chemicals that may act as xenoestrogens (or fake estrogens) in the body and raise your level of endogenous estrogen, resulting in estrogen dominance. Examples are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins. 7 Additionally, several have been shown to open up the gut barrier—causing leaky gut and inflammation, and shifting the microbiome in the wrong direction—and may contribute to breast cancer.
•
Poor nutrient density.
Grain-fed meat is lower in vitamins A, B, C, and E; conjugated linoleic acid (found to hasten fat burning); and beneficial omega-3s; plus it’s higher in omega-6 fatty acids compared with meat from pastured or wild animals. In comparisons of omega-3 levels in grass-fed versus grain-fedmeat,
grass-fed meat contained up to ten times more omega-3.
What’s important is your overall ratio of omega-6 to omega-3; that is, too much omega-6 compared with omega-3 leads to inflammation and more fat storage. Grain-fed beef shows a ratio of eight to one, whereas grass-fed beef averages two to one. (CAFO-raised chicken is even more problematic with a ratio of nineteen to one, whereas pastured chicken has a ratio of approximately eleven to one.) 8
•
Genetically modified grains.
Often GM corn is used to feed animals, and consuming those animals may also cause leaky gut and hormone disruption.
As if that list weren’t scary enough, when you eat fat from conventional animal meat, these toxins enter your gut and are sent to the liver. Your liver doesn’t know what to do with them, so they’re sent to the fat stores, accumulating and magnifying in quantity over time. It’s like the dresser in your spare bedroom: you put things in the drawers that you don’t need. Your body does this to protect your organs from toxic overload, but the strategy backfires when you accumulate too much. Just as the dresser drawers may overflow and become hard to close, your fat tissue eventually starts to release more toxins into your bloodstream, which is tied to obesity, insulin resistance, and breast cancer. As your tissue releases toxins, your body gets the message to store even more fat—and because fat cells produce estrogen, your estrogen burden climbs higher still. Ultimately, estrogen dominance causes overweight women to store more fat instead of burning it and changes the microbiome to pull more energy out of food for storage, not fuel.
Back to that ketchup and lone lettuce leaf on your plate: most people who consume a typical Western diet high in meat don’t eat enough vegetables (ketchup doesn’t count!), which are rich in fiber and micronutrients—and both counter the estrogen pollution of dirty meat and protect you from bioaccumulation and biomagnification.In other words, too much conventional meat and too little fiber from vegetables combine as a double whammy that makes you fat, toxic, and resistant to weight loss. Instead of one lettuce leaf, you need to consume one pound of vegetables each day.
Halfway through the burger, you pause to praise your neighbor on the yummy barbecue, and he offers you a glass of chardonnay or a mojito. Sadly, alcohol makes the whole excess estrogen problem worse. Oblivious, you toast your neighbor and wash down your next bite of burger. You tell yourself, “Okay, just one glass, since I had two glasses every night this past week.” Boom! You just upped your risk of breast cancer.
Look, if you love meat and/or alcohol, I get it. Frankly, my mouth is watering as I write about grilled burgers. The good news is that by removing meat and alcohol for the next three days, and then continuing for the full twenty-one day program, you can finally lose that stubborn weight. This will initiate a virtuous chain reaction—starting first with estrogen but then later involving other hormones, such as insulin (detailed in chapter 4) and leptin (detailed in chapter 5). It’s time to push the reset button on estrogen—clear out meat, toxins and contaminants, and alcohol—and finally begin to
•
Poor nutrient density.
Grain-fed meat is lower in vitamins A, B, C, and E; conjugated linoleic acid (found to hasten fat burning); and beneficial omega-3s; plus it’s higher in omega-6 fatty acids compared with meat from pastured or wild animals. In comparisons of omega-3 levels in grass-fed versus grain-fedmeat,
grass-fed meat contained up to ten times more omega-3.
What’s important is your overall ratio of omega-6 to omega-3; that is, too much omega-6 compared with omega-3 leads to inflammation and more fat storage. Grain-fed beef shows a ratio of eight to one, whereas grass-fed beef averages two to one. (CAFO-raised chicken is even more problematic with a ratio of nineteen to one, whereas pastured chicken has a ratio of approximately eleven to one.) 8
•
Genetically modified grains.
Often GM corn is used to feed animals, and consuming those animals may also cause leaky gut and hormone disruption.
As if that list weren’t scary enough, when you eat fat from conventional animal meat, these toxins enter your gut and are sent to the liver. Your liver doesn’t know what to do with them, so they’re sent to the fat stores, accumulating and magnifying in quantity over time. It’s like the dresser in your spare bedroom: you put things in the drawers that you don’t need. Your body does this to protect your organs from toxic overload, but the strategy backfires when you accumulate too much. Just as the dresser drawers may overflow and become hard to close, your fat tissue eventually starts to release more toxins into your bloodstream, which is tied to obesity, insulin resistance, and breast cancer. As your tissue releases toxins, your body gets the message to store even more fat—and because fat cells produce estrogen, your estrogen burden climbs higher still. Ultimately, estrogen dominance causes overweight women to store more fat instead of burning it and changes the microbiome to pull more energy out of food for storage, not fuel.
Back to that ketchup and lone lettuce leaf on your plate: most people who consume a typical Western diet high in meat don’t eat enough vegetables (ketchup doesn’t count!), which are rich in fiber and micronutrients—and both counter the estrogen pollution of dirty meat and protect you from bioaccumulation and biomagnification.In other words, too much conventional meat and too little fiber from vegetables combine as a double whammy that makes you fat, toxic, and resistant to weight loss. Instead of one lettuce leaf, you need to consume one pound of vegetables each day.
Halfway through the burger, you pause to praise your neighbor on the yummy barbecue, and he offers you a glass of chardonnay or a mojito. Sadly, alcohol makes the whole excess estrogen problem worse. Oblivious, you toast your neighbor and wash down your next bite of burger. You tell yourself, “Okay, just one glass, since I had two glasses every night this past week.” Boom! You just upped your risk of breast cancer.
Look, if you love meat and/or alcohol, I get it. Frankly, my mouth is watering as I write about grilled burgers. The good news is that by removing meat and alcohol for the next three days, and then continuing for the full twenty-one day program, you can finally lose that stubborn weight. This will initiate a virtuous chain reaction—starting first with estrogen but then later involving other hormones, such as insulin (detailed in chapter 4) and leptin (detailed in chapter 5). It’s time to push the reset button on estrogen—clear out meat, toxins and contaminants, and alcohol—and finally begin to
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