Who's Monitoring Your Weight Loss?

Who’s monitoring your weight loss?  If you are doing any kind of intense program, it better be someone qualified to diagnose and predict issues that may develop.  In my office, I promote homeopathic HCG, a product you can now find just about anywhere.  So, why not buy it from the health food store?  It costs less, and if you google it, you will find the diet and thousands of message boards with all kinds of information…you don’t need a doctor, its all there.  Wrong, and dangerous. 

You need a doctor because you are taking on a program in which your body is going to change dramatically.  You are lowering your caloric intake to a specific 500 calories and since every person is unique and no one experience is that same as another, things happen that cannot be predicted.  In my practice, I take questions from patients doing the diet even on the weekends, and it is not uncommon for someone to email asking questions daily.  Why?  Because they get symptoms they have never had before, their digestive system may change, their energy and sleep patterns may change, they might not be loosing as fast as is ideal, and if they were on medications at the start of the program, they may reach a point where they need to come off of those. 

If you purchase your HCG at a health food store, and issues develop, who are you going to call?  Your primary care doctor will have little idea how to help, and most likely will tell you to stop the diet immediately, the health food store is not staffed by a medical professionals, and I do not suggest taking the advice of a store clerk just because they did the diet.  Online chat rooms are rife with people who think they are experts because they have completed the process, and I have seen dangerous suggestions on most sites I have visited.  As a result, very often, people who buy the bottle because it is cheaper than following a doctor end up quitting, cheating, harming themselves or having inadequate results.  All of which are common in the mainstream weight loss arena and which should not be common with HCG.

This diet works, but only when fine tuned to each individual.  This diet is a chance at great health, a new beginning, a launch point for future great health if applied correctly.  Do not underestimate the significance or sophistication of the HCG diet.  Every time some alternative medicine becomes commonplace, someone gets hurt because the assumption is, if it is natural, I can apply it myself.  However, we do not lightly apply pharmaceuticals ourselves and no one should apply a program of this magnitude themselves. 

If you truly desire to have weight loss success, work with someone who can guide, teach and hone the process for you, the individual.  The small price variance will save you frustration and will lead to better results. 

Kombucha NOT Antacids

It seems that a lot of people experience indigestion.  At least if television advertising is any guide, Americans feel crappy after they eat terrible food all the time.  I say terrible because if you watch the adds, they always show chili dogs, pizza, fried food and all things ball game as the inciting factor in why you might need Tums or similar products.  Thus, totally negating the fact that feeling poorly after you eat is NOT normal. 

Food is not there to satisfy our unmet emotional needs and it is not necessary to overindulge just to verify that you have had a good time even if it presently seems to be the American way.  Food should represent celebration of the beauty and diversity of life on our planet.  Food should nourish you physically, be part of community and celebration but not at the expense of your health. 

The digestive system is your second brain, it has as much impact on mood, energy levels, immune system health and hormonal balance as any other body system.  The old saying “you are what you eat” could not be more true.  Everything you put into your body has to be broken down into its elemental components.  This is a complex and not fully understood process involving adequate stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, brush boarder enzymes in the intestines, hundreds of strains of bacteria, and muscle movements just to name the basics.  If even one of these systems does not work, the entire process breaks down. 

So, what happens then?  If you don’t have enough stomach acid, you will never break the bonds in the proteins that you eat in order to free up the essential amino acids (the building blocks of all life), if you have low stomach acid, the pancreas does not get all the signals it needs to send enzymes to the Duodenum and consequently, you will not have the chemical mediators needed to break down fats or carbohydrates as they should be. Once this has happened, the food that passes into the small intestine cannot be absorbed and nutrients cannot be gathered from what is there and instead of continuing to be digested, the food starts to rot.  Yes, rot because much like a well turned and tended compost pile, you can create beautiful soil that can then be used to produce beautiful plants or you can produce mold, putrid masses and sludge.  So, back to the antacid.

Antacids shut off stomach acid production because the conventional medical world has incorrectly assumed that if our stomach hurts we have too much acid.  Chronic use, causes a virtual gut paralysis.  The longer this goes on, the less functional our digestive system gets.  And since our brain activity is directly linked to our gut health (60-80% of your serotonin is made in your gut, not your brain), you are shutting down your brain.  This even to the most uninformed person must sound like a bad idea.  So, what do you do?

First, quit the antacids, they are poison.  Second, get off of all acid blocking drugs (with supervision of course) and third, start adding probiotic rich fermented foods to your diet every day.  The easiest is Kombucha.  Kombucha has been used by humans since the time of Confucius.  It is fermented black tea that when consumed provides the body with essential probiotics, B vitamins, and helps to energize and normalize body function.  It takes a while for some to get used to the taste but its effervescent clean flavor grows on you over time.  If you do overindulge or eat those undesirable foods, consume a few ounces of this long lived health drink to balance you out.  Remember, anything that stops your digestive system, stops your brain.

Meat Glue?????

I know my views on food are radical compared to mainstream America.  However, I started where everyone else did, I did not grow up on an organic farm, or with from the dirt hippie parents, I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit.  I ate whatever was at the store for much of my life.  Along the way, I began to learn and from that learning apply what I knew.  Even two years ago, I would still eat at the margins, 80/20 rule.  However, the alterations to food that have accelerated in the past year alone, have made it impossible for me to deviate from my path.  In my practice, I apply this, teaching every patient what foods will help them, which foods to avoid and how to source the good foods local to where they live.  Consequently, when more information is disclosed on the practices of the food industry, their methods and the lack of conscience behind them, I am bound to comment.  Therefore....

The following link describes the use of meat glue.  A compound designed to meld in an undetectable way pieces of meat to resemble a steak.  This glue is a health hazard all by its self, but for many that is not motivation, I know.  So, consider that you go to the store or to your favorite restaurant and buy a steak, you pay premium prices for steak, and unknown to you, what is served is meat pieces glued together.  This should get you angry, it should make you irate, it should make you demand your butcher or your restaurant owner certify that what you are getting and paying for is steak not glue meat. 

This personifies the problems with our food supply.  Bear in mind, I am not calling for more government oversight, or new rules.  I am calling for a food conscience.  As consumers, we have all the power to influence how and what happens to our food before we eat it, if you demand that the places you buy food certify personally that what you are getting is not glue meat, it won't be glue meat, but you have to speak up, stay informed and direct your money to those who are willing to be honest about what you are eating. 

The best way to avoid all this: buy grass fed and pasture raised meat processed at organic meat processing places in your local area.  In Michigan there are a few family owned meat processing plants, all of them ethical, open and honest and no meat glue! 

Meat Glue