Acid Reflux- Are You Playing with Fire?
It could cost you your life…
Heartburn is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. When you use proton pump inhibitors, such as Nexium, you are not solving the problem; you’re masking the symptoms. These drugs stop the pain by neutralizing your stomach acid. This allows you to ignore the warning signal that something has to change or you are going to get very sick. It’s like ignoring the warning lights in your car. You can ignore the light telling you there’s engine trouble and just keep driving until you need to be towed, or you can fix the problem before it becomes a catastrophe.
Most people don’t take acid reflux very seriously.
Many think it’s a normal part of life. There is a reason for that. The drug companies spend millions convincing you that the burn of acid reflux is just a nuisance. They encourage you to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and enjoy the good life…. just don’t forget to take their pill along with you or you’ll be really sorry.
Their campaign is working. When we ask people about their health, we get comments like:”I’m fine. I’ve had an acidic stomach since I was a teenager. I just pop Tums like they were candy.” Or “I’ve had acid reflux for years. I don’t think about it much. Everybody gets heartburn.”
Until you get diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus
Barrett’s esophagus is a condition caused by prolonged acid reflux. Over time, acid reflux produces cellular changes which can lead to adenocarcinoma, a type of esophageal cancer. If caught early Barrett’s esophagus is treatable, but in spite of some significant medical and surgical advances, the survival rate of esophageal cancer is still grim. Only one in five people diagnosed with esophageal cancer will survive five years.
YIKES! How scary is that?
Your antacid may be quieting the burn of acid reflux, but it will do nothing to prevent Barrett’s esophagus, the fastest growing cancer diagnosis in the US. Being overweight and drinking alcohol regularly will increase your odds of this happening to you.
What can you do to prevent the development of Barrett’s esophagus?
You need to make the dietary and lifestyle changes that will stop the acid reflux. It is common knowledge that fatty foods, chocolate, caffeine, spicy foods, alcohol and tobacco are triggers for reflux, but what about some of the “healthy” foods you are eating. Could they be triggers too?
You may have food intolerances that you are unaware of.
If you are continually frustrated because you can’t figure out what foods are making you sick, you need to try an elimination diet. Our Signature detox program gently guides you through the process of eliminating the most common food triggers. Many of our clients have been stunned by the results.
It’s great when you figure out what delicious foods CAN eat without suffering in pain. Do you remember the last time you had a day like that?
You could pay for pills every month for the rest of your life and end up sicker than you were before, or you can decide to take your life back.
I know which one I would pick.
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Is Your Diet Soda Making You Fat?
Have you ever wondered why our grocery shelves are filled
with zero calorie drinks and 100 calorie snack packs and yet, as a nation, we
are fatter then we have ever been in our history? If it really is as simple as
calories in and calories out, shouldn’t we be thinner than we were when we were
eating butter, mashed potatoes and home-made apple pie?
Is it possible that everyone decided at the same time to
just become lazy, weak-willed and fat?
There is nothing in the character of the people I meet that
would suggest that any of that is true. So if that is not the case, what could
be the answer to our ever growing waistlines?
All of us are born with a sweet tooth. In the past it served
us well by encouraging us to eat lots of the luscious, sweet fruits of summer
so that we would be adequately padded for the lean winter months ahead. Even
though your mind is well aware that today we have plenty of food year round,
your body’s survival instincts have not kept up with the times. Your diet soda
may taste very sweet in your mouth, but when all those chemicals hit your
digestive tract, your body doesn’t know what to do with it. It does not
recognize this chemical cocktail because nothing like it has ever been ingested
in the history of our species. Your natural desire for sweetness is not at all
satisfied with whatever that was, and so it will continue to send signals to
your brain that it wants more sugar. The problem is that artificial sweeteners
are tricking your body into releasing insulin because they taste sweet. But
there is no sugar to feed your cells. And as soon as your body figures out
there is no food, it decides that it better go and get some! This, of course,
triggers your appetite. We eat more “chemical cuisine” and the result is that
we are a nation that is fat and literally starving to death.
So now what? Getting our clients to give up their artificial
sweeteners is one of the biggest challenges we face. Aside from all the side
effects we won’t get into today, diet sodas are highly addictive. I have seen
people do incredibly challenging things in their lives and still be unable to
give up their diet soda. This really gets in the way of your ability to have a
healthy food plan. The reason for this is that artificial sweeteners are much
sweeter than anything in nature. Your palate becomes so distorted, that they
cannot appreciate the succulent flavors that are found in most foods. They need
to be away from the artificial sweeteners for a while before they can truly
appreciate the flavor of real food.
Water is of course, the drink of choice but it doesn’t have
to be bland and boring. Try adding some fresh fruit to your water pitcher. It
not only looks pretty, it adds some nice flavor without adding any calories.
You can even freeze some fruit and use it instead of ice cubes to have
something that looks very appealing and satisfies the need for a little flavor
and sweetness.
Frozen strawberries make great ice cubes! Use your
imagination. Why not try some fruit combinations to create your own taste
sensation? When you eliminate things from your diet that are hard to give up,
it is important that you replace them with something that is appealing and
makes you feel special instead of deprived.
The beauty of eliminating these toxins and replacing them
with real food is that for the first time in a long time, you will be eating
foods that leave you feeling satisfied instead of continually longing for more.
You will be having foods that nourish and energize your body and clear the mind
wouldn’t it be nice not to be feeling hungry, tired and distracted all the
time?
If you have a desire to stop being a slave to your diet soda
but you just can’t imagine life without it, you should definitely try our detox
program. We will give you tons of support and lots of suggestions for dealing
with those cravings. Contact dreamteam@backtobasicwellness.com for mote info.
The Secret Weapon that Changed My Life!
Kathy’s blog on Monday was sure to open your eyes to the insanity of dieting in our culture today. She talked about the overwhelming predominance of digestive problems in this country. We are using antacids and over the counter meds for gastric distress as if they were a mandatory part of our daily lives. We race through the fast food hot spots, then high tail it to the drug store for a huge bottle of “colored chalky chews” to solve the problem. You can’t watch television or look through a magazine without seeing one ad after the next for something to fix acid reflux, indigestion, heartburn, and diarrhea. The list is huge and so are the sales!
I must confess I am no stranger to both of these issues. I spent way too many years of my life driven by diets and popping antacids and meds for reflux, gas and bloating. I tried it all - from over the counter remedies to prescription drugs to tame my troubled tummy.
It’s no coincidence that I tried my first diet at the age of 9 and a couple of years later had pockets full of Tums and Rolaids that I chewed daily. I graduated to prescription meds for my gastric ailments and also graduated to dozens and dozens of diets over the years. I shudder to think of the numbers of pounds I gained and lost over the decades following that first diet. There was not a time during those years that I ate normally. I was either on a diet or off a diet – nothing in between. I also can’t remember a time that I didn’t have some gastric issue going on. The heartburn that previously was relieved with a couple of antacids, escalated to acid reflux that was downright painful. There were times the chest pain was so severe, I thought I might be having a heart attack! This was no fun at all so I graduated to the prescription drug route. Gas and bloating turned into full blown I.B.S. (irritable bowel syndrome) which was painful, embarrassing and inhibiting. Most of us don’t really like to talk about this stuff – but I know there are so many of you out there suffering from this, perhaps to the degree that it is “holding you hostage” and really messing with your social life. I spent years that way – always needing to know where every bathroom on the planet was before I left the house. With each new “magic pill” that came on the market, I would have a glimmer of new hope. Each time the relief was shorter lived until finally nothing was working at all.
About 15 years ago I discovered one of the simplest methods imaginable to finally put an end to crazy dieting and calm the tempest in my tummy at the same time. A colleague of mine was showing up for work every day with the most beautiful and interesting lunches. At the same time, the pounds were melting off and she was looking positively radiant. I always prided myself on being “in the know” when it came to nutrition and particularly weight loss. I’d read anything and everything I could get my hands on. Year after year I would buy half a dozen magazines every January just to read about the newest diet craze (even though I really knew in my heart this was nothing short of crazy!). So I just had to find out what my co-worker was doing that not only had her looking svelte – but full of energy, glowing and eating all that beautiful food. How could I have missed something so amazing?
She was kind enough to share it all with me – including her own lifelong struggles with weight and gastric issues. She had broken free. She had eliminated some foods that were known “offenders” to the digestive system and learned how to combe the foods she ate in a specific way so that the body could process them with ease. I immediately read everything I could find on the subject. I also realized that I had read another book on this subject many years earlier and had chosen to ignore that wisdom, so I suffered for at least another 8-10 years. Yup – I can be really stubborn and skeptical. It cost me a lot of unnecessary time continuing to agonize over these issues.
As soon as I began to follow the principles of proper food combining, the results were “off the charts”. Despite all the years of being a “nutrition geek”, I must confess I was astonished. I felt absolutely amazing, almost from day one. I had more energy than ever. Digestion is an extremely taxing process and the body has to work very hard to move the foods we eat through our systems in a manner that is gentle and free of discomfort. It is no surprise that we can feel sapped and fatigued when our bodies have to work extra hard to digest foods that require different conditions to properly digest.
For me, it had been at least a decade of pain, discomfort and a literal “tempest in my tummy” before I put this into action. But the moment I started this process there was immediate relief. I kept waiting for my belly to bubble up like a cauldron as always – but it never did. My “gut” was humming. I felt great – I was getting that “glow” I had seen on my colleague’s face. I’ve probably saved a small fortune at the drug store as well. No more “purple pills” for this happy camper.
Oh – and one more little detail. I lost 10 pounds in the first month, all the while eating delicious healthy foods that I still continue to eat and combine today. The pounds kept on melting off in a way that I never experienced before – eating lots of food, not counting calories, fat grams, and no more deprivational, restricting fad diets. Once I got my “groove on” with mixing and matching the proper foods – it became second nature.
We just had to share how simple and successful this “secret weapon” can be. That’s why we’ve saved it for those who are willing, committed and ready to do what it takes to see some rapid, awesome results. You can do this I promise! Don’t waste any more time feeling crappy and frustrated – Join us on our 28 Day Transformation to Smokin’ Hot and Feelin’ Fabulous.
Lose Weight and Tame Your Painful IBS
If you are overweight and suffer from exhaustion and painful, embarrassing digestive problems, eating a gluten and dairy-free diet along with proper food combining could be the solution you have been looking for. There is a great deal of focus on weight in this country (and it certainly is an important topic), but what surprises me the most is the number of people I meet who suffer daily with painful acid reflux and chronic, often life-altering digestive problems. They come to us to learn how to lose weight and look better, but think there is little they can do to relieve their IBS, constipation or migraines etc. except take a pill. We know that is not true and we have many clients who can testify to that. The process can be slow and for many that is a good approach. Some however, prefer to make big changes in a short period of time and get more immediate results. It is important that we adapt our approach to meet the individual needs of our clients, so we made it our goal to come up with a way of eating that would address their health issues and have them losing weight in a hurry.
There are many reasons why so many are suffering these days. Our digestive system is being challenged in unprecedented ways. The foods most Americans eat today are highly processed and stripped of their valuable nutrients. They are then preserved with chemicals, many of which have not been properly tested. Those that have cannot be properly evaluated without knowing the combination of foods that you are going to eat in any given day. Each meal is a different chemical combination. No one really knows for sure the effect of the synergy of different chemicals. What we do know is that each succeeding generation is getting sicker and sicker. We hear on TV from Michelle Obama that we are raising the first generation of children whose life expectancy is less than that of their parents. That is a very powerful statement.
Where is the outcry?
I believe that people are silent because they believe there is nothing they can do to change the way things are. The truth is you can, and the best place to start is with changing you.
You can learn how to heal so many of your weight and health problems by simply adding seasonal, fresh whole foods to your diet. If you have never tasted escarole, broccoli rabe, butternut squash, quinoa and other superfoods, you will be surprised and delighted when you do. The taste is so delicious, even the pickiest of eaters will agree. But that is only part of this story.
Why food combining?
Initially it will seem odd to suggest that how we eat our food could really make any difference. We are very accustomed to combining steak and potatoes, eggs and toast and other proteins and carbohydrates to make what we believe to be a well balanced meal. People have been eating that way forever, right? Well, actually, no. Your most recent ancestors have, but the way your body digests food has not changed much in tens of thousands of years. For most of the history of our species, we have had to hunt and forage for food. It would be rare when we would eat more than one kind of food at a time.
Why was that beneficial?
Proteins and starches require different digestive enzymes, which function at different pH levels in the body. Pepsin digests protein in the highly acidic environment of the stomach, and starches prefer alkaline environments like the intestines. Acids and alkalines neutralize each other. Combining these two types of food traps them and slows down the digestion process. Foods that remain in the digestive tract longer than they should, start to ferment. This produces sugars that feed yeast and parasites, and further weaken the digestive tract and immune system. It creates symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation and weight gain.
If you are suffering from any of those symptoms, you owe it to yourself to give food combining a try. The simplest way to learn is to have someone show you how. Our new 28 Day Transformation Program is the road map to success. You will get simple, easy to follow recipes plus 4 weeks of menu suggestions. Every week we will send you a grocery list to make food shopping easy. You will have the guidance and support of 2 experienced coaches as well as a group of like-minded spirits. For all the details go to: http://backtobasicwellness.com/28-day-transformation-smokin-hot-feelin-fabulous/
