by Libby Weaver
The following is an article I wrote about alcohol that was published in a January issue of a magazine.
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Alcohol
As the festive season draws to a close, the effects of too much alcohol may still be silently, or loudly, reverberating. Whether it is increased body fat or cellulite, less energy and vitality, worse bouts of PMS or mood fluctuations… or perhaps your get up and go has got up and left. As fun as it can be at the time, alcohol can rob you of your clarity and purpose. And so January often sees us making big statements about our health, alcohol reduction, or avoidance. Some wait until February to take a break, as they’ve worked out it has fewer days! I know others who do Oct-sober in October.
We drink for wide and varied reasons. For some, it is the way they socialize, or the way they wind down from the day. Some use alcohol to distract themselves from thoughts and feelings they’d rather avoid. It can be a way that people cope. Regardless of the reason, many of us over-drink without even realizing it.
A standard drink is 100g of alcohol in whatever form that comes. In New Zealand and Australia 100g of alcohol is a 330ml bottle of 4 percent beer, a 30ml nip of spirits, 170ml of champagne, and it is a measly 100ml of wine—about four swallows! Next time you pour yourself a glass of wine, measure it, and see what your natural pour is. For most, it is considerably more than 100ml, and, as a result, many of us are over-drinking without even realizing.
The current recommendations provided by heart organizations say that for women, no more than two standard drinks per day with two alcohol-free days (AFDs) per week is okay, while for men, three standard drinks per day and two alcohol-free days is acceptable.
We have long heard the heart-health benefits of red wine publicly sung, and somehow it justifies to too many that drinking is OK—you tell yourself you are clearly looking after your heart. Also consider the American Cancer Society’s position statement on alcohol. It is very powerful and they “recommend” even less is consumed. Studies have suggested that if you have a family history of cancer there is no safe level of alcohol for you to consume.
I’m not suggesting you don’t drink alcohol, if you like it. Alcohol consumption can be immensely pleasurable for those who partake. I simply want to appeal to you to get honest with yourself about how alcohol affects you. You know in your heart if you drink too much and when it is impacting negatively on your health. Alcohol can affect the way we relate to those we love the most in the world, and of course it affects how you feel about yourself. It has a depressant action on the human nervous system so anyone who often experiences low moods is best served avoiding it. If you drink, drink for the pleasure of it rather than the misconstrued message that alcohol is good for your health.
The link between the consistent overconsumption of alcohol and breast cancer is undeniable. Research has shown this time and time again, and for many years now. Yet we rarely hear about it.
The human body cannot excrete alcohol; it has to be converted into acetaldehyde by the liver, and then the acetaldehyde can be excreted. This is the nasty substance that can give us a headache the day after a big night. If the liver didn’t do its job properly and alcohol accumulated in our blood, we can go into a coma and die. Alcohol is that poisonous. And I don’t say that lightly. But, thankfully, our liver jumps to action and starts the conversion process and we could carry on. Over time, though, this can take its toll. The trouble is, when we drink daily, or, for some, just regularly, the liver can be so busy dealing with alcohol as its priority, that other substances that the liver has to change so they can be excreted don’t get any attention and are recycled. Estrogen and cholesterol are two examples. It is often the reabsorption of these substances that leads to their elevated levels in our bodies—and that can lead to health challenges.
Many people start thinking about their first drink earlier in the day and often when they arrive home they are thirsty and hungry. If you want to cut back or cut out alcohol for a while, or even if you just want to break your habit of regular drinking, have a big glass of water when you first get home and notice if that takes the edge off your desire for alcohol. Most alcoholic drinks contain high levels of sugars, and so have a snack that contains some whole-food fats and see if that alleviates your desire for alcohol.
For other it’s the ritual they link to their drinks. When you arrive home, still pour yourself a drink at the time you would normally have a glass of wine, and do what you would normally do. Sit and chat to your partner, make dinner, talk on the phone to a friend. So often we have mentally linked the glass of wine to a pleasurable activity when it is actually the pleasurable activity that we don’t want to miss out on! So have sparkling water in a wine glass, with some fresh lime or lemon if that appeals, and add a few more alcohol-free days to your life.
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Signs your liver needs support
It’s time for some liver love! Here’s how to recognize signs and symptoms that the liver needs support—and some solutions.
Liver roll—that increased roll of fat high up under the bra of women, under the pectorals of men
Tender point in the center of your torso (can indicate gall bladder issues, heartbreak, or massive disappointment); if your gall bladder has been removed, your liver has to make the bile on demand that the gall bladder once stored, so additional liver support is often required
Very short fuse or temper
Episodes or feelings of intense anger
“Liverish,” gritty, impatient behavior
PMS
Cellulite (also lymphatic)
Overheating easily
“Floaters” in your vision (and iron deficiency has been ruled out)
Waking around 2 a.m.
Sleep that is worse when you’ve consumed alcohol the previous evening
Waking hot in the night
Not hungry for breakfast when you first get up in the morning
You prefer to start your day with coffee
Elevated cholesterol
Estrogen-dominance symptoms
You bloat easily
Drinking alcohol daily
Daily long-term caffeine consumption
Elevated blood cholesterol.
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LIVER SOLUTIONS
Set yourself a time-based goal when it comes to making these changes. For example, “I will only drink alcohol on weekends for four weeks,” or “I will only drink coffee when I go out for breakfast on Sundays.”
Take a break from alcohol.
Only drink on weekends; no alcohol during the week.
Replace coffee with green or white tea (or, less often, weak, black tea).
Support the liver with herbs such as:
> St Mary’s Thistle, especially if alcohol is a regular part of your life.
> Globe artichoke, especially if you have a tendency to constipation, and/or a liver roll, and/or central torso tenderness.
> Bupleurum, especially if there are clots in the menstrual blood.
> Schisandra, particularly for its detoxification action (it also supports the adrenals).
Transform anger into passion by giving a different meaning to a past experience; the energy of anger and passion are similar; they are just directed very differently.
Drink vegetable juice or a green smoothie most mornings.
Snack on seeds and nuts.
Eat less fruit if you eat more than two pieces per day and/or none after morning tea.
Cut out dairy products for a four-week trial and/or
Cut out grains (containing gluten) for a four-week trial.
Take an essential fatty acid supplement: either a good-quality, decent dose of (sustainable, mercury-free) fish oil for reducing cholesterol, or a flax oil, evening primrose oil combination.
Eat high-zinc foods such as oysters (from clean waters) or take a zinc supplement of zinc picolinate, 15–30mg per day and best taken at night just before bed to maximize absorption.
Remember, it is what you do every
day that impacts your health, not what you do sometimes. Just get honest with yourself. And take such good care of yourself that your quality of life is forever excellent. We only have one liver.
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Puzzle Piece 5 Gut Bacteria
This puzzle piece is relatively brief and to the point as far as fat burning is concerned. It is all about the bacterial species that inhabit your large intestine. It is an area in which I have had intense interest since completing my PhD, part of which involved analyzing feces samples from children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Not really something to discuss at a dinner party!
What my research—along with countless other scientific studies—taught me was that the way we eat influences the species of gut bacteria that inhabit our colon. Other factors influence this, too. These bacteria eat and produce waste just as a human does. I explored Digestion earlier, but this puzzle piece is all about the colon and the bugs.
The connection between gut bacteria and calories
First, let’s explore the influence gut bacteria have on the effect of calories on our body. Wonderful research from 200611 demonstrated scientifically what I had observed in my clients and what countless clients already felt to be true—and that is that there seem to be times in our lives when calories behave as if they are worth more in our body. The research took two groups of genetically identical mice with sterile guts; that is, there were no bacteria inhabiting their intestines. The researchers inoculated one group with a range of bacterial species that broadly fit under the name Firmicutes, while the other species were inoculated with Bacteroidetes. Both groups of mice were given an identical number of calories from identical food sources, and (drum roll please!) the group who received the Bacteroidetes species remained the same weight and size while the Firmicutes group gained weight. The mice almost looked “puffy” and “swollen” in the images presented in the scientific paper. This was the first research to show that the types of gut bacteria present in the large bowel may influence the value of calories.
The results of this work went on to be replicated in humans. This study found that people categorized as obese for the purpose of the research had significantly fewer Bacteroidetes in their bowel than lean people in the study. Lean people had a dominance of Bacteroidetes.
Are you one of those people who feel like you only have to look at food for it to end up sticking to you? Do you notice what the people around you eat and wonder how you can be the size you are when you feel as if you eat like a bird? Do you feel the way you eat does not warrant your size? As you have already read in this book, there may be numerous factors at play in this scenario, such as elevated cortisol, estrogen dominance, and/or liver congestion. Science has now shown that the species of bacteria in your large bowel can also play a role.
When I ask people to change their diets for a period of time, usually an initial four weeks, one of the questions in my head is how do I alter this person’s gut bacterial profile so their energy improves, their appetite changes (if they overeat in the first place), and their clothes get looser? The first step is to starve the “bad” bugs.
Just like humans, gut bacteria have food preferences, and they have specific “nutritional” requirements. Guess what they thrive on? Sugars! This gives you the biggest reason ever to eliminate refined sugars from your diet for a minimum of four weeks. Not just reduce them. Eliminate them. You must frame it in your head as four tiny weeks out of your very long life. This small chunk of time may provide you with an extraordinarily important answer to your health issues.
If such a challenge feels unattainable, a client who began seeing me when she was 310lbs (140kg)—she volunteered to share her weight—taught me a very effective way to do it. After hearing me speak at a seminar, she identified sugar as her biggest challenge. Cutting sugar back, let alone cutting it out completely, seemed impossible to her and felt like an overwhelming task. She had heard me hark on and on about the enormous importance of greens (especially green leaves), and so instead of starting by cutting sugar out—instead of focusing on eating less of something—she simply focused on eating more: more greens. Within four weeks, she said she no longer even wanted sugar. Her words to me were “it tastes terrible, and I feel like I’m poisoning myself.” Extreme perhaps, but you get the message—sugar tastes lousy after you’ve been eating a lot of green foods for a while, because greens are bitter, and the sugar tastes sickeningly sweet. So up your greens, and watch your desire for sugars fall away. Cutting it out of your diet will change your whole chemistry, as you will see in later chapters.
What many people don’t realize is that all carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in the body. Whether those carbohydrates come from sugars or starches, they are all digested and eventually converted into their most basic units: glucose. The body must have a source of glucose, as the brain, kidneys, and red blood cells require glucose for their fuel. My point in ensuring you are clear on this, though, is that today, with the extensive array of processed foods available, it is easy not only to over consume refined sugars but also refined starches; that is, foods made from highly processed, low-nutritional-value grains. To do the work we need to do to address this puzzle piece, refined starches are best omitted for a trial period of four weeks as well. If that feels overwhelming, please don’t allow that to stop you taking action. Omitting refined sugars might be your best focus.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
While I am presenting information about gut bacteria, I want to touch on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), because a bloated stomach, even though it’s different from a fat stomach, can communicate the same message to the brain, particularly to a female one. And studies suggest IBS affects approximately one in five women in many Western countries. I like to say—as with PMS—it is common but it is not normal. It is not how it is supposed to be. Food is not supposed to bloat us.
Regardless of your physical size, if you look down and see a bloated stomach, there is an alarm that screeches inside your head, whether you recognize it or not, “Look how fat you are!” It doesn’t matter if you have eaten healthy food that day and exercised, or eaten poorly and done nothing but sit on your bottom, but if you distinctly recall waking that morning with your tummy looking quite OK but now it looks like you’ve swallowed a football, then it’s going to have an effect. Logic disappears at this point. If you were still thinking logically, you would tell yourself that it is not possible to gain a football’s worth of fat in a day and that your tummy is simply bloated, to calm down, things will be fine again in the morning, and that it would be good to get to the bottom of your bloatedness. But the potential for that train of thought left the building the moment your brain saw your protruding tummy.
Instead, common reactions in the psyche, especially the female one, might be sudden onset of a really bad mood, overreaction to anything and everything, tears at the drop of a hat, withdrawal, or a major “what the heck” food attack that leaves the pantry bare. Some people are aware of what led to their change in mood. Most are not. And it is worse for those who have been making massive efforts with food and movement. The people who have eaten poorly that day still feel lousy about themselves, but they follow that lousy feeling with thoughts that drive more lousy feelings such as, “Well, what did you expect? You ate cake when you said you weren’t going to. You’re so hopeless, you have no willpower, and you’ll never change.” Really non-uplifting sentiments that do not inspire insights that could lead to a change in behavior!
Such reactions raise numerous issues about beliefs and behaviors, many of which are emotional and are explored in Puzzle Piece 9, Emotions. However, on a physical level, which is my focus here, it is essential that we examine why your tummy keeps bloating. Ask yourself:
Is it related to your menstrual cycle only?
Does it only happen after you eat lunch? If so, what are you eating for lunch?
Does your tummy bloat only after an afternoon snack? What are you choosing at this time of day?
/> Is it worse when you are stressed? Did it only begin after you went through a great deal of change, positive or not so positive? Did it begin (but perhaps not immediately) after a relationship break-up? Or a period of disordered eating?
Did it start after an episode of food poisoning or after a holiday where you had a very upset tummy?
My experience with the above scenarios follows.
Menstrual cycle-related bloat
If your tummy only bloats in the lead-up to your period, it is likely to be caused by estrogen dominance. Take the steps outlined in Puzzle Piece 3, Sex Hormones.
After-meal bloating
In my experience working with clients, I have learned that there are some foods that are better eaten on an empty stomach if you have challenges with your digestive system. Fruit is one of them. If bloating is an issue for you, only eat fruit first thing in the morning on an empty stomach—none for lunch and none midafternoon. This includes dried fruit. You may find the same thing happens with starchy carbohydrates such as bread. Some people bloat no matter what time of day they eat bread, and, if that is the case, they will usually do well omitting all gluten-containing grains for a four-week period. Others are fine with bread/toast for breakfast but for lunch it is a disaster in their digestive system. Bread is a highly processed food, after all.
