Tag Archives: Weight Loss

Questions & Answers

The Best Dietary Practices For Gut And Overall Health

The following are some healthy-gut tips that I have shared with my clients over the years.

1. Don’t follow a diet like the paleo, keto, or low-carb diet: I don’t generally recommend that you follow any particular kind of diet. You may look at my Candida Crusher book and think to yourself, “But, hang on a minute, he recommends the MEVY diet.” The MEVY diet refers to meat, eggs, vegetables, and yogurt. However, I never say that people should rigidly stick to the MEVY diet. I encourage modifying the diet to suit your purposes. I’m not the food police.

2. Use smaller plates: If you want to be lean and mean, try and eat smaller servings. Using a smaller plate can help you to adjust psychologically to eating less. And remember that the best exercise you can do is to push your plate away.

3. Focus on the quality of your food, not the quantity: Always be fussy about the quality of the food you’re eating. Even if the best option isn’t brilliant, you can still make the best food choices for the circumstances. Watch out for buffets because it’s easy to overeat, and the hygiene may be suspect. Quality is more and more important as you get older. 20-year-olds can get away with eating a quantity that wouldn’t be a right for a 60-year old.

4. Snack on yogurt: Yogurt can help build up the beneficial bacteria in your gut. It reduces inflammation and inhibits bacteria and yeast. Eating small amounts of yogurt has been shown to boost the immune system as well. Eat sour, Greek yogurt, perhaps with a few berries and some Manuka honey. Don’t opt for yogurt full of artificial sweeteners.

5. Add sprouts to your diet. Sprouts are a fantastic food full of enzymes that improve digestive function while cleaning up the stomach and small intestine. I try and eat sprouts every single day

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6. Try and match up a regular behavior with a healthy habit. For example, whenever my father went out for a drive, he would have an apple. You could try the same thing or design your own healthy association. It could mean having a drink of fresh, filtered water every time you go to the kitchen. Or maybe it would mean always throwing a piece of fruit into your bag when you’re out running errands.

7. Be picky when you go out for food. Don’t sit there and suffer in silence but there is no reason you can’t politely decline to eat food that is going to make your health suffer. Many people have told me that they don’t want to put someone out or embarrass, but I think it’s important to speak up in your own best interest.

8. Don’t eat well for five or six days a week and then have a massive “cheat day” full of fried chicken and soda pop. That’s not a great idea. If you are going to “cheat,” have something small. Small amounts of less-than-healthy food are acceptable. But remember the 80/20 rule, even 90/10 rule, 80 to 90% of what you eat should be very good. A small percentage can be not so good.

9. Not every sensation is hunger. If you feel that stomach growling sensation is most likely the motor reflex that occurs when your body is cleaning out the digestive tract, it’s not actually that your body needs food. It’s good for your gut not to be always peppered with food. It’s the key to keeping your weight down is by curbing and controlling the appetite.

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Questions & Answers

Diet, Cognition, And Mood: What’s The Connection?

Can what you eat make a difference to your thinking or your mood?

I think 2013 was when scientists started to look at the impact of the microbiome on cognition and mood. There are now many studies demonstrating that what you eat can highly influence how you think and feel.

Several parts of the brain are impacted by nutrition. The prefrontal cortex, the cortex, the amygdala, the hippocampus, and other areas of the brain will be affected. I’ve noticed this in patients for many years in my clinic.

I consider gut bacteria to make the difference between feeling good and feeling bad emotionally. I’ve noticed this in the clinic innumerable times. I’ve monitored patients using stool tests and documented a direct connection between the level of dysbiosis, yeast overgrowth, bacteria overgrowth, parasite infections, and how the patient feels.

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As the diet and gut improved and harmful microorganisms were reduced, my patients’ moods would pick up noticeably. Their jobs and relationships improved. Their cognitive symptoms disappeared.
I’ve concluded the nature of our gut flora is directly linked to the functioning of our brain. The quality of food that we eat has a direct impact on the microbial population in our GI tract. As a result, our diet can either leave us feeling terrible or leave us feeling sharp and energized.

Every time you eat something, remember the saying, “People dig their own graves with their teeth.” I read some alarming reports from the United States that most Americans eat less than a cup of fruit per day and less than two cups of vegetables per day. A diet like that will increase dysbiosis and gut imbalance, leading to cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders.

Is it any wonder that the world’s becoming a more depressing, anxious place to live?

Remember, the choice is yours. You decide what you put in your mouth every day. It’s your call. Decide how you want to feel and eat accordingly.

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Questions & Answers

Does Calorie Counting Encourage Weight Loss?

I read an interesting study out of the States that looked at calorie counts on restaurant menus.
The obesity problem in the U.S. is out of control. In the last fifty years, the prevalence of obesity has tripled. It’s estimated that obesity cost $147 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

In this randomized field study, three researchers looked at the behavior of 5,500 diners at two restaurants. The control group was allowed to order off the menu in a restaurant that provided no caloric information. The other group of study participants ordered at a restaurant that included calorie counts on their menu board. It turned out that knowing the calorie count results in people ordering meals that were 45 to 50 calories lighter.

People often don’t know the calorie count of what they are eating. Despite everything, despite all of these crazy exercises, super pills, Botox, liposuction, and the like, the world is still getting fatter and fatter.

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Instead of big tobacco promoting cigarettes, iwe have big food promoting high-calorie foods. As a result, government agencies are saying to these food chains, “Hang on a minute, you guys, you need to put calorie information up there to show consumers what they’re eating.” And then, of course, the fast-food chains come back saying, “We can’t do that. If we do that, we’re going to lose profits.”

Profits, my foot. What about the $147 billion in care? That’s the cost of looking after diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other health conditions associated with junk food and obesity.

Any time you eat fewer calories is a step in the right direction. Every calorie less you eat is less extra fat, protein, and sugar that your body doesn’t need. We live in an ocean of food today, and yet many people are still malnourished. That’s the crazy part.

Don’t forget the best exercise you can do is to push the plate away. Don’t laugh. I’ve seen it work many times.

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Questions & Answers

Drinking water and weight: What you need to know

Can drinking plain water help you lose weight?

A study done in 2008 followed close to 200 premenopausal women between ages 25 to 50. When the researchers adjusted for diet, exercise, and other variables, water intake was still a significant determinant of weight. It turns out that overweight women on diets lose more weight if they drink a liter of water per day.

The question is, do you need to drink eight cups a day? Do you only lose weight if you consume a certain number of ounces of water each day?

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Actually, I don’t think the amount of water is so much the issue. I think the key factor is to drink regularly throughout the day. When you drink regularly, your body will craving more and will keep your consumption high.

The body is no different than a garden. You’ve got to water it. The body is about 77% water, so keeping our water content up is very important.

I drink all year round although less in winter compared to summer.

Water helps generate a feeling of satiety. If you combine ample water with eating smaller servings and increasing your physical activity, weight loss becomes less difficult.

Science has shown us that water can indeed contribute to weight loss success.

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Questions & Answers

Walking As A Weight Loss Tool

An interesting study was conducted in 2002, related to walking and weight loss.

The researchers found that walking no only improved weight but also cholesterol and waist circumference. The study also found that people had better outcomes if they dieted and walked rather than dieting alone.

The improvements were also more significant for people who walked thirty minutes daily compared to people who walked for sixty minutes, once or twice a week.

However, you don’t have to walk to lose weight. You can be active in other ways. I love to garden, and I get a lot of activity by bending, stretching, and walking through my yard. I have friends who prefer yoga, running and cycling. The important thing is to find an activity you enjoy, walking or otherwise.

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Being active is one of the critical habits that I try to encourage people to practice throughout their lives. It’s crucial to avoid the dreaded “sitting disease” that develops when you spend day in and day out in front of the screen. Some people find a fitness tracker very helpful. In some cases, these gadgets can also monitor sleep and relaxation. These trackers don’t only help people get off their butt, but sometimes gets them to get on their butt and relax!

If you want something a little less fancy, pedometers can keep track of your steps.

I think being active, whether it be via walking or something else, is crucial for keeping your weight, blood pressure, and insulin sensitivity in check. It can also reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Activity is truly one of the best “medicines” out there.

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