HOW CAN YOU, IN a week or less, get dramatic relief from all the symptoms you thought you had to live with the rest of your life?
I’ll get to that in just a minute….
Last week, I showed you how addressing the toxins that make us sick and fat can help create long-term health, vitality, and weight loss.
Today, I’m going to tell you about the second hidden culprit that’s linked to everything from obesity to all the chronic diseases of aging. And I’ll give you the key to solving this problem — and unlocking good health.
Over the years, I’ve helped patient after patient achieve good health and automatic weight loss. But what I’ve asked patients to do is so simple that anyone can do it — and get the same great results.
Now, I’ve created a simple 1-week plan for everyone.
In this week’s blog, I’m going to tell you about something you’ve heard me talk about before. But it’s so important that I want to emphasize it again and show you how it’s a hidden cause of poor health.
I’m talking about inflammation.
You’re probably familiar with the pain, swelling, redness, and heat that classically signify inflammation. It’s something just about every one out there has experienced.
Inflammation is part of the body’s natural defense system.
Consuming a low-allergy diet for just 1 week will help you eliminate the excess swelling and fluid that accumulates in your tissues from food-induced chronic inflammation.
When your body senses foreign invaders, a specific cascade of events is set off in which your white blood cells and some special chemicals called cytokines mobilize to protect you.
This normal type of inflammation is a good thing. It helps your body protect and heal itself. However, when your immune system shifts out of balance, inflammation can run rampant — causing a chronic, smoldering fire inside your body that contributes to disease and weight gain.
The causes of this type of inflammation are all around you. The sugar you eat, high doses of the wrong oils and fats in your diet, hidden food allergens, lack of exercise, chronic stress, and hidden infections all trigger a raging, unseen inflammation deep in your cells and tissues.
And this inflammation leads to every one of the major chronic diseases of aging — heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and more. It’s also by far the major contributor to obesity. Being fat is being inflamed — period!
It’s simple.
If you don’t address inflammation by eliminating hidden food allergens or sensitivities and by eating an anti-inflammatory diet, you will never succeed at effective and permanent weight loss. Hidden sensitivities and allergies to food you eat every day are making you sick and fat.
When most people think of food allergies, they usually imagine someone eating a peanut and ending up in the emergency room with a swollen tongue, hives, and not being able to breathe. That’s what is called an immediate allergy (also known as an IgE hypersensitivity reaction). This is very serious but not common.
But there is a different type of reaction to foods that is much less dramatic and deadly — but still very troublesome. It is called a delayed allergy (or IgG delayed hypersensitivity reaction). This reaction is much more common and creates a lot of suffering for millions of people. It’s mostly ignored by conventional medicine, yet it plays a HUGE role in many chronic illnesses and weight problems.
This type of delayed allergic reaction can cause symptoms anywhere from a few hours to a few days after ingestion. It also causes a wide range of problems like weight gain, fluid retention, fatigue, brain fog, irritable bowel syndrome, mood problems, headaches, sinus and nasal congestion, joint pains, acne, eczema, and more.
If you hear someone say dismissively, “Oh, you just lost water weight,” they’re right (at first), because eating foods you are allergic to causes inflammation, which leads to swelling and fluid retention.
Getting rid of this fluid by reducing inflammation is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. It is what will allow your body to start the healing process so you can achieve permanent weight loss and optimal health.
Consuming a low-allergy diet for just 1 week will help you eliminate the excess swelling and fluid that accumulates in your tissues from food-induced chronic inflammation. Despite criticisms you may have heard about losing ONLY water weight, this is essential for you body to begin to heal and detoxify. And the side effect is that you lose significant weight — quickly and safely.
Let me explain a little more.
In my practice, treating food allergies and improving nutrition in general is the single most powerful tool I have to treat, reverse, and even cure hundreds of diseases that conventional medicine fails at miserably.
These include allergies, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, fatigue, sinus problems, hormonal disorders, obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol, digestive diseases like irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, and colitis, and even mood disorders like depression and anxiety — just to name a few.
You see, we are seeing an epidemic of inflammatory diseases. In fact nearly every modern disease — everything from autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and cancer to obesity, diabetes, and dementia — is caused by inflammation!
These chronic diseases affect 125 million Americans. That means in the average family of three, at least one person has a chronic disease caused by inflammation. In my practice, helping people treat food allergies and food sensitivities is one of the most helpful things I do.
So what have I found after years of testing people for IgG allergies and teaching them how to use elimination diets to help recover from their chronic symptoms and illnesses?
While everyone is different, there are some foods that irritate the immune system more than others. They are gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, kamut), dairy (milk, cheese, butter, yogurt), corn, eggs, soy, nuts, nightshades (tomatoes, bell peppers1, potatoes, eggplant), citrus, and yeast (baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, and fermented products).
These foods can also cause acute allergic reactions. But those are rare, generally affecting less than 1 percent of the population. When they occur they are serious, permanent, and need to be treated seriously.
But for more than 50 percent of us, there are some foods that just don’t agree with us and prevent vibrant, good health.
How Do You Know If You Are Allergic or Sensitive to Foods?
There are two ways to find out if you are reacting to foods.
One is a blood test for IgG antibodies to foods. This is useful and can pinpoint trouble areas, but it is not 100 percent accurate.
The second is a simple and well-accepted treatment called elimination/ provocation.
This means you get rid of the top trouble foods for 1 to 4 weeks, then reintroduce them one at a time and see what happens. Eliminating foods that cause allergic reactions or sensitivities is the basis for the remarkable results people have — like losing weight, feeling better, and getting rid of chronic symptoms — when they follow the detox phase of UltraMetabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss.
This program is based on a simple elimination diet: getting rid of gluten, dairy, eggs, and yeast products.
What happens?
Very quickly — in a week or less — people notice dramatic relief from all the symptoms they thought they had to live with the rest of their lives!
Why Do You Become Sensitive or Allergic to Foods?
Simply put, your diet, the way you live, and the medications you take are to blame.
These things injure your gut.
They change the bacteria and damage the gut’s lining, which is the critical barrier that keeps your immune system from having to deal with all the garbage, toxins, and allergens inside your intestinal tract. This damage is called a leaky gut.
And so the food particles “leak” across the damaged barrier and your immune system (60 percent of which is right under that lining) starts to attack these partially digested food particles. That’s when you develop IgG food intolerances or allergies.
Let me recap.
When your gut is leaky, partially digested foods get exposed to your immune system, which then creates an abnormal response to something pretty normal — food. That creates weight gain and so many chronic health problems.
Finding and Fixing Delayed Food Allergies and Sensitivities
Just because you have a food allergy or intolerance doesn’t mean you have to suffer with it. In fact, there’s a lot you can do to deal with the problem, rebalance your system, and eliminate chronic symptoms.
Next week, I’m going to explain how to identify food allergies and give you the tools you need to begin to heal your gut and repair your digestive and immune systems.
When you do these things, you’ll be more resilient and able to tolerate a wider range of foods. The plan is designed to get you started on the road to finding and healing this common obstacle to health and weight loss.
Just think about giving yourself the gift of a weeklong vacation for your body and soul. You might be surprised by what’s on the other side. You’ll be following the same simple program that I use with my own patients to eliminate food allergies.
In my next blog, I’ll give you more details of this 1-week plan to detoxify and cool off inflammation.
I think you’ll find that the results are remarkable.
But I don’t want you to just believe what I am saying — I want you to prove it to yourself!
Now I’d like to hear from you…
Have you noticed how certain foods affect your health and weight?
What have you done to identify and eliminate these foods?
When you eliminate problematic foods from your diet, how does your body respond?
Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
Dr. Hyman,
I agree and understand my body more by the reports I read from you. I am 65 this month, I have diabetes 2. A year ago, in January, I had a heart attack. I also had endometrioses, surgery and radiation 5 years ago which did a real number on my intestines. I weigh as of this morning 269 lbs. I know I am addicted to food, not just enjoying it.
I realized only within the last year (only because I was limiting intake of them) that when I have dairy, specifically milk/ice cream my intestines roar. Everyone in the room can hear. That happens for a day or so and I get diarreha or become constipated. Never know which it’s going to be.
I also notice the same affects from some breads and Nutella, which is hazelnut just about kills me! We eat alot of cheese. I also grab for pistaccihos, almonds and walnuts which I thought were good for me. I love asparagus, but I smell so terribly bad an hour after I eat it that I can’t. At this point I don’t know, rather I should say, I don’t like, what is left for me to eat.I don’t know what to eat anymore. When I tried the AMAs diabetes diet it didn’t help me with weight or sugar control. I don’t agree with them.
My legs swell, I have come to see either when I sit too much and from too much sugar. I lose weight quickly only to gain it back quickly. From what I’ve read I think I am gluten intolerent as well as allergic to dairy and nuts. I get frequent bladder infections often from my sugar being too high but I think also from contamination from the stool because I’m having problems recently with incontinence, or lack of control.
Can you give me any advice as to what I should eat? Or do at this point? I can’t function normally any more.
My Cardiolagist told me he only treats between the neck and the waist. My Primary care, although I really like him, only treats my symptoms so I am not real co-operative with him because I don’t like side effects of drugs. I take several herbal products.
The elimination provocation process really works! On the second day of my two week Christmas vacation, I came down with the Norovirus. And during its worst, I decided when I was better to start an allergy free clean diet. I did not eat dairy, meat, eggs, refined and fake sugar, or breads for the next week. I felt great by day two! One day Then I tried adding back in one thing at a time. Dairy first and boy was it obviously not my friend. Almost instantly dairy stuffed up my sinuses and made my gut feel bloated and cranky. The next day I tried adding back bread and while it did not make my IG system react, I was noticeable tired – literally felt like I needed a nap after the meal that included bread. Sugar had the same kock out affect plus it seemed to give me gas and burps. I did not have any noticeable reaction to eggs. By the time I was ready to test my reaction to meats I was back home from vaction and still on an allergy free clean way of eating. By this time I basically had little interest in testing meat. But I did discover I’m very allergic to nutritional yeast and jallepenos. And fun fact, from when I started the allergy free eating after the Norovirus and when I got home, I had lost 7 pounds! I wasn’t trying to lose weight, I was investigating my gut! So do it — you’ll really get to know yourself better and feel great!
I am working with a nutritionist on my first Elimination Diet. I feel pretty wonderful after only 6 days.
I read Dr. Hyman’s Ultra Simple Diet, and while I was cleaning out my body a little, I noticed I felt better.
I’ve had a history of gastrointestinal disorders, including GERD, as well as fibromyalgia, IBS and inflammation. I’ve already been able to stop taking my proton pump inhibitor (nexium) after only 6 days, because I’m no longer eating anything that does that to me.
Completing an elimination diet is not easy. It does take commitment and discipline, but when I’m finally *done* with the challenges (adding foods back in slowly) I figure I’ll know what makes MY body run like a top.
It’s sort of like being a racecar and having your carberator and such all adjusted just right for optimum performance.
I highly recommend working with a nutritionist or functional medicine doctor. I tried to do this myself earlier in the year and really needed somebody to read my notes, give me feedback, and make sure I’m on the right track when I have questions. I am self-pay, but how many women get their hair done, nails done, and they’re all messed up inside? I just gave up some other stuff to pay for this, because you have to decide you’re worth it.
Thanks Dr. Hyman for getting people interested in how food can be our medicine. As welll as our poison.
Hello Dr. Hyman,
Do you still have the fully cooked and prepared diet that is delivered to the home? I purchased it several years ago from you and found it helpful. It also came with several small bottles of supplements that were to be taken with the diet. I would like to purchase this service again and have it delivered to my home. Please let me know if I can.
Thank you,
Diane Cara
Hi Diane,
Please see our store to see our current services and options: http://store.drhyman.com/ Perhaps you might look into: http://store.ultrasimplediet.com/
In good health!
Lizzy
Nutrition Coaching Program
Hi,
I am 31 and 2 years ago I started suffering from acid reflux that became a daily issue, then all of a sudden I started having panic attacks and major anxiety. I refused to go on anti-depressants that a MD wanted to prescribe to me and I did Dr. Junger’s cleanse. I felt amazing for 1 month. I found out that i have a gluten intolerance (although my blood tests don’t show this) and dairy and nightshades aren’t my best friend. Once off of gluten my panic attacks stopped and my anxiety became a 1 from a 20. My problem is that when I am on an elimination diet (no dairy, gluten, alcohol etc) I feel AMAZING, no reflux, no nothing and then when I get back to normal (adding alcohol, cheese and caffeine here and there) my issues come back. In the last year I have had SO many things go wrong with me and EVERYTHING is a form of inflammation – I have had an inflamed cornea, been diagnosed with gastritis, had hives, I have inflamed nerves in both of my feet and CINIII which was one step away from cervical cancer!! And now, even though I completely cut gluten a few months ago,it seems as though my body is attacking anything I eat and because I have had delayed allergy reactions I cannot pinpoint what it is that I reacted to. I am also not overweight but I yo-yo a lot and can’t seem to get totally trim even though I exercise 3/4 days per week. What Dr. Hyman wrote in this post and in the acid reflux post really resonates with me. I really want to heal my body and stop having symptoms but I don’t know how long I have to do an elimination diet for…i know 1 month is not enough…and I don’t want to give up things like wine forever!! help i guess?!
Hi Katrina,
We are glad you wrote and shared your trial with elimination diets. The fact that you showed signs of improvement while on them is great news. Most likely you are one of those who needs more time and some therapeutic supplements to help address your inflammation. Have you heard of leaky gut? Learn more about the role of an intact digestive system here: http://drhyman.com/blog/conditions/is-your-digestive-system-making-you-sick/ Have you thought about Dr.Hyman’s UltraSimple Diet? It is a complete elimination diet which includes an entire whole body approach to healing, not just simply food. Plus, it offers a suggested supplement list to take. This might be a good place to start. Check it out here for more info: http://store.ultrasimplediet.com/ We have a nutrition coaching program which can help design a specific program for your needs. For more info, check out: http://store.drhyman.com/Store/List/Coaching-Programs
In good health!
Lizzy
Nutrition Coaching Program
Maybe I’m missing something, but how do I find the “1-week plan to detoxify and cool off inflammation”? I came across Dr. Hyman’s video, but there was only a vague mention that the plan would be in the next video…the next video was not about inflamation. Then I found this article which makes the same mention. Still no “1-week plan to detoxify and cool off inflammation”! please send or post a link for those of us who are missing the obvious. I am desperate for Doctor’s help.
Thanks
Hi Michelle,
Perhaps this is what you are looking for? http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/08/24/the-ultrasimple-diet-a-more-detailed-look-at-how-to-kick-start-your-metabolism/
Please visit this site to explore it in more detail: http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/08/24/the-ultrasimple-diet-a-more-detailed-look-at-how-to-kick-start-your-metabolism/
Should you have any questions about the program and how to personalize it, please see: http://store.drhyman.com/Store/List/Coaching-Programs