Food FactsThe second part of the Weight Loss Solutions focuses on exactly what you are looking for when it comes to high quality, healthy food. Here are the most important points. For further explanations, please refer to your
manual.
5. Organic Food is the way to health.
Begin by buying organic, free range poultry, meat, and eggs. If your local supermarket does
not carry such products, visit a health food store, Whole Foods, or Wegmans market (or you
can choose to order online at a variety of stores. This first step alone will ultimately change the progression of your health for the better—and for years to come. (If organic products are unavailable or difficult to obtain, then the next best choice is free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free poultry, meat, and eggs. This way, even if the animals
were not fed organic feed, at least they did not receive antibiotics and hormones.)
After you have made a regular practice of buying organic (or free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free) meat, poultry, and eggs, start buying organic produce. Begin with the produce that tends to have the highest pesticide residues:
Fruits: peaches, apples, strawberries, nectarines, pears, cherries, red raspberries, and imported grapes
Vegetables: spinach, bell peppers, celery, potatoes, and hot peppers
Do your best to obtain organic foods if they are available to you. Although I do highly recommend them, you can successfully follow this program with all natural foods that may not necessarily be organic. Make sure to wash conventional fruits and vegetables thoroughly to eliminate some of the pesticide residues.
6. Fats to Avoid and Fats you Must Eat.
Clean out your cupboards of all foods and snacks that contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil. You will find it in more packaged foods than you think, including many crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, cereal bars, sugar cereals, microwave popcorn, and low-fat and fat-free snacks.
Change your mind-set to no longer associate snacking with chips, crackers, and popcorn. Perfect snacks can be a smaller version of a real meal, such as a hard-boiled egg, a few pieces of chicken with vegetables, chopped vegetables, fruit, nuts, or nut butters. Fresh food is always the best food.
Only use quality fats for cooking: coconut oil and butter (raw organic). Organic extra virgin
olive oil should be used raw or for light sauteing.
Do not use margarine, which contains hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Consume at least two to three servings daily of good-quality omega-3 fats from fish oil, seeds
(especially flaxseed), avocados, and nuts (raw organic), especially walnuts.
Avoid roasted nuts. The roasting process causes the fats and oils to go rancid, and rancid oils
increase free-radical damage in the body. (Free radicals accelerate aging.)
Snack on organic nut butters. Most stores carry peanut, almond, cashew, and macadamia nut
butters. The ingredient list should not contain anything but one kind of nut and salt. Most peanut butters contain roasted peanuts, so read labels carefully.
Incorporate whole organic eggs into your diet, with breakfast or as a snack.
• When cooking with fat, add the fat to a cold pan and increase heat gradually.
• Serve flaxseed oil, cod liver oil, or fish oil straight from the bottle, on salads, or on cooked vegetables. Refrigerate these oils to avoid rancidity.
• If you find it difficult to incorporate foods rich in omega-3 fats into your meal plan, take an
omega-3 supplement daily.
7. How to carefully choose your Dairy
• If you consume dairy on a regular basis, try to buy raw (unpasteurized) certified organic products.
• If you can’t obtain raw dairy products, purchase the next best thing: certified organic. Although
the milk may be pasteurized, homogenized, or both, it won’t contain antibiotics, hormones, or
pesticide residues.
• If you can’t obtain or afford raw or organic dairy products, avoid dairy altogether. Most of the
calcium in dairy is not absorbed by the body anyway, so dairy is not necessary for a healthy
diet. Obtain calcium from other sources, such as leafy green vegetables, broccoli, sardines
(with bones), and salmon.
8. Avoid Soy at all costs.
• Discard everything in your cupboards that contains soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate,
texturized vegetable protein, or soy (or soybean) oil. Possible products include many packaged
energy bars, crackers, veggie burgers, and vegetarian look-alike products.
• If you have been consuming soy for a long time, get your thyroid function checked. If you suffer
from hypothyroidism, then eliminating soy from your diet may have a positive effect on your
condition.
9. Breads and Grains
• For all of your bread needs, consume only Sprouted whole grain products (2 good brands are
Ezekiel 4:9, Food for Life, Manna bread. Original, sesame, and cinnamon raisin loaves; rolls;
English muffins; and tortillas are all great to use). Use this bread to make bread crumbs for
meatloaf and meatball recipes. You can also use breads and bread type products made from
rice and spelt. These are now much more common in many food stores.
• Accept that breakfast and lunch do not have to include toast and sandwiches. Depending on
your metabolism type, eggs, fruits, and nut butters may be great options for breakfast. Salads
or vegetables with poultry, fish, or other meats may be great options for lunch.
• If you experience gastrointestinal distress (gas or bloating) while following the Diet Solution
Program, you may be gluten-intolerant. Try eliminating all gluten grains for 4–6 weeks to see
whether the condition improves.
• If you continue to suffer from gastrointestinal distress after eliminating gluten grains for 4–6
weeks or if you do not lose weight after 4 weeks on the Diet Solution Program, eliminate all
grains from your diet. To make this easier, The Jump Start Meal Plans provided below are also
very low in grains and bread.
10. The only Salt you should be using.
• Avoid all refined white table salt.
• Avoid all high-sodium packaged and canned foods.
• Use unprocessed, unrefined sea salt for all of your salt needs. (2 good brands are Celtic sea
salt (http://go.thedietsolutionprogram.com/celtic) or Redmond’s real salt. Other types of sea
salts may contain mercury or other toxic heavy metals. Make sure to read the label carefully
and make sure it indicates unprocessed and unrefined.)
• To avoid adding too much salt, always salt food after tasting it.
11. Drinking Water. How much and what kind.
• Drink half of your body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water each day. Add 8 ounces of water
for each 8-ounce caffeinated beverage you drink and another 8 ounces if you have exercised
that day.
• Drink 8 ounces of water when you feel hungry.
• Drink 8 ounces of water 15 minutes before each meal.
• If you use plastic water bottles, keep them out of the sun and away from heat.
• Install filters for your drinking water and bathing water, or invest in a whole-house water filtration system (
12. Sugar, artificial sweeteners and the alternative.
• Read labels! The sugar content of any food is listed right under the carbohydrate listing. Also
pay attention to where the sugar is listed in the ingredients. (The order indicates relative quantity.)
• Avoid all foods that contain artificial sweeteners, sugar, or sugar derivatives. This includes
Equal, Sweet n Low, Splenda (Aspartame, Saccharin, Sucrolose and all Sugar Alcohols)
• Avoid all sweetened beverages, including fruit juices that are not freshly juiced.
• For all your baking and sweetening needs, use only Stevia.
13. Alcohol Consumption
• While following the Diet Solution Program to lose weight, drink no more than one glass per
week, or, preferably, eliminate alcohol completely.
• If you drink alcohol, choose organic red wine. The rich flavor encourages you to drink slowly.
Red wine also contains fewer calories and carbs than other types of alcohol.
• A second-choice alcohol option is vodka on the rocks; fruit juice only adds empty sugar calories. The best brand is Chopin, which is made from potatoes, not wheat.
• After you reach your ideal weight, you can be a little more lenient, but minimize alcohol consumption to maintain a healthy weight.