What if the secret to weight loss wasn’t really a secret at all? According to Christine Gerbstadt, author of Doctor’s Detox Diet, The Ultimate Weight Loss Prescription, everything we need to slim down is right in front of us–no special fasting diets, lemonade drinks or meal replacement bars. Instead, she says the key is to choose whole foods that work together to support our organs. Specifically our liver, kidneys, skin, intestines and lymphatics. When we optimize these organs through our diet choices, they remove more toxins and waste, fight inflammation, and speed-up metabolism to burn existing fat and keep it off.
To find out more about how to best support permanent weight loss, we talked with Gerbstadt who says that it starts–and continues–with a good detox.
What exactly is detoxing and cleansing? Are they two different things?
The scientific definition of detox is not the way we use it. The technical term really just means to remove drugs or alcohol or other toxic substances from the body. Or it can mean emptying the colon for a procedure like a colonoscopy. But the way we use it now is really just removing the body of impurities. We’re not going to remove things like mercury because that gets into our bones, but we can remove things like cholesterol, fat and refined sugar. It’s basically removing impurities from our diet and from our bodies. Cleansing is the same, but people think about cleaning up their lifestyle a lot more than just what you eat or drink here. Cleansing can include adding exercise, avoiding pollution, avoiding UV rays, etc.
So is a detox diet a short-term diet or a long-term lifestyle?
The detox diets that have become popular with celebrities where you can drop 10 pounds in 10 days are focused on starvation, restriction, fasts and eliminating almost everything from your diet. Those kinds of diets are nothing more than fad diets and definitely only work in the short term. In fact, with those you only lose water weight because it takes three weeks to start losing fat. Eating a detox diet needs to be an on-going long-term, lifestyle commitment. You don’t just do it once a month or once a year and then eat whatever you want the rest of the time, thinking that a few days of fasting is going to clean you out. You’ll still have high cholesterol, diabetes and excess pounds.
So what do you recommend eating during a detox diet?
It’s using mostly whole foods and focusing on foods in their natural states, like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, beans, etc. People can choose to be vegetarian or not, and if they don’t eat meat, that means including more legumes. Basically, eating a detox diet means you’re eating healthy diet most of the time to support your organs, release impurities and keep them out of your body.
How is your detox diet different than other whole foods diets?
The focus of mine is on the five detox organs–your skin, intestines, kidney, liver and lymphatic system. You need to make a meal plan that is going to include foods to support each organ system. For example, I recommend a lot of herbs and spices because they are really potent sources of nutrients that help to support the organs; basil is really good for your kidneys and liver. Once you start eating more whole foods, they become very familiar and you start including this variety into your everyday diet and not wanting the processed foods anymore.
So when you say a detox diet, you basically mean a detox lifestyle, right?
Yes, this is an ongoing way of eating. Not a short-term fix.
How does this detox lifestyle help you lose weight?
When you get all of these organs to work, your metabolism will be at its peak and that’s where the weight loss comes in. You’re not keeping food or fat that your body doesn’t need. I recommend about 1,600 calories a day for a woman to keep your metabolism up, depending on the amount of physical activity each day. Most people should be able to maintain or lose weight based on that.
Weight loss is going to be the result of a calorie deficiency or activity increase. The reason a detox diet is better is because you are eating to support all of your organ systems to maintain your body at its best. Even if you ate these same calories with fast food, you may still lose weight, but you’re not going to be as healthy and your organs are not going to be working as well.
How much weight can people typically lose here?
You can lose 100 pounds, but it might take 18 months. I had one client who lost 37 pounds in 17 weeks, so a little over two pounds a week. She went from eating 2-3 fast food meals and 4-6 sodas a day with no physical activity, to eating like this–more fruits, vegetables, beans, etc. and started walking 5 days a week for 25 minutes. She was very dedicated and the results were very important to her. The type of foods changed, the calories came down a little and she started exercising. In general, if people eat a whole foods diet, they can expect to lose about one pound a week on average.
Is a lot of that just water weight at first?
That’s a great question. The first week can be the biggest weight loss and it can include the extra fluid you’re holding on to. Even if you just start with little changes to your diet like eating “real” foods versus other traditional meal replacement foods, you’re probably going to notice a difference and get mentally prepared for a new lifestyle of eating.
Can this type of diet work for anyone who wants to lose weight?
It really can work for anybody. If you have diabetes or a serious medical condition, you may need to modify and get a registered dietician to help you out. But eating this way can help stabilize your blood sugar and blood pressure. I have had clients go off their diabetic medications after starting to eat like this and maintaining this lifestyle.
What’s your biggest no-no for food?
Salt. When I go into a client’s home, I hide the salt shaker. That whole bloating and puffiness that people feel when they want to loosen their belts after a meal can be alleviated by taking away the salt and using herbs and spices instead. This is one of the best things you can do.
What is your number one go-to food for weight-loss?
That would definitely be raw vegetables, especially dark leafy greens. They have fiber, water, crunch and you can do a lot with them. You can eat them alone or add them into a recipe. So instead of just having a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread, it’s so much more fun to that turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with baby spinach, arugula and other vegetables added in. It looks a lot prettier and has a lot more nutrients like vitamin C and A. Most people aren’t getting enough vegetables in their diet each day so adding more raw vegetables this way is an easy way to do it.
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