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CHAPTER 1 Why My Diet Is Different--And Why It Works HAVE YOU TRIED DIET after diet, only to wind up frustrated and actually gain weight? If so, trust me--you're not alone. Every year, I see hundreds of people just like you in my office. By the time these people hear about me, many of them are desperate. They're overweight, they're unhealthy, and they look and feel years older than they are. These people have tried diet after diet. They've dutifully counted calories, calculated fat grams, and weighed portions. And instead of losing their extra £ds, they weigh more than ever. I call myself the "last-chance doctor" because I'm often their last hope. I can't fail them like their previous doctors did. So I don't fail them. Instead, I show them how to take their extra weight off easily . . . and keep it off permanently. And there's another way I'm different from their earlier doctors. When I talk with my patients about their weight problems, I don't tell them, "It's your fault." You know why? Because if you're struggling with a weight problem, it's not your fault. Here's why. HOW THE "EXPERTS" MADE YOU GAIN WEIGHT Before I tell you how to take off your extra £ds, I need to start at the beginning. So here's my question: What made you gain weight in the first place? Here's the deal. It's not greed or low willpower. It's bad advice. If you're like most people, you've spent years obediently eating what nutrition "experts" told you to eat: sandwiches, wraps, and mounds of pasta. Bowl after bowl of cereal. Margarine and heavily processed seed oils like canola oil. Soy burgers and other soy "Frankenfoods." Egg substitutes. Sugary nonfat yogurt loaded with artificial colors and flavors. Chemical sweeteners created in a laboratory. What's the result? ■You're constantly spiking your blood sugar with high-carbohydrate foods. This causes your body to release more insulin--and insulin lays down fat. Worse yet, your cells eventually become resistant to this insulin overload and start slamming the door on insulin and the sugar it's carrying (a condition called insulin resistance). As a result, this sugar gets turned into fat and goes right to your belly. In addition, insulin resistance causes you to crave more carbs, creating a vicious cycle. ■You're making your gut sick. The trillions of microbes in your intestines play a huge role in determining how much you weigh. Feed them food they're not genetically wired to use--from massive amounts of soy to gut-altering pseudo-foods like sucralose--and you have an unhealthy ecosystem. This leads to body-wide inflammation (I'll talk more about this later) that packs on the £ds. ■You're robbing your body of the natural, real foods you need to keep your cells glowing, your hormones optimized, and your metabolism running on high. As a result, you're never truly healthy--and you keep gaining weight. With millions of people following this bad advice, is it any surprise that we're currently experiencing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes? Yep . . . this is my shocked face. WHY CRAVINGS AREN'T YOUR FAULT EITHER Now, let's talk about something else: those uncontrollable cravings you get for junk foods like doughnuts, pizza, french fries, and cupcakes. I'm betting your doctors tell you that resisting these cravings is simply a matter of increasing your willpower. (They love to lay guilt trips on you, don't they?) But guess what: There are biological reasons for these cravings--and again, the diet that "experts" prescribe is largely to blame. Here's a look at two key reasons why it's hard to resist the siren song of that junk food. 1. Leptin resistance Leptin is a hormone your fat cells use to communicate with your brain about how much energy you need. High levels of leptin make you feel full, while low levels make you feel hungry. That's why I call leptin your hunger trigger. That's pretty straightforward, right? But here's where things can start to go wrong. If you eat a diet loaded with high-carb foods--including so-called healthy foods, like whole grains, pasta, and brown rice--you can develop leptin resistance (similar to the insulin resistance I just talked about). These foods cause your leptin levels to rise, and eventually your cells compensate by becoming insensitive to leptin. When this happens, your cells no longer hear leptin's message that you're full. So even if you don't really need to eat, you experience deep-down cravings--and you're genetically wired to respond to these cravings by seeking high-calorie foods. 2. Sugar addiction If you eat a diet that's high in sugary foods, you can actually suffer physical symptoms when you go without them. That's because sugar is addictive. You may be thinking, "Seriously, Kellyann? Isn't addiction a pretty strong word?" But it's no exaggeration. Think about this: Rats in a maze will choose a path that leads to Oreos as frequently as a path that leads to cocaine, and the Oreos have an even stronger effect than cocaine on a part of the rats' brains that's linked to addiction.1 Moreover, animal studies show that sugar produces three symptoms consistent with addiction: cravings, tolerance (so you want more and more), and withdrawal.2 Now, let's talk about where the sugar in your diet comes from. Sure, some of it comes from candy and cupcakes. But if you're eating the way most "experts" tell you to eat, a large amount of it is coming from the foods these experts recommend. For instance, two slices of whole wheat bread contain more sugar than a candy bar. And nonfat yogurt sweetened with high- fructose corn syrup is a sugar bomb. When you eat foods like these constantly, you strengthen the Sugar Demon's grip on you. WHY MY DIET MAKES YOU SLIM As you can see, the typical diet that "experts" prescribe is a quadruple whammy. It's heavy in carbs, raising your levels of fat-promoting insulin. It's high in foods that damage your gut, leading to inflammation--the biggest cause of weight gain, as I'll explain later. It's poor in nutrients that keep your body glowing with health. And it leads to leptin resistance and sugar addiction, both of which make it harder for you to resist the temptation to eat sugary junk foods. So it's time to say goodbye to that diet and do something that works. That something is my Bone Broth Diet. I've used this diet to help hundreds of thousands of people around the world lose weight and de-age their bodies. Why does my diet work when others fail? Because I have two secrets: fat- melting foods and my "liquid gold." Here's a look at each one. Secret #1: My fat-melting foods My diet centers around real foods--the foods we're genetically engineered to need. When you eat these foods, it is simply natural law that you will get slimmer and healthier. Here is what these foods do: 1.They heal inflammation. These foods are loaded with anti-inflammatory nutrients--and reduced inflammation equals a slimmer, younger-looking you. (I'll tell you why shortly.) 2.They're low in carbohydrates. When you eat fewer carbs, your blood sugar drops. This means you generate less insulin. Your insulin resistance starts to disappear, so you deposit less belly fat. In addition, your cells become sensitive to leptin, so you no longer crave food when you're full. 3.They're lipotropic. Lipotropic nutrients carry fat away from your liver and help you break it down and metabolize it. On this diet, many of the foods you'll be eating are loaded with choline, which is the body's main lipotropic substance. 4.They're rich in healthy fats that nourish your body and skin. I want you to drive a stake into the heart of the "fats are bad for you" myth. Healthy fats make you lose fat--and they're fabulous for your skin. 5.They scrub your cells clean. Right now, if you've been eating a typical diet, your cellular matrix--the "sea" in which your cells swim--is clogged and acidic. The clean, nutrient-dense foods you'll eat on this diet are brimming with detoxifying nutrients that will make your cells vibrant and young again. 6.They regulate your hormones. These real foods will help bring all of your hormones--not just insulin and leptin--into balance. As a result, you'll see changes in everything from your skin to your energy levels. By the way, one result that patients report all the time is what I call tiger blood. Let's just say--ahem--that you're likely to feel like a teenager again in more ways than one! 7.They end your sugar cravings. By satisfying your hunger in healthy ways, these foods empower you to break free from your sugar habit. When you swap out the foods that are making you fat and sick for these natural, nutrient-loaded foods, you're going to see amazing results. The £ds will fall off, your belly fat will begin to vanish, your skin will look younger, and you'll feel better than you have in years. In addition, these foods are delicious. You're going to look forward to your meals, rather than dreading them. You may even feel a little sinful when you eye your gorgeous plates--that is, until you see your muffin top and your wrinkles melting away. Secret #2: Painless mini-fasts with the magic of "liquid gold" On my diet, you're going to do "mini-fasts" two days a week. (Don't stop reading--I have a painless way for you to do this, and I'll share it with you in just a few paragraphs.) Mini-fasts are a part of my diet because fasting is the quickest way to strip £ds off your body. It lowers your insulin levels, ramping up fat burning. It increases your levels of human growth hormone, which burns fat and builds lean muscle. It cleanses your cells, removing the debris that makes them sluggish. And it heals chronic inflammation--the biggest key to fast, permanent weight loss. In addition to these benefits, fasting creates a huge calorie deficit. While my diet isn't a calorie-counting diet, cutting down on your overall calories two days a week will burn your fat stores rapidly. So if you're serious about losing weight quickly, fasting needs to be part of your plan. You can do this diet without the fasts, but the £ds will come off more slowly. Now, I know you're still wondering . . . how can fasting be painless? Well, here's the secret: Bone broth. Bone broth is what makes this diet different from any other diet you've tried. Of all the foods I want you to eat, this is the most crucial one. It's the magic elixir that burns off fat, smooths your skin, and gives you the power to fast without fear. If you're new to bone broth, it's a rich, flavorful broth made from meat, poultry, or fish bones that you cook for hours until they literally start to melt, releasing deep nutrition. It's this healing nutrition that gives my diet superpowers. I know it may be hard to believe that one of the world's simplest and oldest foods holds the key to losing your extra £ds and erasing your wrinkles. These days, we're trained to believe that healing comes from a pill or surgery--not from something as basic as food. But there are three reasons why this "liquid gold" will transform your body. Here's a look at each of them: 1. Bone broth fills you up and eliminates cravings. As I've just said, you're going to do bone broth "mini-fasts" two days a week on this diet. These mini-fasts are the key to rapid weight loss, because fasting takes £ds off like crazy. The downside, of course, is that regular fasting is hard--in fact, far too hard for many people. Regular fasting can make you hungry, shaky, and desperate for food. However, on my diet, you're not going to be hungry on your mini-fasting days. That's because you're going to drink delicious, healing bone broth all day. It's my secret to pain-free fasting! If you haven't tasted bone broth, believe me: It's nothing like that watery stuff in a can. It's rich and comforting, and a cup will fill you up for hours. Our bodies crave bone broth's deep nutrition, so it satisfies us on a cellular level. Just how tasty and satisfying is bone broth? Classy restaurants in New York and Hollywood are selling it these days for $9 a mug. In fact, there are trendy bistros that sell nothing but bone broth--and they can't keep up with the demand. So trust me: Bone broth isn't just healthy, it's fabulous. 2. Bone broth melts off your extra £ds by healing chronic inflammation. In addition to being a delicious drink, bone broth is one of the world's most powerful healing foods. In fact, cultures around the world have used it for centuries as a medical treatment. Here's why: ■It's rich in glycine, a powerful anti-inflammatory amino acid. ■It's filled with glucosamine and chondroitin, which heal your joints. ■It's loaded with gelatin, which soothes gut inflammation. This last point--the gut-healing power of gelatin--is so important that I want to talk more about it right now. I mentioned earlier that sick gut leads to chronic inflammation and weight gain, and now I want to take a minute to explain why. Here's the story. Your gut is home to an entire ecosystem called your microbiome. (I like to say that you're a "big bag of bugs.") The microbes in this ecosystem do everything from keeping your immune system in check to metabolizing your food and synthesizing key vitamins and hormones. When your gut has the right numbers and kinds of these bugs, you're in good shape. Your gut is glowing, and your level of inflammation is low. But what happens when you have the wrong kinds and numbers of gut bugs? When your gut becomes unbalanced, things can go downhill really fast. Unfortunately, the modern world is cruel to your microbiome. A standard diet high in carbs, sugar, and artificial chemicals and low in critical nutrients suppresses beneficial bugs while allowing bad bugs to thrive. Antibiotics kill off swaths of your beneficial microbes. Stress, toxins, a lack of exercise, and drugs like NSAIDS and antacids create an unhealthy environment for them. When these culprits cause your gut to become unbalanced, bad things happen. The microbes in your gut start cranking out toxic chemicals that inflame your intestinal wall. Normally, this wall is a fortress--but when it becomes inflamed, holes open up in it. These holes let toxins and undigested food escape into your bloodstream, where they don't belong. Is This Diet Right for You? If you want to lose weight, look and feel younger, and have the energy of a teenager, the answer is yes! I have just a few cautions: ■If you're pregnant, wait until you have your baby and finish nursing before starting the diet. ■If you have type 2 diabetes, work closely with your doctor to make sure you adjust your medications correctly as the diet lowers your blood sugar. ■If you have any chronic health conditions, get an okay from your doctor before starting the diet--and ask if your fasting days will affect your medications. ■If you're getting over an injury or illness, wait until you're well before starting the diet. ■If you have a history of an eating disorder, make sure your doctor gives you the okay to follow this diet. ■If you're under 18, be sure your mom or dad checks with your doctor first. Excerpted from Dr. Kellyann's Bone Broth Cookbook: 125 Recipes to Help You Lose Pounds, Inches, and Wrinkles by Kellyann Petrucci All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.