You Have

9 Powers

to Save Lives
You Have 9 Powers
to Save Lives
how to hack your brain
for health and happiness

MARIE J. HELIE
© 2020 Marie J. Helie
Published in the United States by Digiscalies
Illustrations by Lucie
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods,
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, except as permitted
by U.S. copyright law.
For permissions contact: [email protected]
ISBN: 9798650515210
This book is dedicated to my husband, Michel, and to our three
beloved daughters, Juliette, Chloe, and Lucie.
 Disclaimer
The purpose of this book is to enhance awareness about the connection
between lifestyle and health. It is intended as a sharing of information. It is
not intended to take the place of professional medical advice, diagnosis, or
treatment. Information is provided with the understanding that the author is
not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other regulated healthcare
service, and that no one should rely upon this information as the basis for
medical decisions. Any actions based on the information provided in this
book are solely the choice and the responsibility of the reader. The author
shall have no liability or responsibility to any person or entity regarding any
loss or damage caused or alleged to have been caused, either directly or
indirectly, by use of the information contained in this book.
Every effort has been made to make this book as accurate and complete
as possible. Any mistake, error, or omission is not intentional. The author
makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the
accuracy or completeness of the information provided herein, and
specifically disclaims any liability, express or implied, in connection
therewith.
Readers are advised to consult with their physicians or other qualified
health care providers for any questions regarding their personal health or
medical conditions, for the diagnosis of any disease and before starting any
new diet and exercise program.
 I cannot promise you a life of sunshine;
I cannot promise riches, wealth, or gold;
I cannot promise you an easy pathway
That leads away from change or growing old.
But I can promise all my heart’s devotion;
A smile to chase away your tears of sorrow;
A love that’s ever true and ever growing;
A hand to hold in yours through each tomorrow.
—Mark Twain, “These I Can Promise”
 Contents

Disclaimer
Contents
About the Author
Foreword
Introduction. Are You Ready to Handle the Truth?
Stop the Madness
Save the Children
Not Yet Another Pill
What is Health?
How This Book Works
Part I. Your 9 Powers Revealed
A Matter of Choice
Why You Continue to Make Unhealthy Choices
The Power of Conscious Choices
The Power of Meaning
The Power of Time Travel
The Power of Identity
The Power of Small
The Power of Scripts
The Power of Automaticity
The Power of Bubbles
The Power of Body Insight
 Roll Sound, Camera, Action!
Part II. Come Inside and See the Show
Setting the Stage
Reading the Script
Behind the Scenes
Clearing Off the Stage
Directing the Play
Reversal of Expectation
A Life in Theater
Part III. Time for Action
Every Bite You Take
Action Steps to Boost Nutrition
Every Move You Make
Action Steps to Get Back into Motion
Reset
Action Steps to Give Your Cells a Break
Clean Up Your Act
Action Steps to Remove the Junk
Part IV. Selected Vantage Points
The Children’s Hour
Action Steps to Give Children the Gift of Health
Brain Power
Action Steps to Age-Proof Your Brain
It Must Be Hormones
Action Steps to Regain Your Balance
Something to Lose
Action Steps to Ditch the Weight
Part V. Try It! Quick Start Guide
A Final Word
Appendices
Appendix I Exercise Instructions
Appendix II Glossary
Appendix III Index of Scientific Studies
 About the Author
Hello, and welcome to a journey of self-exploration and healing. I am
happy to be your guide. My name is Marie, and I am passionate about
health. I find it unbearable that so many of us are unwell because of the way
we live. I see this as a genuine threat to the future of society. That’s why I
did extensive research to come up with guidance for myself and my family.
I wrote this book to share with you what I learned so you can find your
own path to health. With the right tools, we all have the power to be
healthier and protect ourselves from frightening diseases. I hope this book
will be your trigger to change. Together, we can create a healthier society.
As stated in the disclaimer, I am not a health professional. I am a
scientist by training, with a background in physics and math. I worked in
engineering, marketing, and corporate management for over 20 years. Five
years ago, I made a career transition to work as a free-lance scientific
journalist and writer. I write about science, health, and education.
I have been obsessively studying health for the last four years. This
includes taking a range of courses in nutrition, biochemistry, neuroscience,
and behavioral science. I also went back to the science journals and did a
comprehensive review of hundreds of studies on human nutrition,
endocrinology, physiology, and neurobiology.
This book encapsulates my learning and experience. I tried to bring it to
you in a clear and practical way. I hope you will judge my efforts kindly.
 Foreword
Next to creating a life, the finest thing a man can
do is save one.
—Abraham Lincoln

You have great powers within your brain. You can save lives. Your own.
And the lives of your loved ones.
Consider the following questions:
1. Do you rely on caffeine to get through the day?
2. Do you lack mental clarity?
3. Do you keep getting sick?
4. Do you struggle with your weight?
5. Are you bothered by various symptoms, such as chronic pain, runny
nose, skin issues, digestive disorders, headaches, allergies, anxiety,
bouts of depression?
6. Have you been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or an autoimmune
disease?
7. Are you afraid of getting cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease?
8. As a parent, are you having a hard time managing your children’s
behavioral issues?
9. Are you concerned about your children’s future health and well-
being?
If you answered yes to any of the above, this book could change
your life.
The questions cover a wide variety of chronic health issues, from minor
problems to major diseases. What do they have in common? They’re caused
by how we live. Most health issues tie back to the same body mechanisms
gone awry thanks to our modern lifestyles. It’s one big health epidemic
manifesting as a variety of symptoms.
Fortunately, the tide is turning. More people are becoming concerned and
shifting their lifestyles. You can join the movement!
Don’t wait for someone to save your life. Save yourself! You’ve got 9
powers in your brain to do just that.

Use your powers to break free

... Free from pain, fatigue, and brain fog
... Free from excess weight
... Free from debilitating diseases

Experience a life-changing epiphany

As you take hold of your powers, you will experience the urge to act. And
not only will you save yourself and your family from chronic disease, but
you will revive! You will boost your energy, get rid of aches and pains,
restore your immune system, lose weight, and increase your fertility. You
may also see amazing improvements in your children’s behaviors.

It’s as simple as exhaling deeply.

This book offers step-by-step instructions to build a solid foundation for
disease-free living. This is the greatest gift to give yourself and your family.
And it is so easy to achieve! You just make simple choices, as simple as
standing up, drinking water, or exhaling deeply. You may have a hard time
believing such simple changes make a difference, but they do. What’s more,
you get to pick what works for you.

THE TIME TO START IS NOW!

By picking up this book, you’ve taken the first step of a unique
journey toward health and happiness.
 INTRODUCTION

Are You Ready to Handle

the Truth?
The rise of chronic noncommunicable diseases
presents public health with an enormous
challenge. For some countries, it is no
exaggeration to describe the situation as an
impending disaster. I mean a disaster for health,
for society, and most of all for national
economies.
­—Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization,
27 April 2011
Above all, don’t lie to yourself.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
The following introduction will not help you. I wish health statistics were
enough to give everyone plenty of motivation to get healthier. In an ideal
world, I would show you the facts, point you in the right direction, and
congratulate myself on a job well done. Unfortunately, our brains do not
work that way.
The statistics I’m about to show you will probably shock you. But they
won’t make you budge. Why do I bother? Because I believe it’s important
to set the scene! So please bear with me. The picture I’m about to paint is
not pretty. Know there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
 Stop the Madness
If someone wishes for good health, one must first
ask oneself if he is ready to do away with the
reasons for his illness.
—Hippocrates

Your body is amazingly resilient! It keeps on working even when you feed
it poor food, deprive it of movement, rob it of sleep, bombard it with stress
and toxic chemicals. But you can push it too far. That’s when symptoms
creep up on you.
Maybe you’re more tired or anxious. You experience pain in your joints
or issues with your skin. You find yourself in a mental fog. You can’t sleep
at night. Until one day, you reach the tipping point and are diagnosed with a
chronic disease.
Chronic diseases result from cumulative damage to the body. They often
start years or decades before any symptom.
Let us turn to the facts. In America, numbers tell a dramatic story. As
reported by the Center for Diseases Control, six in ten adults suffer from
one or more chronic health conditions; four in ten from two or more.
Together, heart disease and cancer kill over 3,000 Americans every single
day. One in two adults suffers from either diabetes or prediabetes and is at
risk of amputation and blindness. A new case of Alzheimer’s disease is
diagnosed every 66 seconds. Nothing seems to stop this raging epidemic,
far deadlier than any virus. Not even the most advanced high-tech medicine.
Healthcare expenditure is on its way to bankrupt the nation over the next
30 years. It’s already bankrupting many Americans. Medical debt is the
number one reason for personal bankruptcy filings. And don’t think you’re
protected because you have health insurance. Deductibles, co-payments,
annual or lifetime limits can ruin you.
What’s going on?
The answer is simple: our lifestyles are killing us. Slowly but surely, our
daily choices—what we eat and drink, how little we move and sleep, how
we ignore stress—offer a favorable environment for diseases. Some would
rather believe it’s inevitable—a natural consequence of aging. Sure, many
diseases occur in old age, but this doesn’t mean aging causes disease. It’s
the cumulative effect of multiple assaults that breaks down the body. Most
assaults are of our own choosing.
Chronic disease has become so common we think it’s normal. Worse,
most of us believe we’re healthy. The OECD—the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development—comprises high-income
countries such as the US. OECD surveys reveal that 9 out of 10 Americans
say they’re in good or very good health compared to 3 out of 10 Japanese.
This is sobering when you know Japan enjoys the highest life expectancy,
whereas the US ranks at the bottom. That’s despite Americans spending
much more on healthcare than any other nation.
Americans are not healthy. The sooner we acknowledge this, the sooner
we can do something about it.
 Save the Children
In the name of free trade, we allow multinational
corporations to market junk food to children.
(…). In the name of entertainment, we allow our
children to spend more and more time in front of
television and smartphone screens, rather than
playing outside. When will we say enough is
enough? At what point do we take a stand and
push back?
—Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,18 October 2017

Not only are we killing ourselves, but we’re also hurting our children and
sacrificing their future happiness. Let me be blunt: the lifestyle we’re
imposing on our children is bordering on child abuse. I don’t say that to
sound offensive or elicit guilt. But clearly, we’re doing something wrong.
For the first time in history, American children are facing a lower life
expectancy than their parents. More than half have already been diagnosed
with a chronic condition, either physical or mental. If the trend goes on, it
will be 80 percent of children by 2025. Allergies, asthma, behavioral issues,
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have become the new
normal in schools across the country. The prevalence of autism has more
than doubled from 2000 to 2010 and is on track to affect one in four
children by 2033. More children are getting type 2 diabetes and fatty liver
disease, diseases which used to be seen only in older adults. How do we
expect those children to make it to old age? And if they make it, what will
have been their quality of life?
Your lifestyle can change this! You have the power to stop the damage in
your children’s bodies and even reverse the damage done. How you live
determines your children’s risk of chronic disease and premature death, but
also their future mental health and their ability to start a family of their
own.
C. S. Lewis said: “None can give to another what he does not possess
himself.” Your children do what you do, from what they put in their mouths
to how they manage their emotions. You would probably be ready to
sacrifice your life to save your children. How about being mindful of the
example you’re setting? To save your children, save yourself first!
 Not Yet Another Pill
Though the doctors treated him, let his blood,
and gave him medications to drink, he
nevertheless recovered.
—Leon Tolstoy, War and Peace

Let me start by stating the obvious: doctors, drugs, hospitals save people’s
lives. If I get hit by a bus, I want to go to the hospital! I have only respect
for doctors and nurses; they render crucial services to society. The recent
coronavirus pandemic has given us proof of that, if we ever needed proof.
And I’m proud to say one of my daughters is studying to be a medical
doctor.
However, while our health system provides excellent acute care, it’s less
effective in dealing with chronic health issues. Why? Because it’s only
designed to treat symptoms and to offer medication or surgical procedures.
It was never designed to address the root cause of the disease.
Imagine that you go to the doctor for acid reflux or heartburn. More
often than not, the doctor gives you an antacid to decrease acid production.
But he or she probably doesn’t investigate why you suffer from acid reflux.
Because you’re not treating the root cause, the damage in your body
continues. You may even aggravate the problem, as acid reflux is often
caused by a lack of acid production, not an excess. What’s more, by using
medication, you create other imbalances that manifest as side effects. You
get other pills to manage them, thus starting a vicious circle of
overmedication.
If you keep smashing your finger with a hammer, it hurts. What do you
do? Do you go to the doctor’s and ask for medication to stop the pain? Do
you ask the doctor to perform surgery and cut off your finger? Or do you
pause and see how you can stop smashing your finger?

Healthcare now equates pills. Four billion prescriptions are written each
year in the US. That’s 12 prescriptions for every American, including
children! There’s a place for prescription drugs, but it’s not the only choice.
In most cases, lifestyle change trumps prescriptions pills for two simple
reasons:
1. Lifestyle is at the root of most diseases.
2. Lifestyle change doesn’t come with any harmful side effects.

Did You Know?

As stated in a study by the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA), over one hundred thousand Americans die
every year from the adverse effects of drugs.
Warning: Never stop taking any prescribed medication without your
doctor’s approval.
Your current health results from the lifestyle choices you’ve made up to
today. The lifestyle choices you make right now determine how healthy
you’ll be tomorrow. Once you realize that, you’re free!
Why doesn’t your doctor talk about this? Unfortunately, medical
students are taught to push medication in the face of symptoms. It doesn’t
help that the pharmaceutical industry funds a large part of medical
education. Healthcare is about what sells. The best medication for the
pharmaceutical industry is the one you take for life.
No one cares about your health and your children’s health as much as
you do. You’re the only one who can make a difference.
 What is Health?
A state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.
—How the World Health Organization defines health.

What does health mean to you? Defining health may sound boring. But
everything you cherish is at stake. Health is the foundation of life. It affects
you whether or not you’re interested in it. Without health, you can say
goodbye to your dreams; the sheer act of getting out of bed is a feat.
Obvious signs point to poor health: pain, fatigue, brain fog, frequent
infections, irritability, depression, overweight. But being healthy is much
more exciting than just being free of symptoms. When you’re healthy, you
wake up with energy, you think clearly, you’re able to tackle any challenge.
We’re so used to being under the weather that we take it for the new
normal. But there’s nothing normal about feeling bad. Normal is having the
freedom to achieve your full potential and enjoy your life with no
limitations. Normal is feeling great!
Unfortunately, most of us take better care of our car than we do our
bodies. We don’t let our car rust or put it on fire. We don’t put the wrong
fuel into it. We don’t ignore the check engine light and pray for it to go
away on its own. And yet that’s what we do with our bodies. But guess
what? You’ll probably get to replace your car a few times during your
lifetime, but you won’t get to replace your body. It’s your only vehicle for
life!
As I write the last words for this book, the coronavirus pandemic has
taken over the world and provided us with an acute reminder of the
importance of health. It has brought to light that not giving our health our
full attention makes us vulnerable and takes away our freedom.
Disease isn’t your destiny. Show your body you care, and soon enough,
you will be on top of the world!
 Key Takeaways
A. The statistics are grim and getting worse. Chronic diseases now
affect a majority of the population, including children.
B. Our lifestyles are killing us slowly and painfully. They are
sabotaging our children’s future.
C. Do not expect any help from the healthcare system: it’s about to be
engulfed by the tsunami of chronic diseases. Plus, medication and
surgery often make matters worse.
D. But there’s reason for hope: most chronic health issues are
preventable. You can even reverse some with simple lifestyle
changes.
E. The small choices you make everyday shape your health and your
children’s future health. This means you’re in control!
F. Health equates freedom, energy, mental clarity, emotional stability.
G. Health is your biggest asset. Value it. Protect it.
 How This Book Works
Before we jump in, let me tell you how the five parts of this book work
together.
Part 2—Come Inside and See the Show—tells you everything about the
science linking lifestyle and health. Part 3—Time for Action—gives you
practical solutions. It covers the five key lifestyle factors and walks you
through simple steps to experiment. Part 4—Selected Vantage Points—
zooms in on four critical subjects: children, brain, hormones, and weight
loss. Part 5—Try It! Quick Start Guide recaps a few simple steps to try right
away.
What about Part 1? Well, you may know that it’s easier to read books
and articles about health than to do something about it. In fact, you
probably don’t believe eating processed food, sitting all day, and spending
hours scrolling through social media is good for you. So why are you still
doing it? Because knowledge by itself is useless! Part 1—Your 9 Powers
Revealed—brings the missing piece.
One last word before we transform you into the superman or wonder
woman of health. Are you curious about the pink cartoon-like character on
the cover and illustrations? You will easily understand why I’ve chosen this
character in Part 2. For now, let me just say billions of these friendly beings
do their utmost to keep you alive and thriving. We’re here to help them.
I have used hundreds of references from scientific literature in the
writing of this book. Details of specific studies are listed on the companion
website www.youhave9powerstosavelives.com with links to the official
NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) website for easier
referencing. Putting the references in the book would have meant adding
over 100 pages with little added value.
On the website, you will also find a list of books to read, Internet sites to
look up, and videos to watch if you want to dig deeper.
I have included three Appendices at the end of the book. Appendix I
provides basic exercise instructions. Appendix II is a glossary of terms used
in Part 2. Appendix III is an index for the scientific studies referenced on
the companion website.
 PART I

Your 9 Powers Revealed

I know of no more encouraging fact than the
unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life
by a conscious endeavor.
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Like most people, you probably don’t like being told what to do. A part of
you feels compelled to do the opposite. In psychology, we call this
reactance. It stems from the innate fear of manipulation. Reactance is why
graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging often backfire: smokers
resist the message.
Because of reactance, advocating health is tricky. When you read the last
chapters, you might have felt I was threatening your freedom of choice. But
this could not be farther from my intention. I know that no matter how
many facts and statistics I put forward, I won’t make you budge. For all my
efforts, I may even cause you to head in the other direction.
No one can persuade you to change but yourself. I do not intend to tell
you what to do but to give you the ability to control your choices.
 A Matter of Choice
In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape
ourselves. The process never ends until we die.
And the choices we make are ultimately our own
responsibility.
—Eleanor Roosevelt

The overarching premise of this book is that health is mainly a matter of

choice. I will have accomplished my mission if I make you perceive the
profound connection between lifestyle choices and health. Not just
abstractly, but deep in your body.
Lifestyle choices encompass everything from the food you put in your
mouth, to the physical activity you exert, to the time at which you go to
bed, to the actions you take to manage your stress, to the level of toxicity to
which you’re exposed.
Every single day, you make hundreds of lifestyle choices. You’re always
choosing: staying seated versus standing up, watching TV versus going to
bed, drinking soda versus drinking a glass of water, eating a donut versus
eating a piece of fruit, taking a walk versus scrolling through social media.
As a culture, we value self-determination and agency. We want to direct
our own lives. But as soon as something goes wrong, we’re quick to blame
circumstances or society. Anything but our choices. But whenever we
blame someone or something, we give away our freedom. We’re helpless.
If you think the state of your health is not your fault, who are you
blaming? Does this blaming get you any healthier?
Your health journey begins with owning each lifestyle choice you make.
There is no neutral lifestyle choice. Each choice, no matter how small,
either depletes or enhances your health. This is great news! It means you
can become healthier right away by making a different choice today.
 As you read those lines, are you thinking to yourself, “There’s no way I
can make different choices”? But why not? No one is putting a gun to your
head, forcing you to eat pizza or stay on the couch. And if I were to give
you a million dollars to make different choices, I’m sure you would get
around to making them. So, it’s not that you can’t but that you won’t. But
why won’t you when deep down you know what’s at stake? That’s what
we’ll explore next.
 Why You Continue to Make
Unhealthy Choices
Do I contradict myself?
Then I contradict myself.
I am large.
I contain multitudes.
—Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself, Part 51”

You don’t need me to tell you that French fries are bad news for your
health. So, why do you keep eating them? Why is it so hard to let go of
unhealthy choices even though you know they jeopardize your future well-
being?
To find the answer, let’s take a deep dive in the mental processes
underlying our choices. Understanding how the brain works unlocks the
ability to make healthier choices.
 Did You Know?
Corporations are investing massive amounts of money to learn how to
hack the human brain for their own benefit. How about getting there
first?

OF TWO MINDS
Have you ever said something on impulse and immediately wished you
could take it back? Who did the talking?
Likewise, have you ever driven home from work and realized you
remembered nothing about the trip? Who was in the driver’s seat?
Neuroscience shows that the brain runs on two sets of mental processes:
1. A slow and conscious process which we will refer to as the conscious
mind.
2. A variety of fast and unconscious processes which together make up
the unconscious mind. Here, I use the term unconscious in its most
literal meaning, referring to activities in the brain of which you’re
not aware.
Don’t freak out! You don’t really have two minds. In fact, there’s no such
thing in hard physical terms as a mind, let alone two. If you were to dissect
a brain, you wouldn’t find them because we’re talking about mental
processes. Not concrete structures. However, the model of two minds is
useful to understand which mental processes cross the threshold of
awareness and which do not. In the rest of this book, I will capitalize the
terms Conscious Mind and Unconscious Mind to emphasize that they are
concepts.
In broad outline, the Conscious Mind is the thinking, rational self; the
Unconscious Mind the automatic, impulsive self. If you think your
Conscious Mind is in charge, think again! That’s only what it wants you to
believe.
To visualize how the Conscious Mind interacts with unconscious
processes, picture a lone driver riding a team of wild mustangs. Observe the
ratio in size and power. Imagine the struggle when they don’t agree on the
destination. The mustangs are much stronger than the driver. Anytime they
disagree, the mustangs take over and gallop off, with the helpless driver in
tow.
The neural circuits involved in unconscious processing outnumber those
involved in conscious processing by one million to one. Your thinking self
is no match for your impulsive self.

Neuroscientists estimate that up to 95 percent of brain activity is below

the threshold of consciousness. This is a good thing. It means we don’t have
to reflect on every little choice we make. We don’t have to relearn every
day how to tie our shoelaces or drive a car. The Unconscious Mind does it
for us. It’s our personal autopilot. When given the right cue, it knows the
drill.
There are two reasons for the Conscious and Unconscious Minds to
work that way. Both reasons have to do with the evolution of humans over
thousands of years.
First reason: rapidity of action. Imagine you’re a Stone Age hunter-
gatherer on the African Savannah Plain. If you suddenly come face to face
with a wild animal, you don’t have time to think about your options; your
Conscious Mind would only slow you down. The Unconscious Mind is
more capable of getting you out of harm’s way.
Second reason: energy conservation. If you never know for certain when
the next meal will be, your best bet is to automate most behaviors so they
require less processing power. The Conscious Mind needs more energy to
function; you save it for complex cognitive tasks, such as planning on how
to get food and shelter.

Did You Know?

As per the theory of evolution, organisms adapt to their environment
by passing on to their offspring features that help survival and
reproduction. For humans, this process takes tens of thousands of
years. This means we have the same brain as Stone Age hunter-
gatherers.

In evolutionary history, unconscious processes developed first and were

shaped over millions of years to adapt to environmental pressures. In your
personal history, they’re also the first to develop once you’re born.
Anatomically, they enlist more primitive parts of the brain, such as the
amygdala—the sentinel—and the striatum—the reward center.
The Unconscious Mind constantly scans its surroundings for potential
threats or opportunities and steers your behavior accordingly—flee the
threat, approach the opportunity. Most of the time, the Conscious Mind isn’t
involved. Your Unconscious Mind is the one that makes you dodge an
oncoming car before your Conscious Mind is aware of the danger. It’s also
the one that makes you reach for the donut.
Anatomically, the Conscious Mind mostly originates from the more
sophisticated and recent region in the brain—the prefrontal cortex, right
behind the forehead. The prefrontal cortex is involved in a range of high-
level cognitive functions such as planning and deliberation. Its role is to
provide direction and behavioral flexibility. It’s also the weakest part of the
brain, the first to go offline when you’re stressed, hungry, or tired.
To decide on the next course of action, the Unconscious Mind considers
a range of automatic responses—neural networks strengthened over time
through repetition of behaviors. They keep you doing what you’ve always
done, despite your best intentions to act otherwise.

WHERE DO AUTOMATIC RESPONSES COME FROM?

Here we’re only concerned with automatic responses of which you’re not
aware. Especially the ones not serving your health. We’re putting aside the
automatic behaviors you voluntarily learn to make your life easier, such as
driving or typing.
At birth, the Unconscious Mind comes equipped with a generic script—
seek pleasure, avoid pain. Pleasure and pain are the primary forces behind
our behaviors. Basic programming in the brain links pleasure with whatever
aids survival: protection, food, rest, information, to cite a few. This
programming is calibrated for a world of insecurity and scarcity.
In early childhood, the Unconscious Mind picks up specific responses to
enrich its behavioral repertoire. How does it do that?
Imagine yourself at a fancy dinner party. You face a maze of knives,
forks, spoons, and you have no idea which to use. What do you do? Your
best bet is to look to your hosts and copy their moves. Infants and young
children do the same. They look to their parents and copy their moves.
That’s how the Unconscious Mind gains its first automatic behaviors: by
observing people. Others it develops by repeating rewarding experiences.
The Unconscious Mind is an association machine. It links rewards to
cues in the environment. Have you heard of Pavlov’s dogs? Ivan Pavlov, a
Russian physiologist, rang a bell every time he was about to feed his dogs.
After a while, the dogs salivated whenever the bell rang. Their Unconscious
Minds associated the recurring cue—the sound of the bell—with being fed.
For the sake of illustration, let us assume you decide to eat lunch in a
fast-food restaurant recognizable by its golden arches. It’s your first time
there. Right after your Unconscious Mind spots a big yellow ‘M’ (cue) and
you push the door of the restaurant (behavior), you’re rewarded with fat and
sugar. Why is it rewarding to get massive loads of fat and sugar? Because
the Unconscious Mind is programmed for scarcity; it still thinks a famine is
coming.
If you repeat this scenario (cue/behavior/reward), you condition your
Unconscious Mind to play back the behavior any time it sees the relevant
cue. A big yellow ‘M’ gets you inside the restaurant without a second
thought. The more you push the door of that fast-food place, the more
instinctive it becomes. The Unconscious Mind has registered an automatic
response: see big yellow ‘M’, push the door of the restaurant, get sugar and
fat. That’s why billboards sometimes only show the M: the food industry
knows our Unconscious Minds have been well trained, often since
childhood.
So, what you assume to be conscious choices to eat, sit on the couch, or
check your phone are mostly automatic responses triggered by various cues.
You eat at mealtime even if you’re not hungry: you’re triggered by the time
of day. You buy popcorn when you go to the movies: you’re triggered by
the place. You look at your phone when you’re bored: you’re triggered by
your state of mind.
Once the Unconscious Mind has associated the cue and the behavior, the
reward becomes less relevant. That’s how experimenters get people to eat
stale popcorn at the movies. Moviegoers don’t like it, but they still eat the
popcorn because it’s the thing to do when you go to the movies. Or so their
Unconscious Minds believe.
Automatic responses are the most common ways of making lifestyle
choices. The behavior is launched before you’re even aware there’s a choice
to make. You think you made a conscious choice because the Conscious
Mind makes up stories to explain your behavior lest you become insane.
Unfortunately, the Unconscious Mind often steers you in the wrong
direction, while thinking it’s keeping you safe.
The Unconscious Mind runs the show. But occasionally the Conscious
Mind gets a say in the matter. Bringing the prefrontal cortex online allows
you to consider other options and act flexibly. How do both Minds interact?
As you may have experienced already, they frequently get caught in a tug-
of-war between impulse and reason.
I WANT IT NOW
The Unconscious Mind is wired to look for the quick fix. It prefers small
and immediate rewards over larger but delayed ones. This is called an
immediate gratification bias or delay discounting. It served our ancestors
well. Who cares about tomorrow when you’re not sure you will outlive the
end of the day? Better to take immediate advantage of any opportunity
presenting itself. Without this tuning to the short term, you wouldn’t be here
to read this book.
Sugary and fatty foods offer instant gratification. The Unconscious Mind
wants the donut now because it’s a significant source of calories. It couldn’t
care less about the long-term consequences for your health. That’s where
the Conscious Mind comes in. It’s responsible for evaluating long-term
consequences. You hear it in your mind telling you that eating donuts is not
reasonable. It’s the only thing standing between you and harmful responses.
But it must contend with a chemical that often pushes it off-track.

Did You Know?

It’s because brains are better equipped to deal with the here-and-now
than with uncertain future threats that it’s so hard for us to do
something about long-term issues such as chronic diseases or climate
change.

THE CHEMICAL BEHIND YOUR CHOICES

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical released by neurons to
communicate with other neurons. When released, it pushes you toward
behaviors that either make you feel good or escape feeling bad—seek
pleasure, avoid pain. Dopamine is the driving force behind urges or
cravings. It’s what gets you excited.
 The anticipation of a short-term reward floods the brain with dopamine.
This dopamine surge provides the desire and energy. It prompts you to go
and get the reward. The closer the reward, the stronger the pull.
Dopamine not only gives you the urge to act, it also underlies the
creation of automatic responses. The first time you do a behavior, you get a
dopamine surge right after the behavior if the outcome is deemed to aid
survival. This triggers the recording machine in the Unconscious Mind to
keep a trace of what got you there. What were the surrounding cues? What
did you have to do? The next time you encounter the same cues, an
anticipatory dopamine release motivates you to do the behavior. You see a
big yellow ‘M’; dopamine gets you to the counter.
Another key aspect to dopamine is habituation. Once the brain is
accustomed to a certain dose, it expects to obtain at least as much. Else it
feels let down. Any choice that provides less dopamine becomes difficult.
Worse, you need higher dopamine spikes to experience the same level of
excitement. Dopamine makes you want more. You end up in a constant state
of craving, expecting the next jolt. Experiments show that if you implant a
rat with electrodes in its dopamine circuits, it will continuously press a bar
to self-stimulate to the exclusion of everything else, including feeding itself.
Do you know the worst part? The rat is not even enjoying itself!
The extreme displays of dopamine-fueled responses are addictive
behaviors, such as those related to gambling, alcoholism, bulimia,
technology, or drugs. The brain has no built-in braking system. More is
never enough. For our ancestors, scarcity provided regulation. But in a
world where we have access to intense stimuli 24/7, high-calorie foods,
screens, and social media trigger our dopamine mechanisms way beyond
their purpose. We’re at high risk of becoming dopamine junkies, always on
the lookout for the next hit, just like self-stimulating rats. And there is no
way this can make us happy.

TAMING THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

By now you may wonder if you’re at liberty to make healthy lifestyle
choices, given that the Unconscious Mind seems to rule the day. And it’s
true, the Conscious Mind cannot control the Unconscious Mind. It can,
however, redirect it by hacking into dopamine circuits and reprogramming
automatic responses.
Your success in making healthy lifestyle choices is reliant upon your
ability to align your two Minds. You can achieve this by combining nine
transformational tools, all based on the unique ability of the brain to rewire
itself.
Those tools are your 9 powers. They will help you rein in your
Unconscious Mind and surf the dopamine wave. With them, you can save
lives. Be it your own, or the life of someone you love.

Did You Know?

When you do a new activity such as tying your shoelaces or making a
different choice, the brain sets up new connections between neurons.
At first, the connections are weak. The more you repeat the activity,
the stronger they become. The ability of the brain to create and
strengthen neural connections is called neuroplasticity, and it extends
well beyond childhood. Already, since you began reading this book,
you have a slightly different brain than you had before. The good
news is, you can direct neuroplasticity to transform the relationship
between your two Minds!
 The Power of Conscious Choices
The strongest principle of growth lies in human
choice.
—George Eliot

From our glimpse into neuroscience, we learned that most choices are not
under our conscious control. The Unconscious Mind provides the brain’s
default mode. It makes choices for us, especially when the Conscious Mind
is otherwise engaged. We’re not even aware of some of them. For obvious
reasons, choices we aren’t aware of are much harder to manage.

The power of conscious choices is the ability to be aware of the choices

you make as you’re making them. This doesn’t mean you cannot make the
same choices anymore. It means you move away from automaticity and
know your options.
Let’s say you’re mindlessly eating a bag of chips in front of the
television. The power of conscious choices enables you to pause and reflect
on whether you want to eat chips right now. Are you hungry? Are you
enjoying those chips? How will you feel afterward? Of course, you may
continue eating chips, mindfully and one at a time, completely immersed
into the experience of eating. Or you may put the bag back in the pantry,
away from your Unconscious Mind’s grasp. But from now on, for each chip
you put in your mouth, you’re aware of the choice you’re making.
 Did You Know?
Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of what you’re doing, what
you’re thinking, and how you’re feeling in the present moment. It
means paying attention to your physical, mental, and emotional
experiences. Even if you’re just washing the dishes!

The Conscious Mind gives us the capacity to monitor unconscious

drives and choose what to do next. It’s the expression of our free will.
Unfortunately, several factors cause us to release the reins on the
Unconscious Mind even though it doesn’t serve us. We’ve already seen how
our high-stimulation culture hijacks dopamine circuits and renders
Conscious Minds powerless in the face of instant gratification. Stress is
another factor. Under stress, the brain falls back on automatic responses.
The same occurs when we’re tired, famished, or distracted: we give in to
unhealthy choices without a thought.
Knowing how the Unconscious Mind works is a first step to stave off
unhelpful responses. When you know what’s happening, it’s easier to step
back and make other choices. But it’s not enough in a society where stress,
convenience, high-calorie foods, sleep deprivation, and constant distraction
are the laws of the land.
Some lifestyle choices—moving, getting enough sleep, managing stress,
feeding the body with nutritious foods—strengthen your ability to make
conscious choices. But how do you start? How do you launch a positive
feed-forward cycle of healthy choices when everything points the
Unconscious Mind in the other direction?
The Conscious Mind cannot go against the Unconscious Mind, except
through temporary bursts of willpower, unsustainable long term. To go
somewhere, you must get the Unconscious Mind to go along. Or even
better, to take you there.
 The Power of Meaning
Alice came to a fork in the road.
‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the
Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.
—Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

When we’re consciously choosing, the Conscious Mind steers us toward

healthy choices. But the Unconscious Mind couldn’t care less. That’s why
we end up making unhealthy choices. So, what does the Unconscious Mind
care about?
Our brains come equipped with two encoded aims—survival and
reproduction. They provide the underlying meaning for our choices. It’s a
meaning we share with all living things. In everyday life, those aims
translate to unconscious goals, such as calories, information, and rest.
That’s why we’re drawn to rich foods, newsfeeds, and couches. Our
behaviors are tools to pursue unconscious goals.
Since the beginning of humanity, evolution has added different layers of
meaning in relation with the quest for survival and reproduction. One of the
most prevalent layers is uniquely human: the need to belong. That’s because
belonging to a tribe ups our chances of survival and procreation: it makes us
safer and provides mating opportunities. But it has taken a life of its own
and can override basic needs such as food and sex. Taken to the extremes, it
pushes people to give up their lives for a cause, against the drive to survive.
Curious about other derivative meanings? They include power, money,
looks, and the need to stand out. I will let you ponder how each ups our
chances at survival and reproduction.
Unconscious meanings are malleable as long as they maintain a
connection to survival and reproduction. What does this suggest for our
health? That we can give the Unconscious Mind meanings that support a
healthy lifestyle.
 Why do we need to do that? Why doesn’t the default meaning of
survival and reproduction benefit us? Or any of the derivative meanings?
Because our realities have changed!
Now, food is available 24/7, movement is superfluous, technology
monopolizes our attention. The Unconscious Mind is grappling with an
environment it was not designed to handle. Unconscious goals are no longer
relevant and could prove lethal.
What’s the point of stuffing ourselves when the next meal is just a few
hours away? What’s the point of following the news 24/7 when we have no
clue about what to do with the information? What’s the point of spending
hours on social media when what would really make us happy is to spend
quality time with a few close friends? Not only is there no point, but we’re
also jeopardizing our long-term health and well-being. Except long-term
health and well-being are not on the Unconscious Mind’s agenda.
To direct your Unconscious Mind toward healthy choices, you need to
inspire it with reasons that supersede encoded meanings. Those reasons are
your why. They go beyond survival and reproduction. And they are going to
give a new meaning to your lifestyle choices.
Health is not an end. It’s a means to do and be what you want. Why do
you want to be healthy? What will it help you achieve? This is the
derivative meaning we’re looking for.
To access your why, take a piece of paper and a pen; write why you care
about your health. Explore different timescales, from the most immediate—
six months from now—to the farthest in time, whatever seems relevant to
you. How do you want to live your life from now on? Why is it important
for you to be healthier in the short term? What do you want to accomplish?
What about 20 years from now? That’s what should drive your choices.
To unearth your deepest motivations, do not satisfy yourself with your
first answer. For instance, if you reply: “have more energy,” ask yourself
why you want to have more energy. What will you do with it? And so on, at
least five times. If you get stuck on why, use variations such as “what’s
important about that?”, “what difference will it make?” The more you dig,
the more you uncover what really matters.
Here are two of my why series.
Why do I want to be healthy in the short term? To have more energy in
the coming months. Why do I want more energy? To complete my
writing projects. Why do I want to complete my writing projects? To
serve others. Making a difference in people’s lives is what drives me.

Why do I want to be healthy in the long term? To be able to take care of

myself. Why? To stay independent and continue living in my own home.
Imagining myself in a nursing home, unable to go to the bathroom by
myself, gives me nightmares.
Not inspired? Here are a few questions to spur your reflection:
1. What activities matter most in your life?
2. Who relies on you?
3. What are the causes you care about?
4. How do you want to feel?
5. What brings you the greatest joy?
6. What person do you want to be?
7. How do you want to be remembered?
 8. What will you regret the most at the end of your life?
9. Imagine yourself in a hospice. What do you miss the most?
For added inspiration, I have listed below the most common reasons people
give for getting healthier. You can choose one or a combination. When you
read the following list, what resonates the most? What brings tears to your
eyes? Work from there and continue drafting why statements until you’re
satisfied that you can’t get any deeper. Keep in mind that you can change
your why statements at any time.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALTHY?
Have more energy,
Increase physical and emotional well-being,
Have inner peace,
Improve mood and focus,
Have more self-confidence,
Obtain better career opportunities,
Boost creativity,
Be protected from infections,
Get off medications,
Age gracefully,
Enjoy retirement,
Preserve autonomy in old age,
Steer clear of hospitals and nursing homes,
Save money on medical costs,
Live longer,
Get rid of allergies,
Increase endurance,
Improve athletic performance,
Be more productive,
Provide the best life for your children,
See your children graduate,
Meet grandchildren,
Be able to play with children or grandchildren,
Look better,
Have radiant skin,
 Lose weight,
Increase fertility,
Make sure future children are healthy,
Set an example of health—especially for children or grandchildren—to
inspire them to lead healthy lives,
Improve social life,
Travel and see the world.
Now that you have your whys, let’s add them to your Unconscious Mind’s
agenda. You may recall that the Unconscious Mind links pleasure and pain
with whatever aids or hinders survival, respectively. The feelings of
pleasure and pain are wired to guide you, like strings on a puppet. The key
is to recalibrate them and become the puppeteer!
 The Power of Time Travel
The future influences the present just as much as
the past.
—Friedrich Nietzsche

What if you suffered the consequences of unhealthy behaviors

immediately? Imagine, you put a bite of ice cream in your mouth, and the
next minute you experience pain, fatigue, poor mood. Your skin breaks out.
You look 10 years older.
We experience pleasure when we do something that fifty thousand years
ago was useful for survival. For instance, we enjoy consuming sugar in
large amounts, even though too much sugar is unhealthy. Fifty thousand
years ago, sugary foods meant survival for a few more days; our
Unconscious Minds didn’t have to worry about excess consumption
because sugar was scarce. But now that sugar is widely available, pleasure
is misleading.
Your Unconscious Mind can’t see the consequences of actions beyond
the next minutes. Tomorrow is a distant reality; ten years from now doesn’t
exist. Unhealthy lifestyle choices damage the body too slowly for your
Unconscious Mind to care. How do you get it to consider the big picture?
The Conscious Mind relies on words; the Unconscious Mind on
emotions. You have easy access to the former because you think and speak
with it. It’s harder to get through to the Unconscious Mind because it
operates wordlessly. But you can approach it with images. That’s why
visualization is a powerful tool to encode new layers of meaning in the
Unconscious Mind.
Visualization may sound woo-woo, but it’s a serious neuroscience
technique with research to back up its benefits.
Why is it powerful? Your Unconscious Mind doesn’t make any
difference between what you visualize and what happens in the real world.
So much so that if you visualize yourself lifting an object, it triggers
electrical activity in your muscles.
 For our purposes, we will first use visualization to create mental images
of what outcomes await you depending on how healthy you are. Healthy—
you get what you want; unhealthy—you don’t. Add in potent emotions, and
you’ve got your Unconscious Mind’s attention.

To make sense of this, let’s do a visualization, where we combine your

whys, health status, and lifestyle choices. Ready to meet your Future Self?
Because both minds can control the breath, mindful breathing connects
your Conscious and Unconscious Minds together. That’s why I invite you to
take a few deep breaths before your visualizations.
Sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Take three deep, gentle breaths,
breathing in and out slowly through your nose. Expand your belly as you
breathe in.
Breathe normally. You’re now going to project yourself on the different
timescales of your whys, starting with the earliest.
Immerse yourself in your future self. First, picture the worst-case
scenario. Imagine yourself continuing to make the same unhealthy
lifestyle choices: eating processed food, not exercising, not getting
enough sleep, in a constant state of stress. Feel your energy waning, your
mood plummeting, your joints aching, your skin sagging. Think of the
damage you’re doing to your body. Disease and disability are often
abstract notions until they confront us. Here, you’re making the
consequences feel real. Now see yourself not achieving your whys
because of poor health. Feel the disappointment and the pain. Do the
same, going farther and farther into the future with thing getting worse
and worse.
 Now you’re going to tell your Unconscious Mind a different story.
Picture the best-case scenario: you’ve made changes: you’re eating
healthy foods, you’re moving throughout the day, you’re getting your
seven hours of sleep, you’re managing your stress. You feel and look
great, you have loads of energy. You’re accomplishing your whys. Feel
the joy. Do the same, going farther and farther into the future with things
getting better and better.
Once you’ve visualized where you want to go, it’s time to update the
reward values of everyday behaviors. You want to show your Unconscious
Mind what behaviors hurt the body and what behaviors support it.
Visualize yourself making the healthy lifestyle choices it takes to reach
your vision. For instance, see yourself eating healthier, being more
active, sleeping like a baby, feeling relaxed. Relish how good it feels.
Link intense pleasure to making healthy choices. You feel better and
lighter in your body. You experience vibrant energy. You’re proud of
yourself. Conversely, link massive pain to unhealthy choices. Feel the
pain when you eat unhealthy foods, stay seated all day long, and go to
bed late. Your joints hurt, your clothes feel tight, you’re exhausted. Move
your hands to push those choices away from you, literally.
Finish the visualization exercise with three deep, gentle breaths. Slowly
open your eyes.
For visualizations to be effective, it’s important to repeat them often. You
want to work on your Unconscious Mind consistently to ingrain your new
goals. Your Unconscious Mind will do everything in its power to pursue
them.
At first, your visualizations may look fuzzy. They will become sharper
with regular practice. As you read on, you will glean elements to enrich
them.
My own visualizations look like this. If I stop making healthy lifestyle
choices, in a few days, I will feel tired, a bit foggy. I won’t have the energy
to write or to take care of my family. Ten years from now, my body will
ache, I will be sick all the time, I won’t get to travel, I won’t be able to
enjoy the company of my grandchildren. Thirty years from now, I will be in
a nursing home, unable to take care of myself, dependent on others for food
and hygiene, a burden to my daughters.
Now to the good part! If I continue making healthy lifestyle choices, I
will feel vibrant, I will have the energy to work on multiple writing
projects, I will be there for my daughters, and I will set a good example for
them. Ten years from now, I will continue to feel vibrant, I will travel all
over the world, and I will have fun with my grandchildren. Thirty years
from now, I will still be independent, living in my home, connected to the
world and enjoying visits from my family.
In my mind, I clearly associate eating processed food and staying seated
all day long with the first story. I make myself feel repelled by those
choices, by pulling a disgusted face and pushing away the vision with my
hands. I associate the second story with eating fruits and vegetables,
drinking water, going to bed early, taking long walks, breathing mindfully,
doing yoga and strength training regularly. I make myself feel the joy by
putting a big smile on my face.
Now that you’ve created an engaging story, let’s focus on the star of the
story: you! Among your 9 powers is the power to remodel your identity so
you’re fit to spearhead your quest for health.

Did You Know?

Visualization allows us to get in touch with our Future Selves. This
ability to time travel is specific to the human species. It has allowed
us to invent and build great things. It can be a powerful tool to
enhance your health. Once you’re familiar with your Future Self, it’s
harder to make harmful lifestyle choices that you know will hurt him
or her. Now, before any lifestyle choice, ask yourself: “what does my
Future Self want me to do?” and become your Future Self’s best
advocate!
 The Power of Identity
Life is about creating yourself.
—George Bernard Shaw

Who are you?

Your identity hinges on beliefs embedded into your Unconscious Mind
since childhood. Your beliefs are your expectations about the world and
about yourself. They were planted as a result of interactions with parents,
siblings, peers, teachers, and other authority figures. When you were young,
your Unconscious Mind absorbed information like a sponge to secure
instructions on how to behave. It rejected nothing because there was no
preexisting belief to contradict what it learned.
If someone called you stupid, your Unconscious Mind registered the
information for future reference. Or maybe no one called you names, but
your Unconscious Mind interpreted the situation to mean you were stupid.
That’s why you may still carry labels from childhood: I’m weak, I’m lazy,
I’m not good enough, I’m not important, I’m not wanted, I’m a failure.
Why are childhood beliefs important? Because they act as a filter
through which the Unconscious Mind makes sense of the world. The
Unconscious Mind relies on beliefs to interpret the million bits of
information bombarding it every second. That’s how it decides which
behaviors to launch. Beliefs work like an operating system.
 If you think you’re poor at math, your Unconscious Mind will make sure
you do poorly on every math test. If you think you suck at public speaking,
you will suck every time, no matter how many self-help books you read.
Your Unconscious Mind is wired to shield your identity because that
identity has kept you safe until now. Safe doesn’t mean happy. Your
Unconscious Mind doesn’t care about happiness.
What does it mean for your health? It means that if your Unconscious
Mind thinks you’re incapable of making healthy lifestyle choices, you
won’t make them. Unless you use tremendous amounts of willpower for
every small choice.
Fortunately, the link between identity and choices works both ways. If
your identity drives your choices, conversely your conscious choices tell the
Unconscious Mind who you are. So that if you make different choices, your
identity changes. You have the power to reinvent yourself.
Once you change how you see yourself, you act in novel ways. From
now on, you want to think of yourself as a health-oriented person and
behave like one. This is your new identity. Not one built on biological
drives and negative experiences, but your own conscious creation. You’re
the kind of person who makes healthy choices and feels great about it. You
don’t have to make healthy choices, you get to make them. It’s not that you
can’t eat sweets, it’s that you don’t eat sweets. That’s just who you are.

Did You Know?

Many studies show that what older adults believe about aging affects
their physical and mental health.

To further shift your identity, you can use skill visualizations. We’ve
already used them to encode new meanings. But visualizations aren’t
limited to future outcomes. They’re also an effective form of rehearsal. In
fact, top athletes and actors use skill visualization to build automatic
patterns. If you visualize yourself making healthy choices, your
Unconscious Mind thinks you’re making them. This reinforces your identity
as a healthy person and makes it easier to make those choices in real life.
Right now, you can take a few minutes to visualize yourself eating
healthy food or moving your body. Close your eyes and take three deep,
gentle breaths before you visualize.
In later chapters, you will have access to an array of healthy behaviors to
pick from. If you visualize yourself doing them, they will be much easier to
implement.
Now that you’re equipped with a powerful trifecta—awareness, purpose,
and identity—it’s time to get moving!
 The Power of Small
Great things are done by a series of small things
brought together.
—Vincent Van Gogh

No running! A series of small steps works much better.

Because past behaviors have kept you alive, your Unconscious Mind
wants you to keep doing them. It likes routines and is spooked by anything
unfamiliar. If you force drastic changes, it gets scared and refuses to budge.
Both Minds enter a battle of wills, which leaves you frustrated. And trust
your Unconscious Mind to put you back at the starting point, or worse!
With a stepwise approach, you only deviate slightly from your habitual
choices. It gives the Unconscious Mind time to adapt and release old
patterns of behavior.
Steps are small behaviors, such as drinking water when you wake up or
eating vegetables with each meal. They are easy to carry out with minimal
hassle. By tweaking their duration, intensity, and frequency, you make them
as small as you like so they feel effortless.
Do you want to practice meditation? Start with two minutes per day.
Find a comfortable seated position. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your
eyes. Take slow, deep breaths, in and out. Focus on your breath until the
timer goes off. There, you’re done! You’ve taken one more step toward a
healthier you. Whenever you’re ready, add one more minute.
Do you want to decrease your consumption of sugary drinks? Start with
cutting out one drink per week. When this feels comfortable, cut out another
one.
Do you want to eat healthier meals? Start with adding one vegetable to
each meal.
If the commitment feels like too much, the step is too big. Break it
down.
Small steps hack dopamine circuits. The Unconscious Mind is highly
motivated by immediate feedback loops where results follow actions. When
you achieve a goal, no matter how small, you receive a shot of dopamine.
Not only does it make you feel great, but it also boosts your motivation to
go one step further. Small steps soon add up to big leaps.
In matters of health, there is no “one size fits all.” The key is to
understand what works for you. The step-by-step approach is flexible
enough for you to tailor it to who you are. You get to choose what and how
many steps you want to take. You move on to the next steps only when
you’re ready.

A word to the wise: Don’t tell yourself that if you can’t do something
perfectly, you may as well not do it at all. Getting healthier has nothing to
do with perfection. It’s about making better choices every day, not
necessarily the best ones. As long as you keep taking small steps, you are
going somewhere.
Now that your Unconscious Mind is moving, let’s give it clear directions
so it knows where to go.
 The Power of Scripts
I must create a system of my own
or become a slave to another person.
—William Blake

If you get lost in the woods, it doesn’t matter how inspired you are.
Unless you have a map or a GPS, you’re going to stay lost. The same goes
for the Unconscious Mind. That’s where the Conscious Mind can take the
lead. It can design future patterns of behavior. Planning is one of its forte.
Without a plan, it’s harder to resist automatic behaviors. Planning
removes the risk for spur-of-the-moment poor decisions. When you’re clear
about what you want to do, you just do it. For instance, if you decide to
always choose water over sodas, there is nothing to decide the next time
you’re offered a choice. It’s already decided. Otherwise, you find yourself
torn between conscious and unconscious pulls. More often than not, you
give in to instant gratification and ask for soda.
For every step toward health, you can map out the “where/when/how.”
You write the script so it’s easy to launch the action. Plus, you have nothing
to decide when the lure of instant gratification is at its highest.
Studies show that when we’ve devised a plan on when, where, and how
we’re going to do something, we’re much more likely to do it. Let’s say you
want to exercise. Compare these two sentences:
1. “I will exercise next week.”
 2. “I will do 30 minutes of brisk walking at 8 am on Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays in the park.”
Which gives you better odds?

Believe me, there is freedom in planning! It’s even better if you make an
appointment with yourself. Do you want to meditate? Schedule two minutes
of meditation every day and set a reminder on your phone.
What about challenging situations that spring up on you and make you
more prone to unhealthy choices? Those are the situations where your
Unconscious Mind gets really close to a reward—it can smell those
delicious cookies! The dopamine levels in your brain get fired up to make
you reach out. For such situations, implementation intentions are your best
bet.
Ahead of time, envision what you expect to occur. Create a vision of
how you want to feel afterward and provide your Unconscious Mind with
specific instructions. When situation x arises, then I will perform response
y. For instance, going to the restaurant can be challenging. Here are some
implementation intentions to consider: When ordering, I will look for the
healthiest dish on the menu. When the server brings my order, I will ask for
a to-go box and eat only half of what’s on the plate. When I’m given the
dessert menu, I will order fruit.
Do you want to avoid snacking? Decide to have three meals a day:
breakfast, lunch, dinner. When any other opportunity for food comes up,
just say: “No, thank you. I don’t eat now.”
Implementation intentions are great, but what if you could minimize
challenging situations altogether and reduce the number of bones of
contentions between your Conscious and Unconscious Minds? That’s where
your eighth power comes in. But first, let’s uncover your seventh power.
When you’ve taken a step, you want to rinse and repeat!
 The Power of Automaticity
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit.
—Aristotle

You’ll recall how some automatic behaviors lead you astray in your quest
for health. But you can also make automatic behaviors work for you. Think
of brushing your teeth, tying your shoelaces, or putting on your seat belt.
Chances are, you don’t have to think to do those behaviors. What if the
same was true for healthy behaviors?
Doing a behavior for the first time requires focus. The more you repeat
the behavior, the less you need to pay attention. With enough repetitions,
the behavior develops into a well-trodden neural pathway. It becomes the
most obvious route to take for your Unconscious Mind. That’s why it’s
important to use the power of small to pick steps you’re able to take every
day without fail. Repetition is the first key to creating automatic behaviors.
The two other keys are cues and rewards. Cues are like signs on a trail;
they guide the Unconscious Mind toward neural pathways. Rewards and the
subsequent dopamine hits signal the Unconscious Mind to register the
behavior and cues. That’s how the neural pathway is wired in place.

Contextual cues can be objects, locations, time of day, preceding actions

—what you’ve just been doing—or reminders on your phone. For instance,
you decide to drink a glass of water every time you come into your kitchen.
You do a few squats every time you get out of the bathroom. You do
breathwork every time you eat. You take a five-minute walk after every
meal. You pace around every time you take a phone call. You program an
alarm to go off every 30 minutes to remind you to stand up and stretch.
Choose cues you encounter consistently.
To get dopamine, you need a reward, but not necessarily a tangible one.
The sense of achievement from implementing a step and recording it in
your daily journal is enough to trigger the dopamine release. After each
step, take a pause to experience a positive emotion. Think about your
meaning and how you just contributed to it. Relish the pleasure of having
done some good for your body. That’s where your ninth power comes in.
More on that later.
We’ve seen how our current environment puts your Stone Age brain to
the test. How about protecting your brain with bubbles?
 The Power of Bubbles
The environment acts more strongly upon the
individual life the less fixed and strong this
individual life may be.
—Maria Montessori

Where do you spend most of your time? Would you say those locations
support healthy lifestyle choices?
Your environment influences your lifestyle choices, from what you eat
to how you move to how much you sleep. The automatic responses
directing your behavior need a cue to be launched. Your Unconscious Mind
is constantly triggered by cues around you. See big yellow M, eat
hamburger. What your Unconscious Mind sees is what you do. That’s why
TV commercials work so well.
Food in your line of vision makes you more likely to eat. If you keep a
bowl of candy on your desk, you probably reach for candy throughout the
day. Likewise, the more you fill your plate, the more you eat. Portion sizes
have doubled or tripled over the last decades. So have our weights.
Cues work as brakes or accelerators in your health journey. The good
news is, your Conscious Mind has the ability to shape them. The power of
bubbles is about making healthy choices easier and unhealthy choices
harder. It’s about creating protective bubbles to cue the Unconscious Mind
in the right direction.

Did You Know?

The food industry knows perfectly well how to design cues to
influence your choices. Unfortunately, their goal is not for you to
make healthy choices but for you to buy more. That’s why you see
food-related cues everywhere. That’s also why grocery stores locate
what you need the most in the back—you have to pass tempting foods
on your way—or why they put what they want you to buy at eye
level.

There are three ways to design bubbles that maximize your odds of
making healthier choices.
1. Make healthy choice the default choice. For instance, put a fruit bowl
on your kitchen counter; keep cookies and candies out of sight, or
even better, out of your home. If it’s not there, you won’t eat it.
2. Facilitate healthy behaviors by introducing visual triggers in your
environment. For instance, keep a water bottle on your desk. It will
make it easier for you to keep drinking water throughout the day.
Keep a dumbbell and a mini stepper by the TV to work out during
commercial breaks.
3. Change or avoid environmental cues that trigger unwanted behaviors.
For instance, when driving, choose routes that don’t go by unhealthy
food places. When shopping, avoid aisles with processed foods.
You will find many other examples of environmental design in Part 3 of this
book.
You control your environment much more than you think. But you may
want to enlist the support of family, friends, and coworkers. Let them know
of your health journey. Ask for their understanding and support. You can
share your whys if you’re comfortable talking about them. However, some
people may feel threatened by your health endeavors and even try to
undermine them. You may get the cold shoulder for not eating the donuts a
coworker brought to the office. Your aunt may feel offended because you’re
not getting a second serve of her apple pie. Don’t try to get them to see your
point if they’re not ready to hear it. Only they can persuade themselves.
What you can do instead is to navigate situations as best as you can, by pre-
planning strategies. I am sure you can come up with many excuses for not
eating food that’s pushed on you.
Stay confident with your choices. You do everybody a favor by
modeling healthy behaviors. It’s proven to be the most effective way to
change people around you. Whenever possible, share the positive
consequences of your healthy choices, how you feel better and more
energetic. Make it fun! When others see how well you’re doing, they’ll
want to join the party! You may also want to reconsider some relationships
if you sense they’re unhelpful or toxic.
The most intimate relationship you have is with your body. As long as
you’re alive, it’s always with you. How would you characterize your
relationship? Attentive, supportive, nurturing? Or difficult, judgmental,
even hateful? If you’re like most people, this relationship is nonexistent. It’s
not for lack of trying on your body’s part. It’s always talking to you. In fact,
you may be aware of uncomfortable sensations, symptoms, or negative
emotions. But do you recognize them as messages that something is wrong?
Now is the time to come home to your body. Knowing what goes on
inside will help you establish a healthy relationship based on understanding
and respect. The more connected you are, the better your choices.
Visualizing health from the inside out is your ninth power.
 The Power of Body Insight
When you arise in the morning, think of what a
precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to
think, to enjoy, to love.
—Marcus Aurelius

Can your body trust you? Do you know how to care for it?
Being in touch with what’s happening inside your body is foundational
to making healthy lifestyle choices. You can feel compelled to make
healthier choices simply by tuning in to their impacts. This enables you to
give your body what it wants and acknowledge feedback messages. You
understand why your body needs nourishment, why it needs movement,
why it needs sleep. You also understand why some choices are harmful.
Part 2 is there to give you the awareness of what is happening behind the
body’s curtain. The story is quite an extraordinary one; it will no doubt
inspire you with awe and respect for your lifelong partner.
Body insights will enrich your visualizations. It will increase both the
pain of unhealthy lifestyle choices and the pleasure of healthy ones. The
more you know how sugar hurts the body, the easier it will be to visualize
the damage in real time. The Unconscious Mind will fight any potential
threat to your body’s survival. If you show your Unconscious Mind vivid
images of how some automatic responses hurt your body, it will respond
differently.
Let’s get you in touch with your body right now. An organ scan meditation
is a good way to reconnect. For simplicity’s sake, it will only focus on some
major organs.
1. Sit comfortably or lie down. Make sure you won’t be interrupted.
2. Close your eyes. Bring your awareness to your breathing. Take
three deep, gentle breaths, breathing in and out slowly through
your nose. Expand your belly as you breathe in. Then breathe
normally.
3. Shift your attention to your brain. Focus on the way it feels.
Release any tension you experience inside your head. Now think
of how your brain gives you the ability to think, feel, control
movement, store memories, make choices. Imagine millions of
neurons firing up right now.
4. When you’re ready, shift your attention to your heart. Cover it
with your hands. Focus on the way it feels. Now think of how your
heart pumps blood to every part of your body. Visualize the blood
leaving your heart and flowing to your head, your hands, your feet.
5. When you’re ready, shift your attention to your lungs. Take a few
deep breaths. Focus on the way your lungs feel as you inhale and
exhale. Now think of how they expel carbon dioxide and take in
oxygen to fuel every part of your body. Visualize the oxygen
coming in and the carbon dioxide flowing out.
6. When you’re ready, shift your attention to your liver, on the right-
hand side of your torso, below the lower part or your ribcage.
Gently massage it by putting the fingers of your right hand under
the ribcage. Think of how your liver is a sophisticated
detoxification machine, tirelessly removing harmful molecules
 from the blood while manufacturing essential molecules and
digestive fluids.
7. When you’re ready, shift your attention to your kidneys. Locate
them by putting your hands on your hips, thumbs on your back and
sliding your hands up, until you feel your ribcage with your index
fingers. The thumbs on your back will be right over your kidneys.
You can gently thump them with your fists. Now think of how
your kidneys balance your blood by extracting excess molecules
and keeping useful ones.
8. When you’re ready, shift your attention to your digestive tract.
Locate your stomach with your left hand right beneath the left rib
cage. Massage it gently. Then massage between the rib cage and
belly button and around the belly button counter-clockwise to
access the small intestine. Put your right hand over the lower right
part of your belly. Massage up the right side of your abdomen to
access the ascending colon. Continue across the top from right to
left to massage the transverse colon. Continue down the left of
your abdomen to access the descending colon. Now think of how
your digestive tract processes food to provide nutrients for your
body.
9. Take a minute to visualize your body as a symphony of organs
working together for your sake. What can you do for them?
10. Finish this visualization with three gentle, deep breaths. Open
your eyes. Do you feel more at home in your body?
Now that we’ve uncovered your 9 powers, let me give you an indispensable
tool to harness and combine them. Think of it as your superhero cape!
 Roll Sound, Camera, Action!
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
—Thoreau

No need to rummage through your old toys in search of a Superman or

Wonder Woman costume: a notebook and a pen will do! The best way to
harness your 9 powers is—drum roll, please—to keep a journal.
How does it work?
To make changes, you must be aware of the problem. You may not
realize you’re making detrimental lifestyle choices several times a day.
Your journal is like a coach. It allows you to take stock of your situation,
design your health journey, and track your progress. It keeps you
accountable and focused.
It also gives you the means to write another narrative and support your
new identity. By journaling, you are telling yourself you’re worth it!
Make time for journaling. Make it part of your evening rituals. If you
skip a day, don’t worry. Come back to your journal as soon as possible.
Try it for at least three months to establish several changes. Your journal
will help you stay motivated and take pride in what you’ve accomplished.
Your journaling will be much more powerful if you write with a pen or a
pencil. No typing. The physical act of putting pen to paper signals your
Unconscious Mind to register the message.
I recommend you keep three journals into one: a reading journal, a long-
term journal, and a daily journal. Let me explain.
THE READING JOURNAL

How you read matters. This book allows you to participate rather than just
absorb information. Acting on the information ups your chances of rewiring
the Unconscious Mind.
Each time you learn something, new connections get forged in the brain.
When you take time to reflect on how the information applies to your life,
you strengthen them. Practicing with intention makes them permanent.
Therefore, I strongly encourage you not only to take notes but also to
reflect and act on what you learn. After each bout of reading, jot down a
few bullet points to summarize what you’ve learned. Recapping is key for
remembering. Make it personal: what resonated with your own experience?
How does it apply to you? What changes are you ready to make? Think
critically about the information and come up with your own ideas. Note any
unanswered question you have. Hopefully, the answer will come up later.
Else, you can look it up on the internet.
At the end of every chapter, I offer key takeaways so we can compare
notes. Add or retract as you wish. This book is yours!
Throughout the book, you will encounter ‘Pause & Reflect’ questions
and ‘Let’s do it!’ action items.
‘Pause & Reflect’ questions give you the opportunity to stop and focus
on your current reality. They help you develop your customized steps. There
are no right or wrong answers: it’s between you and yourself.
‘Let’s do it!’ action items are mini-workshops to apply what you’ve
learned. They are simple activities to get you started. Once you’ve
completed an action, write it down and celebrate. Yeah!
Each time you pick up this book, spend a few minutes reviewing your
notes to strengthen the new connections in your brain. Come back to your
notes to incorporate new insights based on your real-life experience and
your own research.

THE LONG-TERM JOURNAL

In the long-term journal, you’re going to set up your master list of action
steps and create your personalized lifestyle plan.
As you read Part 2, light bulbs will go off in your head on changes you
can make. Write them! Ideas for change will be much more valuable if they
come from you.
In Part 3, I give you an extensive range of steps to complete your master
list. For each step, ask yourself: is it feasible? Do I want to do it? Visualize
yourself doing it. Is it easy, is it hard? Feel each step out in your own life.
You’re the expert on you.
It’s unlikely that all the steps in this book will work for you, but if you
find even one, the job of this book is done.
Your long-term journal is also a brainstorming tool to come up with
concrete solutions on how to fit the steps into your life. Set targets—when,
where, how many times a week for recurrent actions. Be specific. For
instance, “Move More” is not specific enough. “I will walk for 10 minutes
Monday through Friday at noon” is much more operational.
Check if the steps you choose are not too big to take all at once. If this is
the case, break them down. For instance, if you want to limit your sugar
intake, start with a small step like replacing one sugary food with a piece of
fruit each day. If this is too much, start with once a week and reduce the
number of sugary foods as and when it is manageable.
Once you have your master list, prioritize the steps according to what is
the easiest to implement.
THE DAILY JOURNAL
Your daily journal is there to provide awareness. It will help you:
Track your lifestyle: what you ate, how you moved, how you slept,
and how stressed you were.
Plan the next day. What steps are you going to implement?
Monitor your progress. What did you do? How can you do better
tomorrow?
Once a week, do a recap and plan the week ahead.

TRACK YOUR LIFESTYLE

Tracking helps you take control of your choices. We don’t always make our
lifestyle choices with our Conscious Minds, especially regarding food,
movement, and sleep. Awareness creates change.

Track your food.

Food tracking is a powerful tool for both health and weight loss.
Research shows that people who track what they eat lose more weight
because they are more aware of their food intake and feel more
accountable. If you have to write it down, that donut may seem less
appealing!
Record everything you put in your mouth. You will be surprised by how
much you eat. Small snacks seem like nothing, but they all add up.
Don’t forget the bag of chips you ate on the couch!
There are plenty of apps to track food intake. You can also use your
smartphone to take pictures and transcribe later.
At night, think back to what you had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and
snacks. Answer the following questions:
What did you eat? How much?
How did you feel before eating? Were you hungry?
How did you feel after eating? Did you feel energized or
uncomfortably full?
Were you sitting down? Were you doing anything else?
 Was the environment noisy or calm?
In the same way, keep track of what you drink (water, sodas, fruit juice,
alcohol).

Track physical activity, sleep, and stress

Record how active you are, walking, doing household chores, or
exercising. Note each activity.
Record how much you sleep. At what time did you go to bed? At
what time did you wake up? Did you feel energized when you woke
up? Did you feel sleepy during the day? Did you need pick-me-ups
like sugary treats or coffee?
Record your stress levels. How stressed did you feel during the day?
What were your stressors?

MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS

Every night, reflect on your achievements during the day. What steps
did you implement? How did it go? What did you struggle with?
What could you have done better? What will you do differently
tomorrow?
Revisit the action steps you set for yourself. For example, if you set a
goal to walk 30 minutes each morning but are having trouble doing it
before work, see if you can get your walk in at lunchtime or do three
10-minute bouts at different times during the day.
Take pictures to document your journey. You can illustrate steps with
before/after pictures. For instance, what do your pantry, fridge,
shopping cart, and plate look like? How do they evolve? The same
goes for your meal and physical activity. What does an active day
look like for you?
If you made one healthy choice, no matter how small, give yourself a
win for the day. Draw pictures of hearts, stars, or smiley faces on
your journal—whatever makes you happy! Every time you score,
dopamine lights up your brain.
 Be willing to fail. It’s okay to go crazy once in a while. Get back on
track as soon as you can. Be curious about what didn’t go so well and
what you can do differently. Congratulate yourself for getting back
on track; you’ll receive a shot of dopamine!

PLAN THE NEXT DAY

Every night, plan steps for the next day. Choose them from the master list in
your long-term journal or from your daily feedback. Make them as small as
possible. Plan the when/where/how. How can you tweak your environment
to make it easier? Visualize yourself taking the steps and feeling good
afterward.
Go into your calendar and block the time like you would for any other
task. Set reminders on your phone. Anchor each step to actions you already
do every day, such as getting up, washing your teeth, taking a shower, or
going to bed.
Focus on no more than five steps at a time. Repeat them until they
become automatic. When you’ve made one step into a habit, increase the
intensity of the step or undertake a new one.
Once you’ve planned the next day, take a few minutes to harness the
power of meaning with a Future-Self visualization.
WEEKLY RECAP AND PLANNING
At the end of the week, take more time to review your progress and adjust
your trajectory if needed. List the steps you implemented during the week.
What were your big wins? How will you progress next week? What do you
want to work on? List the steps you want to implement next.
You can use a step tracker to assess your progression across the week.
Each time you put an X on the tracker, you get a dopamine hit that propels
you forward. Plus, it serves as visual proof of your new identity. Each week,
draw a chart on your notebook with a column for each day and a row for
each step. Check the box for each step you complete and feel the sense of
satisfaction when you check it off!
LET’S DO IT!
Here are the first action items to put you in the starting blocks.

Let’s Do It!
Get a 200-sheet notebook and multicolored tabs. Or a refillable
notebook with dividers.
Number the pages front and back; you will be able to cross-reference
notes and divide your notebook into parts.
Divide your notebook into three major sections, two small ones and a
big one. Insert tabs. You need approximately 40 sheets for the
reading journal, 20 sheets for the long-term journal, and the rest for
the daily journal.
Customize your notebook with pictures and stickers. You can add
pictures that illustrate your whys. You can also add appealing
pictures of a healthy lifestyle. What do healthy nutrition, physical
activity, and relaxation look like? You will find resources on
Instagram or Pinterest.
Write your whys on the first page of your long-term journal.
Schedule your writing time. Set aside at least 15 minutes every day
for journaling. Decide right now when and where you will journal.
Visualize yourself doing it. Write the time windows in your long-
term journal.
Congratulations! You’ve completed your first action item. You’re
now ready to write a new chapter in your life!
 Let’s Do It!
Here are six simple lifestyle changes that go a long way for your
health if you practice them every day.

1. Drink one glass of water when you wake up.

2. Chew each bite of food 30 times before you swallow.
3. Add one vegetable to one of your meals.
4. Stand up every half hour of sitting time and stretch.
5. Do a five-minute meditation by closing your eyes and focusing on
your breath.
6. Go to bed at 10pm.

Choose one lifestyle change you want to implement as of right now.

Begin with a skill visualization.
Close your eyes. Take three deep, gentle breaths, breathing in and out
slowly through your nose. Expand your belly as you breathe in. See
yourself implementing the step. Where are you? As you imagine
doing this, embrace a feeling of success. Notice how you feel better.
Put a smile on your face. Finish with another three deep breaths.
Slowly open your eyes.
Are you ready to implement this step as of today?

These first action items got you off the starting blocks. Let’s keep moving!
The next step is to know where you are. You will then be on your way.
WHERE DO YOU STAND?

The questions below are designed to assess your current situation

and identify your starting point. Be honest with your answers. This
is between you and yourself.

Q1. What made you choose this book? What are your expectations?
List three questions you want answered.

Q2. What do you do regularly for your health?

Q3. What does optimal health look like for you?

Q4. Do you suffer from any of these symptoms: pain, chronic

fatigue, overweight, brain fogginess, runny nose, heartburn,
bloating, digestive disorders, anxiousness, depression, sleep
disruption, chronic headaches, skin conditions, physical limitations?

Q5. Has your health gotten worse in recent years?

Q6. What is your experience of the medical establishment?

Q7. Have you ever experienced the connection between your daily
lifestyle choices and how you feel?

Q8. On a scale of 1 to 10, how healthy is your lifestyle right now?

 What do you think is not working in your lifestyle today?

Q9. How do you visualize yourself in old age?

Q10. What do you see yourself doing once you’re healthier? What
could become possible?

Q11. Do you think you could bring a positive influence on the lives
of people you care about if you changed your lifestyle habits? Who
in particular?

Q12. Have you ever tried to implement a new healthy habit? Were
you successful? Why or why not?

Q13. On a scale of 1 to 10, how badly do you want your health and
well-being to change?

Q14. What behaviors are you ready to transform?

Q15. What is something easy you can do for your health right now?

There are many mechanisms through which lifestyle factors influence

health and well-being. In the next chapter, I will take you on a journey into
the body to discover those mechanisms.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Taking responsibility for your choices gives you the ability to
transform your health.
B. Most of what happens inside the brain happens outside awareness.
C. Your choices are mainly governed by automatic responses
stemming from your Unconscious Mind.
D. Your Unconscious Mind comes from a place of insecurity and
scarcity.
E. You have 9 powers to redirect your Unconscious Mind.
F. Power of Conscious Choices—Break out of autopilot through
attention to your everyday choices.
G. Power of Meaning—Free yourself from the default program of
“survive and reproduce” to ascribe your own meaning.
H. Power of Time Travel—Visualize your future self to reprogram
your unconscious goals.
 I. Power of Identity— Your choices both reflect and determine who
you are. Embrace health as part of who you are.
J. Power of Small—Make tiny changes consistently to obtain huge
results over time.
K. Power of Scripts—Plan the where/when/how for each step.
Prepare implementation intentions (when-then) for challenging
situations.
L. Power of Automaticity—Transform small steps into automatic
behaviors through repetition.
M. Power of Bubbles—Tweak your physical and social environment
to facilitate healthy choices. Create barriers to unhealthy choices.
N. Power of Body Insight—Get intimate with your body to connect
lifestyle choices with their impact on health.
O. Journaling enables you to harness your 9 powers.
P. Write as you read [Reading Journal]
Q. Think about what you read and answer ‘Pause & Reflect’
questions.
R. Try the ‘Let’s Do It’ action items.
S. List the action steps you want to implement. Plan them out. [Long-
term journal]
T. Track your lifestyle habits. Plan your days and weeks. Monitor
your progress. [Daily journal]
Wherever you are, that’s your starting point. But it’s not where you start
that matters, it’s the choices you make as of today. And now your body
awaits your acquaintance.
 PART II

Come Inside

and See the Show

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be
understood. Now is the time to understand more,
so that we may fear less.
—Marie Curie
The story begins with an account of how the body works. Not a full
account, but a few principles and mechanisms to give lifestyle changes their
full meaning.
Although I have tried to simplify biological mechanisms, it can get a bit
technical. Please don’t skip this part. It will boost your ability to make
lifestyle changes. And you’re in for the drama performance of your life!
To further your understanding, please consult the glossary at the end of this
book. Words in the glossary are marked with an asterisk (*) the first time
they appear in the text and are left unmarked afterwards.
 Setting the Stage
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in
ourselves.
—William Shakespeare

It’s showtime! To make this more vivid, let’s imagine a play developing in
your body.
The play is set in a biochemical factory in charge of manufacturing your
life. Raw materials in the form of food, water, and air are transformed into
new products. Picture the stage: a factory floor with trillions of workers at
their stations and trillions of trillions of background performers flowing by.
Mind-boggling, isn’t it?
Like all stories, the story taking place in your body has heroes and
villains, challenges and revelations, victories and defeats. To make sense of
this massive performance, I’ve divided the story into key scenes. Let me
start by introducing the main characters.
MEET THE CAST
Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you
for a while.
—Anonymous
All for one and one for all.
—Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

Take a minute to imagine your body at a microscopic level. Picture 37

trillion cells* working 24/7 to create your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
That’s 37,000,000,000,000 cells. Thirty-seven trillion sparks of life keeping
you alive and moving. You will never be lonely again!
Each of your 37 trillion cells is an amazing world unto itself, with its
own organs for respiration, reproduction, and waste disposal. Most cells
share the same architecture: a nucleus*, a membrane*, and a cytoplasm*.
THE NUCLEUS holds your genes*. We’ll come back to them in the next
chapter.
THE MEMBRANE is the external fence. It controls the cell’s
interactions with the rest of the body. The cell depends on its immediate
surroundings for survival but can be threatened by what lurks without.
The membrane has gates to let in authorized molecules while blocking
potential invaders. It holds receptors* to catch messages from other cells.
Cells communicate with one another to coordinate their behaviors so the
body functions as a whole and not as a collection of independent cells.

THE CYTOPLASM is the watery inner space. It contains little organs or

organelles, including many mitochondria* to produce energy.
Mitochondria are the descendants of bacteria*. More than a billion years
 ago, some bacteria merged with cells to form a mutually beneficial
relationship. They became the powerhouses of cells in exchange for
protection. You carry thousands of trillions of them in your body.

You’re only as healthy as your cells. For a cell, health means the ability to
do its job, communicate with others, and maintain its structural integrity.
When you give your cells what they need and protect them from harm, they
do just fine and so do you. Else you hear them crying out through your
cravings, your pain, and your fatigue. Symptoms are your cells trying to get
your attention. Feeling crappy? Your cells are telling you that you’re doing
something wrong.
Cells are the main characters, but they are not the only ones: many
molecular performers, large and small, also take part in the play. Cells bathe
in an internal sea, also known as the biochemical terrain. On this terrain, all
kinds of molecules make their appearance. Some are let inside the cells.
Let’s see what happens then.

Did You Know?

A cancerous tumor grows when a cell decides to no longer cooperate
with others. It behaves in its own best interest and divides endlessly.
 Pause & Reflect
Whatever you do affects your cells. Take a good look at your current
lifestyle choices: what you eat, what you drink, how active you are,
how you manage stress*, how toxic your environment is.

Do you think you take good care of your cells? Do you give them
what they need?

Do you hurt them with overeating, processed foods, sodas, alcohol,

sedentary behavior, sleep deprivation, toxic chemicals, overwhelm?

Let’s Do It!
Love your cells and they will love you back! Each lifestyle choice is
an opportunity to take care of your cells. Ready for some cell-loving
action?
Take a deep breath in. Picture every cell in your body happily
receiving the oxygen. Breathe out. Picture your cells getting rid of
what they don’t need.
Drink a small glass of water. Picture your cells being plumped up.
Flex your fingers. Picture how the cells in your fingers are glad to be
moving and receive more blood flow.
THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME
"It’s chemistry, brother, chemistry! There’s no
help for it, your reverence, you must make way
for chemistry."
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

What do your cells do 24/7? They transform molecules into others, breaking
bonds between atoms and reforming others. Each cell is a chemistry lab. In
fact, what’s at play in the body is a choreography of billions of chemical
reactions.

This choreography is called metabolism*—from the Greek metabole,

which means change. Every process in the body—from your heart beating
to your neurons* firing—arises from chemical reactions. Those reactions
are sequenced into metabolic pathways*. As if traveling a maze of city
streets, molecules move through a network of thousands of metabolic
pathways.
Powering that network requires energy. Mitochondria are the gas pumps.
They burn oxygen and nutrients to produce energy—a process known as
cellular respiration.
Among the many molecular performers taking part in metabolism,
enzymes* play a crucial role. They act as matchmakers to help different
molecules find each other and go down metabolic pathways to form bigger
molecules. They also play home wreckers, breaking down big molecules
into smaller ones. Without enzymes, molecules would have a hard time
finding each other or breaking apart.

You now know most characters. Cells are the heroes of the story. What
are they trying to achieve through endless metabolic reactions? In the grand
scheme of things, they all work for you to survive and produce offspring. To
do this, they follow one Master Principle: to keep a dynamic balance in the
face of whatever life throws at them. Else the entire community comes
crashing down.
 Let’s Do It!
Take a “cell-loving moment.” Close your eyes, inhale and exhale
deeply. Get in touch with your cells from head to toes. Think about
how right this minute, they’re creating your thoughts, making your
heart beat, digesting your food. Become aware of the billions of
chemical reactions going on in your body. Amazing show, right?

Did You Know?

A cell’s self-abnegation is such that it will commit suicide or
apoptosis* to protect the rest of the body.
A BALANCING ACT
Fall seven times, rise eight, life begins now.
—Japanese proverb

Imagine your cells on a surfboard, continually adjusting their weight so as

not to fall off. As long as the size of the wave is within their scope of
practice, they stay on the surfboard. You can see them enjoying themselves
as they ride the waves. But now imagine the waves becoming more
tumultuous. See how your cells desperately try to hold on but fall off one by
one.
What are the waves rocking your cells? They are the fluctuations in the
internal sea within your body. Cells depend on the biochemical terrain for
molecules. But the terrain also brings unwelcome disturbances in the form
of toxic chemicals, pathogens*, or an overload of molecules.
Balancing the biochemical terrain to give cells optimal conditions to
function, grow, and reproduce is the fundamental principle of health. This
balancing act is called homeostasis*—literally, the condition of remaining
similar. It’s a team effort; it involves every cell in the body. The task is not
simple:
1. Optimal conditions vary from moment to moment: cells don’t need
the same things whether you’re running for your life, or you’re
sprawled on the couch.
 2. Everything you do affects the biochemical terrain—what you eat,
what you drink, how you move, how you sleep, what you think, what
you put on your skin. All lifestyle choices generate biochemical
waves.
What does homeostasis look like inside your body? It’s thousands of
different molecules being made and destroyed every second as cells adjust
to your lifestyle choices.
How do you know if they’re doing a good job? Homeostasis feels good:
you’re energized, you think clearly, you have no pain or skin issues, your
weight oscillates within a normal range, you sleep well through the night.
Else, there’s a good chance your cells are tumbling into the crashing waves.
Many challenges pull the terrain out of balance: dehydration, nutrient
deficiency, sleep deprivation, an angry boss to cite a few. Arrayed against
those challenges is a battery of homeostatic mechanisms to help cells regain
their footing.

Did You Know?

Emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, or joy are homeostatic
mechanisms, designed to steer behavior. Hunger, thirst, pain, and
stress do the same.

Homeostatic mechanisms are scaled for waves within a finite range. If

subjected to extreme deficiencies or excesses, they are submerged and make
matters worse. This creates a vicious cycle leading to chaos and destruction.
Cells keep crashing and cannot bounce back. Every health issue involves
the failure of homeostasis. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles are great
providers of tsunami waves.
 Pause & Reflect
Cells are always looking for balance. How balanced is your
lifestyle? Think of the way you eat, move, sleep, manage stress.
What terrain are you providing for your cells?

Do you experience any symptoms, such as pain, fatigue*, or skin

issues? Symptoms reflect imbalances and need to be investigated.
What are your cells trying to tell you?
 Let’s Do It!
Visualize your cells struggling to keep their balance on a surfing
board. What you do either helps them or tips them off. Picture the
tsunami wave engulfing cells when you overeat or do not get enough
sleep.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Your life results from the interaction of trillions of cells working
together 24/7.
B. The biochemical terrain provides the setting for cells to perform
and molecules to come and go.
C. Metabolism is action at the cellular level. Cells are always busy
breaking down and making up new molecules. They are fueled by
mitochondria, their inner power plants.
D. Enzymes are key players to activate chemical reactions.
E. Cells need a balanced terrain to supply and protect them.
F. The quality of the terrain reflects your lifestyle.
G. Together, cells strive to maintain balance or homeostasis in the
face of changing inputs from lifestyle choices.
H. Symptoms such as pain or negative emotions are an indication that
the terrain is out of balance.
 I. Cells rely on several mechanisms to promote homeostasis. Those
mechanisms make the body highly resilient.
J. When environmental inputs exceed the body’s adaptive capacity,
homeostatic mechanisms get overwhelmed. This dysregulation of
homeostatic mechanisms is the link between all health issues.
Playing out in your body is the confrontation between your lifestyle choices
acting as wave makers and your homeostatic potential—your body’s ability
to maintain balance. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to
proceed on two fronts:
1. Track down the biggest wave makers
2. Boost your homeostatic potential
We’ve set the stage. We’ve disclosed the pitch. Let’s get our hands on the
script!

Did You Know?

The concept of balance is nothing new. Traditional Chinese Medicine
and Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, both date back three
thousand years. They share the same goal: to bring the body back into
balance. Chinese medicine balances Yin and Yang; Ayurveda balances
doshas.
 Reading the Script
All true histories contain instruction; though, in
some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when
found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry,
shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the
trouble of cracking the nut.
—Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

Like all actors, cells follow a script. This script guides cells into making
molecules known as proteins* to spearhead homeostatic mechanisms. What
are proteins? They are the active agents of cells; they carry out most tasks.
You’ve met some of them. Remember the matchmakers that facilitate
metabolic reactions? Enzymes are proteins.
Protein molecules are made up of long chains of smaller molecules
known as amino acids*. There are 20 different amino acids to assemble in
any number or order. Think of them as building blocks. The sequence of
amino acids is specific to each protein. Only with the correct sequence will
the protein do its job.
How do cells know which amino acids to join? They follow the
instructions given by the DNA* in their nucleus. The DNA is the script. It
reads like a code based on four chemical bases or nucleotides*: adenine
(A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The sequence of
nucleotides dictates the meaning, similar to the way we assemble the 26
letters of the alphabet to form words. Each of your 37 trillion cells receives
the same script in its nucleus.
Genes are sections along strands of DNA; they are the pages of the
script. Each page contains the recipe for a specific protein: it tells cells
which amino acids to combine.
Genes determine which proteins cells can make. Hence, they determine
the range within which cells behave.
Over 99.5 percent of your genes are identical to the genes of other
human beings on the planet. This means variations represent less than 0.5
percent. But they give rise to different stories.
YOUR UNIQUE STORY
In his heart every man knows quite well that,
being unique, he will be in the world only once
and that no imaginable chance will for a second
time gather together into a unity so strangely
variegated an assortment as he is.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Where does the idea of good genes/bad genes come from? The answer is
mutations*.
Mutations are slight changes in the sequence of nucleotides or letters on
a gene, away from the most prevalent sequence in the population. Think of
them as typos in the script. Everyone carries mutations. You either inherit
them from one of your parents or acquire them during your lifetime.
Acquired mutations are caused by environmental factors such as
ultraviolet radiation from the sun or by mistakes during cell division.
Because cells are always dividing to make new cells, mistakes are common.
Every time a cell divides, it has to copy and pass along the same sequence
of 3 billion nucleotides. Nucleotides are sometimes switched in the process.
Repair enzymes fix most variations. Like proofreaders, they locate the
wrong nucleotides and replace them with the right ones. But some mistakes
make it past enzymes, thus becoming permanent mutations. If mutations
occur in reproductive cells, they’re passed on to the next generations.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms*, often called SNPs (pronounced
snips), represent a single nucleotide difference. Only one letter has been
changed on the page. SNPs are the most common genetic variations. You
carry between two and three million of them. You owe them your
biochemical individuality.
Most SNPs are neutral: they don’t affect cells’ function. After all, one
typo on a page does not keep you from understanding the meaning of the
page. However, some SNPs, because of their location or number, do change
the meaning. Imagine you’re reading an article on Japanese cuisine. The
author of the article wanted to write: “there’s a lot of rice in sushi” but
replaced the R in rice with an M. How likely are you to eat sushi now?
 When SNPs are meaningful, the cell cannot produce the intended
protein. Some metabolic pathways become inefficient. Such SNPs explain
why you react differently from others to the same lifestyle choices and are
more susceptible to certain environmental factors.
For instance, your SNPs may not allow you to metabolize coffee well.
Whereas your spouse can drink coffee in the afternoon and sleep like a
charm, a cup of coffee after 10am will keep you up all night. This means
your liver cells are not able to produce the enzyme to metabolize coffee.

Before you get overly concerned about SNPs, consider the following.
1. Most SNPs are not harmful. Some even are beneficial and make you
function better. Beneficial SNPs are the motor for evolution*: by
promoting better adaptation to the environment, they allow recipients
to survive and reproduce more than non-recipients. Over many
generations, recipients become dominant. We call this natural
selection*.
2. You need to combine multiple detrimental SNPs before increasing
your risk of disease.
 3. Only a few diseases are 100 percent genetically determined. They
include Down Syndrome, sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis,
hemophilia, and Huntington’s Disease.
4. For other health issues, SNPs do not cause problems by themselves.
Something has to set them in motion.
Two examples illustrate the last point. First, the cancer* risk of adopted
children mirrors that of their adoptive parents, not their biologic parents.
This shows that more than genes, you inherit your parents’ lifestyle. Now
consider this second example. Breast cancer incidence rates are much lower
in Japan than in the United States. But when Japanese women migrate to
the United States, their breast cancer risk becomes similar to that of
American women in less than 15 years. Clearly, the environment plays a
role.
In fact, no one is destined to get diabetes*, obesity*, cancer*,
Alzheimer’s disease*, or heart failure. Experts estimate that genes
determine only 10 to 30 percent of health outcomes. Of course, genes are
part of the equation. But not the only part.

Pause & Reflect

Are you under the impression that diseases run in your family? What
diseases? What lifestyle habits did you inherit from your parents?
INTERPRETATION IS EVERYTHING
Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to
belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to
his author, to his public. He must do the
impossible to identify himself with the first, not to
betray the second, and not to disappoint the
third.
—Sarah Bernhardt, The Art of the Theatre

Most genes in a given cell are not read; they’re like glued pages in a book.
How does the cell know which genes to read? It asks the terrain.
Each gene comes with a switch—a regulatory region to which molecules
bind to activate or deactivate the gene. The molecules either originate from
the biochemical terrain or are manufactured in the cell in response to
signals received from other cells.

When a gene is switched off, the protein encoded by the gene doesn’t get
made. There need to be the right molecules around to turn on the gene.
The interaction between genes and terrain is called gene expression*.
It’s the reason cells make the right proteins at the right time in response to
whatever is going on outside. Food intake, movement, sleep, and emotions
create instant modifications to the terrain. Modifications pour through the
body to flip billions of switches on and off. That’s how powerful your
lifestyle choices are!

Did You Know?

Even your thoughts turn genes on and off. By changing your
thoughts, you change how your genes express, and thus what your
cells can do.

To picture this, think of a jukebox in a bar. Patrons decide which song to

play by pressing the right button. For cells, molecules in the terrain
determine which enzyme is going to be produced by flipping on the right
switch. For instance, some genes govern how well you detoxify. By eating
cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower, you send
sulforaphane molecules to switch on detoxification genes.
 The same script or DNA gives rise to different productions depending on
which genes are activated. As we’ve just seen, the most immediate
mechanism controlling activation is a switch, flipped on or off depending
on your moment-to-moment choices. But there’s another mechanism that
regulates gene expression in the long run: epigenetics*. Let’s learn more
about the new science that revolutionizes our understanding of genetics.

YOU ARE THE HERO

The only person you are destined to become is
the person you decide to be.
―Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do you remember as a child reading interactive books in which you were
the hero? You made choices and turned to different chapters, thereby
influencing the course of the narrative. You determined your destiny.
Epigenetic mechanisms work like interactive books. Your consistent
lifestyle choices dictate what genes are read over the course of your life.
I’m not talking about the occasional indulgence but about what you do most
of the time for many months.
 Before we get into the crux of epigenetics, let’s consider this apparent
paradox: while all cells contain the exact same genes in the nucleus,
different cell types produce different sets of molecules. For instance, liver*
cells produce bile*; pancreatic cells produce insulin.

This must mean they do not follow the same instructions. They do not
read the same pages of the script. But how does a cell know what genes it
should read on a long-term basis? That’s where epigenetics comes in. In
each cell, specific chemical tags point to which genes can be read and
which are blocked. Different cells have different tags, just like different
actors have different parts in the same script.
 What’s interesting about epigenetics is that some tags aren’t set in stone:
they change in response to continuous inputs over months or years. Inputs
are signals coming in: food, movement, sleep, stressors, toxicants. This
allows cells to adapt to the environment. Epigenetic marks are like memo
pads reminding cells of the conditions they’re likely to encounter. Most are
made in the womb and during childhood.

Did You Know?

Epigenetics and neuroplasticity are nature’s ways of sculpting
humans best-equipped for the world in which they live.

Epigenetic mechanisms lead to lasting change in gene expression

following sustained lifestyle changes. For instance, your genes may
predispose you to obesity, and in an unhealthy environment, you may
become obese. But step out of that environment, and your genes don’t make
you fat: you’ve silenced the wrongdoers. The genetic switch is stuck in
‘off’ position. Likewise, remember detoxification genes? If you eat
cruciferous vegetables every day, a few months from now you will have
upregulated your ability to detoxify. The genetic switch will be stuck in ‘on’
position.
Unfortunately, good genes can be silenced, and bad genes awakened.
Let’s consider the genes involved in cancer: oncogenes and tumor-
suppressor genes. Oncogenes cause cell division to get out of control.
Conversely, tumor-suppressor genes slow down cell division, repair DNA
mistakes, or tell cancerous cells when to die. You carry both types of genes.
Whether you get cancer depends on which are read, which in turn depends
on your lifestyle choices.
 You can’t change your genes yet, but you can make sure your cells look
up good genes and ignore the bad ones. Unlike mutated genes, harmful
epigenetic marks can be reversed under the right circumstances. Repetition
is key; it’s what you do consistently. By regularly drinking a glass of water,
eating plant food, or taking a walk, you support the right genes for your
health. As some epigenetic marks are heritable, you also influence future
generations. Now, that’s empowering!
We’ve just seen how the script allows for interpretation short-term and
long-term. But how was it written in the first place?
MAKING OF
Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowing where your genes come from is essential to understanding how

the body works. You probably know from biology classes that half of your
genes come from your mother, the other half from your father. Your parents,
in turn, received their genes from their own parents, and so on, right back to
the emergence of the first cell 3.8 billion years ago.
How did genes come to tell the story they’re telling today? The story
only makes sense when seen in the light of adaptation to the environment. It
was molded over millions of years to give cells the means to maintain
homeostasis. As the environment changed, genes evolved to let cells work
with what was around them. So much so that what was unavoidable in the
environment became a necessary feature for cells to function. For instance,
gravity is unavoidable. Cells now require it for most biochemical processes.
The same goes for specific nutrients, sunlight, physical activity, and even
microbes as we will soon see.
The more our ancestors were exposed to a given environment, the more
their genes evolved to work well within that environment. Living as hunter-
gatherers comprised over 99 percent of our time on earth as humans.
Because evolution is slow, our genes are mostly unchanged.
Our ancestors lived in an environment of scarcity. They ate wild plants
and animals. They moved a lot to find food and escape predators.
Homeostatic mechanisms were designed for a low-sugar, low-fat diet
because there was no donut nearby. Their Unconscious Minds developed
reward circuits for sweet food because if they found a bush full of berries, it
was a good idea to binge on them. Their bodies were made to store fat
because they never knew what the future held. They evolved to be
physically active but to enjoy rest so as to preserve energy. And their stress
responses were intended to fight or flee predators.
Our genes are their genes. They expect Stone Age inputs.

Did You Know?

Evolutionary mismatch occurs when genetic traits that evolved in one
environment become inadequate in another. Because we’ve radically
altered our environment in the last decades, our bodies face a huge
mismatch between our genetic makeup and our lifestyles.

Today’s environment is well outside the bounds of our ancestors’

experience. Food now bears little resemblance to what genes expect to find.
Physical activity is no longer a necessity. Cells are assaulted by stressful
conditions and toxic chemicals unknown to our ancestors. No wonder
homeostatic mechanisms go berserk; our genes haven’t kept pace. From the
standpoint of evolution, the last hundred years don’t even represent the
blink of an eye.
Think of cells as riding two horses (let’s get them off the surfing board
for a minute): the first horse is your genetic code; the second horse is your
lifestyle. For cells not to fall, the two horses need to stay close together.
Except the first horse is not veering off course any time soon because
you’re stuck with your genetic makeup for the rest of your life. How about
reining in your lifestyle to achieve a better match with your genes?
 Pause & Reflect
What inputs do you feed your genes on a long-term basis? Think
about what you regularly eat, how much you sleep, and how stressed
you are. Compare your lifestyle habits to those of your hunter-
gatherer ancestors. How far apart are they?
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. To manufacture the proteins that serve as their strong arms, cells
read the instructions in genes.
B. We all carry genetic variants that change how our bodies respond
to lifestyle choices.
C. You may carry specific mutations that predispose you to health
issues. But with the right lifestyle choices, you can keep those
health issues at bay.
D. Genes read like a script but leave the narrative open to
interpretation. Gene expression depends on molecules in the
biochemical terrain. Lifestyle inputs control genes.
E. Epigenetic mechanisms offer a reversible manner to modulate
gene expression. You’re free to make as many story edits as you
like!
F. The environment in which our ancestors evolved shaped our
genes. It is a primary determinant of what our bodies need to work
well.
 G. The concept of congruence between genes and lifestyle explains
why homeostatic mechanisms go wrong. In our modern world,
incongruence leads to poor health and weight gain.
H. You may carry perfect genes. But if they get undermined by your
lifestyle, you’re more likely to develop health issues than someone
with less-than-perfect genes but an optimal lifestyle. Genes define
what you can get away with.
Now that we’ve set the stage and read the script, let the curtains open and
the show begin! The back and forth between genes and lifestyle choices sets
in motion several homeostatic mechanisms that act as return springs to
prevent cells from falling. How you live either supports those mechanisms
or puts them to the test. It’s time to delve into them. I’m taking you
backstage where it all starts.
 Behind the Scenes
Life is a theatre set in which there are but few
practicable entrances.
―Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

The key to homeostasis is in balancing what comes in, what goes out, and
how it’s transformed in between. This is where the gut comes into play.
The gut or gastrointestinal tract refers to the long tube stretching from
mouth to anus. Think of it as the tube around which the body is wrapped.
With skin and airways, it connects the biochemical terrain to the outside
world. It’s in this tube that incoming food is processed before molecules are
let on stage.
The gut handles a ton of food each year. We will learn how it does this in
a moment. But first, have you ever wondered what you’re truly made of?

FOOD BECOMES YOU

I cannot remember the books I’ve read anymore
than the meals I have eaten; even so they have
made me.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Literally, you are what you eat. There is nothing in your body that does not
come from what you put in your mouth. Food provides building blocks to
renew cells and manufacture messengers. It plays a major role in switching
genes on and off.
The chemical components in food are called nutrients. The body requires
seven different nutrients: water, carbohydrates*, proteins, fats, vitamins*,
minerals*, and phytonutrients*. Their chemical structures determine what
they do in the body.
Some nutrients are called essential*. They’re the ones you must get from
what you eat because the body cannot manufacture them from other
nutrients. They include vitamins and minerals plus a few amino acids and
fatty acids*—the basic components of proteins and fats. Essential nutrients
are critical inputs. Without them, cells cannot achieve homeostasis.
Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and water are macronutrients*. You ingest
large amounts of them every day. They provide calories* and raw materials.
Vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients are micronutrients*. You need them
to assist metabolic reactions, albeit in small quantities.
You’re constantly remaking portions of yourself from what you eat. By
the time you finish reading this sentence, over 50 million of your cells will
have been replaced. Skin cells and the cells lining your digestive tract are
replaced every few days; red blood cells every few weeks; bone cells every
few years.
Unsurprisingly, if you eat junk food, your body is made of junk. Trashy
food makes for trashy cells. Cells can’t be healthy if they are missing the
materials they need and getting a lot of awful stuff instead. If it’s just one
day once in a while, cells are able to bounce back once they get the proper
materials and eliminate the trash. But if it goes on every day for years,
many metabolic reactions stop taking place or go awry. It’s impossible for
cells to maintain balance.
The quality of your organs, from heart to brain*, depends on the quality
of your food. This is especially important for children. When children put
on new inches of height, those inches are made from the foods they eat. Do
we want our children to grow out of junk?
Every time you eat, different molecules flow into the bloodstream and
execute a complex molecular dance around cells. They come in all colors,
shapes, and sizes. Let’s take a closer look at those molecular performers,
starting with the big ones.
 Did You Know?
Nutrient excess is as detrimental as deficiency. Think of a plant.
Deprive it of water, it wilts. Give it too much, it putrefies and dies.

Pause & Reflect

What does the phrase “you are what you eat” mean to you? Does it
inspire you to eat better?

To avoid any identity crisis, check your food diary. Are you happy
with the material you supply to your body? Are you okay with this
food becoming you? What would you rather be made of?

Let’s Do It!
Think back to the last time you ate. What was on your plate? Close
your eyes. Take three deep, gentle breaths. Visualize the food going
 everywhere in your body and becoming part of you. How does it
feel? Finish the visualization with another three deep breaths. Slowly
open your eyes.

BIG AND FAMOUS

The most visible molecular performers on stage are the water molecules.
Two-thirds of your body is water. Cells are filled and surrounded by water.
Without it, they would shrivel, just like plants.

Water is the major component of blood and lymph—the body’s two

main fluids. Those fluids deliver nutrients to cells; they flush out toxicants
and waste.
While you can survive without food for several weeks, you cannot go
without water beyond three to five days. For optimal metabolism, you need
to replenish the water lost through sweating, exhalation, and elimination.

Did You Know?

Your brain is 80 percent water. Hence, slight dehydration causes a
drop in cognition; it makes it harder to think. It’s also one of the root
causes of headaches, fatigue, and mood swings.
 After water, let’s say hello again to proteins. Half the dry weight of the
body is protein. Proteins are versatile performers. Not only do they
supervise metabolic reactions in the guise of enzymes, but they also provide
structure and play messengers.
After water and protein, let’s give a warm welcome to fats. Contrary to
what you may think, they’re not the villains in your health story. In fact,
they play major good-guy roles.
1. They offer the primary form of energy storage and let you survive for
a long time without eating.
2. They fuel cells when you’re at rest or doing light activity.
3. Like proteins, they play messengers between cells.
4. They structure cell membranes and influence the cells’ ability to
exchange information and molecules with the biochemical terrain.
When does fat become the bad guy? When there’s too much of it. Or when
it’s the wrong kind. More on that in Part 3.

Did You Know?

If you take out the water, the brain is 60 percent fat by dry weight. No
other organ contains as much fat.

Most carbohydrates appear briefly on stage. Blink and they’re gone!

Their role is to provide immediate energy. Glucose*, the main building
block, is the most efficient fuel for your brain or for intense physical
activity. Without enough glucose in your blood, you don’t think straight.
The body stores carbohydrate as glycogen* in the muscles and liver.
Glycogen stores fuel sudden movement and maintain blood glucose levels
in-between meals.
 Now that we’ve met the big players, what about the smaller ones?
Believe me, they’re more than worthy of your attention!

Pause & Reflect

How many glasses of water do you drink per day?

Do you often get headaches or cramps in your legs? Those are

symptoms of dehydration.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Even though vitamins and minerals are present in small numbers, they play
a major role. So much so that deficiencies can be deadly. Vitamins and
minerals work as adapters between molecules and enzymes to ensure a
perfect fit. If you remove them, chemical reactions do not happen. There are
13 vitamins and 16 minerals to assist enzymes. Lots of letters dancing
around!
 The show is not complete until phytonutrients join the dance.
Phytonutrients are substances that give plants their color, taste, and smell.
As plants cannot run for cover, they produce chemicals to protect
themselves from insects, microbes, and UV radiation. Examples of
phytonutrients include flavonoids, polyphenols, and carotenoids.
Researchers are still trying to understand how phytonutrients work in the
body. We do know many protect cells from inflammatory molecules, free
radicals, and dysbiosis—complicated words that will become familiar in the
coming pages. They are also involved in gene expression, cell-to-cell
communication, immunity, DNA repair, and detoxification. For now, just
think of them as colorful actors.
 You’ve just met the array of molecular performers inside your body. The
transformation from food to molecular performers occurs in the gut. Think
of the gut as the dressing room for nutrients. In the next section, we’ll
follow the food from mouth to cells. First stop, digestion!

Did You Know?

Over 90 percent of Americans are deficient in at least one
micronutrient. The most common deficiencies include vitamin D,
zinc, magnesium, vitamin B6, omega-3s, and vitamin B12.
DOWN THE TRACT

You are what you eat, but you are first and foremost what your cells
receive. Digestion and absorption determine which molecules access the
terrain. If food is not properly digested and absorbed, cells starve. But food
intake poses a threat to homeostasis, because the incoming flow of
molecules upsets the delicate balance. That’s why digestion and absorption
need to be fine-tuned to maintain the right terrain for cells.
What happens to food after it enters your mouth? To demystify the
process, let’s follow your meal as it travels down the digestive tract.
Digestion starts in your head. Even before food is put into the mouth, the
smell and visual stimuli get the gut going: saliva is secreted, gastric juices
flow, digestive enzymes are released. This is called the cephalic phase of
digestion.
Once food is in, it is chewed up and mixed with saliva. This is how you
taste what you’re eating. The taste buds tell the digestive organs further
down which enzymes to release to best deal with what’s coming. Already,
enzymes from saliva are breaking down carbohydrates. The tinier the
particles that food is chewed into, the easier it is for enzymes to do their
work, both in the mouth and further down. Chewing also makes it easier to
swallow.
Once swallowed, food goes down the esophagus to the stomach. Your
stomach works like a high-powered blender. Stomach walls release
hydrochloric acid to destroy harmful microbes and dissolve food particles.
Digestive enzymes break down proteins and unlock some vitamins and
minerals, such as iron and vitamin B12. Food remains in the stomach
anywhere from several minutes to a few hours, depending on what you ate.
The more protein and fat, the more time the food spends in the stomach.
Food is gradually released into the small intestine. Proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats are broken down into amino acids,
monosaccharides, and fatty acids. Unlike carbohydrate and protein which
blend well with water, fat requires emulsification before enzymes can get to
it. Like dish soap, bile transforms fats into tiny droplets that mix with water.
In case of overeating, the small intestine cannot keep up for lack of
enzymes and digestive fluids; undigested food particles pile up and fester.
Broken-down nutrients pass through the intestinal walls into the
bloodstream. Monosaccharides, amino acids, minerals, and water-soluble
vitamins go to the liver to be processed. Fats and fat-soluble vitamins
circulate through the lymphatic system* and enter the bloodstream near the
heart. The bloodstream then delivers nutrients to cells for immediate use or
storage.
Once the small intestine is empty, the migrating motor complex comes
into play. It’s the janitorial cleansing wave between meals. It clears out
bacteria and food particles. But if you eat too often, it doesn’t have time to
do its job. This can lead to Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, also
known as SIBO, with symptoms such as bloating, belching, abdominal
pain, skin issues.
Meanwhile, back in the gut, the remaining food content—what has not
been absorbed in the small intestine—moves into the colon for excretion.
There, microbes come into action to digest fiber*. The colon empties once
it’s full. The more liquid, bile, and fiber, the easier the excretion of stools. A
healthy functioning gut delivers one to three bowel movements per day,
from the food ingested in the last 24 hours. Delayed emptying—also known
as constipation—encourages putrefaction and toxin formation. Toxins
damage the colon before being absorbed into the blood to enact further
damage.
As we went down the tract, we came across microbes in the colon. What
are they doing there?

Pause & Reflect

To know if you’re doing everything you can to digest well, answer
the following questions:

Do you eat slowly and mindfully?

How many times do you chew before swallowing?

Do you eat a lot of fiber?

Do you stay hydrated throughout the day?

How many bowel movements do you have per day?

Do you experience heartburn, burping, gas, bloating, or abdominal

pain after meals? Do you suffer from diarrhea or constipation?
They’re all symptoms of gut dysfunction.
 Let’s Do It!
At your next meal, chew every bite 30 times. Your digestive tract will
thank you! Once you’ve swallowed, take the time to visualize food
going through the five sections of the digestive tract: mouth,
esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Next,
visualize the nutrients accessing the bloodstream and going to your
cells.

Watch your posture! A bad posture blocks the diaphragm. Whereas if

you let your diaphragm move freely, it massages your gut every time
you breathe. For a deeper massage, take three diaphragmatic breaths,
extending the abdomen outward when you breathe in.

SUPPORTING ACTORS

Are you aware that microbes were the only organisms on the planet for over
3 billion years? The first humans emerged in a sea of microbes, and some
microbes hopped on for the ride. The body houses trillions of them. They
slightly outnumber cells, 1.3 to 1. This community of microbes forms the
microbiota*.
Microbes live in various parts of the body such as skin, mouth, and gut.
The gut is the center of the microbial activity in the body. Most microbes
live there. You carry three pounds of them.
Cells and microbes entertain a mutually beneficial relationship. In
exchange for food to eat and a warm place to live, microbes provide
functions that cells cannot perform on their own, including immune
protection, defense coaching, help with digestion, and production of
essential nutrients.
Like cells, microbes carry genes. Microbial genes form the
microbiome*. They bring millions of microbial genes to the script,
compared to the twenty thousand genes in cells. Each microbial species
carries a different DNA and gives us access to an array of chemicals, many
not encoded in human genes. For instance, microbes manufacture thousands
of different digestive enzymes, whereas the body manufactures around
twenty.
Microbes digest foods the body doesn’t know how to digest. They help
release otherwise inaccessible nutrients and produce vital nutrients—short-
chain fatty acids, B vitamins, and vitamin K. They also break down some
toxic chemicals and transform them into innocuous products.
We evolved in the presence of microbes. We now need them to function
optimally, because we did not develop the capabilities already there thanks
to microbes. Microbes are a major part of homeostasis. Of course, the more
diverse your microbes, the larger your metabolic capabilities.
We’ve just seen how microbes contribute to the biochemical terrain. We
will see later on that they also play a huge role in regulating the immune
system, the permeability of the gut wall, and even the health of the brain.
You carry a unique microbiota, as unique as your fingerprints. Your
microbiota is given to you at birth and is shaped throughout your life by
your lifestyle choices, especially what you eat. Microbes adapt to whatever
molecules are in the gut. They feed on the food you eat. This determines
their gene expression. We will see in Part 3 that fiber is the number one
ingredient to keep microbes healthy.
If gut microbes are out of balance, you develop dysbiosis*. Dysbiosis
occurs when pathogenic microbes edge out the friendly ones. We will come
back to the ripple effects of gut dysbiosis in Reversal of Expectation.
 Pause & Reflect
Is your lifestyle feeding the bad guys and starving the good ones?

Hint: sugar, artificial sweeteners, oxidized fats, excess saturated

fats, processed foods, antibiotics* in meat or medication, stress, and
pesticides are on the dark side of the force. Vegetables, fruits,
legumes, nuts, whole grains, sleep, and moderate physical activity
are supportive.

Did You Know?

You may unknowingly consume antibiotics with food, either because
antibiotics have been added as preservatives or because antibiotics
have been given to animals from which food is derived. Over 80% of
antibiotics are used on farm animals to compensate for unhealthy
conditions in concentrated animal feeding operations.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. You are what you eat. Food is the fabric of the body.
B. Cells are as good as the raw material they get.
C. Only with the right nutrients do homeostatic mechanism run
smoothly.
D. Hydration keeps cells plumped and the biochemical terrain
flowing.
E. Cells use proteins, fats, and carbohydrates to manufacture cellular
structures, messages, and enzymes. They also use them to fuel
metabolism and store energy.
F. Vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients make homeostatic
mechanisms work.
G. Digestion transforms food into nutrients that can be absorbed in
the bloodstream and access cells. Chewing is an important part of
digestion. Overeating and constipation are toxic to cells.
 H. Microbes live alongside cells. Gut microbes help with digestion
and provide an array of useful nutrients.
I. Gut dysbiosis means more pathogenic microbes than beneficial
ones in the gut. The wrong set of bugs produces the wrong set of
products.
Now that cells are fed, what about housekeeping? With so much activity
going on inside, and so many molecules coming in, it’s bound to get a little
messy. We’ve seen the first part of cleaning up with the elimination of the
remnants of digestion. But housekeeping doesn’t stop there. Each cell
cleans up its own backyard and has its trash collected.
 Clearing Off the Stage
After the rains departed the skies and settled on
earth - clear skies; moist brilliant earth – greater
clarity returned to life alone with the blue above
and made the world below rejoice with the
freshness of the recent rain.
―Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

If you are what you eat, you are also what you don’t eliminate. Toxins and
toxicants are constantly flowing through the body. What’s the difference
between them? Toxins are an inside job, whereas toxicants come from
outside the body. Toxins are waste products resulting from metabolic
reactions in both cells and microbes. Toxicants—human-made toxic
chemicals—enter the body with the food you eat, the water you drink, the
air you breathe, the personal care products you apply on your skin.
Both toxins and toxicants interfere with normal cell function by binding
to molecules. They disable enzymes, alter membranes, impair receptors,
disrupt gene expression, cause genetic mutations, decrease energy
production, kill good bacteria.
Hence, constant cleaning is crucial to remove toxic chemicals before
they cause damage. To do this, cells rely on a multilayered waste disposal
system at cellular and body level.
KEEPING IT NEAT AND TIDY

Each cell has its own mini recycling and garbage disposal systems to clean
its interior. Cells practice autophagy*—literally self-eating—to recycle
damaged mitochondria and defective proteins. What isn’t recycled diffuses
outside or is escorted out by a protein known as glutathione. The sulfur in
glutathione is sticky; it grabs molecules that shouldn’t be there. Once
outside the cells, waste is whisked away by the lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system serves as a garbage collection system. Lymph
capillaries drain away waste around cells and carry it into the blood where it
is filtered out by the liver and kidneys*. Unfortunately, the lymphatic
system can become clogged because of toxic buildup or lack of movement.
Imagine what would happen in your home if you did not take the trash out.
The same happens in your body if the lymphatic system is blocked. Unlike
blood, the lymph does not have a central pump to stimulate circulation. It
depends on muscle contraction to move fluid. In other words, it moves
when you move. Hydration is also essential for lymph movement.
Your liver and kidneys are the main detoxification* stations. They filter
out and transform unwanted chemicals in the blood to enable elimination in
stools and urine. Constipation and dehydration prevent proper elimination.
If toxic chemicals are not eliminated, they’re put back into circulation.
 Did You Know?
More than 20 percent of adults suffer from constipation. Remedies
include:
Upping your intake of fiber
Avoiding fatty foods
Eating psyllium husks or grounded flax seeds
Drinking more water
Walking briskly
Using a Squatty Potty
Performing a colon massage
Taking a magnesium citrate supplement. As for any supplement, ask
your physician for advice

Gut microbes also contribute to keeping the terrain clean:

1. They metabolize some harmful toxicants in food.
2. They change the structure of other toxicants, so they’re filtered out
more efficiently by the liver.
3. They produce molecules that trigger gene expression for
detoxification enzymes.
Conversely, toxicants alter gut microbes and contribute to gut dysbiosis.
Pathogenic microbes make toxicants worse and turn harmless food particles
into toxic compounds.
There’s a limit to what cells, organs, and microbes can cope with. If
there are too many toxic chemicals to address, detoxification processes
become saturated. Unwanted elements accumulate; cells are smothered in
their own waste products.
 Skin is the last resort channel of elimination. If other channels are
overworked, the body dumps the waste in the skin. As waste builds up, it
generates eczema, acne, or other rashes. Skin is the outer reflection of how
well detoxification pathways work.
When all routes of elimination have failed, toxic chemicals get stored
away. Most toxicants entering the body are fat soluble. They can be stored
in fat cells for years and prevent weight loss as the body tries to protect
itself from toxicity.
Toxic load refers to the accumulation of toxins and toxicants in the body.
Picture your body as a bucket. The size of the bucket depends on your
genetic predispositions. Metabolic waste and toxicants fill the bucket. Your
liver, kidneys, lungs, and gut do the best they can to empty it. When they’re
overwhelmed, because of too many toxins and toxicants or not enough
nutrients, the bucket overflows. One of the major consequences is
inflammation. More on that in the Fire! section.

Toxic chemicals are not the only things cells need to get rid of.
Especially if they want to avoid rust on their membranes.
 Did You Know?
The liver performs over 500 essential tasks, including detoxification,
glucose and cholesterol regulation, protein synthesis, nutrient storage,
and the production of digestive chemicals such as bile.
 Pause & Reflect
Here are a few questions to assess how well you treat your liver.

Do you smoke or drink alcohol?

Do you often overeat?

Do you eat a lot of sugar and refined carbohydrates?

Are you regularly dehydrated?

Are you sedentary?

Are you stressed, frustrated, or angry?

Do you take medications?

Do you touch or breathe in toxicants?

If you answered yes to some of those questions, chances are, you’re

giving your liver a hard time. The liver is a forgiving organ. Within
limits! Ask your physician for simple blood tests to check liver
function.
RESISTING THE RUST

Let’s tackle a bit of chemistry. Time to don your lab coat!

For a molecule to be stable, it must retain an even number of electrons.
During cellular respiration, oxygen atoms lose an electron and form
molecules called free radicals*. Once they’re let loose, free radicals attack
other molecules in their vicinity to steal an electron and make up for their
uneven number. They convert other molecules into free radicals that in turn
go on a scavenger hunt for their missing electron. This chain reaction is
known as oxidation.
Oxidation isn’t all bad. Free radicals are involved in intracellular
signaling and cell regulation. They also help the liver detoxify. The immune
system uses them to destroy microbes and damaged cells.
Oxidation becomes a problem when free radicals submerge cells.
Fortunately, cells carry weapons to neutralize free radicals before they do
damage. Those weapons are antioxidants*—enzymes or nutrients that
donate electrons. Some are produced by the body; others come with food.
For instance, vitamins and phytonutrients have antioxidant activity.
Oxidative stress* occurs when the generation of free radicals exceeds
the cell’s capacity to neutralize them. This imbalance either comes from an
overload of free radicals or a deficit in antioxidants. Caloric excess,
hyperglycemia*, rancid oils, alcohol, toxicants, smoke, stress, sun exposure,
and strenuous exercise are all providers of free radicals, while nutrient
deficiency depletes the antioxidant capabilities of cells.
To picture oxidative stress, think about metal rusting or apples turning
brown. The same happens to cells. This is why oxidative stress is the chief
promoter of aging in the body. You literally become rusty!

Proximity makes mitochondria the first targets of oxidation because of

proximity. It’s where respiration happens, hence where free radicals are
generated. Oxidative stress injures the membranes surrounding
mitochondria and the DNA inside. Because they used to be independent
bacteria, mitochondria carry their own DNA, separate from the DNA in the
nucleus. Damage to mitochondrial DNA reduces the energy-producing
capacity of mitochondria. When damage becomes systemic, you feel
fatigued. When it reaches the brain, you get brain fog*. Because neurons
require six times more energy than average cells, mild variations in
mitochondrial production have significant effects on cognitive function.
Oxidative stress is the brain’s number one enemy.
Worse, damaged mitochondria produce even more free radicals:
oxidation leads to mitochondrial dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction
leads to more oxidative stress.
When mitochondria feel threatened by this vicious circle, they trigger
the cell’s suicide or apoptosis*. Early cell death is a primary cause of
neurodegenerative diseases. To make matters worse, free radicals also
damage the myelin* sheath protecting neurons, thus interfering with electric
conduction in the nervous system*. Researchers estimate that 80 to 90
percent of degenerative diseases involve free radical activity.
Oxidative stress is also present in cancer. Mitochondrial damage
activates oncogenes. It signals the return to chaos for cells; they proliferate
out of control.
 Pause & Reflect
The following questions will help you assess if you’re doing what it
takes to prevent your cells from rusting.

Do you eat the best antioxidant foods such as colorful vegetables

and fruits?

Do you avoid oxidation promoters such as cigarette smoke,

pollution, excess sun exposure, excess physical activity, alcohol,
fried foods, sugar, emotional stress?
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Cells produce metabolic waste and have toxicants thrown at them.
So as not to get clogged up, they continuously take the garbage out
with the help of the lymphatic system, liver, kidneys, lungs, and
gut microbes.
B. Toxic overload prevents cells from getting nutrients and interferes
with cellular function.
C. Cellular respiration and lifestyle exposures generate free radicals.
Antioxidants neutralize them to keep mitochondria and
membranes safe.
D. Oxidation occurs when there’s an imbalance between free radicals
and antioxidants. Like rust eats away at metal, oxidative stress eats
away at mitochondria.
E. Oxidation is the first cause for aging, fatigue, and brain fog. It is
involved in neurodegeneration* and cancer.
F. When its DNA or mitochondria are damaged, a cell either dies or
becomes cancerous.
Maintaining balance is a team effort. Cells have no choice but to cooperate.
And to cooperate, they need to talk to one another. Let’s see how they do
this.
 Directing the Play
A good communication is the best medicine for
healthy association.
―Unknown

Homeostasis requires constant communication between cells so none loses

the plot. The body would be chaos if cells didn’t stay in touch.
Cells are hyper-connected through many webs. While neighboring cells
use direct contact, distant cells rely on three communication systems: the
endocrine*, nervous, and immune* systems. Messages take the form of
electrical signals, neurotransmitters*, hormones*, or cytokines*.

When cells communicate via the nervous system, it’s akin to making a
phone call: the message is delivered instantaneously to a single recipient.
When cells use the endocrine system, it’s more like sending a memo via
internal mail: it takes a while longer to arrive, but the message is delivered
to multiple recipients and stays with them. What about the immune system?
It’s both an emergency communication system and a defense system. It
alerts immune cells when something is amiss so they mount a concerted
response.
 The three systems share messages. While it’s reassuring to know
communication is integrated inside the body, it means that any
dysregulation in one system dysregulates the others. You cannot have a
well-functioning immune system if your nervous and endocrine systems
dysfunction, and vice versa for each of them.

TALKING ON THE PHONE

The nervous system is a complex network of neurons* that convey

information around the body at lightning speed to maintain homeostasis.
Sensory nerves detect changes in the internal and external environment.
They alert the brain, which sets in motion the relevant homeostatic
mechanisms: motor nerves modulate behavior and the autonomic nervous
system* adjusts the biochemical terrain.
The autonomic nervous system handles every automatic function you
never think about, such as digestion, breathing, and heartbeat. Its two
branches—the sympathetic nervous system* and the parasympathetic
nervous system*—show opposing effects.
The sympathetic branch is the emergency system; it prepares the body to
fight or run away. The parasympathetic branch is the housekeeping system.
It activates rest, repair, digestion, and reproduction. Most of those functions
are controlled by a specific pair of nerves—the vagus nerve*—connecting
the brainstem to every other organ in the body. We will come across the
vagus nerve multiple times in the next chapters.
Homeostasis is a dynamic balance between the sympathetic and
parasympathetic branches.

Did You Know?

Breathing in activates the sympathetic branch, while breathing out
activates the parasympathetic. You can control which gets more
activated by adjusting the timing of inhales and exhales.
 Let’s Do It!
The diaphragm is a large muscle between the base of the lungs and
the top of the abdomen. Diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing
consists in expanding the belly when you inhale—the diaphragm
moves down—and drawing in the belly when you exhale—the
diaphragm moves back up.
Take five deep diaphragmatic breaths, making your exhales longer
than your inhales. For instance, inhale through the nose for a count
of four, and exhale through the mouth for a count of eight.
You’ve just activated your parasympathetic nervous system. You’re
now in a state of rest, repair, and digest!

Let’s now focus on the communication between neurons inside the

nervous system. Neurons rely on electrical signals and neurotransmitters.
They have thin branches called dendrites at one extremity and a long tail
called axon at the other extremity. Messages take neural pathways made up
of a succession of neurons to reach target cells. Electrical signals cross
neurons from dendrites to axon. When they reach the end of axons, they
trigger the release of protein messengers known as neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters float across synapses*—tiny spaces between neurons.
When they bump against the dendrites of the next neurons, they’re
converted into electrical signals which head toward the axon. This is
repeated until messages reach their final destination.
 An average neuron can connect to thousands of neighboring neurons.
This leads to hundreds of trillions of potential synaptic connections.
Connections occur depending on what happens and how you respond. Each
new experience, no matter how trivial, changes the nervous system.
Now take a minute to think about something pleasant. For instance,
visualize where you would go for your dream vacation. Your brain just
released a flurry of neurotransmitters. By shifting your thoughts, you
shifted the chemicals flowing in your body.

Did You Know?

When you change a frown to a smile, your mood shifts from sad to
happy. When you change from slouching to standing tall, you
experience more self-confidence and clarity. Postural feedback
transforms the brain’s biochemistry*.
 Let’s Do It!
Stand tall, open your chest, and make the biggest smile you can. This
drives your brain to release neurotransmitters such as serotonin that
instantly make you feel happier.

Conversely, your lifestyle choices influence what neurotransmitters are

released and thus how you think and feel. Biochemical imbalances foster
chaos in your thoughts.
Other things can go wrong within the nervous system. Like any other
cells, neurons degenerate when they don’t get what they need to survive and
thrive. Toxic overload generates interference on the line. So does oxidation
by damaging myelin, the fatty substance which insulates axons. Damaged
myelin decreases mental speed and promotes neurodegenerative diseases,
such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease*, and Multiple Sclerosis*
(MS).

Did You Know?

Sugar and fried foods stiffen the membranes of neurons. If their
membranes are stiff, neurons do not communicate well. That’s why
you experience brain fog.
YOU’VE GOT MAIL

The endocrine system is the next to respond to any change in the internal or
external environment. It is made up of glands* that release hormones in the
bloodstream when told to do so. Hormones then flow to their target cells.
Target cells carry specific receptors on their membranes to catch the
message. Once they’ve decoded the message, they respond by expressing
the relevant genes and triggering the required metabolic pathways.
Key endocrine glands include the pituitary, adrenals*, thyroid*, ovaries,
testicles, and pancreas*. Gut and fat cells also release hormones. Over 200
different hormones flow in the body. You want to be familiar with the key
players: adrenaline, cortisol*, glucagon*, insulin*, thyroid hormones (T4
and T3), and sex hormones (estrogen*, progesterone*, testosterone*).
If you think of cells as little engines, then thyroid hormones act like
metabolic throttles. They regulate how fast cells work. For example, they
monitor heart rate and speed of digestion. Symptoms of low thyroid
function include fatigue, weight gain, anxiety, and impaired memory.
 Did You Know?
Thyroid function is governed by the pituitary gland, which releases
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). TSH goes to the thyroid where
it triggers the production of thyroid hormone T4, named for its four
molecules of iodine.
T3, with its three molecules of iodine, is the active form of thyroid
hormones. Conversion of T4 to T3 is key for proper function. Most of
the conversion occurs in the liver and the gut. Hence, low thyroid
function may have nothing to do with the thyroid, and everything to
do with a congested liver or an unhealthy microbiota. High levels of
cortisol because of stress also block the conversion.
If you suspect you suffer from hypothyroidism*, ask your physician
to test your free T4 and T3 levels. Most doctors only look at TSH.

Insulin and glucagon control blood glucose levels. Adrenaline and

cortisol activate the stress response. Sex hormones regulate sexual function
and reproduction.
Toxicants called endocrine disruptors* prevent hormones from doing
their jobs. They either mimic hormones or hijack hormonal receptors. Cells
can also become resistant to hormones: they turn a deaf ear to messages
because their receptors are blocked, or they are fed up with excess
signaling. A common instance of hormonal resistance is insulin resistance,
which often leads to type 2 diabetes. We’ll learn more on that in later
sections.
Hormonal balance is crucial for cells to stay in touch. Hormones are
connected to one another and form a delicate web. When one fluctuates,
others are affected. For instance, when cortisol levels go up, the production
of thyroid hormones decreases, the production of insulin increases, and the
production of sex hormones is blocked.
 Insulin and cortisol are at the base of the hormonal pyramid. They play a
huge role in homeostasis but have the power to wreak havoc in the body.
When they’re released in excess, the whole pyramid comes tumbling down:
you get a plethora of symptoms from weight gain to skin issues to
depression*. We’ll come back to those two hormones in the next two
sections.

SWEET REPLY
Blood glucose—also referred to as glycemia or blood sugar—is the amount
of glucose in the bloodstream. Whenever you eat carbohydrates, glucose is
absorbed into the bloodstream. It’s vital that glucose levels stay within a
specific range: not too little, not too much. There needs to be enough for
brain cells to get a constant supply. But too much glucose is highly
damaging.
Did you ever notice how, if you spill a glass of Coke on the floor, it gets
sticky? Excess glucose does the same in the body. It caramelizes everything
from cellular membranes to hormones. This process is called glycation*. It
occurs when excess glucose binds to proteins or lipids. It clogs receptors
and nutrient channels on cellular membranes. It crystallizes red blood cells,
which in turn injure blood vessels, large and small. It clouds the eye lens
and puts you at risk for cataract. It damages small nerves and promotes
hearing loss.

To regulate blood glucose, the body relies on two hormones—insulin

and glucagon*—and glycogen in the liver. Glycogen is the form under
which the body stores glucose. The liver holds about 400 calories in
glycogen. Not a lot, but crucial between meals.
When blood glucose is too low, the pancreas secretes glucagon, which
tells the liver to break down glycogen into glucose. It also sends hunger
signals to the brain to prompt you to eat.
When blood glucose is too high—after a meal or a snack—the pancreas
secretes insulin. Insulin stimulates the uptake of glucose into liver and
muscle cells, first for energy and then for storage as glycogen. Any
remaining glucose is transformed into fat and stored in fat cells. At the same
time, insulin blocks the release of fat from fat cells so only glucose is used
for energy. As a result, blood glucose goes down.
Insulin is crucial for survival but becomes a troublemaker if you don’t
keep it in check. We will see in Part 3 how it takes cells on a roller coaster
ride that leaves them feeling dizzy.
 Did You Know?
Prolonged high levels of cortisol cause skin sebum to increase and
trigger acne. Likewise, high levels of insulin prompt the release of
testosterone in women, which causes sebum to increase and
unwanted hairs to grow.

CALL FOR MOBILIZATION

The stress* response or fight-or-flight response is the alarm system in the

body. It goes on whenever homeostasis is threatened. It is designed for the
types of stress our hunter-gatherer ancestors encountered. Like when a lion
popped out.
Nowadays, you probably don’t have many lions leaping out at you from
behind bushes, but your Unconscious Mind remains hardwired to recognize
danger. The amygdala, the surveillance system in the brain, is constantly
scanning the internal and external environments. When it senses that
something is amiss—lion in sight!—it calls both the nervous and endocrine
systems to the rescue.
 Anything that threatens homeostasis and requires cells to adapt is a
stressor. Stressors can come from within: nutrient deficiency, lack of sleep,
toxins, negative thoughts.
The autonomic nervous system provides the most immediate response
via its sympathetic arm. It triggers the release of adrenaline to provoke a
rapid increase in heart rate and blood pressure and send cells more oxygen
and glucose. If you have ever felt your heart racing before speaking in
public, you know what a sympathetic nervous response feels like. Your
body tenses up, your heart beats faster, you breathe rapidly. The blood
drains out of the prefrontal cortex to the more primitive parts of the brain.
Now is not the time to reflect on future consequences.
The HPA axis* (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenals) is activated a few
minutes later to mediate the hormonal response. Adrenals release the stress
hormone cortisol. This causes more glucose to be released to fuel muscles.
Useful if you’re running for your life! Every ounce of energy is focused on
removing the body out of danger. Everything else gets set aside: digestion,
reproduction, detoxification. The immune system turns off response
mechanisms to infections while getting ready for injuries.
Although stress gets a bad rap, acute stress is necessary, and not only to
get you out of harm’s way. In fact, cells need stimulation from stress like
they do from gravity. After a stressful experience, new metabolic pathways
are activated, neural connections are created or strengthened, repair
mechanisms go to work. When you get them out of their comfort zone, cells
become better at maintaining homeostasis. In scientific terms, we call this
hormesis*, another way of saying: “what doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger.”
Hormetic stress fosters adaptation. When you run up the stairs, you
activate hormesis: you develop stronger muscles, new blood vessels, and
new neural connections; the next time you run up the stairs, it will be easier
for your cells.
Problems arise when cortisol levels stay high. Chronic stress paints a
different picture from hormesis. More on that in Reversal of expectation.
For now, let’s see how communication systems are coordinated to ensure
cells talk to one another in an orderly fashion.
 Did You Know?
Cortisol levels fluctuate during the day. Higher levels in the morning
allow you to wake up and get on with your day.

CONDUCTING THE SYMPHONY

With two active communication systems and many glands and subsystems,
cells need a central dispatcher to avoid a cacophony of hormones and
electrical signals. The hypothalamus*, a small area in the center of the
brain, is the conductor of the symphony. It’s a key interface to regulate
metabolism, food intake, sleep-wake cycle, reproduction, and even
emotions.
When the hypothalamus encounters homeostatic challenges in one area,
it deactivates others to focus on the imbalance. For instance, if the
hypothalamus needs to deal with stress, it tells adrenals to pump out
adrenaline and cortisol while putting on hold the thyroid and reproductive
system. Ladies, this is why it’s hard to get pregnant if you’re stressed;
survival always wins over reproduction.
In matters of cellular function, timing is everything. Like a stage
manager, the hypothalamus beats time and cues cells to perform when
appropriate. It triggers the release of cortisol in the morning and melatonin
at night to signal when you’re going to be active and when you’re going to
be asleep. This explains why, while metabolic reactions vary a lot during
the day, their schedule on any day is little different from any other. Cells
follow the day-night cycles—also called circadian rhythms*.
Some cells are always alert, no matter what time it is. They are the
immune cells, and they use their own communication system in case of
emergency.

Pause & Reflect

Your hypothalamus relies on light exposure and behavioral cues
(eating, moving, sleeping) to reset circadian rhythms every day.

Do you get sunlight exposure early in the morning?

Do you keep a regular eating and sleeping schedule?

Do you avoid bright lights and screens at night?

If you answered no to any of those questions, you may have

disrupted circadian rhythms. Symptoms of circadian disruption
include fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, weight gain, and
hormonal imbalances.
SECURING TERRAIN

Immune cells play the role of security guards for the community. Billions of
them—either resident or circulating in the bloodstream and lymphatic
system—spread out all over the body. Like sentries, they monitor the
internal terrain and pass information back and forth. When they detect an
intruder, they produce cytokines to enlist other immune cells.
The immune system is the first line of defense against organisms that
would love to take cells over—viruses, bacteria, parasites. More broadly, it
is designed to identify and eliminate any abnormal situation. For instance, it
comes down on rogue cells that threaten to turn against you, such as
cancerous cells. It also mops up damaged cells and initiates repairs.
If immune cells don’t get what they need to thrive, the immune system is
suppressed or weakened. Likewise, if immune cells don’t mingle because of
poor circulation or a stagnant lymphatic system, then they leave a wide
berth to viruses, bacteria, and cancerous cells. Every day, several cancer
cells arise in the body as a result of cell division. If they do not self-destroy
through apoptosis, the immune system seeks them out and neutralizes them
before they do any damage. If your immune system is weakened, cancer
develops unhindered.
We will come back to the immune system later on to see how it becomes
so reactive it turns against you. For now, let’s go back to the beginning of
the story—the gut—because it’s a central hub for all three communication
systems.

Pause & Reflect

Do you keep getting sick all the time?

If you answered yes, you may have a weakened immune system.

Stress, nutrient deficiency, sleep deprivation, excess sugar, and lack
of physical activity are the primary causes of immunity issues. Zinc,
omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin D are
essential for a healthy immune system.

Did You Know?

You can support a balanced immune system with food:
Get vitamin A by eating carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, winter
squash, cantaloupe.
Get vitamin C by eating oranges, grapefruit, bell peppers, broccoli,
 kiwifruit, tomatoes.
Get omega-3s by eating salmon, sardines, eggs, flaxseeds.
Get zinc by eating oysters, beef, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, lentils.
Get quercetin by eating apples, berries, onions.
Eat plenty of fiber to support the microbiome.
Enjoy antiviral foods such as garlic, oregano, ginger, green tea, apple
cider vinegar, mushrooms.
Avoid sugar, alcohol, and oxidized fats. They weaken your immune
system.
Vitamin D is the exception. It’s hard to get significant amounts
through food. The most effective way to absorb more is through sun
exposure or supplementation. You can assess your vitamin D levels
with a blood test. Ask your physician for advice.
To enhance the effects of food, sleep, move, and relax!

TRUST YOUR GUT

You may be surprised to learn that brain and gut arise from the same tissue
—the neural crest—during fetal development. Because of their common
origin, they show many parallels. Gut walls are packed with hundreds of
millions of neurons that form the enteric nervous system*, the gut’s private
branch of the nervous system. This branch runs the machinery that extracts
nutrients from food.
The enteric nervous system relies on the same neurons and
neurotransmitters found in the brain. In fact, the gut manufactures three-
quarters of neurotransmitters in the body, including 90 percent of serotonin*
and 50 percent of dopamine*.
The gut is often called the second brain. Actually, it’s more likely the
first brain in the history of life on Earth. In fact, the enteric nervous system
emerged well before the central nervous system*. The brain came later, as
an appendage for movement coordination to look for food and escape
danger. The gut relinquished control of homeostasis but still pulls the
strings.
 Brain and gut stay connected throughout life via the vagus nerve. Think
of it as the direct phone line between brain and gut. But the two also use
hormones to communicate. In fact, a huge number of endocrine cells are
found in the gut lining. They produce hormones that target the brain to
regulate food intake.

The brain-gut connection plays a major role in mental health. If you’ve

had butterflies in your gut when feeling nervous, you know the brain affects
the gut. But most of the communication occurs the other way around. For
each message from brain to gut, there are nine messages from gut to brain:
the gut modulates the brain much more than the brain modulates the gut.
The gut also has a huge bearing on the immune system.
The gut is the most accessible entry point to the body for invaders
because of food. Thus, it stands to reason that it should be the seat of the
immune system. In fact, over 70 percent of immune cells are in gut walls to
prevent pathogens from entering the bloodstream. They work in tandem
with gut microbes to protect the body. Good gut microbes educate and
stimulate immune cells by producing proteins that bind to the cells’
receptors to activate or calm them. Good microbes also crowd out the bad
ones.
Microbes interact with every communication medium in the gut. They
produce chemicals that mimic neurotransmitters to communicate with the
neurons lining the gut and use the gut-brain connection to influence
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They also modulate gut hormones.
I hope you’ve gained a better appreciation of the role your gut plays in
your health and well-being, at the crossroads between your endocrine,
nervous, and immune systems. No wonder the English language is rife with
expressions centered on the gut: “trust your gut”, “spill your guts”, “to have
a gut feeling.” Now, who do you think is in charge? Your brain or your gut?
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Homeostasis requires good communication between cells.
B. Cells use three interconnected communication systems: the
nervous, endocrine, and immune systems.
C. The nervous system provides immediate communication, whereas
the endocrine system provides a slower but more lasting form of
communication.
D. Your overall hormonal balance is extremely sensitive to any
variation in two hormones: insulin and cortisol. Insulin serves to
balance blood glucose. Cortisol is a key figure in the stress
response.
E. The hypothalamus coordinates cells through neural and hormonal
signaling. It sets the timing for metabolic reactions.
F. The immune system is both an emergency communication system
and a defense system. It keeps intruders out and gets rid of rogue
cells.
 G. Communication is impaired when endocrine cells, neurons, or
immune cells are deprived of what they need or when the levels of
hormones, neurotransmitters, or cytokines are imbalanced.
H. The gut is the epicenter of communication in the body. It has a
huge bearing on the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems.
I. The gut and the brain are intricately connected through the vagus
nerve and the endocrine system. Everything going on in the gut
influences mood and behavior.
J. Gut microbes modulate communication systems in the body. They
affect mental health, hormonal balance, and immunity.
K. The neural, endocrine, and immune systems join the gut to form a
four-legged stool that provides stability to cells. Balance is lost if
any leg is short or weak.

In the last chapters, we’ve uncovered several homeostatic mechanisms

designed to maintain balance in the face fluctuations. Digestion,
detoxification, antioxidant activity, hormonal and neuronal signaling,
immune and stress responses all help to sustain an optimal equilibrium. We
also got a sneak peek at how homeostatic mechanisms are undermined by
some inputs, such as nutrient deficiency or toxic overload.
Two homeostatic mechanisms—the immune and stress responses—deal
with unpredictable or threatening changes. They are designed to be engaged
on a short-term basis. But when they become chronically involved, cells are
in big trouble.
 Reversal of Expectation
The problem in defense is how far you can go
without destroying from within what you are
trying to defend from without.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Immune and stress responses are intended for survival. They come into
play when something threatens to overwhelm regular homeostatic
mechanisms. They developed to handle immediate threats and get turned
off once the threats pass. But when they’re stuck in survival mode, they
become the masters of doom. The play in your body then takes on the awful
inevitability of a Greek tragedy.
What do cardiovascular disease*, cancer, autoimmune diseases*, and
Alzheimer’s disease have in common? In all of them, immune and stress
responses have gone awry. They are not always the root cause, but they
make matters much worse.
The immune system comprises two arms: the innate and the adaptive
immune systems. The innate arm provides an immediate and generic
response. The adaptive arm offers a delayed but longer-lasting response,
tailored to specific invaders. What is the first sign the innate immune
system is activated? Cells feel the heat! Immune cells are armed with a
weapon called inflammation*. Think of it as a flamethrower. It’s not
something you want to fall into the wrong hands.
FIRE!

Inflammation is the first line of response to invaders. If you’ve ever cut

yourself or gotten a splinter, you know the telltale signs of inflammation:
redness, heat, swelling, and pain. The same happens within the body.
Inflammation is necessary to protect the damaged area, fight infection,
and fix damaged tissues. Blood vessels become larger and more permeable
to increase blood flow to the area. Immune cells are released to kill off
pathogens, clear out debris, and start the healing process.
Inflammation is a good thing if once the job is done—usually within a
few days—the immune system goes back to its normal surveillance mode.
Regulatory immune cells are there to blow the final whistle. Things go
south when inflammation overstays its welcome.
Chronic inflammation means the immune system cannot calm down. It
gets so many demands that it becomes hypersensitive. Cytokines keep on
sending alarm messages, immune cells keep on fighting, and regulatory
immune cells are powerless to stop them. Collateral damage ensues, as
healthy cells get caught in friendly fire.
Chronic inflammation is a smoldering fire inside the body: it feeds itself,
spreads everywhere, and destroys everything in its path. It drives a majority
of chronic diseases, from type 2 diabetes and heart disease to
neurodegeneration and cancer. It shows up in a variety of symptoms: rashes
and acne on the skin, headaches, joint pain, excess mucus in airways,
fatigue, poor immunity, hormonal imbalances, brain fog.
 Did You Know?
Inflammation causes depression by blocking both serotonin receptors
and serotonin-making pathways in the brain. Serotonin is the happy
neurotransmitter.

When inflammation is turned on, immune cells produce free radicals to

kill off invaders and get rid of damaged cells. Oxidative stress and chronic
inflammation are mutually aggravating: oxidative stress leads to
inflammation, inflammation increases oxidative stress.
Each lifestyle choice you make affects inflammation levels in the body.
An inflammatory response means the immune system sees something
foreign or threatening in your choices—toxicants, glycated or oxidized
molecules, excess food, nutrient deficiency, stress, sleep deprivation,
inactivity. Proinflammatory foods such as sugar, dairy, meat, fried foods,
keep the fire going. So do fat cells by pumping out inflammatory chemicals.
Where does it start? The seat of the fire is often found in the gut.

Pause & Reflect

How inflamed is your body? To assess your level of inflammation,
answer the following questions.

Do you eat a majority of inflammatory foods (sugar, refined

carbohydrates, fried foods, meat, dairy)? Do you drink alcohol? Are
 you sleep-deprived? Are you overweight or obese? Are you under
stress? Are you sedentary? Those are constant irritants to the
immune system.

Do your gums bleed? Do you experience pain in your joints? Is your

face red? Do you have rashes or acne on your skin? Do you have a
constant runny nose? Are you depressed or aggressive? Do you
experience headaches or unexplained exhaustion? Those are
symptoms of chronic inflammation.

A BREACH IN THE WALL

The gut lining is the border between gut and bloodstream. It acts as a filter
to let nutrients in the bloodstream, while keeping out undesirable elements.
The gut lining is made up of a single layer of cells. Each cell is
connected to its neighbors by tight junctions to keep out what shouldn’t get
through. Think of the gut lining as a thin and fragile net with tiny holes.
Foods have to be fully digested to pass through without damaging the net.
Right behind the gut lining lives more than 70 percent of the immune
system. It patrols the body’s most dangerous border because of the regular
incoming flow of food.
Toxicants, medication, stress, dysbiosis, inflammatory foods, and waste
accumulation damage the gut lining and pull cells apart. When tight
junctions become loose, partially digested foods and microbial products
sneak into the bloodstream. This is called gut permeability or leaky gut*.
The immune system responds by releasing immune cells to destroy foreign
particles. The resulting inflammation spreads throughout the body.

Did You Know?

Digestive enzymes become overwhelmed when you overeat. Plus,
they’re not designed to process modern foods. Undigested food
particles accumulate and putrefy in the gut. This promotes pathogenic
bacteria that attack the gut lining.

Foreign particles in the bloodstream overburden detoxification systems,

especially the liver. They can go all the way up to the brain. Your brain is
protected by a barrier, the blood-brain barrier*, similar to the gut lining.
Unfortunately, leaky gut often means leaky brain: the two barriers are
connected.
Cells lining the gut are replaced every three to six days. Thus, a
damaged gut lining repairs itself quickly—provided of course that you get
rid of the original problem. Provided also that you leave enough time
between meals so that gut cells are not too busy digesting for repair and
renewal.
Beneficial microbes help maintain the gut lining by producing short-
chain fatty acids when they ferment fiber. Short-chain fatty acids are
nutrition for intestinal cells and have an anti-inflammatory* effect. They
help seal up a leaky gut. A balanced microbial population combined with a
sufficient intake of fiber makes the gut lining strong.
Sometimes, the foreign particles entering the bloodstream through the
breached wall closely resemble proteins in cells. It doesn’t take much more
to rattle the adaptive part of the immune system.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY

You often hear you need a strong immune system to fight off any foreign
invader. But what you really need is a smart, discerning immune system
that doesn’t go on a shooting spree at every false alarm.
To launch an adaptive immune response, the immune system has to be
able to tell the difference between self—what is you—versus non-self—
what is not you. It then has to differentiate between harmless non-self and
threatening non-self. Threatening non-self carries tags in the form of
proteins. These tags are called antigens. Immune cells are taught to
recognize them.
The first time the adaptive immune system encounters specific antigens,
it produces antibodies* that lock onto those antigens. Antibodies remain in
the body so that the next time they encounter the antigens, they latch on
them and signal immune cells to attack them.
 Why does the adaptive immune system go crazy and turn against cells,
as in autoimmunity or allergies?
A prerequisite is to have a loaded gun in the form of genetic
predispositions that cause the immune system to be more aggressive. Five
factors pull the trigger:
1. Overload of toxic chemicals makes the immune system less
discerning or more reactive.
2. Immune cells have already fought foreign particles similar to cellular
proteins and cannot tell the difference. Leaky gut is often responsible
for such particles because it lets undigested proteins pass through the
gut lining. Medical experts say leaky gut is present in every
autoimmune disease.
3. The immune system is not properly educated or briefed by microbes,
because of gut dysbiosis. For instance, allergies occur when the
immune system mistakes harmless particles for invaders, either
because of inadequate training or because microbes are not there to
quiet immune cells.
4. When toxic chemicals bind to cells, they deform them and confuse
the immune system, which then attacks the very cells it is supposed
to defend. For instance, mercury readily binds to thyroid cells. When
this occurs, the immune system attacks the thyroid to get rid of the
mercury.
5. Glycation from excess glucose and oxidation from excess free
radicals deform body proteins. This also misleads the immune
system.
Depending on where the immune system attacks, the body develops
autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, psoriasis*, rheumatoid
arthritis*, lupus, Hashimoto’s disease*, multiple sclerosis, or
neurodegenerative diseases. Over 100 autoimmune diseases have been
identified so far. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association
estimates that more than one in six Americans suffers from autoimmune
diseases. It’s a leading cause of death among young and middle-aged
women. Unfortunately, the vast majority is not diagnosed until destruction
is well underway.
 Both fires and wall breaches pose significant threats to homeostasis.
There is reasonable cause to sound the alarm and mobilize every cell for the
stress response.

Did You Know?

Medical experts recognize vitamin D deficiency as a factor in
autoimmune diseases because vitamin D regulates the adaptive
immune system. Deficiency is common in northern latitudes. I
encourage you to talk to your physician about getting tested and
taking supplements.

ENDLESS ALARM

Acute stress is life-saving. It makes you jump back when a bus is about to
hit you. But acute stress is intended to last for only a brief period. Once the
danger is over, your brain is supposed to switch back to parasympathetic
mode so cells resume their regular activities.
Chronic stress means the body stays in survival mode. There is no time
for rest, repair, digestion, or reproduction.
 The constant presence of cortisol depletes vitamins and minerals. It
prevents proper digestion. It increases dysbiosis and leaky gut. It instigates
hormonal chaos. It constricts blood vessels. It kills brain cells. It shuts off
defenses against viruses and cancer.
Emotional stress is the leading cause of chronic stress nowadays. Really,
what are the odds of a lion chasing you? But imbalances in the biochemical
terrain also trigger the stress response. Among them, blood glucose swings
are major players.

Did You Know?

From an evolutionary perspective, rejection is the most stressful
experience one can have. For our ancestors, being rejected meant
death. Without protection from the group, it was impossible to escape
predators or avoid starvation. This fear of rejection is at the root of
many common fears today, such as the fear of public speaking.

Pause & Reflect

Do you experience pain in your jaws, neck, shoulders, fingers, or
lower back? A chronic stress response generates constant tension in
muscles, which irritates nerves and causes pain.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Your immune and stress responses can be your best friends or your
worst enemies. They defend homeostasis when it is threatened and
are meant to be acute responses. When they become chronic, they
turn from protective to destructive.
B. The immune system relies on inflammation as a first response to
eliminate threats and repair injury.
C. Chronic inflammation results from the dysregulation of the innate
immune system. Immune cells become trigger-happy and damage
healthy cells.
D. Chronic inflammation means there’s a fire raging inside the body.
In tissues, it fosters cancer; in blood vessels, heart disease; in the
brain, depression* and neurodegenerative diseases.
E. Chronic inflammation often originates in the gut because of leaky
gut or dysbiosis.
F. Dysfunctional regulation of the adaptive immune system results in
cells being attacked by the very system supposed to defend them.
 This process is at the root of autoimmune diseases. It is often
triggered by leaky gut.
G. Chronic stress puts everything on hold, except what aids to fight or
flee. Excess cortisol generates chronic inflammation, poor
immunity, hormonal imbalances, digestion issues, dysbiosis, and
neurodegeneration.
 A Life in Theater
We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

For the grand finale, let’s put every performer on stage so you get to see
the big picture.
Your life is the story of trillions of cells striving for balance in an
ever-changing terrain.
Everything about you—how you look, feel, think—is created by the
millions of chemical reactions taking place every second in your
cells.
If the pitch were to be summed up in one word, that word would be
homeostasis. Your health reflects the state of balance of your cells.
Over thousands of years, cells developed several homeostatic
mechanisms to maintain balance. Those mechanisms were tailored to
a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Genes hold the script for those mechanisms. They limit—but do not
determine—what the body can do.
Lifestyle choices dictate how the script is read.
Harmful genetic predispositions are only expressed if lifestyle
choices are not up to par.
Epigenetics enables you to rewrite the story.
Lifestyle choices determine how well-equipped cells are to deal with
the ups and downs of the story.
The fabric of your cells is the food you eat.
Cells constantly get rid of waste and toxicants. The liver, kidneys,
gut, and skin provide either the bouncers or exit doors.
 Cells are hyper-connected through neural, hormonal, and immune
pathways.
The gut is the centerpiece of the homeostatic machinery.
Beneficial microbes are powerful allies for cells.
Detrimental lifestyle choices unleash your cells’ six enemies:
glycation, oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, dysbiosis, immune
dysfunction, and excess cortisol. They are the byproducts of
homeostatic mechanisms gone haywire. They drive every chronic
disease*. Plus, they disconnect your Conscious Mind to put your
Unconscious Mind in charge, pulling you into a spiral of unhealthy
behaviors.
Homeostatic mechanisms behave like dominoes: if one falls, it
knocks the next one over and so on until every single mechanism
fails. Cells lose their grip on the narrative and come crashing down.
The good news is, homeostatic mechanisms are dynamic. Not only can you
stop the crash, but you can also reverse it when you calm everything down
and reboot with the right inputs.
You are the director of the show. And you’re equipped with 9 powers to
regain control of the cast and crew. You get to decide on the outcome. Do
you want the cellular play in your body to unroll as a Greek tragedy full of
gloom and doom? Or would you rather choose a serious comedy—happy
and light despite the occasional setbacks and the less-than-perfect script?
It’s up to you. In the next part, you have the opportunity to take all the
insights covered up to now and turn them into a step-by-step action plan.
 PART III

Time for Action

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Now that you know the inside story, it’s time for you to take charge of the
show.
In the next chapters, I will show you how to harness your 9 powers to
ease into a new lifestyle. Each chapter is dedicated to a different lifestyle
factor. For optimal results, you want to work on all of them.
There’s a multitude of ways to become healthier. The best one is the one
that works for you. At the end of each chapter, you will find a list of
numbered action steps. Choose steps, write them in your long-term journal,
scale and rank them. This is your action plan. Then pick one step, visualize
it, work out the when/where/how, and do it! Add new action steps whenever
you’re ready.
How much or little you want to change is up to you. Lifestyle change
happens one choice at a time. With every little step, you are better off than
before. The most important is that you commit to doing this every day for
the rest of your life.
Important reminder: Please make sure you get professional advice before
making any changes to your diet or exercise routines.
A note to the reader: I do not discuss smoking in this book because
it’s a whole subject in itself. But if you smoke, smoking is of course
the first lifestyle factor to address. It’s the biggest purveyor of
toxicity, inflammation, and oxidation to the body. Smoking is the
leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Know your 9
powers work for smoking cessation.
Lack of time is the most common excuse for not doing anything for our
health. But it’s just a matter of setting our priorities straight. No matter
what’s happening in your day, you have time to get dressed and brush your
teeth. Likewise, if your water heater is broken, you deal with it no matter
how busy you are. What is more urgent and important than putting a term to
the destruction in your body?
The time you invest in your health is worth every minute spent. You get
more energy and productivity in return. It makes you a better parent, a
better partner, a better colleague. Conversely, health issues are huge time-
wasters. Think chronic fatigue, brain fog, doctor visits, hospital stays.
 Is lack of time your favorite excuse too? If yes, the following questions
are for you.

Pause & Reflect

Where is your time going? A good way to increase your awareness
of what you do is to set your alarm to ring every hour. Every time
the alarm rings, write down everything you did that last hour.

How many hours of TV do you watch every day? How much time
do you spend on social media and emails?

Look at everything you do during the day. Is each activity more or

less important than getting healthier?

Every day, you have the opportunity to make alternative choices.

What was your most cell-loving choice today?

Let’s Do It!
Brainstorm on how you could implement the following step in your
life: brisk walk at least 30 minutes per day, five days a week.
You could answer the following questions. How much time do you
already spend brisk walking? If you don’t walk at all, what is a
reasonable amount of time you could start with? When and where
could you walk in small bouts of a few minutes? What shoes would
you need to wear? What reminders could you set for yourself?
Do a skill visualization exercise. Close your eyes. Take three deep,
gentle breaths, breathing in and out slowly through your nose.
Expand your belly as you breathe in. Breathing normally, picture
yourself walking. Where are you? What are you wearing? Visualize
your cells getting more nutrients and expelling more waste. Notice
the energy flooding your body. Put a smile on your face. Feel how
this experience is feeding your new identity, that of health-oriented
person determined to make the healthiest choices. Finish this
visualization with another three deep breaths. Slowly open your eyes.
 Every Bite You Take
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
if one has not dined well.
—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Nutrition is the logical place to begin your health journey because it lays
the groundwork for the biochemical terrain. You make hundreds of
decisions around food every day. Those decisions either protect your cells
or harm them. No decision is neutral.
If you’re eating poorly, it doesn’t matter what else you do. As hard-
working as cells are, they’re not magicians: you can’t expect them to make
nutrients appear out of nowhere.
The science of nutrition is exciting because you can immediately put
into action what you’ve learned. After all, the next meal is always right
around the corner. Unfortunately, we live in a crazy food environment,
where actionable information is hard to get.
 Pause & Reflect
What is your definition of a healthy food?

When was the last time you ate leafy greens?

Do you eat for calories, nutrition, or pleasure?

What would you say is wrong with your way of eating? Identify the
easy fixes—cutting down on snacks, eliminating sugary drinks,
adding vegetables, or reducing portion sizes.

How do you feel after eating?

Have you already noticed how some foods impact your physical
health, your energy, your mood? Which ones?

What are the behaviors that lead you to eat too much or eat
unhealthy foods? Eating too fast? Always cleaning your plate?
Eating when tired, stressed, or bored? Eating while standing up,
working, driving, watching TV or social media? Skipping meals?
 Let’s Do It!
You can teach your Unconscious Mind that certain eating behaviors
such as binging on junk food hurt your body. Because your
Unconscious Mind wants to protect you, it will be receptive.
Let’s use visualization to access your Unconscious Mind.
Sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Take three deep, gentle breaths,
breathing in and out slowly through your nose. Expand your belly as
you breathe in.
Visualize yourself eating junk food. Notice how unhappy your
digestive system looks. It creates a lot of waste, maybe some
putrefaction. Your pathogenic bacteria smile because they thrive on
junk. Your intestinal wall gets inflamed and lets harmful substances
pass through. You feel bloated and tired.
Now visualize yourself eating an overflowing plate of vegetables.
You slowly chew each bite and savor the taste. The food glides
effortlessly through your digestive tract. Your beneficial bacteria
cheer. Your cells smile as they receive nutrients. You feel light and
full of energy.
Finish your visualization with three deep breaths. Slowly open your
eyes.
WHY DOES IT SEEM SO COMPLICATED?

Are you confused about what to eat? Do you feel like nutrition advice is
always changing and no one agrees? You are not alone.
Compared to other sciences like physics, nutrition science is a young
science. There’s a lot we don’t know yet. For instance, not so long ago, we
thought eggs were bad and margarine was good. Research shows the
reverse to be true. Several factors further complicate nutrition science.
1. The interplay between the hundreds of bioactive compounds in foods
and the hundreds of intricate mechanisms in the body is too complex
to model.
2. No single way of eating works for everyone. Because of differences
in genes, epigenetics, and microbes, our bodies do not respond in the
same way.
3. Nutrition research is limited by restrictions on human
experimentation. It is impossible to run controlled long-term
experiments to assess how different foods affect the human body.
Thus, nutrition research is primarily based on observations and
correlations. This can generate false leads because correlation isn’t
causation. Plus, observations generally rely on food surveys, but
most people don’t recall their food intake correctly. Researchers also
conduct laboratory experiments on animals, mostly on rats; but they
have no certainty as to how the results apply to humans.
4. Researchers, journalists, and food companies cherry-pick their data
or report them out of context for diverse reasons. Researchers seek
attention and funding. The media wants to draw readers with
 sensational headlines. Food companies fund research to promote
their products.
Despite all this, I have good news for you! Eating for your health does not
have to be confusing if you focus on the three basic principles on which all
nutrition experts agree.
Principle #1: Eat a diversity of whole foods.
Whole foods are foods similar to what they would look like in nature. They
are the foods the body expects. Diversity guarantees that cells and microbes
receive everything they need.
Principle #2: Put the spotlight on plant foods.
Plant foods are foods derived from plants: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds,
legumes, whole grains*. They provide vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients,
and fiber. They can be complemented with small portions of meat, fish, or
dairy products to get the full range of nutrients. Note, however, that animal
products are proinflammatory; excess consumption is harmful.
Principle #3: Avoid processed foods.
Processed foods are any foods that come in a box, are wrapped in plastic,
carry a long ingredient list, and/or have a long shelf life. Principles 1 and 3
mean the same: the more you eat whole foods, the less you eat processed
foods.
To simplify nutrition further, let’s unite those three principles into one easy-
to-implement motto:
“Eat more plants, eat less of everything else!”
Healthy nutrition isn’t about deprivation nor rigid rules. It’s about gradually
incorporating healthy foods to crowd out unhealthy options. Starting with
what matters most.
 Pause & Reflect
How many whole unrefined plants—vegetables, fruits, legumes,
nuts, seeds—do you eat every day?

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

When speaking about nutrition, the subject of calories often comes up. But
calories are not what matters most. You can eat plenty of calories and still
leave your cells yearning for nutrients.
Nutrient density refers to the ratio of vital nutrients to calories. It’s what
gives you the most bang for your buck. Vital nutrients include fiber,
vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, and
phytonutrients.
What does nutrient density mean for cells? It means they obtain the
materials they need. On the flip side, nutrient deficiency means poor
function, impaired communication, and suboptimal structure. Nutritious
foods help repair cells, reduce inflammation and oxidation, and rid the body
of toxic chemicals. They also benefit gut microbes. As a bonus, high
nutrient density usually means fewer calories. When you eat nutritious
foods, you don’t have to count!
 Did You Know?
Nutrients work best in association the way we find them in whole
foods. When you eat a variety of whole natural foods with a large
proportion of vegetables and a range of different colors, you do not
have to think about nutrients; you automatically get everything you
need!

Cells do much better when they get their nutrients from food rather than
from supplements. Whole foods provide nutrients in a specific matrix which
affects how they are metabolized. When nutrients are isolated in a pill or
added to fortified foods, they are harder to absorb.
However, there are two instances in which you may want to supplement:
1. Genetic predispositions which influence how you absorb nutrients
2. Repeated detrimental lifestyle inputs—especially chronic stress—
that rob you of nutrients
Deficiencies in magnesium, zinc, B vitamins, and vitamin D are common;
you can address them with supplementation. Please consult your physician
before taking any supplements.
What matters most when choosing food is maximizing nutrient density.
Unfortunately, this is often pushed into the background as nutritionists hotly
discuss the optimal macronutrient ratio—the relative proportions of protein,
carbohydrate, and fat. Should you do keto, paleo, or vegan? Let’s see what
this is all about.
 Pause & Reflect
When making food choices, do you focus on the nutritional value of
food?

How would you rank the nutritional value of what you eat?

How many servings of vegetables do you eat per day? How many fruits?
How many fruits and vegetables do you have in your kitchen?

Go through your food diary or think about the foods that you regularly
eat and that have low nutritional value. List them. Where and when do
you get exposed to them? What are smart substitutions you can make?
Examples of substitutions include replacing sweetened beverages with
plain water, choosing tomatoes over chips, or taking fresh fruit or nuts
instead of processed snacks and desserts.

What is one food you could add to your meals to make them more
nourishing? What is one food you could eliminate?

Let’s Do It!
Challenge yourself to eat a green vegetable with every meal for the
next seven days. How do you make that possible? Start planning and
 visualizing.

THREE’S COMPANY
Cells need a balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Each macronutrient
has a role to play. Despite many studies, books, and controversies on the
topic, we still don’t know whether one macronutrient mix is better for
health and weight loss. Looking back into the past gives no clue: the
macronutrient ratios of our ancestors depended on what they found in
nature.
If there was such a thing as a right macronutrient mix, it would be
different for everyone, depending on genes, epigenetics, and microbiome.
What works for you does not necessarily work for me. And what works for
you now may not work for you ten years from now.
We do know however that very high-protein, very high-fat, or very low-
carbohydrate diets have adverse effects. Too much protein strains kidneys
and puts you at risk for stones. Too much fat, especially saturated fat,
promotes constipation, dysbiosis, and heart disease. Too little carbohydrate
induces light-headedness, weakness, mental fatigue, and muscle
breakdown.
Let’s be real: the main issue with macronutrients today is not what
should be their ideal proportions. It’s that we get far too many of each and
far too many calories in the process.
What matters when considering each macronutrient is the quality of the
sourcing. Some macronutrient sources are good for you, others are bad. The
bad ones are usually highly processed. Compare apples to donuts; they’re
both carbohydrate sources.
The best way to balance a meal is to include lean proteins, high-fiber
carbohydrates, and a source of healthy fats. A good rule of thumb is to
cover half your plate with vegetables, a quarter with lean protein, and the
rest with whole grains. Add a teaspoon of organic cold-pressed olive oil.
And see how you feel.
We’ve already met the protein performers in your body and seen how
they are the active agents of cells. How do you best provide for them?
A LITTLE OFTEN
Eggs, meat, fish, and dairy are the richest sources of protein, but almost all
foods contain some, including plants. In fact, the proteins in animals come
from the plants they eat.
Digestion breaks up dietary proteins into amino acids, which are then
put back together by cells to make body proteins. The higher the similarity
in amino acid composition between dietary and body proteins, the easier it
is for cells.
In general, animal sources of protein like meat, fish, and eggs are similar
to body proteins and provide all amino acids in high enough concentrations.
In contrast, plants are incomplete sources but can be combined to achieve
completeness. Many traditional dishes like ‘corn and black beans’ or ‘rice
and lentils’ are based on such combinations.
Substituting plant proteins for animal ones a few times a week brings
more fiber and phytonutrients and less saturated fat. The more varied the
plant foods you eat, the less you need to concern yourself with amino acid
composition.

Did You Know?

Conventional meat is full of antibiotics and synthetic hormones.
Cows evolved to eat grass but have no access to grass on factory
farms. Instead, they are fed corn and soy because it’s cheaper. Some
are fed animal waste or waste from industrial processes. This,
combined with crowded conditions, makes them sick, hence the
antibiotics which are also used to fatten them up. Up to 80 percent of
antibiotics produced in the US are used on farmed animals. Whenever
possible, choose organic grass-fed meat.
 The body cannot store unused amino acids. Therefore, each meal should
contain a reasonable amount of protein to ensure a continuous supply. The
word reasonable is key because excess protein taxes the kidneys and liver.
Proteins are important for structure. So are fats.

TWO OF A KIND
Dietary fat is found in meat, poultry, fish, nuts, dairy, and plant oils. Fat in
the form of oil is added to processed foods to provide taste, consistency, and
stability. Fruits and vegetables generally contain little to no fat.
Naturally occurring fat combines two types of fatty acids—saturated*
and unsaturated. Because they do not have the same structures, they do not
affect cells the same way.
Saturated fatty acids are solid at room temperature. Most come from
animal sources: whole milk, butter, cheese, eggs, meat. Plant sources
include palm and coconut oils.
Although the subject remains controversial, several studies link high
intake of saturated fats to heart disease and other health issues. Saturated
fatty acids are viscous at body temperature. In excess, they increase blood
viscosity or thickness. This creates deposits in the arteries, raises blood
pressure, impedes blood flow through tiny capillaries, and impairs the
delivery of oxygen and nutrients to cells. What’s more, excess saturated
fatty acids stiffen cellular membranes, further undermining cellular flow.
They cause hormonal resistance when they accumulate outside or inside the
membrane. They also feed the wrong bacteria in the gut. Here, the word
excess is key.
Unsaturated fatty acids are more fluid. They are liquid at room
temperature. Good sources include cold-pressed olive oil, sesame seeds,
cashew nuts, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, avocado, olives. Studies show that
when they are substituted for saturated fatty acids, they lower the risk of
heart disease. However, not all unsaturated fatty acids are the same.
THE STARS OF THE PACK

Two unsaturated fatty acids stand out: the omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
They are deemed essential; you must get them from food because cells
cannot manufacture them.
The balance between the two is critical, especially for membrane
structure and inflammation control. Unfortunately, our intake of omega-3s
has continuously decreased in favor of omega-6s in the last 70 years. The
ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is now around 10 to 1, whereas it should be
closer to 4 to 1. Why is that? The short answer is that we eat more grain,
corn, and cooking oils extracted from canola, sunflower, and soya. And no
longer do animals graze on high omega-3 grasses: they are fed high omega-
6 grains instead, which results in high omega-6 meat. Our food supply is
overflowing with omega-6 fatty acids, with few omega-3s to balance them.
Omega-6 fatty acids, while essential to cell membranes, are
inflammatory. Eating too many blocks out the omega-3s and encourages
genes to express a more aggressive immune response. It thus promotes
inflammation and every disease that comes with it. It’s also key in storing
fat rather than spending it. On the contrary, omega-3 fatty acids decrease
inflammation. They provide a flexible form of fat for membranes and
ensure cellular fluidity.
 Omega-3 concentrations are highest in the brain and nervous system.
Emerging research shows that omega-3s regulate serotonin levels and
decrease both depression and violence.
Sources of omega-3 fatty acids include wild-caught fish (salmon,
sardines, tuna, trout, swordfish, halibut, cod, mackerel), seafood (shrimps,
oysters, scallops, crabs), walnuts, hazelnuts, flaxseeds, leafy greens, eggs
from pastured chickens, and grass-fed meat. The most useful omega-3s are
those coming from seafood—known as EPA and DHA. They’re the reason
fish oil supplements are popular.

Did You Know?

The neurotransmitter dopamine is involved not only in motivation but
also in movement control. Parkinson’s disease occurs when 50 to
80% of the neurons responsible for producing dopamine in the brain’s
substantia nigra are destroyed. Research shows that omega-3 fatty
acids, especially DHA, could protect against Parkinson’s disease.

Saturated fats, omegas-6s, and omega-3s all form cell membranes.

Omega-3 fatty acids make for flexible membranes while excess saturated
fatty acids create rigid ones. If what you eat provides a varied supply of
fatty acids with saturated fats and omega-6s in moderation, cells get to pick
the best fats for their membranes. Else, they have to make do with
substitutes; you end up with inadequate cellular membranes. And there are
two substitutes with which you don’t want to mess around.

THE REAL FAT VILLAINS

While saturated fat is fine if you don’t overdo it, oxidized and artificial fats
are extremely harmful. Even in small quantity, they increase inflammation,
affect the structure of cellular membranes, and feed pathogenic gut bacteria.
Oxidized fat occurs when vegetable oils turn rancid or are heated. It’s a
big source of oxidation in the body. Polyunsaturated* fatty acids are
unstable when exposed to light, oxygen, or heat. Avoid using them for
frying or high-temperature cooking. Saturated fats such as butter are better
for high heat. Monounsaturated* fats, such as olive oil, are the next best
option; they’re not as stable as saturated fats but are much less prone to
oxidation than polyunsaturated fats. As a rule, you’re better off limiting
cooking at high temperatures as it lowers the nutritional quality of food.

Did You Know?

Most vegetable oils are extracted from soya, corn, canola, olive, or
sunflower. The most common extraction method uses a solvent called
hexane, derived from petroleum. Extraction is followed by high-
temperature processing. The resulting oils are deodorized to remove
rancid odors. This process removes most of the nutrients while
generating free radicals and harmful chemicals called aldehydes.
When buying vegetable oils, look for cold-pressed, extra virgin oil. It
is processed without using solvents or heat and retains its nutritional
benefits.
 Oxidized fats are often present in deep-fried restaurant foods, especially
since restaurants reheat low-quality vegetable cooking oils multiple times,
so beware when eating out.
Artificial fats such as trans fats* are found in processed foods with a
long shelf life. To spot them, look for hydrogenated, modified, or inter-
esterified fats or oils on the ingredient list. Hydrogenation is an industrial
process which adds hydrogen to liquid oils to turn them into solid fats and
make them more stable.
Balancing both the quantity and the quality of the fats you consume is
critical to your health. Fats contain nine calories per gram compared to four
for proteins and carbohydrates. You want to get enough essential fatty acids
while watching out for excess calories.
Fats provide both structure and energy. Carbohydrates are mostly about
energy.

Pause & Reflect

What kind of fats do you eat?

Do you get enough omega-3s?

How often do you eat healthy fats such as avocados, raw nuts, cold-
pressed olive oil, flaxseeds, and fatty fish? If you eat fish less than
twice a week, consider taking purified fish oil supplements. Ask
your physician for advice.

THE PRIMARY FUEL

Carbohydrates fuel cells. They mainly come from plants—fruits,
vegetables, grains, and legumes—or processed foods made from plants,
such as rice, pasta, bread.
Carbohydrates consist of small building blocks called monosaccharides or
single sugar units: glucose, fructose*, and galactose. Disaccharides combine
two. For instance, lactose, the sugar found in milk, combines glucose and
galactose; table sugar, glucose and fructose. Polysaccharides are made up of
more than three and usually contain thousands. Starch and fiber are
polysaccharides. Fiber is a topic on its own and warrants a section later on.
Monosaccharides are small enough to be directly absorbed into the
bloodstream once in the small intestine. Disaccharides and polysaccharides
have to be broken down. For example, sucrose is broken down into glucose
and fructose.
As discussed earlier, keeping blood glucose levels stable is a crucial part
of homeostasis. They must be high enough for the brain to function
correctly. If they’re too low and glycogen stores are empty, the liver takes
amino acids from muscles and converts them into glucose. This destroys
muscles and puts a strain on kidneys because of harmful byproducts.
Conversely, high glucose levels damage cells because of glycation.
Your food choices determine glucose variations in your blood. Every
time you eat carbohydrates, you increase your blood glucose. But, as
carbohydrates are digested differently depending on their structure, they do
not affect blood glucose in the same way. To measure this, nutritionists use
the glycemic index*.

BENCH TESTING CARBS

The glycemic index measures how quickly carbohydrates impact blood

glucose. The higher the glycemic index, the higher blood glucose will rise
within two hours. Values range from 1 to 100. Low-glycemic foods have a
rating of 55 or less. Foods rated 70 to100 are high-glycemic foods.
Foods with a low glycemic index include most fruits and vegetables,
beans, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta. Foods with a medium glycemic
index include basmati rice, brown rice, and regular pasta. Foods with a high
glycemic index include corn, potatoes, white bread, white rice, cornflakes,
and refined flour.
High-glycemic foods do not necessarily taste sweet. Because of their
transformation into ultrafine powder, refined grains spike blood glucose as
much as pure sugar. Industrial processing breaks down starch molecules
into short chains of glucose that are quickly absorbed in the body.
The glycemic index depends on food structure. Cutting, blending,
juicing, and cooking raise the glycemic index because they speed up
absorption in the digestive tract. Ripe fruits and vegetables have a higher
glycemic index than unripened ones.
The glycemic index is lower for foods containing fiber, fats, or proteins
because:
1. Fiber blocks digestive enzymes.
2. Both proteins and fats slow down stomach emptying.
If you want to learn more on the subject, you will find glycemic index
tables on the internet. However, those tables are only rough guidelines.
Glycemic values are variable from person to person and from moment to
moment.
Moreover, the glycemic index is measured for a standardized quantity of
carbohydrates. It does not consider the actual carbohydrate content of a
serving. Therefore, nutritionists also use the glycemic load*. Think of it as
the potency of food on blood glucose adjusted for the amount of
carbohydrate in a serving size. It is obtained by multiplying the glycemic
index by the amount of carbohydrate per serving and dividing the result by
100. For example, an apple has a glycemic index of 40 and contains 15
grams of carbohydrate. Its glycemic load equals 40 x 15/100 = 6.
A glycemic load of 20 or more is considered high, and 10 or under low.
Watermelons and carrots have a high glycemic index but a low glycemic
load for the quantities typically consumed. While carbohydrates in those
foods are easily absorbed, there isn’t enough of them to do much harm.
 The concepts of glycemic index and glycemic load may seem complex,
but they’re easy to apply. Increase your consumption of fruits, vegetables,
beans, and legumes. Choose whole-grain options for pasta, rice, and bread.
Limit sugar and refined grains. Combine high-glycemic foods with foods
rich in fiber or protein. Avoid fruit juices: unlike whole fruit, fruit juice
lacks fiber and quickly releases sugar.
Why do you want to keep the glycemic load in check? Because when
you eat high-glycemic foods, glucose and insulin spike; your cells get a
ticket to ride!

UPSIDE DOWN

Insulin is released when the bloodstream absorbs more than one teaspoon of
glucose, the equivalent of four grams. As an order of magnitude, medium
fries contain 12 teaspoons of glucose.
When you eat meals or snacks with a high glycemic load, your blood
glucose peaks. The pancreas releases an enormous amount of insulin to
usher glucose into storage before it does any damage. It was never meant to
deal with such glucose levels, hence it overshoots the mark. As a result,
your blood glucose crashes below fasting levels. We call this rebound
hypoglycemia*. Your cells are now in danger of not getting enough glucose.
Sugar cravings ensue to prompt you to restore blood glucose to normal.
There is no energy left for your Conscious Mind; unhealthy options become
impossible to resist.
 When blood glucose surges, you are hyper and unable to focus. When
blood glucose plummets, you become irritable and moody. Highs and lows
are akin to a roller coaster ride for cells. They threaten homeostasis and turn
on the stress response. It’s impossible for cells to maintain balance when
they’re constantly turned upside down.
This roller coaster ride is implicated in the development in children of
ADHD*—Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. How do we expect
children to focus and sit still when all hell is breaking loose inside their
bodies because of the cereals and fruit juice they had for breakfast?
Sugar roller coaster rides are fattening. They give you a triple whammy!
You’re always hungry, glucose keeps converting to fat, and insulin inhibits
fat use.
Going on a roller coaster ride in an amusement park is fun. But riding
the blood glucose roller coaster day in and day out is not. When cells are
tired of playing, they turn a deaf ear to insulin. This is called insulin
resistance.

Did You Know?

Stress increases blood glucose levels: high cortisol tell the liver to
release glucose to fuel fight or flight.
 Pause & Reflect
Are you often hungry or tired two hours after eating?

Do you use sugary treats when you’re low on energy?

NO ENTRY

Like a key fits into a lock, insulin fits into receptors on the cell’s membrane,
causing glucose transporter proteins to come to the surface to ferry glucose
inside.
The major areas with insulin receptors are the liver, skeletal muscles,
and adipose tissue. Not all cells require insulin to take up glucose; for
example, most brain cells use transporters that are not dependent on insulin.
We will see later on that brain cells still need insulin to metabolize glucose.
Insulin-resistant cells ignore insulin. They do not open their gates for
glucose to come in. There are at least three reasons for this:
1. Transporter proteins tire out of coming to the surface. They stop
listening to insulin.
2. Waste or fat prevent transporter proteins from coming to the surface.
 3. Insulin receptors don’t work because of damage from glycation or
inflammation.
Insulin-resistant cells cannot access glucose. They cannot access fat either
because insulin in the bloodstream inhibits fat oxidation. They end up
starving while glucose accumulates outside their membranes, causing
glycation and inflammation. Insulin resistance affects half of the American
population. But it doesn’t stop there.
When blood glucose reaches a certain threshold, prediabetes sets in: the
pancreas now works overtime to produce insulin, hoping to decrease blood
glucose. When it can’t keep up, prediabetes becomes type 2 diabetes. Most
people diagnosed with prediabetes end up with type 2 diabetes within 10
years.
Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke,
blindness, amputation, and kidney disease. But you need not be diabetic to
suffer from the harmful effects of excess sugar.

KILLING YOU SWEETLY

For all its sweetness, sugar is a deadly poison. I’m talking about the
concentrated forms of sugar, those that do not occur naturally in plant
foods.
Think of concentrated sugar as a killer masquerading as a friendly
nutrient. Once inside the bloodstream, it goes on a rampage to destroy cells
with such weapons as hormonal imbalance, inflammation, oxidation, and
glycation.
Let’s review the most prevalent health issues involving sugar. Fun stuff!
Sugar triggers acne breakouts and hair loss by promoting the release
of testosterone.
 Sugar causes wrinkles and brown stains on the skin.
Sugar affects your eyesight and hearing.
Sugar gives you a muffin top even if you’re thin.
Sugar gives you bad breath and cavities by feeding bad bacteria in
your mouth.
Sugar generates excess mucus and congestion in the airways. Always
sniffling? Sugar may be one culprit along with dairy, mold, and dust.
Sugar weakens bones.
Sugar reduces the activity of immune cells. A sugary treat paralyzes
the immune system for four to six hours after ingestion!
Sugar fosters depression and violence.
Sugar increases the risk of infertility in both men and women.
Sugar promotes neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s
disease.
Sugar puts you at risk for heart disease and strokes.
Sugar stimulates yeasts and fungi in the gut.
Sugar feeds cancer cells.
If you think about it, sugar is the new tobacco. Except we’re consuming it
like it was harmless. On average, Americans ingest around 30 teaspoons or
120 grams of added sugar a day. It’s ten times more than we did a hundred
years ago, five hundred times more than hunter-gatherers. The body isn’t
equipped to deal with this onslaught.
According to the World Health Organization, sugar should represent less
than five percent of total energy intake. This is equivalent to around six
teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar per day for women and nine teaspoons or 36
grams for men.
Sugar is not the only thing to be wary of. Refined carbohydrates—think
white flour or French fries—are sugars in disguise. They consist of short
chains of glucose that quickly break up and stampede into the bloodstream,
triggering the same glucose and insulin spikes as pure sugar.
Added sugar is sugar removed from its original casing and refined until
it becomes a fine white powder. White flour is the same for wheat. Doesn’t
this sound like something we might do to a cocoa leaf? In the next section,
we’ll learn how sugar and white flour hijack the brain like cocaine.

WHITE POWDER

When rats are given a choice between sugar and cocaine, they prefer sugar,
even if they’re already addicted to cocaine. What about humans? Brain
imaging studies in obese and drug-addicted individuals show similar
activation of dopamine circuits whether subjects are exposed to sugar or
drugs, respectively.
Sugar works like a drug. The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you
crave. It’s a never-ending vicious cycle fueled by dopamine and insulin:
1. You eat sugar.
2. The taste of sugar triggers a cascade of reactions which ends up in
the release of dopamine. You want more.
3. You eat more sugar.
4. Your blood glucose levels spike. Massive levels of insulin are
released.
5. Glucose levels drop. You’re now in a state of hypoglycemia.
6. Low levels make dopamine circuits hypersensitized. You want sugar
now! Your Unconscious Mind takes over and makes you reach for
any sugary food you can get your hands on; thus, the cycle begins
anew.
Sugar is hard to give up. Quick removal causes the same withdrawal
symptoms as getting off drugs: fatigue, depression, headaches, and achy
limbs. To make matters worse, fungi and pathogenic bacteria, which feed on
sugar, hijack the gut-brain connection to instigate sugar cravings.
Because we now live in a sugar-saturated environment, getting off sugar
is no easy feat. Imagine a recovering alcoholic being offered alcohol many
times a day. Sugar is everywhere, even in foods that do not taste sweet, like
tomato sauce, dressings, or curated ham. It’s also in foods that many of us
think of as healthful: yogurts, energy bars, cereals, granola, fruit juice.
Chances are, you eat much more sugar than you realize, and certainly more
than six to nine teaspoons.

Did You Know?

Food labels list ingredients in descending order by weight. So, if
sugar is listed as the first ingredient, it means there’s more sugar than
anything else. However, sugar can be present under 56 different
names. Just because it isn’t listed first doesn’t mean it isn’t the
number one ingredient when you add together all the variants
(ingredients ending in - ose, syrups, juices, molasses).

Artificial sweeteners do not help. Because they mimic sugar, they

activate sweet taste receptors in the mouth and digestive tract. They trigger
the same release of dopamine and keep you addicted to the sweet taste.
They trick the body into thinking it’s getting sugar, which derails both
insulin and hunger/satiety hormones. This induces a lack of satisfaction
from food and more cravings. Plus, artificial sweeteners are toxicants: they
hurt gut bacteria and overload detoxification organs.
Roller coaster rides, deadly diseases, addictions: the picture is pretty
terrifying. But it gets worse.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you struggle to walk past sugary foods without taking one?

Do you have habits around sugar consumption—for example,

always having dessert at the end of the meal or putting a lump of
sugar in your coffee?

Do you experience sugar cravings?

If you go without sugar for more than 24 hours, do you develop

headaches and mood swings?

If you answered yes to one or more of the questions above, chances

are you’re addicted to sugar.

Let’s Do It!
Look at the foods and drinks in your pantry and fridge. How much
sugar is there in the products you buy? Write the sugar content per
serving for the products you consume the most.
 Look at your food diary. Mark everything that contains sugar and/or
white flour. Assess the number of teaspoons of sugar you ingest on a
typical day. Do not forget to take drinks into account (sodas, fruit
drinks, sports drinks, flavored milks, latte). What about white flour?
How can you cut back?

IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK

In its natural form, fructose is the monosaccharide that gives fruit its sweet
taste. The body knows how to manage fructose in fruits because it comes in
small amounts and is mixed with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and
phytonutrients. But it is not designed to get frequent, high doses of stand-
alone fructose.
Seventy years ago, Americans ate about 15 grams of fructose a day,
mostly from fruits and vegetables. Today, they average four times that
amount, almost all of it from refined sugars such as sucrose—half glucose
and half fructose—and high-fructose corn syrup—55 percent fructose and
45 percent glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is now the single largest
source of calories in the American diet.
Unlike glucose, which can be metabolized by every cell in the body,
fructose is only metabolized in the liver. A minor part is transformed into
glucose to provide energy and replenish glycogen stores. The rest is turned
into fat which builds up around organs. We know this as visceral fat. What’s
more, fructose metabolism generates uric acid and free radicals that damage
cells. Fructose is also used by pathogenic bacteria and promotes dysbiosis.
 Did You Know?
Fat cells are biologically active. They secrete estrogen. When you’re
overweight, your fat cells produce more than needed. Visceral fat
produces even more. The extra estrogen puts you at risk for hormonal
cancers such as breast and prostate cancers. Visceral fat is associated
with inflammation, excess cholesterol, hypertension, and insulin
resistance. Its proximity to visceral organs makes it particularly
dangerous.

Foie gras is an icon of French gastronomy but also a matter of

contention for animal rights activists. It translates to fatty liver in English.
For it to be produced, geese or ducks are force-fed massive amounts of
corn. Their livers balloon up to about 10 times their normal size and are
packed full of fat.
The same can happen in your own liver. If you feed yourself the massive
amounts of fructose contained in sodas and processed foods, fat droplets
accumulate in liver cells, and you develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease*
(NAFLD). It’s the equivalent of foie gras in humans.
Fatty liver used to be seen only in alcoholics. Now more than one in four
people suffers from it. Even children are affected.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is highly inflammatory. Early on, it is
reversible. But if it goes on, it leads to cirrhosis—an accumulation of scar
tissue—liver failure, and cancer.
Sugar—fructose and glucose combined—is a silent killer, attacking you
on all fronts. Where does it come from? Most of the sugar we take in comes
from highly processed food and sodas. Over 80 percent of processed foods
have added sugar. Processed foods wage a chemical war against cells, and
sugar is one among many assailants. The first step to beating your enemies
is to learn everything about them. That’s what the next section is all about.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you regularly consume soft drinks, fruit juices, pastries,
breakfast cereals, granola, protein bars, salad dressings, ketchup,
barbecue sauce, flavored yogurts?

Do you eat packaged foods that list fructose, high-fructose corn

syrup, honey, fruit juice concentrate, or corn syrup solids among the
first five ingredients on the label?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you probably ingest a

lot of fructose.

Let’s Do It!
Change how you perceive sugar with visualization. Close your eyes.
Take three deep breaths, breathing in and out slowly through your
nose. Expand your belly as you breathe in. Breathing normally,
visualize yourself eating a sugary food or drinking a sugary drink.
See pimples, brown stains, and wrinkles appearing on your face,
fungi growing in your gut, neurons degenerating in your brain,
pathogenic bacteria and cancer cells cheering in your body,
inflammation destroying everything. Not so tempting, is it? Finish
this visualization with three deep breaths. Slowly open your eyes.
 Think of this visualization the next time you’re tempted by a sugary
food.

KNOW YOUR ENNEMY

In the last seventy years, food has changed more than in the previous thirty
thousand years. Our ancestors relied on nature for food. Refined sugar,
bleached flour, processed oils, and Genetically Modified Organisms*
(GMOs) did not exist. Now over 90 percent of the foods we eat are
manufactured by machines or produced from animals grown on factory
farms. Foods such as pizza, hamburgers, cookies, white bread, pasta,
cereals, and chips account for most of our calories.
Technically, all foods are processed. When you chop, mix and cook at
home, you’re processing foods. Here, we’re only concerned with hyper-
processed foods: foods you wouldn’t be able to make at home. To tell if
food is hyper-processed, look at the number of ingredients listed on the
package: the higher the number, the more processed the food. The
expiration date is also a telltale sign: processed foods have a long shelf life.
They never rot, as if pests didn’t want to have anything to do with them.
What’s wrong with hyper-processing? It alters molecular structure and
removes fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients—everything that
makes a food nutritious. As a result, processed foods leave cells
nutritionally starving. What’s more, they often have a high caloric content
and a high glycemic load. But worse than that is the fact that they carry
oxidized fats and harmful chemicals—additives*, pesticides, fertilizers,
hormones, antibiotics.
Food corporations only care about making money by selling cheap
products in massive quantities. Processed foods are made from low-quality
raw materials. There’s a great variety of foods in supermarkets, but if you
look closely, you’ll see corn, wheat, and soy as recurring ingredients. Those
are the same ingredients farmers use to fatten up chickens, pigs, and cows.
To make different products, manufacturers tweak the texture and the
color. They also add a combination of sugar, salt, fat, and artificial flavoring
so the product doesn’t taste like cardboard. In fact, food scientists are
always looking for the perfect combination to get us addicted. They call it
the bliss point; it is designed to hook perfectly into our evolutionary
triggers.
By buying processed foods, you’re putting your health destiny in the
hands of food corporations. You’re supporting an industry that sells
products it knows to be dangerous for your health, that does everything to
keep you addicted to them, and that targets children. All in the name of
profit! As a consumer, you have the power to send a message with the food
you buy.
Fifty years ago, we spent 20 percent of our income on food and five
percent on health care; today, we spend less than 10 percent on food, and
almost 20 percent on health care. Processed foods are convenient and
cheap, but their hidden costs are huge.
When buying processed foods, opt for foods that have a short list of
ingredients—less than five—and ingredients that you recognize. Even
better, opt for whole foods that do not need labels. As you eat more whole
foods, your taste buds and biochemistry will adjust. You will feel deprived
when you don’t get to eat them. Processed foods will taste terrible, like the
layers of sugar, flour, oil, and chemicals they are.
Nothing is inherently tasty or repulsive. It depends on how your
Unconscious Mind is wired. If you reprogram it to see nutritious foods as
beneficial and processed foods as harmful, choosing nutritious foods will
become automatic.
 Did You Know?
It takes 15 exposures to a new food for your taste buds to appreciate
it.

Now that we’ve met your cells’ worst enemy, let’s meet one of your
cells’ best friend.

Pause & Reflect

How much do you rely on packaged and takeaway foods? Take
inventory of how many times a week you eat processed foods, fast
food, fried foods, junk food. Do you eat out of vending machines?

How can you make healthy food your convenience food?

 Let’s Do It!
Browse through your pantry and refrigerator: how much of your food
comes in a package? Look at the ingredients: what are the first three
ingredients? Are there ingredients you don’t recognize? Are there
numbers or chemical-sounding names? Keep in mind that anything
with a number is made in a lab. What nutritional benefits does the
food offer? How close is it to its natural state? Clean out your pantry
and refrigerator.

THE ALL-STAR PLAYER

Fiber makes up plants’ cell walls to give them structure. You can eat fiber,
but digestive enzymes cannot digest it. Hence, it reaches the colon intact
where it is fermented by resident microbes.
Fiber is found only in plant foods. Almost all plant foods in their natural
form contain large amounts. Animal products like meat and dairy do not
contain any.
Multiple studies show that populations with high fiber consumption
enjoy lower rates of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and
colon cancer, compared to populations with low fiber intake. Among its
benefits:
 1. Fiber increases signals of fullness because it takes more time to chew
and fills up the stomach with its bulk. Studies show that eating more
fiber reduces calorie intake by 15 to 20 percent.
2. Foods rich in fiber have a low glycemic index because fiber provides
a mechanical barrier to enzymes and slows down the release of
glucose.
3. Fiber fermentation in the colon increases healthy microbial
populations. It gives rise to beneficial byproducts, such as vitamins
and short-chain fatty acids. Butyrate, one of the short-chain fatty
acids, is anti-inflammatory, nourishes the gut lining, and modulates
brain function.
4. Fiber helps to avoid constipation. It acts as a scrub brush in the gut,
entrapping and removing toxic substances.
Fiber comes in two different forms: soluble and insoluble fibers. You need
both.
Soluble fibers dissolve in water to form a gel-like substance in the small
intestine. This makes it harder for digestive enzymes to access the food.
When soluble fibers get to the colon, microbes convert them into short-
chain fatty acids. Soluble fibers are found in oatmeal, the pulp of fruits,
nuts, beans, lentils, psyllium.
Insoluble fibers absorb water like sponges and become bulky. By filling
the colon, they promote regular bowel movements. They bind to stray food
particles and harmful substances, ensuring their elimination out of the body.
They scrub the walls of the colon. Insoluble fibers include whole grains,
brown rice, vegetables, the skin of fruits, beans, and lentils.
If you eat too many processed foods and not enough fruits and
vegetables, you do not get enough fiber. The recommended intake of fiber is
30 grams per day, twice what we are getting today. To get the right fiber
intake, eat fruits and vegetables with their peels, whole grains, legumes,
nuts, and seeds. When buying packaged foods, look at the fiber content.
Beware that a fluctuating fiber intake can cause digestive discomfort,
cramps, gas, and changes in bowel habits as your gut and microbes adapt.
Increase fiber gradually along with water intake. Once at the targeted level,
keep it constant.
 Pause & Reflect
To figure out how much fiber you get each day, assess the amount of
vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans, legumes, seeds, and whole grains you
eat daily. Look up the fiber value of each food on the internet.

THE RESISTANT COUSIN

Like fiber, resistant starch is resistant to digestion. Hence its name! Its long
chains of glucose molecules are folded in such a way that they are
inaccessible to digestive enzymes. Therefore, they pass unbroken to the
colon where they feed microbes, which in turn produce vitamins and short-
chain fatty acids. Resistant starch also increases stool bulk and decreases
transit time. Like fiber, it lowers the glycemic index of foods.
Resistant starch is found in a variety of foods: raw potatoes, boiled-then-
cooled potatoes, unripe bananas, raw oats, whole grains, legumes. Food
preparation affects the amount of resistant starch. When you boil raw
potatoes, starch unfolds and becomes accessible to enzymes. If you leave
them to cool down, starch folds back to its original state. It also works for
rice and pasta.
Not all carbohydrates are created equal. From sugar to starch to fiber,
different carbohydrates give different outcomes. The most beneficial are
low-glycemic and offer a lot of fiber and micronutrients. Vegetables, fruits,
legumes, and whole grains all fit the grade.
Our genes did not evolve with sugar and processed foods. Neither did
our microbiome. Microbes play a crucial role in digestion, detoxification,
immunity, gene expression, hormonal balance, and brain health. When you
take care of them, they take care of you. How do you do that?
REMOVE THE WEEDS

Like cells, friendly microbes are challenged by our modern environment.

They do not know how to process modern foods. What’s more, foods now
carry lethal substances such as pesticides and antibiotics. In contrast,
harmful bacteria thrive on sugary foods, refined grains, processed meats,
and oxidized fats. They send your brain dopamine spikes to push you
toward those foods. You end up being manipulated by pathogenic bacteria.
Once pathogenic microbes outnumber friendly microbes, the gut enters a
state of dysbiosis This means inflammation, intestinal permeability, and
impaired immune function.
To overcome gut dysbiosis, you can repopulate your microbiota with
probiotics—live bacteria—through either supplementation or fermented
foods such as kefir and sauerkraut. But the most important thing you can do
is to feed friendly microbes with a diversity of prebiotic foods—foods that
nurture them. Prebiotic foods include any food with fiber or resistant starch.
The best ones? Garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, oats, apples,
flaxseeds, wheat bran, lentils, chickpeas, red kidney beans. Phytonutrients
and polyunsaturated fats also make friendly microbes happy.
Warning: if you suffer from histamine intolerance or mast cell activation
syndrome, it is better to limit fermented foods.
In the previous sections, we put the emphasis on what to eat—nutrient-
dense foods, a balance of macronutrients, fiber, resistant starch—and what
to avoid—sugar, oxidized fats, processed foods. The most surefire way to
do this is by eating whole foods you cook yourself. Unfortunately, we’re
increasingly replacing home-cooked meals with ready-made or takeout.
 Pause & Reflect
Have you used antibiotics within the past two years? If you did,
chances are, you have decimated your healthy microbial population.
All the more reason to eat a diversity of fiber-rich plant foods!

Do you eat conventional meat? More than 80 percent of antibiotics

used in the US are fed to livestock. You are unwillingly ingesting a
lot of antibiotics.

Did You Know?

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate more than a hundred different
plants. On average, we eat around 15! This lack of diversity affects
our microbes because different microbes thrive on different nutrients.
The more diverse your microbiome, the healthier you are. Try to eat
30 different plant foods per week.
BACK TO THE KITCHEN

Cooking at home is way healthier than eating out. When you eat home-
cooked meals, you know what you’re eating. You get to choose ingredients
and quantities. Plus, it’s often cheaper, especially if you cook in bulk and
use leftovers.
Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore if you view it as a pleasant and
relaxing experience. You don’t have to cook, you get to cook. It’s part of
your identity. When making a meal, you’re creating something to share and
enjoy with loved ones. Cooking is also a great way to get your family
together and spend some quality time while teaching your children how to
cook—an invaluable skill for their future health and well-being.
How do you make home cooking more convenient?
1. You make sure you have the tools.
2. You keep ingredient staples in your kitchen.
3. You plan for grocery shopping and meal preparation. Failing to plan
often leads to last-minute unhealthy choices such as takeout or pizza.
And meal planning doesn’t just keep you healthy. It also preserves
your budget, saves time, and reduces food waste.
If up to now you never cooked at home, begin by preparing a few meals
each week. Start simple: make salads or steam vegetables. Look up video
tutorials on the internet for basic cooking skills.
When designing meals, focus on vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains,
healthy fats, and fruits. Choose the vegetable component first. Cover half of
your plate with a mix of different vegetables. Do not fry them, nor cover
them with sauce. Add herbs and spices to enhance the taste and nutritional
content. Divide the remaining half of the plate into whole grains and lean
proteins from animal or plant sources. Add a touch of healthy fat.
For example, make a main dish of broccoli, peppers, onions, tomatoes,
chicken, and brown rice to which you add a tablespoon of olive oil. Or
combine zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, lemon, salmon, and whole-grain
pasta.
Once you’ve got your meal together, there’s one last step you do not
want to miss, else your planning and preparation will have been for nothing.
I’m talking about enjoying your meal.

Pause & Reflect

How many meals do you prepare for yourself? Do you plan them?

How many times a week do you buy whole foods?

What do you know how to cook?

 Let’s Do It!
Pick your favorite food or your children’s favorite food. Look for the
recipe on the internet. How can you make it healthier? Can you add
vegetables, or lower the fat, sugar, and salt contents? Can you bake it
instead of frying it?

What cooking skills do you want to learn? Do you know how to chop
an onion, boil an egg, make an omelet, prepare a salad dressing?
Look it up on the internet and try it out.

CHEW ON THIS
Nutritious foods are useless if you do not digest them. Over 60 percent of
the medicine sold in the US is for digestive issues. Digestion is an
autonomic process, so you may think you can’t control anything. But there
are four actions you can take to ensure optimal digestion:
1. Relax! Tension blocks digestion, whereas relaxation lets it flow
smoothly. You can’t digest food if your cells think a lion is
chasing you: acid production in the stomach stops and the food
sits there, fermenting and putrefying. For optimal digestion, you
want to be in the parasympathetic mode. This mode is known as
rest-and-digest for a reason. Take a few minutes before each
meal to relax.
2. Pay attention! Remember the cephalic state of digestion?
Digestion starts as soon as you see and smell the food. This
triggers the production of hormones, enzymes, and gastric juices.
Cherish the food you’re about to eat. The way you think about it
affects how you digest it.
3. Chew! Chewing unlocks the nutritional benefits of your meal. It
breaks the food down into small enough pieces to grant digestive
 enzymes access to nutrients. Food that has not been chewed
enough damages both the esophagus and the valve to the
stomach, which puts you at risk for acid reflux. Farther down,
poor chewing translates into incompletely digested food, which
in turn generates toxicity, dysbiosis, and leaky gut. Try 30 chews
per bite: you’ll feel the difference.
4. Go slow! Eating too fast is stressful for the body. Plus, it can
cause low stomach acid and a deficiency in digestive enzymes.
Slowing down enables the digestive tract to get ready for what is
coming. It also lets you savor your meal and feel satiated before
you take in too many calories. By bringing awareness to the
taste, smell, and texture of food, you enjoy it more. You become
more attuned to how the food makes you feel.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you sit down to eat? Do you do anything else while eating?

Consider the environment in which you eat, whether at home or at

work. Is it stressful, unfocused, loud?

How many times do you chew before swallowing?

Let’s Do It!
The next time you eat, do it mindfully. Imagine it’s the first time you
see this kind of food Observe its colors, smell, and shape. Eat slowly
and notice the flavors, temperature, texture of each bite. Cherish the
moment.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated if you eat a diversity of
whole foods, mostly plant foods.
B. Nutrient density matters most.
C. No need to worry about nutrients and calories when you eat real
whole food.
D. There is no ideal macronutrient mix. Each macronutrient counts.
Eat a little protein at every meal. Prefer low-glycemic
carbohydrates and unsaturated fats—especially omega-3s.
E. Sugar is not your friend. It breeds hormonal imbalance, oxidation,
inflammation, and dysbiosis. It depresses your immune system,
feeds cancer cells, and destroys neurons.
F. Frequent sugar intake generates a vicious cycle of insulin spikes,
fat storage, and overeating.
G. Sugar is as addictive as cocaine.
H. White flour and refined grains act the same as sugar.
I. Excess fructose equates fatty liver.
J. What makes a food nutritious is not only the nutrients it delivers
but also what it does not deliver: additives, pesticides, sugar,
artificial or oxidized fats.
K. If the ingredient list on a food packaging reads like a novel,
contains names you don’t understand, or lists sugar or oil in the
first ingredients, you’re better off without it.
L. Take a stand against the food industry by freeing yourself from the
processed foods trap. You are not giving up anything; processed
foods do absolutely nothing for you.
M. Eat fiber and resistant starch—lots of them! You’re doing your
microbes a favor. They will reciprocate in kind.
N. To know what you’re eating, cook your food. With some planning,
it’s easy to avoid prepared meals and take-outs.
O. Time to eat? Relax, pay attention, chew, go slow! Your gut’s health
depends on it.
 Action Steps
to Boost Nutrition
You have a choice every time you put something in your mouth between
supporting or hurting your cells. Here’s a list of easy action steps to make
better choices. The action steps are numbered and organized by theme for
easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.

PRACTICE MINDFUL EATING

1. Each time you put food in your mouth, ask yourself if you’re
enhancing or destroying your health.
2. Take a few minutes before you eat to calm down. Use deep
breathing, a brief meditation, a prayer of gratitude, whatever works
for you.
3. Focus on enjoying your first bite of food rather than gulping it
down mindlessly.
4. When eating, do nothing but eat. Don’t read, work, watch TV,
drive, walk, or take phone calls.
 5. Take small bites and chew thoroughly before swallowing. Put
down your fork between bites; wait for your mouth to be empty to
pick it up.

MAKE YOUR ENVIRONMENT WORK FOR YOU

6. Remove unhealthy options at home. Spring-clean your fridge and
your pantry to get rid of the junk food. Everyone in your family is
better off without it. If you can’t remove it altogether, place it out
of sight and out of reach.
7. Surround yourself with healthy choices. Stock your home with
nutritious foods. Put the healthiest foods at eye level in your fridge
and cupboards.
8. Put only a fruit bowl on the counter in your kitchen. Choose
colored fruits so the array of colors looks appealing.
9. For healthy snacks, pre-cut fruits and vegetables, and store them in
your fridge. Bring them to work.
10. Always carry healthy snacks with you if you get tempted by
vending machines.
11. At night, take a few minutes to write what you will eat the next
day, and plan out the details. Prepare what you can in advance.
12. When you know there will not be any real food option, pack
healthy foods and take a water bottle.

GET THE TIMING RIGHT

13. Breakfast means breaking the fast. Make sure you wait at least 12
hours between dinner and breakfast the next day to give cells a
rest from food and let your gut clean up and regenerate. This
means that if you finish eating dinner at 7.30pm, breakfast will not
be before 7.30am.
14. Eat a light and early dinner to get digestion well under way before
bed. A late afternoon healthy snack is a good idea to eat less at
dinner.
MAKE SMART SUBSTITUTIONS
15. Work toward eliminating harmful foods—sugary and processed
foods, curated meats, fried foods—and increasing beneficial foods
—vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains. Remove one harmful
food and add one beneficial food each week.
16. For snacks and appetizers, choose fruit, vegetables, or nuts. Start
by replacing one unhealthy snack every week. Carrots, celery
sticks, cherry tomatoes, almonds, or apples are a much better
choice than potato chips.
17. Choose the best option. If you eat processed foods, read the labels
and compare packages. Choose the items with fewer ingredients.
If sugar is among the first three ingredients, put the package back.
18. Replace fried foods with non-fried alternatives—baked, grilled, or
roasted. Instead of fried chicken, take grilled chicken. Instead of
French fries, take a baked potato or a potato salad.
19. Choose leaner cuts of meat.
20. Several times a week, replace meats with fish or other protein
sources like beans, lentils, and quinoa.
21. To replace chips and French fries, slice up potatoes, zucchinis, or
sweet potatoes. Add spices. Spray lightly with olive oil and bake
them in your oven.
22. Replace half your pasta with vegetable spirals made from
zucchini, carrots, or sweet potatoes. Use a spiralizer. Sauté the
spirals for a minute or two.
23. Frozen fruits make an excellent replacement for ice cream. Try
freezing berries or grapes.

KEEP IT REAL
24. Add an extra serving of vegetables to every meal. Make sure you
eat a rainbow of colors over the week.
25. Add extra vegetables to your favorite recipes. For instance, add
carrots, zucchini, peppers, broccoli, or mushrooms to omelets,
 pasta, and pizza.
26. Collect vegetable-based recipes that appeal to you. Even if you are
not vegan, you can use vegan recipes and add a small portion of
fish or lean meat for a complete dish.
27. Make soups or salads. You can cram different vegetables into
them.
28. Sauté vegetables without oil. Replace oil with water. Most
vegetables naturally hold water, which they release when cooked;
you only need to add a small amount of water. Monitor the pan so
that vegetables don’t stick and keep a glass of water ready. Add a
teaspoon of olive oil at the end.
29. Add spices to vegetables. Spices bring an array of flavors and
plenty of antioxidants.
30. Buy fruits and vegetables that grow in your local area to get them
fresh. The transportation process depletes produce of vitamins and
minerals. Check out your local farmers’ market.

31. Choose organic* produce to get fewer pesticides and more

nutrients. Conventional fruits and vegetables are often grown in
mineral-deficient soil and sprayed with pesticides. Organic
produce holds more vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients; you
can taste the difference! Find the best stores for organic fruits and
vegetables. You can also look up online options to have them
delivered to you.
32. Buy frozen fruits and vegetables. They are picked at their ripest
stage and flash frozen immediately to lock in nutrients. Frozen
vegetables are easy to prepare: you don’t have to wash, cut, or
peel anything. Just sauté them; add an onion, some natural herbs
 and spices, and a teaspoon of olive oil to enhance the flavor and
boost your nutrient intake.
33. When grocery shopping, take advantage of salad bars for ready-
to-eat fruits and veggies. Skip the dressing. Add a drizzle of olive
oil.

WATER YOUR CELLS

34. Drink at least one glass of water as soon as you wake up to flush
out toxins and rehydrate your cells.
35. Drink water throughout the day. Take a stainless-steel or glass
water bottle wherever you go—no plastic.
36. For every sip of soda, fruit juice, coffee, tea, or alcohol, drink the
equal amount of water. Those drinks dehydrate the body when
metabolized.
37. Stop drinking sodas. They do not provide proper hydration but
bring extra calories and excess sugar. Drink water instead. Add a
slice of lemon or some fruits for flavor. You can also make
unsweetened, herbal teas and keep them in the refrigerator for a
refreshing drink. Diet drinks are not the solution. Besides
increasing toxic load and damaging gut microbes, they induce a
higher calorie intake afterward.
38. Limit your consumption of alcohol. Alcohol increases the
detoxification load for your liver and puts you at risk for fatty
liver disease.
 Did You Know?
More than 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Color of
urine is a reliable marker for hydration levels. Except upon waking,
anything darker than a pale yellow means you’re not drinking enough
water.

LOOK FOR FIBER IN YOUR CARBS

39. Chose whole grains over refined grains to feed microbes and
decrease glycemic load. Limit foods with refined grains—white
bread, English muffins, cakes, white rice, pizza, and crackers.
Replace them with foods such as oatmeal, whole-wheat bread,
quinoa, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta.
40. If you eat cereals, choose brands that offer at least eight grams of
fiber per serving with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.
Beware of sugar!
41. Incorporate high-fiber plant foods into your meals: green
vegetables, broccoli, carrots, artichoke, beans, lentils, peas,
chickpeas, chia seeds, flax seeds, sweet potatoes, raspberries,
strawberries, pears, apples.
42. Eat your potatoes cold to get resistant starch. A potato salad kept
in the fridge has a much lower glycemic index than hot potatoes,
because of increased resistant starch. The same goes for pasta and
rice.
DITCH THE SUGAR

43. Track sugar. Check nutrition labels for the sugar content. As a
rule, skip foods listing sugar as the first or second ingredient.
Avoid anything with more than four grams of sugar per serving.
Beware that added sugars go by many names: sucrose, high-
fructose corn syrup, HFCS, corn syrup, brown rice syrup, cane
and beet sugar, dextrose, honey, sorbitol, mannitol, agave, dextrin,
maltodextrin, to name a few.
44. Always check the sugar content when opting for low-fat products.
Some of them such as flavored yogurts contain a lot of sugar to
compensate for the missing fat.
45. Stop adding sugar to hot drinks (coffee/tea) or yogurts. If you
need to add sugar, it means you don’t like the taste. Eat or drink
something else.
46. Do not use artificial sweeteners. They damage gut microbes and
keep you addicted to sugar.
47. Take fruit for dessert instead of cakes or cookies. Use half
substitutions at first to avoid frustration. Do not add sugar or
syrup to fruits.
 48. Take oatmeal instead of cereals or granola. Add fresh fruit for
natural sweetness.
49. Use unsweetened applesauce instead of jam.
50. Eat plain yogurt with fresh fruit rather than flavored yogurt.
51. Eat fruits, don’t drink them. Fiber is extracted from the fruit to
obtain fruit juice; all you have left is liquid sugar. If you cannot go
without fruit juice, reduce your serving by half and add water.

ADJUST YOUR PROTEINS

52. Eat a little protein at every meal, including breakfast. Consume
protein from a variety of animal and plant sources, including fish,
eggs, lean meat, goat cheese, whole oats, legumes, nuts, and
Greek yogurt.
53. Make meat a condiment.
54. Buy grass-fed meat rather than factory-farmed.
55. Consume red meat sparingly, no more than three times a week, as
it contains a lot of saturated fat and iron. Both are harmful in
excess. Keep the portions small and select leaner cuts.
56. Avoid bacon, cold cuts, and other processed meats. They contain a
lot of fat and carcinogens.
57. Make legumes—beans, peas, lentils—a regular part of your meals.
They are an excellent source of protein and a healthy substitute for
meat. They also provide fiber and healthy fats. Make the right
combinations to get a good mix of proteins, for example, semolina
and chickpeas, corn and red beans, lentils and rice.
58. Eat your eggs. They are a great source of high-quality proteins,
omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Eggs
also contain choline, which supports brain health, as well as lutein
and zeaxanthin, which fight free radicals and prevent macular
degeneration. Go for eggs from pasture-raised hens rather than
battery-produced eggs. If you can, buy organic. Be wary of the
 free-range label on chickens and eggs. It is loosely interpreted by
large producers.
Eggs have been a controversial food for a long time owing to
their high cholesterol content. Experts used to assume that high
dietary cholesterol consumption was associated with high blood
cholesterol levels. Recent research suggests that, in contrast to
saturated or trans fats, dietary cholesterol in general and
cholesterol in eggs in particular have limited effects on blood
cholesterol. That does not mean you should eat eggs by the dozen.
As always, moderation is key.

CHOOSE YOUR FATS

59. Eat a handful of nuts as a substitute for sugary snacks. Nuts offer
vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, unsaturated fat, protein, and
fiber. Because they are energy dense, eat them in moderation.
60. Make whole plant foods—nuts, seeds, avocados, olives—your
primary source of fat.
61. Look at food labels to track hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated,
and inter-esterified fats.
62. Avoid fried foods in restaurants. They are made in rancid oil,
cooked for hours. They provide free radicals and generate
inflammation.
63. Look for expeller-pressed or first cold-pressed oils. Buy small
bottles and keep them in a dark, cool place. When cooking with
vegetable oils, keep temperatures moderate. Do not let them
smoke.
DO IT YOURSELF

64. Search for whole food meal plans on the internet. Look at the
companion website for resources.
65. Plan your meals for the week, including snacks and packed lunch.
What, where and when will you eat? How much time will you
have to prepare? You will find meal planning apps on the
companion website.
66. Set a designed day for grocery shopping. Make a shopping list
before you go. Stick to that list. Do not go when hungry.
67. Get a beginner’s recipe book or collect recipes on the internet.
Look for resources on the companion website. Spend time each
week to find recipes you will enjoy. Keep recipes in a folder or
write them in a special notebook. Some websites offer recipe
search engines that let you search by ingredients.
68. Try out one new recipe a week.
69. Consider batch cooking. Schedule a time, like Sunday afternoon,
to pre-cook for the week so you only need a few minutes on
weeknights to make dinner or pack your lunch. Prepare and cook
separately several ingredients to combine during the week. Most
foods keep three to five days in the refrigerator, a few weeks in
the freezer. Check for storage times on www.foodsafety.gov.
70. Keep basic ingredients in your kitchen. They include olive oil,
apple cider vinegar, onions, garlic, chives, sea salt, pepper, herbs
 (oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, sage), spices (turmeric, ginger,
cumin, cinnamon, paprika), whole-grain pasta, brown rice,
mackerel, sardines, beans, rolled oats, whole wheat flour, eggs.
71. Stock your freezer with time-saving foods like frozen vegetables,
fruits, fish. Buy bagged salads, pre-chopped vegetables, and
vegetables in glass jars.
72. Make your own salad dressing instead of using bottled salad
dressing. It only takes a couple of minutes to mix oil, vinegar, salt,
and pepper.
73. If you can’t resist cakes, make them from scratch. Reduce sugar
by half, go easy on butter, and substitute whole wheat flour for
half the amount of white flour.
74. Do not overcook foods. Overcooking eliminates valuable nutrients
and creates harmful compounds.
75. Make sure you have access to the cooking tools you need. Take
stock of what you already have in your kitchen. Compare it to the
list provided hereunder. What’s missing?

Glass storage containers to store leftovers

Parchment paper
One Chef’s knife, one paring knife
One knife sharpener
One vegetable peeler
Wooden cutting boards
Measuring cups and measuring spoons
One baking sheet
A small assortment of mixing bowls
Pots and pans with covers
Wooden spoons and spatulas
Oven miffs
Two trivets
Two stainless-steel strainers
Two baking dishes
One pressure cooker
 One steamer basket for vegetables
Vegetable storage bags made of organic cotton terry cloth
(to keep vegetables dry and fresh)

EATING OUT

76. Make eating out a rare experience.

77. Choose the restaurant wisely. Favor those that serve a variety of
healthy foods such as salads, grilled or steamed entrees, and
vegetables. If possible, decide what to eat in advance. Don’t go
starved, or your Unconscious Mind will take over.
78. Assume that restaurants serve double what you need to eat.
Appetizers are often the size of a complete meal. Either share a
meal, take half of it home to eat the next day, or order an appetizer
as your main course.
79. Identify the most nutritious dishes on the menu. Look for the
vegetables first.
80. If you choose a higher-fat option like burgers, fries, or pizza and
have a choice between sizes, order the small size or share the large
size with someone else.
81. Skip the bread.
82. Order sauces and dressings on the side. Use them sparingly.
83. Order side plates of vegetables and vegetable toppings to lower
the calorie count and increase satiety.
84. Drink water with your meal. Limit yourself to one glass of wine.
Avoid sodas and beers.
85. Make better choices. For instance, compared to a fried chicken
sandwich, a grilled chicken salad with lettuce, tomatoes, and a
teaspoon of oil provides a tasty alternative with more nutrients
and fewer calories.
86. Stop eating as soon as you no longer feel hungry. You don’t get a
discount if you clean out your plate. Put down your fork. Enjoy
the setting and your friends or family for the rest of the meal.
87. If there’s a buffet, fill your plate mostly with plants. Be choosy;
don’t take everything on offer. Give your body a break before you
go for seconds.
88. When invited to a friend’s house, offer to bring a choice of
appetizers or side dishes so you have healthy food options. For
instance, prepare a colorful plate with celery and carrot sticks,
broccoli and cauliflower trees, radishes, cherry tomatoes,
cucumber chunks. Make a dip with Greek yogurt and herbs.
 Every Move You Make
Nothing happens until something moves.
—Albert Einstein

For much of human history, there was no such thing as physical exercise.
But inactivity was not an option for our ancestors if they wanted to survive.
Now, physical activity is a choice rather than a necessity. Technology has
taken effort from daily life. It’s easy to avoid movement. Many of us work
behind desks, commute in cars, and spend the rest of the day watching
television or other kinds of screens. We rely on dishwashers, washing
machines, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and remote controls.
Convenience takes away movement. This is bad news for cells.

ROCK YOUR CELLS

The body was designed to move in every direction. This is why we have
limbs. This is also why we have a brain. As noted earlier, our ancestors
developed brains to organize movement so food was easier to get and
predators easier to escape. Because the brain exists for movement, it gets
formed through movement. Did you ever notice how little children can’t
stop moving? They’re growing their brains!
Neurons are not the only ones to thrive on movement. All cells expect to
be shaken up. It’s in their script. When they’re bent, squished, or stretched,
they express genes that make them better equipped to deal with the
environment. For instance, movement activates gene expression for insulin
receptors in muscle cells to adapt to an active lifestyle. This decreases the
risk of insulin resistance. Movement also activates gene expression to
regulate inflammation and stimulate brain growth.
When you move, everything flows. Any form of movement increases
blood circulation, which brings more oxygen and nutrients to cells. If
nothing moves, cells starve because nutrients don’t get to them. They also
suffocate under the accumulation of waste because nothing gets out.
 Let’s Do It!
You are going to move one part of your body at a time, using
stretches, rotations, and flexions. Do this either sitting or standing.
Your movements should be slow and gentle.
Start with your head. How many ways can you move it? Put your
focus in the area you’re moving. Stop and close your eyes. How do
your head and neck feel?
Do the same with your shoulders, arms, forearms, hands, fingers,
torso, hips, legs, feet, and toes. First, move the part of the body
through its full range of movement—flex, stretch, rotate—and then
notice the sensations.

Physical activity moves things along in the digestive tract. It puts the
lymph in motion and propels immune cells to the farthest parts of the body.
Evolutionarily, the design of the lymphatic system took physical activity for
granted. This is why there is no pump and why lymph nodes are located
around joints.
No movement means no communication between cells: hormones and
neurotransmitters are lost in translation.
Last but not least, movement promotes healthy mitochondria—the mini
power plants in cells. It increases their number, improves their functioning,
and eliminates damaged ones. If your mitochondria are healthy and
numerous, you’re full of energy. If you don’t move, they die off or
dysfunction; fatigue and brain fog kick in.
 Let’s Do It!
Movement creates energy. Stand up and do 20 jumping jacks right
now. Do you notice how you feel more energized?

Did You Know?

Like mindful eating, mindful movement is key. Awareness expands
the benefits of movement. When you pay attention to your physical
sensations, you let in more information and enhance cellular inputs.

How much movement do cells need? A lot! It’s not enough to take your
cells out once or twice a day. Movement inputs must be supplied throughout
the day.

Pause & Reflect

Is physical activity an important part of your life?
 How do you move every day? How many times a day? For how
long?

Does your environment promote or discourage movement?

Look at your physical activity tracking in your daily journal. Notice

the sedentary spots. Identify ways to add movement around those
sedentary spots. For example, is it possible for you to take a walk,
even if it’s just for a few minutes?

FEEL THE GRAVITY

Sitting is now called the new smoking disease. It can compete with sugar
for that dubious title. Like most people, you probably spend hours sitting
either in front of a screen, or on your couch, or in your car. And even if you
are physically active one hour per day, you’re still sedentary 96 percent of
the time.
The body was not designed to sit for long hours. Sitting is a physical
stressor, regardless of how much exercise you do otherwise. Research by
NASA on astronauts shows that the body declines rapidly if you sit more
than six hours per day and that this puts you at an increased risk of early
death. Not only do you lose muscle mass, but it alters your biochemistry.
What’s missing when you sit? Gravity.
 Gravity is the physical force keeping you glued to the ground. So you
don’t collapse, your bones and muscles are constantly working against the
pull of gravity. Sitting deprives them of stimulation.
Standing up regularly is a powerful antidote to the health hazards of
sitting. Stretching and mobilizing joints helps even more. You want to avoid
sitting if you can do the same activity standing or pacing, whether it’s
talking on the phone, watching your children, or meeting with someone.
You also want to make active choices throughout the day, such as walking
rather than driving, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, and parking far
from your destination.
Likewise, doing repetitive movements or sustaining a posture for too
long strains some cells while keeping others sedentary. Whatever you’re
doing, it’s better to change positions often and intersperse with whole body
movements. Always wear comfortable clothes so they do not hamper your
movements nor restrict blood flow.
The more you move in different ways, the happier your cells are because
they get different inputs. Like food diversity, movement diversity is
essential. Broccoli is healthy, but if all you eat is broccoli, you end up with
nutrient deficiencies. The same happens if you only do one kind of
movement.
 Pause & Reflect
How many hours do you sit each day? (Working, watching TV,
commuting...) How do you feel when you sit for long periods of
time? Compare it to when you move more. How can you eliminate
one hour of sitting per day?

What are the sedentary areas in your body?

Do you experience pain or stiffness in your joints and muscles?

Which ones? What do you do to relieve the pain?
 Let’s Do It!
If you’ve been sitting for a long time reading this book, notice how
stiff your joints and muscles feel. Close your eyes and visualize how
nothing is moving in your body. Cells aren’t getting oxygen and
nutrients, waste is accumulating. Now stand up and move every part
of your body; rotate joints, stretch arms and legs. Notice how the
stiffness goes away. Visualize blood flowing everywhere in the body
and cells getting the oxygen and nutrients they need. Now you can
get back to reading this book!

Search for “the world’s greatest stretch” on the internet or YouTube.

Do the stretch. How does it feel? Hip flexors get tight with sitting
and are responsible for lower back pain. The “world’s greatest
stretch” relieves the tightness. You can do it every day.

ADD VARIETY

Different movements affect cells differently. If your lifestyle rarely gives

you the opportunity to engage all your cells, a balanced exercise program
can help. For maximum efficiency, it will combine deep breathing,
stretching, joint rotations, cardio activity, strength training, and High-
Intensity Interval Training.
 Deep breathing, stretching, and joint rotations are crucial for daily
maintenance. Deep breathing and stretching create motion inside the body;
they release the tensions restricting blood flow. Deep breathing massages
digestive organs and gets rid of carbon dioxide before it generates acidity
and puts your lungs into overdrive. Joint rotations speed the exchange of
used fluid in cartilage with nutrient-rich fluid, improving lubrication. They
also strengthen ligaments.

Let’s Do It!
Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Inhale through the nose for a
count of four and exhale through the mouth for a count of six. Make
sure your belly is expanding as you breathe in. Repeat three times.

Cardio activity is any activity that keeps your heart beating fast and your
blood flowing. Examples include jogging, biking, aerobics, dancing, brisk
walking. Cardio activity increases lung capacity, strengthens the heart, and
enlarges blood vessels. It also helps regulate blood glucose. However,
beware that high levels of cardio are stressful; they can be hard on joints;
they can also jeopardize hormonal balance in women.
Brisk walking is a great way to practice cardio activity. It’s simple, free,
and convenient. You can practice it, wherever you are—around your
neighborhood, at work, when traveling. All you need is a good pair of
comfortable shoes.
Resistance training is any activity that causes muscles to contract. It
includes weight training but also training with your own body weight.
Muscle building reverses cellular aging by multiplying mitochondria. It
helps maintain balance and mobility. Muscle mass is the number one
biomarker of aging. The higher your muscle mass, the higher your
longevity. For best results, practice resistance training two to three times a
week.
 High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT alternates between periods of
activity at maximum intensity and periods of recovery. The intervals can be
any type of movement: running in place, jumping jacks, skipping rope,
brisk or uphill walking, running up and down stairs, cycling, swimming,
resistance exercise. A simple version is to do squats as quickly as you can
until you reach your limit. Then relax for 60 seconds and repeat.
A few minutes of HIIT every week triggers deep changes in muscles,
stimulates genes, and makes cells more resilient. It reduces body fat and
helps regulate hormones.
However, beware that HIIT cannot be performed by individuals at risk
for health problems. Even if you’re not at risk, you want to be careful with
HIIT because you can overdo it. Start with a minute and see how you feel
the next day. You can slowly ramp up to between 10 and 20 minutes, three
times a week, preferably in the morning. This should allow you to reap the
benefits without harming your body.
It’s a good idea to avoid HIIT if you’re stressed. Go for a walk!
Your muscles and joints are meant to be used regularly. Else they stiffen
and don’t function as well. It’s “use it or lose it.” The less you move, the
more you lose the physical abilities you need for daily life. Aim for 30 to 40
minutes of movement per day, combining the activities described above.
When planning, keep in mind that short, intermittent bouts of physical
activity are as effective as long bouts. For instance, if you don’t have time
to walk 30 minutes in a row, schedule three sets of 10 minutes.
Whatever physical activity you choose, start slow and build up. Don’t do
too much too soon, or you may hurt yourself and give up. Go for
consistency rather than performance.
 Pause & Reflect
What is your favorite cardio exercise?

What stretching and strength activities do you practice?

Let’s Do It!
Warning: do not do this action item if you are at risk for health
problems or have been inactive for a long time. Please consult your
physician.
Try this HIIT routine. Jog gently to warm up.
Do 1 minute of jumping jacks as hard as you can.
Go back to a gentle jog.
Do 1 minute of squats as hard as you can.
Go back to a gentle jog.
Do 1 minute of static running as hard as you can.
Go back to a gentle jog.
Do 1 minute of squats as hard as you can.
Go back to a gentle jog.
Do 1 minute of jumping jacks as hard as you can.
Go back to a gentle jog.
You’re done!
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Movement is a prerequisite for every function in the body, from
circulation to cognition.
B. The brain thrives on movement.
C. Nutrients and hormones need to circulate; toxicants and waste to
be flushed out. If nothing moves, everything festers.
D. Movement activates genes that otherwise would stay dormant. It
increases cells’ resilience.
E. Physical activity is nourishment for mitochondria. It is necessary
to maintain and increase energy.
F. Mindful movement is as important as mindful eating. Even if
you’re just walking to the mailbox, relish the movement.
G. The chair is not your friend. Cells must interact regularly with
gravity. Nothing is more taxing for them than when you sit for
long periods of time.
H. Your body requires motion inputs throughout the day. Even the
simplest movements benefit your body. Take every opportunity to
move around. See physical tasks as mini-investments in your
health. Every time you move, you fill up your health account!
I. Cells need to experience different movement patterns. Combine
deep breathing, joint rotation, cardio, strength training, and HIIT
for optimal functioning.
 Action Steps
to Get Back into Motion
To increase physical activity, you want to integrate it into your daily life.
Here’s a list of easy action steps to move more. Most of them are free! The
action steps are numbered and organized by theme for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.
Warning: consult a physician before you start any physical activity,
especially if you’re physically inactive or have a medical condition. Be
careful of injury and of too much exercise. You want physical activity to
work for you, not against you.

MAKE IT PART OF YOUR LIFE

1. Breath is movement! Practice deep breathing, also known as
diaphragmatic breathing: expand the belly when breathing in and
draw it in when breathing out. This makes the diaphragm—the
muscle separating the chest and abdominal cavities—move up and
down. You take in more oxygen, you release more carbon dioxide,
and you massage your internal organs.
2. Move the major joints in your body at least once a day and after
each bout of sitting. Pay special attention to toes, ankles, knees,
hips, spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, and neck. For
instance, gently roll your shoulders forward and backward, turn
your head from side to side, twist your torso, rotate your hips,
make circles with your wrists and ankles, extend your wrists and
ankles back and flex them forward. Make those moves slowly and
pay attention to the joint you’re working on. Stop if you feel any
pain. You will find more detailed instructions in Appendix I.
3. Gently stretch your body every morning and evening. Look for
videos on You Tube or links on the companion website. You will
feel better throughout the day and sleep better at night.
4. Transform chores into movement opportunities. Make them count:
pay attention and put energy into them.
5. Start your day with simple exercises such as jumping jacks or
squats to wake up your muscles and feel energized. Warm up first
to avoid injury.
6. Stand tall, sit straight. Good posture makes you work against
gravity and keeps everything flowing. It also safeguards you from
back pain and gives you extra confidence.
7. Space out physical activity through the day. Perform small bouts
of intense activity, long enough to make your heart beat faster. For
example, walk up a flight of stairs, jog in place, walk briskly, do a
set of push-ups, squats or jumping jacks.

8. After sitting for a long time, stand up to give your cells a boost.
Set the alarm to go off every 30 minutes. Shake your body. Walk
or stretch. On some breaks, engage in brief activity bursts: do a
series of squats or abdominal twists, take a few flights of stairs,
rapidly tap your feet on the floor football-drill style, or pick up
your knees to do a stationary jog.
9. If you travel a lot by car, stop every two hours for short, brisk
walks and some stretching.
10. In your kitchen, use a chair to do planks, push-ups or chair dips
while you wait for the pot to boil.
 11. Put on the music and dance! Songs such as “I feel good” James
Brown will make you pick up your feet.
12. Create a workout space in your living room. You just need a yoga
mat to get started. Add a music or video player, barbells or elastic
bands, and a stepper. Who needs the gym?

WALK TO GREAT HEALTH

13. Walk at every opportunity. Fit in your walking with what you need
to do anyway.
Walk to do errands rather than drive.
Walk your kid to school or to the bus stop.
Get off the bus or subway a stop early.
Park at the far end of the parking lot.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
At work, walk on breaks.
Walk further to buy your lunch.
Walk to the farthest restroom or use the bathroom on a
different floor and take the stairs.
Instead of e-mailing coworkers, go and see them.
Get up and pace whenever you take a phone call.
Organize walking meetings with coworkers.
Walk around the block or stride up and down while waiting.
Don’t use drive-up windows: park and walk!
14. Develop a walking routine. Start with ten minutes every day, a
little more on weekends. When the habit is well ingrained,
gradually work up to 30 minutes per day or more. You can split
your walking time into five-minute sessions. Walk mindfully.
Stand tall, shoulders back and arms by your side. Pull your navel
toward your spine to work your core muscles. Push off the soles
of your feet at every step.
 15. Get a pedometer to count your steps. If your smartphone does not
have a built-in pedometer, you can buy a cheap one in pharmacies
or online. Try to increase your number of steps every day.
16. Pick up the pace. Brisk walking starts at three to four mph. Adapt
your speed so that your heart is beating faster and that you’re
breathing harder than usual but not to the point of being
breathless; you should be able to talk but not sing. You can time
yourself on your loop around the neighborhood or walking trail
and try to do it faster every time. Within reason, as always!
17. Make it more challenging. Add steep-incline paths or stairs to
your route. Look for staircases and low walls to do step-ups.
18. Set up a walking group with friends or join a walking club to
make it social and regular. It will increase your motivation and
challenge you to keep up with others.
19. Take on a real challenge and sign up for a race. Training for a race
is a fun way to keep going. Plan your training to be ready on the
day of the race. Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment
you’ll get when you cross the finish line.

TRY DIFFERENT PATTERNS

20. Set up a routine to strength train two to three times a week. Allow
for 48 hours between sessions to give your muscles time to
 recover and build up. Basic bodyweight exercises like squats,
lunges, planks, chair dips, and push-ups build major muscle
groups. You can do them anywhere, anytime in a few minutes.
You will find detailed instructions in Appendix I.
21. Boost your workout with HIIT three times a week, using cardio or
strength training. Warm up to avoid injury. Your workout can last
from 10 to 25 minutes. Start with 30 seconds to one minute of
higher intensity and follow with one to two minutes of lower
intensity. Repeat. For instance, alternate short bursts of brisk
walking with slower strolling or sprint up the stairs and walk back
down slowly. If you can’t go outside, do high knee running or
high knee twists; alternate periods of high intensity with periods
where you walk in place. If you use strength exercises, perform
reps faster to raise your heart rate in the high-intensity bout, and
much slower in the recovery bout. You can alternate different
exercises.
Warning: get a check-up from a doctor before engaging in high-
intensity interval training.
22. Sign up for a class you love. Try a variety of activities to see what
you enjoy most. Here are examples of fun activities you may want
to try out: Pilates, yoga, Zumba, belly dancing, salsa dance, pole
dance, aqua-gym, Nordic walking, cardio kickboxing.
23. Look up tutorial videos on YouTube to exercise at home. There
are lots of workout channels. You can find videos for quick core
exercises, cardio, HIIT workouts, stretching sequences, belly
dance, Pilates, yoga, Zumba classes. However, be careful: there
are good videos and terrible ones. When it comes to exercise,
wrong instructions are dangerous. Examine the sources closely.
Read the comments. You can check the suggested links on the
companion website.
 Reset
We suffer more often in imagination than in
reality.
—Seneca

Lifestyle is more than nutrition and physical activity. Getting enough

sleep and managing stress contribute to homeostasis. Sleep and relaxation
act as reset buttons. They enable the body to repair and retune every system.
Unfortunately, they’re the two lifestyle factors we neglect the most.

SET THE TEMPO

Remember circadian rhythms? They are the cues that signal cells to go on
stage and do their thing. They regulate the timing of gene expression,
digestion, and hormone production.
On its own, the hypothalamus doesn’t keep accurate time: it runs a little
fast or a little slow. Sunlight—more precisely natural blue light from the
sun’s rays—resets the clock every day when it hits the retina at the back of
the eyes.
Unfortunately, modern lifestyles mess up circadian rhythms. Disruptions
include artificial light at night, not enough natural light in the morning,
irregular eating schedules, sleep deprivation. Circadian rhythms are still set
to times when daylight meant moving and eating, whereas nighttime meant
sleeping and fasting. Nowadays, we eat and stay active late into the night.
Exposure to blue light in the evening—watching TV, looking at the phone
—signals the body to stay awake. No wonder cells are out of sync!
Cells love routine in everything from nutrition to sleep. Combining
natural light exposure in the morning, blue light avoidance at night,
adequate sleep, and regular eating schedules puts them back on beat.

GET A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON SLEEP

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 60 percent of Americans are

sleep deprived. These days, sleep is the first thing we cut back on when we
want to make room in our busy schedules. We think we can get by on fewer
hours. Some of us even take pride in sleeping so little. Big mistake!
Everything cells do, they do better with a good night’s sleep. It gives
them a chance to do some much-needed housekeeping. Without the drain of
energy from daytime activity, they’re able to repair, clear away metabolic
waste, calm down the immune system, and reset hormones.
Sleep deprivation alters gene expression because some genes are only
expressed when you sleep. It slows down cellular function, increases
inflammation, and disrupts hormonal balance. It also impairs cognition.
During sleep, neurons shrink by 60 percent so the glymphatic system—
the equivalent of the lymphatic system in the brain—can flow in to bring
nutrients and clear out waste. Feeling foggy? Maybe you didn’t give your
glymphatic system enough shuteye time to get rid of all the muck!
Sleep is as fundamental a human need as breathing. If you’re not
sleeping, you’re dying! Lack of sleep increases your risk for all kinds of
chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, heart disease,
diabetes, and obesity. Definitely not something to brag about.
You want to make sleep a priority in your life, just like nutrition and
movement. How much sleep do you need? Experts say that on average, we
need seven to eight hours of sleep per night, but it can vary from four to
eleven. If you feel alert during the day and don’t doze off when inactive,
you’ve probably slept enough. For an effective night’s sleep, it’s a good
idea to dine early and lightly to let cells focus on repair rather than
digestion.
More than anything, sleep has a tremendous impact on your ability to
make healthy lifestyle choices. It’s much easier to make wise lifestyle
decisions, eat right, move, and relax when you get enough sleep.
Conversely, you eat more comfort foods, stay on the couch, and be on edge
if you’re tired. Lack of sleep disconnects your prefrontal cortex and puts
your Unconscious Mind in charge. The same happens when you’re stressed.

Pause & Reflect

Do you get enough sleep? To answer this question, consider the
following question. Do you feel rested and energized when you
wake up? Do you hit the snooze button several times before getting
up? Do you require any stimulants like coffee during the day?

Do you have trouble going to sleep? Do you use sleep medications

to fall asleep?

Do you wake up during the night? Do you have trouble falling back
asleep?
 Do you eat or drink before bed?

What prevents you from getting enough sleep? What could you do
to get more sleep?

Is your sleep environment conducive to a restful night? Is it dark

enough? Is it quiet through the night?

Did You Know?

Sleeping pills disturb the brain’s biochemistry, increase the risk of
neurodegeneration, and lead to dependence.

LEARNING TO LET GO

When you’ve done everything for your health and nothing works, where
can you turn to? Stress is the one thing that negates the benefits of good
nutrition and regular physical activity. For the body to repair, it needs to be
in healing mode, not in emergency mode. We have evolved to be
predominantly in a parasympathetic state and to activate the sympathetic
response only briefly when faced with danger.
Unfortunately, we live in a cortisol-driven society. So much so that the
World Health Organization has dubbed stress the “health epidemic of the
21st century.” Nearly 75 percent of adult Americans report experiencing
stress regularly. Over 90 percent of diseases are caused or worsened by
stress.
Chronic stress promotes hormonal imbalance and insulin resistance, it
induces leaky gut, it weakens the immune system, it kills neurons. It shrinks
the hippocampus*—the memory center in the brain. It exacerbates the risk
of every health condition, from skin issues to Alzheimer’s disease. It
interrupts blood flow to the prefrontal cortex: healthy choices become
harder.
There are three types of stress: physical (think trauma), chemical
(infections or toxic chemicals), and emotional. In this section, we will focus
on emotional stress.
Your thoughts are the number one source of stress for your body, far
beyond the proverbial saber-tooth tiger that might cross your path. The
problem is, your Unconscious Mind is not equipped to discern between real
and virtual threats. It reacts alike to tigers and negative thoughts.
Why is thought-triggered stress so pervasive? Three reasons are at the
root of our stress-inducing thought patterns:
1. We have a negativity bias which distorts the lens through which we
see the world. Your Unconscious Mind is designed to keep you safe.
It remembers the negative much more than the positive because the
negative can harm you. This served our ancestors well to escape
predators. But today, danger doesn’t lurk around the corner, at least
for most of us. Unfortunately, 24-hour news channels and newsfeeds
support that impression.
2. Ask someone how they’re doing, and they will probably say “busy!”
Being busy has become a staple in our culture and is made worse by
smartphones, mailboxes, and social media. We sprint through the day
juggling between work and family, overwhelmed by demands and
information. The endless perception of pressure puts us in a constant
 state of fight-or- flight and releases cortisol. High cortisol tells your
body that time’s running out, so you feel even more overwhelmed.
Busyness feeds itself!
3. The way you respond to stressful situations is programmed into your
Unconscious Mind during childhood. Adverse experiences at an early
age lower the trigger thresholds of the stress response. The amygdala,
the crisis center of the brain, develops at the expense of the prefrontal
cortex. Those changes keep you in survival mode into adulthood.
Unfortunately, adverse childhood experiences are common because
they’re not necessarily big traumas. The repeated experience of not
feeling safe, of not being seen or held also qualifies. And it’s not
what caregivers did or didn’t do that counts; it’s how the
Unconscious Mind interpreted the situation.

Did You Know?

The Adverse Childhood Experience Study or ACE study was
conducted from 1995 to 1997 by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente
Healthcare. ACEs include but are not limited to physical and
emotional abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. The study found
that the more ACEs a person experienced as a child, the more likely
he or she is to suffer from chronic disease as an adult. Subsequent
studies found that ACEs are quite common; they affect more than
two-thirds of the population.

To cope with emotional stress, a good start is to know the underlying

causes. What are you stressed about? Are there things you can address?
Action, even if it doesn’t completely solve the problem, sends a positive
signal to the Unconscious Mind and brings down the stress response.
 You can also reframe your point of view. You control how you perceive
what’s happening and how you respond. For instance, if someone cuts you
off in traffic, you can see it as a lack of respect and get angry. You’re letting
your Unconscious Mind take over. Or you can take a step back and imagine
that the other driver has an emergency, such as a woman in labor about to
give birth in the car. Chances are, it has nothing to do with you.
In the longer term, you can work on resetting your Unconscious Mind.
This is not a quick fix. It requires deep inner work to rewire neural circuits.
Many relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and yoga
will help if you do them regularly. By putting the Unconscious Mind in a
safe place, they upregulate stress thresholds and make the amygdala
response less prevalent. They are also useful to manage your immediate
stress response and calm you down. Something simple as deeply exhaling a
few times stimulates the vagus nerve and enables the parasympathetic
system to take over.
In matters of lifestyle choices, everything is linked: nutrition, physical
activity, circadian rhythms, and sleep all contribute to stress management,
and vice versa. If you don’t overdo it, physical activity is a great outlet for
emotional stress. That’s because when you’re stressed, your body expects to
release energy through fight or flight. That seldom happens with emotional
stress, which explains in part why it takes such a toll on our bodies; excess
energy has nowhere to go. The next time you’re stressed, why not try to
shake it out?

Pause & Reflect

How many hours do you spend on news channels, newsfeeds, and
social media?
Are you addicted to being busy? Do you feel guilty or
uncomfortable when you take a break? Do you believe busyness is a
measure of self-worth?

Do you know how to say no?

What generates stress in your life? If you have no idea, write the
word stress on a piece of paper and do a word association: what
does the word ‘stress’ bring to mind? Think work, money, family.

For each stressor, answer the following questions. What are you
afraid of? How do you cope? What can you do to get rid of the
stressor or to make it less stressful? Else, how can you manage it
better?

What are the techniques or activities that help you relax? How much
time do you set aside for yourself every day?

What do peace and serenity look like in your daily life? Describe a
peaceful moment or place.

Let’s Do It!
Reach for the ceiling and stretch your limbs. Close your eyes. Feel
the sense of calm within. You’ve just activated the vagus nerve by
stimulating pressure receptors inside your body.

Massage the soles of your feet with your thumbs. Are there any
sensitive points? They are signs of imbalances in the body. Take the
time to massage those points. How do you feel?
 Did You Know?
The vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the heart, gut, and other
organs, is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Heightened
vagal activity slows down your heart rate, improves digestion, and
switches off inflammation. Deep breathing, humming, gargling,
stretching, and meditating activate the vagus nerve.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Cells love routines. Light exposure in the morning plus regular
meal and sleep schedules set the right tempo.
B. Sleep and stress are major players in your health.
C. Sleep is when the body heals. It is a reset button for hormones and
a power cleanse for the brain.
D. To cope with stress, you can perceive stressors differently. In the
longer term, you can work on resetting your stress response.
 Action Steps
to Give Your Cells a Break
If you do not manage sleep and stress, it will undermine the other lifestyle
changes you make. Believe me, I’ve been there: eating, moving, and
detoxing to perfection, but still in hormonal chaos because of chronic stress
and sleep deprivation. Here’s a list of easy action steps to reset. The action
steps are numbered and organized by theme for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.

ONE NIGHT AT A TIME

1. Go outside and get bright daylight exposure for at least 20 minutes
or more each day, preferably in the morning.
Warning: do not look directly at the sun; it can damage your
eyes.

2. At least two hours before bed, reduce your exposure to bright

lights and electronic devices. Forget social networks. If you like to
read in bed, take a real book or an e-reader that does not emit blue
light. Blue light blocks the production of melatonin, the hormone
that allows you to fall asleep.
3. Create an ideal environment for restorative sleep. Make sure your
bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool—between 60 and 67 degrees.
Add darkening curtains. Remove exposures to ambient light
sources. Cover clocks and any device emitting light. Use a sleep
mask and earplugs if you can’t get total darkness or quiet. Keep
your bedroom well ventilated. Open the windows for at least 20
minutes during the day to renew the air in the room.
4. Start relaxing at least one hour before bed. Set an alarm so you
don’t forget. Design a bedtime ritual to let body and mind ease into
sleep mode. Do some light stretching, deep breathing, yoga, or
meditation. Listen to soft music. Read fiction.

5. Stretch before you lie down to release stress in your legs, arms,
shoulders, back, and hips. Stretching stimulates receptors in the
nervous system that have a calming effect.
6. Journal to take away the emotional charge of the day. Put your
thoughts and worries on paper. To free your Unconscious Mind,
establish your to-do list and schedule activities for the next day.
Keep a small notebook beside your bed to jot down any nagging
thought.
7. Maintain a regular sleep-wake cycle. Go to bed within the same
half-hour every night and wake up at the same time every
morning. Do not catch up on days off. Limit the difference in sleep
schedule between weeknights and weekend nights to an hour.
8. Eat at least three hours before bedtime. This means that if you go
to bed at around 10pm, you eat nothing after 7pm. Avoid heavy
 meals and alcohol.
9. Eat low-glycemic carbohydrates at dinner to make sure blood
glucose levels stay stable and do not wake you up in the middle of
the night.
10. Stop drinking caffeine after 2pm. This includes coffee, black tea,
and caffeinated soft drinks.
11. If you have trouble falling asleep, practice a combination of deep
breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and visualization.
Experiment with different breathing patterns such as box
breathing or the 4-7-8 pattern. Consult Appendix I for breathing
techniques. Once you’ve done your breathwork, relax all your
muscles from head to toe. Finally, visualize a peaceful place:
imagine the colors, sounds, and smells. Make it your go-to place
for relaxation.
12. Try a weighted blanket. Weighted blankets provide deep pressure
stimulation to give a feeling of security. They improve sleep
quality, especially if you suffer from anxiety.
13. Go to bed before 10 pm. Your body repairs better in the hours
before midnight. You can achieve this by going to bed 10 minutes
earlier every night.

LET IT BE
14. Your response to a situation depends on how you decide to view
it. For each difficult situation, take a deep breath and challenge
yourself to come up with more positive interpretations. For
example, if you are stuck in traffic, accept that it’s out of your
control. See how you can transform it into an opportunity to do
some breathwork or listen to an interesting podcast.
15. Don’t waste time worrying about things you can’t change.
Whenever you fret over a situation, ask yourself: “Can I do
something about it?” Yes? Then do it. No? Let it go. Easier said
than done, I know. But being aware of what you can and can’t
 change will do a lot for your stress levels. Focus on what you can
control.
16. Embrace uncomfortable emotions such as sadness, anger, anxiety,
resentment, or frustration. Else, they become stuck in your body.
Don’t cover them with food, alcohol, or screens.
17. Put pen to paper. Journal about whatever is bugging you. Writing
is therapeutic.
18. Shift your perception to turn down your negativity bias. In every
situation, you have a choice: to focus on the negative—what’s
missing, what others have that you don’t have—or to remind
yourself of how lucky you are because of what you already have.
We live in a society of such unprecedented affluence that we often
forget it wasn’t always the case.
19. Practice gratitude. Before going to bed, take a moment to focus on
what went right during the day. Find three things you’re grateful
for, as simple as noticing beauty around you or exchanging a
smile with someone.
20. Don’t listen to 24/7 news channels or watch violent movies. They
fuel your negativity bias and keep you in stress mode.
21. Stay with positive experiences long enough to encode them in
your Unconscious Mind. Start by being aware of them. For
instance, notice the colorful flowers when you pass by the flower
shop. No flower shop on your path? As the famous French painter
Henri Matisse said, “there are always flowers for those who want
to see them.” If not flowers, then a smiling face, a kind exchange
with a stranger, a perfect blue sky, a hot shower, whatever gives
you pleasant sensations.
22. Smile to yourself and to others. Smiling releases endorphins,
which decreases cortisol. Your smile also makes others feel good.
23. Laugh more, even if you don’t feel like it. Laughing activates the
parasympathetic nervous system. Find humor in every situation.
Watch a comedy.
24. Hug someone for more than 20 seconds. Your cortisol will come
down.
25. Stop procrastinating. Pay attention to the minor nagging of
unfinished tasks. They keep your Unconscious Mind busy. Make a
list of tasks you’ve been delaying and act on them. For instance, if
you need to call someone, do it right away. Schedule the tasks that
cannot be done immediately. Getting them on your schedule gets
them off your mind.
26. Learn to say no. You’ll feel much more in control. Come to terms
with the fact that you can’t be everything to everybody. There’s
only so much of you to go around!
27. Don’t hold grudges. You’re only hurting yourself. Forgiveness
sets you free. Don’t forget to forgive yourself as well.
28. Practice deep breathing. When stressed, we take shallow breaths
which keep us in sympathetic mode. Deep breathing tells the
nervous system that everything is all right. When you feel
overwhelmed by stress, stop whatever you’re doing and breathe,
making sure your belly expands as you breathe in. Slow your
breathing to four to six breaths per minute. You can further slow
your breathing down by taking a short pause after each inhalation
and each exhalation. Practice breathwork while taking public
transportation, waiting in line or being stuck in traffic. Please
consult Appendix I for a list of breathing techniques.
29. Notice tensions in your body. Take a quick body scan. Are you
clenching your jaws, do you experience tightness in the neck, are
your shoulders tense, are you curling your toes? Relax your
muscles one by one from head to toes. You can program body
awareness pauses throughout the day.
30. Meditate. Simply become aware of your breath and body. In a
quiet room, make yourself comfortable and close your eyes. Focus
your attention on the movement of your breath. Visualize
breathing in positive energy and breathing out tensions. Bring
awareness to your body. Notice how each body part feels, how
your body is in contact with the floor or with the chair. Slowly
 open your eyes. You can also do guided meditation for deeper
relaxation. You will find free guided meditations on YouTube and
on apps listed on the companion website.
31. Use visualizations to reach inner calm. Look for guided
visualization on YouTube or try this one. Close your eyes, take a
few deep breaths in your belly and let yourself relax with each
exhale. Imagine yourself underneath a beautiful waterfall
surrounded by greenery. Water is flowing down your body. Start
with your head. Imagine the water flowing in your head, washing
away your worries. Stay there a moment to enjoy the sensation.
Move down your body part by part and imagine the water flushing
out tensions. Try the same visualization using light instead of
water.
32. Practice yoga, reflexology, acupressure, havening, or EFT—
Emotional Freedom Technique. Free resources are available on
the companion website.
33. Consider taking magnesium supplements. Stress eats away at
magnesium stores, generating even more tension in the body.
Please consult your physician.
34. Clear the clutter. Go through your house and find things you no
longer use. Throw, give away, or sell.
35. Feeling stressed and stuck? Identify a “now step”—the smallest
action you can take right now—and do it.

Did You Know?

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It’s a powerful way to
release stress by tapping with fingertips on specific energy meridians
on hands, face, and chest.
 Clean Up Your Act
A time will come when men will sit with history
before them or with some old newspaper before
them and ask incredulously,
“Was there ever such a world?”
—HG Wells, The Open Conspiracy

Fifty years from now, people will probably look back and wonder how we
could have let ourselves be poisoned to such an extent. We live in a sea of
toxicity. Every element—air, water, soil—carries a toxic burden.
Xenobiotics are industrially produced chemicals not found in nature.
Each day, around 250 pounds per person are either produced or imported in
the United States. More than 84,000 xenobiotics are registered for
commercial use. Less than five percent have been tested for human toxicity.
Their combinatory effects have never been tested. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), we each carry an accumulation of around 700
xenobiotics in our bodies.
The body did not evolve to handle such levels of foreign chemicals.
Xenobiotics challenge detoxification capabilities. They keep the immune
system so busy it doesn’t have the time or energy to fight off viruses and
rogue cells. This promotes colds and cancers. It also promotes allergies and
autoimmune diseases by making the immune system hypersensitive.
Xenobiotics are especially detrimental to children:
1. Children are more exposed pound for pound.
 2. Their detoxification and immune systems are not fully developed.
A test done on newborns found over 200 xenobiotics in the umbilical cord.
Xenobiotics have a wide range of detrimental effects. Some—such as
artificial sweeteners and aluminum—are neurotoxins: they poison neurons.
Others—such as plastics, pesticides, phthalates, and flame retardants—are
endocrine disruptors: they interfere with hormones. Some deplete minerals
and vitamins. Others disable enzymes and hurt microbes. Some make the
immune system overactive. Others suppress it.
Food is a great provider of xenobiotics. Processed foods are full of
industrial chemicals. On average, Americans each consume five pounds of
additives per year. There are over ten thousand of them on the market. But
it’s not only processed foods. Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables
are covered in pesticides. Most pesticides soak into the plant and do not
wash off. They deplete minerals. They hurt gut microbes, as sensitive to
pesticides as the pests they target. They also hurt mitochondria because
mitochondria descend from bacteria. Some pesticides are designed to
destroy the nervous system of bugs. You have to wonder what it does to
your own nervous system.

Did You Know?

Non-organic grains are sprayed with herbicides just before harvesting
to dry them up and facilitate harvesting.

Food packaging carries its own toxic load. Plastic wrappings leach
endocrine disruptors. The most well-known is Bisphenol A, BPA for short.
Fast-food wrappers and boxes contain perfluorinated chemicals that act as
grease-and-stain repellents. They migrate from the packaging to the food.
Water contains chlorine and pollutants from industrial and agricultural
activities. Studies show that millions of Americans drink tap water
contaminated with antibiotics, anti-depressants, birth control pills, cancer
treatments that have made it through treatment. Most bottled waters are just
as dangerous, not to mention the toxicants leaching from the plastic bottles.
What you put on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream. The
Environmental Working Group (EWG) reports that the average American
woman puts 168 man-made chemicals on her body every day. Self-care
products such as toothpaste, lotion, creams, soap, shampoo, conditioner,
perfumes, and makeup are loaded with toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
Most contain phthalates, parabens, and triclosan, which mimic hormones
and disturb balance.
If you think you’re protected from pollution once in the safety of your
home, think again! More often than not, the air you breathe is vastly more
polluted inside than outside. Building materials, stain-resistant carpeting,
paints, furniture, and household products constantly release pollutants.
Electromagnetic fields (EMFs)* are still a subject of active
investigation. They could affect mitochondria, alter the blood-brain barrier,
and deplete nutrients. You are an electrical being: your nervous system,
your heartbeat, your brain waves are electrical; cell membrane permeability
depends on electrical gradients; chemical reactions involve the sharing or
trading of electrons. It would be surprising if EMFs had no effects on the
body. Why take chances?
While it’s impossible to remove all toxicants from your life, you can
reduce much of your exposure. You can also support your body’s ability to
detox with nutrition, physical activity, relaxation, and sleep.

Pause & Reflect

Are you exposed to cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes, pesticides, plastic,
additives, paint, or cleaning chemicals?
What personal care products do you put on your body? Do you use
fragrances in your house or your car?

Let’s Do It!
Look at the ingredient list on your toothpaste, face cream, and
shampoo. Search how each product is rated on the Environmental
Working Group website. Is there a better alternative?
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts to help you.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Cells continuously take in toxicants from the air you breathe, the
food you eat, the water you drink, and the products you use.
B. Toxic chemicals overload the detoxification system, dysregulate
the immune system, generate dysbiosis and leaky gut, damage
cells and DNA, poison enzymes, steal vitamins and minerals, and
imbalance hormones.
C. Living in a toxic-free environment is impossible, but any small
step you take to reduce your exposure is worth it.
 Action Steps
to Remove the Junk

To decrease your toxic load, go through everything you’re exposed to and

make it as least toxic as possible. You can also support your detoxification
organs. Here’s a list of easy action steps to clean up. The action steps are
numbered and organized by theme for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.

GET INFORMATION
1. Look up the Environmental Working Group Consumer guides on
www.ewg.org/consumer-guides.
2. To stay out of heavily polluted areas, go to the AirNow website
www.airnow.gov for local air quality.
3. Download an app. I have provided a list of apps in the companion
website to use when shopping.
CLEAN UP YOUR FOOD

Did You Know?

Most food dyes are derived from petroleum and insects.

4. Choose foods free of preservatives, flavorings, and coloring

agents. Avoid toxic ingredients like artificial sweeteners and
oxidized fats; they add to your toxic load. Beware of natural
flavors in foods: they’re anything but natural.
5. Eat organic as much as possible. Organic produce is grown
without harmful pesticides or fertilizers. Pay special attention to
Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen—the 12
fruits and vegetables that contain the most toxicants. The fruits and
vegetables with the lowest load appear on the Clean 15 list. Use
those two lists to prioritize your shopping. Buying organic
versions of the items on the Dirty Dozen list will substantially
reduce your daily exposure to harmful pesticides. The same goes
for fatty meats and fishes because animals store toxicants in fat.
6. Avoid meat from factory farms. It contains hormones and
antibiotics.
7. Avoid frying, baking, or broiling foods at high temperatures to
prevent the formation of toxic compounds. Acrylamide is a
chemical created in starchy foods such as potatoes and bread when
cooked at higher temperatures. If you grill meat at high
temperatures, they produce molecules called heterocyclic amines
(HCAs), the same toxic compounds found in cigarette smoke.
Cook on low heat. Don’t burn food.
 8. When eating fish, choose smaller ones such as sardines, mackerel,
salmon. Because they’re lower on the food chain, they carry lower
mercury levels than shark, swordfish, halibut, and tuna.

CUT PLASTIC USE

9. Avoid plastic water bottles; they contain BPA—Bisphenol A—and
other persistent organic pollutants derived from petroleum that
linger in your body for decades.
10. Buy stainless-steel bottles and glass food storage containers. Not
only will it preserve your health, it will also save you money in
the long run because it lasts longer than plastic and is easier to
clean.
11. Use stainless-steel cookware; avoid Teflon, aluminum, copper,
and cast iron.
12. Do not microwave food with plastic wraps or in plastic containers,
do not use plastic kitchenware for hot foods or liquids. Throw
away any plastic item that is scratched.
13. Do not leave plastic bottles in cars. Do not drink hot beverages
through plastic lids. Never heat anything plastic. Do not use a
plastic kettle.
14. Don’t be fooled by BPA-free labels. BPA has probably been
replaced by other bisphenols—BPS or BPF—which may even be
worse.

CLEAN UP YOUR HOME

15. Get a whole house water filter or a sink and shower filter to
reduce toxic chemicals in water. Use the water-filter buying guide
from the Environmental Working Group to find a filter that’s a
good fit for you. Reverse osmosis is best for drinking water.
16. Switch your cleaning, laundry, and dishwashing products to those
with all-natural ingredients.
17. Do not use fabric softeners or drying sheets.
 18. When buying new pieces of furniture, choose them free from
formaldehyde and flame retardants. Use paint without VOCs
(volatile organic compounds).
19. Ventilate every room in your house twice a day for at least 20
minutes. Open doors and windows on opposing sides of the room
to facilitate airflow.

20. Get houseplants, Aloe Vera plants for instance, to increase

oxygenation.
21. Do not use scented candles or air fresheners. If you can smell the
fragrance, you’re inhaling the molecules.

Did You Know?

There can be over five thousand artificial ingredients behind the
term “fragrance” listed on self-care products.

22. Leave your shoes at the door. That way, you do not bring in
whatever pesticides or heavy metals you picked up on the street.
23. Clean your home more often. Dust contains many harmful
chemicals that accumulate for decades. Dust surfaces in your
home regularly. Use a HEPA vacuum cleaner.
 24. Beware of water damage or excess humidity in your home. They
promote the development of mold, which releases mycotoxins in
the air. Mycotoxins generate inflammation and decrease your
ability to detoxify. If you feel better when you’re outside or if you
need to ventilate your house when you come back after a few days
of absence, you probably need to track down mold.
25. Replace carpets with hard floors. Carpets off-gas VOCs and are
harder to keep clean.
26. Get your HVAC cleaned.
27. Use a steam cleaner. It can replace most cleaning products for
your floors, bathroom, and windows.
28. When using aerosols, ventilate the room and wear a mask. Wear
gloves when using toxic products. Wash off quickly if any comes
into contact with your skin.
29. Invest in an air purifier.

GO SKIN DEEP
30. Use less personal care products. Do you really need all these
creams, perfumes, and lotions?
31. Read ingredient labels carefully. Some important ingredients to
avoid are sulfates, phthalates, and paraben. You want your
personal care products to contain only natural ingredients. If you
can’t eat it, don’t apply it on your skin!
32. Check on EWG’s Skin Deep database that the products you put on
your skin are safe. Look for EWG number one rated products for
personal care products such as deodorants, toothpaste,
mouthwash, creams, and makeup.
33. If needed, use mineral-based makeup and mineral sunscreen.
34. Avoid fragrances in beauty-care products and laundry detergents.
35. Avoid aluminum-containing antiperspirants. They may increase
the risk for breast cancer.
 36. Buy organic tampons and pads for female hygiene. Toxic
chemicals in regular tampons and pads have been linked to
endometriosis and cancers. The same goes for baby diapers.
37. Wash new clothes before wearing them. They’re often full of
chemicals.

DETOX YOUR BODY

38. Move regularly to keep everything flowing and avoid toxin

stagnation in your cells.
39. Massage or brush your skin towards your heart with a natural
bristle brush or a dry towel for lymphatic drainage.
40. Bounce up and down on a “mini trampoline.” It’s perfect to
stimulate lymph flow and tone detoxification organs.
41. Avoid restrictive clothing that cuts off proper circulation in the
body.
42. Eat a lot of fiber. Fiber acts like a scrub brush in the gut: it entraps
toxic chemicals and carries them out through regular bowel
movements. Constipation leads to recirculation of toxic chemicals
in the body.
43. Sleep and relax! Detoxification takes place in parasympathetic
mode. Sleep and relaxation are the best ways to reset your
detoxification capacity.
44. Drink adequate amounts of clean water to help your kidneys filter
out toxic chemicals. Fill a pitcher with water and let it rest for an
hour to let the chlorine evaporate and protect your gut microbes.
45. Breathe! Deep breathing releases toxic chemicals and carbon
dioxide through your lungs. Empty your lungs with your exhales.
46. Support your liver to enhance its detoxification capability. Eat
sulfur-rich vegetables—artichokes, onions, garlic, and cruciferous
vegetables like broccoli. Consider taking herbal supplements such
as artichoke, black radish, milk thistle, dandelion root. Always
consult your physician before taking any supplement.

47. Once again, breathe. Deep belly breathing massages the liver.
48. Massage your liver with your hands while lying down. The liver is
on the right side of the body, under the rib cage.
49. Cut your liver some slack. Overeating, oxidized fats, sugar,
processed foods, and alcohol put an unnecessary burden on the
liver. If you keep your liver busy processing food, it’s unable to
devote time and energy to detoxification. Extend the time between
your last meal of the day and breakfast the next day to give your
body enough time to remove toxic chemicals. If you regularly
wake up between 1 and 3am during the night, you’re probably
overtaxing your liver at dinner.
 Did You Know?
Traditional Chinese and Indian medicine see the liver as the primary
determinant of health.

50. Sweat—either in a sauna or with cardio exercise. Sweating helps

to detoxify through the skin. Don’t forget to take a shower
afterward so that toxic chemicals are not absorbed back in. And
drink a lot of water to replenish body water.

LIMIT EXPOSURE TO EMFS

51. Don’t wear your cell phone on your body. Keep it at least one foot
away from your cells.
52. Put your cell phone on airplane mode whenever you can,
especially at night.
53. Use your cell phone on speakerphone or with wired headphones.
54. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak. It intensifies
the level of radiation.
55. Do not use your cell phone in places surrounded by metal such as
cars, elevators, or airplanes. Metal surroundings reflect radiations
and increase exposure.
56. Turn off wireless devices while driving. They create radiation
hotspots for everyone in the car.
57. Get a corded landline for your home. Do not use cordless
extensions.
58. Do not use laptops and tablets directly on your lap.
59. Turn off your Wi-Fi at night and whenever you don’t need it.
Make sure your Wi-Fi router is at least 10 feet away from you at
 all times.
60. Do not charge electronic devices in your bedroom.
61. Stay away from dimmer switches. They emit dirty electricity.
 PART IV

Selected

Vantage Points
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there
was in me an invincible summer.
—Albert Camus, Summer
Let’s now take everything we’ve uncovered and apply it to specific
perspectives: children, brain, hormones, and weight loss. This will enable us
to target the action steps accordingly.
 The Children’s Hour
To manufacturers of these products, I pose
several questions (…):
“Would you knowingly feed your own children
unhealthy foods and drinks high in salt, sugar
and trans fats, in doing so steering them from an
early age onto a course of heightened health risk,
from diabetes, obesity, cancer and
cardiovascular diseases?”
—Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General
of the World Health Organization, 18 October 2017

Whether it’s eczema, asthma*, food allergies, chronic ear infections,

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or autism*, more than
half of American children suffer from some chronic illness. If we project
numbers forward, this could rise to 80 percent in a few years. Children now
get type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease, once considered to be diseases of
aging. Childhood obesity has tripled since the 1970s. Our children are the
first generation in recent human history to have a lower life expectancy and
a lower IQ than the previous one. But it doesn’t stop there.
Our modern lifestyles set the stage in our children for the development
of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and
autoimmune diseases in adulthood. Our children’s health in adulthood
depends on how they lived in childhood. We owe it to them to be careful.
Or some years from now, they may wonder why we did nothing to save
them.
Everything you’ve read up to now on nutrition, movement, sleep, stress
management, and detoxification applies to children. If anything, it applies
more. Because they are smaller and still growing, children are more
vulnerable than adults to imbalances.
Lifestyle drives behavior. If your children struggle with paying attention,
learning, or staying still, I invite you to take a closer look at the lifestyle
you’re providing.
But most important, it starts with you. Your children’s Unconscious
Minds are observing your every move to register automatic behaviors and
beliefs in their repertoire. How do you model the way you want your
children to behave?
In the rest of this section, we will focus on sugar and screens because
they pose the most immediate threats to our children. By controlling their
Unconscious Minds, they jeopardize their ability to make conscious choices
and leave them in a permanent state of dissatisfaction, constantly searching
for external stimulation. Studies on children show that both excess sugar
and excess screen time are associated with obesity, anxiety, depression,
learning disabilities, as well as aggressive and antisocial behaviors.
A seven-year-old child today has ingested more sugar since birth than
his great-grandparents during their entire lives. You don’t hand your
children cigarettes or alcohol. Why would you give them sugar? Sugar and
more generally high-glycemic foods put children on the blood glucose
roller coaster. They’re responsible for moods swings. They reduce
children’s intelligence and their ability to concentrate in school. By
hijacking the dopamine circuits, they predispose to all kinds of addictions—
food, drugs, alcohol, technology, gambling.
The American Heart Association recommends no more than three
teaspoons—12 grams—of added sugar per day for children. Yet, as per the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average
consumption is 23 teaspoons for boys and 18 for girls. You can exceed the
recommended daily allowance with one bowl of cereal or a glass of fruit
juice!

Did You Know?

Several studies of prison inmates and delinquent juveniles show that
diets high in sugar and junk food are closely linked to aggression and
violence. Conversely, changes in diet and nutritional supplementation
decrease violent acts.

Electronic screens raise dopamine levels as much as sugar, triggering the

same addiction mechanisms. They include TV, video games, consoles,
mobile phones, computers, tablets. Today’s children, aged five to sixteen,
spend an average of six and a half hours a day staring at a screen, compared
with around three hours in 1995. Teenage boys spend the longest, with an
average of nine hours!
Constant exposure to electronic screens overstimulates children and
deprives them of the ability to modulate their mood and attention. It shifts
the nervous system into sympathetic mode or fight-or-flight. It also leaves
less time for sleep, physical activity, and face-to-face social interaction.
Like sugar, it decreases intelligence. No wonder Silicon Valley Executives
are raising their children tech-free!
Parenting is hard. But providing your children with a healthy lifestyle
doesn’t have to be hard if you take it step by step. And you may solve some
behavioral issues that make you crazy.
 Did You Know?
Adolescence is a state of both dopaminergic maturity and prefrontal
cortex immaturity. The prefrontal cortex is fully formed and
connected to the rest of the brain around the age of 25. This
developmental mismatch is at the root of the high-risk behaviors
sometimes seen in teenagers.

Pause & Reflect

How do you make sure your children grow up to be healthy? What
could you do right now to improve their health and well-being?

What time and money are you ready to invest to make sure your
children lead a healthy life?

How much sugar and refined carbohydrate do your children eat each
day?

How many vegetables can your children identify?

How much screen time do your children have each day? Are they
anxious without their devices? Do they seem zoned out while on
their screens and aggressive when you ask them to put them down?

Are you modeling healthy behaviors for your children? Among the
behaviors you’re currently doing, are there any you wish your
children will not do as adults?

Let’s Do It!
Do a lifestyle check for your children. What is the nutritional status
of the food they eat at home and at school? How much exercise and
sunlight exposure do they get each day? How many hours of sleep?
How much time do they spend on screens? How do they manage
stress?
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Our children are even more threatened by our modern lifestyles
than we are.
B. The health of your children starts with you: be the person you
want your children to be, model the right behaviors.
C. With sugar and screens, we’re putting addictive drugs into the
mouths and hands of children.
D. Sugar and screen time affect children’s behaviors and increase
their future risk for addictions.
E. When we repeatedly hand a sweet treat or a PlayStation to our
children, we’re jeopardizing their future.
 Action Steps
to Give Children the Gift of Health
You want to give your children the best start in life. You probably already
make sure they fasten their seat belts and brush their teeth. Exposing them
to a healthy lifestyle is the greatest gift of love you can give them. Here’s a
list of easy action steps to take them along on your health journey. The
action steps are numbered and organized by theme for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.

GET YOUR CHILDREN ON BOARD

1. Educate your children about the connection between lifestyle and

health. Show them the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, focusing on
what appeals to them:
If they want to run faster: a healthy lifestyle will give them
better legs.
If they want to look better: a healthy lifestyle will reduce acne
and give them beautiful hair.
If they want a better brain: a healthy lifestyle will allow them
to perform better at school.
 If they want to feel better: a healthy lifestyle will reduce their
anxiety or depression.
2. In matters of health, only take into consideration what is GOOD
for them—not what they WANT/DON’T WANT. Don’t be afraid
to set the limits. Children need boundaries to feel safe.

NURTURE THE DELICATE SHOOT

3. Make healthy foods their only choice. Children rarely go hungry.

They’ll eat whatever is available. Remember, you’re formatting
their taste buds.
4. Stop buying what you don’t want them to eat. Only keep foods
they can have.
5. Make healthier versions of their favorite foods. Look up the
recipes on the internet.
6. Get your children involved in food shopping and cooking.
Cooking is a valuable life skill, and children are more likely to eat
what they helped prepare.
7. Teach your children to make wise food choices away from home.
Help them plan “if…then” responses for challenging situations.
Do visualizations with them.
8. Show your children how to read labels.
 9. Never use food as reward, comfort, or punishment. Else, you’re
setting them up for addiction.
10. Start with small portions when serving food. Forget the clean-
plate rule.
11. Give your children mostly water to drink. Water down fruit juice.
Avoid sodas and flavored milk. Buy a colorful stainless-steel
water bottle for school and outings.
12. Stick to a strict meal and snack schedule so that your children do
not graze throughout the day. Restrict your children’s access to
food in the kitchen.
13. Make time to sit down as a family to eat home-cooked meals.
Make it an opportunity for everyone to tell their day. Turn off the
TV. No phones allowed!
14. Crowd out sweets with plant-based foods.
15. When eating out, avoid kids’ menus. They offer the worst kind of
food you can feed children.
16. Pack your children’s lunch and snacks. Eighty percent of school
cafeterias have deals with Coke or Pepsi.
17. Stay away from lunchables. They are filled with high fructose
corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and flavors, and
preservatives.

Did You Know?

In the United States, pizza is the second highest source of calories
among children, behind grain desserts.
GROW A STRONG CHILD
18. Send your children outside to play for at least two hours every
day.
19. Walk with your children at every opportunity you get: going to
school, going to a friend’s house, doing an errand, walking the
dog.
20. Restrict screen time (TV, video games, computer) to one hour per
day. Do not let your children use technology in their room where
you can’t see them.
21. Become aware of your own technology use around your children.
22. If you think your child is addicted to screens, consider electronic
fasting—the strict removal of electronics for several weeks. It will
have a positive effect on your child’s brain. Tantrums will subside,
focus will improve, and your child will sleep better.
23. Plan active weekends and vacations. Take your children hiking or
biking.
24. Help your children find activities they enjoy.
25. Make sure your children get enough sleep. Children aged three to
five need 11-13 hours of sleep; children aged six to 13, 9-11
hours. Keep a regular sleep schedule. Make your children’s
bedroom conducive to sleep—dark, cool, and quiet. Keep TV,
computers, consoles, and smartphones out of the bedroom. Avoid
giving children caffeinated drinks during the day.
26. Protect their brains. Make sure they wear a helmet that fits smugly
when biking, skating, or skiing.
27. Do not expose your children to second-hand smoke.
28. Avoid plastic toys for younger children.

RAISE A HAPPY CHILD

29. Give your children a positive outlook on life. Make them focus on
what went well during the day before they go to bed.
30. Help your children cope with their emotions. Teach them
relaxation methods such as deep breathing or meditation. You can
use apps such as Breathe, Think, Do With Sesame, or Stop,
Breathe & Think Kids. You can also get an expandable breathing
ball to make it fun and visual.
31. If you say “Hurry” a lot to your children when they have to go to
school, allow extra time for them to get ready. You will avoid
triggering both your stress response and your children’s.
32. Establish a basic sense of safety. Let your children know they
matter. Always greet them with enthusiasm. Take the time to listen
to what they have to say. Give them your undivided attention—no
looking at a screen while they’re talking!
33. Turn mistakes—yours and theirs—into learning opportunities for
the whole family. It will increase your children’s self-confidence.
34. Create a routine. Make a schedule for meals, sleep, technology,
and showers. Daily rituals and routines instill a sense of security.
35. Involve your children in chores to make them feel able. It’s
empowering for children.
36. Schedule unstructured, unhurried time. It is more than okay for
children to have “I am bored” time—this is the first step to
creativity.
37. Cultivate fun. Have fun with your children, playing outside,
dancing, singing, reading aloud, preparing meals together, or
telling silly jokes.
38. Manage your own stress. Children are emotional sponges. They
can’t be okay if you’re not. You’re influencing their future stress
response.
39. Help your children find what they’re passionate about. It will give
them a profound sense of purpose.
40. To raise capable and autonomous adults, don’t make your
children’s lives too easy, even if it means making them upset or
grumpy in the short term. Challenges help your children become
resilient. This is hormesis applied to education!
41. What children are exposed to is what they think is possible.
Provide your children with a variety of experiences.
42. Teach your children to tolerate frustration. Do not give in to
tantrums. When children are used to having everything right away,
they lose the ability to push back instant gratification in favor of
long-term rewards.
 Brain Power
The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will contain
With ease, and you beside.
—Emily Dickinson

More than a third of Americans suffer from a brain disorder, whether

psychiatric or neuronal—Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD), autism, depression, anxiety, memory loss, addictions, violent
behaviors, or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or
Parkinson’s.
What’s a healthy brain? It’s a brain able to focus, learn, and remember.
It’s also a brain that allows you to be emotionally stable and optimistic.
Foremost, it’s a brain that supports conscious choices.
How do you achieve a healthy brain? By helping brain cells maintain
homeostasis. Memory problems, attention deficits, mood instability, and
depression are symptoms of biochemical chaos in the brain.
To understand brain disorders, a good start is to look outside the brain.
More often than not, brain disorders are whole-body disorders. The brain is
not an island. Biochemical imbalances disturb cells in the brain the same
way they disturb cells in the rest of the body. This is true for nutrient
deficiency, insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances, inflammation,
oxidation, and toxic overload. For instance, inflammation in any part of the
body sends cytokines to the brain and sets it on fire.

Did You Know?

Proper brain function depends on hormonal balance. Cortisol, insulin,
estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and thyroid hormones all have a
substantial effect on brain health and cognition.

A prime area of concern when investigating brain health is the gut. The
gut-brain connection means that whatever affects the gut affects the brain.
Most neurotransmitters are made in the gut, either by gut cells or microbes.
Thus, digestive issues and dysbiosis directly affect how you think and feel.
Leaky gut means leaky brain, which in turn means the brain is no longer
protected.
When you eat differently, you change your mood and cognitive abilities.
But other factors deserve special consideration. Let’s explore the most
relevant.
MAKING IT CLICK

Here are nine facts to leverage for better brain function.

Fact #1
The brain constantly makes new connections and grows new neurons. We
call this neuroplasticity. It relies on a growth hormone called BDNF—
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor*.
BDNF consolidates connections between neurons, promotes the
manufacture of myelin to speed up communication, and supports the growth
of new neurons. Gene expression for BDNF production is enhanced by any
mild stress such as physical activity or a challenging cognitive task.
Production is also ramped up by butyrate—the fatty acid gut microbes make
when fermenting fiber. Both excess sugar and toxic chemicals reduce the
production and action of BDNF.
Fact #2
Brains developed for movement. The proof is in the sea squirt. This
undersea animal has a primitive brain to move through water. As soon as it
finds a suitable place to live, it literally eats its own brain because it no
longer needs it.
Movement is foremost in promoting new connections and the growth of
new neurons. When you move different parts of your body, you activate
different neural pathways. It tells your brain that new experiences are
coming and that it better make new connections available. Looking for
inspiration? Walk your brain!
Fact #3
Your brain is 80 percent water. Dehydration is the most common cause of
headaches. It also causes cognition issues.

Fact #4
The brain is the fattiest organ in the body. The quality of its structure
depends on the quality of the fats you eat. Omega-3 fatty acids build
healthy membranes, facilitate communication between neurons, and reduce
inflammation. The most useful omega-3s for the brain—EPA and DHA—
are found in fish.

Fact #5
Glucose crosses the blood-brain barrier and enters most neurons at will: no
insulin is required, except in the hippocampus. As a result, glucose levels in
neurons closely follow those in the bloodstream. Both low and high levels
are bad for cognition. With low levels, neurons don’t get the energy they
need. With high levels, they become caramelized and inflamed. The ups and
downs trigger depression and damage the brain.

Fact #6
While most neurons don’t require insulin to absorb glucose, they do require
insulin to process it and release neurotransmitters. If insulin levels are
consistently high, the blood-brain barrier becomes insulin resistant; insulin
doesn’t get through. This leads to cognitive deficits and ultimately to
Alzheimer’s disease, also known as type 3 diabetes.
 Did You Know?
Diabetes quadruples the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Fact #7
You’ll recall that the glymphatic system is the brain equivalent of the
body’s lymphatic system. It carries a flow of cerebrospinal fluid* to bring in
nutrients and flush out metabolic waste. During sleep, cells shrink to
increase space between each other and intensify glymphatic flow. If you
don’t sleep enough, you begin the day with your brain still full of waste. No
wonder your thinking is fuzzy. Like sleep, physical activity speeds up
glymphatic flow. That’s why you have more mental clarity after a short bout
of cardio.

Fact #8
Hippocampus neurons carry many cortisol receptors on their membranes.
High cortisol levels because of stress destroy those neurons, shrink the
hippocampus, and impair memory.

Fact #9
The brain accounts for 20 percent of energy consumption at rest. Therefore,
it is vulnerable to free radicals and mitochondrial dysfunctions. Anything
that up-regulates antioxidant defense protects the brain.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you experience poor concentration? Do you get easily
distracted? Do you need coffee or sugar to focus?

Do you have trouble remembering simple words?

Are you tired or depressed? Do you feel everything is an effort? Do

you get stuck on negative thought-patterns?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to pay

attention to your brain health.

Let’s Do It!
Try these two simple exercises. Do each movement slowly and
synchronize it with your breath. Pay attention to the sensations in
your body; feel your muscles working.

Exercise 1
Stand with feet slightly apart and arms down by your side. Keeping
your arms straight, slowly raise both arms and out in front of you
until they are straight overhead. Pay attention to your arms,
shoulders and back.
Slowly lower your arms sideways until they’re a little above
shoulder height. Think of a bird flying.
Slowly cross your left arm over the right so your left elbow is on top
of your right elbow, palms facing down, arms stretched to the side as
much as you can. Pay attention to your arms, shoulders, and back.
Slowly uncross your arms to come back into the previous position,
arms to the side, a little above shoulder height. Slowly raise your
arms overhead. Pay attention to the sensations in your arms,
shoulders, and back.
Lower your arms sideways until they’re back at your sides.
Repeat, this time crossing your right arm over the left.

Exercise 2
Stand with feet slightly apart and arms down by your side. Slowly
come up on tiptoes. Pay attention to your toes, feet, ankles, and legs.
Slowly lower your heels to the ground.
Bend your knees to make a 90° angle inside your knees. Pay
attention to your knees and thighs.
Slowly straighten your knees.
Slowly come up on tiptoes again.
Slowly lower your heels to the ground.
Repeat once.

Now combine exercise 1 and exercise 2. Come up on tiptoes each

time you raise your arms over your head. Bend your knees while
crossing your arms.
Congratulations! With these simple exercises, you’ve just increased
blood circulation in your limbs and created millions of new
connections in your brain.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Every biochemical imbalance in the body affects neurons. Thus,
every lifestyle change we’ve seen in previous chapters improves
brain function.
B. The story of your brain begins in your gut. The gut-brain
connection is at the root of many brain issues. If you’re depressed,
anxious, or foggy, more often than not, it’s not in your mind, it’s in
your gut!
C. If you want to target brain health, keep in mind the following
specificities:
BDNF makes neurons grow and connect. Your lifestyle
determines how much BDNF you produce.
Movement is the reason you have a brain. Move it so you
don’t lose it!
The brain is mostly fat and water. Omega-3s are essential for
the membranes of neurons.
Poor glucose regulation triggers depression and damages brain
cells.
Insulin plays a significant role in the brain. Hence, insulin
resistance compromises brain function. It’s an important risk
factor in Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleep cleans up the brain.
Excess cortisol from chronic stress shrinks memory.
The brain needs antioxidants for protection more than any
other organ.
 Action Steps
to Age-Proof Your Brain
Your brain is behind each of your actions, your thoughts, and your feelings.
You want to keep it healthy! Here’s a list of easy action steps to boost your
brain power. The action steps are numbered for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.
1. Get mental stimulation to activate your neurons. “Use it or lose it”
also applies to your brain. Learning new things or doing things
differently forges new connections.
2. Be active. Move your body in different ways to stimulate
neuroplasticity and increase blood flow to the brain. Incorporate
novel movements in your routines. Pay attention whenever you
move so your brain reaps more benefits.
3. Eat for your brain. Choose anti-inflammatory foods and foods rich
in antioxidants. Include fatty fish, free-range eggs, legumes, nuts,
olive oil, vegetables, and fruits.

4. Consider taking fish oil supplements to get enough omega-3s of

the EPA and DHA variety. Consult your physician before taking
any supplements.
5. Keep clear of sugar and refined grains to keep glucose and insulin
levels stable. Do not eat artificial or oxidized fats.
6. Chew! Mastication promotes new neurons in the hippocampus and
increases blood circulation in the brain
7. Drink a lot of water to replenish cerebrospinal fluid and avoid
headaches.
8. Practice meditation to manage stress and lower inflammation.
Meditation is also great to reconnect your prefrontal cortex and
make conscious healthy lifestyle choices.
9. Protect your head. Head traumas increase the risk of cognitive
impairment.
10. Get enough sleep to improve nutrient flow to the brain and flush
out toxic chemicals.
 It Must Be Hormones
Go, little letter, apace, apace,
Fly;
Fly to the light in the valley below—
Tell my wish to her dewy blue eye.
—Alfred Tennyson, “The Letter”

Hormones get blamed for everything these days, whether it’s being
irritable, not sleeping well, or putting on weight. For a reason! Hormonal
imbalances are at the root of a growing number of issues: early puberty,
irregular periods, mood swings, migraines, premenstrual syndrome* (PMS),
fibrocystic breasts, polycystic ovarian syndrome* (PCOS), acne, thinning
hair, low libido, infertility, thyroid disorders, fatigue, insomnia, depression,
anxiety, diabetes, weight gain, obesity, breast and prostate cancers. And
that’s not even an exhaustive list!
Recall that hormones are messengers produced by endocrine glands but
also by fat cells, gut cells, and microbes. Tiny amounts are released into the
bloodstream and carried to target cells. Despite the tiny amounts, hormones
have a tremendous impact on how you think, feel, and look. Fine tuning the
levels of hormones circulating in the body is crucial for homeostasis and
well-being.
The bigger hormonal picture includes seven key hormones: insulin,
cortisol, thyroid hormones (T4 and T3), and sex hormones (estrogen,
progesterone, and testosterone). Hormones act in concert, like musicians in
an orchestra. If one hormone is imbalanced, others quickly follow.
You can regain some control over your hormones. Their variations
mostly reflect your lifestyle choices. The two major factors influencing
hormonal balance are stress and sugar. Chronic stress means high levels of
cortisol all day long. Excess sugar means insulin spikes. Excess cortisol and
excess insulin affect every single hormone in the body. Addressing stress
and blood sugar balance should be considered first when dealing with any
hormonal issues.
Other factors deserve special consideration:
 The gut plays a significant role in balancing hormones because
both gut cells and gut microbes produce hormones or modulate
hormone production. Leaky gut and dysbiosis are detrimental to
hormonal balance.
Liver health is foundational for hormonal balance: the liver filters
used-up hormones out of the blood and sends them down the bile
duct into the intestinal tract to be removed in your stools.
Constipation messes with hormonal balance because used-up
hormones or hormones in excess are not evacuated after filtering
by the liver.
High levels of inflammation affect both hormones and hormonal
receptors. They cause hormonal resistance.
The same is true for toxicants that attach to either hormones or
hormonal receptors. Those toxicants are called endocrine
disruptors.
Sleep and moderate physical activity reset and balance hormones.
Fat cells secrete estrogen. Excess fat on your body puts you at risk
for hormonal imbalance and hormonal cancers such as breast or
prostate cancers.
Conventional treatments for hormonal imbalances usually involve thyroid
medications, birth control pills, insulin injections, or synthetic hormone
replacement therapies. They are useful to alleviate symptoms but do not
solve the root cause. The good news is, there are actions steps you can take
to improve hormonal balance naturally, starting with nutrition and stress
management.
Warning: never stop hormonal treatment on your own without speaking
with your physician first.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you have symptoms of hormonal imbalance? Please refer to the
list of health issues at the beginning of the chapter.

Do you always feel tense or anxious? Do you experience pain in

your jaws, your neck, your shoulders, or your back? If you answered
yes, you may have high cortisol levels.

Do you eat a lot of sugary foods or refined grained? Do you

experience hypoglycemic symptoms such as shakiness, irritability,
fatigue, an irregular heartbeat? If you answered yes, you may suffer
from blood glucose imbalances.

Let’s Do It!
To lower cortisol, meditate for five minutes. Put a timer on. Make
sure the sound is low. Sit straight, close your eyes, focus on your
breath for a few minutes. Then, slowly reconnect with sensations in
every part of your body from head to toes. When the timer goes off,
take three deep breaths. Slowly open your eyes and stretch your
body.
 Did You Know?
For women, PMS symptoms are caused by too much estrogen or not
enough progesterone, which are two sides of the same coin.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Hormonal balance revolves around six key hormones: thyroid
hormones, insulin, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, and
progesterone.
B. Cortisol and insulin are the king and queen of your hormonal
kingdom.
C. Gut issues, inflammation, toxicants, and excess fat trigger
hormonal imbalance.
D. Hormonal therapy only serves to alleviate symptoms. Lifestyle
changes can improve hormonal balance.
 Action Steps
to Regain Your Balance

Your hormonal health has a huge impact on how you think, feel, and
look. Here’s a list of easy action steps to support hormonal balance. The
action steps are numbered for easy referencing.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.
1. Eat healthy fats. They are necessary for manufacturing certain
hormones. They keep inflammation at bay. Sources of healthy fats
include nuts, seeds, avocado, grass-fed butter, olive oil, wild-
caught salmon.
2. Manage your stress levels with relaxation practices such as deep
breathing, meditation, yoga, and Qigong.
3. Consume a high-fiber diet to take care of your microbes, ensure
the elimination of broken-down hormones, and lower the glycemic
load of your meals.
4. Eat a moderate amount of protein at every meal—including
breakfast—to modulate insulin as well as hunger/satiety
 hormones.
5. Limit sugar and refined carbohydrates to prevent insulin spikes.
6. Engage in regular physical activity to increase insulin sensitivity
and balance other hormones.
7. Steer clear of endocrine disruptors. Limit plastic use around food.
Be wary of what’s in your personal care and cleaning products.
Avoid fragrances.
8. Consider taking magnesium and B vitamins supplements. They
play a critical role in hormonal balancing. As always, consult your
physician before taking any supplements.
9. Get more sleep. It resets hormones and gives endocrine glands a
break.
10. Support your liver. To reduce toxic load, avoid alcohol and reduce
over-the-counter medication as much as possible. Consider using
herbal supplements such as milk thistle, artichoke, or dandelion
roots. Consult your physician before taking any supplements.
 Something to Lose
Most of the world’s population lives in countries
where overweight and obesity kills more people
than underweight.
—World Health Organization
COVID-19: Excess weight may increase risk for
severe illness.
—Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight. It was less than a

third of the population 50 years ago. One in three Americans is obese. If the
trend continues, half of Americans will be obese by 2030.
Overweight doesn’t only mean more fat on the body. Excess weight is
linked to a plethora of issues, including sleep apnea, joint pain, depression,
infertility, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease,
Alzheimer’s disease, and certain types of cancer. Over 75% of heart attacks
are associated with overweight. You’re 60 times more likely to get type 2
diabetes if you carry excess fat. Excess fat is a source of chronic
inflammation. Hence, it dysregulates the immune system. That’s why
obesity is a primary risk factor for COVID-19 complications. By contrast,
moderate weight loss decreases risk of most health issues.
 Before we see how you can shed some pounds, let’s first understand
how the body piles them up. Spoiler alert: lifestyle may well be the culprit.

Did You Know?

The body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height
commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults. BMI is
calculated by dividing weight (in kilograms) by the square of the
height (in meters).
According to the World Health Organization, a BMI between 19 and
24 is normal, a BMI greater than or equal to 25 is overweight, and a
BMI greater than or equal to 30 is obesity.
BMI provides an easy measure of overweight and obesity. It’s only a
rough guide because it does not consider body composition—how
much of the body is fat and how much is muscle. For example,
athletes who carry lots of muscles but little body fat may be wrongly
classified as overweight based on their BMI alone. However, for most
adults, BMI is a good indicator.

Let’s Do It!
Do you need to lose weight? Take simple baseline measurements to
see where you stand. You just need a tape measure and scale.
Calculate your BMI as follows:
Weight (in kg)/Height (in m) squared or Weight (in pounds) *703 /
Height (in inches) squared.
Write the result in your daily journal. Assess the evolution of your
BMI once a month.

Did You Know?

Body fat distribution is also important to consider. Body fat is mostly
stored as subcutaneous fat that can be pinched. But sometimes, a
small amount of body fat, called visceral fat, is located within the
abdomen around organs such as the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. It
hinders their ability to function. People who carry visceral fat have a
big belly that is hard when prodded because the fat sits below
abdominal muscles.

Let’s Do It!
The amount of visceral fat is well correlated with waist
circumference or waist to hip ratio—the ratio of waist circumference
to hip circumference. It can be assessed using a simple tape measure.
To find your waistline, feel for your hip bone on one side. Move
upwards until you feel the bones of your bottom rib. Halfway
between is your waistline. For most people, this is where their
tummy button is. Use a mirror to see what you’re doing. A good
waist circumference for men would be under 37 inches and for
 women under 32 inches. Obesity starts at 40 inches for men and 35
inches for women.
For the waist-to-hip ratio, measure your waist and hips. Divide your
waist measurement by your hip measurement. Write the result in
your daily journal. Ideally, the number should be below 1.0 for men
and 0.85 for women.

GAINS AND LOSSES

Cells require energy around the clock, but our ancestors often went days
without eating. Hence the need for storage systems to survive until the next
meal. The body accumulates fat when food is available to use it for energy
when food is no longer available. Now that food is always available, energy
storage is not as vital. However, it plays a central role in weight regulation.
When you gain weight, it’s most often because your fat stores are growing.
Fat gain is always a matter of excess calories. If you eat more calories
than you need, the excess is stored as fat, and fat stores grow. If you eat less
than you need, you use stored fat, and fat stores shrink. It stands to reason
that to lose weight, it’s necessary to decrease the calories coming in and
increase the calories going out. In other words: eat less, move more. Sounds
familiar? Unfortunately, there is no way around this.
A useful rule of thumb for weight management is that a pound of fat
holds 3,500 calories. It means that if you increase your caloric intake by 45
calories each day—for example, you eat one more Oreo cookie a day—you
will gain one pound every 78 days (78 times 45 equals 3,500). If you
decrease your caloric intake by 500 calories each day—for example, you
stop eating your regular plain bagel with cream cheese—after a week (7
times 500 = 3,500), you will have lost a pound of fat.
This rule of thumb works well short term, but eventually, cells change
the rules of the game. They have a strong bias against caloric restriction
because their biggest fear is starvation: the more you restrict calories, the
more cells become efficient energy-wise and do more work for each calorie
they burn.
Let’s say you reduce your daily energy intake by 20 percent. After
several weeks of rapid weight loss, it will level off, partly because you have
a lower body mass to sustain, partly because cells are more efficient. Hence,
your energy needs are less. At a certain point, you will stop losing weight
altogether, having reached a new equilibrium. If you want to lose more, you
will have to further decrease your energy intake.
Energy balance is important to understand how we gain weight, but it’s
not enough to understand why we gain weight. It’s like saying your boat is
sinking because more water is coming in than going out. This doesn’t tell
you why so much water is coming in. And in the why lies the solution. Why
is too much energy coming in while too little is going out?

HUNGER TALKS
Why do you eat? The first answer that comes to mind is: “because I’m
hungry.” So why are you hungry? The hypothalamus holds the answer. It’s
in charge of maintaining an adequate nutritional state inside the body. Based
on hormonal and neural feedback from the gut and fat stores, it triggers
feelings of either hunger or satiety to monitor eating behavior.
In the short run, the stomach releases the hunger hormone ghrelin if it’s
empty to let the hypothalamus know it needs to make you eat. When the
stomach is full, the hypothalamus detects the resulting fall in ghrelin. The
distention of the stomach also sends “I am full” signals to the hypothalamus
through the vagus nerve. As digestion moves on, the gut senses the quantity
and composition of what you’re eating and releases a flurry of satiety
hormones. It takes about 20 minutes for the hypothalamus to register
satiety.
In the longer run, fat tissues release the hormone leptin* to tell the brain
how much fat is stored. When you gain body fat, leptin is released to send
satiety signals to the hypothalamus. Increased satiety leads to a reduction in
food intake, which in turn reduces body fat, closing the circle. When you
lose body fat, the decrease in leptin sends hunger signals to the brain. To
calm your hunger, you ingest food, which in turn leads to increased body
fat, again closing the circle.
Unfortunately, your brain protects you from starvation much more
effectively than from overeating. That’s because our ancestors were much
more likely to encounter famine than feasting opportunities. Making
matters worse, many things interfere with signals from the gut, so much so
that true hunger is almost never the primary trigger for food intake.
 Pause & Reflect
Do you listen to hunger and satiety cues? How do you recognize you
are hungry? What does it feel like?

How would you describe your relationship with food?

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

If eating were controlled only by hunger and satiety, most of us would
probably be closer to our ideal body weight. That’s homeostasis. But more
often than not, you eat while not hungry. Here are ten factors which
override the hypothalamus:
1. Your environment is constantly pressuring you to eat. Food is
everywhere. Food outlets, restaurants, vending machines, gas
stations, you name it! Plus, everywhere you look, you are
bombarded by food advertisements. This makes you more likely to
eat at odd hours in odd places—in the car, the office, the street, the
movie theater, or in front of the TV. The Unconscious Mind is
evolutionary wired to make you reach for any food in sight,
especially if it’s loaded with calories.
2. Most convenient foods provide many calories per ounce and no
essential nutrients to show for it. Their caloric densities are five to
ten times higher than what our bodies were designed for. Such
foods make it easy to ingest a lot of calories in one sitting. They
artificially stimulate dopamine levels, making you come back for
more.
3. Do you know what the right amount to eat is? Or do you think a
portion is whatever is put in front of you? Portions are now two to
five times larger than they were in the past. Everything is super-
sized. And the more you get on your plate, the more you eat.
4. Did your parents reward you with sweets as a child? Do you
celebrate and socialize over food? Do you reach for a cookie when
you’re feeling down? If you answered yes, your Unconscious
Mind associates food with love, comfort, and reward. TV
commercials also make that connection for you.
5. Do you eat meals while driving, working, or watching TV? If you
don’t pay attention, not only are you unaware of how much you’ve
eaten, but you will surely miss satiety signals and overeat. Plus,
you are more likely to eat again sooner because you won’t
remember your last meal.
6. Do you gobble up food or do you make a conscious effort to
chew? Chewing promotes the release of satiety hormones and
slows you down. Unfortunately, processed food does not require
much chewing. Calories are ingested quickly and not correctly
sensed by the body. Sodas are the worst offenders.
7. Do you eat a lot of fructose? Unlike glucose, fructose does not
suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone. You can ingest massive
amounts of fructose in processed foods and sodas, and still not feel
satiated.
 8. Does your hypothalamus receive the appropriate signals? Excess
insulin and cortisol from sugar and stress throw off hunger/satiety
hormones and induce hormonal resistance.
9. Do you work behind a desk, commute by car, and watch TV for
fun? Then you don’t need that much energy to survive. But you
probably eat as though you hunt all day long.
10. Are you sleep deprived? Lack of sleep triggers the body to
produce ghrelin, which stimulates hunger.
On average, Americans eat 500 calories per day more than they did in the
1970s while burning 800 fewer calories. Considering you gain a pound of
fat for every 3,500 extra calories you don’t spend, it’s no wonder
overweight has become the new norm, and weight loss a never-ending
quest.

Pause & Reflect

What does food mean to you? (Possibilities include fuel,
nourishment, comfort, pleasure)
Do you always eat out of hunger?

If you eat when you are not hungry, what are the factors making you
eat? Do you eat more when you’re stressed? When you’re bored?
Do you reward yourself with food? Do you use food for comfort?
Are there specific situations, places, feelings that drive you to eat
without hunger? Use your food diary to answer those questions.

When are you exposed to food marketing?

 Is your environment conducive to overeating? Think of where you
live and work.

When do you stop eating? When there’s nothing left on your plate or
when you feel you have eaten enough?

What foods compel you to overeat? Those are the foods you don’t
want to have at home.

Do you often think about food? Do you have food cravings? Do you
binge?

WHY DO TRADITIONAL DIETS FAIL?

At any given time in the US, an estimated one-half of women and more
than one-fourth of men are on a diet. Americans spend over 60 billion
dollars per year on diet books, diet products, diet drugs, and weight loss
surgeries. Unfortunately, our limitless creativity when it comes to inventing
diets and weight loss products has done nothing to curb the prevalence of
overweight and obesity. What is most disheartening is that 95 percent of
people who lose weight regain it within five years and often gain more.
You want to remain extremely critical with diets that advertise quick
weight loss with outrageous claims like “lose 10 pounds in a week”. For it
to be true, you would need to eliminate 35,000 calories—3,500 times 10—
in seven days either by eating less or moving more. If you eat 14,000
calories a week, where are you going to find 35,000 calories? Unless you
eat nothing and do 21,000 calories’ worth of exercise, the equivalent of
running more than four hours per day, it’s not going to happen.
For many of us, diet means short-term deprivation: something you go
on, suffer through, and ultimately go off. Of course, caloric restriction
always leads to weight loss in the short term. You could lose weight on
burgers and fries as long as you consumed fewer calories than your body
needs. But the most challenging aspect of weight loss is keeping the weight
off. When you go off caloric restriction, you gain back the weight.
 Whatever makes you lose weight, you have to keep doing it for weight
loss to be permanent. Only permanent weight loss is worth the effort.
When you restrict caloric intake, you’re declaring war on your cells.
They see it as a threat to homeostasis. They fight back with the help of your
Unconscious Mind by escalating food cravings until you end up hungrier
and more preoccupied with food than ever. They also burn less energy to
hold on to calories. If you go back to eating at previous levels, you gain
weight because you now require less energy. You can’t beat your cells, you
want to work with them.
Recall the power of small. It also works with weight loss. Your best bet
is to set a realistic rate of weight loss at 0.5 to 1 pound per week. This
implies a reduction of 300 to 500 calories per day. Such a reduction will fly
under your cells’ radar as long as you give them the nutrients they need.
Let’s now see how you can reduce your caloric intake without depriving
your cells.

Pause & Reflect

What do you find hard about dieting?

What diets have you tried before? For how long? Did they work?
Were they sustainable long-term? Did you keep the weight off?
WHO’S COUNTING?

Even though nutrients should be the primary focus, calories do matter.

Caloric overload strangles cells and creates multiple gut issues, from
stagnation and putrefaction to inflammation and dysbiosis. Besides, if you
want to lose weight, you have no choice but to reduce caloric intake. But
rest assured: I’m not telling you to count calories. You just need to be aware
of the energy density of foods and adjust portions.
To illustrate energy density, consider a double cheeseburger. It holds 540
calories and provides mostly fat and high-glycemic carbohydrates. Because
it’s not that big, it doesn’t satiate you. And it triggers a sugar crash shortly
after. Now consider a plate with one carrot, four ounces of grilled chicken,
one cup of broccoli, one bell pepper, half a cup of rice, one teaspoon of
olive oil, one medium apple, ten almonds. That’s a massive volume of food,
with lots of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber. Satiation
guaranteed! And no sugar crash.
Every food contains a different number of calories, bite for bite. Energy
density measures the number of calories per ounce. It’s an important
determinant of total caloric intake. The difference between foods can be
huge, ranging from 25 to 500 calories per ounce.
Energy density depends on fat, fiber, and water content. Fiber and water
bulk up food, without adding calories, whereas foods rich in fat exhibit a
high energy density. A few bites of fried chicken, potato chips, or donut are
loaded with calories. For such foods, monitoring portion size will save you
hundreds of calories daily. No single food has to be forbidden as long as
you control portions.
 Studies show we eat about the same weight of food every day, no matter
the number of calories. A good strategy is to add vegetables to crowd out
energy-dense foods. For instance, you will feel as satiated with a plate of
spaghetti and zucchini as a with a plate of spaghetti carbonara, but you will
have halved caloric intake and increased nutrient intake. You can also make
partial substitutions, such as halving your portion of mashed potatoes and
adding a large portion of leafy greens.
Our food budget is increasingly spent on restaurants and takeout. When
eating out, keep in mind that getting more food for your money is not
always a good deal, especially if your plate is stuffed with processed
carbohydrates and fried foods. Cheap food comes with a high cost to health
and weight.
In the last section, we saw that your best to lose weight is to reduce your
caloric intake by 300 to 500 calories a day. This entails making three to five
sustainable changes of about 100 calories each, less if you move more.
Changes will combine modest reductions in portion size and smart
substitutions for less energy-dense food. The good news is, if you
implement some of the changes listed in the chapter Every Bite You Take,
you will lose weight effortlessly as a direct consequence of a healthy
lifestyle.

Let’s Do It!
I told you that you would not be counting calories, so the actions
below are optional. I still think it’s a good idea to be aware of
calories in foods. Imagine you’re used to eating a specific brand of
cookies. Realizing those cookies bring you a tremendous number of
calories with no nutritional benefit can give you sufficient incentive
to find a substitute.
First, familiarize yourself with the energy density for one ounce of
common foods:
Bell peppers 6
Watermelon 8
Strawberry 9
Broccoli 10
Carrots 12
Apples 13
Pear 16
Grapes 19
Banana 25
Turkey 38
Tuna 40
Pasta noodles 45
Lean beef 46
Chicken breast 48
Pork chop 60
White bread 75
Plain bagel 81
French fries 88
Plain cereals 101
Plain donut 108
Potato chips 150
Pistachio 160
Almonds 163
Cheetos 170
Pecans 196
Butter 203
Vegetable oil 237
Second, look up the calories per ounce of your favorite foods. You
can calculate the calorie density of any food by dividing its calories
by its weight in ounces. You’ll find both numbers on food labels.
What foods provide the most satisfying portions for the fewest
calories?
Third, assess how many calories you eat on a typical day. Use your
food diary. Basic estimates are good enough. Use online databases or
food labels for caloric content, and a food scale or measuring cup to
assess portions. Identify the foods that contribute the most calories to
 your diet. How can you replace them with lower-calorie-density
items?

STEP OFF THE ROLLER COASTER

We’ve talked at length about the harmful effects of eating sugar and high-
glycemic foods. Do you remember the roller coaster ride? It turns out this
ride is fattening and renders useless any effort to lose weight.
If you regularly drink sodas or eat processed carbohydrates and sugary
treats, your body experiences frequent glucose spikes that cause insulin to
stay elevated. Not only does insulin make sure cells store excess glucose in
the form of fat—it’s your fat storing hormone—but it also blocks fat cells
from releasing fat. What’s more, it blocks leptin signaling in the brain; you
never feel satiated. This makes weight loss impossible and keeps you
eating.
The way out of this vicious cycle is to stop grazing all day and make
sure meals have a low glycemic load. This results in consistent energy
levels and a delay in the return of hunger. No more of that constant urge to
eat between meals. And lower insulin levels allow the body to burn fat.
To go low-glycemic, reduce portions of high-glycemic foods, such as
processed carbohydrates and sugary foods, and add more nutritious foods
such as vegetables and whole grains. Combine high-glycemic foods with
foods rich in fiber or protein to slow down the absorption of glucose.
Remember our talk about ducks and “foie gras”? It’s a good idea to
avoid fructose in processed foods if you want to get rid of visceral fat
around your organs.
Let’s compare notes!

Please take a moment to fill your reading journal. Here are some writing
prompts.
What three things did you learn from this chapter?
What most resonated with you?
How can you apply what you’ve learned?

TAKEAWAY MENU
In addition to your own notes, here are some suggested takeaways you
can pick from.
A. Your weight is the reflection of the lifestyle choices you’ve made
up to now.
B. Fat accumulates because of an imbalance between calories coming
in and calories going out. Eating less and moving more is the only
way to lose weight.
C. Your hypothalamus regulates food intake through hormonal
signaling. But your lifestyle can override it.
D. Our current environment is designed for weight gain.
E. Food is often used as a coping mechanism.
F. Temporary diets only give you temporary results. Permanent
results come from permanent lifestyle changes.
G. The only way to lose weight long term is to make small, lasting
changes in the way you eat, move, sleep, and manage stress.
H. To decrease your caloric intake without feeling deprived, reduce
portions of energy-dense foods and up the portions of nutrient-
 dense foods. Increasing physical activity also helps. Make three to
five changes of 100 calories each per day to make your way to
permanent weight loss.
I. Choose low-glycemic food to reduce cravings and allow for fat
burning. Do not eat between meals.
 Action Steps
to Ditch the Weight
Permanent weight loss is a side effect of a healthy lifestyle. By
implementing some of the changes listed in the previous chapters, you will
see pounds dropping off. I urge you to focus on creating healthy and
sustainable behaviors rather than on losing weight. However, let me
pinpoint a few action steps targeted on weight loss to see results even faster.
Read the list through and pick at least five steps. Calibrate them so
they’re easy to do. Write them in your long-term journal. Prioritize using a
1 to 5 ranking.
Start by implementing one step. Plan the when/where/how in your daily
journal. Do a skill visualization for rehearsal.

MIND YOUR BITE

1. Keep track. Food tracking is a powerful tool for weight loss. You
may be surprised by how much and how often you eat.
2. When you want to eat, ask yourself: “Am I really hungry?”. It’s
easy to misinterpret hunger signals with other signals like fatigue,
thirst, or stress. If you get the urge to eat, try closing your eyes,
drinking a glass of water, or doing breathwork.
3. Start with a small portion. Stop eating the moment you feel
satisfied but still light. If you’re full or tired, you’ve overdone it!
Do not hesitate to leave food on your plate: you can always eat
more later if you need to.
4. To feel more satiated and ingest fewer calories, eat slowly and
mindfully. Take the time to savor each bite and chew thoroughly.
Don’t do anything else while eating. If you pay undivided
attention to your perceptions, you give your Unconscious Mind
the impression it’s getting more.
5. Don’t bring calorie-dense, nutrient-deprived, ultra-processed foods
into your home. Those are the pizzas, chicken nuggets, processed
meats, white bread, cookies, candies, salad dressings, potato chips,
ice cream to name a few. If they’re not there, you won’t eat them.
Only keep fruits and vegetables at home. You can’t binge on
broccoli or apples the same way you can on a pack of chips or
cookies.
6. Don’t skip meals. If you feel ravenous, you are much more likely
to make poor food choices and overeat. By eating regular meals,
including breakfast, lunch, and an early light dinner, you control
your hunger throughout the day and reset your circadian rhythms
for optimal metabolism.
7. Plan meals and snacks to avoid having to eat whatever is available.
Make your own food for lunch and pack healthy snacks. You will
save both calories and money.
8. Stop grazing. Only eat when sitting down for meals.
9. Work on your response to hunger. It’s OK to be a little hungry.
Hunger is not an emergency. You can survive more than three
weeks without eating, so a little hunger will not kill you. Hunger
mechanisms were designed for environments where food scarcity
was the norm. You do not live in such environments. Therefore,
you do not need to eat at every opportunity for fear of not finding
food in the future.
10. Make a priority of eating breakfast. It will help you make
healthier food choices later in the day and reduce your overall
caloric intake. If you are not hungry when you wake up or don’t
 have time, pack a healthy breakfast, such as oatmeal, berries, and
Greek yogurt.
11. Brush your teeth after meals. Your Unconscious Mind will register
that the meal is over.
12. When you overeat, pay attention to how bad you feel afterward:
you may experience bloating, nausea, fatigue, belly aches, your
clothes feel too tight, you have difficulty breathing. Feel the pain!
13. Get rid of toxicants. They’re an important factor in obesity. Some
toxicants are placed in fat cells and impede weight loss; the body
resists burning fat for fear of releasing toxicants into the
bloodstream.

NO NEED TO COUNT
14. Drink two glasses of water fifteen minutes before each meal. The
water will fill your stomach and make you feel satiated sooner
without adding any calorie. You will be less likely to overeat.
15. Learn the proper portion sizes. Weigh food to compare how much
you typically eat with a healthy portion size. Once in a while,
serve yourself your usual portion and pour it into a measuring cup
to compare it to recommended portion sizes. Always check the
serving size and the number of servings on packages.
16. Familiarize yourself with the caloric content of the foods you
usually eat by looking at food labels on packages or by searching
the internet for calorie tables. Spot high-calorie foods and manage
portion sizes. Pay special attention to fried foods—potato chips,
French fries, donuts, fried chicken—bread, cereals, crackers, fatty
cuts of meat, ice cream, cakes, cookies.
17. Reduce portions of high-calorie and high-glycemic foods by 25
percent. This means taking off a quarter of what you usually eat. If
you eat it slowly and savor it, your Unconscious Mind won’t spot
the difference: you will feel equally satisfied.
18. When ordering food, choose the smallest size of any high-calorie
items. For instance, take a small order of French fries. Slow down
 so you take the same time to eat it as you would the large one.
19. Cut calories from dressings and sauces. A teaspoon is enough to
add taste.
20. Eat off a plate rather than straight out of the box or the bag. Pre-
portion your food.
21. Eliminate sodas and fruit juices. Grab a glass of water!
22. Avoid diet foods. They stimulate appetite. Instead, take a smaller
portion of the regular version.
23. Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol contains seven calories per
gram but doesn’t provide any feeling of satiety. The calories you
drink add to the calories you eat and are stored as fat. And some
drinks contain much more calories because of syrups.
24. Make smart substitutions like those mentioned in the chapter
Every Bite You Take to save calories.
25. Stay out of the break room if coworkers have brought sweets or
pastries. Take a walk instead.
26. Lower the glycemic load of your meal. For foods that need to be
cooked, cook them al dente. Avoid ‘instant’ or ‘easy cook’ foods
which are more highly processed. Include protein, healthy fat, and
fiber in every meal. For example, cook wholegrain pasta or rice al
dente, combine them with vegetables, add little strips of chicken
and a teaspoon of olive oil.
27. Never eat sweets or processed carbohydrates on their own.
Always eat them with foods containing protein, fiber, or
unsaturated fats. A dessert at the end of the meal isn’t as bad as the
same dessert eaten on its own.
28. Get moving. Skip, dance, run in place. Physical activity increases
caloric deficit. It also regulates appetite and improves insulin
sensitivity. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and brisk
walking are extremely effective to get rid of belly fat.
29. To make sure your hormones are balanced and don’t make you eat
more than you need, get some sleep! Sleep deprivation decreases
 leptin, and thus causes hunger.
30. Relax! Excess cortisol because of stress brings on the fat,
especially around your belly. When your cells feel safe, they use
body fat as fuel.

BEAT CRAVINGS
31. Take five. When you reach for a snack or unhealthy food, get
curious about why you want to eat. Ask yourself: “Am I hungry?”,
“Will I enjoy it?”, “Is that food good for me?”, “How will I feel
afterward?”, “What’s the smallest amount I need to feel
satisfied?”.
32. Another way to put some distance between yourself and your
cravings is to take 10 mindful breaths. Tell yourself you can eat
whatever you want as long as you take 10 mindful breaths first.
33. Stop ignoring your emotions. Emotions you do not deal with end
up controlling you. Let yourself experience the emotions you are
trying to suppress with eating; you won’t need to eat as much.
34. Write your way out. Venting on a page offers an outlet and enables
you to move forward. Take a piece of paper or begin a document
on your computer. Write what you feel. Go wherever your writing
takes you. Don’t censor yourself. This is just for you. You can
throw away the document once you’re done.
35. Identify the situations that trigger overeating. Associate them with
new behaviors. For instance: “If I feel like eating because I’m
bored, I will go for a walk.” Create a list of what you can do to
feel good. It may include drinking herbal tea, trying self-massage,
keeping a journal, calling a friend, taking a bubble bath, reading,
listening to music, going on a short walk, dancing, meditating,
browsing your local bookstore, working in the garden, getting
creative—drawing, painting, or writing.
36. Structure your day from the moment you wake up to the moment
you go to bed. When you know what to do next, idleness doesn’t
lead you to snack.
 37. Indulge mindfully. Try the following mindfulness technique.
Portion out one serving. Sit down and take some time to look at it.
Imagine what it’s going to taste like in your mouth. Take a small
bite, chew slowly, close your eyes, and focus on the texture and
taste. How good is it? After swallowing that first bite, take three
deep breaths, and decide if you want another bite or if you can put
away the food for later.

Did You Know?

Your brain is wired to seek pleasure. When you don’t pay attention to
what you’re eating, you’re depriving your brain of pleasure. To put an
end to your cravings, be mindful when you eat!
 PART V

Try It!

Quick Start Guide

We have two lives, and the second [life] begins
when we realize we only have one.
—Confucius
By now, you have established the master list of steps you want to
implement. To complement your master list, you will find below some basic
steps with which to start for each pillar of your health: food, movement,
sleep, stress management, environmental exposure.
Begin with a breath
Nothing is more important than breathing. You wouldn’t survive more than
two minutes if you stopped breathing. Several times during the day, pause,
exhale deeply through pursed lips, and take three deep, gentle breaths.
Make your exhales longer than your inhales and expand your belly when
breathing in. You’re telling your nervous system everything is fine—no lion
is chasing you.

Chew
Chew each bite at least 30 times. Put down your fork between bites.

Clear the air

Open your windows at least 20 minutes per day to ventilate your home. Get
rid of any fragrance.
Collect selfies
Create a photo album of yourself engaging in healthy activities: eating
healthy food, shopping for fruits and vegetables, walking outside, drinking
a glass of water, going to bed early, meditating, cooking for yourself.
Cook lightly
To preserve valuable nutrients and avoid production of harmful substances,
do not overcook, burn, or fry food. Steam vegetables lightly until slightly
tender. Do not heat vegetable oils.

Create movement routines

Design a stretching routine you can do every day. Incorporate at least five
exercises and target different areas of your body. Include at least one hip
flexor stretch. Decide when and where you’re going to stretch.

Do the same for strength training: design a routine you can do three days a
week. Do simple bodyweight exercises such as squats, planks, push-ups,
and chair dips.

Dine early
Eat a light/early dinner. Leave at least 12 hours between dinner and
breakfast the next day to promote cellular renewal.

Disconnect
Turn off your smartphone and internet router at night.
Ditch cereals and fruit juice
There’s nothing healthy about cereals and fruit juices. They are full of
sugar. Healthy breakfast alternatives include oats, eggs, plain Greek yogurt
topped with fruit, avocado, peanut butter, whole wheat bread, turkey.
Express gratitude
At night when you go to bed, think of three things that went well during the
day or that you are grateful for.

Get rid of plastics

Use wax paper. Switch to glass food containers. Avoid plastic water bottles.
Don’t heat anything plastic. Don’t cover anything hot with plastic.

Give your cells a break

Go to bed early to allow cells to clean up and reset. Set an alarm so you
don’t forget. Factor in time to wind down and stop eating at least three
hours before going to bed.

Go play outside
Play outdoors with your children or grandchildren. You will get sun
exposure and physical activity, while sharing quality time and making fun
memories. Run, jump, hide, dig, build, explore, cycle, skate, throw: the
possibilities are endless.

Jazz it up
Eat a rainbow of natural colors. Fill half your plate with colorful vegetables.
Each color represents different phytonutrients. The deeper the hue, the more
nutrients you get.
Learn how to cook
Look on YouTube for basic cooking techniques. Learn one technique a
week. You will soon be cooking like a pro!

Less is more
You can eat what you want as long as you decrease portion sizes for high-
caloric foods: meat, nuts, pizza, chips, French fries, cookies, cheese, and
every of fatty or sugary food. Take longer to savor the smaller portions, one
bite at a time: you won’t feel deprived!
Make a list
Have your list ready when you go grocery shopping. Do not go hungry.
Start with the produce section.

Mark your calendar

Schedule steps on your calendar. Allocate specific time slots for steps, even
if they’re just five-minute slots.
Mind your eating
No eating on the run! Only eat when seated at a table. Eat slowly and enjoy
each bite. Remove any source of distraction. Do not eat when angry,
anxious, or upset.

Move with attention

Whenever you move your body, even if it’s just walking to the mailbox,
take notice. Try to vary the way you move and go the full range of motion
when it is safe to do so.

Pace around
When taking a phone call, waiting for the bus, or standing on the sidelines
at your child’s sporting event, pace up and down.

Pick up your pace

Walk quicker than usual at a pace that gets your heart pumping. Start with a
10-minute brisk walk a day and build up from there.

Plan your meals

Plan meals to avoid unhealthy last-minute choices. Build your meals around
vegetables and fruit; add small portions of protein and whole grains, and
even smaller portions of healthy fats. Enhance flavors with herbs and
spices. If you’re on the road or at work around noon, pack a healthy lunch
to take with you.

Prep on weekends
Do your shopping, cut vegetables, prepare meals to keep in the refrigerator
or freezer for the week to come.

Pump it up!
Every morning before work, do at least 15 minutes of cardiovascular
activity that gets your heart beating faster. You can combine a five-minute
HIIT routine and a 10-minute brisk walk outside. You will feel energized
and clear-headed.
Purge your pantry
Get rid of any unhealthy food in your pantry and in your refrigerator. If it’s
not there, you won’t eat it. Stock your pantry and refrigerator with healthy
foods.

Put the fire out

Make anti-inflammatory food choices: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and
fish. Decrease your consumption of foods high in omega-6 (meat, dairy,
vegetable oils), fried foods, and high-glycemic foods (sugar, refined grains).

Read the labels

Read ingredient labels to know what you’re eating. Pay attention to sugar
and fat as well as anything with a number or a name you don’t recognize.

Save money
You can eat healthy and save money. How? 1. Stop buying processed and
take-away food. 2. Cut back on meat and dairy. 3. Eat out less often. 4. Plan
your meals and purchase only what you need to avoid food waste. 5. Cook
large portions and use leftovers. 6. Buy legumes and whole grains in bulk.
7. Eat local and in season. 8. Pack your lunch. 9. Buy frozen fruits and
vegetables.

Say no to soda and fruit juice

Drink water or herbal tea. If you are a big drinker of soda or fruit juice,
gradually decrease your consumption by taking out one soda a day or by
diluting your fruit juice with water. Drink a glass of water before drinking
soda or alcohol to quench your thirst.
Select the right spots
Search out the prime spots for healthy food shopping in your neighborhood
where you can buy affordable, fresh, whole foods. Check them out.

Set up your kitchen

Make sure you have the kitchen tools you need. Turn your kitchen into a
cozy space. Add comfortable seating, color, and lighting. Keep it clean and
free of clutter.

Shop organic
Begin with the foods you eat the most. Include the “Dirty 12” listed by the
Environmental Working Group on their website. Eating organic doesn’t
have to be expensive if you prepare the food yourself, buy less meat, and
limit food waste. However, keep in mind that organic does not make a food
healthy. Organic processed foods are still processed foods.
Shower your cells
Drink a lot of water during the day. Begin your morning with one big glass
of water. Drink two glasses before each meal. It will keep you hydrated and
prevent you from overeating. It will also allow your liver, circulatory
systems, and kidneys to work optimally.

Suppress negative self-talk

Each time you hold a negative thought, challenge yourself to come up with
a positive statement. Focus only on what you can do to improve the
situation.
Simplify your life
How? 1. Spend less time on screens. 2. Create reminders on your phone for
appointments and tasks. 3. Clear your desk. 4. Declutter your home. 5.
Create a minimal wardrobe. 6. Get rid of clothes you don’t wear. 7. Have a
place for everything. 8. Prep the night before (breakfast, lunch, clothes). 9.
Do now what you can do right away.
Smell the flowers
Take the time to notice pleasant experiences such as a taking a hot shower,
having a pleasant exchange with a stranger, feeling the sun on your face,
looking at the night sky, watching your children sleep, or laughing with
friends. Make those experiences stay with you throughout the day. You can
stop and smell the flowers literally, by going into a flower shop or a garden!

Smile
To alleviate stress, smile to yourself. You can do something that makes you
smile, but fake smiling also works. Imagine your smile going to every part
of your body. Smile to others to alleviate both your stress and theirs,
making it a better world for everyone!

Stand up for yourself

Every 30 minutes of sitting, stand up, take a few steps, stretch, rotate your
joints, and flex your muscles to get some life back in your body and release
tension. Use the alarm on your phone so you don’t forget.
Step off the roller coaster
Glucose and insulin levels always go up and down after you eat, but you
can make sure they don’t go way up or way down. Swap high-glycemic
carbohydrates—white bread, cookies, donuts, pizzas—for low-glycemic
carbs—vegetables, whole grains. Steer clear of sugar as much as possible.
Add a combination of fiber, proteins, and healthy fats to every meal. Never
eat sugar on its own!

Step outside
Get some sunlight and see some greenery early in the morning. Avoid
staying in artificial environments—artificial light, air conditioner, electronic
devices—all day long. Connect with nature. Walk barefoot when it is safe to
do so.
Take five
Whenever you can, take a five-minute brisk walk around the block to
energize your cells. Feeling tired and depressed? Five-minute bursts of
movement boost energy and mood. Run in place; do jumping jacks, squats,
knee highs, punches, butt kicks, skaters, feet shuffles. Create your own
quick pick-me-up.
Take the stairs
Seize every movement opportunity. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
Go see your coworkers rather than phoning or sending a message. Park
farther away in the parking lot. Do not use the drive-through.
Target nutrition
Each time you choose what to eat, make sure you get useful nutrients
(essential fats and proteins, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients) and not just
calories.
Test the power of mind over body
Take a pause regularly. Close your eyes. Slow down your breathing. Smile
and tell yourself: “Everything is fine. I’m safe. I can relax now.” This
decreases your stress response and calms down your immune system.
Travel through time
Re-read the chapter The Power of Time Travel. Do the visualization once
more to anchor your whys into your Unconscious Mind.

Visit your farmers’ market

This is the easiest way to get access to fresh, seasonal food from local
growers. Each time, challenge yourself to try at least one new vegetable or
fruit. Take your children to teach them how food is grown or produced

Vote for whole grain

Enjoy whole grains as your primary source of grains: whole-wheat bread
and pasta, oatmeal, brown rice.

Write your own cookbook

Create a master list of your favorite healthy recipes. Put all the recipes in a
notebook. At a loss? Look on the internet for inspiration. Go to the
companion website for resources.
 A Final Word
Nothing endures but change.
—Heraclitus

Regarding your health, the final word is yours! Now that you’ve read this
book:
Do you know how to make your Unconscious Mind take you
where you want to go?
Do you feel more in touch with your cells?
Do you understand how your daily choices affect how you feel,
how you think, how you look?
Do you have the means to take better care of yourself and your
family?
Are you ready to implement some steps in the months and years to
come?
You have 9 powers to make better lifestyle choices. You can use them at
any moment to save your life and the life of everyone around you.
You’re in this for the long haul, be patient and enjoy! I wish you a
lifetime of healthy eating, physical activity, stress management, restful
sleep, and low toxicity.
I invite you to visit the companion website to this book
www.youhave9powerstosavelives.com for additional resources.

Before we say goodbye

Thank you for reading this book and walking this path with me. I sincerely
hope you have found this book enjoyable, understandable, and most
importantly, useful in achieving greater health for yourself and those you
care about. I also hope you become an enthusiastic advocate of lifestyle
change. Gaining readership as an independent author depends mostly on
word-of-mouth. If you can, please consider leaving a short review and a
rating on Amazon. I look forward to your comments.

Did You Know?

When you save yourself, you’re also saving the planet and ultimately
future generations. Whether it’s walking instead of using your car,
eating fewer animal products and processed foods, decreasing your
use of plastic and toxic products, buying local or organic, and
reducing screen time, you’re protecting the environment.
Appendices
 Appendix I
Exercise Instructions
Here are simple exercises to do at any time during the day. You can also
look on the internet or YouTube for videos to help you with the instructions
or to find routines you like. I provide links on the companion website.

BREATHING TECHNIQUES
Breathing techniques are helpful to calm down and increase focus. You can
do them anytime, anywhere. There are many apps you can use. Try doing
breathwork for five to ten minutes at a time. Making your exhales longer
than your inhales calms you down. Making them shorter energizes you.

Diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing

Most of us take short, shallow breaths, especially when we’re stressed. This
exercise is great to amplify your breathing, massage your internal organs,
and loosen your diaphragm.
Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest. Breathe in
through your nose. Feel your belly rise first and then your chest. Your belly
should rise more than your chest. Breathe out through your nose. Feel your
chest and your belly lower.

4-7-8
This exercise is great for relaxing or falling asleep.
Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Inhale through the nose for a count of
four. Hold your breath for a count of seven. Exhale through pursed lips for a
count of eight. Repeat.
 Did You Know?
Breathing out through the mouth is more relaxing. Breathing out
through the nose is more focusing.

Stimulating breath
This breath increases energy and alertness.
Inhale and exhale rapidly through your nose. Keep your mouth closed. Start
with 10 seconds and see how you feel.

Breath counting
This breathing exercise is meditative and can help you fall asleep.
Take gentle, deep breaths, in and out. Count 12 as you exhale through
pursed lips. The next time you exhale, count 11, and so on to one. If you
lose count, start again from number 12.

Calming visualization
Close your eyes. Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Breathe in. As you
breathe in, imagine you’re taking in a sense of calm and see this sense of
calm traveling through your body. Breathe out through pursed lips. As you
breathe out, imagine that your breath carries away all the tensions. Continue
for a few minutes.
Progressive muscle relaxation
Close your eyes. Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Each time you breathe
in, focus your attention on a part of your body, starting with your scalp. As
you breathe out, relax this body part. Go through your face (forehead, eyes,
nose, chin, jaws), neck, shoulders, arms (upper arms, elbows, forearms,
wrists, palms, fingers), chest, belly, back, buttocks, legs (thighs, knees,
calves, ankles, palms of feet, toes).
Equal breathing
Equal breathing helps slow down your heartbeat.
Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Breathe in through your nose to a count
of five. Breathe out through your nose to a count of five. You can increase
the counts up to 10, as long as you match how long you breathe in with how
long you breathe out.

Box breathing
Box breathing increases concentration and is a powerful stress reliever.
Exhale deeply through pursed lips. Inhale for a count of four. Hold your
breath for a count of four. Exhale for a count of four. Hold your breath for a
count of four. Picture a square. As you count to four, move along one side
of the square. You can also use a visual aid to follow the sides of the square.

Alternate nostril breathing

This is a great exercise to balance your brain.
Block your right nostril with your right thumb. Exhale through the left
nostril. Inhale through the left nostril. Release your right nostril and block
your left nostril with your right ring finger. Exhale through the right nostril.
Inhale through the right nostril and continue the pattern.

JOINT EXERCISES
Move slowly, gently, and smoothly. Stop if you experience pain and consult
your physician.
Neck
Starting position: sitting or standing, shoulders relaxed.
HEAD TILTS
Slowly bow your head and try to touch your chin to your chest. Lift your
chin back to the starting position. Tilt your head back as far as you can to
look up at the ceiling. Return your head to the starting position. Repeat four
times.
Slowly tilt your head to one side, bringing your ear toward your shoulder.
Return your head to the starting position. Slowly tilt your head to the other
side. Repeat four times.
HEAD TURNS
Slowly turn your head to one side to look over your shoulder. Make your
chin touch your shoulder. Return your head to starting position. Slowly turn
your head to the other side. Repeat four times.

Shoulders and elbows

Starting position: standing or sitting. Hold your arms straight down at your
side, palms facing toward your body. Use a chair without arms if you are in
a sitting position.
FRONT AND BACK CRAWLS
Rotate your right arm forward and then up over your head. Your inner arm
should touch your ear. Continue by rotating your right arm back as far as
possible behind your body and keep rotating until you return your arm to
the starting position. Repeat three times. Rotate your arm the other way
around. Do the same with the left arm.
SHOULDER ROTATIONS
Raise both shoulders toward your ears, as if you were trying to shrug. Roll
your shoulders back in a smooth circle and come back to your starting
position. Repeat three times. Then roll your shoulders in the other direction.
ELBOW BENDS
With both your arms extended in front of you, bend your elbows to touch
your shoulders with your fingertips. Return your arms to the starting
position.
ELBOW ROTATIONS
With your arms extended in front of you, rotate your forearms around your
elbows in opposite directions, making circles with your hands. Then rotate
your forearms in the other direction.

Arms and wrists

Starting position: standing or sitting.
WRIST BENDS
Bend your hands back toward your wrists so your fingers point toward the
ceiling and your palms face forward. Then bend your hands down so your
fingers point toward the floor and your palms face your body. Repeat three
times.
WRIST ROTATIONS
Roll your hands in circles around your wrists in one direction. Roll your
hands in circles in the other direction. Repeat four times.

Hands and fingers

Starting position: sitting or standing.
FINGER BENDS
Make tight fists with your hands. Then open your hand and stretch your
fingers as far apart as possible. Repeat three times.

Spine
Starting position: Standing, legs shoulder-width apart, arms loose at your
sides.
TORSO TWISTS
Rotate your torso from side to side about 90 degrees, turning the upper part
of your body to look behind you. Repeat seven times.

Hips and knees

HIP AND KNEE BENDS
Starting position: on your back with your legs flat and straight.
Slowly bend one knee up as close to your chest as possible. Make circles
with your knee in one direction, then in the other direction. Straighten your
leg and return it to a flat position. Do the same with your other leg.
LEG ROTATIONS
Starting position: on your back with your legs flat and straight.
Roll your leg toward the other leg so that only your big toe touches the
surface. Then roll your leg outward so that only your smallest toe touches
the surface.
HIP CIRCLES
Starting position: Standing up, feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent.
Make a circle with your hips—forward, right, back, left—as if you were
playing with a hula hoop. Repeat four times in each direction.

Ankles and feet

Starting position: Standing up.
ANKLE BENDS
Keep your toes on the floor and raise both heels as high as you can. Lower
your heels. Then keep your heels on the floor and lift your toes as high as
you can. Repeat seven times.
ANKLE EXERCISES
Lift your foot slightly off the floor. Roll your foot in circles around your
ankle. Then roll in the opposite direction. Do the same with your other foot.
TOE BENDS
Curl your toes down toward the floor. Straighten them. Curl them up toward
the ceiling. Then straighten them again.

STRETCHING EXERCISES
Move gently and smoothly. Don’t lock your joints. Never force a stretch.
You should only feel a slight pulling sensation in your muscles. Breathe
deeply while holding the positions. Afterward, take the time to savor the
sensations in your body.

Neck
Starting position: Sitting or standing.
Tilt your right ear to your right shoulder. Gently press down on the left side
of your head with your right hand. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other
side.
Triceps
Starting position: Sitting or standing.
Lift your left arm overhead. Bend your left elbow so that it touches the left
side of your head and your hand touches your back. Lift your right arm
overhead and grab your left elbow with your right hand. Gently pull your
left elbow behind your head. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side.
Shoulders
Starting position: Sitting or standing.
Interlace your fingers in front of you and press your palms away from your
body in front of your chest. Tilt your chin toward your chest and round your
back. Feel your back and your shoulders stretching. Hold for 30 seconds.
Release the position.
Interlace your fingers behind your back, palms facing the floor. Bring your
chest forward and arch your upper back. Pull your shoulders down and
back. Hold for 30 seconds.

Spine
Starting position: on your back with your legs flat and straight.
Extend your arms out to your sides, forming a T. Bend your knees and bring
them to your chest. Slowly drop both knees to your right, keeping your
knees close together. Turn your head to your left. Hold the position for 30
seconds. Repeat on the other side.

Waist
Starting position: standing up, feet together, abs tucked in.
Lift your arms over your head and reach to the ceiling. Slowly bend your
upper body to the left. Hold for 20 seconds. Slowly return to the center.
Repeat on the other side.

Back
CAT-COW
Starting position: on your hands and knees, wrists underneath your
shoulders, back straight.
Slowly round your back while pushing it up. Drop your head forward to
look at your thighs. Draw your navel toward your spine. Hold for five
seconds. Return to starting position. Raise your head to gaze toward the
ceiling while tilting your pelvis up so that your tailbone sticks up. Move
your shoulders away from your ears. Hold for five seconds. Return to
starting position. Repeat four times.
CHILD’S POSE
Starting position: sitting on your heels, knees together.
Bend forward to rest your forehead on the floor and your chest on your
thighs. Extend your arms in front of you palms facing down or keep your
arms alongside your body with palms facing up. Breathe deeply and focus
on stretching your back. Hold for a minute.

Hips
LUNGES
Starting position: standing up, feet together.
Take a big step forward with your right foot. Bend your right knee and drop
into a lunge. Keep your left leg straight behind you, with heel lifted and
toes on the ground.
1. Raise your arms over your head, reaching for the ceiling with your
hands. Bend your torso to the right. Hold for 30 seconds.
2. Place your left hand on the floor. Place your right elbow and
forearm on the floor. Hold for 30 seconds.
3. Twist your upper body to the right as you lift your left arm. Turn
your head to look at your left hand. Hold for 30 seconds.
4. Repeat on the other side.
FIGURE 4
Starting position: on your back.
Bend your left knee. Cross your right leg over your left leg. Hold the back
of your left leg, and gently pull it toward your chest. Hold for 30 seconds.
Repeat on the other side.
BUTTERFLY
Starting position: on your back or sitting.
Bring the soles of your feet together. Open your knees and move them
closer to the floor. Hold for 30 seconds.
BRIDGE
Starting position: on your back.
Bend your knees. Keep your feet flat on the floor and your arms by your
sides, palms down. Tilt your chin toward your chest. Press into your heels
and lift your hips until they form a line with your knees and thighs. Hold for
30 seconds. Release by slowly lowering your back to the floor, vertebrae by
vertebrae.
Legs
Starting position: standing up, feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent.
Hinge forward at your hips and reach for the floor. Lower your fingers as
far as you can without forcing. Hold for 30 seconds and relax your upper
body, including your face and your arms. To undo the position, bend your
knees and slowly lift your torso.
Quads
Starting position: standing up, feet together.
Bend your right knee and use your hands to pull your right foot toward your
butt. Hold the position for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side.
STRENGTH TRAINING EXERCISES

You don’t need any equipment: you can use your body weight as resistance.
For each exercise, start with one set of eight repetitions. Gradually build
up to three sets. To add extra burn, increase the number of repetitions, or
add an exercise band or weights. You can use water bottles, cans, or books
instead of weights. To activate arm muscles without dumbbells, all you
need to do is to clench your fists.
While doing any exercise, make sure you pull your stomach muscles in
toward your lower back to engage your core. Don’t forget to breathe at each
repetition. Feel the muscles contract. It will enhance efficacy. Perform slow
and controlled.
Stretch after an exercise session for a leaner and better-performing body.
Stretching relaxes muscles, prevents muscle soreness and injury, and gives
you more flexibility.
Allow recovery between your workouts. Try to exercise your major
muscle groups during at least two 30-minute sessions a week. You can
break this down in shorter, more frequent sessions but never exercise the
same muscles two days in a row.
Abdominal twists
This exercise targets oblique abs.
Extend your arms to the side at shoulder height. Bend your elbows at a 90-
degree angle. Vigorously rotate your torso as far as you can to bring your
right shoulder to the left side of your body while slightly bending your
knees. As soon as you reach the farthest position, come back to your initial
position, then vigorously rotate your torso as far as you can to bring your
left shoulder to the right side of your body while slightly bending your
knees. Come back to your initial position. This is one rep. Keep your hips
still during the motion; only your arms and torso should move.

Arm Circles
This exercise targets biceps and triceps.
Stand straight with your feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and your
toes pointing forward. Extend your arms out to the side, parallel to the floor
and at a 90-degree angle to your body and small controlled circles forward.
Do as many rotations as you can. Repeat in the reverse direction.
To work deeper, do half-circles. Rotate your whole arm forward in a half
circle so that your palm goes from facing forward to facing behind you.
Rotate your arms back into their initial position. Rotate back and forth as
fast as you can.

Arm extensions
Grab a heavy book or a full bottle. Hold it behind your head in both hands.
Extend your arms up. Lower it back down your neck. This is one rep.
Burpees
This exercise combines cardio and bodyweight exercise for legs.
Start running in place. Squat and drop to the ground. Kick both your feet
out behind you. Pull your feet back in and jump up as high as you can. This
is one rep.
You can limit yourself to squat jumps by skipping the part where you kick
your feet behind you.
Calves lift
Lift your weight onto your toes slowly, keeping the knees straight and heels
off the floor. Hold for a count of two. Slowly let your heels come back to
the ground. This is one rep.
For more intensity, stop your heels before they touch the ground and go
right back up. Stand on a step to achieve a broader range of motion.
Chair Dips
This exercise targets triceps and back.
Sit on the edge of a robust and stable chair with your legs together, knees
bent and feet flat on the floor in front of the chair. Firmly grip the edge of
the chair with your hands. Move your body forward so that your arms are
bent behind you, holding you up, and your body is extended above the
ground. Bend your elbows and lower your body in a straight line. Make
sure your triceps are working and that it’s not just your pelvis going up and
down. When your upper arms are parallel to the floor, push your body back
up using your triceps. Keep the dip slow and controlled. This is one rep.
To make it a little harder, position your feet a little farther from the chair,
and deepen your dip. To make it harder, straighten your legs completely,
and place heels on the floor.
You can use the edge of your sofa or a coffee table or any other kind of
support as long as it is solid and stable.

Chest Presses
Stand straight with your feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and your
toes pointing forward. With your arms in front of you, make a 90-degree
angle with your elbows. Your forearms should be in front of your face. Pull
your arms to the sides of your body while keeping the 90-degree angle.
Return your arms to their initial position in front of you. Resist both
movements.

Desk push-ups
Only do this if your desk is solid and stable.
Put both hands on your desk, arms extended. Walk your feet back to a 45-
degree angle. Bend your arms to a 90-degree angle and extend your arms
again. This is one rep.
High Knee Twists
This exercise targets abs.
Stand straight with your feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and your
toes pointing forward. Place your hands behind your head so that your
elbows point out. Bring your right knee toward your chest as high as
possible and twist your torso to the right side so that your knee comes up
directly to your left elbow while crunching your upper body to shorten the
distance between the knee and the fists. Return to your initial position. You
can do repetitions on one side and then switch sides or alternate sides
throughout.
To combine cardio with strength training, do a faster variation of this
exercise. Start running in place. Barely let your foot touch the ground
before switching to the other leg.
Leg Raises
This exercise targets abs.
Sit on a chair with your feet not touching the floor. Straighten your right leg
in front of you and hold for 10 seconds. Lower it without touching the floor.
Repeat on the other side.
Lunges
Stand straight, hands on hips, with your feet flat on the ground hip-width
apart and your toes pointing forward. Take a step forward with your right
leg while slowly lowering your body so that your knees are both at right
angles, keeping your right knee above your toes. Then take a step backward
with your right leg to return to your initial position. Do the same with your
left leg.
To add variety, step back into the lunge or do side lunges.
Planks
This is the best exercise for abs.
To come into plank pose, lie on your stomach, bend your elbows so that
your forearms are on the ground close to your sides, wrists directly below
your shoulders. Raise your body while keeping it in a line parallel to the
floor, weight on balls of feet and forearms. Hold for as long as you can,
working up to a count of 30.
To make it harder, raise one leg off the floor and hold for a count of 30.
Switch legs. You can also bring one of your knees to your chest and return it
to its initial position. Switch to the other knee and repeat. Do this at least
eight times. Another possibility is to hold on one arm only for a count of 30.
Switch to the other arm. You can also rotate your torso while holding the
plank.
Side planks
Lie on your right side with your legs straight, and feet together, right
forearm directly under right shoulder. Lift your hips off the floor and raise
your left arm to the sky, keeping left hand directly over the left shoulder.
Hold for a count of 30. Switch sides and repeat to complete one rep.
Push-ups
This exercise targets chest, shoulders, triceps, back, hips, and abs.
Lie on your stomach. Place your hands flat on the floor directly beneath
shoulders. Raise your body by extending your arms so that only your toes
and palms are on the floor and your body is in a straight line. Keeping your
body straight, bend elbows out to sides and lower your body close to the
floor without touching it. Hold for one count, then raise your body again.
Repeat.
To make it easier, you can start with a push-up on the wall and progress to
the floor with push-ups on your knees.

Shoulder blades squeeze

This is an excellent exercise for good posture.
Stand or sit, with your arms at your sides. Slowly pull your shoulder blades
back and squeeze them together. Hold for a count of three. Slowly release
the shoulder blades back to their initial position. This is one rep.

Shrugs
Stand or sit straight with good posture.
Raise your shoulders as high as you can, as if you wanted them to touch
your ears. Hold for a count of three. Release your shoulders back to their
initial position. This is one rep.
Side crunches (standing)
This exercise targets oblique abdominal muscles.
Place your heads behind your head with your elbows pointing out. Bend to
your side to lower your elbow and simultaneously bring your knee up to the
side to meet your elbow. Then straighten back up returning your foot to the
floor. Do the same on the other side. This is one rep. To increase the
intensity, use ankle weights or take a dumbbell in both hands.
You can do this exercise while sitting up straight and keeping your core
tight. Arms hanging down close to your side, bend on the right as if you
wanted to touch the ground with your right hand. Get your body back up.
Do the same on the left. Take a bottle of water in each hand to make the
exercise harder.
Sliding forearm presses
This works biceps and triceps in addition to the muscles of your upper back.
Stand straight with your feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and your
toes pointing forward. With your arms in front of you, make a 90-degree
angle with your elbows. Press your forearms together as hard as you can
and slowly move them up as high as you can and down as low as you can
without letting your elbow come apart. This is one rep.

Squats
This exercise targets glutes, hamstrings, and quads, the muscles in the
buttocks, back, and legs.
Stand straight with feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and toes pointing
forward. Bend your knees and lower your trunk into a squat position as if
you were sitting down until your thighs are about parallel with the floor and
your knees are at 90 degrees. Keep your knees above your toes. Return
slowly to standing.
To make it harder, hold weights in your hands. You can also do single leg
squats, squat holds, or squat pulse.
Triceps Kickbacks
Stand straight with feet flat on the ground hip-width apart and toes pointing
forward. Tip forward by hinging at the hip and slightly bend your knees.
Keep a nice flat back. Keep your arms close to your sides, bending at the
elbow. Clench your fists as hard as you can and slowly extend your arms
straight in front of you. Pull your elbows back at your sides, bending your
arms and take your elbows back as far as you can, until your hands reach
back to your shoulders. This is one rep.
You can do a variation while sitting straight and keeping your core tight.
Clench your fists as hard as you can, extend your arms straight out in front
of your body at shoulder height, and then slowly pull back as far as you can,
keeping your arms close to your body.
Wall squats
Put your body against the wall, and then slowly slide your back down the
wall until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Make sure your knees are
directly above your ankles and keep your back straight. Go for 60 seconds
per set.
 Appendix II
Glossary
ADDITIVES
Additives are substances added to food during manufacture to improve taste
and appearance or extend shelf life. They include preservatives, emulsifiers,
artificial colors and flavors.
Additives are listed on the ingredient list, either by their full chemical name
or their code number.
ADRENALS
Adrenals or adrenal glands are endocrine glands. You carry two of them,
each about the size of a grape. They’re located on top of the kidneys and
controlled by the pituitary gland in the brain. They produce hormones,
including cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and sex hormones—androgens
or male hormones, estrogen, progesterone. Adrenal glands play a role in
puberty. They take over at menopause and andropause to become the
primary source of sex hormone production in the body.
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease which develops
slowly, worsens over time, and eventually leads to death. It is the most
common form of dementia. It is characterized by the death of neurons in the
hippocampus—the memory center of the brain—as well as in other brain
regions. Symptoms include progressive memory loss, problems with
language, disorientation, mood swings, and changes in personality. In the
final stages, individuals are incapable of self-care. There is no known
treatment, but lifestyle interventions have proven effective when done early.
Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the US. Six million
Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. This number is expected to rise to
14 million by 2050.
AMINO ACIDS
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. They are made of carbon,
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms. The nitrogen atom distinguishes
proteins from carbohydrates and fats.
When you eat dietary proteins, your digestive tract breaks them down into
amino acids that are absorbed in the bloodstream. Cells use 20 different
amino acids to manufacture body proteins in different sequences. Nine
essential amino acids cannot be made by the body and have to come from
the food you eat.
ANTIBIOTICS
Antibiotics are drugs that destroy bacteria. They are used to treat infections
caused by bacteria. They do not work on infections caused by viruses. Used
appropriately, they can save lives. Overuse of antibiotics in medicine and
agriculture has led to antimicrobial resistance, a serious threat to human
health.
ANTIBODIES
Antibodies are proteins produced by immune cells. They recognize specific
proteins in foreign cells, called antigens. When they bind to antigens, this
signals the immune system that there’s something to attack.
Autoantibodies are antibodies that target your own cells. High levels of
autoantibodies in your blood mean you suffer from an autoimmune
condition.
ANTIGENS
Antigens are proteins that cause an immune response in the body by
identifying harmful substances. The immune system produces antibodies to
eliminate antigens.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
Any substance that counteracts inflammation is said to be anti-
inflammatory. Eating anti-inflammatory foods protects the body against
damage caused by inflammation. Anti-inflammatory foods include turmeric,
leafy green vegetables, broccoli, blueberries, avocados, fatty fish, nuts,
olive oil, and flaxseeds.
ANTIOXIDANTS
Antioxidants are molecules that interact with free radicals to prevent or
lessen the damage caused by free radicals. Without sufficient antioxidants
to keep them in check, free radicals attack protein, fat, and DNA molecules
in cells and alter their structure.
The body produces enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Enzymatic
antioxidants break down and remove free radicals. Non-enzymatic
antioxidants work by stopping the free radical chain reaction. They do that
by donating an electron to free radicals without becoming free radicals
themselves.
Non-enzymatic antioxidants can also be acquired through the food you eat.
Vitamins A, E, C, and phytonutrients such as beta-carotene, lycopene, and
resveratrol, are antioxidants found in plant food. Good sources of
antioxidants include berries, leafy green vegetables, tomatoes, broccoli,
sweet potatoes, nuts, grapes, pomegranate juice, green tea.
APOPTOSIS
Apoptosis is programmed cell death. If cells are no longer needed or do not
function correctly, they commit suicide. In a healthy adult, billions of cells
die in various parts of the body every hour, mainly to maintain homeostasis.
When apoptosis is disrupted, disease happens. Cancer is a classic example
of cell proliferation gone awry for lack of apoptosis.
ARTHRITIS
Arthritis means joint inflammation. It affects the cartilage and fluid which
allow bones to glide smoothly on one another. Symptoms include pain,
stiffness, swelling, and decreased range of motion. There are over 200
different types of arthritis. The most common types are osteoarthritis—or
degenerative joint disease—and rheumatoid arthritis, which is an
autoimmune disease.
One out of 4 Americans suffers from arthritis.
ASTHMA
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. Asthma attacks
are often triggered by exposure to allergens. During an attack, the airways
narrow, causing the individual to wheeze or gasp for air.
Asthma affects 8.3 percent of Americans.
ATHEROSCLEROSIS
Atherosclerosis is the hardening and narrowing of the arteries because of
the buildup of cholesterol plaques. This compromises blood flow. The
formation of plaques is often caused by inflammation.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition
characterized by excessively inattentive, hyperactive, or impulsive
behaviors.
Approximately 9.4 percent of American children are diagnosed with
ADHD.

AUTISM
Autism is a condition characterized by difficulties in interacting and
communicating with others, limited interests, and repetitive behaviors.
People with autism often avoid eye contact and dislike being touched. They
have a hard time reading body language, facial expressions, and tone of
voice, and understanding nuances in word meanings.
About 1 in 59 American children has been diagnosed with autism.
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
An autoimmune disease is a condition that develops when the immune
system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues and generates antibodies
for this tissue. There are over 100 types of autoimmune diseases. Examples
include multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto’s disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid
arthritis, and lupus. Nearly any part of the body can be targeted.
A genetic susceptibility is often involved; it makes part of the immune
system hyperactive. Nutrient deficiencies, toxicants, and leaky gut often
pull the trigger.
Once you’ve developed one autoimmune condition, you’re far more likely
to develop another one or even multiple conditions.
Autoimmune conditions are the third leading chronic diseases behind
cardiovascular diseases and cancers. In the US, one in five people suffers
from an autoimmune disease.

AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

The autonomic nervous system is a part of the peripheral nervous system. It
regulates the activity of internal organs. It includes the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous systems. Its actions are mainly involuntary.
AUTOPHAGY
Autophagy is the normal body process of cleaning out and recycling
damaged proteins, organelles, or cells. It allows for cellular renewal. A 12-
hour fast between dinner and breakfast the next day, plus a glass of water
first thing in the morning promotes autophagy.
BACTERIA
Bacteria are microscopic single-celled organisms. They outnumber every
other kind of life on the Earth. Some are harmful and cause infectious
diseases. Others support life. Bacteria are necessary for any kind of
fermentation.
BILE
Bile facilitates the breakdown of fats in the small intestine during digestion
by emulsifying them. It also helps carry away waste into the colon,
especially used-up hormones filtered out by the liver. Bile is produced by
the liver and stored in the gallbladder for future use.
BIOCHEMESTRY
Biochemistry is the chemistry of living things, bringing together biology
and chemistry. It relates to the chemical processes occurring at molecular
and cellular levels within organisms. Biochemistry determines how well the
body functions, but also how you feel and what you think.
BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER
The blood-brain barrier is a tight layer of cells separating the blood from the
cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. It lets blood flow freely to the brain but
prevents potentially dangerous substances from reaching neurons. It helps
maintain a stable environment in the brain and protects neurons from toxic
chemicals. It can be made porous because of inflammation or nutritional
deficiencies.
BRAIN
The brain is the third largest organ in the body, behind skin and liver. It is
responsible for motor control, automatic regulation, emotions, language,
and memory. It houses 100 billion neurons and 100 billion glial cells*. Glial
cells surround neurons, provide them with nutrients and structural support,
defend them, remove unwanted substances, and form the myelin around
axons. The cerebrospinal fluid cushions the brain and supports a stable
biochemical terrain for neurons and glial cells.

BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTORS (BDNF)

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factors (BDNF) are proteins that enhance the
growth and viability of neurons in the brain.
BRAIN FOG
Brain fog refers to dysfunctions in memory, learning, focus, information
processing, and problem solving.
CALORIES
A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy or heat. More precisely, it is
the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by
one degree Celsius.
Both the energy contained in the food you eat and the energy you expend
are measured in calories. Strictly speaking, the unit used is a kilocalorie,
one-thousand calories. You will see kilocalories or kcal mentioned on food
labels. But it is common practice to ignore the kilo and simply talk about
calories to mean kilocalories.
CANCER
Cancer happens when abnormal cells grow out of control and spread
quickly because of the accumulation of mutations in the genes. These
mutations influence the survival and proliferation of the cells by generating
oncogenes or rendering tumor-suppressor genes useless. It can affect any
organ in the body and spread to other parts. Cancer cells override apoptosis
—programmed cell death. The immune system usually gets rid of the
thousands of abnormal cells that arise in our bodies each day.
Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles increase the number of cancer cells
while depleting our immune systems.
CARBOHYDRATES
The term carbohydrate refers to one of the three classes of macronutrients,
the other two being fats and proteins. It means carbon with water.
Carbohydrates are organic compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen atoms bonded together to form rings or sugar molecules. They are
chains of sugar molecules or saccharides of varying lengths.
Monosaccharides—glucose, galactose, and fructose—are single sugar units.
Glucose is the most important one. It is a major source of energy for cells,
especially neurons. It is the form in which carbohydrates circulate in the
blood. Blood sugar means glucose in the blood.
Disaccharides—lactose, maltose, and sucrose—combine two sugar
molecules. For instance, combining one glucose molecule with a fructose
molecule results in the sucrose molecule found in table sugar.
Polysaccharides combine a high number of monosaccharides, from three to
hundreds or thousands. They take the form of glycogen, starches, and fiber.
The digestive tract breaks down carbohydrates into monosaccharides,
except for fiber which goes through undigested. The small intestine absorbs
these monosaccharides, which then enter the bloodstream and travel to the
liver. If they’re not immediately needed for energy, they’re stored for future
use in the liver and skeletal muscles as glycogen. Once glycogen stores are
full, carbohydrates are stored as fat.
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Cardiovascular disease includes atherosclerosis*, heart attacks, and strokes.
Atherosclerosis develops when plaques build up within the walls of arteries,
decreasing blood flow. Blood clots can form and stop blood flow
completely, depriving cells of oxygen.
Heart attacks occur when a clot blocks the blood flow to some part of the
heart, damaging heart cells.
Strokes happen when a blood vessel that feeds the brain is blocked or bursts
open. Either type of stroke results in damage to brain cells.
Cardiovascular disease accounts for one in every three deaths in the US.
About 2,300 Americans die of cardiovascular disease each day, an average
of one death every 38 seconds. Heart disease is the number one cause of
death. Strokes rank number five.
CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
The cardiovascular system allows blood to flow to and from cells. It is part
of the larger circulatory system which circulates fluids throughout the body
and also includes the lymphatic system. It carries oxygen, nutrients, and
hormones to cells, and carries away metabolic waste. It comprises the heart
and blood vessels—arteries, veins, and capillaries.
CELLS
Cells are the basic units of all organisms. They are the smallest units of life
capable of surviving on their own and reproducing. Every living thing on
Earth—animals, plants, bacteria, fungi—comprises at least one cell.
Cells are the building blocks for tissues. Tissues create organs like your
heart or your liver. Organs create systems like the circulatory system or the
digestive system.
Cells share five essential components:
A membrane separating the inside of the cell from the outside. It
keeps metabolic reactions together and regulates what can come
into the cell and what can get out. The membrane is made of fats
with embedded proteins, which act as receptors and channels.
A liquid internal environment called cytoplasm.
A nucleus which contains the genetic material. The nucleus is
surrounded by a membrane to protect genes.
 Numerous mitochondria which power the cell. They convert energy
from nutrients into energy the cell can use.
Proteins that perform a wide variety of structural and metabolic
functions.
There are over 200 types of cells in the body. They come in all shapes and
sizes. Fat cells are round. Skin cells are square and flat. Nerve cells have
long, thin extensions—axons and dendrites—that can be up to one meter
long. Each cell is specialized: heart cells keep your heart beating, lung cells
keep your lungs breathing, brain cells keep your brain thinking.
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
The nervous system has two components: the central nervous system and
the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system comprises the
brain and spinal cord. Acting like a processing and command center, it
supervises and coordinates the activity of the nervous system as a whole. It
receives information from sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system
and sends back information through motor neurons to activate muscles and
glands.
CEREBROSPINAL FLUID
The cerebrospinal fluid is the watery fluid bathing the brain and spinal cord.
CHRONIC DISEASE
Chronic diseases are diseases that persist for a long time. By the definition
of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, they are the ones lasting
three months or more. Chronic diseases generally cannot be prevented by
vaccines or cured by medication. The most common chronic diseases
include Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular
disease, depression, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and respiratory
diseases.
Six in ten Americans suffer from a chronic disease, and four in ten from
more than one. Seven out of ten deaths are from chronic diseases.
CIRCADIAN RHYTHM
From the Latin circa and dies: about a day. The circadian rhythm is the 24-
hour cycle in all metabolic and hormonal processes. It originates from a
clock in the hypothalamus that syncs with external cues such as sunlight,
temperature, and food intake. It evolved to allow cells to anticipate and
adapt to external changes created by the rotation of the earth.

COGNITIVE SKILLS OR ABILITIES

Cognitive skills or abilities refer to skills such as paying attention,
processing information, learning new information, remembering, and
problem solving.

CORTISOL
Cortisol is often called the stress hormone. It is a steroid hormone
manufactured by adrenal glands in response to stress.
During normal, non-stressful situations, a certain level of cortisol is
maintained in the bloodstream. It regulates blood glucose and blood
pressure levels, muscle function, and fat distribution. Cortisol levels cycle
during the day, with the highest levels occurring around 8am in the morning
and the lowest levels around midnight. In the morning, cortisol is high
when you wake up, so you can get on with your life. It readies the body for
the activities of the day and allows cells to set their internal clocks. Cortisol
levels are low in the evening so you can go to sleep. That’s when another
hormone, melatonin, takes over.
When the body is responding to stress, cortisol alters or shuts down
functions that get in the way, including the digestive, reproductive, and
immune systems. Survival takes priority. Excess cortisol has a breaking-
down effect on cells. It destroys neurons in the hippocampus that regulate
memory, learning, and mood.
The secretion of cortisol is controlled by the hypothalamus, the pituitary
gland, and the adrenal glands—a cascade of glands referred to as the
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis).
CYTOKINES
Cytokines are proteins that act as messengers of the immune system. They
are secreted by immune cells to communicate with other immune cells and
control the immune response. Cytokines can also be read by endocrine cells
and neurons.
There are immunoregulatory and proinflammatory cytokines.
CYTOPLASM
The cytoplasm is the fluid that fills cells. It is composed mainly of water.
DEPRESSION
Depression is a psychiatric disorder that affects how you feel, think, and
behave for many days or weeks. It is characterized by sadness,
hopelessness, loss of interest in activities once liked, trouble sleeping or
sleeping too much, lack of energy, and changes in appetite. Chemical
imbalances in the brain contribute to depression.
Major depression affects about 6.7 percent of the US population.

DETOXIFICATION
Detoxification is a process whereby a toxic substance is filtered out of the
blood and transformed into harmless products that can be excreted.

DIABETES
Diabetes is a chronic disease associated with having too much glucose in
the blood. The pancreas makes a hormone called insulin to get glucose into
cells. When you suffer from diabetes, either your pancreas doesn’t produce
enough insulin, or your cells don’t respond to insulin as well as they should.
This causes glucose to build up in the blood.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops when the immune
system attacks and destroys most of the beta cells in the pancreas that are
needed to produce insulin. It tends to occur in childhood, adolescence, or
early adulthood.
In type 2 diabetes, cells in the liver, muscles, and fat tissues resist the effect
of insulin and do not let glucose in—a condition called insulin resistance.
As a result, the pancreas tries to compensate by pumping out more insulin.
But it slowly loses the capacity to produce enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes
is the most common type of diabetes, accounting for almost 95 percent of
diabetes cases. Although type 2 diabetes was once called adult-onset
diabetes, you can now develop type 2 diabetes at any age, even during
childhood. However, type 2 diabetes occurs most often after the age of 45.
Diabetes can cause serious health issues including strokes, heart disease,
blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and lower-extremity amputations.
Early symptoms of diabetes include increased thirst, increased need to
urinate, blurred vision, numbness or tingling in the hands or feet, or sores
that do not heal.
Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease. It affects more than 30
million Americans, while another estimated 84 million people suffer from
prediabetes and don’t know it. Prediabetes, if not treated, advances to
diabetes within five years.

DNA
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a long molecule that contains the genetic
material. It is mostly located in the cells’ nuclei, but a small amount of
DNA is also found in the mitochondria. DNA contains the instructions cells
need to function. Those instructions are passed down from parents to
children.
The information is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases:
adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA is
made up of about 3 billion bases. Over 99 percent of those bases are the
same in all people. The order or sequence of these bases determines the
instructions for making proteins. Each length of DNA that codes for a
specific protein is called a gene.
DOPAMINE
Dopamine is an excitatory or stimulating neurotransmitter. It is made from
the amino acid tyrosine in the brain and in the gut. Acting as a “motivation
chemical,” it activates the reward circuits in the brain. It also plays
important roles in memory, concentration, digestion, and movement.
When you experience a pleasurable sensation—whether from food, sex,
drugs, technology, or gambling—dopamine is released in the brain. The
hippocampus records a memory of this event and the associated cues. The
next time the Unconscious Mind encounters the same cues, it releases
dopamine to prompt you to repeat the behavior. This mechanism evolved to
keep our ancestors alive: it motivated them to seek food and reproduce.
The same mechanism is involved in addiction. When you repeatedly do
something that triggers the release of dopamine, cells remove dopamine
receptors to protect themselves from overload. If you carry fewer receptors,
you need more dopamine to obtain the same level of reward. This is called
tolerance. If you stop the dopamine-producing behavior, your dopamine
levels drop, and dopamine receptors are no longer activated. This causes
uncomfortable feelings of withdrawal and powerful cravings.
Physical activity increases dopamine levels, which then improves mood,
focus, and motivation.
Insufficient levels of dopamine, often caused by the death of dopamine-
producing neurons, are associated with anxiety, depression, cognitive
impairment, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Parkinson’s disease.

DYSBIOSIS
The term “dysbiosis” means microbial imbalance. Gut dysbiosis is
associated with numerous health issues such as inflammatory bowel
disease, acne, allergies, cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety, depression,
autism, autoimmune conditions.
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS (EMFS)
Electromagnetic fields or EMFs combine electric and magnetic fields.
Electric fields are created by differences in voltage, whereas magnetic fields
are created when electric current flows.
EMFs are present everywhere in our environment but are invisible to the
human eye. Some are naturally occurring, others man-made.
EMFs fall into two categories: non-ionizing and ionizing. The two
categories affect the body in different ways. Ionizing EMFs are produced by
ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays. Non-ionizing EMFs are low-to-
mid-frequency radiation. Power lines, lighting, home appliances, radio,
television, Wi-Fi, cell phones all emit non-ionizing EMFs.
Electrical signals regulate many cellular processes. Man-made EMFs may
interfere with these processes.
ENDOCRINE DISRUPTOR
Endocrine disruptors are natural or man-made chemicals that interfere with
the endocrine system and produce three types of adverse effects. 1. They
mimic the action of hormones and overstimulate cells. 2. They block
receptors and prevent hormones from binding. 3. They hamper the
circulation of hormones.
Endocrine disruptors are found in many products, including plastic bottles,
metal food cans, cleaning products, furniture, carpets, electronic devices,
food, water, toys, personal care products. Examples of endocrine disruptors
are bisphenol A, pesticides, phthalates, and flame retardants.
Exposure to endocrine disruptors induces hormonal imbalances. It promotes
early onset of puberty, infertility, immune dysfunction, cognitive
impairment, obesity, and certain cancers.

ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
The endocrine system is one of the body’s major communication networks
for cells. It plays a major role in regulating metabolism, growth, and
reproductive function. It is in charge of slower processes, while the nervous
system governs faster processes, such as breathing and movement.
Endocrine messages are more widespread and sustained. Both
communication systems are interconnected.
The endocrine system is composed of hormone-producing glands in
different parts of the body. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are in the
brain. The thyroid and parathyroid glands are in the front of the lower part
of the neck. The adrenals are on top of the kidneys. The pancreas is behind
the stomach. The ovaries or testes are in the pelvic region. Although not
identified as glands per se, gut, fat cells, and kidneys also make hormones.
The most common endocrine diseases include diabetes, hypothyroidism,
adrenal insufficiency, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and precocious
puberty.

ENTERIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

The enteric nervous system (ENS) governs the function of the
gastrointestinal tract. It goes from the beginning of the esophagus to the
anus and is embedded in the lining of the digestive tract.
The central nervous system and the enteric nervous system both arise from
the same tissue during fetal development. They remain connected via the
vagus nerve.
The ENS contains around 100 million neurons. That is more than in either
the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system. Thus equipped, it monitors
gut behavior on its own independently of the brain.
Like the brain, the enteric nervous system uses more than 30
neurotransmitters. In fact, 95 percent of the body’s serotonin is found in the
gut.

ENZYMES
Enzymes are proteins that serve as catalysts. By binding to molecules, they
speed up chemical reactions, making them occur up to a million times
faster. Without them, metabolism would be too slow for life to be possible.
Each chemical reaction involves a specific enzyme.
Like all proteins, enzymes are composed of chains of amino acids. Each
enzyme carries a unique sequence of amino acids that causes it to fold into
a specific shape. If its shape changes because of high temperatures or pH*
variations, it no longer works because it can no longer bind to molecules.
To function, many enzymes need help from cofactors or coenzymes.
Cofactors are minerals, such as magnesium, zinc, copper, or iron.
Magnesium, one of the most common cofactors, assists over 300 enzymes.
Coenzymes are mostly derived from vitamins. In fact, one of the main
reasons you need vitamins is to provide the material for coenzymes. For
example, you need vitamin C to assist the enzyme that produces collagen
and builds healthy skin and healthy joints.
Digestive enzymes in the gut break down complex molecules into smaller
ones that can be absorbed in the blood. Liver enzymes help the liver break
down toxic chemicals. DNA repair enzymes identify and correct copy errors
or damage in DNA.

EPIGENETICS
Epigenetics is the study of how gene expression can be changed on a long-
term basis without changing the genes themselves. The word epigenetics
literally means above or on top of genetics—epi means above in Greek. It is
additional information in the form of chemical tags layered on top of genes.
Many epigenetic mechanisms modify gene expression, determining what
genes are turned on or off. One common mechanism is methylation—the
marking of specific genes by methyl groups to turn them off.
Epigenetic change is a natural occurrence in cell differentiation. It explains
why different cells—skin cells, liver cells, brain cells—have different
shapes and functions despite having the same DNA. Epigenetic change can
also be brought on by environmental exposures during lifetime and affect
health outcomes. It can switch genes closer to or away from the
normal/healthy state. It helps explain the discordance among genetically
identical twins. Prenatal and early postnatal environmental exposures hold
the most significant influence on epigenetic marks. Epigenetic changes can
be reversed; they can also be passed on to the next generations.
The best example for epigenetics is found in bees. Queen bees share the
same genes with other bees but show vast differences in behavior and
reproductive ability. What seals the fate of bees is that queen bees get fed
royal jelly from a young age while other bees only eat pollen and nectar.
ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS
An essential nutrient is a nutrient required for normal cellular function that
cannot be manufactured in the body. It must come from the food you eat.
Essential nutrients include water, vitamins, minerals, nine amino acids, and
two fatty acids—omega-6 and omega-3.

ESTROGEN
Estrogen is the main sex hormone for women. It triggers puberty, prepares
the body for pregnancy, and regulates the menstrual cycle. It is produced by
the ovaries, the adrenal glands, and body fat cells.
Estrogen is often thought of as a female hormone, but both men and women
need estrogen, although women carry much higher levels. During
menopause, estrogen levels decrease, which can cause uncomfortable
symptoms in women.

EVOLUTION
Evolution refers to genetic changes in organisms across generations. It
explains the staggering diversity in the forms of life, from bacteria to
humans, even though they all descend from a common ancestor three
billion years ago.
Evolution is driven by random genetic mutations and natural selection.
Genetic mutations—spontaneous changes in DNA sequence—occur
randomly throughout an organism’s life. Natural selection will pass on the
mutations to future generations if said mutations allow organisms to
become better at surviving and reproducing. On the contrary, mutations that
hinder survival and reproduction will be gradually lost.
Evolution is about better adaptation to the environment. If the environment
changes, the genes that made you well adapted in the old environment may
not do so in the new one. We call this an evolutionary mismatch.

FATIGUE
Fatigue is the lack of physical and mental energy, not released by rest.

FATS
Dietary fats—also called lipids—are one of the three macronutrients, the
others being carbohydrates and proteins. At nine calories per gram, they
provide the densest source of calories.
Most fats are made up of three fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule.
They combine polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fatty acids.
Their physical state at room temperature is determined by which type of
fatty acid is the most prevalent. In olive oil, the most prevalent fatty acid is
monounsaturated, so olive oil is liquid at room temperature. Butter is
mostly made up of saturated fatty acids, so it is solid at room temperature.
During digestion, the gallbladder releases bile to emulsify fats and allow
enzymes to break them down into fatty acids. Fatty acids are first absorbed
in the lymphatic system and released in the bloodstream through a large
vein in the neck. Once in the bloodstream, they are either directed into cells
for immediate use or sent to fat cells to be stored for future use.
Fats are an important source of energy and the major form of energy storage
in the body. They help cells absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A,
D, E, K. They are the building blocks of steroid hormones. They insulate
the body. Polyunsaturated fats are needed to build cellular membranes and
the myelin sheaths surrounding neurons. They are critical for brain
development.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are healthy in moderation. Man-
made trans fats and oxidized fats are unhealthy. Saturated fats fall
somewhere in the middle.

FATTY ACID
Fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms with a specific end called a
carboxylic acid (COOH).
Fatty acids can be saturated, which means that every carbon atom in the
chain is saturated with hydrogen atoms: all carbon-carbon bonds are single
bonds.
Fatty acids can be monounsaturated, which means they have only one
double bond between two carbon atoms. All the other carbon-carbon bonds
are single bonds. Or fatty acids can be polyunsaturated, which means they
have at least two double bonds between carbon atoms. Polyunsaturated fatty
acids are further subdivided by the location of their first double bond
(omega-3 versus omega-6, for example).
Saturated fatty acids are solid or viscous at room temperature because the
carbon molecules pack close together. Mono- and polyunsaturated fatty
acids are twisted at their double bonds, preventing carbon atoms from
packing closely together.

FATTY LIVER DISEASE

Fatty liver disease is a condition in which fat accumulates in the liver. There
are two main types: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, also called
nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) when it progresses to liver
inflammation, and alcoholic fatty liver disease, also called alcoholic
steatohepatitis. Fatty liver disease typically has no associated symptoms,
but the accumulation of fat induces inflammation and destruction of liver
cells. Early on, it can be reversed. But if it goes on, it leads to cirrhosis—
advanced liver scarring—or liver cancer.
Consumption of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup in processed foods
and soft drinks is a significant contributor to nonalcoholic fatty liver
disease. Liver cells are the only cells in the body that can metabolize
fructose. They turn fructose into fat. When there is too much fructose, tiny
fat droplets accumulate in the liver.
Virtually unknown before the 1980s, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is
becoming a more common condition, currently affecting around a third of
Americans, including 10 percent of children.

FIBER
Dietary fiber refers to the indigestible parts of plant foods—fruits,
vegetables, grains, and legumes. It is a type of carbohydrate. Unlike other
carbohydrates, it is not broken down by enzymes into absorbable molecules
in the gut. Therefore, it passes through the digestive tract relatively intact
until it is fermented by microbes in the colon.
Fiber helps food move along in the gut, cleans up waste products, promotes
regular bowel movements, and feeds gut microbes. It also facilitates weight
management and blood glucose regulation.
Fiber is either soluble or insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water while
insoluble fiber does not. Most plant foods contain both in different
proportions. Sources of soluble fiber include beans, lentils, nuts, oatmeal,
blueberries, and apples. Sources of insoluble fiber include seeds, whole-
wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, and skins of fruit.

FREE RADICALS
Free radicals are atoms with unpaired electrons. They are unstable because
electrons like to travel in pair. To remedy the uneven number of electrons,
they react quickly with other molecules. Once free radicals are formed, a
chain reaction occurs. The first free radical pulls an electron from a
neighboring molecule, which destabilizes the molecule and turns it into a
free radical. That molecule then takes an electron from another molecule,
destabilizing it and turning it into a free radical. If this goes on, it begins a
process called oxidative stress, that eventually disrupts and damages the
whole cell.
As bad as they sound, free radicals are essential to life. They are involved in
cellular signaling. They are also a crucial weapon for the immune system to
attack foreign invaders. But they need to be kept in check.
There are many sources of free radicals. The primary source in the body is
cellular respiration. During cellular respiration, oxygen molecules split into
single atoms with unpaired electrons. They become unstable free radicals,
called reactive oxygen species (ROS), and seek other atoms to bond to.
Other sources of free radicals include pollution, pesticides, UV light,
radiation, smoking, stress, and inflammation.

FRUCTOSE
Fructose is a monosaccharide—the simplest form of carbohydrates: it
contains only one sugar molecule. It is found in fruits, vegetables, and
honey.
Unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate the release of insulin. The liver
is the primary site of fructose metabolism. It converts fructose into glucose
and stores it as glycogen. But the liver can only use and store a limited
quantity of fructose. If fructose is in excess, the liver turns it into fat which
accumulates around organs as visceral fat. This contributes to insulin
resistance and fatty liver disease. The breakdown of fructose also elevates
triglycerides, increases bad cholesterol, and raises blood pressure.
The fructose in fruit is not harmful because it is present in small amounts
and comes with water, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber.
Unfortunately, most of our fructose intake now comes from non-fruit
sources. We get it from High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and table sugar.
HFCS comes from refined corn. Table sugar or sucrose is a disaccharide
consisting of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. HFCS and sucrose
are found in a majority of processed foods and sodas.
GENES
Genes are segments of DNA that contain instructions to make specific
proteins from amino acids. They specify the order in which amino acids
must be combined.
The number of human genes is between 20,000 and 25,000 genes. You
carry two copies of each gene, one inherited from each parent. Most genes
are the same in all people: you are 99.9 percent similar to the person sitting
next to you. Less than 0.1 percent of genes are different between people
because of slight variations in DNA sequence. They help explain why we
look different and have different predispositions to diseases.
Every cell in the body with a nucleus carries the same complete set of
genes. Gene expression is the reason all cells don’t look or function the
same.
GENE EXPRESSION
Gene expression is the process by which instructions contained in a gene
are used to manufacture proteins. Three steps lead to the manufacture of a
functional protein:
1. The gene is transcribed into an RNA—ribonucleic acid—template.
2. The RNA template is translated into a protein.
3. The protein is folded and transported.
All three steps can be modulated to obtain different results.
Every cell carries the same set of genes in its nucleus, but it does not use all
the instructions. In a given cell, most genes are never expressed, others are
only expressed at certain times. Gene expression depends on time and
location in the body.
How does a cell know what genes it needs to express? On a short-term
basis, one important means is the external signals received through the
membrane. External signals include hormones and neurotransmitters as well
as variations in concentrations of biochemicals—for instance, increased and
decreased glucose levels—or variations in parameters such as temperature
or pH. They are converted into transcription factors inside the cell that bind
to specific enhancer or silencer regions on genes, to turn them on or off.
Transcription factors are either promoters or repressors of gene expression.
On a long-term basis, epigenetic marks regulate gene expression by making
genes more or less accessible to transcription.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOS)

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms which genes have
been artificially altered by genetic engineering so that their cells produce
new substances or perform new functions. The combination of genes
obtained does not happen in nature. GMOs may be plants, animals, or
micro-organisms—bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi.
Ten GMO crops—corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, alfalfa, sugar beets,
papaya, potatoes, apples, and squash—are commercially available in the
US. Ninety percent of the corn, soy, and canola grown in the US is GMO.
These crops have been developed primarily to tolerate herbicides and resist
insects and diseases, so as to increase crop yield. For instance, Monsanto
has created Roundup Ready plants with genes that allow them to tolerate
herbicides.
GMO crops are ubiquitous in processed foods. They’re also fed to
livestock.

GLAND
A gland is a group of cells which function is to release substances such as
hormones for the proper function of other distant cells.

GLIAL CELLS
Glial cells are cells in the brain that protect and support neurons.

GLUCAGON
Glucagon is a hormone produced in the pancreas which instructs the liver to
release glycogen when blood glucose is too low. It works with insulin to
regulate blood glucose levels.

GLUCOSE
Glucose is a monosaccharide—the simplest form of carbohydrate. This
means it has one sugar ring. It is found in foods containing carbohydrates,
such as fruit, potatoes, pasta, bread.
When you eat, the carbohydrates in your food are broken down into
monosaccharides in the gut. Monosaccharides are absorbed into the
bloodstream and carried to the liver before being dispatched to cells.
As it travels in the blood, glucose is called blood glucose. Blood glucose
levels are tightly regulated by insulin and glucagon. Eating carbohydrates
causes blood glucose levels to rise. The pancreas responds to this rise by
releasing insulin so that glucose is ushered in liver, muscle, and fat cells.
When blood glucose levels drop, the pancreas responds by secreting
glucagon, which tells the liver to release its glucose stores.
Glucose is the primary source of energy for cells. Hypoglycemia, also
called low blood glucose, occurs when the level of glucose in blood drops
below normal. It makes you weak, shaky, and tired. The organ that needs
glucose the most is the brain. When your brain doesn’t get enough glucose,
you become irritable and have a tough time focusing or remembering. Over
a long period, you develop cognitive issues. Hyperglycemia occurs when
the level of glucose in blood is consistently higher than normal. It damages
cells and generates inflammation. Early signs include blurred vision, thirst,
frequent urination. Over time, it can cause neuropathy, blindness, kidney
and cardiovascular disease.
GLYCATION
Glycation is a process in which excess glucose and fructose in the
bloodstream attach to proteins and fats, forming harmful new molecules
called advanced glycation end products (AGEs for short). It changes the
structure of cells and the way they function. It inhibits protein activity and
promotes DNA mutations. It causes inflammation and oxidative stress.
When sugar binds to collagen, it causes premature aging and wrinkles.
When it binds to ocular tissues, it causes macular degeneration, cataract
formation, and glaucoma.

GLYCEMIC INDEX
The Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative ranking of carbohydrate-containing
foods according to how quickly and how much those foods increase blood
glucose levels. The digestive system breaks down most carbohydrates into
glucose. The digestion of foods low on the GI scale—55 or less—releases
glucose slowly and steadily. The digestion of foods high on the GI scale—
70 or more—generates glucose and insulin spikes.
High GI foods include sugary foods and drinks, bread, potatoes, white rice,
refined grains; low GI foods, most vegetables.
Fat, protein, and fiber lower the glycemic index of foods because they slow
the absorption of glucose in the bloodstream. How food is processed or
prepared is also involved.
The glycemic index is far from perfect. First, glycemic values for a given
food are variable, among different persons and within the same person.
Second, it implies that the food is consumed on its own with no other foods.
This is only true when you are eating stand-alone snacks. Third, the
glycemic index doesn’t consider the quantity of carbohydrate in a serving of
food. Carrots or watermelon are ranked high on the glycemic index because
their carbohydrate content is quickly absorbed. However, a serving of
carrots or watermelon doesn’t contain much carbohydrate, so it almost has
no impact on blood glucose levels. The glycemic load is an alternative to
the glycemic index: it combines GI and carbohydrate quantity.

GLYCEMIC LOAD
Glycemic Load (or GL) is an alternative to the glycemic index. It combines
both the quantity and quality of carbohydrates. It accounts for how much
carbohydrate is in a serving of food, not just how much each gram of
carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels.
The glycemic load of a serving of food is calculated as the amount of
carbohydrates measured in grams, multiplied by the food’s GI, and divided
by 100.
For instance, a medium-sized apple has a GI of 38 and contains 13 grams of
carbohydrates. Its glycemic load is 38 x 13/100 = 5. A potato has a GI of 85
and contains 14 grams of carbohydrate. Its glycemic load is 85 x14/100 =
12.
Similar to the glycemic index, the glycemic load of a food can be classified
as low (10 or less), medium (11-19), or high (20 or more).
Watermelon has a high GI of 72, yet a low GL of 7. The same goes for
carrots: a GI of 71, but a GL of 6.
GLYCOGEN
Glycogen is a polysaccharide of glucose. It serves as a storage form for
glucose in the body. It is stored in the liver and muscles, and can be
mobilized quickly when needed. Glycogen from the liver is mostly
available to fuel the brain. It is broken down into glucose in response to
glucagon. Glycogen in a given muscle can only be used by that muscle.
Most carbohydrates you eat are converted into glucose in your digestive
tract. In response to insulin, glucose which is not immediately needed for
energy is converted into glycogen, until glycogen stores are full. Your
ability to store carbohydrates as glycogen is limited to around 2,000
calories or 500 grams: 400 calories or 100 grams in your liver and the rest
in your muscles. What can’t be used or stored as glycogen gets stored as fat
in the form of triglycerides.
GUT-BRAIN AXIS
The term gut-brain axis refers to the communication network between gut
and brain. These two organs are connected through the vagus nerve but also
through the circulation of hormones and cytokines. Neurotransmitters
released in the gut stimulate the vagus nerve. Hormones released in the gut
can enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain. Similarly, immune cells in
the gut can release cytokines, which travel through the bloodstream to the
brain, where they can activate microglia—the immune cells in the brain.
HASHIMOTO’S DISEASE
Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system
attacks the thyroid—the endocrine gland at the base of the neck. It is the
most common cause of hypothyroidism in the United States. Around 20
million people suffer from it. It primarily affects middle-aged women.
Hashimoto’s disease progresses slowly. You can have it for years before
noticing any symptoms. It causes inflammation that damages the thyroid,
leading to a drop in thyroid hormone levels in the blood. It can ultimately
destroy the thyroid. The symptoms are mainly those of hypothyroidism.
Sometimes, inflammation causes the thyroid to become enlarged to the
point of forming a visible mass in the neck—a goiter.
Hashimoto’s disease is diagnosed by blood tests that measure thyroid
hormones and look for antibodies against thyroid-specific proteins. The
only known treatment is thyroid hormone replacement therapy.

HIPPOCAMPUS
The hippocampus is a seahorse-shaped structure within the brain. It is
involved in the formation and consolidation of recent memories. It is also
associated with learning and spatial navigation.
The hippocampus is one of the few places in the brain where new neurons
are generated throughout life. It is one of the first areas in the brain to be
affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Early signs of Alzheimer’s disease include
loss of short-term memory and disorientation.
HOMEOSTASIS
Homeostasis is the tendency of organisms to maintain their internal
environment in a stable state for optimal function, despite fluctuations in
the external environment. It is the fundamental principle of life. It comes
from two Greek words: homeo meaning similar, and stasis, meaning stable.
The internal environment or biochemical terrain is balanced when it offers a
range of conditions which allows cells to function optimally. Cells need the
right pH, the right temperature, and the right amounts of water, nutrients,
and oxygen. And there must be no harmful elements such as toxicants or
pathogenic microbes to hamper them. Think of healthy soil for growing
strong plant—rich in organic matter and minerals, with an acid/alkaline
balance and adequate hydration, free of poisonous chemicals and weeds.
Homeostasis depends on many variables being kept within a normal range
of values. The middle of the range is called the set point, and variables
fluctuate around this point. The set point can change, depending on the
environment and time of day.
Different homeostatic mechanisms address each variable and compensate
for change. They maintain balance at the level of the whole body, but also at
tissue and cellular levels. This requires continuous monitoring to adapt to
what you are doing and being exposed to. The hypothalamus is responsible
for this monitoring and relies on sensors throughout the body. In response to
the signals it receives, it sends hormonal and neuronal messages to cells to
engage the appropriate homeostatic mechanism. Behaviors are part of the
homeostatic machinery.
Homeostasis is key to life, and failures in homeostasis lead to chronic
diseases. Inflammation and stress response are two protective mechanisms
that defend homeostasis when it is threatened. If they go too far, they turn
against cells.
HORMESIS
Hormesis is the process by which a mild or acute stressor promotes
adaptations in cells to increase their resilience and prepare them for greater
loads of the stressor. This is how physical activity works, increasing heart
strength, strengthening muscles and bones, and increasing the number of
mitochondria.
HORMONES
Hormones are chemical messengers secreted by endocrine glands—
pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, ovaries, and testicles—to regulate the
activity of target cells. They are also produced by fat cells, gut, and
microbiota. They control cellular function. Steroid hormones are made from
cholesterol and are fat-soluble. Other hormones are protein-based.
Once a hormone is secreted, it goes from the endocrine gland through the
bloodstream to the target. It then fits on a specific receptor, either on the
membrane or inside the cell.
Many hormones travel through the bloodstream, but each type of hormone
is designed to affect only specific cells. Four types of hormones play a
significant role: cortisol, insulin, thyroid, and sex hormones.
All hormones work together to promote homeostasis and interact with one
another. When one of them is out of balance, it destabilizes the others. For
instance, if cortisol levels are high, levels of thyroid and sex hormones will
drop.
Hormone levels are constantly changing. Hormonal fluctuations are linked
to circadian rhythms. Hormonal balance means having every hormone at
the right level at the right time.
Hormonal imbalances occur when you carry too little or too much of certain
hormones. This happens if glands become overactive or underactive. Even
tiny variations have a tremendous impact on health. Symptoms include
weight gain, PMS, acne, hair loss, migraines, cellulite, loss of libido,
irregular periods, infertility, menopausal issues, mood swings, anxiety,
depression, and cognitive issues.
Sometimes, the problem is not with glands, but with hormonal receptors.
When receptors become dysfunctional, cells ignore hormones. Symptoms
of hormonal resistance are similar to symptoms of hormonal deficiency. It
causes the gland to produce excess hormone to overcome resistance.
HYPERGLYCEMIA
Hyperglycemia means an excessive amount of glucose in the bloodstream.
Excessive glucose damages cells. It causes serious health issues such as
bacterial and fungal infections, nerve damage—also known as neuropathy
—kidney failure, cataracts, blindness, cardiovascular disease. Symptoms of
high blood glucose include excessive thirst, the frequent need to urinate,
blurred vision, headaches. Hyperglycemia is a hallmark sign of insulin
resistance and diabetes.

HYPOGLYCEMIA
Hypoglycemia means blood glucose levels are below normal levels, often
because you haven’t eaten for a long time. It can also happen a few hours
after a meal if the pancreas produces a lot of insulin: this is called reactive
hypoglycemia. Sugar consumption is a major cause of rebound
hypoglycemia. Signs of hypoglycemia include hunger, shakiness, dizziness,
irritability, inability to focus, racing heart, nausea, sweating. The brain is the
organ that suffers the most from hypoglycemia because it depends on
glucose almost exclusively for energy and needs a continuous supply of
glucose for lack of storage. Prolonged or regular hypoglycemia leads to
cognitive issues.
HYPOTHALAMUS
The hypothalamus is a small almond-shaped area in the center of the brain.
Its main role is to maintain homeostasis in the body. It is responsible for
circadian rhythms. It is also the link between the endocrine and nervous
systems by way of the pituitary gland—the master gland controlling every
other gland.
The hypothalamus receives information from different parts of the nervous
system about the state of balance in the body. It responds by secreting
hormones to tell the pituitary gland to start or stop making hormones. This
in turn starts or stops the production of hormones throughout the body. The
hypothalamus is the starting point of many axes, among which: the HPA
axis—Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenals—the HPT axis—Hypothalamus,
Pituitary, Thyroid—and the HPG axis—Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Gonads.
HPA AXIS
The HPA (Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal) axis is the hormonal response
system to longer-lasting stressors (more than a few seconds). When
activated, the HPA axis puts you in survival mode or fight or flight. The
hypothalamus releases CRH or corticotropin-releasing hormone. CRH tells
the pituitary to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH binds
to receptors on the adrenals and stimulates the release of cortisol.
The actions of the HPA axis are tightly regulated to ensure that cells
respond quickly to stressors and return to a normal state just as rapidly.
Prolonged activation of the HPA axis because of chronic stress leads to
disease. The major determinants of HPA axis activity are genetic
background, early-life environment, and current life stress. Traumatic
experiences in childhood lead to an over-reactive HPA axis in adulthood.

HYPOTHYROIDISM
Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid is underactive, leading
to a decreased production of thyroid hormones—T4 and T3. Symptoms
include fatigue, increased sensitivity to cold, constipation, hair loss, weight
gain, slow heart rate, anxiety, mood swings, memory issues.
IMMUNE SYSTEM
The immune system is the body’s defense system against invaders and
internal malfunctions. It is a network of different immune cells spread
throughout the body. The main task of the immune system is neutralizing
and getting rid of pathogens, harmful substances, and faulty or rogue cells
that are threatening cells as a community. Once the immune system has
gotten rid of the problem, it is supposed to turn off.
Some immune cells act as sentinels near entry points to the internal terrain.
Others circulate in the body in blood and lymphatic vessels. They are on
constant patrol, looking for targets. When they find one, they send out
signals—in the form of cytokines—to rally other immune cells.
Some immune cells are stored in lymphoid organs, ready to fight invaders.
Lymphoid organs include the thymus, spleen, bone marrow, tonsils,
adenoids, and lymph nodes positioned throughout the body.
The immune system has two parts: the innate immune system and the
adaptive immune system. The innate immune system offers immediate and
general protection. The adaptive system provides a much more specific and
delayed response. It remembers invaders so that the second time around, it
responds much more quickly and effectively. Though considered separate,
each system interacts with the other: when it isn’t sufficient, the innate
immune system triggers the adaptive immune system, and the latter uses the
former’s mechanisms to attack invaders.
The immune system needs to tell self from non-self. It does so by detecting
foreign substances—usually proteins—on the surface of invaders. These
substances are called antigens. Your own cells also carry proteins on the
surface. But they do not spark an immune response, because the immune
system has learned earlier to identify those proteins as self. If your immune
system mistakes your cells for non-self, it starts an autoimmune reaction.
Immune system disorders occur when the immune response is excessive—
allergies—is lacking—immunodeficiency—or attacks your own cells—
autoimmune diseases.
INFLAMMATION
Inflammation is part of the innate immune response to cellular injury
because of pathogens, trauma, or toxic chemicals. It is quick to mobilize
and not specifically targeted, so much so that it can induce collateral
damage to healthy cells nearby.
Acute inflammation is a protective response to remove the initial cause of
injury, clear out damaged cells, and initiate tissue repair. The five cardinal
signs of inflammation are warmth, pain, redness, swelling, and loss of
normal function. They occur because of the widening of local blood vessels.
This results in a flow of fluids and immune cells into the site of injury and
helps wash away toxic chemicals. Once repair is completed, inflammation
normally subsides.
Chronic inflammation is an ongoing, low-level inflammation, invisible to
the eye. When it becomes systemic, it perpetuates a state of destruction
everywhere in the body. It is involved in most chronic diseases, including
cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

INSULIN
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that keeps blood glucose levels
from getting too high and lets glucose into liver, muscle, and fat cells.
After you eat carbohydrates, your blood glucose level rises. Cells in the
pancreas—beta cells—respond by releasing insulin into the bloodstream.
Insulin then binds to cells and signals them to absorb glucose. It is like a
key, unlocking the doors of cells for glucose to enter. Glucose first goes to
cells in need of energy. Once energy needs have been covered, insulin
stimulates the production and storage of glycogen in the liver and muscles.
Once glycogen stores are full, insulin stimulates the conversion of glucose
into fat. The fat is stored in fat cells. At the same time, insulin inhibits the
release of fat from fat cells. Again, it is like a key, but this time it locks the
doors of fat cells to prevent fat from going out. Because it inhibits the
breakdown of fat cells and promotes the creation of fat, insulin is
sometimes called the fat storage hormone. As blood glucose levels return to
normal, insulin levels drop.
If your pancreas does not produce enough insulin or your cells are resistant
to the effects of insulin, you develop hyperglycemia.

KIDNEYS
You have two kidneys. They are the organs responsible for continuously
filtering blood and controlling the level of certain chemicals in the body,
such as calcium, urea, sodium, phosphorus. Kidneys eliminate unnecessary
chemicals and waste. They also regulate the salinity of blood, adjust pH or
acid-base balance, and release hormones to regulate blood pressure and
stimulate red blood cell production. Kidneys need a sufficient volume of
water to carry away waste.

LEAKY GUT
The intestinal lining is a barrier between the outside world and the internal
biochemical terrain. It is made up of a single layer of highly specialized
cells called enterocytes sealed by tight junctions. It normally blocks the
entry of harmful substances from the gut into the bloodstream, while letting
nutrients in. Leaky gut, also called increased intestinal permeability, means
the selective permeability of the intestinal lining is compromised, allowing
the passage of toxic chemicals, pathogens, and undigested food particles. It
occurs when the cells that form the intestinal lining or the tight junctions
between them are damaged. Immune cells on the other side of the lining see
the substances passing through as harmful invaders and attack them. This
promotes local or systemic immune responses, which cause chronic
inflammation throughout the body and further damage the intestinal lining.
What’s more, a leaky gut is unable to absorb nutrients properly.
Several insults can weaken tight junctions, poking holes into the intestinal
lining: inflammatory foods, sugar, alcohol, coffee, prescription drugs—such
as NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), antacids, and antibiotics
—inflammation, stress, dysbiosis, parasites, and toxicants, to name a few.
Healthy gut microbes feed enterocytes and support the integrity of the gut
lining, while pathogenic microbes facilitate a leaky gut.
Symptoms of leaky gut include bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea, reflux,
constipation, food sensitivities, allergies, hormonal imbalances, thyroid
issues, nutrient deficiencies. Many chronic diseases arise from or are
worsened by leaky gut. Leaky gut is now closely associated with
fibromyalgia, arthritis, allergies, asthma, rosacea, acne, depression, autism,
neurodegenerative diseases, and autoimmune diseases—such as lupus,
type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto’s disease, multiple sclerosis.
Leaky gut often implies leaky brain: a permeable intestinal lining goes hand
in hand with a permeable blood-brain barrier, letting harmful substances
and inflammation into the brain.
LEPTIN
Leptin is a hormone that connects fat cells to the brain. It is secreted by fat
cells. Increased levels of leptin signal the brain that fat storage is sufficient
and suppress appetite.
Obese people carry ample fat stores and produce a lot of leptin in their
bloodstream. But their brain cells have become resistant to leptin, so they
think they are starving. This drives an increase in food intake. Leptin
resistance is a major driver of obesity.
LIVER
The liver is an essential organ located in the right upper portion of the
abdomen, right below the rib cage and diaphragm. It is responsible for a
wide variety of functions, over 500. Those include producing bile to digest
fats, manufacturing and breaking down proteins, storing glycogen,
vitamins, and minerals, filtering blood, sorting out nutrients, controlling the
production and removal of cholesterol, breaking down alcohol,
metabolizing fructose, and transforming toxic chemicals to eliminate them
in bile and urine.
The liver repairs itself by rebuilding new liver cells when old ones are
damaged. Inflammation to the liver is called hepatitis. When there’s
repeated damage to the liver, permanent scarring occurs. This condition is
called cirrhosis.

LYMPHATIC SYSTEM
The lymphatic system is part of both the circulatory and immune systems. It
provides immune cells, maintains fluid balance, drains away metabolic
waste and toxicants from cells, and plays a role in the absorption of fat and
fat-soluble vitamins.
The lymphatic system consists of a network of lymphatic vessels, nodes,
and lymphoid organs. Plasma from the blood filters through capillaries, to
bathe cells and provide them with nutrients. While a large proportion of this
interstitial fluid finds its way back to the bloodstream, a small part is
processed through the lymphatic system. Lymphatic vessels collect the
remaining interstitial fluid—known as the lymph—and carry it throughout
the body. Lymph is a colorless fluid that contains white blood cells, a type
of immune cells. It is 75 percent of the body’s fluid while blood is 25
percent. Lymphoid organs, such as tonsils, thymus, spleen, and bone
marrow, produce immune cells. Nodes along the lymphatic vessels store
immune cells and serve as cleaning filters. As lymph vessels drain fluid
from cells, foreign substances are delivered to lymph nodes for assessment.
To set up a defense response, immune cells go up the lymphatic system to
the bloodstream and spread throughout the body to get rid of invaders.
Lymph flows only in one direction, toward the neck, where the fluid enters
the bloodstream. Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system
does not have any pump. It is only powered by movement.

MACRONUTRIENTS
Macronutrients are nutrients the body needs in relatively large amounts.
They include proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. All three provide energy.
Carbohydrates and proteins provide four calories per gram; fats, nine. Fats
and proteins also play structural and functional roles for cells.
Most foods combine two or three macronutrients.
MELATONIN
Melatonin is a hormone released in the evening to regulate sleep and wake
cycles.

MEMBRANE
The cellular membrane is the membrane surrounding the cell. It separates
the interior of a cell from its outside environment—the extracellular
environment or biochemical terrain. It consists of a fat bilayer with
embedded proteins that act as receptors or channels. Its main functions are
to protect the integrity of the cell, provide a closed environment for
metabolic reactions to take place, and allow controlled interaction with the
environment.
The cellular membrane is semipermeable. Small molecules can pass across.
The passage of larger molecules relies on channels—specific transport
proteins embedded in the membrane.
The mitochondria and the nucleus inside the cell are also surrounded by a
membrane.

METABOLIC PATHWAY
A metabolic pathway is a sequence of chemical reactions inside a cell. The
product of one reaction acts as the substrate for the next. Side products of
each reaction form metabolic waste and are removed from the cell.
Catabolic pathways break down complex molecules and release energy.
Anabolic pathways create bigger molecules and use energy.
METABOLISM
The word metabolism refers to all the biochemical reactions taking place
inside cells. It is a continuous process that begins at conception and ends
with death. It provides and consumes energy. It builds and breaks down
molecules. Thyroid hormones determine the pace.
MICROBIOME
The term microbiome, in its strictest sense, describes the complete set of
genes of all microbes found inside and on the surface of the body. Microbial
genes outnumber genes by a ratio of 100:1. This means that 99 percent of
the DNA in the body in is the microbiome. You carry a unique microbiome
that evolves depending on what you are exposed to.
The gut microbiome refers to the genes of microbes found inside the gut.
Those genes encode for enzymes to digest polysaccharides the gut cannot
digest. Microbes produce vitamins, fatty acids, neurotransmitters, and
hormones that influence the functioning of cells, from the gut lining to the
brain. They detoxify food. They also educate and train immune cells: they
help against pathogens.

MICROBIOTA
The microbiota is the collection of microbes—mostly viruses, bacteria, and
fungi—that lives in and on the surface of the body. There are approximately
100 trillion of them. The majority lives in the gut. Microbes and humans co-
evolved; they are mutually dependent for survival.
We are still learning about the microbiota, but research shows that the
number and type of microbes have a profound impact on health. A
dysfunctional microbiota—also known as dysbiosis—plays a role in
obesity, depression, anxiety, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative
diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Microbiota and microbiome are often used interchangeably. Consult the
entry microbiome for more information.
MICRONUTRIENTS
Micronutrients are vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Unlike
macronutrients, cells only need minute amounts of micronutrients. They
play essential roles in metabolism, detoxification, and oxidation control.

MINERALS
Minerals are micronutrients cells need as cofactors to metabolic reactions.
They are also needed for structure, electrical impulses along nerves, and
muscle contraction.
Minerals are inorganic elements. This means they don’t contain any carbon.
They come from soil and water.
There are two kinds of minerals: trace minerals and macrominerals. The
body needs macrominerals in larger amounts than trace minerals.
Macrominerals are magnesium, sodium, calcium, chlorine, phosphorus, and
sulfur. Trace minerals are iron, zinc, selenium, cobalt, fluoride, iodine,
molybdenum, and manganese.
Minerals and vitamins work synergistically. The human body cannot
receive or process vitamins without a sufficient supply of minerals.
Similarly, minerals are largely ineffective without vitamins.

MITOCHONDRIA
Mitochondria are bean-shaped organelles inside cells. They evolved from
primitive bacteria that were swallowed by single-cell organisms two billion
years ago. They are your cells’ batteries. They provide energy by converting
glucose, fatty acids, amino acids, and oxygen into special energy molecules,
known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This is called cellular respiration.
It requires the support of vitamins and minerals to take place. During
cellular respiration, mitochondria produce toxic byproducts called free
radicals.
Mitochondria are also involved in calcium homeostasis, cell specialization,
and cell growth. They send signals to the nucleus and other organelles in the
cell to influence cellular function. They control apoptosis—whether a cell
should live or die. When they sense danger, they downregulate cellular
function and send messages to neighboring cells.
The number of mitochondria in a cell varies from a few hundred to several
thousand, depending on the energy needs of the cell. The more energy an
organ requires, the more mitochondria its cells contain. Brain cells, heart
cells, muscle cells, and liver cells contain the greatest numbers.
Mitochondria carry their own DNA, so they can increase their numbers in
response to increased energy requirements, such as during repeated muscle
contraction. There are no mitochondria in red blood cells.
Mitochondria can become dysfunctional because of nutrient deficiencies,
inflammation, or damage to mitochondrial DNA. Dysfunctional
mitochondria do not provide the cell with enough energy and produce
excess free radicals. Many health issues have been associated with
mitochondrial dysfunction, including aging, heart disease, liver disease,
autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis.
MONOUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS
Monounsaturated fatty acids are fatty acids that have only one double bond
in the carbon chain while all the other carbon-carbon bonds are single
bonds. They are liquid at room temperature and turn solid when chilled.
They are better for cardiovascular health than saturated fatty acids because
they make for more flexible cellular membranes and decrease bad
cholesterol. They are vulnerable to oxidation when exposed to heat or light.
Good sources of monounsaturated fatty acids include olive oil, avocados,
and most nuts.
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune
system attacks the myelin sheath covering the axons of neurons in the
central nervous system. First symptoms include fatigue, numbness,
clumsiness, blurred vision, cognitive issues.
MUTATION
A mutation is a permanent change in the nucleotide sequence of a gene. In
most cases, it has no effect. Occasionally, it can either improve or decrease
adaptability to the environment. By changing the instructions for making a
protein, a mutation can cause the protein to work differently or to be
missing entirely. The effects of mutations on cellular function often depend
on the presence or absence of other mutations, as well as on environmental
exposures. Variations caused by mutations provide the basis for natural
selection. Those that help to survive and reproduce are passed on to the next
generation; they enable evolutionary change.
Mutations are either hereditary or acquired. Hereditary mutations are passed
down from parent to offspring. Acquired mutations occur from errors
during DNA replication in dividing cells. They can also be induced by
external factors, such as UV radiation, toxic chemicals, viruses, and free
radicals. DNA-repair enzymes minimize mutations. Apoptosis and the
immune system do the same by eliminating cells affected by mutations.
Mutations that occur in more than one percent of the population are called
polymorphisms. They are frequent enough to be considered a normal
variation. They are responsible for many of the common differences
between people such as eye color, hair color, shape, height, blood type, and
susceptibility to disease.
Disease-causing mutations are not common. A single mutation is unlikely to
cause chronic disease. The accumulation of mutations over a lifetime is
much more likely to cause chronic diseases such as cancer.
MYELIN
Myelin is a white, fatty material that sheathes the axon part of neurons and
speeds up the transmission of electric signals within neurons. A bare axon
transmits information at around 20 mph, while those sheathed in myelin can
conduct electricity up to 270 mph. Myelin upgrades the axon from ordinary
cable to high-speed fiber-optic cable.
In an adult human brain, myelin makes up around 42 percent of the brain’s
volume. It is called white matter.
In multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder, the immune system attacks
myelin and affects the transmission of signals.

NATURAL SELECTION
Natural selection is an evolutionary mechanism whereby individuals who
are better adapted to the environment survive and reproduce more, passing
on their genes to the next generations. Over time, these genes become
predominant, enabling entire populations to become more adapted to their
environment.
NERVOUS SYSTEM
The nervous system is one of the body’s communication systems, the other
two being the endocrine and the immune systems. It provides rapid
communication between cells. Messages from the nervous system are
targeted and short-lived.
The nervous system is made up of a complex network of billions of neurons
and support cells—microglia—throughout the body. It can be divided into:
the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain and the
spinal cord,
the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which includes all the
neurons outside the central nervous system.
The peripheral nervous system is further divided into the somatic nervous
system and the autonomic nervous system.
Sensory neurons in the PNS receive information from the environment. The
CNS integrates and interprets signals. It responds by inducing action from
muscles or glands through motor neurons in the PNS.
NEURODEGENERATION
Neurodegeneration is the progressive destruction of neurons, eventually
leading to loss of function and death of those neurons. It causes problems
with movement and mental health. Neurodegeneration is the basis for
neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s
disease.

NEURON
A neuron is a cell dedicated to the transmission of information within the
nervous system. It is characterized by a long, slim extension called axon at
one end and shorter, branchlike projections called dendrites at the other end.
The axon acts like an electrical cable to transmit electrical pulses. It carries
an insulating layer made of myelin, a fatty substance.
Neurons are divided into three types:
sensory neurons that detect changes in the environment,
interneurons in the central nervous system that receive and process
signals from the sensory neurons,
 motor neurons that send signals from the central nervous system to
muscles or glands, inducing contraction or secretion.
Neurons use a combination of electrical and chemical actions. An electrical
nerve impulse travels along the neuron to the end of the axon, which then
releases neurotransmitters. The chemicals move across the synapse to the
dendrites of the next neuron sparking an electrical charge which again
moves toward the end of the axon. This happens across many neurons until
the message reaches its destination. On average, each neuron is connected
to one thousand other neurons.
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Neurotransmitters are chemicals released by neurons at their axon terminals
to pass information to other neurons in the juncture known as the synapse.
They are also found at the axon terminal of motor neurons, where they
activate the muscle fibers.
You have over 100 types of neurotransmitters in your body.
Neurotransmitters are either excitatory or inhibitory, meaning they either
stimulate or calm down the nervous system.
NUCLEOTIDES
Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. They are made up of
three components: a phosphate group, a five-carbon sugar, and a
nitrogenous base. The four nitrogenous bases in DNA are adenine (A),
cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
NUCLEUS
The nucleus is a structure inside the cell that contains genetic information.
It is separated from the rest of the cell by the nuclear membrane.
Red blood cells do not have a nucleus.

OBESITY
Obesity is a condition associated with excess body fat. It means having a
Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s
weight in kilograms by his or her height in meters squared. Other measures
of excess fat, such as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, are also
used.
Obesity affects more than one-third of the adult US population. It greatly
increases the risk of developing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes,
cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.
ORGANIC
The term organic in reference to food means that a food (plant or animal)
has been grown, treated, and processed without artificial chemicals,
industrial solvents, conventional pesticides, hormones, manufactured
fertilizers, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Foods grown organically are more nutritious, containing higher levels of
micronutrients and a better fatty acid profile. You can usually taste the
difference.
Organic farming improves soil quality and decreases pollution. It is better
for the environment.
Selling food with an organic label is regulated by the USDA.
OSTEOPOROSIS
Osteoporosis is a condition in which bones become brittle and weak and
break easily. It can be caused by certain medications, inflammation,
hormonal changes, deficiency in nutrients such as calcium, magnesium,
vitamins D and K, and lack of physical activity.
Osteoporosis affects 16 percent of American adults over 65.
Postmenopausal women are at higher risk of osteoporosis.

OXIDATIVE STRESS
Oxidative stress occurs when free radicals cause cellular damage. It results
from an imbalance between free radicals and the antioxidants required to
counteract them. It damages proteins, lipids, and DNA. If left unchecked, it
damages and even destroys mitochondria, and ultimately cells. Because the
brain is the most energy-intensive organ in the body, it hosts high free
radical activity and is especially vulnerable to oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress plays a role in the development of many chronic diseases,
including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, and
Parkinson’s disease. It is also associated with aging.
PANCREAS
The pancreas is an organ that plays a vital part in the digestive system.
Located in the upper left abdomen, behind the stomach, it produces two
hormones—insulin and glucagon—and several enzymes for the digestion of
macronutrients.

PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the
progressive death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. These are
the neurons responsible for movement. Symptoms include tremors,
slowness of movement, muscular rigidity, and balance issues. Exposure to
toxic chemicals increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
PATHOGEN
A pathogen is any microorganism that causes disease, either by damaging
cells or making toxins inside the body. Pathogens include bacteria, viruses,
and fungi. Your immune system and microbiome are your defenses against
pathogens. Antibiotics, vaccines, and fungicides are designed to fight
pathogens.

PH
The pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution,
based on its hydrogen ion concentration. The term pH stands for potential
of hydrogen. A pH value is a number from 1 to 14. The value of 7
represents neutrality. A value below 7 means the solution is acidic. A value
above 7 means the solution is alkaline. The pH scale is a logarithmic scale:
a pH of 5 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 6. Similarly, a pH of 12 is
ten times more alkaline than a pH of 11.
The pH in the body differs from one area to another. Blood has a pH of
around 7.4. The stomach has a pH between 2 and 3.
Blood pH is an essential parameter for homeostasis because excess acidity
damages cells. Kidneys and lungs help regulate blood pH through urination
and breathing.
PHYTONUTRIENT
The term phytonutrient means plant nutrients. Phyto is the Greek word
meaning plant. It refers to micronutrients other than vitamins and minerals
that provide specific health benefits. Phytonutrients account for the color,
smell, and taste of the plant. They are commonly found in vegetables, fruits,
nuts, legumes, grains. They are not counted among essential nutrients
because you do not develop fatal deficiency diseases by not consuming
them. However, they are critical to health. Thousands have now been
identified. New ones are discovered all the time. Tomatoes alone are
thought to contain hundreds of different phytonutrients.
The terms phytonutrient and phytochemical are often used interchangeably,
even though the term phytonutrient is more restrictive: phytonutrients are
beneficial phytochemicals.
PLANT FOODS
Plant foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains (wheat, buckwheat, quinoa,
millet, rice, corn), beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices.
PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME (PMS)
PMS or premenstrual syndrome is a condition that affects women five to
fifteen days before menstruation and typically goes away when
menstruation begins. It includes emotional and physical symptoms, such as
mood swings, irritability, breast tenderness, headaches, and fatigue. It is
related to changes in sex hormones—estrogen and progesterone—as well as
serotonin fluctuations in the brain.

POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME (PCOS)

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal and metabolic disorder
affecting women. Women with PCOS may have irregular of no menstrual
periods, infertility, acne, unwanted hair, balding, insulin resistance, and
obesity. The ovaries of women with PCOS may contain cysts. Hence the
name.
PCOS affects 10 percent of American women of childbearing age.
POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are fatty acids that have more than one double
bond in their carbon chains. They are mostly found in plants and fish. They
are liquid at room temperature.
Two polyunsaturated fatty acids stand out. They are the two essential
nutrients: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The numbers 6 and 3 refer to
the location of the first double bond on the carbon chain. Both fatty acids
are required to build cell membranes and produce useful biochemicals in
the body. The omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is essential. Too much omega-6 in
relation to omega-3 leads to inflammation. Good sources of omega-3 fatty
acids are fatty fish—salmon, mackerel, anchovies, herring, sardines—
flaxseeds, walnuts, and canola oil.
Unsaturated fatty acids are less stable than saturated fatty acids. This makes
them more susceptible to oxidation.
PROGESTERONE
Progesterone is a predominately female sex hormone. It is produced in the
ovaries and adrenal glands. It helps to counterbalance estrogen and regulate
the uterine lining in women. It also affects sleep and mood.
PROTEINS
The word protein comes from the Greek, meaning of first importance. Often
referred to as the building blocks of life, body proteins are large molecules
essential for body structure, transport, function, and regulation. Some
proteins—collagen and keratin for instance—give cells and tissue their
shapes. Others—hormones and neurotransmitters—act as signals. Still
others—enzymes—regulate metabolic reactions. They make up between 40
and 50 percent of the dry weight of the body.
Proteins are made up of hundreds, or even thousands, of amino acids joined
in long chains. They come in different sequences, shapes, and sizes. The
twenty amino acids are combined and folded in different ways to make a
body protein. Genes provide the amino acid sequence, which in turn
determines the protein’s three-dimensional structure and its role in the body.
A single cell can contain thousands of different proteins. Each protein is
tailored for a specific need. Proteins are not interchangeable.
Dietary proteins are one of the three macronutrients, the other two being
carbohydrates and fats. During digestion, dietary proteins are broken down
into individual amino acids, which are absorbed into the bloodstream. They
are joined back, in different numbers and order, to synthesize body proteins
in cells. The DNA sequence of a gene determines the amino acid sequence
for the protein it encodes and thus its function.
PSORIASIS
Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune skin condition in which the immune
system attacks the skin. Symptoms are red plaques of scaling skin.
Inflammation causes skin cells to be produced faster than normal,
generating a buildup on the surface.

RECEPTORS
Receptors are molecules—usually proteins—on the membranes of cells or
inside cells. Their structures precisely match those of specific chemical
messengers such as neurotransmitters, hormones, and cytokines. The
messengers bind to receptors in lock-and-key fashion and stimulate a
response from the cell.
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune
system attacks joints, most commonly in hands, feet, wrists, elbows, knees,
and ankles. This creates inflammation, which causes swelling, stiffness, and
pain around and inside joints. It can cause deformity and loss of normal
movement for the affected body parts.

SATURATED FATTY ACIDS

Saturated fatty acids are fatty acids saturated with hydrogen molecules.
They only have carbon-carbon single bonds. They are solid at room
temperature. Foods such as cheese, butter, meat, whole milk, fried foods,
and palm oil contain them.
Although the jury is still out, saturated fatty acids are suspected of raising
bad cholesterol, clogging arteries, and promoting cardiovascular disease.
For that reason, most nutrition experts recommend limiting saturated fat
intake and replacing it with polyunsaturated fat. More recently, saturated
fats have also been found to promote gut dysbiosis and insulin resistance.
SEROTONIN
Serotonin is an inhibitory or calming neurotransmitter made from the
essential amino acid tryptophan in the gut and brain. Most of the serotonin
—up to 95 percent—is found in the gut where it regulates bowel
movements. In the brain, it controls emotional processing, mood, pain,
appetite, and sleep. It is thought to contribute to a sense of well-being and
happiness. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression and
anxiety.
SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM (SNP)
A single nucleotide polymorphism, also known as SNP and pronounced
snip, is the most common type of genetic variation among individuals. Each
SNP represents a difference in a single nucleotide—the building block of
DNA—that occurs in more than one percent of the population. For instance,
a SNP replaces the nucleotide thymine (T) with the nucleotide cytosine (C)
at a particular location in the DNA.
Most SNPs have no effect on health. However, some influence response to
drugs, susceptibility to environmental factors, and predisposition to certain
diseases.

SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is a branch of the autonomic
nervous system responsible for mobilizing the body’s energy and resources
at the onset of the stress response. It triggers changes such as muscle
contraction, increased heart rate, sweating, and digestion shutdown. It acts
as an antagonist to the Parasympathetic Nervous System.
SYNAPSE
Synapses are the empty spaces between the axon terminal of neurons and
the receptor on the dendrites of other neurons. When a neuron wants to
communicate with another, it releases neurotransmitters across the synapse
they share.
Healthy brain activity depends on the proper function of synapses. Toxic
chemicals can block synapses and cause serious problems with cognition,
learning, and memory.
STRESS
Stress is any stimulus that threatens homeostasis.
TESTOSTERONE
Testosterone is the main sex hormone in men but is also found in women. It
is involved in puberty and facial hair growth, increases bone density, and
grows muscle mass. Low levels are tied to sexual dysfunction, changes in
body composition and mood. High levels in women are tied to reproductive
problems.
THYROID
The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the neck. It is
part of the endocrine system. It produces T4 and T3 hormones that calibrate
metabolic rates depending on how much energy you need. Every cell in the
body carries thyroid hormone receptors. Thyroid disorders—
hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism—result from the production of
respectively too little or too much thyroid hormones. The thyroid gland is
vulnerable to the accumulation of toxic chemicals. If toxic chemicals build
up in the thyroid, they prevent the production of thyroid hormones.

TRANS FATS
Trans fats are a byproduct of a process called hydrogenation that is used to
turn oils into solids and to prevent them from becoming rancid.
Hydrogenation consists in adding hydrogen atoms to the carbon chain of
vegetable oils. On ingredient lists, trans fats are usually listed as partially
hydrogenated oil. They appear in margarine, commercial cookies, pastries,
and fried foods. They increase the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol and
reduce the amount of beneficial HDL cholesterol. They create inflammation
and contribute to insulin resistance.
Barring exceptions, all products now sold in the United States should be
free of artificial trans fats. Naturally occurring trans fats are found in meat
and dairy in small amounts.
UNCONSCIOUS MIND
The Unconscious Mind is a collection of automatic responses that process
information from inside and outside the body and run the relevant
biological and behavioral programs in return. It governs the autonomic
nervous system.
VAGUS NERVE
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It runs from brainstem to
colon while passing through neck, heart, lungs, gut, liver, pancreas,
gallbladder, kidneys, spleen, bladder, and reproductive organs. The word
vagus is Latin for wandering.
The vagus nerve has sensory and motor functions. It is responsible for the
parasympathetic activation of digestion, respiration, heart rate,
detoxification, and repair. It is a big part of the gut-brain axis* as it delivers
information from the gut to the brain, and vice versa. It communicates with
the diaphragm, so with deep breathing, you will feel more relaxed.
The vagus nerve is usually referred to in the singular, but there are actually
two of them.
VITAMINS
Vitamins are one of the three micronutrients with minerals and
phytonutrients. Even though they are required in small amounts, they are
essential for metabolic reactions to take place. They act as cofactors to
enzymes.
Vitamins are organic compounds, which means they contain carbon atoms.
They are made by plants or animals. Vitamins cannot be produced by cells,
except for vitamin D, which is made in skin exposed to sunlight.
There are 13 essential vitamins, either water- or fat-soluble.
Vitamins A, D, E, K are fat-soluble. They are absorbed in the bloodstream
with fat. They are stored in the liver and fat cells and can stay there for
several days. Therefore, fat-soluble vitamins can be consumed in large
amounts once in a while, for example, once every week. Conversely, they
can build up to toxic levels if over-consumed.
Vitamin C and all B vitamins are water soluble. The body cannot store
them: any vitamin in excess is excreted in urine. You need to supply these
vitamins every day to maintain cellular health. As an exception, vitamin
B12 is a water-soluble vitamin but is retained in the body quite well.
WHOLE GRAIN
A whole grain is the entire edible seed or kernel of any grain-producing
plant like wheat, barley, wild rice, or oats. All grains start out whole. They
still qualify as whole grains after processing if they retain the three parts of
the grain—the endosperm, the bran, and the germ. The endosperm is the
starchy inner body. It contains the starch stored by the plant for energy. The
bran is the outer shell of the seed. It contains fiber as well as B vitamins,
trace minerals, and phytonutrients. The germ is the part that sprouts into a
new plant. It is packed with essential fatty acids, vitamin E, trace minerals,
and phytonutrients.
The grains we eat today are mostly in the form of white flour. During the
manufacture of white flour, bran and germ are removed, therefore stripping
the wheat of its fiber and nutrients. Only the starch remains.
 Appendix III
Index of Scientific Studies
Everything in this book is backed up by science. You will find on the
companion website a list of over 800 studies with the links to the NCBI
website and the PDF when available. Hereunder is the index to help you
find the relevant study.
HEALTH STATISTICS
INTERNET RESOURCES FOR HEALTH STATISTICS AND
DEFINITIONS
THE WORKINGS OF THE MIND
HOMEOSTASIS
GENE EXPRESSION AND EPIGENETICS
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS
MICROBIOME
GUT-BRAIN CONNECTION
OXIDATIVE STRESS
MITOCHONDRIA
IMMUNE SYSTEM
HORMONES
INFLAMMATION
LEAKY GUT
STRESS RESPONSE
LIFESTYLE CONNECTION
NUTRITION
FATS
SUGAR
GLYCEMIC INDEX
FIBER AND RESISTANT STARCH
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
SLEEP
RELAXATION
TOXIC LOAD
CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
WEIGHT LOSS
WHY ARE WE GETTING FATTER?
MINDFUL EATING
BRAIN