatest takeaway from this program for me is its comprehensiveness. All aspects are tackled, and I am feeling overall very balanced because of that. I thought the Virgin Diet Shakes were amazing. I really hit the program as hard as I could and have had the blessing of witnessing myself change and transform. This has been a really important experience. I hope I can help others know that transformation is possible and doable and fun!

What advice would I give to others?
Go for it!
Get rid of the 7 foods that JJ talks about immediately, ASAP!!! Make up your mind and follow the guidelines. Get a pedometer and move more. Really get into the bursting and resistance training knowing that they are your best friends! Learn how to really sleep and allow yourself to sleep. Feel excited about starting new healthy habits and breaking old unhealthy habits. The rewards will come!

My client George had no problem passing on candy, diet soda or ice cream. He didn’t have a sweet tooth. Nor did he mind going without butter, cream, rich sauces, fried foods or other types of high-fat choices. When I first told George about the Virgin Diet, he was fine with the idea of giving up sugar and artificial sweeteners, and he didn’t think he’d mind letting go of corn, soy, eggs, dairy and peanuts.

Then we got to gluten, and all hell broke loose. Or at least that’s what it felt like on my end of the phone as I listened to George vent his frustration.

“No cereal? No granola? No pasta? No couscous? No bread? How do you expect me to do that?”

Gluten is an ingredient found in most grains, especially wheat, barley and rye. It disrupts your digestion by damaging the microvilli of the small intestine, where we absorb our nutrients. Gluten also makes your intestines more permeable, which can lead to leaky gut, food intolerance, immune problems, inflammation and an inability to absorb nutrients and make vitamin B12. What this adds up to is several different ways that gluten causes you to gain weight, which you’re then unable to lose.

For some people, gluten is outright dangerous because they have celiac disease, a form of extreme gluten intolerance. If you suffer from celiac disease, the starchy side of life can create serious health risks,
including arthritis, osteoporosis and autoimmune conditions. It can even ultimately cause death. Although celiac disease is often hard to diagnose, George’s doctor had run tests and already determined that he didn’t have it.

Ironically, the one problem that celiac disease does
not
cause is weight gain. Because they have so much difficulty absorbing nutrients, most celiacs are thin or underweight.

Luckily, George did not suffer from this problem. In fact, he was struggling with 20 extra pounds that he wanted to lose.

“If I don’t have celiac disease, doesn’t that mean it’s okay for me to eat gluten?” George asked. “I’m sure I could eat it in moderation, anyway.”

“When it comes to gluten—and to the other high-FI foods—moderation doesn’t work,” I answered. Celiac disease is only the most extreme form of gluten intolerance, just as IgE food allergies are an extreme form of “immune system gone wild.” But the less extreme forms can also create significant problems for us. Just because George doesn’t have celiac disease didn’t mean he couldn’t be having other problems with gluten. And if he was, then every time he ate bread, pasta, cereal or baked goods, he was sabotaging his weight-loss efforts—not necessarily because of the calories but because of the way high-FI gluten inflamed his system and disrupted his digestion.

We’ve made gluten-containing grains more “gluten-y.”

Although celiac disease is relatively rare, gluten problems are much more common, and most people are walking around completely unaware that they are suffering from them. Some 30 to 40 percent of the population, including myself, have some type of gluten issue that also creates symptoms, from joint pain, to brain fog, to gastrointestinal distress. Typically in America, we’ve made gluten-containing grains more “gluten-y” because it makes them fluffier and softer. If you go to Italy and eat the pasta or pizza, it’s entirely different because they haven’t overly glutenized their grains.
So, if you’ve been wondering why bread-loving Italians don’t seem to have the same weight problems that we do, that is definitely one of the factors.

“I can’t imagine giving up grains,” George said finally. He was willing to give up cake. He was willing to give up cereal. But he couldn’t stand the thought of giving up bread.

“I understand,” I told him. “If I knew I was having my last meal tonight, I’d ask for a loaf of crusty sourdough bread—and I would savor every crumb!

“The problem is, tonight isn’t my last meal. I’m going to live a long, long time—or at least I hope I am. If I eat gluten, my digestive system will be all messed up, I’ll look old and haggard, I’ll develop some medical problems and I’ll gain weight. I don’t want to live like that—sick and old and fat. Do you?”

There was a silence at the other end of the phone as George thought over what I had said. “Okay,” he said finally, “let’s give it a try.”

Gluten is a form of protein found in wheat, rye, barley and many processed foods. Most of us tend to think,
Oh, proteins—healthy!
But some proteins cause our bodies a world of hurt, and the proteins found in gluten are among the worst culprits.

We’ve been eating gluten all of our lives, often in hidden places.

Yet, we love gluten in this country, which is why you can find it just about everywhere. Gluten in wheat flour makes things light and spongy or chewy and crunchy, and gluten everywhere else acts as a stabilizer and thickening agent, which is why manufacturers add it to such unlikely foods as ice cream, ketchup and
mustard. (See the Where Gluten Hides section on page 70.) My guess is that if companies didn’t add gluten to so many things, most of us might not have a problem with it because gluten in small amounts is probably okay if you don’t have celiac disease. But we’ve been eating gluten all of our lives, often in hidden places (lunch meats? salad dressings? pickles?
Really?
), so now we have to pass on the pasta and say bye-bye to the bread. I’m sorry, but we do.

Maybe you won’t mind letting go of gluten once you learn about all the problems that gluten-bearing foods can cause. Let’s take a closer look.

If you’ve heard about problems with gluten, this disease is probably what you heard about. It’s relatively rare: only about 1 in 133 people have it, and sadly only a small percentage of them are ever diagnosed.

If you have celiac disease, you cannot eat any gluten. Ever. Period. You’ve got a genetic condition that won’t bother you if you don’t consume gluten, but that can set off a major overreaction in your immune system if you
do
eat gluten.

Just the genes and the gluten aren’t enough to cause celiac disease, though. You also need a trigger to turn on the problem genes. Common triggers include any type of major trauma to your body, such as surgery, pregnancy or a viral infection, along with something we’re all familiar with: stress. So you might have the potential for celiac for years without ever realizing it, and you
may
have been consuming gluten without causing too many problems.

Once celiac disease is triggered, though, that’s it. You’ve got it for life. From that point on, whenever you consume anything that contains gluten,
your immune cells immediately try to attack the gluten molecule—and attack your body’s cells at the same time. Even if you don’t notice any symptoms, your small intestine is taking a hit every time you eat a piece of sourdough rye or grab a granola bar on the go. As a result, you aren’t absorbing nutrients properly, and you’re facing serious health risks for the future.

Because celiac disease is often misdiagnosed, you could end up eating gluten for years without realizing the harm it is causing to your body. In addition, celiac disease can trigger and exacerbate many of the other 140 autoimmune diseases that we know about. In fact, other autoimmune disorders occur 10 times more often in those with celiac disease than in the general population.

There is no cure for celiac disease, but there is a solution: yank the gluten from your diet. The disease doesn’t affect you as long as you’re not eating anything that contains gluten.

Now, here’s where things get fuzzy, but hang in there. In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of the population, including me, has
some
form of sensitivity to gluten that is not celiac disease but that is nevertheless a real problem with serious symptoms, including painful digestive problems, headaches, joint pain, infertility, osteoporosis, anxiety or depression. Gluten sensitivity also can damage your intestinal lining and produce leaky gut. And it can vastly increase your chance of gaining weight and making it nearly impossible to lose as long as you keep eating gluten.

In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of the population has
some
form of sensitivity to gluten.

If you react badly to gluten but don’t test positive for celiac disease, there are two possibilities:

1. You might actually have celiac disease,
   but your testing was done improperly or was insufficient to yield conclusive results. In my personal opinion—shared by a lot of other health experts—celiac disease is way underdiagnosed and is often simply misdiagnosed.
   
2. You might not have the genes that cause celiac disease,
   but still be highly sensitive to gluten.
   8
   In his book
   Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance,
   Dr. Stephen Wangen, a naturopathic doctor and specialist in food allergies and digestive disorders, has shown that nearly one-third of people who did not have the genetic marker for celiac nonetheless had antigluten antibodies in their stool. These antibodies create the same kinds of problems as the celiac response: a highly reactive immune system that goes after gluten and does a lot of collateral damage to the small intestine at the same time. Interestingly, these antibodies decrease when gluten is removed from the diet.
   

Unfortunately, much of the traditional medical community still doesn’t recognize gluten sensitivity. In most doctors’ minds, if it’s not outright celiac, it doesn’t exist.

In fact, you might not test positive, either for celiac or for any gluten sensitivity. Yet, you yank the gluten and feel a lot better. So, in my opinion,
that’s
the best test. If you are eating gluten and feeling bad, what is going on? Something that gluten is doing is causing some kind of inflammatory response in your body. This could be creating other problems as well.

What’s the moral of the story? Avoid gluten, at least for the 21 days of Cycle 1. In Cycle 2, we’ll find out whether you can tolerate it.

What if you have none of these special conditions: celiac disease, a grain allergy, gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance.
Now
are you off the hook? Nope.

Even among people who have no special sensitivity, gluten triggers the release of a protein called zonulin. I realize that zonulin sounds like the name of a creature from outer space, but it’s actually a protein produced in the small intestine. Like any sci-fi villain, zonulin is insidious and potentially quite dangerous, dismantling the proteins that create the tight junctions that we talked about in
Chapter 1
. Tight junctions are what keep your intestinal lining neatly sealed up so all the partially digested food stays inside. When zonulin messes with those junctions, some of that food leaks out, and your immune system thinks it’s being invaded again. Suddenly, you’re developing food sensitivities to foods you used to tolerate, and the overall immune response is increasing your level of inflammation. Inflammation causes symptoms plus weight gain.

If the details are too hard to remember, just keep this simple formula in mind:

That’s really all you need to know—and it should inspire you to stay off the gluten.

GLUTEN PROBLEMS: TEST OR CHALLENGE?

There are some tests you can have for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. I’ve listed them in the Resources section on my website so you can ask your doctor about them if you want, but you don’t have to go through all of those tests. The simplest way you can check for gluten sensitivity and celiac disease is to not eat it. Pull it out 100 percent, just as we are doing in Cycle 1 of the Virgin Diet. Then, as we are doing in Cycle 2, challenge it back. Then, see how you feel.

I see people all the time who look fine on every single test there is, but they still feel bad. We pull out gluten, and they feel a lot better. Maybe they feel better because they’re eating fewer grains (for more on grain problems, see the Lectins and Phytates: The Bad News Twins section later in this chapter). If you don’t want to get tested, don’t worry. I’ll walk you through Cycle 1 and Cycle 2, and that is probably all you need.

Okay, so celiac disease is an autoimmune condition and leaky gut (which can be triggered or worsened by gluten) causes a whole host of problematic immune responses. Autoimmune conditions include asthma, allergies, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (which might also be playing havoc with your weight), rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

To me, there is one simple conclusion: if you have an autoimmune condition of any kind, the first thing you should do is yank the gluten. It needs to go. I am always amazed at how much we can do to address autoimmunity through nutrition and how little awareness the medical community has of that fact. Too often, practitioners will greet problematic test results with the suggestion to watch closely and see what happens rather than making proactive suggestions about dropping foods that may raise the risk of autoimmunity.

If you have an autoimmune condition of any kind, the first thing you should do is yank the gluten.

My client Kim had been diagnosed with three separate autoimmune conditions. Her doctor deemed that she was “autoimmune-y” and could offer nothing better than “keep an eye on them.” I almost had a heart attack when I heard about it. I knew that anyone who struggles with one autoimmune disease is far more likely to develop another and that Kim’s three autoimmune conditions were a strong predictor of her likelihood to develop another—perhaps even several more. As I do with all my autoimmune clients, I immediately got Kim to drop the gluten, dairy and soy from her diet, and I worked with her to make sure she had optimal vitamin D levels. All three of her conditions are virtually asymptomatic now, and she has not gone on to develop any others.

If you have been or are concerned about autoimmunity, get rid of the gluten, dairy and soy, just as I am having you do on this program. You may not be able to cure your condition, but you can definitely keep it from getting worse!