The Perricone Weight-loss Diet: A Simple 3-part Program To Lose The Fat, The Wrinkles, And The Years - Hardcover

Perricone, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345485939 ISBN 13: 9780345485939

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2005

Synopsis

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Perricone– respected physician, award-winning research scientist, and trusted expert on health and beauty–comes the biggest breakthrough in weight loss since Atkins.

Millions of women and men have restored youthful radiance, smoothness, and suppleness to their skin through Dr. Nicholas Perricone’s advice, care, and transformative eating plan–and all with the welcome yet unexpected benefit of losing excess weight along with the wrinkles! Building on this discovery, Dr. Perricone breaks new ground with his trademark anti-inflammatory program based on the foods, supplements, and lifestyle changes with the proven ability to accelerate fat loss by increasing metabolism and building and maintaining muscle mass.

Consider this staggering fact: As we age, we can expect to gain ten pounds of fat and lose five pounds of muscle each decade. In three easy steps, Dr. Perricone shows how to fight this weight gain and rebuild muscle mass, and avoid the haggard, aging, and drawn appearance that results from other weight-loss programs.

Inside The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet discover

• the rejuvenating and slimming secrets of the anti-inflammatory diet
• which foods, supplements, and lifestyle changes enable us to lose fat while maintaining muscle
• how to control hormones such as insulin and cortisol to lose weight
• how to maintain youthful, firm, and radiantly toned skin on the face and body during weight loss

As an added bonus, as you follow Dr. Perricone’s program you’ll sleep better, have more energy and less stress, and experience greater mental clarity without the food cravings. Lose the weight, the wrinkles, and the years!

About this title

About the Author

Nicholas Perricone, M.D., is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers–The Wrinkle Cure, The Perricone Prescription, and The Perricone Promise–as well as The Acne Prescription. He is a board-certified dermatologist, award-winning inventor, research scientist, and internationally renowned anti-aging expert. He is the focus of a series of award-winning PBS specials, and a popular guest on Oprah, Today, and 20/20, among many other programs. Visit the author’s website is www.nvperriconemd.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Getting Started

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
—Alan Kay, computer genius/visionary

In writing this book, I have discovered that the greatest gift I can give my readers is permission to eat healthy and delicious food. This might seem strange considering this book is about weight loss, because traditional concepts of weight loss are all about not eating—nevertheless, it is a fact.

Statistics regarding obesity and excess weight are alarming. The International Obesity Task Force, which is advising the European Union, had estimated in 2003 that about 200 million of the 350 million adults living in what is now the European Union may be overweight or obese. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Census 2000 stated that nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States were overweight, and 30.5 percent were obese.

However, a closer evaluation of the figures in the latest analysis indicated that may be an underestimate.

We Americans (children and adults) are more confused than ever about what constitutes a healthy diet. According to statistics from the National Institutes of Health, the prevalence of obesity in the United States has almost doubled since 1980.

And for good reason. For the past several decades, we have been bombarded with all kinds of misinformation about what we should and should not eat or drink. As soon as one scientific study hits the newswires, another one with equally convincing yet contradictory data springs up. From books to videos we are assailed with confusing and opposing points of view from all kinds of experts and pseudo experts. Consequently, figuring out what to eat and what to avoid has become increasingly difficult.

The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet cuts through the confusion and provides a simple, foolproof eating plan that will improve your health, help to fight the signs of aging, help you to lose weight, and prevent new weight gain. It all begins with learning which foods make this possible and which foods defeat our purpose.

BUT FIRST, SOME HISTORY

Back in the 1960s, the then-young baby boomers began a dietary “back to the land” revolution in protest of the post-World War II introduction of processed foods. In typical backlash fashion, everything this generation embraced had to be “whole,” “natural,” “fresh,” “unprocessed,” and grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This was the beginning of the health food movement, which is stronger and more powerful than ever, and finally after more than four decades, is becoming increasingly mainstream.

That was the good news. The bad news is that this was the last positive dietary trend we have seen. Ever since then, we have had one dangerous and poorly-thoughtout plan after another. In addition, fast food has now become a ubiquitous part of our landscape. According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, on any given day one out of four Americans has a meal from a fast-food restaurant.

The 1970s saw the introduction of the Atkins low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. At first glance, the concept made sense; however, there were a number of serious and dangerous flaws (some since amended), among them an overabundance of saturated fats. The ’90s reintroduced this craze, slightly modified.

Perhaps the worst dietary craze belongs to the 1980s, which heralded the age of the no-fat diet. Supermarket shelves were flooded with high-glycemic carbohydrate foods, offering little in the way of nutrients, but plenty in the way of empty calories. These foods became dietary mainstays for many people, especially women, who found themselves indulging in snack foods such as reduced-fat “baked” potato and corn chips, and fat-free rice and corn cakes, cookies, pretzels, and crackers. Suddenly millions of Americans were placing themselves in a chronic inflammatory condition. Why? Because eating these foods provokes a pro-inflammatory rapid rise in blood sugar, resulting in elevated insulin levels.

Insulin is an important hormone that helps the body utilize blood sugar for energy or store it as glycogen or fat. But if the insulin is released too quickly, it has a pro-inflammatory effect (explored further in Chapter 2). After a rapid rise, there will be a precipitous drop in blood sugar, resulting in feelings of hunger, which can lead to a vicious cycle of overeating. This is why a diet centered on breads, baked goods, snack foods, sweets, and other sugary, starchy foods results in unwanted weight gain and great difficulty in losing weight. Ironically, in this instance, it is not the caloric value of the foods causing the weight gain. In fact, a rice cake only has around 40 calories. However, because it is rapidly converted to sugar in the bloodstream, resulting in the insulin release, it will cause you to store body fat. An insulin release can result in the storage of body fat.

Our goal in the Perricone Weight-Loss Diet is to learn how to recognize and avoid sugary and starchy foods, so that we maintain even levels of blood sugar and insulin. Recognize? Yes, because many foods that look healthful can contain added sugars, dangerous trans fats (more about these later), and an ingredient called high fructose corn syrup, which will defeat weight-loss goals and have a negative impact on overall health. By following the Perricone Weight-Loss Diet, you will be able to control your appetite, prevent overeating, stop cravings, and burn excess fat for energy.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Some scientists and researchers believe that many of the health problems of today are caused by our departure from the hunter-gatherer diet, which consisted of nuts, seeds, berries, wild greens, roots, fruits, fish, fowl, and game. This is a fascinating theory and I do agree with the premise that natural, unprocessed foods are always the best choices. To be healthy and maintain normal weight we need all of the food groups—but not those that come from the laboratory. Our protein source needs to be pure, fresh (when possible) wild fish and other seafood, and free range chicken and turkey that are hormone and antibiotic free. Our carbohydrates need to be fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic. And we need good fats, such as those found in salmon, sardines and other cold-water fish, extra virgin olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, and açaí (a Brazilian berry whose fatty-acid ratio resembles that of olive oil). These “good” fats will help us absorb nutrients from our vegetables and fruits, keep our cells supple, our skin glowing and wrinkle-free, our brains sharp, and our mood upbeat. We also need dietary fat to burn fat.

By upsetting the delicate balance with extreme fad diets and ridiculous concepts, whether it is no-carb or no-fat or whatever, we create ongoing physical and mental health problems, including obesity, accelerated aging, and wrinkling, sagging skin. It is no coincidence that the rise of antidepressants such as Prozac occurred during the nonfat food craze of the 1980s—after all, our brains are comprised mainly of fat, and when we starve our brains of valuable nutrients, we become depressed. Salmon, with its rich complement of essential fatty acids, has been shown to be an excellent treatment for depression. Some studies have shown that it is more effective than powerful drugs in treating depression—without the side effects (moderate regular exercise is also great for depression—especially when combined with the salmon-rich anti-inflammatory diet).

Our goal is to strive for balance, and to use common sense when planning a meal.

Ava’s transformation (see Ava’s story on the following page) was, to say the least, impressive. If you follow the Perricone Weight-Loss Diet, you too can have impressive results.

But how does it all really work? The next several chapters will explain the science behind my revolutionary concepts, and how you can make them work for you.

Chapter 2

The Inflammation–Aging–

Disease–Obesity Connection

One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea,

never regains its original dimensions.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

As many readers of my earlier books know, the original anti-inflammatory diet is both a powerful antiaging, disease-fighting tool and the secret to clear, wrinkle-free skin. It was not specifically designed for weight loss. However, once I realized that people who needed to lose weight were rapidly losing it on this eating plan, I recognized a whole new world of potential for the overweight man or woman—whether he or she needed to shed a mere 10 pounds or was morbidly obese.

I altered and adapted the original anti-inflammatory diet to focus on the specific foods and supplements that were proven to accelerate healthy weight loss while maintaining muscle mass. In fact, the anti-inflammatory weight-loss diet in this book closely parallels the very diet that I follow on a daily basis. The recommended foods will not only enable you to quickly drop excess weight, you will find increased energy, and an increased sense of mental well-being. When we realize that most dieters are subject to chronic crankiness, this is good news indeed.

In this book, you are going to learn some surprising facts—facts that actually startled the scientific community when they were first discovered. You are going to learn that excess body fat is a living, breathing, multiplying endocrine organ—and that fact alone ensures that the fatter you are, the fatter you will get. This book is going to change your ideas about weight gain and...

Edition details

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0345485939
• ISBN 13: 9780345485939
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320