Problem Situations You May Encounter in Elimination Dieting 201“Drink those,” I told him.
Well, no one could say Abe was weak-minded; his health problems
had stemmed from ignorance on his part (and that of his regular doctor), not
self-indulgence. He subsequently followed my advice exactly (only visitors
got the grain vodkas) and within months he had shed over fifty pounds and
felt great. His physician also reported objective signs of improvement. I lost
touch with Abe, soon after leaving Spain and returning to live in the UK.
Alcoholism
Actually, it isn’t the alcohol that causes the physical ill health of addicts, either.
Cirrhosis of the liver and pneumonia are probably the two main causes
of demise associated with alcoholism when it reaches dire proportions.
The reason the liver is damaged is that it lacks certain essential nutrient
ingredients, namely methionine and choline. These are normally supplied in
the diet, but alcoholics are notorious for not eating and – despite a frequent
appearance to the contrary – it is malnutrition that is their undoing, not the
alcohol per se. This so lowers their resistance to debility and disease that
pneumonia claims a victim where these days it normally would not.
If you are an alcoholic – that is, if you can admit it to yourself and
want to do something about it – use the elimination diet plan.
But you should also take large doses of vitamin B3 (niacin): 2,000 to
3,000 mg. a day. These levels are not dangerous but may cause an unpleasant
flush as a side-effect, rather like sunburn. Take also a good multivitamin
formula; vitamin B1 particularly gets depleted by alcohol and lack of it
causes depression and demotivation.
Eat often: do not allow yourself to become hungry. Have a
substantial breakfast consisting of fried food, such as liver, chops, kidneys
and fish, with one or two extras like mushroom or tomato. Thereafter, eat
something every couple of hours. It need not be a great quantity, but you
must guard against low blood sugar (see Chapter 19). If you should trigger
off this condition, it will bring on an irresistible craving for an alcoholic
beverage. At the same time (though it is not as important as the ‘drying-out’
stage), take multivitamins. This overrides instructions not to take vitamins
during the plan; take lots.
Guard against stress and fatigue as far as possible during drying out.
Your worst danger times are late afternoon and evening when you become
tired.
Once you have overcome the period of withdrawal and cravings, it
will be easier. Many symptoms from the self-inventory list will probably have