Joseph F. McWherter, MD FACOG

Before continuing my multi-part discussion on estrogen , I thought it would be very timely to mention a source of estrogen frequently overlooked, but of great importance, not only breast health but in overall wellbeing – FAT.

Many of us watched movies on television on New Year’s Day, especially after a festive New Year’s Eve and a Christmas holiday marked by debauchery and overeating. I noticed that while watching one movie, there were three back to back commercials concerning weight loss. One commercial featured an actress, while the other two were commercials highlighting popular eating plans. The movie I was watching was “Chocolat,” which I thought was an interesting – if not brilliant – venue in which to advertise weight loss for the coming New Year.

Watching these commercials made me wonder…Why do we have thousands of dieting plans, yet obesity continues it epidemic rise? By the way “pure chocolate defined as >75%“, actually is healthy , curbs the appetite, and kills cancer cells.

The answer to the obesity enigma is complex. It should include two important elements which every woman must address in order to control her weight (I define as waist line measurements or % of visceral adipose tissue – VAT). Think of this as an extension of my wellness program – balance hormones and remain alkaline through detoxification:

•             Treat your diet as part of your hormone balancing program
•             Support your body’s detoxification system, especially the liver

Excessive weight gain, defined by increased waist girth, is a sign of a hormonal imbalance, most often involving insulin resistance with reactive hypoglycemia. In other words, when you eat grains or foods with a glycemic index of 80 or higher, your blood sugar drops and approximately 1 to 2 hours later you may notice sleepiness, fatigue, uncontrollable yawning, feeling flushed, or an increased heart rate. Congratulations! You just turned into a winterized polar bear and stored more fat onto your waist line.

Let me make a suggestion: Whatever diet you decide upon, commit to limiting foods inducing hypoglycemia for the long term.

After performing a 15 year study on my patients’ habits, I found that those who seem to maintain their waist size eat a Paleo-like diet five out of seven days (while ignoring my recommendations for any 2 days of the week!) The five days of avoiding hypoglycemic foods includes a morning shake with ingredients recommended on the FEM Centre plan. Mom was right! A good breakfast acts to balance your insulin for the rest of the day.

If you have trouble following the “five out of seven” day rule then try to eat two hypoglycemic meals a day with the third meal containing grains such as barley, millet, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, or steel cut oats. Breakfast should a smoothie containing ingredients in my cookbook.

I have not mentioned quantity of food per meal, but if you place your hands together palm against palm and then open them forming a cup you have an estimate of the actual size of the stomach. If your food intake exceeds the volume of your cupped hands then you exceeded the optimal amount for your stomach size.  It takes almost 15 to 20 minutes for your brain to register stomach fullness. Enough said – eat slowly, chew your food well, and drink plenty of liquids (preferably water) with meals.

Part 2 of this blog will cover how detoxification aids in weight loss and reduced inflammation.

JMcW, MD