Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 167

So the stomach empties and we feel ill. not hungry. Most people are

too toxic to feel hungry. Detoxification symptoms appear first. Most

people are driven to eat because it is time to eat or because they feel

detoxification discomfort. Most Americans have never felt true hunger in

their entire overfed existence.

Many people come into my office with a diagnosis of hypo-

glycemia, meaning they feel ill when they delay eating. They are of-

ten told to eat a diet with frequent feedings of high-protein food. I

insist that this diet is the precise cause of the condition, not the rem-

edy; it is no more a remedy than putting them on a cup of coffee

every hour. Sure, they will feel better temporarily, but if they want

to make a complete and lasting recovery, they must unscramble their

thinking. They must put up with about one week of not feeling so

great, but then they can be set free from their discomfort and their

addiction to bad habits and a toxic diet.

So this is yet another reason our modern society is so over-

weight. Most people have lost touch with the ability to detect true

hunger; they are driven to eat way before hunger appears, because

they are addicted to their unhealthful diets and feel uncomfortable if

they don't overeat or eat too often.

When 1 first begin treating patients with hypoglycemic symp-

toms, I continue them on snacks between meals and use some raw

nuts and beans at each meal. They are forbidden to consume any re-

fined carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, sweets, or fruit juice, to

prevent swings in insulin. In some individuals, insulin levels swing

up too high and then too low merely because they are eating refined

sugars and refined grains, and not natural, unrefined food. These in-

dividuals are just sensitive to the junk food eaten by most Ameri-

cans. The notoriously unreliable glucose tolerance test, in which

patients consume about 100 grams of glucose, duplicates eating a

huge quantity of junk food. Even normal people can feel ill from this

experience.

Invariably, within two or three weeks their symptoms diminish

and they gain the ability to delay eating without feeling ill. They can

then follow the same diet I recommend for everyone without feeling

any ill effects.

If you have this condition, you must also avoid alcohol, coffee,

tea, artificial flavorings, and food additives. Fresh fruit does not need

to be restricted.