If you haven't already heard, JJ Virgin has just released
the Virgin Diet Cookbook to accompany her book TheVirgin Diet:Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days.
Lose seven pounds in seven days is intriguing so I decided
to check it out and do a little Internet research. Of the reviews and websites I looked at the weight loss results
were mixed, ranging from 0 - 30 lbs lost after a month of being on her
program. I didn't find any independent
claims of dramatic weight loss or life changes comparable to the testimonials
on her website and promotional materials.
Still it's an intriguing idea.
The basic concept behind her diet is that health problems and
weight gain can come from consuming allergenic foods or foods you are
intolerant to.
Severe food allergies are easy to identify because of the
immediate reaction to the problematic food.
But mild or moderate food allergies and food intolerances can be
difficult to identify because the allergenic reaction can be mild flu-like
symptoms or unpleasant feelings like fatigue, sluggishness, headaches, or poor
concentration. Making them even
trickier to detect, symptoms may not appear for several hours to a few days
after eating the problematic food.
She identifies that the seven most common allergenic foods
are: peanuts, corn, soy, gluten, dairy, sugar, and eggs and when you eliminate
them from your diet, your body naturally loses weight.
Her program is to remove the seven foods from your diet for
three weeks, then bring them back one by one to see how you react to them. She claims her diet to be different from an
elimination diet because she offers food swaps you can eat to replace each of
the seven forbidden foods such as replacing cow's milk with coconut milk.
Through allergy testing I already know that I have a
moderate allergy to four of her identified offenders. I have felt fine keeping them at a minimum.
JJ Virgin argues that if you have any level of allergy or
intolerant response you should not eat the offending food, debunking the
"everything in moderation" myth.
My doctor wasn't to hip on the idea of completely eliminating a food
group. But I guess it's possible that
the allergens are harming the body at the cellular level, even if I'm not
noticing any symptoms. It will be
intriguing to see if I notice any difference in how I feel being completely off
them.
I do agree with her that "everything in
moderation" is a slippery slope to eating more than you intended. It's very easy to rationalize like an
alcoholic, "just one won't hurt me" and before you know it, you've
ingested several.
I must admit that when I decided to try out her diet I gave
myself some time to kick my daily dose of chocolate, figuring stopping sugar
would be my most difficult challenge. I
also fell into the trap of any diet, suddenly indulging in the foods I would
soon be forbidden to eat. I recognize
my human frailties, but I'm also committed to rising to the challenge of no cheese
or chocolate for three weeks. (Though
it may not be so pleasant for my husband.)
With the mixed reviews of actual weight lost I'm going to
focus on how I feel and take weight loss as an extra bonus. My Virgin Diet Experiment starts today. In three weeks we'll see how I did and if I
caved to cheese and chocolate.
by Carolyn Almendarez
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