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By
William Wolcott, Founder, The Healthexcel System
of Metabolic Typing
Author, The
Metabolic Typing Diet (Doubleday)
For many years,
so-called nutritional experts advocated a low protein, low
fat, high carbohydrate diet as the perfect diet for all of
us. They promised that we’d lose weight and lower our
cholesterol while simultaneously improving our health and
fitness.
Well, they turned
out to be wrong, dead wrong for some and seriously wrong for
millions of others. Instead of fulfilling its promise, this
latest "right diet for all people" to come down
the pike produced a rise in obesity like this country has
never seen, along with the "bonus" side-effect of
an ever-growing epidemic in diabetes.
Today we find ourselves
on the cusp of the pendulum poised to swing the other way.
Recent scientific
studies have "discovered" that just maybe the high
carb, low protein/fat diet is not so good after all, and that
what really is the best "right diet for all people"
is a high protein, low carb diet. Unfortunately, the truth
of the matter is that reality once again will prove to be
different than expected. In a few years, there will be a fallout
of just as many people suffering in the wake of this "new"
pendulum swing as from the last one.
The problems will
be different, but the "casualty rate" will be about
the same. Metabolic
Typing, the science of individualized nutrition, reveals
why this will be the case.
Through Metabolic
Typing, it has been learned that the answer to the question
of the right diet lies with your genes -- not whim, fancy
or philosophical belief, or even in scientific research, at
least not in the way it is being performed today.
Previous studies
have shown benefit to the low protein/fat, high carb diet
as well as the opposite diet of high protein/fat, low carb
diet.
But basic premises
of Metabolic Typing such as the idea of biochemical individuality,
or that the same nutrient can have different effects in different
Metabolic Types, or that the same disease can arise in different
Metabolic Types for totally opposite biochemical reasons,
have far-reaching effects and shatter many current en vogue
myths of nutrition.
Here are some examples
that not only offer some valuable, practical information,
but also reveal greater insight into the exciting new world
of Metabolic Typing:
MYTH: A vegetarian
diet or a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in protein
and fat is good for you.
REALITY: If it's
wrong for your Metabolic Type, meaning, if it is not in line
with your ancestral diet, your genetically-based nutritional
requirements, this diet can make you sicker or create new
health problems for you. There are no "good" foods
and there are no "bad" foods, except in terms of
the requirements of your unique Metabolic Type.
MYTH: The Healthy
Diet
REALITY: There's
no such thing as a diet that is universally healthy for everyone.
This applies to any diet that is purportedly right for all
people -- whether it’s the Atkins Diet, MacDougall
Diet, Ornish Diet, (or pick any diet you can think of!). The
only diet that is healthy for you is the diet that is right
for your Metabolic Type. Only that diet meets your inherited
needs for nutrients.
MYTH: To lose weight
you need to reduce calories and limit fat (or limit protein
or limit carbs).
REALITY: Fat doesn't
make you fat. Protein doesn't make you fat. Carbohydrates
don't make you fat. And even calories per se don't make you
fat. But what does make you fat is the inability to properly
metabolize, or convert to energy, carbs, proteins, fats and
calories.
If you're overweight,
you're actually starving -- starving for the right balance
of nutrients that will increase your metabolic rate and convert
to energy the food you're eating instead of storing it as
fat.
Eat the right foods
for your Metabolic Type and eat the right ratios of macronutrients
(proteins, fats, carbs) and you’ll be giving your body
the right kind of fuel for your engines of metabolism. Science
is beginning to awaken to the idea that much of what our bodies
do with food is in our genes.
MYTH: To lose weight
all you need to do is reduce calories and exercise more.
REALITY: Millions
of people have done just that, but in most cases have not
only failed to lose weight, but gained weight instead. Worse,
for most people, reducing calories has led to food cravings,
binge or yo-yo dieting, mood swings and energy fluctuations.
Only by giving
your body food that it can efficiently convert to energy will
you lose weight permanently. Only then can watching calories
and exercising regularly make a real and lasting difference.
Best of all, when
you eat right for your Metabolic Type, when your body fully
converts to energy the food you eat, gone forever will be
the gnawing hunger, food cravings, binges, mood swings and
energy fluctuations that normally are associated with "dieting."
MYTH: If you take
lots of supplements and "cover all your bases,"
your body will take what it needs and discard the rest.
REALITY: This is
like saying that if you hold a flame under your outstretched
hand, your body will take whatever heat it needs and throw
off the rest. Such ideas ignore the reality of cause and effect.
If you apply a flame to skin, the skin will burn. Fire has
specific physical properties that apply wherever fire is present.
Similarly, nutrients
have very precise effects on the body -- either stimulating
or sedating, acidifying or alkalinizing. Every supplement
you consume will either stimulate or sedate specific organs,
systems and fundamental control mechanisms.
Take the wrong
nutrients or the wrong formulations for your Metabolic Type
and you will worsen your existing imbalances or create new
imbalances and all of the problems that go with them. Nutrients
indeed have the power to heal, but they also have the power
to make you ill if they are wrong for your Metabolic Type.
MYTH: Everyone
should take calcium (or vitamin C, or anti-oxidants, etc.).
REALITY: Nothing
could be further from the truth. Through Metabolic Typing,
we know that any nutrient can have opposite effects in different
Metabolic Types. This is why a nutrient can help correct a
condition in one person, have little or no effect on another
person, or worsen the same condition in a different Metabolic
Type.
Thus the old adage,
"one’s food is another’s poison." This
is why you should only take those supplements that are right
for your Metabolic Type. Every nutrient raises or lowers up
to 9 other nutrients in your body. So taking therapeutic doses
of vitamin C can actually, for example, cause cancer (vitamin
C lowers copper, so if you are already deficient in copper
and take high therapeutic doses of vitamin C, you can seriously
compromise your immune system).
Taking too much
calcium can actually cause osteoporosis (in order for calcium
to be utilized, it needs certain synergistic nutrients and
if you are already low in those synergistic nutrients, taking
more calcium will only further deplete the existing deficient
levels, worsening any problems relating to calcium metabolism).
Eating a low-fat
diet can actually raise cholesterol (if it further disturbs
the body's cholesterol metabolism, e.g., certain metabolic
types paradoxically need to eat a high-fat diet to promote
efficient cholesterol metabolism). Of course, everyone needs
all the nutrients in order to be healthy . . . but not in
therapeutic doses. So before you start supplementing your
diet, it’s best to know your Metabolic Type.
MYTH: Nutrients
are nutrients. It doesn't matter what form they are in.
REALITY: The carriers
of nutrients are just as powerful -- in some cases even more
powerful -- in their effects on metabolism as the nutrients
themselves. Depending on your Metabolic Type, any nutrient
can be acidifying or alkalinizing.
For example, in
a Parasympathetic (alkaline) Metabolic Type, calcium is acidifying,
but in a Fast Oxidizer, calcium is alkalinizing. So, it is
important that an acid form of calcium (e.g., calcium chloride)
be used if you’re an alkaline Parasympathetic type metabolizer,
but that an alkaline form of calcium (calcium citrate) be
used if you’re an acidic Fast Oxidizer.
Otherwise, the
nutritional supplement will at best have a neutral effect,
and at worst, actually worsen your existing imbalances. You
can take the best supplements money can buy, but if they are
not right for your Metabolic Type -- the right nutrients and
the right forms of the nutrients -- they won’t produce
the result you’re looking for and can end up making you
worse than before.
MYTH: Drink lots
of orange juice to help get rid of a cold
REALITY: Colds
and flus are viruses and viruses thrive in an alkaline biochemical
environment. Citrus juice, because it is such a highly alkalinizing
food, is one of the worst things you can ingest to prevent
and fight off a cold or flu virus. Interestingly, cold weather
produces an alkaline shift in the body.
In addition, the
most powerful alkalinizing substances in your diet are sugar,
alcohol, caffeine, salt (and nicotine), the very substances
that tend to increase in our diets during cold weather and
the holidays. Beginning with Halloween, and going on through
Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year's celebrations, the
amounts of these highly alkalinizing substances dramatically
increase in our diets.
When you consider
the elevation of those alkaline foods in our diets in combination
with the alkaline effect of the cold weather, is it any wonder
that time of year has come to be known as "the cold &
flu season?" At the first sign of a cold or flu, try
to acidify your system by increasing protein and decreasing
carbohydrates, particularly fruits (especially citrus) and
the alkaline substances listed above.
When you buy a
new car, one of the first things you learn is the kind of
fuel it uses. You wouldn’t want to use the wrong kind
of fuel for fear of damaging the engine, not to mention the
fact that its performance would suffer dramatically.
You would do well
to adopt the same attitude towards your own body. Remember
that your body is designed to be healthy, but in order to
run efficiently, it must be given the right fuel, the kind
of fuel it is genetically programmed to utilize.
You can eat the
best organic foods, take the finest supplements money can
buy, drink plenty of pure water, get sufficient rest and exercise
regularly, but if you do not meet the needs of your Metabolic
Type, you’ll only be wasting your time and money.
Give your body
what it needs and you’ll enjoy a lifetime of good health,
energy and well-being.
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