The Virgin Diet: The US Bestseller. JJ Virgin

and fizzy diet drinks, low-fat yoghurt, eggs, soy and whole grains.

       Your body is not a savings bank or a calorimeter. It’s a chemistry lab.

      

      Now here’s the key to the Virgin Diet: when it comes to weight loss and healthy eating, moderation doesn’t work.

      Why? Because weight gain among the non-obese is generally gradual, averaging almost a pound a year as the result of only moderate changes in diet and activity. Yes, if you binge for months on crisps and ice cream, you’re going to put on weight quickly. But that’s not how most people gain weight. They continue eating their normal diet, with maybe just a tablespoon of butter here or a few extra biscuits there. Before they know it, they’ve gained a pound a year, which adds up to almost 1 stone in 10 years and almost 1½ stone in 20 years. It looks like age itself is the problem, but it’s not. It’s that pound a year that caused all the trouble.

       Moderation doesn’t work.

      In other words, the average 30-year-old who consumes a moderate caloric diet while eating the wrong foods will be 10 pounds heavier by age 40 for what may seem like no reason at all. And if at any point along the way that person tries to lose weight – usually by restricting calories – she’s going to find it very difficult to lose weight, keep it off or both.

      Why? Because, you guessed it, your body is not a bank account or a calorimeter. It is a chemistry lab. Eating the wrong foods affects your body’s chemistry. Gaining weight affects your body’s chemistry. Stress and lifestyle changes affect your body’s chemistry. So, if you want to get that extra weight off, you have to heal your body’s chemistry.

       TOTAL POINTS:_________

       Your Food Intolerance Score:

       1 to 5: Low-FI

      Currently, you seem to suffer from few food allergies or intolerances, if any. I have found that most people feel and look better while removing high-FI foods and often are reacting to one or more of them whether or not they have any overt symptoms. You are reading this book because you want to make sure that you eat the best diet so you can keep feeling and looking lean and young.

       6 to 14: Mid-FI

      You consistently suffer mild or moderate discomfort and bloating with certain foods, but you do experience periods of relief. Over time, you have probably noticed weight gain even though your diet hasn’t changed. Your skin and hair may look somewhat dull, and you tend to feel more tired or stressed than you used to.

       15+: High FI

      Help! You can’t remember the last time you felt light and lean after a meal, and it feels as though your stomach is constantly bloated. You’ve done everything you can think of to lose weight, and it just hasn’t worked. Every time you look in the mirror, you think, How did I get so old? Why do I look so tired?

      

      Okay, so here’s how I like to think of it: food isn’t just calories or fat grams or even a source of energy. Food is information. Each bite of food that you put into your mouth sends your body a message – maybe even several messages.

       Food isn’t just calories or fat grams or even a source of energy.

      Some of these messages relate to your blood sugar and insulin production. Some of them govern your feelings of hunger and fullness. Others concern your fat burning and metabolism, and still others involve your hair, skin, mood and mental functioning.

      This is why I say that not all calories are created equal. You might portion out a biscuit, a hamburger and a serving of cauliflower so they all have the same number of calories, but each of those three foods is going to send your body very different messages. And it’s the messages we care about, not just the calories.

      Actually, it’s not just what you eat that gives your body information. It’s also how much you eat at one time, how fast you eat, what combinations you eat, how you feel while you are eating and even what you drink with what you eat. Every one of those things is important because each sends your body a message: burn fat or store it; build muscle or lose it; slow the ageing process down or speed it up; create steady, sustained energy or crash and burn within the next couple hours. Don’t worry if this sounds complicated: I have laid it all out for you. All you have to do is live by the Virgin Diet Plate and follow my rules of meal timing, and you will be golden. The Virgin Diet is designed to send only the right messages to your body – 24/7 for 21 days. I’m betting that you’ll like the feeling so much that you’ll keep sending all the right messages for a long, long time after that.

       Not all calories are created equal.

      

      Food allergies are actually rather rare, but they get all the bad press because they are responsible for the really dramatic food problems that we hear about, such as the child who takes one bite of a peanut and then has to be rushed to the hospital. Food allergies trigger special antibodies in the bloodstream known as immunoglobulin E, or IgE, the most aggressive defence system our bodies have. Among other chemicals, IgE antibodies release large amounts of histamine, a substance that causes swelling, mucus, congestion and all the other symptoms that you would normally modify with an antihistamine.

      It’s the swelling reaction that makes food allergies so dangerous. In severe cases, the throat and airways become so swollen that they cut off the air supply, making you unable to breathe.

      Even without such deadly responses, however, aggressive IgE antibodies generally produce quick, dramatic reactions, appearing within minutes or even seconds after the offending food is consumed. Other allergic reactions include rashes, urticaria (hives), itching, eczema, nausea, stomach pain, diarrhoea, shortness of breath and chest pain, as well as bloating, nausea, cramping and stomach ache. Because much of our immune system is located in the gut, food allergies tend to wreak havoc with digestion.

      Now, at this point, you might be thinking, But I don’t have any of those symptoms, and I feel fine after I eat. If that’s your response, terrific! You probably don’t have any food allergies. Most people don’t. But most people do have food intolerance, so let’s take a closer look at that.