PEERtrainer

5 Reasons To Consider Removing Gluten From Your Diet, By JJ Virgin, PhD

This is a link to a new article on the site about Gluten written by JJ Virgin, who has a PhD in nutrition:

Should You Remove Gluten From Your Diet?

We asked for this to be written in response to an email we had been sent arguing that there was no scientific basis to the assertion that gluten was something that could harm your health or hinder your weight loss efforts.

We had written a summary on this subject earlier this year, and it is great to have us continuing this discussion. In the summary we quoted another well known nutritionist, Dr. Alan Pressman who said this:

"Gluten is a protein, and it can be found in wheat, rye, and barley.  Many people are allergic to it, and millions of people are sensitive to it.  It can trigger all sorts of inflammatory responses in your intestinal track and entire body. It creates chronic inflammation throughout the body, and if you are sensitive or allergic to it can cause a 72 percent increased risk of death. That's pretty serious business."

This is an emerging area of scientific understanding, and we hope that by presenting these different views it will help you see if gluten is something that is effecting you personally.

Read JJ Virgin's take on Gluten here

How Food Sensitivities Impact Weight Loss

We just rolled out a new interview for the PEERtrainer Mastermind Program, in the form of a 20 page interview we recently did with JJ Virgin.

Because of the importance of the information she presented, we thought that it made sense to highlight a couple of the key points and share them with everyone in the PEERtrainer Community.

As you read these bullets you will see why we wanted to share them with you!

Food Sensitivities And How They Impact Weight Loss

• A food allergy is the person who if you open the peanuts on the plane, they go into anaphylactic shock. It's your mother‑in‑law eating lobster and getting hives. These are rare, and represent less than 1% of the population.
• Food sensitivities are not rare, from JJ's testing represents around 70% of the population. The worst part is that we usually think the symptoms are normal for us: gas, bloating, joint pain, fatigue, cravings, skin problems, can't lose weight.
• The problem is that they are hard to identify. Your energy might drop six hours later, you may break out the next day. It can be very hard to put this all together.
• There are many common food allergens. Gluten is not good for anybody because of how it damages the gut.
• When you reduce food allergens in the diet, it becomes easier to lose weight.
• Replacing the allergen causing foods is a big challenge. When you deal with this, it becomes much easier to follow an "elimination diet."
• According to JJ it is the combination of gluten, stress and toxins that are doing the most damage. What she does in her practice is help the gut heal, and then you can usually layer in some of the traditional allergens. (But leave the gluten out as much as you can.)

There is much more, and for those of you in the PEERtrainer Mastermind Program, you'll be sent this transcript in week six. This subject matter is a part of the "Stress Formula" that we talk about. There are many components to stress, and removing food allergens is a core part of it.

We thought that the 70% statistic would get attention. Now, this is from JJ's experience in her practice, but the point here is that you will likely benefit from reducing common food allergens.

What is interesting about her comments is that at PEERtrainer we have designed all our recipes, recipe guides and meal plans to leave out these allergens. For those of you who have The Magic Fridge or our Mastermind Quickstart Meal Plans- you'll find recipes that are 99% free of the common allergens!