John Douillard has been on the leading edge of dynamic optimal health for decades. And I have personally benefited from it. Now he questions our obsession with gluten free, dairy free eating by asking the question, Why, after centuries of eating these foods with no problems are so many people so adversely affected by them?

His answer to that question is scientifically accurate and thought-provoking. Its because our digestion is suboptimal to begin with. And our detoxification systems are overloaded for many other reasons. Dr. Douillard has helped thousands of people cure their food intolerances by treating the cause at its root not just the symptom. And whether or not you ever decide to consume gluten or dairy again, what youll learn in this book is crucial to your health.

Amidst Americas current gluten and dairy-free craze, the title Eat Wheat may seem somewhat shocking. However, Dr. John Douillard has been a highly respected healthcare innovator for many years, and this new book may be his greatest contribution yet. His compelling evidence-based approach for safely eating wheat and dairy, will greatly ease the concerns of a rapidly growing segment of our population committed to eating healthy. For those of us who enjoy eating a well-rounded diet and believe in everything in moderation, this book is a must-read.

Eat Wheat is clearly the most brilliant and groundbreaking dietary book in recent years that everyone should carefully read both the lay person and the medical professional. Dr. John Douillard explodes the myths behind gluten intolerance and reveals the real culprit in our own weakened digestive systems.

He exposes similar issues behind the wholesale rejection of dairy products, which like wheat, have enormous nutritional value and usage going back thousands of years. He reveals the faulty science and commercial propaganda that have turned millions of people against some of the most valuable foods in human history.

Dr. Douillard highlights the wisdom of Ayurvedic medicine and its profound insight into the role of Agni or the digestive fire, which modern medicine has not yet properly understood. He carefully explains how, by improving our digestive fire, we can increase both our food choices and promote our own positive health and vitality.

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John Douillard's - Eat Wheat Book

WESTFORD -- Allen Campbell looked out over the sea of smiling students at Nashoba Valley Technical High School's graduation, certain there was at least one among them feeling the way he did when he was that age: alone, hopeless, despairing.

And then he recounted his story: how he went from Nashoba Tech's culinary arts program to college to the restaurant world, how he struggled with depression and addiction, how he got sober and became interested in a sustainable plant-based diet, how his ideas landed him as the personal chef for a certain New England Patriots quarterback.

"I wanted to reach out to that person in the crowd feeling like I was and let them know, 'You have a shot at this,'" Campbell recounted last week. "This school really gave me a foundation to stand on."

Now 36, Campbell has co-authored the "TB12 Nutrition Manual" with Tom Brady, will deliver a TEDx Talk this month and will release another cookbook with Julie Loria, owner of the Miami Marlins, later this year.

And that whole journey, he said, started out in the kitchen at Nashoba Tech.

Born in Somerville, Campbell grew up in Chelmsford and started at Nashoba Tech as a freshman. Steve Whiting, the school's now-retired culinary arts instructor, said Campbell was "a serious kid" at first who began to develop a passion in the kitchen.

"The more he got excited about cooking, the more I got excited about cooking," Whiting said.

Whiting played an important role in the budding student's journey.

"I was so distant," Campbell recalled. "I had a very thick wall around me and I was not letting anybody in. He just saw through it. He was one of those teachers that saw through it. Some people are born to be teachers and born to help kids. I think he was one of them."

After graduating, Campbell went through Newbury College and then began working in Boston. But he was suffering from addiction and depression, and he was experiencing health problems, so he could not hold down a job in a kitchen.

He got sober in rehab, and then moved to Miami where "everything started to transform."

Campbell began exploring side work as a personal chef -- just for a few friends at first -- and became interested in developing a healthier, plant-based diet, focusing on "healing with food." He soon turned down a restaurant job so he could devote himself full-time to fleshing out his new cooking philosophy.

"I could not find a restaurant or hotel in Miami that was cooking the kind of food I wanted to cook," he said.

After spending some time building his reputation, a confluence of events landed Campbell in talks with model Gisele Bundchen, who is Brady's wife, and the quarterback. Because of a shared interest in healthy cooking, Campbell said, "it was love at first sight."

The duo asked Campbell to move back to New England to become their family's personal chef. For two and a half years, he would visit their home a few times a day, prepare meals and offer diet suggestions.

Last year, he helped Brady compile 89 recipes for the cookbook, focusing on seasonal ingredients and emphasizing plants whenever possible.

"It was incredible," Campbell said. "It was all based on this philosophy that I created."

Campbell left his job as Brady and Bundchen's chef in April 2016, looking again to branch out on his own further. He does consulting work about his diet and speaking arrangements about his journey, and he said he will deliver a TEDx talk this summer.

Later this year, Campbell's second cookbook contribution will be released. He said Loria, who owns the Marlins along with her husband Jeffrey, contacted him after reading some of his writing about the diet.

Loria did interviews with 20 Major League Baseball players, asking their favorite meals and how they shape their diets during the season. Based on that information, Campbell came up with 125 recipes ranging from dinners to smoothies.The book does not yet have a name, but Campbell said they signed a deal last week for it to come out later this year.

Despite his journeys around the country and his work with high-profile celebrities, Campbell never forgot his roots at Nashoba Tech. He kept in touch with Whiting, calling him at least once a year to catch up or stopping by the school whenever he was in town.

"I couldn't be more proud of Allen," Whiting said. "The fact that he's kept a relationship with me as far as a friend goes, not just as a mentor, but hearing how he's doing, really warms my heart, to be honest with you."

Campbell used his graduation address on June 3 to praise Whiting, the man who had been an encouraging paternal figure for so long.

"Some people are born to be teachers and born to help kids," Campbell said in an interview. "I think he was one of them."

Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisLisinski.

Brady's playbook

* 80 percent vegetables and whole grains, and 20 percent fish and lean meats, such as some steak and duck.

* No sugar or white flour.

* No nightshade fruits and vegetables, (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes).

* No MSG, iodized salt, coffee, or dairy.

Wife Gisele Bndchen, follows the same diet, though their two children eat a less-restrictive version.

Some nutritionists have questioned whether the diet has real health benefits.

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Chelmsford native helped develop QB's diet plan - Lowell Sun

NEW YORKThe days of Michael Phelps wolfing down food to keep up with his rigorous swimming training are gone.

But he still wants to clear up something about his diet. During a Q&A session at an event for Krave Jerkyat Manhattans Chelsea Piers, Phelps talked about his eating habits and mentioned the legendary 12,000-calorie diet in scare quotes before going into what he meant:

Dont believe everything you read. The stories were just ridiculous. I was probably eating anywhere between like 8 to 10 [thousand] probably at my peak where I was really growing. Still, it became a job.

This is a fantastic quote for a lot of reasons. First, it was myth-busting that he ate up to 12,000 calories a day.

But second, and its hilarious,he was still eating anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 calories anyway!!!!!

Thats still SO. MUCH. FOOD.

I did a little searching and found this breakdown on Active.com of what cyclists eat to ingest 8,000 calories. It included what that many calories looks like in a hypothetical diet:

22 eggs for breakfast

3 cereal bars

14 20 oz. bottles of sports drink

4 cups of rice

2 cups of granola with fruit

8 chicken breasts

4 bananas

Thats how much youd have to eat to get to 8,000. So although it turns out that Phelps didnt house 12,000 a day, he was still scarfing down tons.

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Michael Phelps reveals his 12000-calorie diet was a myth, but he still ate so much food - For The Win

source Getty Images/Jason Merritt

Eat like a baby. Cook like a caveman. Snack on one color of the rainbow each day of the week.

These habits belong to some of the viral diets that celebrities from Beyonc to Taylor Swift have sworn by.

Oddly enough, some of these eating plans contain nuggets of wisdom that could help you lose weight. Still, the bigger danger with any diet is that it sets us up for unhealthy habits we can't maintain, says Andy Bellatti, a registered dietitian and the cofounder of Dietitians for Professional Integrity.

"I know many people who've gone on some kind of crash diet for a week and lose a bunch of weight and a few months later they're back to square one."

With that in mind, here's the dirt on the strangest viral diets along with some science-backed wisdom about what actually works if you want to lose weight and keep it off.

The hype: Actresses including Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst, and Gwyneth Paltrow, have all reportedly done the pH or "Alkaline" diet, which advocates swapping so-called acid-forming foods like meat, fish, dairy, and grains with alkaline ones like fruits, nuts, beans, and vegetables.

The truth: The diet is based on the misleading idea that you can change your blood pH with food. While the pH of the stomach is acidic, the blood is slightly alkaline, something the food you eat can't change. Still, one positive part of the diet is that it advocates eating more fruits and veggies, something most dietitians agree we should all be doing.

The hype: Beyonc reportedly used the Master Cleanse to slim down before the movie "Dreamgirls." The cleanse involves drinking a lemon juice-based mixture to allegedly clean out the system and speed weight loss.

The truth: Any diet that's based around the idea of detoxing is probably bogus, since our bodies naturally detoxify themselves.

The hype: Singer Tim McGraw sticks to a paleo diet, a meal plan free of dairy, legumes, refined sugar, alcohol, and grains.

The truth: The US News and World Report ranks the paleo diet 36 out of 38 diets, saying that it can be tough to follow and is somewhat "nutritionally incomplete."

The hype: Slashing carbohydrates from your diet will force your body to burn fat, and celebrities including Adriana Lima, Megan Fox, and Mick Jagger are supposedly doing it.

The truth: First developed to treat childhood epilepsy, ketogenic or "keto" diets have become something of a fad among the Silicon Valley crew. The plan mimics starvation, sending the body into a metabolic state called ketosis. Some studies have linked the plan with a variety of health benefits from weight loss to a reduced risk of chronic disease, but it can also come with side effects like nausea, headaches, and fatigue - all of which could make it tough to stick to.

The hype: The Baby Food Diet, which involves eating 14 jars of baby food with the option of adding in one low-calorie meal each day, has been traced to celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson, who's since denied supporting it. Celebrities including Reese Witherspoon have allegedly tried it.

The truth: The diet is likely linked with weight loss because it involves calorie restriction, rather than having anything to do with the baby food itself. An average jar of the stuff has around 80 calories, so if you ate the number outlined in the diet, you'd end up with roughly 1,000 calories each day, not counting the allotted single meal.

The hype: Snooki reportedly lost weight in 2010 with a diet based on special cookies created by Sanford Siegal, who calls himself "The Cookie Doctor." The three-week plan involves eating six of the 90-calorie treats a day and one small meal.

The truth: Like the Baby Food Diet, the reason the Cookie Diet could be linked with weight loss is because of calorie restriction - all of those cookies only add up to 540 calories, about the equivalent of a single meal. A look at the ingredients in Siegal's "cookies" (wheat bran, beef protein, egg whites) also suggest they're more of a high-protein, high-fiber snack than anything else.

The hype: Shortly after singer Sam Smith took home four top awards at the Grammys in February, he started shedding pounds, crediting his transformation to nutritional therapist Amelia Freer and her "Nourish and Glow" 10-day plan. Freer also had him exercising regularly and eating lots of fresh veggies, fruit, lean meats, and some seafood while abstaining from pastries and ice cream.

The truth: There's nothing about the plan that's outright unhealthy. If you can keep up the habits you start with in the 10 days on the plan, it might work for you.

The hype: Singer Katy Perry claims the "M Diet," which involves swapping a meal with raw mushrooms for two weeks, helps her get lean only in select areas of her body, namely her waist, hips, and thighs.

The truth:"There's no evidence that any diet will help you lose weight in a particular spot," registered dietitian Katherine Tallmadge told LiveScience. Again, you can chalk any weight loss that results from this plan to calorie restriction. While a traditional meal is around 700 calories, a cup of raw mushrooms is about 20.

The hype: The day before his 44th birthday, artist Jay Z joined partner Beyonc in a 22-day "vegan challenge." Now, both stars are partners in a vegan food company founded by their personal trainer, Marco Borges, called 22 Days Nutrition.

The truth: As with any eating plan, if you can stick with the lifestyle changes it advises for a long time, it might be worth a shot. Experts also advise people transitioning to a vegan diet to replace meat and dairy with foods that have a similar nutritional profile, like tofu, beans, and dark, leafy greens to ward off nutrient deficiencies. Also, instead of Bey and Jay Z's plan, which costs about $600 for 22 days, you might want to simply try going vegan with a friend.

The hype: Singer Christina Aguilera reportedly went on the seven-day Color Diet at one point, eating foods of one color each day. Day one starts with white, which is followed by red, green, orange, purple, yellow, and, on the seventh day, all of the colors.

The truth: Different-colored foods do often provide different nutrients, so the temporary plan might help encourage you to try new things that you might otherwise ignore, from purple yams to emerald green kale. If you start by eating one color of fruits and veggies every day, you can establish a healthy habit of incorporating color into your diet, but don't forget the protein and whole grains.

The hype: Hollywood fitness trainer Harley Pasternak is the author of the New York Times best seller "The 5-Factor Diet," which encourages people to eat five 5-ingredient meals per day, each of which allegedly take just five minutes to prep.

The truth: The plan, more of a lifestyle and less of a temporary "fix-it" diet, is based around the idea that each of your meals contains one of each of four main food groups: protein, complex carbs, fiber, and healthy fats. The fifth group is water or other sugar-free drinks.

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11 viral diets and the ones that actually work - Business Insider Nordic

If youre sleeping then youre not eating.

Thats the idea behind a worrying new trend where anorexics abuse sedatives in the hope of losing more weight.

Dubbed the Sleeping Beauty Diet, it has caused concern among experts.

Instead of eating food, women are knocking themselves out with the help of sleeping pills, snoozing through meal times.

Those following the dangerous trend severely restrict their calorie intake,sleeping for up to 20 hours a day, in extreme cases.

Perhaps even more worrying, the trend, also dubbed narcorexia, is proving popular on pro-anorexiawebsites.

One user wrote: This diet is perfect for the end of the school semester, or just for people who have a lot of extra time on their hands.

'PRETTY LITTLE LIARS' STAR TROIAN BELLISARIO DETAILS ANOREXIA STRUGGLE IN NEW MOVIE

Less extreme advice advocates a better nights sleep each night and a healthy eating and exercise plan.

The Sleep Doctors Diet Plan by Dr Michael Breus suggests people exercise no less than four hours before bed and get at least seven hours of shut eye per night.

But it has been taken to the extreme as people seek ways to skip meals.

The Suns nutritionist Amanda Ursell said the new trend was shocking and is not to be dismissed lightly.

Most of us need three meals a day just to sustain us from an energy point of view. If you skip breakfast your ability to concentrate and focus in the morning and your mood are going to be not as good as if you did have breakfast. And if you skip lunch the same thing will happen in the afternoon," she said.

Eating disordersare really big issues and they profoundly affect your physical health and your mental well-being. This is not to be dismissed lightly, this trend towards sleeping diets, because they are deeply, deeply worrying, she added.

More than 725,000 men and women in the UK are affected by eating disorders, according to the UKs eating disorder charity Beat.

Ursell added that recent data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey suggests that many women already struggle topack enough nutrients into their dietsand as a result often suffer deficiencies in iron, calcium and other nutrients.

If you are cutting out food, you are going to be malnourished. If you are then starving yourself through sleeping, youre just going to exacerbate it, so you will feel shocking when you do wake up. Sleep itself wont sustain you. It is almost inconceivable that someone has put this out there, she said.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is important for maintaining good health.

The NHS recommends eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, basing meals on starchy foods like rice or pasta, eating lean proteins like fish and legumes and drinking plenty of water.

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses with complex causes. The messages and methods of losing weight promoted by the diet industry are unlikely to be the sole and direct cause of an eating disorder, but they may exacerbate the problem or be a contributing factor for someone who is vulnerable to developing one or is already ill, a spokesperson for Beat said.

If someone has become obsessive about what theyre eating or appears to be going to extremes in order to lose weight, it could be a sign that they are developing or have developed an eating disorder. The important thing is not to delay, as the sooner someone is treated, the better their chance of full recovery, she added.

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If you or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder and are in need of support, please call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 1-800-931-2237.

This article originally appeared on The Sun.

Read more from the original source:
Dangerous fad diet encourages sleeping instead of eating - Fox News

How drastically have new advances in science changed what we know about nutrition? This week, just a little. Were looking at three studies on potatoes, coconut oil, and vegetarian diets.

The headline: Coconut Oil Is as Bad for You as Beef Fat and Butter

The story: Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, just like lard and butter, but it has a better reputation. It just seems healthier, you know? It makes your baked goods fluffy and your hair shiny. It may even have a small fat-burning effect (maybe, I repeat, maybe), but its also a big pile of calories just like any other fat or oil. So if you were thinking of it as a totally free, wholesome health food, you were already a little too optimistic.

Todays news is an advisory from the American Heart Association that says we should quit eating so much saturated fat. That includes coconut oil. But their studies dont specifically link coconut oil with heart disease, except to say that coconut oil raises LDL (bad) cholesterol as much as butter.

Cholesterol levels arent the same as disease risk, and we cant ignore previous studies that say saturated fat may not be so bad for you. Dietary fat is actually a really tricky subject, and we still dont have clear answers on whether butter or coconut oil is harmful. Its fine if you want to back away from the coconut oil. But we dont have the evidence to say if that will make a real difference to your health.

Who doesnt love logging on to the good old net on a Friday morning to the headline Coconut oil

The take-away: Coconut oil is full of calories and saturated fat, so please dont think its totally cool to eat in large quantities. If you use a lot of it in your diet (or butter or lard, for that matter), you might want to err on the side of caution and replace some of that with olive oil.

The headline: Eating French Fries Twice a Week Could Lead to Early Death, Study Says

The story: This actually comes from a study of people at risk of getting arthritis in their knees. To be included, they had to be overweight or have another reason to be especially likely to develop arthritis. When they signed up for the study, they answered a questionnaire about how often they ate different food groups in the past year.

The researchers dont say in their study whether they started off looking for data on the risks of potatoes, or whether they ran the analysis for every food in this study (and maybe other studies too?) and decided to report the one thing that turned up positive. If thats the case, the results become a lot less valid: if you look long enough, youll almost always find something that seems significant. Either way, this study cant say whether eating fries is bad for you; it just says that people who ate a lot of fries had a higher mortality rate than people who didnt. This PopSci article explains the problems in a bit more detail.

There are two really important caveats here. The researchers didnt control for two very important factors: whether people who ate fries happened to have a less healthy diet or lifestyle in total; and whether people who ate fries were lower income, which is definitely associated with worse health. And those are two big, big things to miss.

The take-away: This study does not support the idea that fries are deadly. But if you eat healthy, you probably wont have a ton of fries in your diet anyway.

The headline: Science Finds a Vegetarian Diet Is Twice as Effective in Reducing Body Weight

The story: A vegetarian diet outperformed an omnivorous diet in one recent weight loss study...sort of.

The study involved 74 people who were all overweight and had type 2 diabetes. Half of them ate a diet that was vegan except for a serving of yogurt. The other half got a pretty standard diabetes management diet. The people on the near-vegan diet lost more weight, and were more likely to stick to the diet.

Theres already reason to be skeptical: the study is small, and it was specific enough that if youre not diabetic, or if your idea of a vegetarian diet involves eggs and cheese, these results probably dont apply to you. Heres a more in-depth explanation of the studys limitations.

Another big caveat: the people on the vegetarian diet were also more likely to lose muscle, even though they were exercising.

The take-away: A very specific vegetarian diet worked well for some people, but the study is too small and limited to be generalized to all vegetarian diets for all human beings. There are a lot of different diets that work, but to find the right one for you, youll just have to try and see.

See the article here:
What to Worry About This Week: Coconut Oil, Fries, and Everything Else You're Eating - Lifehacker