The Risk Factors That Cause Food Reactions (6-10)

Risk Factor 6. We eat too much at once.

Overeating causes food reactions by overwhelming the digestive system. Unfortunately, reactions also cause overeating by creating food cravings, and this destructive cycle ruins many lives. The problem gets even worse when people eat the exact foods that cause them to experience reactions. This often happens, however, because of the cravings caused by allergic addiction.

Overeating also disrupts the immune response, which further heightens food reactions.

Risk Factor 7. We're under too much stress.

Stress hurts digestion. When you're under stress, your stresshormones — such as adrenaline and cortisol — take blood away from your organs of digestion and shift it to the fight-or-flight organs and systems, such as the muscles, eyes, and heart. Sometimes, when you're nervous, you feel this loss of circulation in your digestive system as butterflies in the stomach.

Proper digestion is most likely to occur when we take timeto eat our meals in a relaxed atmosphere. However, the average worker sits down for lunch for only eleven minutes, and many for only five minutes, or eats a sandwich unconsciously while working.

Risk Factor 8. We don't chew our foods completely.

This interferes significantly with digestion. Foods that remain in excessively large pieces can't be broken down properly, even when enough digestive juices are available.

Risk Factor 9. We drink too many liquids with our meals.

This dilutes digestive juices and stomach acid, keeping them from fully digesting our foods.

Risk Factor 10. We combine too many of these risk factors.

If we regularly made just one of these mistakes, we might not have a problem. Most people, though, combine several of these risk factors, and soon they experience the straw that breaks the camel's back. Doctors call this reaching the allergic threshold.

All of these risk factors can cause your digestive system to dump large, unwieldy macromolecules of food into your bloodstream. When this happens, it generally triggers your immune response.

If your immune system is already impaired, your immune reaction to these macromolecules of food will be even worse. You'll get reactions to a wider variety of foods, and your symptoms will be more severe and more frequent. Many forces can impair immunity: poor nutrition, exposure to toxins, stress, and lack of sleep.

Therefore, to avoid food reactions, you should not only minimize your risk factors, but should also try to optimize your immune strength, with a healthy lifestyle, ingestion of specific nutrients, and avoidance of toxins. I'll soon tell you how to do this.

In addition, a number of non-food factors can make food reactions worse by contributing to the allergic threshold. The body doesn't care if an allergen is a food-borne allergen or an airborne allergen, such as pollen. To the body, an allergen is an allergen. Food reactions are worse in people who inhale airborne allergens, are exposed to toxic chemicals, or are under stress.

Therefore, you are not just what you eat.

Food reactions — and therefore fat — can be caused by many factors, and food is just the most obvious one.

I know that this is a new, strange concept for many people. But I have tested this concept clinically and have seen it work wonders.

Here's an example: a patient of mine worked in a paint shop and regularly inhaled airborne toxins. This man was bloated, puffy, and red-eyed most of the time, and reacted strongly to a number of foods. He also got sick a lot because the toxins he breathed were stressing his immune system. When he switched jobs and escaped the constant assault of airborne pollutants, his sensitivity to foods decreased dramatically. His progress on the False Fat Diet accelerated tremendously when he quit his job, and he soon lost almost all of his false fat and most of his true fat. Simultaneously, he stopped having frequent minor illnesses.

If any of these risk factors apply to you, you are vulnerable to food reactions.

You are not just what you eat.
Fat can be caused by many factors.
Food is just the most obvious one.

Now I'll tell you how food reactions develop within your body, after you engage in these risk factors. Once you understand how food reactions work, you'll be better able to stop them — forever.

Why the need for supplementation?

Many people would argue that a healthy, balanced and varied eating planshould be sufficient to provide you with all the nutrients you require.

I happen to be one of them. I firmly believe that you should receive all your nutrients from your daily foods. That is why my eating plans are brimful of Nature's bounty. I know for a fact that a well-nourished, healthy body will shed weight successfully and maintain that reduced weight and that optimum, balanced nutrition is the most important factor in this process.

But everything is not what it seems.

Our nutrients succumb to all kinds of robbers and thieves. For starters, there are the unavoidable hazards: factory, vehicle and water pollution and cigarette smoke; food processing and additives; poor food quality, Then the stress factor and its presumed antidotes enter the equation: sugary nibbles, medication and excess alcohol, Let's examine more closely the effects of these everyday hazards on our nutrient reserves.

1. Stress steals nutrition

Some researchers claim that a fit of anger (such as losing your temper and banging your head against the steering wheel of your car in a traffic jam) can 'steal' as much as 3 grams of vitamin C from your reserves.

Whether this claim is accurate or not, one thing is certain: stress robs you of your nutrients, It causes a skyrocketing of nutritional needs and vitamins C and B (particularly pantothenate) are withdrawn from the body at an alarming rate. Minerals are also withdrawn from your body under stress and should be replenished as they are withdrawn. But the average Ms Executive (whether taking care of a corporation or a household) who endures stress week in and week out, year after year, is not likely to consider eating bucketsful of fresh fruit and vegetables after each stressful incident! And if she does, where will she find the freshest and most wholesome foods, free from pesticides, fungicides, antibiotics and steroids?

In our modern society nobody can be assured of that any more. If you experience daily stress, you need a supplement.

2. Tobacco, drinks and drugs deplete nutrients

Using any form of drugs or alcohol invariably takes its toll on your nutritional reserves. For every healing or preventative benefit that allopathic (prescribed) drugs mayoffer, there is usually a trade-off as far as nutrients are concerned. Some medications (or alcohol) create a vitamin or mineral deficiency by either blocking their absorption, speeding up their excretion or otherwise interfering with the metabolism.

If you are on medication, smoke or drink alcohol regularly, you are likely to be in need of a supplement.

The mother of all hormones continue…

Is DHEA a prescription medication?

No, it's available over the counter from chemists and health stores. There are two varieties: DHEA and DHEA Plus. The latter was developed for people who are physically very active, such as sportsmen and -women and serious trainers.

Can one take it with othermedication?

DHEA is a completely natural substance that should under normal circumstances be present in the body. It is therefore safe to take it with any other medication, except for hormone replacement therapy. Some people choose to stop the therapy and change to DHEA, others prefer to confer with their doctor or alternative health practitioner (such as a naturopath or homeopath) or with their pharmacists in order to effect a change-over in medication.

Who should use DHEA?

Anybody who has a deficiency. Specific blood tests can be done to establish if you do have a deficiency, but it is safe to assume, if you are over 40, suffer from stress and have various other health problems, that you could be suffering from a DHEA deficiency.

Who should not use it?

People suffering from prostate- or breast cancer. People receiving hormone replacement therapy should consult their medical or health practitioner first.

Are there any side effects to MLAsupplementation?

Although it is rare, there could be some discomfort in the breasts and slight feelings of nausea, but this is usually the case when the dosage is grossly exceeded for long periods of time - more than 100 mg per day for 6 months or more. The recommended dosage for DHEA is 25 - 50 mg per day and 50 - 100 g per day of DHEA Plus for very active people.

At the school we recommend that students start with 50 mg (2 tablets) of DHEA a day and if they experience any side-effects, to reduce the dosage to 25 mg (1 tablet) a day. If the symptoms persist, the dosage should be further reduced to 25 mg every second day. A 30-year old student who experienced these side-effects continued to reduce her dosage until the symptoms disappeared. She now takes 1 tablet (25 mg) every third day, with no side-effects other than a much improved ability to cope with stress!

You can managestress

I believe that the mismanagement of stress is the number one cause for the loss of quality of life. There is no reason on earth why you should live with the debilitating physical (and emotional) effects of stress. There is much that you can do to reduce your stress level. And at the back of the book you will find the names of two therapists. I know them both well, and therefore trust their techniques. If you do not live in their areas, they may very well be able to refer you to somebody that lives closer to you.

The mother of all hormones

When the subject of hormones comes up, most of us think in terms of themale and female hormones, testosterone and oestrogen. Some of us even take tablets to replace what our doctors feel we lack in these hormones. But we tend to ignore, or remain completely ignorant of, what scientists term the Mother of all hormones - DHEA.

What is DHEA?

DHEA is an acronym for the hormone produced by our adrenal glands known as

dehydroepiandrosterone (dee-hydro-epi-an-dros-ter-own). It is often called the

'Mother of all hormones' since it is the building block used by the body to produce many other vital hormones. These include the sex hormones (oestrogen and testosterone) as well as important steroid hormones. They play a vital role in mineral metabolism, building muscles, controlling stress, maintaining male and female characteristics and keeping the body strong and full of vitality.

Research has shown that the level of DHEA in the body is directly linked to the aging process, since the body produces less of the hormone with age.

Dozens of scientific studies have proved a direct relationship between a low DHEA level and cancer, head disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, Parkinson's disease, obesity, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. One of the long-term studies involving 5 000 women found that DHEA levels fell drastically up to nine years before the development of breast cancer.

Low levels of DHEA can lead to depression, chronic fatigue, headaches, weakness and an elevated susceptibility to infections caused by viruses or bacteria. Its effect on the immune system has led researchers to believe that DHEA may play an important role in fighting AIDS.

Studies have shown that the body's production of DHEA starts to drop sharply from the age of 30 to very low levels at age 80. This is the largest decline of an important biochemical yet documented.

Directly after birth the brain uses so much DHEA for growth that the levels decline dramatically. As the brain approaches its final development stage, the levels once again increase. In a 12-year study of 240 men aged between 50 and 79 years, researchers found that DHEA levels were inversely correlated with mortality, from heart disease as well as from other causes.

DHEA production varies widely from person to person. Some people seem to maintain youthful levels into later life while others seem to become deficient in DHEA at a young age. Chronic illness and major stress at a younger age, deplete the hormone more rapidly.

Research indicates that DHEA:

• plays a major role in protecting brain neurons from senility-associated disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia and improves memory function;
  

• increases natural hormone levels, and therefore the libido, necessary for a healthy sex life;
• strengthens the immune system;
• plays an important role in preventing heart disease by helping to lower cholesterol;
• allows insulin to function more efficiently, thereby normalising blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of insulin resistance and/or diabetes;
• is an anti-ageing hormone in that it acts as a buffer against stress-related hormones, in particular cortisol, which damages the body and causes destruction of tissue -the main cause of rapid ageing;
• actively helps the body burn kilojoules for energy rather than storing them as fat.

How can DHEA did weight loss?

Simply by controlling your stress levels as explained in the chapter Stress can make you fat! Stress is a major contributing factor to obesity as well as most of the other auto-immune diseases. Because of the drastic decline in DHEA as we grow older, the body loses its buffer against stress-related hormones, particularly cortisol. To summarise the stress cycle:

• while experiencing emotional stress, adrenaline and eventually cortisol flood the blood stream with excessive levels of glycogen,
• which requires insulin to make it available as energy for the muscle cells;
• however, as a result of long periods of undue stress, coupled with a diet rich inrefined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar, the body tends tobecome insulin resistant,
• which means the insulin cannot make the glycogen in the blood available as energy, so the blood sugar levels remain unduly high,
• and because high glycogen levels are extremely dangerous, the blood sugar is then stored as fat on the body, in unusual places such as around the stomach area, on the upper arms, back, neck and face.

The process is simple to understand: undue emotional stress for long periods of time + high levels of adrenaline and cortisol + high levels of blood sugar + insufficient or inefficient insulin = body fat + a plethora of auto-immune diseases.

The answer to your spiralling, chronic obesity might therefore be to control your stress levels, which will then cause your weight to be controlled so much more readily. Clinical studies have concluded that DHEA levels are inversely related to cortisol, which means that as cortisol increases, DHEA levels decrease.

Supplementation with DHEA will help your body by acting as a buffer against cortisol and the obesity-promoting chain reaction it evokes.