Tips for Staying Healthy During Winter
The immune system is the body’s defense mechanism for fighting colds, staving off infection and remaining healthy. Much of it is an expression of our gut health.
Myth 1: If we consume fewer calories than we expend, we will lose weight.
True: The premise of a calorie-restricted diet is that by starving the body with fewer than 800 to 1,200 calories per day, it will turn to excessive existing fat stores and utilize those for fuel. This does work, but the kinds of calories we eat are important; it requires a special formula for suppressing appetite and rapid weight loss needs to be physician supervised to monitor for development of gallstones and other side effects.
Detoxification of waste elimination pathways, including organ systems and cells, and supporting a healthy gut terrain, is crucial. So is hunting down parasites, viral infections, nutritional deficiencies, not to mention, emotional issues related to food, body image, and weight
Myth 2: Follow a high-carbohydrate, low fat diet and you will magically lose weight.
False: No other dietary advice has so singularly contributed to soaring obesity rates and be less verifiable in medical science or clinically in the doctor’s office. The national experiment to build a diet that consists largely of grains has failed. The dependence on wheat and other packaged grains and the corresponding decrease in healthy fats has led to new levels of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, as well as celiac disease and Candida and a host of neurotoxic illnesses from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to childhood ADHD and autism.
The simple reason is sugar. Not only are low-fat products drenched in sugar as a method for making up for lost taste, but refined carbohydrates quickly convert to sugar in the bloodstream, causing all manner of metabolic processes to go defunct.
Humans are not designed to ingest today’s overly processed and manufactured grains. If a diet begins with cereal in the morning and continues throughout the day with breads, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, cakes, cookies and pizza, the chances of having leaky gut are high.
Myth 3: Eat whatever you want in moderation and you will magically lose weight.
False: The proposition to eat whatever we want in moderation fails to acknowledge that some foods should not ever be consumed at all. But for most people, moderation still means every day.
In addition to soda, there’s no place in our diet for foods that are rich in trans fats, HFCS, chemical dyes, artificial ingredients—short, junk food.
The moderation is key approach leads to completely destructive and undermining habits that only can be remedied by ensuring that we consciously choose the food that enters our mouth and nourishes our body.
Myth 4: Stop choosing to be fat and you will magically lose weight.
False: There is no doubt that we have to want to reclaim our weight and our health. It is an uphill battle, and the odds are against us if we don’t have a good measure of personal responsibility and a supportive team. People that achieve their goals have a realistic assessment of what can be done and how quickly.
No one chooses to be fat, so it’s not a simple matter of pushing away from the table using only self-discipline. Rather, it’s about regaining our health and discovering what’s been contributing to weight gain. We have to understand why we are overweight. Perhaps it because we have a parasite, an underactive thyroid, an immune problem, toxic buildup, a food sensitivity, poor gut health or a combination of these.
Douglas J. Pucci, DC, FAAIM, regularly offers in-office seminars presenting the latest science and clinical data on neurotoxic illness, hormone disruptions and chronic disease. For more information, call 201-261-5430 or visit GetWell-Now.com.
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