Free The End of Diabetes by Joel Fuhrman Page A

stress-induced disease.
    The mammalian circadian system is organized in the brain’s hypothalamus. This section of the brain synchronizes cellular oscillators in most peripheral body cells. The liver glucose sensor activates these parts of the brain involved in cellular cycles. Fasting-feeding cycles accompanying rest-activity rhythms are the major timing cues in the synchronization of most peripheral clocks, especially metabolic activity and cellular detoxification. Detoxification efforts of the body vary cyclically and correspond with the rhythm and repetitive timing of sleeping and eating. The deactivation of noxious food components by hepatic, intestinal, and renal detoxification systems is among the metabolic processes regulated in a cyclic manner. The detoxification output of by-products is enhanced during cyclic periods corresponding with glycolysis. 5 This means that when we are not digesting food, the body is in an enhanced repair and detoxification cycle.
    Not only does eating low-nutrient food build up more toxins, creating inflammation and disease in our cells and organs, but the buildup of these toxins also leads to us to feel ill the minute our digestive tract is no longer busy digesting. So we are almost forced to overeat to prevent withdrawal symptoms. As soon as the digestion of food is complete, changes in all body systems begin to occur. Some patients report symptoms even within a few hours of not eating a food. Coffee drinkers, for example, are usually on an obligatory ingestion cycle and may get withdrawal headaches and cravings within hours of missing regular coffee doses.
    It has already been noted that overweight individuals build up more toxic waste products and express heightened inflammatory markers and oxidative stress when on a low-nutrient meal compared to normal-weight people. 6 Because of this, men and women prone to obesity experience more withdrawal symptoms, causing overconsumption of calories. It is a vicious cycle promoting the problem and preventing its resolution.
    People who eat healthier diets do not build up inflammatory markers nearly as much as people who don’t. 7 The point here is that many people are overweight because their body is forcing them to require more calories just to feel normal. They don’t feel well when they attempt to eat the amount of calories better aligned with their metabolic needs. A critical feature that makes a person overweight or diabetic is the environment of excessive and toxic food in the modern world. This in turn leads to the chronic oxidative and inflammatory stress created by modern food choices. This cellular “dis-ease” then creates symptoms that support its continuation, just like a cocaine addict seeks cocaine. This is why diets always fail. The secret to beating this vicious cycle is to focus on micronutrient quality. Only then will the desire for excessive calories cease.
    Every cell is like a little factory—it makes products; produces waste; and then must compact, detoxify, and remove the waste. If we let waste metabolites build up through the consumption of processed grains, oils, and animal products and insufficient consumption of vegetation, the body will attempt to mobilize these wastes (creating discomfort) when it can. But it only can do that effectively if it’s not actively digesting food. Eating alleviates the discomfort because it halts or delays the detoxification process.
    What I have observed and quantified with not merely hundreds but with thousands of individuals is that the drive to overconsume calories is blunted by high-micronutrient, high-antioxidant food consumption. The symptoms that people thought were hypoglycemia or even hunger simply disappear after eating healthfully for a few months. After a two- to four-month window, when micronutrients in the body’s tissues are enhanced, people not only lose symptoms of fatigue, headaches, irritability, and stomach cramping, but they also get back