Five Ways to Slowly and Surely Clean Up Your Diet

Cleaning up your diet is monumentally beneficial for your wellbeing, but knowing where to start can be a daunting task. The key to a better, cleaner diet is to make small, sustainable changes to your lifestyle, and doing it one at a time so you don’t send your mental wellness in a tailspin in the process! With that in mind, we turned to Steven Macari, a certified holistic health practitioner specialising in nutrition, weight management, digestive health and stress management, for a list of fixes that you, with time, can implement in your diet.

 

1. Get rid of gluten: Reducing or eliminating gluten from your diet is no mean feat, which is why it’s important to get this one under your belt before you move on to make any other changes. Studies show that more than 60% of us are gluten-sensitive, and the percentage goes up – for some reason – if you have blue or green eyes. Macari recommends removing gluten from your diet for two weeks to see if you experience any improvements. If you do, you might want to get your doctor to confirm you are indeed sensitive to gluten.

 

2. Drink more water: As a human being, you’re 70% water, which shows just how intrinsic good old H20 is to your wellness. Most of us don’t drink enough water and, as a result, end up mistaking thirst or dehydration for hunger, and consequently overeating. In order to hydrate your body effectively, you need to drink half your weight in ounces per day (i.e. if you weigh 120 pounds, you should drink 60 ounces of water every day).

 

3. Watch out for the white stuff: There are four foods that are commonly referred to as the white devils: white sugar; pasteurised dairy; table salt and white flour. These foods are known as devils for a good reason; they have a direct, disastrous impact on your mind and body. In fact, the white devils have been linked to any number of health concerns, including a weakened immune system, high blood pressure, weight gain, blood sugar issues and digestive problems.

 

4. Say NO to GMO: Two of the biggest genetically modified (GMO) foods are soy and corn, but there are other offenders that you should also avoid. Papaya, squash and aubergines all fall into this category and studies have shown that these kinds of foods actually modify your cells. This can mean you fall prey to a whole host of health issues and even age prematurely, and no one wants that! Instead, you should choose organic produce wherever possible. Even if fruit and vegetables don’t fall into the GMO category, if they’re not organic this means they have been sprayed by toxic chemicals. Non-organic meat means that animals have likewise ingested these chemicals, and your body will store those toxins. Your body is unable to detoxify these substances in fat, meaning that you won’t be able to lose weight because the foods you’re eating are covered in toxic substances.

 

5. Make friends with fat: While bad fats can make you ill, as well as making you hold onto unwanted body fat, good fats are, as the name suggests, good for you. In fact, your body needs good fats for effective brain function, healthy skin, high energy levels and well-regulated hormones, so it’s important to get your fill of good fats. This means you need to avoid bad fats such as canola oil, palm oil, margarine, hydrogenated oils, vegetable oils and trans-fatty acids. Then, add in healthy fats like organic versions of olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, butter (from pasture-raised cows), grape seed oil, avocado oil and nut oils.

Categories: body, diet, fats, foods, gluten sensitivity, Water, White, white devils

Could Gluten-Free Diets be a Fad?

Gluten allergies appear to be something of an epidemic these days, but just a decade ago no-one seemed to have this problem. So why is it that we’re so affected by this issue now? Gluten-free products are now flying off grocery shelves and restaurants generally offer a gluten-free alternative for sufferers of this condition. It’s also a common statement from celebrities who claim they lose weight by cutting out wheat from their diet. In fact, some churches even offer gluten-free Communion wafers! Perhaps its not a situation that more people are becoming a part of, but simply that it’s more publicised than it used to be. But either way, it does beg the question – is this simply another food fad that we’ve become consumed by? Faddishness is a big part of the problem with gluten-free diets, with Americans alone spending around $7 billion a year on gluten-free products.  However, it’s believed that around half of the people buying these foods don’t actually have a clear-cut reaction to gluten. They buy these products because they’ve been told it will help them lose weight, or that they seem to feel better because they’ve convinced themselves that they have a gluten allergy.

Removing any thought of fads, research suggests that people are becoming more sick from the gluten found in wheat, rye and barley products, however people are unsure why this is the case. Gluten triggers coeliac disease which causes abdominal pain, bloating and intermittent diarrhoea. People suffering with this condition don’t absorb nutrients as well and can suffer fatigue and weight loss as a result. Coeliac disease used to be very rare in the U.S but around 20 years ago, it was discovered by scientists that it wasn’t that people in other countries weren’t suffering with gluten intolerances – it was simply that they weren’t diagnosed.

Coeliac disease is different from wheat allergies, which affect a small number of people, usually children who outgrow it as they age. Scientists have found that the likelihood of people developing coeliac disease is more common today because of the higher levels of processed wheat products we eat, such as pasta and baked goods. In the past, these levels were far lower as people ate more freshly-made meals with fruit, vegetables and protein. But gluten in wheat could be even more troublesome for some people, contributing to what is now known as ‘gluten sensitivity’.

Doctors recently developed a definition for this problem, which may be vague but offers some level of understanding. They claim that anyone with bloating and coeliac symptoms may benefit from avoiding gluten, but not actually have coeliac disease. Coeliac disease is diagnosed with a blood test, genetic testing or biopsies of the small intestine – if you think you’re suffering, you will need to speak to your GP to ascertain if you really do have this condition. There is a lot of crossover with symptoms, which is why it is so difficult to determine when people really do have a gluten intolerance. The case for gluten sensitivity was made more prominent several years ago when an Australian study was cited in saying that volunteers who have symptoms were put on a gluten-free diet or a regular diet for six weeks. They weren’t told which diet they were on, but those who didn’t eat gluten had fewer problems with tiredness, bloating and irregular bowel movements. Obviously people do have sensitivities to gluten, but whether or not they have coeliac disease is a separate issue.

Categories: coeliac, coeliac disease, diet, free diets, free products, Gluten, gluten sensitivity, Gluten-Free, Lose weight, people, Symptoms

Is a Gluten-Free Diet Just a Fad or a Healthy Way to Live?

Whether you’ve seen the word pop up in bestselling diet books, on menus and bakery signs, or supermarket aisles, you’ve heard about gluten. After a while, you start wondering if your wellness would be better off without gluten, or if the protein is impeding your weight loss results, but is there any point going for a full-blown, gluten-free diet?

There was a time, ending just a few years ago, when you only ate gluten-free foods if your wellbeing was affected by celiac disease. Now, everyone seems to be avoiding gluten – just because they think it’s healthier. According to Dr. Alessio Fasano, a researcher and director of the Centre for Celiac Research at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, your body doesn’t have the enzymes to break gluten down, which means you cannot totally digest it.

In fact, Dr. William Davis, author of the book Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health, thinks everyone would be better off not eating wheat, as whole grains are different than they were 50 years ago; they’re now toxic to the human body. Davis argues that celiacs are the ‘canary in the coal mine.’ Although Davis’ book offers none of his own research, it does contain sections of other studies and anecdotal case studies of 2,000 of his patients who told him their health problems improved or disappeared after they stopped eating foods with wheat in them.

Davis notes, ‘Wheat Belly represents the distilled experience and lessons I’ve learned over these last several years, lessons learned by accident in my quest to help solve the dilemma of heart disease. And, by the way, I hardly ever see any heart attacks anymore.’ Since the publication of his book, and follow-up The Wheat Belly Cookbook, about 25% cent of the American population has cut back or cut out their wheat consumption, believing it’s a healthier way to eat.

However, Fasano warns that a gluten-free diet can actually be worse for your wellbeing, as there is often a high content of sugar and fat in gluten-free foods, in order to make them taste better. The diet is also really difficult to stick with, because you have to be vigilant about reading every label on every food product you put in your mouth, and gluten-free food also costs two to three times more than regular food. So, unless you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, maybe you’re better off just sticking with wheat.

Categories: gluten sensitivity, gluten-free diet, weight