Food Intolerances, Don’t Be A Victim
“You don’t know until you do it, myself included, because you feel fine. The symptoms become so low grade that you think they’re normal for you. It’s gas and bloating, headaches and joint pain, fatigue, skin problems, cravings and you can’t lose weight,” says JJ Virgin, author of The Virgin Diet and health advocate. “They become so normal for you, that you don’t even notice them.”
JJ says the vast majority of people are suffering from internal upset unknowingly. Her belief in removing the seven most problematic foods for three weeks will resolve various food issues without testing.
She said after doing hundreds of food sensitivity tests with doctors offices and seeing the same food intolerances over and over again didn’t make sense. It made more sense to her to pull the foods out and see how you feel without having the test.
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“What have you got to lose?” she says. “It’s just three weeks!”
She recommends when you pull out the foods, swap it with something healthy. For example when you take out gluten and dairy, add in cashew cheese.
JJ says, “The big thing is to really get away from these things that we’ve been duped into believing are good for us like fruit juice concentrate and agave. It absolutely drives me crazy that they have products out there that say no sugar added that are sweetened with fruit juice concentrate.” She says this is tricking an unsuspecting mom who is attempting to feed her child something healthy when in fact she has just swapped one form of sugar for a another.
JJ is adamant, “We’ve got diabetics at 10, 11 years old! This shouldn’t be happening! It shouldn’t be happening ever, but it’s shouldn’t be happening to kids -that’s crazy!”
The hidden sugar is hidden in food everywhere. “These fruit juice concentrates we’ve been making health foods with – it’s nuts! You’re getting a dose of fructose which makes you insulin resistant. It sets you up for leaky gut because it makes your gut more permeable,” she says.
“Sugar, gluten and dairy, to me, are the number one drugs that we have going on out there. Sugar is by far the top drug out there. It’s the number one legal drug of choice,” JJ says.
These top seven foods JJ recommends removing are gluten, dairy, sugar, eggs, peanuts, corn and soy.
“It was interesting when I was doing all the testing because eggs really threw me for a loop. 77% of the people I tested had an egg reaction. It was really interesting because I always felt like eggs are nature’s perfect food,” she says. She adds, “There’s an ubiquitous number of people trying to eat healthier so they’re having egg white protein. That’s a cheap, quick protein fix. The funniest part is when you eat just the white you actually absorb less of the protein than if you eat the whole egg.”
The most nutritious part of the egg is the yolk where you benefit from the phosphatidylcholine and vitamin E. Pastured eggs, where chickens are running in pasture eating bugs, worms and grass are the healthiest option. Those intollerant to egg yolks often have no issue with pastured yolks. However, most people are not eating pastured eggs which changes this healthy food into one that is problematic.
“When you start to look at food differently, does this build me up, does this help create more energy or does this take me down?” She says this is most evident and important when you allow yourself a cheat day.
“A cheat day really sets you up to fail,” she says.
This is evident with gluten as it drugs the body, wheat, as it causes inflammation, and sugar as it causes a craving cycle and feeds bad bacteria in the gut propagating pathogen.
After eliminating these problematic foods she recommends adding the foods back in one by one looking for reactions. Due to delayed reactions she recommends waiting several days before introducing another. Symptoms you are looking for are lethargy, gas, bloating, upset, anxiety, depression and other symptoms that do not leave you feeling full of energy, revived and nourished by your food.
To read more on JJ Virgin click here.
Other sources:
The Virgin Diet by JJ Virgin (2012): What to eat and foods to avoid
http://eatingpsychologyconference.com/day-3/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jj-virgin/
http://jjvirgin.com/6692/parents-confused-raising-healthy-kids/
