Free Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself by Alejandro Junger Page A

magazines, and products all created to assist the body in building muscle and burning fat. We lifted weights four days a week, did cardio two days a week, and rested one. One day every two weeks, I was allowed to splurge on pizza and ice cream. I was such a dedicated student that I beat his prediction about the time it would take me to look like him by a month. And in a graduation ceremony of sorts, he passed on to me the secret weapon, The Opus Diet.
    The book was written by Dan Duchaine, himself a bodybuilder, who noticed that a high-protein, low-carb diet would only take him so far. There was that last fat reserve that seemed impossible to burn. In competition, the bodybuilder with the least fat wins. Duchaine, determined to understand how to do it, studied physiology, endocrinology, and metabolism with such passion that he became an authority on those subjects.
    His greatest discovery came from observing sick people. Poorly controlled diabetics develop a condition known in medicine as ketoacidosis. The lack of insulin prevents the glucose in the blood from entering the cells to be used as fuel for energy. The body has a temporary survival trick to buy time. It converts fat into ketone bodies, which are similar to glucose in that they can be used as fuel in cells, but their molecular composition resembles alcohol. The reason they are only a temporary solution is that they eventually make the blood so acid it is deadly. Ketoacidosis is a life-threatening medical emergency.
    But patients who had repeated episodes of ketoacidosis were some of the leanest people Duchaine had ever seen, and he wanted to recreate this condition. Eating only protein and fat, no carbs, was his magic formula. He would go for as long as he could without carbs, allowing his body to turn fat into ketone bodies. Then, to keep from entering a critical state, he would eat some carbs to stabilize his blood acidity. Once it was stabilized, he would repeat the process. And it worked.
    Duchaine knew the risk of death when eating this way. He knew well what he was dealing with, and he was willing to accept the consequences. But when the Atkins diet exploded all over the world, I don’t think the majority of its followers knew what they were getting into. They still don’t. The Atkins diet works; it is guaranteed to make you fit in your bathing suit by beach time. What it doesn’t guarantee is that you will be alive to enjoy it. Ketoacidosis or not, high animal-protein content in our diet is acidifying, contributing to inflammation in general and to cardiovascular disease, cancer, renal insufficiency, gout, and osteoporosis in particular.
    After this whole experience, whenever people ask me what they should eat, I first ask them, “What are you eating for?” If you are eating to get lean, fast, Atkins is your best choice, but your worst choice if what you want is radiant health and longevity.
    When we finally realized that eliminating one of the three basic food categories (carbs, proteins, fats) was not going to work, more reasonable and safer fads, such as the Zone, South Beach, and Body for Life, came and went without as much press as their predecessors. Throughout the rise and fall of the fads, always in the background, as if pretending not to be there, was the U.S. government’s food pyramid. It shows the different groups of foods and the number of servings per day that are considered healthy. The only thing I have to say about it is that it all starts with a lie; it turns out the pyramid is really a triangle.
    Fads come and go; they often don’t survive because they have no lasting value to impart to followers. Some dietary trends, however—those based on sound information and with lasting value—turn into movements. They are often born from the experience of someone who shares and inspires others to benefit from the discoveries made. Bonds are generated and communities are born. There are many Web communities that support these movements; they