Author: Detox diet 'practical, doable, next wave in the health’
Palm Beach Daily News  - 3/19/2005
Daily News Business and Real Estate Writer

The first 70 years of life are to accumulate one's fortune. But the wealth won't truly pay off unless one also spends those decades safeguarding health, author and nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman said recently at the Lydian Women's Connoisseur Series in Palm Beach.

About two dozen women attended the luncheon program in the boardroom at Lydian Bank & Trust Co.

Gittleman spoke after a health-conscious three-course menu. The entrée salad of grilled chicken, mixed greens, fresh mango and raspberries was drizzled with one of her recipes: a dressing of yogurt, apple cider vinegar, flaxseed oil and fresh lemon juice.

In addition to the broad focus on weight loss, fat loss and inch loss-and given the premium that Palm Beachers place on privacy-they should be more vigilant about what gets into their system almost at will, Gittleman said.

There can be “uninvited guests in your system, little souvenirs in your body that are not paying rent. Parasites can be very prevalent. Guess What Came for Dinner? You have no idea what's lurking there,” said Gittleman, author of the best-selling The Fat Flush Plan and The Fat Flush Cookbook. She has appeared on CNN, public television, Good Morning America and numerous talk shows. A certified nutrition specialist, she has a master's degree in nutrition education from Columbia University.

“Detox dieting will be the next wave in health and healing-cleansing and detoxing-so as not to suffer from toxic overload,” said Gittleman, who calls her program “practical and doable in the here and now.”

Although there used to be no such thing as including “the right kind of fats in the diet, certain fats are life-giving and essential,” she said. The body needs Omega 3 to make the tissue for hormones, and the easiest way to get it is from flaxseed oil, she said.

“The fastest way to protect the heart, the breast and the brain is [a variable dose] of flaxseed oil a day-to protect the cardiovascular system, immune system, the hair, the skin and the brain. And 2 tablespoons a day of ground-up flaxseed will keep breast cancer at bay,” she said, recommending 1 tablespoon of oil per 100 pounds of body weight. Flaxseed oil also is rich in lignans, as estrogen producing substance, and is beneficial for the prostate.

Cooking with flaxseed doesn't work, however, because it is sensitive to light and heat.

When McGraw-Hill published The Fat Flush Plan in 2001, Gittleman's premise of nurturing the liver represented a paradigm shift in weight loss and lasting weight control, she said.

“Nothing you do to control your weight is as important as keeping your liver healthy,” she writes in the new Fat Flush Cookbook . “This is the biggest weight-loss story in years,” and “the biggest secret in Hollywood.”

The liver gets no time off, what with “400 important jobs,” making it the body's primary detox organ that breaks down every substance into particles of water-soluble waste.

“If your liver is on overload, it can't purge the body of toxins,” said Gittleman, who gave a summary of “how to learn to love your liver.”

Because it is exposed to dozens of pesticides before processing, “coffee is the most egregious offender,” she said, recommending substitutes such as Teeccino, which brews like coffee, and dandelion-root tea. “It's very healing and high in potassium, one of the liver's favorite minerals.”

Other offenders are margarine, other processed foods, sugar and almost all sweeteners, she said. Gittleman recommends Stevia Plus, “the green packets. It's the healthiest sweetener I've ever found.”

To support the liver, Gittleman recommends drinking hot water with fresh lemon first thing every morning to thin bile and tone the liver and kidneys. Culinary herbs and spices are excellent liver-enhancers, starting with “lots of fresh garlic,” onion, dill, anise, cumin, tumeric and curry.

Yokes of Omega 3 eggs have a bonus of sulphur-based protein, she said: “The liver functions better if you have two eggs a day” that are Omega 3-enriched, or produced by hens fed an all natural diet of grains, soy protein and flax. Gittleman recommends, “get your eggs from chickens who don't do drugs.”

Unsweetened cranberry juice concentrate mixed with water is a digestive aid that flushes the lymphatics, she said, drawing a murmur throughout the audience when she added, “Cellulite will do a disappearing act.”

Carbonated beverages are taboo, she said, because they inhibit the secretion of hydrochlorides.

“I know [cranberry] works from my own use of it. I'm on Phase 3 [ of The Fat Flush Plan ], and I've gone from a size 10 to a size 8. I will have to come back to Palm Beach to shop for clothes,” said Gittleman, who lives in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

Hormones are critical to the way we feel, yet some women are deficient in progesterone, she said. Gittleman created her own topical replacement, and said progesterone solves “an underlying important aspect: irritability, anxiety and sleeplessness.” Zinc makes progesterone naturally, she said, “So get thee to some zinc.”

Magnesium has gotten short shrift as a mineral, she said. It should be taken at night. And a major byproduct of stress is a substance known as cortisol, which produces abdominal fat.

Within an hour of waking up, “put something in your mouth,” she said. “And eat something every three to four hours, or the body will make extra insulin. Your blood doesn't lie.”