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.
GET THE BOOK.
