A piece back I mentioned The Fat Flush Diet, which is so female-oriented that the author doesn’t even bother writing the book for both sexes. The author, a dietician named Anna Louise Gittleman, writes only for women.
The diet is incredibly regimented. There’s no way a typical guy doing his own cooking would be willing to undertake a diet so elaborate.
But that’s not to say that one couldn’t incorporate elements of it.
In fact, I’ve been doing so, myself.
There are several quirky aspects to this diet, but I’ve tried a few of them and . . . they’ve been working. Here’s what Gittleman has to say about a couple of the unique elements on this diet:
I learned first hand that one of the best kept secrets to weight loss and lasting weight control is keeping the liver, the key organ for fat metabolism, in tip-top shape. For example, bile , which is synthesized and secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, helps the liver break down fats. . . .
So I researched all the "liver loving" foods and nutrients that would enable the body to produce quality bile and aid in thinning it out. Since one of the primary ingredients of bile is lecithin–a highly effective emulsifier with a detergent-liek ability to break up fats–I decided to experiment with adding lecithin-rich eggs to my daily diet. Soon, the addition of fresh lemon juice and water–a well-known bile thinner–followed suit twice a day. Not only did my own cholesterol come down (a good 20 points to be exact), but so did my weight.
Just to make sure I was onto something, I enrolled thirty of my [weight loss] clients in a six-week dietary exploration and instructed them to add at least two eggs daily to their current diet regimens and to add lemon juice and water twice a day–without changing anything else in terms of diet or exercise. Without exception, they all lost weight, especially around the waistline. In fact, one woman lost 21 pounds over the six-week period (p. 4).
In Atkins’ books, he also talks about the importance of the liver in weight loss, but he doesn’t target it as much as Gittleman does. The fact he stressed its importance, though, was enough for me to try to give some of Gittleman’s liver-oriented weight loss techniques a try.
I haven’t done precisely what she recommends above, though. Instead of cooking eggs every day in order to get their lecithin, I simply eat a few spoonfuls of granulated lethicin (in his book on nutrition, Atkins especially recommends the granulated form of lecithin).
Similarly, instead of mixing fresh lemon juice and water, I buy reconstituted lemon juice in those plastic bulbs (I can’t find it in bottles in the stores locally) and then just squirt it directly into my mouth.
Theoretically, I’m getting the same nurtients that Gittleman recommends to improve bile secretion and operation, but without as much daily hassle.
Lemon juice also is supposedly able to help fight blood sugar rises by slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates, so whenever I’m about to eat something with carbs in it (e.g., low carb pasta), that’s when I’ll drink the lemon juice.
As I said, it’s kinda quirky, and I don’t know if Gittleman has the science behind it right, but my weight loss has been increased since I added Gittleman’s techniques of this type.
Take it (or don’t) for what it’s worth.
Diet and exercise are where pragmatism and relative truth are at home, or as Pete A.Y. Gunter once said, “What has value pays.” Too bad Atkins can’t take that to bankruptcy court though.
I personally lost 50 lbs. in a three month period by following Atkins to the letter, and by doing cardio at 75% of my maximum heart rate for an hour five times a week (check with your doctor first please). I also went from a 40″ waist to a 35″. After the three month period I was able to return to a regular diet, minus saturated fat in most cases other than the Saturday pizza and a bloody steak here and there. However, after the initial three month period I dropped the cardio to a half-hour for three days and added a strenuous 5-day regiment of weight training. 15 months later now and I’ve gained back 20 lbs. but my waist is currently at 33″.
Bottom line: Gunter was right, at least in this context.
Jimmy Akin at Starbucks:
“Sir, would you like anything in your coffee?”
“Yes, one cream and two granulated lethicins please.”
Granulated lecithin… that must not taste very well.
Actually, I was surprised at how lecithin has almost *no* taste in granulated form. It just has texture.
“Similarly, instead of mixing fresh lemon juice and water, I buy reconstituted lemon juice in those plastic bulbs (I can’t find it in bottles in the stores locally) and then just squirt it directly into my mouth.”
Ahhh, that explains the sour expression. (sorry, couldn’t resist — I sure couldn’t drink it straight!)
‘thann
Thanks again for the 411. I have already lost about 30 pounds after going back on Atkins and for your good advice!
Maybe look into what pure lemon juice will do to your teeth when squirted directly into your mouth. It’s very acidic. I’ve incidentally seen accounts of people’s tooth enamel being eroded from lemons, when I was searching for information about something else regarding teeth. One person had access to lemons so good, you could just eat them as-is, but messed his teeth up pretty good, so maybe ask a dentist about what you’re doing, Jimmy 🙂 I worked with oral surgeons who also poo-pooed dry fruits as one of the worst things for teeth, so it seems to make sense.
Jimmy, why don’t you contact the author and offer to collaborate with her on The Fat Flush Book – Guys Edition? I sense a potential spike in the lemon juice bulb market!
Jimmy, you arter be able to get the large lemon juice bottles but they keep them in a different isle in the grocery store – unless you have that guy thing going where you can’t ask for directions. 😉 I buy the 33 oz. you can dump some in your salad dressing or in your glass of water too, but like lurker says, it can be bad for the teeth. My sister’s dentist forbade her any lemon juice as we run to thin enamel in our family. Of course if yer in so cal you should have a lemon tree in your back yard!!!
My dad would eat large spoonfulls of granulated lecithin – this was back in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I assume now it was for these very reasons but I couldn’t say for sure. He was into all kindsa natural things like this. I always thought it looked kinda nasty to just eat a spoonfull of that stuff when I was 13. But, I’m older now, & I’m sure I eat a lot of things now I would have found nasty as a kid! Anyway, I think Dad would mix it in with his oatmeal & other stuff, too. There’s gotta be lecithin recepies online – c’mon, it’s the 2000’s! 😉
And the lemon juice wouldn’t be that much of a problem for teeth if mixed with water, would it, Lurker? Especially if one rinsed with more water after consumming the lemon-water, or brushed their teeth. Folks gotta have H2O anyways & it would save on the potential tooth damage.
Drinking the lemon juice and water with a straw also saves tooth enamel.
What if you just lean your head back and squirt it directly into the back of your throat, thus preventing the lemon juice from coming into contact with your tooth enamel?
Or you can crunch on some tums and neutralize the acid right after downing the lemon juice. Plus tums is good for calcium. Or would neutralizing the acid stop the benefit for the diet?
What if you just lean your head back and squirt it directly into the back of your throat, thus preventing the lemon juice from coming into contact with your tooth enamel?
This is, in fact, exactly what I do.
I then follow it with a sip of cranwater (more on that later) to quickly wash the remains of the juice out of my mouth. I think my enamel’s safe.
Or you can crunch on some tums and neutralize the acid right after downing the lemon juice. Plus tums is good for calcium. Or would neutralizing the acid stop the benefit for the diet?
This would also neutralize the effect of the lemon juice, one of the points of which is to raise the acidity of the stomach so that it slows down the release of food into the small intestine. (Or that’s the theory, as I understand it.)
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly….
+J.M.J+
My mom is really into Gittleman’s books. Another think in that Fat Flush book involves mixing one cup of 100% cranberry juice (not cranberry juice cocktail, but the pure juice – very tart!) with seven cups of water and drinking it every day for your liver. It’s pretty good; diluting it with seven parts water makes the cranberry juice easier to drink.
In Jesu et Maria,
diluting it with seven parts water makes the cranberry juice easier to drink.
Do people have problems with 100% cranberry juice? I have had cranberry juice, cranapple juice, crangrape juice, . . . pretty much anything my mom could cran since I was a kid.
Of course, if you want the ultimate “Guy’s diet” then you should check out the Hacker’s Diet: http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html&e=10384
Developed by an engineer, it comes with excel spreadsheets, programs, and all sorts of fun little toys. It’s something to combine with other diets, but I lost weight on it. The whole thing is online, so it’s free to check out.
Where exactly does one get granulated lethicin from?
I have no adversion to the lemmon juice–it’s actually the only temporary relief I’ve found from my frequent and painful hiccups.
I get granulated lecithin at a local semi-health food store (that might also be considered a specialty grocery store) called Henry’s. (They have them all over SoCal.)
It comes in 1-lb. bags and I pour it into two of those disposable tupperware-type containers so it doesn’t go stale before I’ve eaten it all.
I get my fresh-squeezed lemon juice mixed with water. In fact, I get someone else to do it.
Although, of course, if you get lemonade, you do get sugar with it. . . .
And here I thought I was just avoiding the excess caffeine.
Eggs Benedict, anyone?
Again, whoo hoo for Jimmy! Hes giving us diabetics such goods tips for keeping blood sugar low. ciniman, lemon juice with water, which by the way I try to drink ALL THE TIME, drink enough of it and what comes out smells like lemons, not nice, but eh. Im gonna ask my doctor about the lecithin before I try that, don’t want the BS TOO low. Thanks Jimmy!
And the lemon juice wouldn’t be that much of a problem for teeth if mixed with water, would it, Lurker?
I would think, mixed with water, lemon juice would be much less of a problem. What you’ll have there is the pH of the water–which there’ll be more of than lemon juice–bringing the pH of the solution to a gentler level–probably a slightly acidic solution, compared with a very very acidic one being squirted directly into the mouth.
As a chemist, I’m a bit puzzled by the use of lemon juice to raise the acidity of stomach fluids. Assuming normal conditions, the stomach is already more acid than lemon juice, and adding a weaker acid to a stronger one doesn’t change the situation. You would need something like an antiacid to do that.
But, if it works, go for it.
I’m wondering if the lemon juice thing has anything to do with the cider vinegar thing? That’s also recommended – take a tablespoonful of cider vinegar – for fat burning.
And yes, I’m sorry, but I’m laughing at the image of you squirting lemon juice from the plastic lemons straight down your throat: such a guy thing, isn’t it? “What, me buy fresh lemons, peel ’em, juice ’em and throw away the pulp? Too much time and effort!”
And yes, I’m sorry, but I’m laughing at the image of you squirting lemon juice from the plastic lemons straight down your throat: such a guy thing, isn’t it? “What, me buy fresh lemons, peel ’em, juice ’em and throw away the pulp? Too much time and effort!”
Haha, me too. But I buy it in bottles and I’m not a guy. I don’t think I know anybody who squeezes their own lemons!
Hey Jimmy, a bit of lemon goes well with pasta, and I wonder if you might want to squeeze a little on that pasta you eat. If you mix chicken and/or vegetables in with that pasta, it’d taste good too. If you’re ever allowed to have pasta with a tomato sauce, lemon juice cooked into the sauce gives it a tangier zip (maybe a few tablespoons of lemon juice to 1 cup of sauce. I don’t measure exactly.)
“Haha, me too. But I buy it in bottles and I’m not a guy. I don’t think I know anybody who squeezes their own lemons!”
now you do! Lemon trees are a dime a dozen in our neighborhood.
Whoa, wait a minute, that doesn’t make any sense. Bile breaks down fat so that the fat can be digested. People whose livers don’t make enough bile are UNDERWEIGHT because fat just goes right through them. They’re also deficient in the fat-soluble vitamins (A and D) because they can’t digest fat. I know all of this because my daughter has a genetic syndrome that causes a paucity of bile ducts, and therefore a shortage of bile.
Breaking down fat just means digesting fat, which means getting fat.
Maybe the lecithin and lemon juice works some other way.