Chapter 1

The Obesity Epidemic

After more than three decades of consuming less fat and more carbohydrates, the average American is gaining weight at an alarming rate. We are eating sixty pounds more grain and thirty pounds more sweeteners than we did twenty-five years ago. The effects are clear: over two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. With excess weight the single, most important factor in the onset of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, we now face an epidemic with health costs skyrocketing to $1.5 trillion. As medical experts desperately seek answers, I am thankful I can offer an effective and time-tested solution in The No-Grain Diet.
For over a decade, the No-Grain Diet has been the centerpiece of my
medical practice, used by hundreds of thousands of patients who visit
my wellness center and my website. While the
medical debate has simmered below the surface of media attention, I've
been quietly refining my dietary strategy with nearly miraculous
results. And finally, both doctors and the general public are
recognizing a growing body of scientific evidence that supports what
I've advocated all along. Eating certain kinds of carbohydrates, not
fats, causes escalating weight gain and wide-ranging health problems.

According to writer Gary Taubes, in his cover article in the July 7, 2002, New York Times Magazine, new research confirms that the USDA food pyramid, the low cholesterol heart disease diet, and the medical recommendations to eat less fat and more carbohydrates "are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America."

The Culprits in Weight Gain

Fats aren't to blame for weight gain! In studying our endocrine system, new research I'll detail more fully in the next chapter finds that the real culprits are grains, starches, and sweets. These foods trigger a hormonal cycle of grain and sugar addiction, weight gain, and diabetes. That's why eliminating all grains, starches, and sugars for a limited period of time is the best way to reprogram your cells to burn fat. Erasing the signals that prompt you to eat will help you overcome cravings and addictive food urges. Combining these two approaches, the No-Grain Diet provides a comprehensive strategy that will help you rewire your physical and emotional hardware so you can lose weight and conquer carb cravings forever.

My program comes complete with:

The No-Grain Food Plan: A twenty-first-century diet in which you'll learn how to eat healthy foods amply while burning off poundage.

The No-Grain Recipe and Menu Directory: Gourmet dishes and meals that satisfy your taste buds and nourish your cells. In compiling these recipes, I've incorporated a wide range of meat and vegetable dishes from all ethnic and healing food sources.

The "Cravings Eraser": A mind-body toolbox (cited throughout as EFT) that will include instructions on how to:

Conquer grain and sugar cravings

Eliminate the emotional causes of overeating

Banish the post-diet "yo-yo" effect that puts the weight back on

But How Is This Different from Atkins?

Dr. Robert Atkins, whose diet was first introduced back in 1972, deserves the credit for his tremendous efforts in bringing the low-carb diet into the national spotlight. But just as the Atkins program built upon and improved previous dietary wisdom, the No-Grain Diet improves upon Atkins by overcoming certain built-in weaknesses in Atkins's plan, which impede your ability to lose weight and keep it off in a healthy sustainable fashion.

I provide a solution to the excess animal protein consumption featured on the Atkins's diet, which is cause for concern because:
* Hormones given to meat and dairy cattle create a surplus of estrogens in humans-and my meat recommendations eliminate this concern.

* Antibiotics in animal feed contribute to antibiotic resistance in people-and my emphasis on grass-fed and organic meat and dairy sources eliminates this concern.

* Animal protein can over-acidify the body, causing bone demineralization and bone loss-while on my diet ample portions of raw and cooked vegetables will alkalinize bodily tissues.

My improved diet strategy addresses all these concerns while incorporating a wider range of healthier foods than Atkins or his successors. I include organic foods, more vegetables, and international spa cuisine recipes, as well as the most necessary supplements and proven mind-body tools to beat cravings for grains and sugars. Here you'll learn the way to optimize your diet, using the best recipes for raw salads, soups and juices, delicately seasoned vegetable and protein stir-fries and curries, savory breakfasts, gourmet meat dishes like grass-fed beef burgers, and grain-free desserts! In addition, I'll guide you in selecting the right proteins for you. Not all proteins are created equal, and customizing your protein sources is one key to successful weight loss long term.

Why Most Diets Fail

The vast majority of diets fail due to cravings for grains and sugars, which are symptomatic of grain addiction. Let's face it, no one's addicted to spinach, or other healthy greens, which contain complex carbs. But lots of people fall off their diets reaching for breads, pizza, or cookies. When Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution originally promoted a reduced carb diet, many people labeled all carbs as bad. The best-selling book The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet first drew national attention to the prevalence of carb addiction and its attendant health dangers. But despite their astute diagnosis, which rang true for millions of readers, Drs. Heller and Heller's food plan was ineffective. Why? Because they allowed dieters to eat ample quantities of grains, starchy foods, and sweets for a brief period every day.

It's as Easy as Erasing the Old Tapes

Diets fail because after the diet, you return to your old habits. It's not because you're weak-willed; it's because you do what your body tells you to do. Like sucking in your gut for a photo, you can stick to a strict deprivation diet for a short time. But you just can't do that forever.

Over 175 million Americans are classified as overweight (with a staggering 80 million of these classified as obese). Why? Because these folks did what their cells told them to do-they kept eating grains. Yet, with a new diet and new wiring, anyone can erase the old tapes and create a biological response that works in their favor.
As director of Illinois's Optimal Wellness Center, and founder and
host of one of the world's most visited health websites, I have cared
for over fifteen thousand patients at the Center and provide cutting
edge health guidance and information to several million site visitors
annually. Over a dozen years ago, I watched helplessly as one patient
after another went through the frustrating cycle of diet followed by
weight gain. Then with one patient, something clicked. Instead of
urging her to try harder, or concluding that she had an obesity gene,
or was otherwise doomed to dietary failure, I sought-and found-a way
to change the messages that her body was sending. The grains and
sugars that she was eating were actually programming her to crave and
eat more fattening foods. As her self-esteem plummeted, mental
messages reinforced this unhealthy eating pattern.

By reprogramming her body and mind with a new diet and new messages, she was able to lose weight and keep it off permanently. I continued to use, refine, and modify this plan and found that it worked for over 85 percent of the people who tried it.

One Giant Step to Losing Weight

The cornerstone of the No-Grain Diet is one simple secret to effortless weight loss. Eliminating from your diet:

* Grains

* Starches

* Sweets

Period.

Cutting down on these foods, which most diets recommend, doesn't work because even the tiniest bite of a grain or sweet will trigger your body to crave more. On the No-Grain Diet, you're going to get serious about weight loss and take a giant step forward. For a certain time period, you will totally avoid eating grains and sugars in order to change the messages your body sends you.

The three components of my weight loss strategy constitute a total reprogramming of your system for permanent weight loss. Total systemic reprogramming on the No-Grain Diet will transform you from an overweight person who struggles unsuccessfully to lose weight to a slim person in control of food addictions and cravings-forever.

Here's how it works:

First: Once you start eating the recommended foods, your cells get this new message: release fat and burn it. The end result: you lose weight. (See Chapter Two to learn the biochemistry this program is built upon.)

Second: With the diet, you'll also learn to use EFT (a psychological acupressure technique) to curb any remaining grain and sugar cravings. Instead of telegraphing the urge to eat fattening foods, your cells will send you the message to eat nutrient-rich foods. The end result: you'll permanently conquer food cravings and overcome grain and sugar addiction. (See Chapters Three and Four to find out if you're a grain addict and how EFT can help you overcome it. In Chapters Nine and Ten, you'll learn how to use EFT for every kind of obstacle you'll face in weight loss.)

Third: Using EFT, you'll change your self-image. Instead of telling you that you'll always be fat and there's nothing you can do about it, your cells will tell you that you're slim and have the right to be. The end result: you'll easily maintain your new, slimmer self. (Chapter Eleven will help you reprogram yourself for successful weight loss, heightened self-confidence, and abundant energy.)

Debunking the Fad Diet Myths

Eliminating all grains, starches, and sweets (in the initial phase) is the first step in reorienting your body's signals to transform you from perennially overweight to slim-and-trim. You'll find it's easy to be amply nourished and enjoy delicious meals without these foods. "But aren't grains healthy?" most people ask. "The Food Pyramid says I should eat more servings of grains than any other category."

Let me address this two-part question.

Yes, if you are at your ideal weight, whole grains can be healthy. But if you're overweight, it's likely that they aren't healthy for you. What's more, you're probably eating processed breads, pastas, and cookies-rather than healthy grains like quinoa, teff, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth.

Further, the Food Pyramid guidelines are ineffective for weight loss. They are based on theories already disavowed by such prominent nutritional scientists as Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard. Among these discredited theories are:

* All fats are bad

* All complex carbohydrates are good

* All protein sources offer the same nutrition

* High quantities of dairy foods should be consumed

Further, the guidelines fail to distinguish between healthy fats, like omega-3 fats, and trans-fats, shown by many studies to cause disease. Nor do the guidelines address the interaction between grain consumption and insulin balance. Why are the guidelines at variance with the best current nutritional and medical science? It may perhaps be connected to the serious conflicts of interest found by recent U.S. Court rulings to effect six out of the eleven members of the advisory committee that composed the USDA Pyramid guidelines.

--from The No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for the Rest of Your Life by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Copyright © 2003 by Dr. Joseph Mercola, published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., all rights reserved, reprinted with permission from the publisher.

--From The No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction & Stay Slim for the Rest of Your Life, by Joseph Mercola, Alison Rose Levy. © April 24, 2003 , E P Dutton used by permission.