The Break-Up Cure™ by Kevin Kurgansky The Shortcut to Getting Over a Break Up

The Breakup Cure The “Shortcut” to Getting Over a Break Up

About The Author: Kevin is the most sought-after relationship coach in the world for people who are going through a break up. He is most famously known as “The Breakup Doctor” Kevin specializes in helping people save their relationship and bounce back after a broken relationship. Kevin is a Certified Coach with The Life Coach Institute and he also has his own private practice as a relationship and break up coach. Kevin graduated from DePaul University and completed his Couples Counseling and Therapy Training with The Gottman Relationship Institute, which is based on over 40 years of research on what makes marriages succeed or fail. All credentials aside, most of Kevin’s teachings come from his personal experience. Eight years ago, he went through a devastating break up that brought him to the lowest point of his entire life. After hitting rock bottom, he had a spiritual awakening that propelled him on the path of self-discovery. Using the breakup as a catalyst for his transformation, Kevin embarked on a journey of personal growth, determined to bounce back from the break up as a better person. He emerged from the experience a changed man and went on to help millions of people through the painful process of getting over a break up. Since then, he’s written several books and created dozens of best-selling programs on how to survive a break up. Today, he lives in Chicago Illinois with his incredibly supportive girlfriend, helping people with their most pressing relationship issues. If you’d like to know more about how to work with Kevin in private, you can find his contact information at the bottom of each page.

Introduction: Before you read any further, I want you to realize that you’re not alone. I know that, after a break up, it can feel like no one “gets” you. Like no one really understands what you’re going through. However, I want you to know that I’ve been in your shoes. (And so have billions of other people) Yes, I said billions. Let that soak in for a moment... There are over 6.8 billion people in the world right now. Over half of them have probably experienced the pain of losing someone they love. That means there’s over 3 billion people that have felt what you’re feeling (and also gotten through it) The reason I’m taking the time to illustrate this in such detail is because I want you to know that what you’re experiencing right now is actually very common. In fact, there are thousands (if not millions) of people all around the world that are going through the exact same thing right now. I know because I’ve dedicated my life to helping them. For the past 8 years, I’ve talked to people fresh out of a break up on a daily basis. (Really exciting, I know) And during that time, I’ve helped thousands of people recover from some really soul-crushing breakups. The reason I share this is to offer you hope.

I know it might seem like things will never get better. I know it might feel like it’s too much to deal with. However, it’s absolutely essential that you remember this one thing:

“Nothing lasts forever… not even your troubles.” Take a trip down memory lane with me… I want you to think back to a time in your life when something really unexpected happened and you felt like it was the end of the world. I want you to relive that experience for a moment and think back to how you felt Now, I want you to rate that feeling on a scale of 1 – 10 (1 being not bad at all and 10 being the worst you can imagine) How do you feel about that situation right now? What would you rate that feeling on a scale of 1 -10? I can guarantee that the way you feel about it now is radically different than how you felt the moment it happened, probably by at least 3-5 points (if not more). See, when something really unexpected happens, we have a tendency to over-exaggerate it and make it out to be much worse than it really is. Isn’t it true that there are times we look back on something that happened and find it funny that we got so worked up over that? Perhaps you felt a bit of that now. How is it that something that once felt like it was the end of the world is hardly even a problem anymore? What changed? The thing that changed was your perspective. Once you saw what happened in a different light, it changed the way you felt about it. The same principle applies here. The way you’re looking at your situation is a big part of what’s causing you to suffer.

That’s because you’re caught up in an “emotional storm” and it’s distorting your perspective. So what I’m really here to do, aside from just sharing some helpful tips and advice, is to help you EXPAND YOUR PERSPECTIVE. I’m here to help you see your situation differently. Once you begin to see it differently, it will change how you feel about it. But even more importantly, it will change the way you go about solving your problem. There’s a brilliant quote by Albert Einstein that says: “Life’s most significant problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking you had when you created them.” So my real goal in sharing this information with you is to help you reach a new “level” of thinking. Once that happens, you’ll able to deal with your problem more effectively. I’m going to stretch your thinking by sharing some hard-earned lessons I’ve learned from my own experience, as well as the lessons I learned from spending close to a decade helping people with these exact same issues. Please do your best to read this book with an open mind. It’s essential to getting the most from it.

How to Get The Most From This Book This book is not simply meant to be read – it’s meant to be used In order to help you do this, I’ve incorporated a good blend of theory and practice. In each chapter, I dive into some powerful ideas that I believe are important for you to understand. Then, afterwards, I share some practical action steps that you can take immediately after you read it. So treat this book like a “workbook” Read each chapter and then spend some time doing the exercises at the end. If you take the time to apply all the things you learn, I promise that you will get everything you hoped for (and more). However, if all you do is skim over the pages and play a game of mental validation, I can tell you right away that this book isn’t going to do anything for you. I want to take a second to clarify what I mean by “mental validation” – because I believe that we ALL do this to some degree (myself included). Anytime we’re reading a book, we’re basically filtering the information we’re reading through our pre-existing knowledgebase. Most of us tend it through 1 of 3 different lenses: 1) “this is good, this makes sense, I agree with this” 2) “this is nothing new, I already know this” 3) “this is wrong, I don’t agree with this” While the first way might seem superior to the other two, all 3 are utterly worthless. Why? Because they don’t actually lead to you DOING anything! It’s all just a mental game that you’re playing with yourself in your head. And yet, I know the reason you got this program wasn’t to get some new ideas or theories to contemplate.

The reason you got this program was to get some relief. Well, in order to get the relief you were hoping for, you need to reflect on each chapter and think about how you can apply it to your life. I’ve made it easy for you to do this by providing you with several techniques that you can begin using right away. This will help you apply it to your life. Remember: simply reading the book from start to finish will NOT magically heal you. Although I share a lot of very powerful techniques that will help you heal your broken heart, they won’t do you any good if you just read about them and don’t use them. I can give you the resource but you’re the one that’s responsible for using it So please honor the commitment you made when you got this program and promise me that you will actually USE IT. Now here’s MY promise to YOU…. If you actually use the techniques I share with you, I promise that you will feel an instant sense of relief the very first time you do it (especially with The Emotional Freedom Technique and a couple others). Now, don’t get me wrong, these techniques are not a “quick fix solution.” They do not hold the power to heal you permanently. However, they do help. So take all the information I share and apply it to your life. I promise that if you do, you will drastically speed up your recovery process. You’ll also walk away with a greater sense of clarity on your relationship (and hopefully on your life as a whole). I hope this book will help you as much as it’s helped me and thousands of people. Please do me a favor and send me an email after you’re done reading it to let me know what you think I would love to hear about your experience and the impact it’s had on your life.

Section 1:

How to Deal with Rejection In this section, I’m going to talk to you about the #1 most important thing you need to learn after a breakup: how to deal with rejection. Why is this so important for you to learn how to deal with rejection? Because the way you deal with rejection will determine: 1) how likely you are to get them back 2) how difficult it’ll be for you to deal with the pain if you guys break up for good 3) whether you’ll have a chance of being friends in the future 4) how they will remember you for the rest of your life (No pressure, right?) So with this in mind, it’s really important to learn how to deal with rejection the RIGHT way, as opposed to the way that comes most naturally to us after a break up. By the way: the way most people deal with it is actually very counterproductive. In fact, it only makes the situation a lot worse. (You’ll learn more about this on the next page…)

What Happens When We Get Rejected? Rejection is a very powerful thing. When someone rejects us, especially when it’s the person we love, a whole bunch of stuff comes up for us. We feel hurt, rejected and even downright devastated. It often comes as a total shock to us. It can even feel like our whole world is falling apart. That’s because the “rejection” actually sets off a series of physiological responses in your body that you’re probably not even aware of. Only psychological geeks like me who actually enjoy “geeking out” on this kind of stuff actually know what goes on “behind the scenes” So, what happens when you get rejected by someone? When someone rejects you, it actually triggers a part of your brain called the amygdala. (See picture below for more details)

Our “Fight or Flight” Mechanism… The amygdale is the same part of our brain that controls your “fight/flight” response. (I’m sure you’ve probably heard of that before…) This part of our brain gets activated anytime we feel some kind of threat. When this part is activated, we go into a “hyper-intense” state of awareness in order to be better equipped to eliminate the threat. This is actually a survival mechanism that has evolved over thousands of years. If you’ve studied evolutionary psychology, you know why this exists. And even if you haven’t, I’m sure you can deduce why something like this may come in handy. So what does this part of our brain actually do after a break up? To put it simply, it automatically goes into a “fight” response in order to be better equipped to eliminate the threat. The threat, in this case, is the possibility of losing the person you love forever. In fact, just the THOUGHT of that is usually enough to make you panic. That’s why you start doing a bunch of crazy stuff like calling and texting them over and over again. Begging, pleading, crying, and even promising to change things about yourself. In other words: you’re willing to do just about anything you can to get them back. You’re basically just trying to preserve your relationship at all costs. Why? Because you’re desperately trying to avoid LOSS. You’re also trying to avoid CHANGE. As humans, we don’t really like change. In fact, we HATE it.

Why Humans Hate Change Any kind of change, especially one as drastic as losing the person closest to us, involves a great deal of UNCERTAINTY. Losing the person you love often feels like having your world turned upside down. And when the magnitude of change is that drastic, it’s not very easy to deal with (no matter how good or bad you relationship actually was). So this nifty little part of our brain actually developed an extraordinarily powerful survival mechanism in order to eliminate the chance of that ever happening. The “survival mechanism” I’m referring to is the need to RECONCILE This often shows up in the form of begging, crying, pleading and other desperate attempts to get our ex back. Here’s what it looks like in our brain: 1) Getting our ex back = not having your whole world turn upside down 2) Not having your world turned upside down = not being forced to undergo change 3) Not being forced to undergo change = comfortable treading down the path of least resistance Our brain naturally gravitates towards the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance always involves keeping things the same. As long as things are the same, everything is safe, comfortable and familiar (even if it’s not necessarily the best thing for us in the long the run) However, the “long run” is not what your brain is most concerned with in that moment. The only thing it’s concerned with is keeping things the same.

Embracing Biology We can come up with a bunch of incredibly sincere justifications for why it’s not really that simple. We can argue that the reason we feel such a strong urge to save the relationship is because we love them so much. And while that’s certainly true, there is also something MUCH deeper going on behind the scenes. That’s why the urge you feel to get them back is so INTENSE. It’s NOT just love that’s propelling you to save your relationship. It’s biology too. After a break up, there is a biological response that’s triggered in your mind, which then sends a physiological response to your body, which then causes the hyper-intense state of panic and desperation. You’re literally in an “altered state” after a break up. You have a powerful set of chemicals coursing throughout your body, causing you to think, feel and do things that you otherwise wouldn’t normally do. Now, you might be wondering: why am I sharing this with you? Is it because I like overwhelming you with a bunch of complicated psychological jargon? Not at all. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because I want you to understand that the urge you feel to get your ex back is not just an urge you feel because you love them. Sure, that’s obviously a part of it. But there’s also a bunch of chemicals coursing throughout your body right now that are making you want to get them back at all costs (even when getting them back might actually not be in your best interest)

Why is this important for you to understand? Because you need to understand what’s actually happening in order to know how to handle yourself properly. In other words: you need to be able to recognize when that part of you is activated in order to be able to get back in control of yourself. Why? Because when your amygdale is activated, you go into OVER-DRIVE In fact, you pretty much go completely unconscious. You’re basically just a puppet with puppet strings. The puppet strings, in this case, are your emotions. They’re pulling you in a hundred different directions all at once and that’s why it feels like you’re going crazy. I want you to take a moment to stop and realize that this is all very NORMAL. I know it feels like you’re going crazy but you’re actually not. The reason it feels so intense is because this is actually a hard-wired response that’s been programmed into your mind through thousands and thousands of years of evolution. I won’t go into all the specific details of how it evolved here but just know that this type of reaction actually served a very specific purpose many, many years ago. Back when we all lived in small tribal communities. The thing you have to realize though is that: Although this reaction was originally created to serve you, it no longer does. In fact, it actually hurts you and does a lot more harm than good. I’ll explain why on the next page…

Why Being a Slave to Your Emotions Is Killing You When you start freaking out and doing everything you can to get them back, it makes you seem DESPERATE and NEEDY (…which actually ends up pushing your ex away even further!) That’s the weird and “counter-intuitive” thing that most of us don’t really realize. We think that if we just prove to them how much we love them and explain how we can’t imagine our life without them, we’ll somehow be able to convince them to take us back. Yet, that almost NEVER works. In fact, it usually just pushes them away even more. Just think back to a time when you walked into a store and a salesperson approached you right away, asking you what you needed. Then, before you could even respond, they immediately start showing you a bunch of stuff they got in stock and going on and on about how cool it is and how you need it. What was your initial reaction to their behavior? Probably something along the lines of “ahhh, get away from me!” What’s funny is that this reaction has nothing to do with what the salesperson said. What they said could have been the greatest thing in the world and the product itself could have been exactly what you needed. However, your natural instinct in that moment is to retreat and push away. WHY? Because you can sense that the other person is trying to “get” something from you. You can tell that they have some sort of agenda and it feels “icky ” Well, the same thing applies here…. so stop doing it! Got it? Good.

Unfortunately, this is a lot easier said than done because you’re under a very powerful spell of emotions right now. Like I said earlier, all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes is VERY real and it’s literally coursing through your entire body right now. In other words, there are physical things happening inside of you that are causing you to feel this way (which is why it’s so damn hard to get back in control of yourself) By the way, I want to give you one physical symptom of all these chemicals reactions just so you know that I’m not making all this stuff up. You know that feeling you get in your gut? That tight knot you get when you realize that you’re about to lose them forever? That sick lonely feeling down in the pit of your stomach? Yeah, that one. That’s one example of it. Just that one thing along is enough to compel you to do ANYTHING you can to get your them back. Sometimes, it’s not necessarily even to get them back; it’s just to make that HORRIBLE feeling go away. Can you relate? I know I can. A lot of people go to really great lengths to avoid that feeling. Some people end up buying programs on how to get your ex back and they try to use a bunch of sneaky, manipulative tactics just to get them back. Psychological loopholes, triggers, jealousy, etc. Now, I’m not going to get too much into all that stuff here because I actually know a couple of the people who publish courses like that and I don’t want to slander them. They’re good people, I just don’t necessarily agree with their methods. Here’s my personal take on it: If you need to use any sneaky psychological tactics to get them to want to be with you… it’s probably NOT meant to be.

There’s nothing wrong with seeking out information to improve your relationship. In fact, I highly recommend it. After all, it takes a lot of work to maintain a successful relationship. It also requires you have to have a certain level of knowledge and skill. However, nothing about it should feel sneaky or manipulative. You really shouldn’t have to do that just to get someone to love you. If you have to do that, it’s not really love. But that’s my 2 cents on it. Moving on now…

Maintaining Your Dignity After a Break Up The goal of this section is to help you deal with rejection the right way so that you can maintain your sense of dignity (not just for yourself but also in your ex’s eyes as well) I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I’ve talked to that acted desperate after the break up and did a whole bunch of things that they now regret. Not only did it end up pushing their ex away even further, but it also tainted the way they remembered them (which ruined any chance of getting back together in the future). Now, I’ve helped many people recover from this and rebuild a friendship later. However, a lot of people were never really able to be friends with them after (not that you have to be friends with your ex or anything). In fact, it’s probably best NOT to be friends with your ex immediately after the break up. I’ll explain why in a later section. For now, I just want to help you deal with rejection more effectively so that you can maintain your dignity.

Why Rejection Is So DAMN Devastating… The reason we take rejection so badly is because we’re social animals. We’ve evolved over the years in a social environment, where we had to get along and cooperate with others in order to survive. (We still have to do that now but not nearly as much as before) Before, when we lived in a tribal society of only about 40 people, the approval of others was crucial to our survival. If people didn’t approve of us, we were ostracized from the pack and left to survive on our own in the wilderness. And back then, the chances of survival under those conditions were next to nothing. In fact, it was practically impossible and almost always led to death. (Remember, we weren’t nearly as self-sufficient and independent as we are today. We worked in “packs” and we desperately needed other people in the pack to do their role in order for us to survive). So when we were separated from the pack, we were basically as good as dead. So we learned that in order to best ensure our chances of survival, we had to minimize rejection and disapproval from our community. In turn, we developed a “rejection-avoidant” mechanism to prevent this from happening. (NOTE: I’m grossly oversimplifying a very complex process that evolved over thousands of years. However, I’m not trying to give you a history lesson here. I’m just trying to give you a quick overview of what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling that way). Now, fast-forward thousands of years and you’ll see this in action today. Just think back to a social situation where you had to meet a lot of new people. It could be out at a meeting, conference or networking event (or even out at a bar). Let’s say you saw someone that you really liked or found attractive. Or perhaps you just saw someone interesting that you wanted to meet or start a conversation with.

Did you actually go up and talk to them? Probably not. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Most people don’t. Why? Because we don’t want to make ourselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to what, you ask? To rejection and disapproval. We don’t want to put ourselves out there and get turned down. We don’t want to be embarrassed in front of others and end up feeling stupid. That’s why most of us never even bother to approach in the first place. Because we FEAR rejection. And while many of us may think that getting rejected by someone we haven’t met before is bad… the rejection we feel from someone we love is actually 10 TIMES WORSE.

Why Getting Rejected By The Person You Love Hurts 10x More Than Any Other Rejection Believe it or not… we actually feel MUCH more hurt when we’re rejected by someone we’re in a relationship with. Why? Because the first type of rejection is a very superficial kind of rejection. When someone you just met rejects you, they’re usually rejecting you based on something superficial; whether it was something you said or did, or perhaps it was simply based on your appearance. Either way, it’s superficial. However, when you get rejected by the person you love, by the person that you’ve shared so much of yourself with, it STRIKES you right to your CORE. That’s why you feel that KNOT in the pit of your stomach. This person has known you intimately for months, years, and sometimes even DECADES. This person probably knows you better than anyone else. They know the REAL you. And after getting to know the real you, they’ve decided that they don’t want to be with you anymore. That’s what really hurts us deep in our soul. It’s hard NOT to take something like that personally. Yet, taking it personally is actually part of the problem. It’s precisely what causes the rejection to hurt so much. So what I want to help you do is to separate the personal reaction from the rejection. That way, you don’t let it affect who you are (or your self-esteem).

Not Giving Rejection The Power to Hurt You There’s a great quote by Gandhi that says: “Nobody can hurt me without my permission” So while rejection hurts, it doesn’t HAVE to hurt. You can actually stop it from hurting. But first, you need to understand WHY it hurts. After that, you can transcend it. Much like what I was saying earlier about the breakup triggering our fight/flight mechanism, the pain of rejection also triggers a specific part of our brain as well. In fact, studies have shown that when we get rejected by someone we love, it actually triggers the same part of our brain that feels PHYSICAL PAIN. Dr. Ethan Kross, a professor in psychology and his research team at the University of Michigan actually conducted a study where they separated people into 2 groups; one was a group people that just went through a break up and the other group was just a regular group of people. They hooked them up to a machine that monitored their brain activity and here’s what they did: They took the group of people that had recently gone through a break up and they showed them a picture of their ex. After that, they monitored the response in their brain. Then, they took the second group - the group of regular people – and they spilled a cup of hot coffee on their arm. What they discovered is that the same part of the brain is activated in the group of people that saw a picture of their ex as the group who got burned with hot coffee. In other words, they found that the brain reacts to emotional rejection exactly the same way that it responds to physical pain. The results of this study offers new insight into the complexities of social rejection and how the experience can be both emotionally and physically debilitating. It’s clear that the psychological pain that results from a relationship break up affects our physical health.

In fact, research has shown that grieving actually increases the risk of heart attacks. This is yet another indicator that reinforces all the stuff I was saying earlier. To put it simply, the pain you’re feeling right now is very real and it hurts. But that doesn’t mean that it has to KEEP hurting you. Although it’s perfectly normal to have this kind of reaction, you want to be able to take control of it so that it doesn’t keep hurting you. You have to separate your sense of self from the rejection in order to preserve your sanity. So, here’s something that’ll help you do that: Don’t see the rejection as something that your ex is doing to you. It’s not like they woke up one day and thought: “Hey, I want to do this really mean and nasty thing to him today….” OR… “I want to hurt her really bad and cause her pain. What can I do?” It wasn’t like that… Your ex still loves you (even though they may not be acting like it right now) I’ll talk more about this in the next chapter. I’ll also explain why your ex is acting cold and distant right now. In the meantime, just realize that they do still love you and care about you. They wouldn’t have been with you if they didn’t love or care about you to some degree.

Remember That It Wasn’t Easy For Them To Leave You Either If they loved you or cared about you at all, then it wasn’t easy for them to leave you (although it may feel like it was based on their current behavior). However, the truth is that it’s never easy to leave the person you love (even when you know it’s the right thing to do). However, people do eventually leave when the relationship gets too painful to bear. Remember how I said that humans are creatures of habit and we generally do everything in our power to avoid change? Well, the same thing applies in your ex’s case too. No matter how unhappy they were with you, losing you still sucks. They’re losing a friend, a lover, and a companion. Not only is it painful to lose someone that close to you but it also requires a really HUGE change. And remember what I said about change? We don’t like it and we don’t tend to deal very well with it. So with that in mind, I can guarantee you that this wasn’t an easy decision for them. It’s likely that they’ve been thinking about it and mulling it over for a really long time. In fact, they probably knew that they wanted to break up with you a long time ago. They just kept putting it off longer and longer. Until something happened… Now, you might be wondering, “what happened?” To put it simply: The pain of being with you got worse than the pain of losing you.

I’ll go into this in more depth in a later section… For now, I just want you to realize that this is something your ex is doing for their own personal benefit (rather than as a negative thing to cause you pain) Therefore, you should do your best to NOT take it personally. It’s not an attack, it’s an act of self-preservation. They’re not doing this in order to hurt you. So whatever you do, don’t start thinking that there’s something wrong with you or that you’re not good enough as you are. Sure, you’re far from perfect and I’m sure there are a lot of things that you could have done differently. PS: I actually created an entire course that covers the 10 most common mistakes that most people make in relationships (and how to learn from it so that you don’t make the same mistakes in the future) It’s called: Why Your Ex Left (And What You Did To Push Them Away) If you haven’t gotten it yet, you can get it here: => Why Your Ex Left In this course, you’ll discover the biggest reasons most couples break up (as well as what it REALLY takes to make a relationship work) For now though, I just want you to realize that you’re not flawed in any way. Just because your ex rejected you does NOT mean that you are any less lovable You are still whole and complete… exactly as you are. If you find yourself questioning that or worrying that you’ll never find someone else, it’s usually a sign of low self-esteem. Here’s a fundamental truth that I discovered through many years of private practice: “People with high self-esteem tend to cope with breakups and rejections MUCH more effectively.

Why? Because people with high self-esteem know who they are and what they have to offer. If one person doesn’t appreciate them, they know that someone else WILL. I want you to feel the same way. Remember: You’re not really losing a part of yourself (though I know it can often feel that way).

Losing Yourself in Relationships See, when we’re in love, we have a tendency to attach our sense of self to our partner. We inter-mingle our lives so much that we often become really attached to the other person, which makes it really easy for us to lose our sense of self in the relationship. When this happens, losing your partner becomes a lot more than just losing the person you love. It also means losing a part of yourself. When you attach yourself to your partner and lose yourself in the relationship, losing them feels like you’re losing everything. It can affect you to the point where you feel like you can’t go on without them. Well, that would explain why you’re reacting in a fit of panic and desperately clinging to the relationship in any way you can. This is why it’s so important to stop and reflect on the situation before you just desperately try to get them back at all costs. You need to stop and ask yourself:

Why Do I Really Want Them Back?. If you want them back just to eliminate the suffering – in order to get rid of that feeling of loneliness and to avoid having your sense of “self” dismantled – then you’re not really wanting them back for the RIGHT reasons (or perhaps, not for very pure reasons). See, everyone wants to get their ex back. The question is: Do you want to get them back because you value the relationship or because you’re afraid of losing them and living your life without them? There’s a big difference. A lot of people that try to get back with their ex do it just to hold onto the relationship (even though, deep down, they know that the breakup is probably in their best interest). That’s what I did and that’s what so many of us do. Why? Because losing the person you love is freakin’ hard! (Even when the time has truly come) So what I want to do today is challenge you to think a little deeper about whether this relationship was really in your best interest. Were you really happy in this relationship or are you just really comfortable and familiar with this person and afraid of starting over? Are you trying to get them back just to feel desirable again or do you really want to have them back in their life and rebuild an entirely new relationship with them? So ask yourself: why do I really want them back in the first place?

Because I Love Them!!! This is the most common reason people have for getting back together. They say things like “But I love them so much! I can’t imagine my life without them!” Okay, well, everyone loves the person they’re with… If you didn’t love them, you probably wouldn’t be with them (at least in most cases). However, if you’re hurting over it this bad, then you obviously did love them and you did care about them very deeply. And while love is great and special… “Love is not enough to actually make a relationship WORK.” Sure, it’s enough to spark all those great romantic feelings that you had in the beginning but it takes A LOT more than love to actually make a relationship work. With that said, I want to encourage you to explore the REAL reasons for why you want them back. Don’t just react on autopilot and try everything you can to get them back out of desperation. It’s not going to work. Plus, it may not even be in your best interest to get them back. I know that’s not what you want to hear and you may not be quite ready to even hear that yet but that’s often the case. We’ll talk about it more in some of the other videos - but for now - I just want you to realize that you are not any less lovable without this person. Remember, you are not really losing any part of yourself (or at least not any part of your true self) The real you cannot be taken from you.

Love Cannot Be Taken From You Another thing that a lot of people really stress out about is the idea of losing love (or losing the person they love). Here’s what I have to say about that (pardon me while I get metaphysical) This person you love did NOT actually GIVE YOU LOVE Sure, you may have felt loved in your relationship and they may have shown their love to you in a lot of different ways. Ways that made you feel loved and appreciated. However, the feelings of love that you were feeling in your relationship were YOUR FEELINGS. Those feelings were arising from within you (and you still have them inside your body right now). So this person didn’t actually GIVE you LOVE… they simply inspired you to give yourself the permission to feel YOUR OWN LOVE in their presence. And here’s the awesome part… You can give yourself permission to feel that love again with other people that happen to strike your interest. I know you don’t want to think about that right now but I just want you to know that love is a very abundant resource. Instead of feeling doom and gloom about never being able to find love again, I want you to know that you CAN love again (and that you WILL love again) Hell, you can love even if you never find anyone that’ll ever love you again. How? By simply loving yourself!

The Most Important Love In The World is Self-Love You cannot truly love someone who does not love themselves. In fact, trying to love someone who doesn’t love themselves is like trying to hug broken glass. You’ll only end up hurting yourself more in the process. If you don’t love yourself, all the love you get from others is going straight into a bucket with a bunch of empty holes at the bottom. All that love is eventually just going to end up leaking out because no amount of love is ever enough to fill a bucket for someone who doesn’t love themselves. You are the only one that can ever fill it. However, when your bucket is already FULL and someone pours love in, you overflow with even more love and appreciation. And THAT’S the place that you really want to be. If you don’t love yourself, every act of love you give is infused with impurity It becomes a sneaky way of giving just to get something back. In other words, you do it in order to get something that you think you need in order to fill something within you (which it never really will). You are the only one that can ever fill that. You can never fill that part of you with the love of another (at least not if you want to enjoy a life of sanity and drama-free relationships) The only thing that you can ever really fill that with is your own self-love. If this material resonates with you, I encourage you to embark on a journey of self-love. Do whatever it takes to build yourself up and give yourself the approval that you so desperately crave from others. If you don’t give yourself that approval, you’ll constantly be a slave to other people’s opinion of you.

Liberate yourself from the quest for other people’s approval and give yourself the approval you’ve been yearning for. It’s the only approval that will ever truly satisfy you. By the way, I talk a lot more about how to actually do this in my other program: The Fresh Start: How to Bounce Back from a Breakup, Regain Your Joy In Life and Become a Stronger & Better You If you want more details on how to sign up for this program, just send me an email at [email protected] Anyways, I just wanted to share that as another key distinction for you to keep in mind on your journey to recovery. Remember that what you felt in the relationship was your own love and you can feel that love again in the future. Hopefully, that’ll help you deal with that devastating feeling you get when it feels like you’re losing everything and you’ll never be able to find someone that you feel the same way about again. So what I’d like to do now is actually take all the ideas that I just shared with you one step further and give you a specific exercise that you can apply in your own life. That way you have something that you can actually DO to feel better. I know I shared a lot of great concepts here and I know that a lot of them are probably making a lot of sense to you. In fact, you may have even had some really profound insights or “aha” moments. However, I want to do more than just that for you. I want to give you something that you can actually do to cope with the loss and become more at peace with yourself; something that you can do to rebuild your self-love so. To help you do that, I want to share a really powerful technique that I talked about in the video you watched right before you purchased this course. It’s something that I recommend to each and every single one of my private coaching clients and it’s something that I guide them through in our private sessions. The process I’m referring to is a powerful technique called EFT, which stands for:

The Emotional Freedom Technique This is an extremely powerful technique that can help you deal with various emotions, such as traumas, fears and anxieties. Note: this technique is not meant to be a replacement for traditional forms of therapy. You are more than welcome to use it to assist you in your recovery process. In fact, I would highly encourage it. It has helped me and many of my clients tremendously. In fact, it’s probably one of the most powerful tools I’ve ever discovered. However, I cannot guarantee anything and I cannot be held accountable for anything that happens as a result of using this technique. Okay, now that we got that part out of the way, let’s go ahead and dive into the actual technique… So there are two components to EFT; one is physical and one is verbal. I’m going to go over the verbal component of this technique here and then I’m going to link you to another video that shows you the physical part of it afterwards. Deal? (PS: the video I’m going to share with you is a really great way to learn the technique because it gives you a close-up look at how to do it. It’s a step by step demonstration that shows you exactly what to do every step of the way. I’ll post the video link for you to watch at the end of this section. First, I need to explain the verbal part of this technique) So here’s what the verbal part of this technique is all about… It’s about SELF-ACCEPTANCE More specifically, accepting yourself in spite of whatever you may be feeling right now. This is what will ultimately help you cope with it (both the rejection and any other thing that you may apply this technique to in the future) It’s really interesting because the philosophy behind this technique actually runs parallel to the idea that I expressed a little bit earlier in that quote I shared with you by Gandhi: “Nobody can hurt me without my permission” Well, what this technique does is it actually gives you a way to accept yourself. Once you do, a lot of the hurt will dissolve.

That’s the most mind-boggling thing about it… No one is FORCING you to feel hurt right now. You simply feel that way because you got rejected. And because of that, you’re getting all down on yourself. However, no one can make you feel down about yourself without your permission. In other words, you’re the one that’s letting yourself get down all about it. Kind of a bittersweet truth, right? Don’t worry, this technique will help you stop beating yourself up about it. See, it’s actually NORMAL to get down about it. What this technique does, essentially, is it helps you accept yourself so that you don’t continue to STAY down about it. It helps you embrace, both yourself and your reaction, to whatever is happening. And once you do, you’ll finally feel at peace with yourself. So here’s how you do the verbal component of the technique… You do it by simply saying ONE simple little statement out loud. “Even though I feel _______, I deeply and completely accept myself” The blank should be filled in with whatever you are feeling right now. This allows you to embrace what you’re feeling so that you can actually work with it, rather than getting consumed by it. Feel free to use this technique spontaneously and voice whatever is coming up for you as you’re feeling it. Really tune into what’s coming up for you and give yourself the opportunity to not only be with that, but to voice it out loud and make it okay for you to be with that.

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The Fat-Burning Kitchen: Your 24-Hour Diet Transformation to Make Your Body a Fat-Burning Machine By Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist & Catherine Ebeling – RN, BSN

DISCLAIMER: The information provided by this Web Site or this company is not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with your physician, and should not be construed as individual medical advice. If a condition persists, please contact your physician. The testimonials on this Web Site are individual cases and do not guarantee that you will get the same results. This site is provided for personal and informational purposes only. This site is not to be construed as any attempt to either prescribe or practice medicine. Neither is the site to be understood as putting forth any cure for any type of acute or chronic health problem. You should always consult with a competent, fully licensed medical professional when making any decision regarding your health. The owners of this site will use reasonable efforts to include up-to-date and accurate information on this Internet site, but make no representations, warranties, or assurances as to the accuracy, currency, or completeness of the information provided. The owners of this site shall not be liable for any damages or injury resulting from your access to, or inability to access, this Internet site, or from your reliance upon any information provided on this site.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE Start the cleanout!

IMPORTANT INTRO – PLEASE READ FIRST

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CHAPTER 1 Foods made with refined flour and corn products

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CHAPTER 2 Food and drinks containing high fructose corn syrup

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CHAPTER 3 Margarines, vegetable oils, trans fats, Crisco

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CHAPTER 4 Artificial Sweeteners—Splenda, NutraSweet, Saccharin

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CHAPTER 5 Commercial Pasteurized Dairy

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CHAPTER 6 Commercially raised meats; farm-raised fish

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CHAPTER 7 Soy Products—Soymilk, tofu, TVP

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CHAPTER 8 Sports/Energy Drinks

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CHAPTER 9 Energy Bars

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CHAPTER 10 Processed Foods, Weight-loss meals, Diet Snacks, and Diet Desserts

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PART TWO How to Stock Your Fat-Burning Kitchen CHAPTER 11 High quality protein-grass fed beef or bison, wild caught fish, free-range chicken, whole (free-range) eggs

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CHAPTER 12 Raw dairy milk and cheese

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CHAPTER 13 Grass fed dairy butter, coconut oil, lard

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CHAPTER 14 Nuts-Almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, cashews, macadamia nuts

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CHAPTER 15 Avocados

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CHAPTER 16 Organic berries

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CHAPTER 17 Organic dark green leafy vegetables

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CHAPTER 18 Healthy Sweeteners: Real Maple Syrup, Raw honey, Stevia

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CHAPTER 19 Healthy REAL Food Energy Bars

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CHAPTER 20 Dark Chocolate

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CHAPTER 21 Green tea, oolong, black, mate, herb teas

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CHAPTER 22 Items to Keep in Your Kitchen

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CHAPTER 23 The Transformation Has Begun!

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SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: The Advanced Nutritional Fat-Burning Blueprint: The 23-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Plan

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Important Intro – Please Read First! I‘m going to start this book by telling you something that may surprise you… especially for a nutrition book – You can officially STOP counting calories or obsessing over calories at all! I know that sounds crazy, because it‘s true that calories consumed vs. calories expended over a specific time period is what ultimately controls whether you gain weight or lose weight. However, not only is counting calories horribly inaccurate (studies show that the majority of people massively underestimate their caloric intake when asked to count calories), but I‘m also going to show you why counting calories is pointless once you understand and implement one major nutrition concept. This principle is so often overlooked by dieticians, nutritionists, doctors, and other health ―experts‖ who base their recommendations on such a ridiculous ―food pyramid‖, it‘s no wonder that so many people are confused about nutrition. In fact, this one major nutrition principle I‘m about to tell you is actually THE most important concept you‘ll ever need to know regarding how to eat in order to obtain great health and a lean body. And this principle is -- the Nutrient Density of your food intake! That‘s right… nutrient density makes calorie counting obsolete. We‘re talking about a micronutrient density here and not macronutrient density. If virtually all of the food you eat every single day is comprised of super-high micro nutrient density, then your body automatically obtains all of the nutrition it needs and therefore automatically regulates your appetite and calorie intake without you having to struggle and restrict yourself to control how many calories you eat. Now before you think that high nutrient density only means fruits and vegetables, think again! You‘ll see throughout this book that high nutrient density can also include lots of fatty foods that you may have falsely believed were ―bad for you‖, such as whole eggs, certain types of meats, nuts, nut butters, certain oils, butter, and so on. Think about it for a second – If you eat foods each day that are high in calories but low in nutrients such as pasta, cakes, cookies, crackers, etc. (high caloric density, low nutrient density), then your body will be craving additional food, despite the fact that you may have already eaten more than your daily caloric maintenance balance for weight maintenance vs. weight gain. On the other hand, if all of the foods you eat on a daily basis are super-high in nutrient density, regardless of the caloric content of those foods, your body is automatically adjusting your appetite and eliminating cravings based on it already obtaining much of the 5

nutrition it needs for the day. This aspect essentially forces your body to ―auto-adjust‖ your appetite and you naturally fall within the exact calorie range that your body needs without having to over-analyze or count calories. In fact, eating a super-high nutrient density diet is so powerful, that extreme distance athletes that burn massive amounts of calories each day through excessive exercise may actually need to focus on consuming a portion of their diet as lower nutrient density foods such as breads and pasta and other calorically-dense but low-nutrient foods to avoid massive weight loss. The reason for this is that if an extreme distance athlete focuses too much of their diet on super-high nutrient density foods, their appetite may be diminished before they actually have eaten enough calories to sustain their massive calorie needs, and excessive weight loss may occur. Now since most of us are not extreme distance athletes, that just shows you the power of eating a super-high nutrient dense diet and how this can automatically control your appetite, eliminate cravings, and put you on the road to a lean healthy body for life. We‘re going to show you in this book all of the low-nutrient foods that you need to avoid and get rid of, as well as some of the foods you may have been deceived by food companies into falsely believing are ―healthy‖. In addition, we‘re also going to show you all of the countless amazingly delicious options you have for healthy foods that are nutrient dense and can help to bring you closer to your goals. And I guarantee that we‘re going to show you plenty of foods that you thought were unhealthy that can actually help you get leaner and healthier, including some tasty foods you‘ve been lead to believe are off limits! We‘re going to dig into the truth about cholesterol, saturated fats, omega-3‘s and omega-6‘s, fiber, protein, hormones, plant foods vs. animal foods, and tons of info that may shock you about what‘s actually in the food you buy at grocery stores or restaurants. Make sure you read this book from front to back and don‘t skip around, because you don‘t want to miss out on any of the details. The Processing of Foods Another major aspect of the foods that you eat and how they affect your health and body fat levels is the processing of foods. We can make the generalized statement that it is the processing of foods that truly controls how our bodies‘ react to the food we eat. With all of the macronutrient debate in recent years over what type of ―diet‖ is best for us (low-carb, low-fat, no-carb, high protein, vegetarian, etc, etc), you‘ve got to realize that they are ALL WRONG! That‘s right… If you study historical dietary patterns of ancestral humans in almost any culture around the world, the one aspect that was similar that accounted for the health benefits was that the foods were unprocessed natural foods. Whether a diet was high in protein, high in fat, high in carbs, low in carbs, etc, etc doesn‘t 6

seem to matter that much, as long as the diet was made up of natural unprocessed foods eaten as close as possible to how they are found in nature. We gain weight and get fat when more calories are eaten on a regular basis than our bodies need to meet daily energy demands. When excess calories get stored as fat, it is the body's way of an evolutionary response from the hunter-gatherer days when food was less plentiful and people had to put out a great effort just to survive. Way back when, people who were able to store food in the form of fat were more likely to survive and reproduce during times of scarcity. Because of this advantage, we still have that built in urge to eat a lot of food when it is available, and some more than others. And believe me, there is a lot of food--or junk that is available to us everywhere we turn these days! In spite of being able to store body fat efficiently, ancestral humans were rarely obese as they had to work hard just to eat and in the process burned up whatever calories they consumed. The huge agricultural and technological changes of the past several thousand years have made food extremely easy to obtain and evolution has not been able to keep pace in the short time span. We no longer have to spend our days hunting and searching out food, there is an abundance everywhere we look, and most of it is not what we historically ate in nature (humans never until recent decades ate 70% of our calories derived from grains and soy products as is currently the case with the modern western diet). While the reasons we gain weight are numerous, there are some primary reasons for the excess fat that we carry around. If we remove the food that causes fat storage, and erase a big part of the temptation to eat overly processed fattening foods, we should be on our way to making over our kitchens, and transforming our bodies into lean, energetic machines. Our bodies, since the days of cavemen, were made to function best on whole, unprocessed foods, good quality proteins, healthy fats, and fruits and vegetables. If we can get back to a diet as close as possible to our ancestors, we will have the lean, strong bodies that we strive for. Not only will we see stronger, leaner bodies, but many of the modern diseases will begin to fade away: irritability, depression, ADD, arthritis, high blood sugar/type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and on and on. All are connected to inflammation and the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) of processed junk. We have been duped into believing that instant, fast, pre-made foods will somehow make us thin and healthy. If you check out your grocery store frozen food isle, you will often see overweight people purchasing what they think are ―diet dinners‖. Nothing could be further from the truth! Processed diet dinners are chock full of preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, processed flours, synthetic fillers, soy protein, and the worst kind of fats. These foods will cause inflammation, stimulate the insulin response--i.e., store fat, and do nothing for you nutritionally. What‘s more, you will GAIN weight from eating this kind of junk! 7

The media has fooled us into thinking we need lots and lots of carbohydrates if we follow the food pyramid. In response America has loaded up on the processed carbs and packed on the pounds. Even so-called ―health foods‖ are often not what our bodies recognize as good nutrition or fuel. And forget fat-free (loaded with sugar and starchy refined carbs instead) and sugar-free! This stuff is poison and fat storing fuel. Forget fast and convenient diet foods! They take years off your life by stoking the fires of inflammation which leads to obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes to name just a few things, not to mention screwing up your body‘s metabolism and making it increasingly difficult to lose fat from your frame. If you want healthy and clean ―diet food‖ pick up a raw apple, some unprocessed nuts, some (nitrate and corn syrup free) grass-fed beef jerky, and nibble away to your heart‘s content. We need to get back to REAL food and eating like our lean, strong ancestors.

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PART ONE Start the Kitchen Cleanout! Here‘s a typical list of ―food‖ that the average person trying to lose weight may have on hand. Check out your cabinets and see if any of this fat-fuel is lurking in your kitchen:  Slim-fast shakes-far from healthy, they're actually loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and a bunch of other chemicals that will add fat to your body, not aid in weight loss.  Fat Free Rice Cakes-they really are nothing but pure refined starch with zero fiber, which breaks down immediately into sugar in your body, spiking insulin and promoting fat storage.  Protein/Energy bars-isolated soy protein (virtually unusable by your body), hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup and artificial preservatives. Basically a candy bar in a deceiving package. Toss quickly into the nearest trash can!  Reduced Sugar Desserts loaded with artificial sweeteners that trick your brain, and trigger hunger, sugar alcohols, preservatives, and a chemical ingredient list about 15 lines long. Nothing at all good in there. It‘s a mad scientist‘s experiment gone awry!  Diet soda-loaded with artificial sweeteners that such as NutraSweet or Splenda that do more harm than good, raise the insulin levels in your body and cause you to be hungry and store fat. Diet? I hardly think so!  Chips, crackers, and cookies-loaded with hydrogenated (read, ―heart attack in a box‖) fats, inflammatory processed omega-6 oils, and processed flours. High carb foods that add weight gain almost instantly!  Refined vegetable oils such as canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, or (God forbid!) Crisco, for cooking and salad dressings-these are composed highly of oxidized omega 6 fatty acids, which lead to inflammation, heart disease, weight gain and fat around the midsection.  Sugary cereals-Advertised as healthy and high fiber; these cereals are loaded with sugar, and refined fat-factory grains such as corn, soybean flour and wheat. They will make you hungrier, spike your blood sugar and increase your insulin response, thus putting your body into a fat-storing mode.

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CHAPTER ONE Food Made With Refined Flour—Pasta, cookies, crackers, bread, etc. Ancestral humans didn't eat grains; at least nowhere close to the form we eat today. According to well renowned nutrition author Michael Pollan, and his amazing book called In Defense of Food, humankind has historically consumed approximately 80,000 different species of edible plants, animals, and fungi, and approximately 3,000 of those have been widespread foods of the human diet. Now get ready for a shocking and appalling statistic... Currently, the average adult eating a typical modern western diet in countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, etc consumes approximately 67% of their total caloric intake from only 3 foods -- CORN, SOY, AND WHEAT (and their derivatives such as corn syrup, corn oil, soybean oil, wheat flour, etc). What would be considered a reasonably healthy amount of corn, soy, and wheat in the human diet? Based on 10's of thousands of years of human history, and what the natural diet of our ancestors was (indicating what our digestive systems are still programmed to process), this would probably be in the range of about 1% to 5% MAX of our total calories from corn, soy, and wheat. It‘s no wonder then that grains are responsible for weight gain, high blood sugar, inflammation, and degenerative disease. In the 1970‘s, the average American ate 85 pounds of flour, 84 pounds of sweeteners, 8 pounds of fried potatoes, and 39 pounds of cooking oil. Even then, not so good. Fast forward to the nineties… By 1997, each of us was consuming 122 pounds of flour, 105 pounds of sugar or other sweeteners, 20 pounds of fried potatoes, and 50 pounds of vegetable cooking oils. That's almost a pound of knowingly bad-for-you foods per day! And that doesn‘t count a whole lot of other junk food…but clearly, the reason many are overweight or obese today. And today, flours are more refined than ever, missing fiber and essential nutrients. The other problem with excess grains in our diet – antinutrients and gluten, both of which and be gut irritants, causing chronic inflammation, digestive issues, and auto-immune diseases in bad cases. Processed white flour (alias "enriched wheat flour" or "wheat flour") is missing the two most nutritious and fiber-rich parts of the seed: the outside bran layer and the germ (embryo). Eating a high starch grain-based diet will make you feel fatigued, malnourished, constipated, jumpy, irritable, depressed, and vulnerable to chronic illness. And, 10

refined/bleached wheat and corn flour fuels high blood sugar levels. High blood sugar leads to insulin release, fat storage, and increased hunger and cravings. The more grain-based foods a person eats, the more insulin must be produced to manage the fast digesting carbohydrates. This leads to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain. The refined carbohydrates turn to glucose very quickly once in our systems, stimulating the body to produce insulin. A vicious cycle occurs: insulin promotes the storage of fat, making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, inflammation and atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. "Enriched flour," is very misleading, because only four vitamins and minerals are typically added back, compared to the 15 nutrients and essential parts of the grain that are removed, along with most of the fiber and other beneficial substances such as antioxidants that are removed. Eating wheat can cause one to feel lethargic, foggy, groggy, puffy and bloated, and irritable. Many would never connect these symptoms with eating grains; but weight gain, emotional, physical, and mental symptoms are fairly frequent with gluten sensitivity. Gluten is the protein portion of wheat, rye and barley. It is so widespread in standard processed food today; it is very hard to escape. Unfortunately gluten sensitivity is on the rise (notice the ―gluten free‖ sections at the grocery store?) and it can cause a host of problems. Best to avoid processed flours altogether! The American food supply is also heavily based on corn. Bumper crops of corn and government subsidies help to keep corn prices low, which in turn helps to keep many of the cheap junk foods we buy at the store low-priced. Contrary to popular belief, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and is really not appropriate as a dietary staple for several reasons— the antinutrients, the inflammatory aspect of excess omega-6 fats, and the blood sugar disrupting nature of corn products. When civilizations such as the Mayans and Native Americans changed their diet to a cornbased one, rates of anemia, arthritis, rickets, and osteoporosis skyrocketed. Our bodies were not made to exist on such a high quantity of grain-based foods. This evidence shows up in the archeological records of our ancestors. When archaeologists looked at skeletons of native Americans in burial mounds in the Midwest who ate corn as their primary staple, there was a 50% increase in malnutrition, four times as much incidence of iron-deficiency, and three times as much infectious disease, compared to the more huntergather ancestors who primarily ate meats and fruits and veggies as opposed to grains. Keep in mind that we are not just talking about corn-on-the-cob (sweet corn) here… we are also talking about corn cereals, corn chips, and other modern corn-based foods that are promoted by food companies as ―healthy‖. There are several reasons researchers give for the nutritional problems and the weight gain caused by a corn-dominated diet:

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 Corn contains lots of fast-digesting starches and sugar, which raises insulin levels, causes you to be hungrier and causes your body to store calories as fat. Don‘t be mistaken, just because corn does not taste obviously sweet, doesn‘t mean it isn‘t full of sugars. Once eaten, your body quickly turns corn products into sugar. Even the starches in corn products can be broken down quickly by your body spiking your blood sugar levels, and causing cravings for more carbohydrate-based foods.  Corn is also a poor source of protein, usually deficient in 3 of the 8 essential amino acids: lysine, isoleucine, and tryptophan. The essential amino acids are so-named because they must be obtained from the diet, since the body is unable to manufacture them.  Corn contains a high amount of phytate (which is one antinutrient), a chemical that binds to iron and inhibits its absorption by the body. So, consequently, a diet high in phytate can make people more likely to have iron-deficiency anemia and fatigue. Phytate is also a nutrient blocker and inhibits other vitamins and minerals from being utilized.  Corn is a poor source of certain minerals such as calcium and some vitamins such as niacin (B3). Deficiencies of niacin can result in a condition known as Pellagra, which is common in civilizations that eat a lot of corn. It can cause a variety of symptoms such as dermatitis, diarrhea, and depression. Since we are now a nation of corn-eaters, it wouldn‘t be surprising that this is more common here than we realize.  Corn oils are also used in most processed foods (along with soybean oils). Both corn oil and soybean oil are excessively high in inflammatory omega-6 fats and low in antiinflammatory omega-3 fats. This throws the delicate balance of omega-6 to omega-3 in your body out of whack and can cause degenerative diseases and weight gain over time. In addition, corn oil and soybean oil are highly refined with high heat and solvents, which oxidizes and damages the fragile polyunsaturated oils, and makes them even more inflammatory when you ingest them in processed foods. It's not just people who eat too much corn based foods. A large amount of the nation's corn crop ends up feeding commercially raised cattle, which are cheaply fattened on corn and other grains before slaughter. Beef from corn-fattened cattle also has much higher ratios of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids than healthier grass fed beef which contains higher ratios of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. Most meat in supermarkets comes from grain-fed animals and not healthy grass fed animals. Because corn and other grains are an unnatural diet and difficult to digest, cattle raised on corn develop higher stomach acidity, which is a breeding ground for the dangerous E. coli O157:H7, the deadly strain of the bacteria. While eliminating refined grains such as corn and wheat (yes, it seems they are in everything!) can seem a very daunting task, the reward is a return to wonderful health, sparkling eyes, clear skin, clear thinking, weight loss as the body is once again able to extract appropriate nutrients from food, and a resolution of nutritional deficiencies from the

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lack of absorption. Once you commit to eating a diet of whole and natural foods, you will begin to eliminate a large amount of these grains. Although many grocery stores, health foods stores, and online companies are now offering a wide selection of wheat-free/gluten-free foods including breads, bagels, cookies, cake mixes, doughnuts, etc; it is best to avoid these as much as possible. While they are made without wheat, they still contain other refined and process grains and wheat substitutes such as tapioca flour and corn flour. Best thing to do is avoid grains--especially wheat and corn-fully. Substituting another processed grain may bring about a small improvement, but not the drastic improvement necessary. Try at least 2 weeks with no grain products at all. I guarantee you will see some drastic improvements in your weight and general outlook! This is easier than you may think… For example, instead of having pasta with sauce and meat for dinner, instead have just grass-fed meat, sauce, and veggies topped with parmesan cheese. It‘s delicious and no grains! Check out some of the healthy grass-fed meats and grass-fed sausages from one of my favorite grass-fed meat sites: www.healthygrassfed.2ya.com Another example would be breakfast… instead of cereals, bagels, or muffins, try to base most of your breakfasts on cage-free organic whole eggs with lots of veggies and perhaps some bison sausage or other nitrate/nitrite-free turkey or chicken sausage. If you're very active and need a little more carbs with your breakfast, instead of grains, a small piece of fruit or some tea with a little bit of raw honey can be great additions to the egg/veggies based breakfast.. This is a delicious and satisfying breakfast that will control your blood sugar, balance your hormones, and eliminate the antinutrients found in most grains. Those are just a couple examples, but I think you get the point of how easy this can be. I know it may not be realistic for everybody to give up grains fully, so the most realistic plan for many people is to only eat grain based foods (bread, pasta, cereals, etc) on their one cheat day each week, and save 6 days per week to be grain-free. Your body with thank you!

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REFINED FLOUR FOODS TO AVOID  White bread, rolls, buns, muffins  Cookies  Crackers  Enriched flour pasta  Cakes, cake mix  Cereal made with refined flour (even ―whole grains‖ should only be an occasional treat)  Pre-made, packaged gravies, sauces  Pre-packaged macaroni and cheese  Instant noodle cups, ramen noodles  Pre-made dinners with pasta  White flour for baking  Corn chips; Doritos, Fritos, Sun Chips  Corn tortillas  Corn cereals—especially the refined, sweetened ones  Anything with corn as one of the main ingredients

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CHAPTER 2 High Fructose Corn Syrup—Soda, Fruit Drinks, Ketchup, Salad Dressings, etc. One of the many other uses of corn is the low-cost sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup. Production of high-fructose corn syrup has increased some 4,000 % since 1973, and the syrup now rivals sugar as America's most common sweetener. The average American now consumes a whopping 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup each year, according to U. S. Department of Agriculture data. That's an extra 75,281 calories per year per person! And if you look at that in terms of pounds (approx. 3500 calories = 1 pound), you are looking at gaining an extra 22 pounds a year. The bulk of that comes via soda, energy drinks, and juice drinks. Teenagers typically get 15 to 20 teaspoons per day of added sugars from high-fructose corn syrup—just from drinking soft drinks! Another study shows that soft drinks have replaced milk as a dietary staple and have become the third-most-common breakfast food. Starting the day with a sugar high leads to a crash in about 2 hours and causes more hunger, and weight gain. No wonder so many teens are overweight! If the average American could cut just one soft drink or sugared water drink a day they would immediately cut out 10 pounds a year! Corn syrup is the most common sweetener in those drinks. In 2009, approximately 25 percent of the average American‘s caloric intake comes from sugars—mostly high fructose corn syrup! That‘s 25% of the diet filled with not only empty, but also harmful calories! The next time you‘re at the supermarket, pick up five totally different kinds of bottled drinks — including juices and energy or sport waters — and read the label. You may be shocked to see that the first or second ingredient will be almost always be high fructose corn syrup or HFCS. Now for a real education: look at the labels of other items in which you would never expect to find any sweeteners, like ketchup, tomato sauce, soup, cereal, and crackers. HCFS is everywhere; in one day it is entirely possible that 80% of the processed food you consume is chock–full of HFCS. Is it any wonder there is so much obesity in the US? That‘s why it‘s best to simply avoid ALL processed foods and only buy 1-ingredient whole foods such as eggs, nuts, seeds, meats, fruits, and veggies. What is high fructose corn syrup? High Fructose corn syrup not a natural product like you may have been led to believe, but chemically altered by enzymatic processes to yield a 15

different balance of sugars than that found in ordinary corn syrup (not that ordinary corn syrup is healthy either!). That chemical alteration changes the extracted corn syrup from a compound that is mainly glucose (a simple sugar) to around 42–55% fructose (though some can range as high as 90% fructose), with the remainder being glucose and other sugars. A study in 2004 reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition cites the increase in consumption of HFCS to be 4000% between 1970 and 1990! This is way higher than any other increase of any other food or food group. Too bad we haven‘t increased our intake of fruits and vegetables by that amount—our country would be in far better health—and much slimmer! In studying this increase — and the nearly corresponding increase in obesity in the US — these researchers took into account the differences in the way the body responds to different sorts of sugars and their effects on the body. Fructose is converted to fat in the body more easily than any other sugar. This may be one of the most common reasons Americans continue to gain weight so fast. Besides the rise in blood sugar and the resulting rise in insulin, fructose raises serum triglycerides (a major factor in heart attacks) significantly. Fructose is not easily digested either. There is another difference between fructose and table sugar metabolism. Glucose enters the cells through the action of insulin; fructose enters the cells through a totally separate action, which does not depend on insulin. Regular sugar provides a feeling of satisfaction, which signals to the brain to stop eating. Fructose does not provide a feeling of satiety, because it is not transported into the brain. Once inside the cells, fructose forms triglycerides more efficiently than does glucose. This means that fructose will convert to fatty compounds in the blood, which are then stored easily in the body as fat. It seems very obvious, but high fructose corn syrup is largely responsible for the big jump obesity and other obesity-related health issues, namely heart disease, insulin resistance and diabetes. High fructose corn syrup almost always comes from genetically modified corn, which is full of its own well-documented side effects and health concerns. Scientists have found that animals fed genetically modified (GM) corn developed extensive health problems in the blood, kidneys and liver. Humans eating genetically modified corn may also be at risk for health issues, but that is still controversial and lacks long term testing. We have all heard about the dangers of ingesting mercury. Mercury acts as a poison to your brain and nervous system. It is especially dangerous for pregnant women and small children, whose brains are still developing. Even in low doses, mercury can interfere with brain development, memory and learning ability. In adults, mercury poisoning can be a serious risk as well, and has been linked to

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Alzheimer‘s, dementia, fertility problems, memory and vision loss, and trouble with blood pressure regulation. It can also cause extreme fatigue and neuro-muscular dysfunction. Other studies show that mercury in your central nervous system (CNS) causes psychological, neurological, and immunological problems. More than half of tested samples of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contain mercury. Although the makers of HFCS like to claim that it‘s natural, HFCS is a highly refined product that would never exist in nature. Converting corn to HFCS is a very extensive process, and mercury is used in the production of the HFCS. You can avoid it if you focus your diet on whole healthy, natural foods. If you do purchase any processed foods, make sure you read the label … and put it back on the shelf if it lists high-fructose corn syrup as an ingredient -- especially if it‘s the first or second highest labeled ingredient. Keep looking, food companies are starting to realize the general public‘s growing distaste for HFCS and are beginning to use sugar again, and even the natural (better for you) low-calorie sweetener, stevia.

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FOODS WITH HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP TO AVOID  Any kind of soda (Coke, Pepsi, 7-up, Dr. Pepper, etc.)  Flavored drinks or juices  Lemonade  Sports drinks that are sweetened.  Applesauce, fruit cocktail, canned fruits that don‘t say 100% fruit  Barbeque sauces, ketchup, steak sauce  Alcoholic drink mixes (like margarita mix, etc)  Puddings, Jell-O, yogurt  Ice cream products  Premade cakes, desserts  Kid‘s juice box drinks  Candy  Cereal  Syrup other than pure 100% maple syrup  Granola bars  Anything pre-made and pre-packaged most likely has corn syrup or HFCS in it

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CHAPTER 3 Margarines, Vegetable Oils, Trans Fats We have all been told that we should avoid fat. The fact is, the right fats can make you leaner. Eating the wrong kinds of fat will not only make you fat but contribute to a variety of other diseases and health issues, as well as premature aging. Contrary to popular belief, unhealthy fats are mostly trans fats and vegetable oils --not cholesterol and saturated fats, as we have been led to believe. Trans fats and refined vegetable oils are finally starting to get notice for being the villains of the health problems that they cause. It is these fats that are the primary contributors to inflammation, cancer, heart disease and obesity; not cholesterol and saturated fats. Trans fats are not natural fats. They are vegetable oils artificially transformed with hydrogen under high heat, pressure, and chemicals. This makes an oil turn into something more like a solid at room temperature. Food manufacturers use trans fats because they increase the shelf life of foods, but they are highly destructive in our bodies, causing disease. Eating trans fats is known to change your cell membranes and cause them to become brittle and unable to properly metabolize nutrients and calories. Think about that internal damage next time you consider eating those French fries, donuts, or fried chicken, and you are more likely to change your mind. A healthy cell has a living, breathing membrane that transmits and utilizes nutrients properly. When you think of a cell affected by trans fats, think of a cell with a hard shell around it, instead of a healthy membrane. That shell actually smothers the cell, and causes the cell to become dysfunctional; blocking proper metabolism, nutrition, and creating an inability to respond to glucose. Inflammation in the body increases. This not only leads to diseases like diabetes and heart disease, but alsoweight gain, and an inability to fight infection and cancers. In spite of the dangers of trans fats, they are still found in many processed and baked foods: cookies, crackers, cake icing, snack chips, stick margarine and microwave popcorn, to name just a few.Most of the trans fat in American‘s diet comes from commercially produced partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oil. Margarine, and any kind of substitute-butter spread, and Crisco and other solid shortenings are examples of trans fats. Butter is far better to eat than these artificial unhealthy substitutes. In fact, butter can actually be healthy, especially if it‘s grass-fed organic butter. I have an article on my blog about how real grass-fed butter can actually HELP you to lose fat.

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What about vegetable oils? Not so long ago, vegetable oil was thought to be a healthy alternative to saturated fat. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils were touted as the healthy oils to use over lard and animal fats. Keep in mind that the reason they were touted as ―healthy‖ has to do with how cheap vegetable oils are to produce and the heavy marketing budgets behind the companies that push vegetable oils. Oils like canola, corn, soybean, and sunflower have been pushed as the healthy substitutes for more highly saturated fats. Sunflower oil and canola oils are still a popular choice for cooking. However, research has painted a very different picture. These oils contribute to inflammation in the body and upset the ratio of omega 3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are the healthy fatty acids found in wild caught fish and grass fed meats. Omega 6 fatty acids are found heavily in vegetable oils and trans fats. While omega 6 fatty acids are essential to our diet, they are consumed in amounts that are far too high for good health. Excess consumption of omega 6 oils leads to increased health problems including inflammatory-related diseases that include autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular disease. The fats in our diet changed drastically in the early 1900‘s, when refined vegetable oil, a major source of omega 6 fatty acids, entered the diet as margarine, and healthy omega 3 fatty acid food consumption in foods such as wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, wild game, and green, leafy vegetables decreased. Our ancestors, the early hunter-gatherers, had a dietary omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. This ratio is now about 20:1 in North America (and most modernized diets around the world) today. Consuming large amounts of vegetable oils is damaging to the body, especially the reproductive organs and the lungs, which have been sites for increases in cancer in the US. Diets high in vegetable oils –especially hydrogenated vegetable oils, can cause irritability, learning disabilities, liver toxicity,decreased immune function, mental and physical growth problems in infants and children, increases in uric acid, abnormal fatty acid profiles in the fat tissue; and they have been linked to mental decline (Alzheimer‘s and dementia) and chromosomal damage because they accelerate aging. Excess consumption of vegetable oils and trans fats is associated with weight gain, cancer, heart disease and weight gain; excess use also interferes with the production of prostaglandins (which are inflammatory chemicals in the body) leading to an a variety of health issues ranging from autoimmune diseases to PMS. This inflammation leads to an increased tendency to form blood clots, which leads to heart attacks and strokes, now at epidemic levels in America. A 1994 study appearing in a leading medical journal showed that almost three quarters of the fat in clogged arteries is unsaturated. The "artery clogging" fats are not animal fats, but vegetable oils! Vegetable oils are also more toxic when heated. One study reported that when these oils are heated, they turn to a varnish-like substance in the intestines. Have you ever tried to clean a pan with cooked-on vegetable oil? It‘s nearly impossible! Think of that happening inside your body! And heating vegetable oils over and over again increases the toxicity even more. Think of that the next time you eat french fries. That oil has been heated to a high heat many times, making it more and more damaging to your insides!

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On a side note, this is one little trick that I‘ve used over the years to train myself to actually be repulsed by French fries (even though I used to love them years ago)… Since I‘ve studied the biochemistry of what happens to deep fryer oil that‘s not only usually hydrogenated, but then also heated and reheated many times, and how all of this reacts as almost a poison inside your body… this actually makes it easy to view deep fried food like French fries as repulsive instead of something you crave. Interestingly enough, a study done by a plastic surgeon found that people who consumed mostly vegetable oils had far more wrinkles than those who used traditional animal fats. So you see, these once so-called healthy oils are very aging to the body. Vegetable oils, which are primarily omega 6 oils, are highly inflammatory. Inflammation causes the arteries to send out cholesterol to repair the damage caused by the inflammation. When cholesterol is sent out by the body to repair damaged blood vessel walls, the cholesterol acts as a Band-Aid, covering the injury and building up on the vessel wall. The cholesterol causes a buildup and as the damage and inflammation continues, the cholesterol begins to narrow the blood vessel, bringing on the beginning of atherosclerosis. Sad to say, cholesterol in the diet has been wrongly accused of being the culprit behind heart disease, but it is really the omega 6 fats (as well as trans fats, sugars, and other inflammatory foods in the average diet) that are behind this health problem. Even the doctors and researchers who promoted the use of omega 6 vegetable oils as part of a healthy diet are now aware of their dangers. Scientists have actually warned against including too many polyunsaturated vegetable oils in the diet for several years. And way back in 1969, researchers discovered that the use of corn oil caused an increase in atherosclerosis. Other research indicates that hydrogenated vegetable oils contribute to osteoporosis. Scientists have found that trans fat consumption decreased testosterone, caused the production of abnormal sperm, and altered gestation. Trans fat consumption also interferes with the body's use of the healthy omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oils, grains and green vegetables. There is absolutely NOTHING good about this poison! Avoid it all costs. Examples of bad for you vegetable oils are: canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, and safflower oil. Trans fat-containing foods are packaged cookies, crackers, desserts, margarine, and so-called ―healthy‖ butter substitutes, Crisco, buttered microwave popcorn, chips and more. If you see ingredients that say anything related to ―hydrogenated…oil‖, AVOID them!

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And remember that even canola oil, although it‘s often promoted as ―healthy‖, is NOT good for you one bit. I previously wrote a thorough article on that topic on my site, and you can read why canola oil is bad for you here. One of the most important things you can do for your health, prevention of disease, and also for your waistline, is to try to obtain a healthy balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats. As I said earlier, it‘s best to strive for approximately 2:1 ratio (although the average American has a terrible 20:1 ratio). A super high quality fish oil, or even the more potent Krill oil, can really help with this. In addition, Krill oil has the added benefits of having higher absorption due to the phospholipids contained, as well as the powerful antioxidant, astaxanthin, which gives krill up to 47x more antioxidant power than fish oil. With that said, there are powerful benefits to both fish oil and krill oil, and one benefit of fish oil is simply being able to get higher doses of omega-3‘s and DHA/EPA. I get my Krill Oil here: http://natural.getprograde.com/essential-fatty-acid.html

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TRANS FATS AND FOODS TO AVOID  Margarine of any kind or any kind of butter substitute  Baked goods like cookies, doughnuts with hydrogenated fats  Microwave popcorn  Crisco  Frozen foods like french fries, TVdinners  Some peanut butters (natural peanut butters don‘t have added trans fats but most others do have trans fats)  Cake icing  Frozen breaded prepared meats like chicken tenders, etc.  Some whipped toppings  Cream substitutes (real organic cream is much healthier than cream substitutes)  Fast food milk shakes  Any deep fried foods – fries, fried chicken, fried fish, etc  Velveeta cheese or other processed packaged (squirt can) cheese

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CHAPTER 4 Artificial Sweeteners—Splenda/sucralose, NutraSweet/aspartame, Saccharin Do diet sweeteners really help you lose weight, or do you eat more and gain weight in the long run? Do diet sweeteners make you fat? The fact is, diet sweeteners can actually make you gain weight, because they trick your body and don‘t feed it what it actually needs. According to researchers, there is no actual evidence that sugar substitutes help people lose weight. These days, more and more data suggests that these chemical sweeteners may actually stimulate appetite and insulin response. Anyone who cares about their health should stay away from the highly toxic sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet) and other questionable sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet-n-Low), and acesulfame-k. Artificial sweeteners are chemical concoctions that should never be ingested. The best thing to do is avoid all artificial and chemical sweetener substitutes. They have NO food value, trick the body into thinking it is eating something sweet, and they contain by-products of harmful toxins. How do artificial sweeteners fool the body? Aspartame, for instance, doesn‘t have any calories, but one of its ingredients, the amino acid phenylalanine, blocks production of serotonin, a natural brain chemical that, among other things, controls food cravings. When you have a shortage of serotonin in the brain, it will make your brain and body crave the foods that create more of this brain chemical—and those happen to be the starchy, high-calorie, carbohydrate-rich snacks that can totally sabotage a diet. As you increase the amount of aspartame you take in, the more intense your cravings for these foods. No question, artificial sweeteners confuse the body and brain. This leads to a vicious cycle of cravings, eating, eating more artificial sweeteners, and more cravings. Long term, you are looking at weight gain as the primary result. Artificial sweeteners as diet food? Hardly! Scientists now suspect that something additional is going on in many people who have been using artificial sweeteners. The sweet taste of no-calorie sweeteners triggers an insulin release, even when there is no food intake to feed the cells. Normally, when we eat sugars, they are broken down into glucose, the form of sugar our body uses, which then enters the blood stream. Insulin, (secreted by the pancreas) unlocks the cells and allows blood sugar into our cells to supply energy and maintain normal blood sugar levels. 24

The problem is, an insulin-sensitive person who uses artificial sweeteners confuses their body into thinking food has been eaten, so insulin is released. When insulin is released without food, it triggers the appetite. As soon as your body discovers it there is no food in your system, it creates strong cravings that can only be stopped by eating food that raises the blood sugar. It becomes pretty hard to avoid high-calorie sugary snacks at this point, and you get into a cycle of hunger, cravings and snacks. Six artificial sweeteners have been approved by the FDA. In addition to saccharin (Sweet-nLow), sucralose (Splenda) and aspartame (NutraSweet); there is acesulfame potassium, also called Ace-K and marketed as Sunett and Sweet One, and Neotame. New on the scene, is a natural (non-artificial) sweetener derived from the stevia plant. The sweetener is called stevia and is being marketed under several names such as Truvia (an extracted portion of the stevia herb), or just pure stevia in many brands. Saccharin was the first of the artificial sweetener on the market. Saccharin has no calories and is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. Many people notice an unpleasant bitter aftertaste in foods sweetened with this product. Saccharin has been a long-standing sugar substitute for many, with many faithful followers, but it has had issues related to health from the time it came out on the market. Saccharin is a synthetic, white crystalline powder. It has no nutritional value and is not easily digested by the body. It is still the third most popular artificial sweetener, after sucralose and aspartame. Do you know how saccharin was discovered? You may be surprised. Maybe this knowledge will help you decide on whether or not to include it in your diet! Way back in 1879, a chemist discovered this sweetener (also known as benzoic sulfinide or E954) when he was researching coal tar derivatives. This guy was not trying to discover a new sweetener --or even any kind of food product at all. It was purely by accident that he discovered his new product tasted sweet. How did he find out? Who knows?! Maybe he accidentally touched his mouth while working. Probably not a great thing to do—tasting chemicals, but he did. After discovering its sweetness, it was commercialized, and controversy over the safety of this artificial sweetener has followed along ever since. Way back in 1977, saccharin was accused of being a carcinogen after a study connected it to bladder tumors in mice. The US National Toxicology Program then put saccharin on its cancer causing list—officially declaring it a human carcinogen. Cyclamate, an earlier version of the sweetener, had been banned in 1970 for similar reasons. The American Food and Drug Administration decided it was prudent mandate that saccharin should carry a warning label regarding its cancer connection.

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The warning label has since been removed due to inconclusive evidence of the saccharin and cancer connection in humans, but it is still a sweetener to be treated with caution, and certainly not healthy in the long run. Saccharin can still cause these possible reactions in some sensitive people: * Itching * Hives * Eczema * Nausea * Headaches * Diarrhea * Excessive urination * Wheezing * Tongue blisters Think of that next time you grab that pink package to sweeten your coffee or tea—you are adding a coal tar derivative. How does that sound to you? Aspartame has been on the market for over twenty years, and although there are many many health concerns with the use of this artificial sweetener, it still remains a staple of the nocalorie artificial sweeteners, and is still commercially marketed in many products. Aside from the weight gain problems, there are also large amounts of the population suffering from a lot of unhealthy side effects associated with aspartame, although may don‘t even know the cause. Even the ones who do not have immediate reactions may still be susceptible to the long-term damage caused by the excitatory amino acids contained in aspartame: phenylalanine, methanol, and DKP. Adverse reactions and side effects of aspartame include:            

Vision problems Tinnitus - ringing or buzzing sounds Noise sensitivity or hearing impairment Epileptic seizures Headaches, migraines, dizziness Depression Irritability Aggression Anxiety, palpitations, tachycardia Stomach and abdominal pain Itching Rashes, hives

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While Splenda seems to be safer than aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal) there still has not been enough convincing evidence to prove Splenda's safety, and generally should be considered unsafe to use as a low-calorie sweetener. Splenda claims to be ‗made from sugar,‘ and ‗natural,‘ because Splenda is made partially from sucrose, which is a natural sugar. But, Sucralose is NOT at all natural; it is a chemically created synthetic compound, modified by adding chlorine atoms to sugar. According to Shane Ellison (www.thepeopleschemist.com), a well-known Organic Chemist: “Splenda’s manufacturer claims that the chlorine added to sucralose is similar to the chlorine atom in the salt (NaCl) molecule. When combined with sodium, chlorine forms a harmless "ionic bond" to yield table salt. Sucralose makers often point this out to defend its safety. Apparently, they missed day 2 of Chemistry 101 - the day they taught about "covalent" bonds. Unlike ionic bonds, covalently bound chlorines are not meant for the human body. Sucralose is covalently bonded with chlorine and much more like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides, but we will never know the real harm, without longterm, independent human research. Sucralose, incidentally, was discovered in the 1970s by researchers looking to create a new pesticide. It wasn't until the young scientist who developed it accidentally tasted his new "insecticide" that he learned it was sweet.” Since a no-calorie sweetener is much more marketable than a pesticide, it was named ―Splenda‖ and advertised as being a ‗natural‘ substitute for sugar. Little does the public know that this sweetener was once almost bug-killer. If it kills bugs, it seems very likely that it is harmful to humans as well. Sound like something you want to be drinking or eating? How does Splenda work? Most of it passes through the body without being digested. Actually only around 10-15% of Splenda is digested. People with healthier GI tracts end up absorbing more of the Splenda, because they are able to digest it, and that means more chlorine is absorbed into the body, along with the resulting health hazards. Even tests done by Splenda‘s manufacturers are scary. Studies revealed that test animals suffered from some really nasty side effects such as enlarged livers and kidneys, and shrunken thymus glands… and these were only the short-term studies. What happens longterm? Splenda was rushed to the marketplace without any long-term studies done on it. It would seem that the long-term research is going on across America, with us as the test rodents. If Splenda is dangerous in smaller doses, but what about larger amounts of Splenda and the chlorine it contains? One of Splenda‘s selling points is that Splenda remains stable at higher temperatures, meaning that it can be used in cooking, as opposed to the other low-calorie sweeteners.

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The problem with that is that many of the sugar-free, and low-calorie diet foods now use Splenda in their recipes. People on sugar-free and low calorie diets are eating this product several times a day in different foods and drinks. Some people are actually allergic to sucralose, and the reactions can be everything from rashes, panic attacks, headaches, to intestinal cramping, diarrhea, muscle aches, and stomach pain. Allergic reactions may not show up the first time, but may suddenly appear after several exposures. There is also evidence also that sucralose can damage your healthy probiotic colonies living in your gut, and this can harm both digestion and your immune system. Not good. While it seems unlikely that sucralose is as toxic as aspartame, it is clear from the hazards seen in research, and from its chemical structure, that years and years of use may contribute to serious immunological and neurological disorders. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola (www.mercola.com), the following symptoms have been observed within 24-hours of eating Splenda products:  Redness, itching, swelling, blistering, weeping, crusting, rash, eruptions, or hives. This is the most common allergic symptom that people have.  Wheezing, tightness, cough, or shortness of breath.  Swelling of the face, eyelids, lips, tongue, or throat; headaches and migraines.  Stuffy nose, runny nose, sneezing.  Red, itchy, swollen, or watery eyes.  Bloating, gas, pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or bloody diarrhea.  Heart palpitations or fluttering.  Join pains or aches.  Anxiety, dizziness, spaced-out sensation, depression. There are many other natural sweeteners that are much healthier choices and do not contain a list of frightening side effects when ingested. These will be explained in more depth later in this book. My preferred natural sweeteners are stevia (when wanting to reduce sugar calories), or raw honey and 100% organic maple syrup (both of which do contain sugar, but also contain beneficial nutrients).

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SUGAR FREE FOODS TO AVOID  Diet Sodas  Crystal Lite Lemonade Mixes  Sugar Free Kool-Aid  Sugar Free Drinks of all Kinds  Sugar Free Sports Drinks  Sugar Free Snacks and Desserts  Sugar Free Ice Cream  Sugar Free Syrups, Jams and Jellies  Sugar Free Gum  Sugar Free Candy  Many protein powders and bars also contain artificial sweeteners in heavy doses, so read labels!  Anything that says ―Sugar Free‖ read the label; most likely it contains one of the artificial sweeteners mentioned.

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CHAPTER 5 Commercial Pasteurized Dairy Although milk is typically promoted as a healthy food, there are many problems with commercial pasteurized dairy as we‘ll explore below. There is only one form of healthy milk, and that is raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) milk from grass-fed healthy cows. Unfortunately, virtually all of the milk sold in stores in the US has been pasteurized and homogenized (and is almost always from corn-fed feedlot cows), thus turning a healthy food into an unhealthy one. While the dairy industry is passing off pasteurized milk as being wholesome and healthy, it is far from that. Studies are showing evidence that commercial, pasteurized milk may play a role in a variety of health problems, including: diabetes, prostate cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, anemia, MS, leukemia and ovarian cancer. There are dozens of reports and studies on pasteurized milk, and although you may not be aware of them, most of them are not favorable. The most of these published reports seem to be concerning the health issues that commercial, pasteurized milk causes such as: intestinal colic, intestinal irritation, intestinal bleeding, anemia, allergic and sinus problems, and salmonella. Contamination of milk by blood and white (pus) cells as well as a variety of hormones, chemicals and insecticides is a also a big cause for concern. Did you know that fifty years ago, a cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers produce close to 50,000 pounds! How can this be? It is certainly not a natural phenomenon! Drugs, antibiotics, growth hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding--that's how. The latest onslaught to the dairy cow is the addition of bovine growth hormone or BGH. This drug is supposed to stimulate milk production but, according to Monsanto, who is the hormone's manufacturer, it does not affect the milk or meat. Can Monsanto be believed? Obviously, there have been no long-term studies on the hormone's effect on the humans drinking the milk containing BGH, but some studies have focused on BGH and the growth of cancerous tumors. It makes perfect sense that if this unnatural drug can stimulate growth, then it can stimulate the growth of cancer as well. One theory about the increase in breast cancer rates in women points to this drug and its presence in dairy products. Many countries have banned BGH because of safety concerns. And for good reason. Any substance added to a dairy cow‘s body comes out in the milk. I don't know how you feel, but 31

I don't want to experiment with the ingestion of a growth hormone-especially one for dairy cows. What will that do to humans? Because BGH dramatically increases the cow‘s milk supply, it also causes a dramatic increase (50 to 70 %) in mastitis (udder infections) in the dairy cows‘ udders. This in turn then requires antibiotics to get rid of the mastitis, and the leftover antibiotics then appear in the milk we drink. Over FIFTY PERCENT of all the antibiotics produced in this country for both humans and animals go directly into animal feed! Ideally, antibiotics should be used in farming only when necessary to treat infections. But commercial dairy cows are raised in poor, dirty conditions, and they are not healthy animals. So they are fed a constant supply of antibiotics from birth until death. We are unknowingly consuming a lot of antibiotics, just by drinking commercial milk. Because of this, humans are now becoming resistant to antibiotics. If you tested commercial milk, you would find that it contains traces of up to 80 different antibiotics! All mammals who are lactating excrete many toxins through their milk, and this includes antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals, and growth hormones. Side note: If you had not already heard the news, there is scientific evidence that antibiotics use in humans can actually increase your abdominal fat. Read that article if you’re interested in more on that topic. Because of the mastitis, there are white blood cells in the milk from infections. If you don't already know this, I'm sorry to tell you that another way to describe white cells where they don't belong would be to call it ‗pus‘. Inspectors are asked to keep the white blood cell counts under certain limits. A-not-to-appetizing fact is that the USDA allows milk to contain from one to one and a half million white blood cells per milliliter. (That's one to one-and-ahalf million WBC‘s to about 1/30 of an ounce).

Pure, wholesome milk? Yuk! It is now a disgusting cocktail of antibiotics, chemicals, hormones and pus. Commercial pasteurized milk is not a health food and should be avoided at all costs. Empty calories that just add pounds to your body, and fill you with chemicals. But wait, there‘s more! Pasteurization further degrades milk and makes it even more unhealthy. Commercially raised dairy cattle are raised under dirty, unhealthy conditions. In addition, most commercial dairy cows are raised on an unnatural diet of grains, not grass 32

like Mother Nature meant. Because this diet is so unnatural for the cows, this totally changes the composition of the fats in milk, primarily the very important and healthy fatty acids; Omega 3‘s and Conjugated Linoleic Acid. Raw milk sours naturally, but pasteurized milk will turn putrid and processors remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. And get this: inspection of commercial dairy cows for disease is not even required for pasteurized milk! So, dirty, crowded, dairy lots are full of sickly cattle that are giving us milk! Pasteurizing milkactually began in the 1920‘s to kill pathogens that got into the milk that cause Tuberculosis, infant diarrhea, intestinal dysentery, and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. According to Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation: “Heat alters milk’s amino acids, lysine and tyrosine, making the whole complex of proteins less available; it promotes rancidity of unsaturated fatty acids and destruction of vitamins. Vitamin C loss in pasteurization usually exceeds 50 percent; loss of other water-soluble vitamins can run as high as 80 percent. Pasteurization alters milk’s mineral components such as calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulphur as well as many trace minerals, making them less available. There is some evidence that pasteurization alters lactose, making it more readily absorbable.‖ When milk is pasteurized, the protein molecules are heated and they actually change shape and composition, making them much harder for our bodies to break down and digest. A simple protein molecule becomes a tightly folded molecule. This milk then puts an unnecessary strain on our digestive system to produce digestive enzymes to break this down. Many people‘s bodies are simply incapable of breaking this protein down. This is partly the reason why milk consumption has been linked with diabetes. It is a strain on the pancreas to produce enzymes. It is also the reason behind many milk allergies. It is the protein portion— the casein--that becomes difficult to digest after pasteurization, thus causing many reactions. In the elderly, and those with milk intolerance or other digestive disorders, the milk passes through the intestinal walls not fully digested. These large particles can clog the absorbent areas of the small intestine, which then prevents vital nutrients from getting in. The result is allergies, chronic fatigue, lowered immune system and a variety of other degenerative diseases. Because the milk is heated in pasteurization, the heat destroys the active and healthy enzymes in milk–in fact, the test for successful pasteurization is absence of enzymes. These enzymes are especially important to help our body break down and use all the healthy nutrients in milk, including calcium. This is why people with osteoporosis cannot get calcium from pasteurized milk. The calcium in milk is simply not utilized very well. The same goes for the healthy fats milk contains. Lipase is one of the enzymes in raw milk that helps the body digest and utilize the butterfat that contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) 33

and Omega 3 fats—both extremely healthy to the body in their cancer-fighting and hearthealthy abilities (as well as helping with fat burning and muscle building). Last but not least, there may be chemicals after pasteurization to suppress any rotten milk odor and restore some of the taste. Synthetic vitamin D is often added to commercial milk too, and the long term health safety is questionable. You always want to get natural vitamin D as opposed to synthetic. Because it is cosmetically better looking, milk is then homogenized. Homogenization, has lately been linked to heart disease. When you get milk straight from the cow contains it contains cream-which is full of all the healthy fats, including the fat-burning CLA. Homogenization breaks up the fat particles into smaller microscopic particles and distributes the fat throughout the milk so that they do not rise. This process unnaturally increases the surface area of fat exposing it to air, in which oxidation occurs and increases the susceptibility to spoilage. Homogenization has been linked to heart disease and atherosclerosis. Considering how commercial milk is produced and processed, it comes as no surprise that so many of us are allergic to it. An allergic reaction to dairy can cause symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting (even projectile vomiting), stomach pain, depression, cramping, gas, bloating, nausea, headaches, sinus and chest congestion, acne and a sore, or scratchy throat. Commercial milk consumption has been linked to many other health conditions as well, such as asthma, atherosclerosis, diabetes, chronic infections (especially upper respiratory and ear infections), obesity, osteoporosis and cancer of the prostate, ovaries, breast and colon. If a calf fed pasteurized milk dies before maturity, then is there anything good left in it? Not hardly. This is especially bad, because milk is one of the healthiest foods available prior to its being pasteurized and homogenized. Once you understand how modern milk is produced and processed, it seems logical to just avoid pasteurized, processed milk altogether. Why add the empty calories, antibiotics and growth hormones? Raw, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk from healthy grass-fed cows is the best source of milk to drink. See more about raw milk in Part 2 of this book.

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MILK PRODUCTS TO AVOID  Pasteurized milk, even organic milk  Pasteurized cottage cheese  Pasteurized yogurt  Pasteurized sour cream  Pasteurized, processed cheese  Pasteurized chocolate milk  Pasteurized cream  Any pasteurized processed dairy product

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CHAPTER 6 Commercially Raised Meats and Farmed Fish Not all meat you buy is the same. Commercial meat production has sadly changed meat from a healthy lean protein into an industrialized factory food with fewer nutrients and is now a health hazard. The animals raised for commercial meat in most grocery stores are raised and slaughtered by inhumane cruel conditions, and are fed an unhealthy diet that is not the natural diet of the animal. This results in an unhealthy meat product for your consumption. But read on, because there ARE healthy meats that you can choose! Since the 1980‘s, mergers and acquisitions have resulted in concentrating 80% of the 35 million beef cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. into the hands of four huge corporations. What used to be idyllic country farms with contented grazing cattle has turned into huge industrialized factory farms with unhealthy feedlots. Most beef cattle start out on a range, eating grass, but upon reaching maturity, they are transported to a feedlot to be fattened and readied for slaughter. They spend their last few months at feedlots, crowded by the thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria, infectious disease, and dusty matter, putting the cattle at risk for respiratory disease and other diseases. Eventually, all of them will wind up at the slaughterhouse. Feedlot cattle are injected regularly with growth hormones antibiotics. Because they are fed an unnatural diet of grain and other food by-products to fatten them up very quickly and profitably, the cattle often have upset digestive systems, and they become even sicker and unhealthier in general. Grains (often contaminated with fungus and fungicides) are used to fatten up livestock at the expense of their natural diet of healthy grass and hay. The main ingredients are genetically modified grain and soy. To further cut costs, the feed may also contain ―by-product feedstuff‖ such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers, gum and candy. Because cattle are naturally suited to eating a grass-based diet, the high calorie diet of grain contributes to many metabolic disorders. Often this diet causes sickly cattle with weakened immune systems that reside in a dirty, crowded environment of contagious pathogens. Cattle fed a grain-based diet also develop highly acidic stomachs to process the grain. This acidic environment is the breeding ground for the deadly E.coli strain of bacteria that sickens and kills many people. In the U.S. alone, farmers add 10 million pounds of antibiotics into the food and water supply of farm animals. This, however is not intended to fight or prevent disease, but is actually used to fatten up the livestock, which is one of the side effects of the antibiotics. All 36

of the antibiotics in the meat you are eating can lead to antibiotic resistance in your body. And, if these antibiotics work to fatten cattle, it‘s not out of the question to think they may be contributing to fattening humans! Cattle are transported several times during their lifetimes, and they can travel hundreds or thousands of miles during a single trip. Long journeys are very stressful to the cattle, and contribute to even more disease and death. A standard beef slaughterhouse kills about 250 cattle an hour. The high speed of the processing makes it difficult to treat animals humanely. According to a meat industry article, "Good handling is extremely difficult if equipment is 'maxed out' all the time. It is impossible to have a good attitude towards the cattle if the employees are stressed and constantly rushed, trying to up their production in as little time as possible.‖All that stress gets transferred to the animals, which is partly accountable for some of the terribly inhumane treatment cattle get. Nearly all the meat, eggs, and dairy products that you find in the supermarket come from animals raised in large facilities called CAFOs or ―Confined Animal Feeding Operations.‖ These highly mechanized operations provide a year-round supply of food at a reasonable price. Although the meat is cheap and convenient, factory farming is creating a variety of problems, including:  Animal sickness, stress and abuse  Air, land, and water pollution  The unnecessary use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs which end up in the meat you are eating  Unhealthy fats that cause inflammation and heart disease  Food with decreased nutritional value What about those dangerous saturated fats you ask? Well, it is becoming more widely known that saturated fat per se is NOT the real culprit in heart disease and other degenerative diseases. The fat in a grain-fed cow is not healthy. Grain fed beef contains high amounts of inflammatory (hence, artery clogging) omega-6 fatty acids. One reason Americans are so unhealthy and have a lot of inflammation in their bodies is due to excessively high amounts of processed omega-6 fatty acids in our diets compared to far too low amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

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According to the Journal of Animal Science, grain fed beef or bison can have an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio higher than 20:1. This creates a health problem in humans because it is way more than the recommended ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 of omega 6 to omega 3. On the other hand, grass fed beef or bison typically contains a much healthier omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of between 2:1 to 4:1, as well as much higher quantities of CLA (a healthy fat that helps support fat burning and muscle building). When this recommended ratio of 3:1 to 4:1 omega 6 to omega 3 fats is exceeded, health problems begin to emerge due to an unhealthy imbalance. Excess omega 6 fatty acids contribute to inflammation in our bodies, and in our arteries, which is the starting point for arterial plaque buildup. Animals raised on their natural diet of grass have a healthy, highly functioning pH of 7, which allows for the essential fermentation bacteria in their stomachs that creates high levels of nutrients such as: Conjugated Linoleic Acid, (CLA) omega 3 fats, branch-chain amino acids, vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes. But even a small amount of grain can throw all this off. Just 30 days on a grain-based diet can ruin 200 days of grass-grazing chemistry. When an animal lives on high starch grain diet, the healthy pH 7 suddenly drops to a highly acidic pH 4. With this increase in acidity comes a different problem: one that stops the production of healthy fats like omega 3‘s and CLA, and increases the level of the omega 6‘s, which most Americans already consume too much. And as if all that weren't bad enough, the growth hormones that are given to fatten the cattle for faster weight gain don‘t create healthy, lean muscle. With less exercise than their pasture-raised, grass fed counterparts, grain fed cattle develop heavy, highly marbled muscle mass that is the hallmark of their high-carbohydrate, high starch diet. Interesting…could this be happening in our bodies on a high carbohydrate, starchy diet as well? When animals are raised in feedlots or cages, they leave behind large amounts of manure in a small amount of space. Manure must be collected and transported away from the area which becomes an expensive proposition. It is usually dumped as close to the feedlot as possible, to help defray the cost of removing it. As a result, the surrounding soil is overloaded with not only manure, but the residue of hormones and antibiotics from the cattle, which can cause ground and water pollution. For all these reasons above, this is why I strictly try to choose healthy grass-fed organic meats… If we‘re talking about beef or bison, I look for 100% grass-fed (including grassfinished) and organic beef and bison. If it‘s chicken or turkey, I try to look for free-range, organic. Also, wild game is a great option if you have hunters in the family or friends that are hunters. Wild game will always be some of the healthiest possible meat you can serve yourself and your family. Some grocery stores are starting to carry better quality meats now, but you can also order online on several sites… the one that I personally love and have been using for a couple years now is this: http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com -- they have amazing quality cuts of 38

meat, as well as some of the best quality grass-fed burgers I‘ve ever had. And they also have a great line of grass-fed sausages (the grass-fed breakfast sausage sliders are amazing!) Just as the commercial meat industry in America has now industrialized factory farms producing thousands of pounds of unhealthy meats to meet consumer demand; now there's a similar dynamic in the global fish farming, or aquaculture, industry--especially as it strains to satisfy consumers' voracious appetite for top-of-the-food chain, carnivorous fish, such as salmon, and tuna. Farmed fish vs. wild-caught fish While fish used to be considered a healthy addition to any diet, farmed fish is now barely any better than eating a Big Mac. From both a nutritional and environmental impact perspective, farmed fish are far inferior to their wild counterparts:  Despite being much fattier, farmed fish provide less usable beneficial omega-3 fats than wild fish.  Due to the ―feedlot‖ conditions of aqua farming, farm-raised fish are doused with antibiotics and exposed to more chemicals than their wild kin.  Farmed salmon, are given a salmon-colored dye in their feed, without which, their flesh would be an unappetizing grey color.  Aqua farming also raises a number of environmental concerns, the most important of which may be its negative impact on wild salmon. It has now been established that sea lice from farms kill up to 95% of juvenile wild salmon that migrate past them. Nutritional differences of farm-raised vs. wild fish: Farm-raised fish have a higher fat content. It‘s not very surprising, since farm-raised fish do not spend their lives vigorously swimming through cold ocean waters or leaping up rocky streams like their wild counterparts. A marine version of couch potatoes, they circle lazily in crowded pens fattening up on pellets of grain-based fish chow. In each of the species evaluated by the USDA, the farm-raised fish were found to contain more total fat than their wild counterparts. For rainbow trout, the difference in total fat was the smallest, while cultivated catfish had nearly five times as much fat as wild catfish. Farmraised Coho salmon had approximately 3 times the total fat as wild samples. Farm-raised fish contain more inflammatory omega 6 fats, and an imbalance of omega-6 to omega 3 fatty acids. In three types of fish evaluated, the amount of omega 6 fats was substantially higher in farm-raised compared to wild fish. The total of all types of omega 6 fats found in cultivated fish was at least twice the level found in the wild samples. Generally you can figure that farm-raised fish will have 10-30% more fat (and that‘s mostly omega 6 fats which you already get too much of) and calories than wild-caught fish. 39

The fat in farmed salmon contains far less of the healthy omega 3 fatty acids than the fat in wild salmon. Salmon fat is usually rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Not so with farmed fish! Disease and parasites, which would normally exist in relatively low levels in fish scattered around the oceans, can run rampant in densely packed oceanic feedlots. To survive, farmed fish are vaccinated as minnows. Later, they are given antibiotics or pesticides to ward off infection. Sea lice, in particular, are one of the worst problems. While salmon farmers have discounted concerns that sea lice are also found in the wild, at the first sign of an outbreak, they add pesticides to the feed. Scientists in the United States are far more concerned about two studies: both of which showed farmed salmon accumulate more cancer-causing PCB‘s and poisonous dioxins than wild salmon. Tests on farmed salmon at grocery stores which contains up to twice the fat of wild salmon, has found16 times the PCB‘s compared to wild salmon, 4 times the levels in commercial beef, and 3.5 times the levels found in other seafood. Most of these toxins are stored in the fat of the fish, so guess what you are eating when you eat farmed fish? Farmed salmon usually has dye added to it to improve the looks of the product. Even with the coloring, it never looks as good as wild salmon. These colorings also come with recently documented cancer-causing agents. These dyes have zero health benefits, and have no other purpose than to fool you, the consumer, into thinking the product is rich in flavor ... Don't believe it! Aqua farms, or ―floating pig farms,‖ put a major strain on the surrounding environment. The fish consume huge amounts of highly concentrated protein pellets and it makes a terrific mess. Uneaten feed and fish waste cover the ocean floor beneath these farms, which are a breeding ground for bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures. A good-sized salmon farm produces an amount of excrement equivalent to the sewage of a city of 10,000 people. Think about that the next time you swim in the ocean! The most serious concern is the depletion of marine life from over-fishing. Actually aqua farming depletes marine life because captive salmon are carnivores and must be fed fish during the 2-3 year period when they are raised. To produce one pound of farmed salmon, 2 to 4 pounds of wild sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring and other fish must be ground up to render the oil and meal that is compressed into pellets of salmon chow. Fish used to be a bit of a rarity in U.S. households. Today it is a common dinner at the homes of health-conscious consumers. Last year, salmon overtook ―fish sticks‖ as the third most popular seafood in the American diet (trailing tuna and shrimp). The increased

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consumption was made possible by the explosive growth in salmon farming, an industrial system that produces the fish in vast quantities at a price far lower than wild salmon. Although portrayed as ―healthy‖, most tilapia sold at restaurants and grocery stores is farm raised, and therefore is not considered the healthiest of choices. More than half of the fish sold in supermarkets, fish markets, and restaurants are raised in high-density fish pens in the ocean, managed and marketed by the farmed fishing industry. These fish are eaten by over a quarter of all adults in the U.S. and experts predict that the exponential growth of the farmed fish industry will continue. Although it seems like a healthier choice, eating farmed fish is actually almost as bad as eating a fast food burger. Note that when you‘re choosing healthier wild fish, it is a good idea to try to limit your intake of fish that are higher on the food chain (such as tuna, swordfish, shark, striped bass, bluefish, etc) to more occasional meals due to the higher levels of mercury in these fish. Fish that are lower on the food chain such as sardines, herring, sunfish, and even trout and salmon have lower levels of mercury and are not as much of a concern. Caution: it is extremely important for pregnant women to speak to your doctor about fish intake.

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MEATS/FISH TO AVOID  Packaged, commercially sold grocery store beef (grain-fed) of all cuts  Packaged processed meats like bacon, salami, bologna, hot dogs, sausage, etc (high levels of sodium, nitrates or nitrites, and preservatives).  Frozen prepared meats  Canned meats; processed chipped beef  Any kind of fish that says ―farm-raised‖  Processed or fried fish such as fish sticks, etc.  Frozen diet dinners  Fast food burgers, fast food fish

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Click Button Below to GET

The Full Version

Contents

A Special Note Preface How it All Started Introduction The Fasted State The Disappearance of the Fasted State Forget Everything You Have Ever Read About Fasting Fasting and Your Metabolism Fasting and Exercise Fasting and your Brain Fasting and Your Muscle Mass Fasting and Hunger Fasting and Blood Sugar Levels Other Misconceptions of Fasting The Health Benefits of Fasting Decreased Insulin Levels & Increased Insulin Sensitivity Decreased Blood Glucose Levels Increased Lipolysis and Fat Burning

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Increased Glucagon Levels Increased Epinephrine and Norepinephrine levels Increased Growth Hormone Levels Increased Weight Loss and Increased Fat Loss Decreased Chronic Inflammation Increased Cellular Cleaning Health Benefits – The Conclusion

The Eat Stop Eat Way of Life How to fast Eat Stop Eat style How to Eat Eat Stop Eat style What to do While Fasting How to work out with Eat Stop Eat Designing your own workout program Sticking with it A note on cardio for weight loss Other Health Benefits of Exercise

How to keep it off Eat Stop Eat Conclusions Eat Stop Eat Frequently Asked Questions References

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A Special Note on This Edition

First of all, let me be clear that I was well aware of the immense gap between peoples’ attitude toward health and fitness and the theories found within this book back when it when was first published in 2007. I knew that people had generally accepted that strict dietary restraint and an almost relentless workout program were essential for weight loss. Not only this, but it was believed that a serious lifestyle modification had to occur that made you almost obsessed with health and nutrition. I was all too aware that for some curious reason we had accepted the idea that losing weight had to be extremely difficult and the concept that long-term weight loss success meant a life of dedication and extreme discipline. Back in 2007, even the slightest suggestion that we could actually cause a genuine reduction of body fat WITHOUT extremely regimented and inflexible dietary restrictions was often met not only with disbelief, but also hostility. Few were prepared to hear or accept a simpler solution.

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The diet industry is huge, and worth billions of dollars in annual profits. This not only includes the obvious examples of over the counter diet pills, but also weight loss centers, weight loss coaches, weight loss books, and even on-line weight loss societies. Combine this with the shocking boom of twenty-something year old Internet marketers making millions selling ‘diet advice’ on-line and it becomes obvious that the weight loss industry was ripe for a big, strong dose of common-sense thinking. I knew that Eat Stop Eat was going to cause a shockwave in the diet industry, and that I was going to have to spend a great deal of my time defending the concepts within it. But like I said, this was almost a given. It is the NORM for radical new concepts that receive a lot of attention to arouse a sharp division of opinion among expert ‘commentators’. Yet the fight for Eat Stop Eat’s acceptance was not nearly as uphill as I had imagined. Sure, it had its detractors and nay-sayers, but for the most part even the harshest scientific critic quickly came to realize the simplicity and effectiveness of Eat Stop Eat and appreciated that it was supported by very sound and logical scientific evidence. It seems that in a matter of just 3 short years, Eat Stop Eat has gone from being a controversial ‘fringe’ dietary ‘fad’ to becoming an accepted dietary approach to losing weight that is being supported by doctors, dietitians, and other mainstream health experts.

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Biologist J.B.S. Haldane said it best when he pointed out that there are four stages of scientific acceptance: 1) This is worthless nonsense 2) This is an interesting but perverse point of view 3) This is true but quite unimportant 4) I always said so Eat Stop Eat has hit the “I always said so” phase of acceptance. This is very exciting to me, and many others involved in the diet and weight loss industry. People have begun to accept that losing weight can be accomplished using a multitude of different diets, as long as the diet created some sort of decrease in caloric intake. Not only this, but the concept that the best diet is the one you enjoy and can stay on the longest, has really caught on. Despite these facts, there is still a growing amount of nutrition misinformation that is available in the mainstream weight loss industry. And, quite ironically, obesity rates are still increasing. In fact, the average percent body fat in North America has become startlingly high.

(The average body fat for men is 25% and for women is closer to 40%)

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Common sense and sensibility merges with the weight loss industry. The simple truth is that research illustrates an increased supply of food is more than sufficient to explain this obesity epidemic.1 I am almost positive that no one is happy with the North American average of 25% and 40% body fat for men and women, respectively.2 As such, there is still a need to expand on the successful theories of Eat Stop Eat to help as many people as possible realize that weight loss does not have to be complicated.

Let’s start with what we already know about weight loss: •

Carrying extra body fat is really bad for us, both physically and emotionally.

•

Weight loss is not a mystery and the fundamental principles have never changed. It’s our ability to apply these principles that dictates how successful we are at losing weight.

•

Since you are reading this book, you have a personal interest in weight loss.

A Caveat: Prevention is better than a cure. While the principles of Eat Stop Eat are often only thought of as a way to lose weight, it is important to remember that Eat Stop Eat is also an effective way to maintain weight loss, AND to prevent weight gain from happening in the first place. Simply put, when adapted to fit your own personal lifestyle, the principles of Eat Stop Eat can apply to everyone.

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Preface

Take a second before reading this book and think about all the diets you have heard about and read about in recent years. Each diet had its own little hook that made it stand out, and each diet had thousands of loyal followers that swore that their diet was the only one that worked. Now consider the real-world evidence that is right before your eyes. Every day you see hundreds of people, all with different body shapes and all following different diets. I will use professional bodybuilding as an example. Imagine two groups of bodybuilders ready to step on stage at the highest level of competition; their veins popping out everywhere, with tanned, oiled skin, and almost nonexistent body fat. The first group consists of bodybuilders from the 1950’s and 1960’s. These bodybuilders were able to get into phenomenal shape using diets that were low in fat, high in carbohydrates with moderate amounts of protein. The second group consists of bodybuilders from the 1990’s and beyond. They got into phenomenal shape using very different diets that consist of moderate amounts of fat, low carbohydrates, and very high amounts of protein.

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Both groups of bodybuilders were unbelievably lean. Both groups used various supplements and drugs. However, both groups followed very different nutrition plans. Yet, somehow they all managed to get their body fat down to unbelievably low levels. Throughout

the

last

five

decades,

the

diets

of

bodybuilders

have

changed

dramatically. Depending on the bodybuilder and the era, they may have eaten six meals a day, or they may have eaten more than a dozen. Some bodybuilders ate red meat while others did not. Some did hours of cardio, some did no cardio at all, yet they were all able to lose fat and get into ‘contest shape’. The reason all these bodybuilders could get in shape on so many different styles of diets is simple: for short periods of time, every diet will work if it recommends some form of caloric restriction. And if you follow a calorie-restricted diet you will lose weight, guaranteed. The problem is, you simply cannot follow a super-restrictive diet for a long period of time. Sure, a truly dedicated individual may be able to follow a very restrictive diet for 12 weeks and get into phenomenal shape. With the right amount of dedication, a person can even look like they just stepped off the cover of a fitness magazine. And a very small and unique group can do this for years on end. For the rest of us, this way of eating is too restrictive, too intrusive on our lives, and far too limiting to be done effectively for any real length of time. Now, what if I told you that these types of long restrictive diets are simply not necessary for weight loss? What if I told you that there is a way to eat and a way to live that can give you amazing health benefits, help you lose weight, and does not involve any prolonged periods of food restrictions, eating schedules, supplements, or meal plans?

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In the following pages I am going to share with you a discovery that I made as a result of years of research and schooling, a career in the sports supplement industry, and an obsession with nutrition. I am going to present you with the reasons why I think most diet plans are unnecessary, too restrictive, and ultimately too complicated to work long term. And most importantly, I am going to describe what I believe to be the single best way to eat and live that will help you lose weight and keep it off, without any of the complex plans, rules, and equations that is typical of most diets. After all, I don’t consider this method of eating a diet. It’s a way of eating that restricts calories, but that can also ultimately grow into a way of life. I must warn you in advance, many of these ideas are ‘different’ in that they do not agree with the current nutrition trends. I promised myself when starting this project that I would not merely accept the current rules of nutrition just because they happened to be the rules that are currently en vogue. As the bodybuilders in the example prove, many different styles of nutrition can result in the development of astonishing physiques. There probably is no “right” way to eat. The best we can hope for is finding the way that works the best for you. Nutrition, just like all science and medicine, is always evolving and changing. So even though the ideas in this book may be radical now, I believe that someday they just might be the new rules of nutrition! I am positive that if you read this book with an open mind, you will find that everything I have written makes sense. It may be different than what everyone else is telling you, but it is proven and backed up by a large quantity of scientific research, and it can change your life. Eat Stop Eat

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How it All Started

I walked away from my career in the sports supplement industry in May of 2006. It wasn’t a bad split, and I did not want to give up on the industry altogether, I just wanted to start fresh. To fully explain this decision, I have to take you back about twenty years. I have always been obsessed with exercise, health, and nutrition. At 10 years old, I could already boast a very impressive collection of Muscle & Fitness Magazine, and a couple of years later I was also collecting issues of Men’s Health. I can remember reading about bodybuilders like Lee Haney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno and all of the articles concerning their diet and exercise programs. It was these articles that piqued my interest in the science behind fat loss. At 16 years old, I had a subscription to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. I would read any research paper that involved nutrition and fat loss. It would take me about a day to read each article because I had to stop and check almost every word in a medical dictionary. At 17 years of age, I started working at a local supplement store. This was my first official step into the health and nutrition industry and I have never looked back.

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When I started studying nutrition at university, I had only two goals – to learn everything I possibly could about nutrition and metabolism, and to graduate with honors. In the spring of 2000, I accomplished both of them. Almost immediately after graduating from university, I was fortunate enough to be hired as a research analyst at one of the world’s leading supplement companies. Fast-forward to June of 2006. I had just spent the last six years of my life working in one of the most secretive industries in the world. During this time, I had been entrusted with protecting some of the most confidential information in the entire industry.

I was the person responsible for the inner dealings of our Research &

Development Department. Unfortunately, this was part of the problem. Part of my job was to review bodybuilding and fitness magazines. Every month I would have to read through the top ten magazines on the market. I was constantly reading about the ‘latest and greatest’ diet methods. After years of reading magazine after magazine, I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

Each month, it seemed like the

newest diet methods contradicted the diet methods that were in last month’s magazines. I started to think that the weight loss industry was full of nothing but confusing and constantly recycled misinformation. When it came to the science of losing weight, every so-called ‘nutrition guru’ and weight-loss personality had his or her own theories on what did and didn’t work. After years of reading and evaluating all of these nutrition and diet programs, I was actually starting to ignore my previous doubts and get consumed by the hype! Despite all of my formal education in the nutrition field, even the most absurd diet theories eventually started to sound logical to me, even though I had never come across any research that could convince me that these theories were supported by strong scientific evidence.

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In reality, the vast majority of what I had read in these magazines was just theories and speculation. Some of them were based on science while others were complete gibberish.

Many were contradictory to one another, and others even defied the

fundamental laws of thermodynamics and science. Month after month, dozens of magazines would appear on my desk, and month after month, I would see new and old diet ideas being trumpeted as the newest, most effective way to ‘blowtorch through stubborn body fat’. At this point, I noticed a funny thing about the industry - if an idea is published enough times, and if enough people accept it, it becomes true, no matter how inaccurate it really was. Whoever said, “you can say the same lie a thousand times but it doesn’t get any more true,” has obviously never been involved in the nutrition industry! The bottom line is that I got into the sports supplement industry for the same reason I eventually left. I wanted to understand the true rules of weight loss, and I wanted to figure out how we should really eat for health, energy, peak performance, and for weight loss. I ended up leaving my career in the industry so that I could write this book.

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Introduction

As part of the background research for this book, I made it my goal to uncover the true scientific facts behind weight loss and nutrition. I’m not talking about the scientific ‘facts’ that are thrown around every day by food companies and marketing gurus. You know, the ‘eat this, not that’ facts or the ‘recent research has shown’ ‘facts’. I wanted to find the cold, hard truths. I was looking for the nutritional equivalent of death and taxes. My first step in this quest was to read every nutrition and diet book I could get my hands on. I read and re-read the following books: The Atkins revolution, Protein power, Body for Life, The Zone, The South Beach Diet, French Women Don’t Get Fat, The Warrior Diet, The Metabolic Diet, Volumetrics, The Obesity Myth, Health Food Junkies, An Apple a Day, What to Eat, the Omnivore’s Dilemma, Real Foods, The End of Overeating, Eat Right 4 Your Type, Good Calories Bad Calories, Food Politics, as well as various ‘underground’ books on diet and nutrition like Dan Duchaine’s Body Opus. I didn’t just read these books. I analyzed them. I compared marketing tactics, writing styles, and persuasion techniques. If the book quoted scientific references, I sought Eat Stop Eat

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out the reference and reviewed it in its entirety. My goal was to dissect our current nutrition beliefs and to find track their evolutions and origins. On top of this, I also read and critically analyzed hundreds (not an exaggeration) of research papers, and re-read several of my nutrition textbooks. I even went so far as to enroll in graduate school to study Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences, and let me tell you, it took an almost unhealthy desire to uncover the truth to drive me to re-enroll in school after a seven-year hiatus, with a pregnant wife and a busy consulting job! It was a long commute back and forth from school every day, but having the opportunity to study nutrition at the graduate level was worth the sacrifice. So what did all of my research uncover? Firstly, I can say that most (but not all) people who talk about scientific research on-line or in magazines are not credible sources of scientific information, nor can they properly analyze the meaning of any scientific research. What they do is called “data mining”, where they scan research papers looking for interesting sound bites or quotes. Basically, they try to summarize 2 to 3 years worth of scientific investigation in one short and snappy quote. It’s great reading, but it rarely gets to the truth of the topic. This is not meant as a self-serving ego-boosting statement, but rather as a testament to the importance of obtaining a proper education. I also realized that even having an advanced education in one specific topic does not make you an expert in all things health related. Having a PhD in muscle physiology does not make you an expert in fat loss, and vice versa. Nor does being a Medical Doctor necessarily give you the scientific background you need in order to truly understand the complexities of nutrition, and more importantly to be able to see Eat Stop Eat

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through the deceptiveness of nutrition marketing (many U.S. medical schools fail to meet the minimum 25 required hours of nutrition education set by the National Academy of Sciences).3

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Finally, I can tell you that based on my research studying nutrition, fasting, and weight loss in graduate school, I have realized that there are only two absolute truths when it comes to nutrition and weight loss.

1) Prolonged  caloric  restriction  is  the  only  proven  nutritional     method  of  weight  loss   and 2) Human  beings  can  only  be  in  one  of  the     following  states:  Fed  or  fasted.  

That’s it. In my opinion, these are the only two facts that are undeniable. Everything else is open for debate, which is the problem with nutrition today – it is made out to be so complicated and confusing that nobody knows what to believe. Most scientific research findings seem to do nothing more than add to the already confused and muddled nutritional theories and diet recommendations that exist, and the cause is clear as day – research on nutrition and food is no longer conducted to improve our health and well being. It is conducted for marketing purposes and as a method to get us to buy one product over another, and it is all based on us being constant consumers. In fact, it was in an amazing article in Scientific American magazine written by renowned food expert Dr. Marion Nestle where I became aware that it was in the early 1980’s food companies had no choice but to attempt to change the way we eat. Faced

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by stockholder demands for higher short-term returns on investments, food companies were forced to expand sales in a marketplace that already contained an excessive amount of calories. Their only option was to seek new sales and marketing opportunities by encouraging formerly shunned eating practices such as frequent between-meal snacking, eating in bookstores, and promoting the money-saving value of larger serving sizes.4 To be clear, our entire style of eating in North America has been molded to support the interests of major food companies. You may be wondering ‘How can a select few people change the way entire countries decide to eat?’ Well, in order to promote this new style of eating, enormous amounts of money had to be spent on research supporting the health benefits of this style of eating. As far as I can tell, most research being conducted on food and nutrition these days is done simply for the purpose of food marketing. This is because the money that funds nutrition research is typically donated by a food company or supplement company. This so-called ‘donation’ or grant comes with the hope and expectation that the research will produce a health claim or other marketing claim that the company can then advertise as a selling feature for their product. As it turns out, health claims on foods and supplements can be incredibly lucrative, and the politics behind nutrition are undeniable. It was in a book titled “What to Eat” by author and researcher Marion Nestle (the same author who wrote the article in Scientific American), where I read the following quote – “The real reason for health claims is well established: health claims sell food products.”5 I couldn’t agree more. Eat Stop Eat

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The bottom line is that research creates health claims, and health claims sell products. Whether the product is some new ‘functional’ food or the latest diet program, if research says it works, it will sell more, guaranteed. Very soon into my readings I began to realize that the research on weight loss had become so skewed with politics that it has turned into the world’s most ironic oxymoron. After all, the research was trying to uncover the completely backwards idea; ‘what should we eat to lose weight?!’ When I realized that almost all nutrition research was working under this completely backwards paradigm, I understood that I had only one choice. If I was to avoid all of the bias and vested influence in today’s nutrition research then I had to go back to the absolute beginning. I had to conduct a thorough review of exactly what happens to human beings in the complete absence of food.

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The Fasted State

The definition of fasting is quite simple. I’ve read through countless dictionary entries and website descriptions of fasting, and have decided that the best definition of fasting is the following: “The act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, and in some cases drink, for a pre-determined period of time.” The key word in this definition is “willingly” as it is the difference between fasting and starving. Other than this one small difference, the net result is the same – the purposeful abstinence from caloric intake over a given period of time. Now, a lot of people confuse 'starvation' with wasting - wasting is the end result of prolonged caloric restriction - where your fat reserves are almost completely used up and can no longer supply your body with enough energy to meet its needs. This is when you see abnormal physiology such as muscle wasting (loss) and a slowed metabolism. So 'wasting' is the end result of prolonged extreme calorie restriction – occurring after months or even years of a chronically low intake and possible nutrient deficiencies, but not something that happens in a 72-hour period without food. So you are either fed or fasted, however ‘fasted’ can mean 12 hours or 12 weeks, so for the purpose of my research I decided to focus on short-term fasting, studying the metabolic effects of fasting between 12 and 72 hours. While researching, I observed some benefits to studying short-term fasting as a way to find the truth behind

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nutrition and fat loss. The most important is that people with vested interests in selling consumable products have no interest in studying fasting. Fasting automatically rules out the use of any sort of food, health supplement, or newly touted “functional foods”. Much to the dismay of food companies, you can’t put fasting into a pill and sell it, and as we have already discussed, the purpose of most nutrition research these days is the development of new products. By default, because you do not consume anything while you are fasting, research on fasting contains very little bias from large food company funding. After all, why would a food company spend money proving there is a benefit to eating less of their products? Another benefit of studying fasting is that there is an extremely large volume of research that has been conducted on fasting, and more research comes out almost every day. Throughout history, various cultures have used fasting in many different types of rituals and celebrations, and still use fasting within those traditions to this day. Almost all major religions have a degree of fasting built into them. From political protests to healing rituals, and even for good-old weight loss, there are many historical accounts of various people fasting for different reasons. With the exception of fasting for religious purposes, the practice of fasting has all but disappeared in North America. Our ancestors also fasted simply due to the poor availability of food. While modernday humans in many developed countries are used to being able to eat a solid three meals per day, animals in the wild eat only when food is available, and most likely this is also how our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.

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And let’s not forget that the majority of the world’s population still lives without adequate food supply. The fact that we’re faced with a problem of too much food makes us the lucky ones. Of course, this creates an odd sort of irony in the fact that you are now reading a book about how to deal with the consequences of the extra food.

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The Disappearance of the Fasted State

As I stated in the beginning of this book, from a nutritional point of view, a human being can only be fed or fasted. By saying this, I mean that we are either in the process of eating and storing the calories that come from our food, or burning these same calories as we burn stored energy. This energy is stored in the form of fat and glycogen (the storage form of sugars and carbohydrates in our bodies). Our bodies are designed to eat food when food is available and use the calories we have stored as fat when food is scarce. These are our only two options. Consider them the Yin and Yang of nutrition and health. FED - Eating and storing Calories FASTED - Not eating and burning Calories.

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Fasting is the simplest method our body has for maintaining its caloric balance. Store a little when we eat, burn a little when we don’t eat. Recent research suggests the problem is that we spend as much as 20 hours a day in the fed state.6 We are constantly eating and storing food and we never really give ourselves a chance to burn it off. So the yin and yang of fed and fasted has been replaced by a constant fed state, where we helplessly try to figure out how to continue eating and somehow lose weight at the same time. This is a very scary scenario when you consider the fact that our bodies are designed to store fat whenever it is provided with an amount of calories beyond its needs. In order to restore the balance of fed and fasted states, we have no choice but to go through periods of under-eating to match our large periods of over-eating. As a very crude example, imagine a hunter who has caught and eaten an animal, and foraged around and found some berries. Once the meat is gone and the berries have all been picked, the hunter has no choice but to move on in search of more food. Based on this ancestry, it seems logical to say that this is precisely how our bodies were designed to function. So if our bodies were designed to feed and then fast, why doesn’t anyone fast anymore? Most likely it is because the concept of fasting for weight loss and health has been villainized in western society as it goes directly against one of the most basic principles of business – supply and demand. To the food industry and various government agencies, the idea of people eating less is bad for business.

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Consider that each day in the United States, the food industry produces enough food to supply every single person with almost 4000 calories.7 On top of that, 10 billion U.S. dollars per year goes into the advertising and promotion of this food.8 It would be a huge financial disaster for many food companies if all at once everyone in the United States decided not to eat for one day out of the week. This is why the food and nutrition industry is willing to suggest many different theories on how to lose weight, as long as it means we continue buying and consuming foods. And not only that, they’re trying to sell the idea of buying MORE foods and consuming it MORE often. Think of all the diet suggestions you know. They all rely on the continued intake of food. Eat six small meals a day. Eat high protein. Eat breakfast (the TV commercials say it’s the most important meal of the day). Eat cereal. Overeat, cycle your carbohydrates, cycle your proteins, Eat lots of high calcium foods. Eat whole wheat. Take diet pills. Whatever the recommendation, it always revolves around making sure that the population is continuously consuming food and food supplements. After all, this is how companies refer to us - we are consumers (not people). And if you look up the word ‘consumer’ in the thesaurus you will find that its synonym is ‘customer’. How many times have you heard a company representative say things like, “We value our customer”? Well, of course they do! We buy (and consume) their products! Without us, there would be no profits and no company. In a day and age where so many people are trying-and failing- to lose weight, it seems improbable that the answer is simply dieting. In fact, in his very controversial book “The Obesity Myth,” author Paul Campos states he does not believe that dieting is an effective method of weight loss. Indeed, Mr. Campos goes so far as to say the idea that “People could lose weight if they really wanted to” is, in fact, a lie.9

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Although I’m not willing to go quite as far as Mr. Campos, I am willing to say that every single one of today’s popular diets is doomed to fail in the long term. In my opinion, no matter how strong your willpower, it will eventually be overridden by the power of marketing, advertising and the lure of great tasting food. After all, no one really wants to diet, we just want to look better with less fat on our bodies (Dieting just happens to be a rather uncomfortable means to this end). All of this raises the question – ‘have we been led to overlook the simplest form of reducing calories and losing weight - short periods of fasting - in an effort to keep us consuming?’ The answer seems to be a resounding ‘Yes!’

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Forget Everything You Have Ever Read About Fasting

The amount of anti-fasting misinformation that can be found on the Internet is astounding. This is despite the fact that our bodies were designed to fast, and that almost every major religion and culture has some sort of fasting built into its rituals to this day, and that most scientific studies that require blood collection also require their subjects to be fasted. Information on fasting and dieting is prevalent in cyberspace and in popular diet books. However, this information should be read with extreme caution. Ridiculous statements such as “Fasting will KILL your metabolism,” “fasting deprives your body of nutrients and does nothing to help you modify your dietary habits,” “The weight loss from fasting comes entirely from muscle,” or “The weight loss from fasting comes entirely from water” and finally “If you do not eat every 5 hours your liver releases sugar, which causes an insulin surge making you gain fat even without food” are typical of the fasting misinformation that is available. This is an example of ‘authoritative parroting’ where people simply repeat what they have had heard from authorities on the topic, without actually stopping to check and see if what they have heard is correct. So the same misinformation is passed on, regurgitated, repeated, and made true; solely on the basis of the source, rather than whether or not it is actually correct. Eat Stop Eat

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Other incorrect but often repeated statements include the notion that you will become hypoglycemic (have low blood sugar) if you do not eat every two to three hours and that fasting will prevent your muscles from growing. Typically, these statements are followed by more of the same old nutrition mantra “eat multiple small meals a day,” eat “high protein foods every two to three hours,” “avoid milk and dairy products,” and all the other popular ideas about dieting. The amazing thing is almost all of the scientific research I reviewed provided evidence in direct opposition to the misinformation found in diet books and on the Internet. I found very convincing evidence that supports the use of short term (as brief as 24 hours) fasting as an effective weight loss tool. This included research on the effect that fasting has on your memory and cognitive abilities, your metabolism and muscle, the effect that fasting has on exercise and exercise performance, and research that very conclusively exposes the myth of hypoglycemia while fasting. What made this even more interesting is that this type of fasting not only helps you lose weight, but also vastly improves many markers of health and comes with a very impressive track record. After all, outside (and inside) of North America, millions of people have been using intermittent fasting for centuries. As cutting edge as it may seem, taking brief breaks from eating is hardly anything new. It’s just something that a lot of people have been trying very hard to keep you from realizing! In fact, many people stumble onto fasting when they very first attempt to lose weight, and they usually see some success. They only give up on fasting after being convinced that it is bad and wrong by anti-fasting propaganda. Eat Stop Eat

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From a marketing stand point fasting is boring. It does not have a sexy marketing angle and it certainly does not do anything to improve the bottom-lines of food companies. In this day and age, a diet has to have a hook or a catch. It needs something to make it different and special, and this typically involves some special way of eating, but never a special way of NOT eating. Here is the common sense reason why fasting may work better for you than any other diet you have ever tried: Think of all the diet rules you have seen lately. It might be something that says you need to eat your carbs separately from your fats, or that you need to eat zero carbohydrates all together. Maybe it’s that you need to eat all fat or that you need to cycle your carbohydrates or your protein. Perhaps it’s the idea that you must only eat raw foods or organic foods, or it’s a diet planned around a hormone like ghrelin, adiponectin, leptin, estrogen or testosterone...etc and etc and etc. Now consider this: If these rules were ACTUALLY true, then Lap Band surgery would not work. But it does, and it works very well.10,11 During lap band surgery, a small silicon band is placed around the top portion of a person’s stomach, effectively making your stomach ‘smaller’. It’s a very drastic step that involves a surgical operation, but nonetheless it is extremely effective at helping people lose weight simply because it makes people eat less. Not just less carbs, or less fat, but less everything. No periodic refeeds. No cycling. No crazy food combining. They simply eat less.

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The bottom line is that a diet really does NOT need a catch to be effective. In fact, I would argue that the less complicated a diet is, the better its chances of helping you obtain long lasting weight loss. The specific type of fasting I am about to describe is not just a tool for weight loss, but rather could be considered a fairly simple (yet effective) lifestyle adjustment that can help you lose weight and improve your health WITHOUT having to resort to special ‘rules of eating’, taking pills or powders or electing for invasive surgery.

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Fasting and your Metabolism

In my review of fasting, I found some very interesting information, most of which contradicts much of today’s accepted ‘rules of nutrition’. Most startling is the fact that being in a fasted state for short periods of time will not decrease your metabolism. If you have followed any of today’s popular diets, you may know that they are all based on this idea. The story they are telling goes like this: If you lower your calories too much, even for a short period of time, then you will stop losing fat because your body has entered ‘starvation mode’ and your metabolic rate will slow to a standstill. In fact, this statement could very well be the basis for today’s weight loss industry. However, it turns out that it is factually incorrect. Our metabolism, or more correctly our metabolic rate, is based on the energetic costs of keeping the cells in our bodies alive. For example, let’s say we put you in a fancy lab and measured the amount of calories you burned in one day sitting on a couch doing nothing. Let’s assume that number was 2,000 calories. This would be called your basal metabolic rate; 2,000 calories would be the amount of calories you need to eat to match the amount you burn simply being you. Now, let’s say you moved around that day, perhaps 30 minutes of walking. You might burn an extra 100 calories bringing your daily total number of calories burned up to

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2,100. Your basal metabolic rate is always 2,000, and then any extra energy you expend moving your body (such as when we exercise) is added to that number. So in this example, you are going to burn 2,000 calories per day no matter what you do. So why are we being told that our metabolism will slow down if we do not eat for an extended period of time? The answer lies with an interesting metabolic process of eating called “The thermic effect of food”, and some clever interpretation of this rather simple process. The act of eating can increase your metabolic rate by a very small amount, and this is what is referred to as ‘the thermic effect of food’. This increase in metabolic rate is a result of the extra energy your body uses to digest and process the food. It takes energy to break down, digest, absorb and store the food once you eat it. This ‘energy cost’ has been measured in laboratory settings and is part of the basis for popular diets that promote the metabolic cost of one nutrient over another. For example, it takes more calories to digest protein than to digest carbohydrates or fats, so some diets recommend substituting some protein for carbohydrates and fat assuming this will burn more calories. Although this is scientifically true, the amount of extra calories this dietary change will cause you to burn is very small and will hardly make a difference to your overall calories burned in any given day. As an example, the idea of eating an extra 25 grams of protein so you can burn more calories can appear somewhat ridiculous. If you eat an additional 25 grams of protein, you would be adding 100 calories to your diet just so you can burn 10 more calories! The more logical approach would be to just not eat those 100 calories.

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Almost all of the calories you burn in a day result from your basal or resting metabolic rate (the calories it takes just to be alive). Beyond that the only significant way to increase the amount of calories you burn in a day is to exercise and move around. The research on metabolic rate and calorie intake is remarkably conclusive. I was easily able to find the following research studies that measured metabolic rate in people that were either fasting, or on very low calorie diets: In a study conducted at the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, England), researchers found that when they made 29 men and women fast for 3 days, their metabolic rate did not change.12 This is 72 hours without food. So much for needing to eat every three hours! In another study performed at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, men and women who fasted every other day for a period of 22 days experienced no decrease in their resting metabolic rate.13 In addition, a study published in 1999 found that people who were on very low calorie diets and on a resistance exercise program (i.e. lifting weights) did not see a decrease in resting metabolic rate, and these people were only eating 800 Calories a day for 12 weeks!35 In another interesting study published in the aptly-named journal ‘Obesity Research’, women who ate half the amount of food that they normally eat for three days saw no change in their metabolism, either.14 In still more studies, performed on men and women between the ages of 25 and 65, there was no change in the metabolic rate of people who skipped breakfast, or people who ate two meals a day compared to seven meals per day.15,16

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In a study published in 2007, ten lean men fasted for 72 hours straight. At the end of their fast their energy expenditure was measured and found to be unchanged from the measurements that were taken at the beginning of the study17 - Yet another example showing that fasting does not decrease or slow one’s metabolism. The bottom line is that food has very little to do with your metabolism. In fact, your metabolism is much more closely tied to your bodyweight than anything else. And, specifically of your body weight, your metabolism is almost exclusively tied to your Lean Body Mass. This means all the parts of your body that are not body fat. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism, and vice versa. It doesn’t matter if you are dieting, dieting and exercising or even following a VERY low calorie diet. As the graph below illustrates, it is your lean body mass that determines your metabolism.

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The only other thing that can affect your metabolism (in both the short term and longer term) is exercise and movement. Even in the complete absence of food for three days, your metabolism remains unchanged. I find it troubling that every physiologist, medical doctor, and PhD that I have talked to seems to understand this, but many of the personal trainers, nutrition personalities and supplement sales people are completely unaware of this scientific fact. This is truly a testament to the amazing power and persuasive nature of the marketing that can be found on the Internet and in fitness and nutrition magazines. It is also an illustration of the scientific illiteracy of many of the fitness personalities and marketers you may deal with in your life. This got me thinking that, if short-term changes in food intake has no effect on metabolic rate, what other myths have I been led to believe as scientific facts? I took it upon myself to examine the science behind many of today’s popular diets. I found no difference between any of them in their effectiveness over the long term. People choosing higher protein, lower carbohydrate diets (similar to Atkins or The Zone) tended to see slightly better weight loss, at least in the short term. However, when these studies extended to more than six months and up to a year, the differences tended to even out.18 I found only one thing to be consistent with all of these diets. This common finding is the success of any diet can be measured by how closely people can follow the rules of the diet and how long they can maintain caloric restriction.

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In other words, a diet’s success can be measured by how well they can enforce my first nutrition ‘truth’ – ‘prolonged caloric restriction is the only proven nutritional method of weight loss’. If the diet plan allows you to stay on the diet for a long period of time, then you have a very good chance of achieving sustained weight loss success. From what we have seen, there is a large amount of science that supports the use of short term fasting as an excellent way to create a dietary restriction, and it seems to be an effective and simple way to lose body fat (which is ideally the goal of ANY weight loss program). On top of that we have also determined that short term fasting does not have a negative effect on your metabolism. So far, so good. Fasting does not cause any negative or damaging effects on our metabolisms, but that still leaves us with another big unanswered question: What type of effect does short periods of fasting have on our muscles?

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Fasting and Exercise

Your muscle cells have the ability to store sugar in a modified form called glycogen. The interesting thing about this process is that your muscles lack the ability to pass this stored sugar back into the blood stream. In other words, once a muscle has stored up some glycogen, it can only be burned by that muscle and cannot be sent off for use by other parts of your body. For example you’re the glycogen stored in your right leg muscles can only be used by your right leg muscles. It cannot be donated to your liver, brain or any other part of your body. This basic rule goes for all of your muscles. This is in contrast to how your liver works. Your liver stores glycogen specifically for the purpose of feeding your organs, brain, and other muscles as needed. During a period of fasting, the systems of your body are relying on fat and the sugar that is stored in your liver for energy. Your muscles still have their own sugar that they need for exercising. The sugar in your muscles is used up quickly during high intensity exercises like weight training and sprinting, but even a few consecutive days of fasting in the absence of exercise has little effect on muscle glycogen content.19 By doing so, your muscle glycogen is truly reserved for the energy needs of exercise. Generally, research has found that any effect that brief periods of fasting has on exercise performance is small. Research completed in 1987 found that a three and a-

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half day fast caused minimal impairments in physical performance measures such as isometric strength, anaerobic capacity or aerobic endurance.20 In plain English, they found that a three-day fast had no negative effects on how strongly your muscles can contract, your ability to do short-term high intensity exercises, or your ability to exercise at moderate intensity for a long duration. More research published in 2007 found that performing 90 minutes of aerobic activity after an 18-hour fast was not associated with any decrease in performance or metabolic activity.21 What makes this study even more interesting is not only was fasting being compared to the performance of people who had recently eaten, but it was also being compared against the performance of people who were supplementing with carbohydrates during their workouts! This means fasting does not negatively affect anaerobic short-burst exercise such as lifting weights, nor does it have a negative effect on typical ‘cardio’ training. Another study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1988 found no change in measures of physical performance when soldiers were exercised until exhaustion either right after a meal or after fasting for three and a-half days.22 From this research we can see that you should be able to work out while fasted and not see any change in your performance. The only situation where I think there may be a negative effect from fasting is during prolonged endurance sports, like marathons or Ironman-style triathlons, where you are exercising continuously for several hours at a time.23,24 These types of ultra-long competitions typically require the athletes to eat during the actual event in order to maintain performance over such prolonged time periods.

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In most research trials examining the effects of fasting on prolonged endurance activities it was found that fasting negatively affected both overall endurance and perceived exertion.25 Keep in mind, however, that many of these studies were performed at the END of a 24-hour fast.26 So it is not advisable to partake in a 3.5 hour bike right at the end of a 24-hour fast, but I’m hoping you already knew that. It should be noted that the “negative effect” that occurs from fasting before a long endurance activity only affects an athlete’s time until exhaustion (performance duration). So the amount of time an athlete can exercise while fasted before becoming exhausted is less than the amount of time it takes for a fed athlete to become exhausted. Even though fasting may decrease the amount of time it takes for an athlete to become exhausted, fasting actually has other positive effects, one of them being fat burning. Athletes performing long endurance activities while fasted actually burn more body fat than athletes who are fed (because the fed athletes are burning through food energy before they get to the stored energy in their body fat). So depending on your goals, fasting before endurance exercise may actually be beneficial (so much for the idea that you absolutely need to eat a small meal before working out – this completely depends on your exercise goals). Outside of these performance-based issues, I see no reason why you cannot exercise while you are fasting. The obvious ‘anecdotal’ issue would be concerns about exercise during fasting being able to cause low blood sugar levels. However this has been addressed in research conducted on experienced long distance runners. In a study published in 1986, nine men who were experienced long distance runners were asked to run at 70-75% of their V02 Max for 90 minutes (this is a pace and Eat Stop Eat

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distance that most recreational, gym-going people could never achieve). They completed this run twice. Once while in the fed state, and a second time a couple of weeks later when they were at the end of a 23-hour fast. Surprisingly, when the blood glucose levels of the runner’s first run and second run were compared, they found no difference between blood glucose levels during the two 90-minute runs. Not only this, but the fasting run also resulted in higher rates of fat burning. It also took almost 30 minutes of exercise in the fed-state before the runner’s insulin levels finally fell to the same levels that they had BEFORE they even started their run when they were in the fasted-state.27 In other words, after 23 hours of fasting, the runners insulin levels had dropped down to the same levels you would have after 30 minutes of intense running. From a health point of view, that’s a pretty amazing head start!

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Here is another interesting benefit of exercise while fasting. There are metabolic pathways that actually help maintain your blood glucose and glycogen levels while you are fasting, and exercise has a positive effect on these pathways. During high-intensity exercise your muscles produce a bi-product called ‘lactate’ (sometimes referred to as lactic acid). Lactate has been wrongfully accused of causing the pain in your muscles when you workout, and something called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - the pain you feel days after your workout. While lactate doesn’t cause pain, it does help maintain your blood glucose and glycogen levels while you fast. When lactate levels build up in your muscles as the result of exercise it can leave the muscle and travel to the liver where through a process called gluconeogenesis (making new glucose) it is associated with recovery of glycogen stores. So exercise can help maintain blood glucose levels and glycogen stores while a person is fasting.28 In fact, it’s not only lactate that helps to maintain your blood glucose and glycogen levels while you fast. The very act of burning fat also releases something called ‘glycerol’ from your body fat stores. The free fatty acids in your fat stores are ‘attached’ to something called glycerol while it is stored in your body fat. When the fatty acids are released, so is the glycerol.

(Three fatty acids attached to a glycerol ‘back bone’)

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Glycerol is a valuable precursor for gluconeogenesis in the liver. So the very act of burning fat can also help maintain blood glucose and liver glycogen stores. And, since low intensity exercise tends to increase the rate of fat release and the amount of fat being burned as a fuel, you could say that both high-intensity and low-intensity exercise actually help to make you fasts ‘easier’ by helping to regulate your blood sugar levels, and supply building blocks to help maintain your glycogen levels. I believe the perceived need to eat before a workout or a strenuous activity is more of a psychological need than it is a physical need. Fasting has little to no effect on most forms of exercise, and exercising while fasting may actually make your fast feel easier by helping to maintain blood glucose levels and glycogen stores. Fasting is not advised preceding long-length endurance events, or during the training of elite athletes if the training involves multiple workouts each day, and where performance is the number one priority over body composition. But for everyone else the combination of fasting and exercise may be a potent way to lose body fat and maintain muscle mass.

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Fasting and your Brain

I think this myth may not be the fault of the nutrition industry as much as it is a carryover from our childhood. The idea that we must eat to fuel our brains may in fact be true for children, as research seems to suggest that children do better in basic school tests after they have had breakfast as opposed to when they skip breakfast.29 This makes sense, as children are still growing and developing, but is it true for adults too? As it turns out, the research doesn’t really support the idea that you get ‘dumb’ or ‘slow’ when you haven’t eaten for a couple of hours. In a test where twenty-one university aged people were asked to perform a series of intellectual tests after having either a normal meal, skipping one meal, skipping two meals or going 24 hours without food, researchers found no difference in performance on measures of reaction time, recall, or focused attention time.30 This led the authors of the study to conclude that short-term food deprivation did not significantly impair cognitive function. These results have been confirmed in additional studies where healthy young adults ate as little as 300 calories over a two day period and experienced no decrease in tests of cognitive performance (including vigilance, reaction time, learning, memory, and reasoning), activity, sleep, and mood.31

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The interesting part was that in earlier research the exact same group of scientists found that when people were dieting for prolonged periods of time, they found the exact opposite results. They discovered that prolonged dieting did cause a slight decrease in cognitive function.32 So while long-term self-deprivation may result in a lower ability to concentrate, it seems that short-term fasting doesn’t have this effect. This leads researchers to suggest that the effect of long-term dieting on cognition may be more psychological than it is physiological. Basically, when you are dieting for a prolonged period of time you perform worse because you tend to be grumpy and miserable or because you are unsatisfied with your body.33 Whatever the reason, the research illustrates that short-term fasting, especially the method described in this book, doesn’t produce this effect. Not only has research shown that short-term fasting doesn’t impair cognitive function, but it also suggests that long-term calorie restriction may improve memory in older populations. When researchers put a group of 50 women with an average age 60.5 on a calorie reduced diet for three months they found that the women had significantly improved scores on verbal memory tests.34 So not only does fasting not impair your memory function, it may even improve your memory in the long run. And, as we discuss in later chapters, new research on fasting is currently uncovering a brain-protecting mechanism that is turned on by fasting (see the chapter on Cellular Cleansing). Yet another myth about fasting has proven false.

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Fasting and your Muscle Mass

The other great myth about dieting and fasting is that you will lose your muscle mass while you diet. Based on the available research, this is completely false. Preserving muscle mass seems to be a very important thing in the diet industry right now and for good reason. Muscle makes up a large proportion of your lean body weight, and for this reason muscle is a large contributor to the amount of calories you burn in a day. While the idea that muscle burns massive amount of calories is a bit of stretch (every pound of muscle on your body only burns about 5 calories per day, not 50 like commonly stated), the fact that you can build or lose muscle makes the metabolic contribution of muscle very important. Not only that, you cannot deny the effect that muscle has on your body image. Being lean AND having muscle definition typically makes people feel good about themselves. Luckily, not only does reducing your caloric intake not cause your metabolism to slow down, it also does not result in a loss of your hard-earned muscle. There is one imperative rule that goes along with this statement: You have to be involved in some sort of resistance exercise, such as lifting weights. Now, to be clear, you do not have to weight training at the exact same time you are fasting, but

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both resistance training must be occurring at some point for your muscle mass to be preserved in the face of a caloric deficit. While long term caloric restriction on its own can cause you to lose muscle mass (such is the case with hospital patients who are on a low-calorie diet and confined to bed rest), the combination of caloric restriction with resistance exercises has been proven to be very effective at preserving your muscle mass. Research published in 1999 found that when men and women followed a 12 week diet consisting of only 800 calories and around 80 grams of protein per day, they were able to maintain their muscle mass as long as they were exercising with weights three times per week.35 In another study published in 1999, obese men restricted their caloric intake by eating 1,000 calories less per day than they normally ate for 16 weeks. They took part in a weight-training program three days a week and were able to maintain all of their muscle mass while losing over 20 pounds of body fat!36 In yet another study, 38 obese women undertaking a reduced-calorie diet for 16 weeks were also able to maintain their muscle mass by training with weights three times per week.37 As long as you are using your muscles, they will not waste away during short periods of dieting. From my experience in the sports supplement industry, I can tell you that drug-free bodybuilders and fitness athletes constantly undergo 16- to 20-week periods of very-low-calorie diets while maintaining all of their muscle mass as they prepare for bodybuilding contests. The muscle preserving effects of exercise are even evident in older populations. When 29 men and women between the ages of 60 and 75 dieted for 4 months, the group that Eat Stop Eat

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was exercising experienced no significant decrease in lean mass, while the group that was not exercising had more than a 4% decrease in lean body mass.38 Even more good news comes from the fact that your weight workouts don’t have to be painfully long to be effective. When forty-four overweight women performed a 30minute weight training workout three days per week for twenty weeks while following a low-calorie diet, they were able to lose almost 5% body fat while maintaining all of their lean body mass.39 Finally, research has clearly shown that fasting for as long as 72 hours (regardless of whether or not you are exercising) does not cause an increased breakdown in your muscle, nor does it slow down muscle protein synthesis.40,116 Another diet myth busted! Fasting and low calorie diets DO NOT cause you to lose muscle mass if you are resistance training.

In fact, as we will discuss in the Fasting and Inflammation

chapter, fasting may actually decrease some metabolic factors that are actually preventing you from building muscle. And, as we will discuss the Cellular Cleansing chapter, fasting may perform critical maintenance and ‘clean up’ work in your muscle that properly prepares it for extra growth. So in the long-term, fasting and weight loss may actually improve your ability to build muscle mass! So much for the so-called starvation mode or needing to eat protein every couple of hours - the key to maintaining your muscle mass long-term is resistance exercise; your diet has almost nothing to do with it! And since your diet has very little to do with your muscle mass, short periods of fasting definitely will not cause your muscles any harm (especially if you continue to work out regularly) and may even help you build muscle in the long term. Eat Stop Eat

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A note on Fasting and Increasing Muscle Size While the research is very clear that fasting for 24 hours will not cause you to lose muscle, it does not address the issue of whether or not fasting can impede muscle growth. The process of muscle growth is still a vague collection of physiological phenomena that is not completely understood. What we do know is that muscles respond to certain types of mechanical stress by being damaged, repairing themselves and, under the right circumstances, increasing in size and capacity to generate force.41 There seem to be two basic nutritional requirements to ensure muscle growth occurs: 1) Caloric  Adequacy   2) Protein  Adequacy  

You’ll notice that the first point is caloric adequacy and not caloric surplus. While the common belief that you need to ‘eat big to get big’, recent research has shown that any extra calories above your estimated daily needs does not contribute to muscle gain. In fact, almost every single extra calorie can be accounted for in fat mass gains42. So while there is an obvious caloric need for muscle building it does not seem to be any higher than your daily calorie needs (building muscle does take energy, but it also happens very slowly). This is where Eat Stop Eat may actually be BETTER than traditional dieting for muscle gains. With Eat Stop Eat you are only in a calorie deficit for one or two 24-hour periods per week. The rest of the time you can eat to maintenance if you choose to. This is in

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direct contrast to traditional dieting where you may spend months in a constant calorie deficit. While the speed of muscle growth is very slow, the unique ability to have periods of calorie restriction and calorie adequacy do supply a sound theory as to why intermittent fasting may be a superior choice for people looking to build muscle while losing body fat. Especially since there is a small but interesting amount of evidence to suggest that fasting can actually prime the metabolic machinery to be more sensitive to the anabolic effects that protein intake43,44 and exercise45 have on muscle growth. While protein intake is also a hotly debated topic, I have found through my review of the existing research that intakes above the current recommended daily intakes does seem to aid in muscle growth and that any protein containing meals consumed within 24–48 hours following a resistance exercise session will contribute to muscle growth.46 Also, new research suggests that skeletal muscle protein synthesis responds better to intermittent pulses of protein rather than a continuous supply44. It is speculative, but intriguing, to suggest that a 24-hour break once in a while may even be able to aid in the muscle building process. To summarize, periods of caloric adequacy, combined with an adequate protein intake and the proper stimulus, seem to be enough to allow for muscle growth. And intermittent fasting may actually allow for better muscle growth than long-term continuous caloric restriction.

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A Final Thought on Fasting and Muscle Mass While long term caloric restriction on its own can cause you to lose muscle mass, the combination of caloric restriction with resistance exercises has been proven to be very effective at preserving your muscle mass. As long as you are consistently using your muscles in a progressive and challenging manner, they will not waste away during short periods of dieting. Further, muscle mass can be preserved during longer periods of calorie restriction, so long as resistance training is part of the overall weight loss approach. Finally, intermittent fasting may provide a novel and unique method of increasing muscle size while at the same time reducing body fat.

The above pictures are of me in 2006 while working in the supplement industry, (29 years old, 170 pounds); in 2009 after 3 years of following Eat Stop Eat (32 years old, 176 pounds); and lastly in 2012 after 6 years of following Eat Stop Eat (35 years old, 173 pounds). Hopefully you’ll agree that I have not suffered massive muscle loss and may have even built some more muscle after 6 years of following Eat Stop Eat.

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Fasting and Hunger

The true feeling of real hunger is difficult to explain and I’m not sure many of us have ever really experienced it. We have felt the withdrawal of not being able to eat when we wanted to, and the disappointment of not being able to eat what we wanted to, but true hunger is reserved for those who have gone weeks without eating and are not sure when or where their next meal will come from. Consider that most people get noticeably hungry or irritated if they have gone more than two to three hours without eating. But during this time, metabolically speaking, they are still in the fed state. This means their bodies are still processing the food they ate at their last meal. There is still unused energy from their last meal in their system, yet they are already feeling hungry enough to eat again. How can this be? Most likely, what we call hunger is really a learned reaction to a combination of metabolic, social and environmental cues to eat. Remember how I mentioned that the food industry spends 10 billion U.S. dollars per year advertising food? Well, it turns out that this advertising is very effective. According to Brian Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating” and dozens of scientific publications on ‘why people eat’, we make as many as 200 food related decisions every day and are subjected to countless food advertisements.47 In my opinion, this is why almost all diets fail.

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control of what we eat and how much we eat. There are just too many environmental factors (like advertising and fast food availability) that are working against us! The role of taste and smell in motivating a person to eat (and in the foods they select to eat) is fairly obvious. Perhaps less obvious is the role of habit, social influence and cephalic reflexes. For the most part, I believe that hunger as you and I understand it is a conditioned response created through the mix of tastes, smells, habits, and social influence. In other words our desire to eat is determined by a combination of our body’s response to the amount of food we have eaten, and our mind’s response to all of the environmental factors around us (such as TV commercials and snack food packaging colors, fonts and graphics.) While it is easy to suggest that ‘hunger’ and ‘cravings’ are purely learned phenomena, developed from infancy until we are adults, others argue that hunger is actually more of a biochemical phenomenon. It has been argued that our constant desire to eat may even be related to a form of addiction. In the best selling diet book, “The South Beach Diet”, author Dr. Arthur Agatston refers to our love of sugar as our ‘Sugar Addiction’.48 He may have been on to something with that statement. According to a recent article in Scientific American Mind, by psychiatrist Oliver Grimm, recent research suggests that drug addiction and binge eating are very similar in ‘neurobiological terms’.49 Put more simply, the brain reacts to food (not just sugar) the same way it would react to a hardcore narcotic like cocaine. In another article from Scientific American, Nora D. Volkow, Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse stated that food and illicit drugs both excite areas of the brain Eat Stop Eat

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that are involved with reward and pleasure. Therefore, food can create a conditioned response that is evoked by the mere sight of food, or even by being in an environment in which these foods are consumed.50 While explaining food cravings and hunger in this purely biologically manner is intriguing – especially the connection between the psychoactive compounds in food and hunger, these concepts seem to be based more on speculation that substantial research findings.51 In reality, the total body of research seems to suggest that there are both biological and learned influences on appetite, and that these two influences are highly intertwined and probably cannot be separated. Evidence from a wide variety of sources supports the idea that eating motivation is not regulated according to a simple cycle of ‘depletion and repletion’, but rather a series of motivational effects of the presence of food, its taste, smell, palatability, and a whole host of other external cues. Within the last decade, it has been recognized that an increasing proportion of human food consumption is driven by pleasure, known as ‘hedonic hunger’.52 And this hedonic hunger creates many of our learned eating habits. In other words, it is the way that we eat each day that ‘teaches’ our body when to expect food, and even what kinds of foods to expect. The exact term for this phenomenon is ‘food entrainment’. In animal studies we refer to the reaction to food expectation as ‘food anticipatory activity’. And this isn’t just a ‘psychological’ thing (it’s not just ‘all in your head’).

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Food anticipatory activity includes increased locomotor activity, body temperature, corticosterone secretions, gastrointestinal motility, insulin secretion, and activity of digestive enzymes.53,54,55,56 So we truly can ‘teach’ our bodies when and where to be hungry. And, because much of hunger is a learned phenomena developed from infancy to adulthood, the desire to eat specific foods in particular contexts (celebration) or in relation to particular feelings (stress foods) or situations (beer while watching football) can be regarded as a feature of normal appetite, rather than being an indication of some sort of eating pathology like an addiction or dependence. It is simply ‘how we learned to eat’. In fact, it is mostly social factors that teach us which of these learned ‘hungers’ is right or wrong. The desire to eat eggs at breakfast time and the desire to eat chocolate when relaxing and watching television in the evening may both be examples of specific learned appetites. However, only one of these learned appetites would be viewed as an addiction or craving. In this sense, eating things you don’t want to eat, or that don’t move you towards your goal is nothing more than bad habit that has been learned and ingrained through years and years of practice. From my own personal experience with fasting, I can tell you that you do get used to the feeling of not eating, and not worrying when you will be eating your next meal. It becomes easier to manage as your body gets used to the feeling of having a truly empty stomach.

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I am not certain if this is because you switch from fed to fasted at a quicker rate, or if it is just getting used to having an empty stomach, or if you are ‘unlearning’ your typical eating habits. Another possibility is that by learning the truth about fasting you get rid of the guilt you used to get when you thought you were doing something unhealthy by not eating every couple of hours. Whatever the case may be it does get easier. Even when you do feel hungry while fasting, the hunger sensations usually don’t last more than a few minutes. Friends of mine who have adopted periods of fasting into their lives have reported a sense of freedom during the day, mostly because they do not have to spend time worrying about what and when to eat or the emotional stress of choosing appropriate foods. There is a definite feeling of being ‘free’ from many of our previously held ‘hunger cues’, and this allows us to develop a much clearer understanding of what it takes to identify and control the reasons why we eat. Often times, periods of fasting have been associated with being more alert, ambitious, competitive, and creative. Not only that, but you are no longer having to continuously plan your day around the timing of your next meal, and you may be ‘resetting’ your body’s expectation of when and how much you are going to eat. Essentially, taking short breaks from eating allows you the opportunity to retrain your food anticipatory activity to allow you to eat less even on the days when you are not fasting. Lastly, people are also often concerned that fasting will ‘make them hungry’. Luckily, this concern can be addressed by research that studied the calorie intake of people after a 36-hour fast.

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This research found that a 36-hour fast does not cause you to rebound and eat significantly more calories once the fast has been broken. Fasting for 36 hours tends to lead to a slightly larger breakfast the next day, possibly causing a 400 calorie increase for the day.57 This may sound extreme, but keep in mind the 36-hour fast caused an average of 2800 calories worth of deficit, so even with 400 extra calories at breakfast the next day, there was still a total deficit of 2400 calories. If you like the ‘glass half full perspective – a 36-hour fast created a 2,400 calorie deficit AND allowed for an extra big breakfast the next day! The bottom line is that fasting allows people to unlearn some eating habits, or at the very least become aware of some of the key cues that cause them to overeat, and short-periods of fasting do not induce a powerful or uncontrolled need to compensate on the subsequent day by vastly overeating.

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Fasting and Blood Sugar Levels

I’m guessing that at some point in your life you have heard someone say they are ‘hypoglycemic’ or that they have ‘low blood sugar’. Typically, this is used as part of the reason why this person needs to eat every couple hours to keep their ‘blood sugar stable’. The basic story is that if they don’t eat every three or four hours then they become hypoglycemic and become irritable, moody, light-headed and shaky. I find this an interesting phenomenon considering as little as 5-10% of the population actually have a malfunction in their ability to regulate their blood sugar levels. Also, there is no actual clinical consensus regarding the cut-off values for blood glucose levels that truly define hypoglycemia for all people and purposes. It’s important to note that I am not suggesting that hypoglycemia does not exist. I am merely suggesting that the average person without an underlying medical condition does not have to worry about getting ‘low blood sugar’ while they are fasting. From reviewing the research it is evident that unless you have drug-treated diabetes, hypoglycemia just isn’t that prevalent in healthy people. This is because your body is amazingly effective at regulating the amount of sugar that is flowing around in your blood.58

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Throughout the typical 24-hour cycles of eating, digestion, and fasting, the amount of glucose in your blood is generally maintained within a range of 70-140 mg/dL (3.9-7.8 mmol/L) as long as you are healthy. To give you an idea of how truly remarkable this feat is, consider the following: the average human being has about 5 liters of blood. Looking at the numbers above and doing some quick conversions we realize that during any given day, the amount of sugar in your blood ranges from between 5 grams and 7 grams. This is roughly the amount of sugar in one to one-and-a-half teaspoons! Research conducted upon healthy adults shows that mental efficiency declines slightly (but measurably) as blood glucose falls below about 65 mg/dL (3.6 mmol/L), or into the range of about one-half of a teaspoon. It is important to note that the precise level of glucose considered low enough to be defined as hypoglycemia is dependent on the age of the person, the health of the person, the measurement method, and the presence or absence of negative symptoms. According to the research I reviewed on the effects of short-term fasting on blood sugar, a 24-hour fast should not place you into a hypoglycemic state,59 and I have not seen any research that has shown a subject going below 3.6 mmol/L blood sugar during a short-term fast. So if there isn’t any clinical evidence of short-term fasting causing hypoglycemia, what’s with all these people who say they get moody and light headed if they don’t eat every three hours? In a paper titled “Effect of fasting on young adults who have symptoms of hypoglycemia in the absence of frequent meals” researchers aimed to answer this exact question. Eat Stop Eat

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Specifically, the researchers were interested in the glucose metabolism of subjects who had a history of what they considered to be hypoglycemic episodes (becoming irritable or feeling ‘shaky’ in the absence of food). Eight people who reported a history of hypoglycemic episodes were compared to eight people who have never experienced any form of hypoglycemia. Both groups completed a 24-hour fast while their blood sugar levels were monitored.60 During the study none of the subjects in either group had any periods of documented hypoglycemia. In fact, after closer investigation it was apparent that when the group that had a history of ‘hypoglycemia’ reported periods of ‘feeling hypoglycemic’ their blood sugar levels were at normal levels. Both groups had a decrease in insulin and an increase in body fat being used as a fuel during the 24-hour fast. The researchers concluded that there is no doubt that some people may find eating less to be more stressful than others, but as long as no other metabolic disease is present, the ability to maintain blood glucose in the normal range does not seem to be affected during a 24-hour fast. They then speculated that the symptoms of hypoglycemia could in fact be related to anxiety and stress over not eating, as opposed to being caused by low blood sugar. This anxiety could be over fear of becoming hypoglycemic, fear that they are doing something unhealthy by not eating, or even a drug-like withdrawal response to not being able to eat when they wanted to.

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For whatever reason these feelings occur, the research seems very clear that while some people find eating less a little more stressful than others, short-term fasting will not cause you to become hypoglycemic*. * Keep in mind that Eat Stop Eat is written for people without any underlying medical conditions. If you have diabetes or any other condition, please consult with your doctor.

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