Chapter 14

The FRS Diet

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.

Thomas Edison

The developed world is facing a tsunami of chronic and degenerative illnesses largely caused by diet. Whereas a normal breakfast in Japan or Thailand might be fish and rice, in the developed world it is currently more likely to be some combination of sweetened and refined wheat and dairy products. These culturally acquired norms are the result of learned preferences and countless generations of human intervention in animal husbandry and crop cultivation. For instance, the wheat that we now eat bears little relationship to the wheat our ancestors would have recognized a thousand years ago and the gluten molecule is now twice the length it was then and in the process has become less digestible. The advent of dairy farming also meant that milk that had formerly come from sheep or goats primarily started to come from cows. Cow’s milk has a longer casein molecule than that of sheep or goats and the recent introduction of pasteurization and low-fat milks all conspire to make it harder to digest. Recognize that what is accepted as ‘normal’ may not be good or even desirable. Your diet is going to play a key role in aiding detoxification and in repairing and rebuilding damaged tissue. Your nutritional status is dependent on the food that you eat and on the efficiency of your digestion and absorption processes. You may need to seriously upgrade your ideas about nutrition and what a desirable diet should be in order to recover from FRS.

Where to Begin

In order to control what is in your food you are going to need to cook everything from scratch using organic ingredients wherever possible. Although this can be hard work, it is the most worthwhile investment you can make in your own health – and that of your family. The ‘French paradox’ refers to the unusually high consumption of meat, dairy produce and alcohol in France and yet very low levels of heart disease and obesity. This finding may relate more to the fact that they buy local, fresh produce and take pride in cooking rather than relying on the ready meals that have become common in other countries. Whilst supermarket fruit and vegetables may look fresh, they have often been sprayed with fertilizers and pesticides, harvested ‘green’, kept in a modified atmosphere for months and then ripened using ethylene gas. Try to buy local produce, arrange for delivery of an organic box scheme, or better yet – grow your own. Buy organic meat where possible to avoid the pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones and vaccines used in rearing regular meat. Venison, lamb, pheasant or duck can be good options because they are less likely to have been subject to these farming methods. Try and purchase food and drinks in glass containers or bottles rather than in cans as both the metal and the chemical used to treat it (Bisphenol A) are toxic and leach into the product. Try to buy as few foods as possible with labels on, and if you do, examine the label carefully and know that it probably does not tell the whole story. Any foods that have a long shelf-life are ‘dead’ foods and should be kept to a minimum. This diet can make eating away from home difficult and the key is to plan ahead by, for instance, taking a thermos of soup into work and when eating out to choose the simplest foods such as fish or meat with salad or vegetables. The diet that all FRS sufferers need to follow is effectively a modern take on the Stone Age diet that our ancestors ate for many millennia before the advent of agriculture, and meal suggestions are shown in figure 14. Below we examine the ‘good’ foods that need to be included in your diet as much as possible to support your recovery, the ‘bad’ foods that should be avoided as much as possible and finally, the ‘ugly’ foods that should be excluded entirely.

The ‘Good’ Foods

Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food.

Hippocrates

Fibre

It is critical that you establish and maintain regular bowel movements – not only for the duration of the detoxification, but for the rest of your days. Eating a healthy diet of fibrous whole foods will bulk out the stool and will prevent re-absorption into the body of the bile in which the toxins are being excreted. Soluble fibre is found in foods such as oats, dried beans and apples and insoluble fibre is found in whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Aim to include at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day and try to eat a variety of colours as the pigments are antioxidants (proanthocyanidins) with different actions. Cook vegetables as little as possible using steaming or stir-frying and aim to eat at least some food raw every day either as crudités, fruit or as a salad. Include a reasonable amount of carbohydrates in as unrefined a state as is possible, such as wholegrain rice, potato, porridge oats and oatcakes (if tolerated), lentils, beans and chickpeas. The exceptions to this rule may be those with seriously compromised digestive systems, but even so you can still include plenty of fibre in hearty vegetable soups without the abrasive effect of some whole grains.

Protein

It is now recognized that detoxification is an entirely nutrient-dependent process. If your liver does not have all the nutrients required to detoxify a substance, then these toxins will be temporarily stored until such time as the nutrients become available. Of course, for many the appropriate nutrients never do become available – or at least not in sufficient quantities – and so the inexorable descent into toxicity and illness begins unheralded. Two of the six phase II liver detoxification pathways that are particularly affected by mercury toxicity are the methylation and sulphation pathways. The methylation pathway is responsible for metabolizing fats, DNA and oestrogen; and the sulphation pathway for processing neurotransmitters, thyroid and steroid hormones, toxins from bowel flora and other substances such as paracetamol (acetominophen). These pathways derive the methyl and sulphur groups required for conjugation primarily from methionine which is an amino acid largely found in meat and fish. So in order to be able to detoxify metals and also to provide the proteins required to repair and renew the extensive tissue damage associated with FRS you need to be eating high-quality animal protein at least twice, and ideally three times a day. A portion of protein is approximately the size of a pack of playing cards and acceptable high-quality animal proteins include eggs, cheese, meat or fish.

It is simply not possible to detoxify metals effectively on a vegan diet (there is relatively little methionine in beans and nuts) and the likelihood of you getting better if you don’t introduce some animal source protein is negligible. If you are vegan and are determined to stay that way, then the addition of a high-quality protein drink at mealtimes or supplementing L-carnitine may help. If you are a lacto-vegetarian, make sure that you are eating properly balanced, nutritious meals and include eggs and cheese (if you are not intolerant) in your diet along with all the other sources of protein, and consider including some fish. Vegetarian or not, supplementing a cow or goat whey-based protein drink can provide valuable support for detoxification. Alternatively, now that you are seriously ill, you might want to reconsider your stance on consuming animal protein. It is really only in the last century or so that some have chosen on ethical or health grounds to exclude all animal products, but historically we have evolved to eat at least small amounts of animal protein. A lot of vegetarians also rely heavily on wheat and dairy as dietary staples – which are the two main food allergens. Whilst some peoples have successfully managed vegetarianism over centuries, they tend to have different blood types and typically live in hot, sunny climates that for all their privations do not present the toxic challenge encountered by many in developed countries.

‘Good’ Fats

In the recent hysteria over fats, people have reduced their intake of ‘good’ fats along with the ‘bad’ fats found in processed foods and meats as shown in figure 15. The ‘good’ fats include two polyunsaturated fats the body cannot make which are referred to as essential fatty acids (EFA). These EFAs act as starting points for the synthesis of many essential fats within the body and are required for processes such as energy production, oxygen transport, proper immune function and the synthesis of hormones. One family of EFAs is known as omega 3 oils and these are found mostly in fish, and the other is known as omega 6 oils and these are found in meat, and nuts and seeds and their oils.

Almost everyone (unless they are already supplementing) is deficient in omega 3 oils, mostly due to food processing and the fact that oily fish consumption has dropped by 80 per cent in recent years as the population switched from a standard kipper breakfast to cereals. These omega 3 oils comprise up to three-quarters of the dry weight of the brain and deficiency makes the nervous system vulnerable to the metallic mercury vapour from amalgam fillings and to depression. Omega 3 oils and the omega 6 oils from safflower and sunflower oil are also converted within the body into prostaglandins which are a subgroup of eicosanoids which are locally acting hormones that reduce inflammation and control immunity. Figure 16 shows the relationship of the various omega 3 oils, of which eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) is the most beneficial to the nervous system and is converted relatively poorly from vegetable source alpha linolenic acid (ALA). Do not worry at all about good fats making you fat – they simply don’t. In fact, quite the opposite, with good fats aiding energy production and fat-burning. Seeds are rich sources of the good oils, so snack on them whenever possible, sprinkle whole onto cereal or salad or grind them in a coffee grinder before use to make them more digestible if your digestion is compromised. Keep seeds in the refrigerator and use before the specified date.

A good-quality olive oil is ideal for general use in cooking and dressings, but it should be stored in a dark glass bottle in the refrigerator and not allowed to smoke or be reused. If you have some vitamin E capsules, one or two emptied into each bottle of oil that you use will help to stabilize the contents. You can buy oils which are rich in omega 3 and 6 in health food shops and these oils should be refrigerated and used within the recommended date and are not meant to be heated. Stir a couple of teaspoons of these oils into soups, pour on cooked food or add to salad dressings every day.

Fish

Whilst the larger, predatory fish such as tuna, salmon, shark, swordfish, sea bass and halibut and some bottom-feeding shellfish such as prawns provide a good source of omega 3 oils there are now concerns about the amount of methyl mercury they contain. The bigger the fish, the higher up the food chain and the longer it has lived, so one suggestion is not to eat fish larger than your plate (with the exception of salmon) and to be aware that fish steaks are cut from the larger fish. The smaller fish such as sardines, herring, small mackerel and anchovies still provide a good source of omega 3 oils with relatively little mercury contamination. A very simple and tasty fish paté can be made by processing smoked salmon or smoked mackerel with just a little melted butter and lemon juice and this also freezes very well. Aim to include oily fish in your diet several times a week. Occasionally, when you are mercury toxic and you unwittingly consume a food which contains high levels of methyl mercury such as seafood, you may experience vomiting or diarrhoea. This is known as a secondary immune reaction and is your body’s way of eliminating the food and its associated toxins as quickly as possible.

Minerals

Toxic metals compete with minerals for binding sites and so a good mineral base is required to both displace the toxic metals and to replace them when they are dislodged by other means. Detoxification also requires a plentiful supply of a variety of minerals and these are often lacking in our modern diets. Try to incorporate mineral-rich foods into your diet and, since nutrients are always best when they come packaged in the way nature intended, juicing vegetables is a good way to obtain a plentiful supply of minerals in their natural form. FRS sufferers are frequently deficient in magnesium, selenium and zinc and figure 17 lists foods which are naturally rich in these minerals along with sources of calcium for those who may be avoiding dairy.

Celtic Sea Salt

Celtic Sea Salt is a source of trace minerals and should become the salt you use at the table and in cooking. Individuals suffering with adrenal fatigue actually require salt and often feel worse for consuming potassium-rich fruits and fruit juices which deplete sodium levels. You also need a certain amount of salt to synthesize stomach acid.

Prebiotics

These are foods which promote a healthy gut flora and include Jerusalem artichokes, soybeans, chicory root and raw oats, wheat and barley (if tolerated). Prebiotics aid mineral absorption, support the immune system and help to regulate bowel function, although their introduction may initially cause some intestinal upset. You can also use powdered Fructooligosaccharide (FOS), which is a prebiotic, as a sugar substitute.

The ‘Bad’ Foods

‘Bad’ Fats

‘Bad’ fats include the saturated fats found in meat, cheese, cream and lard. These fats promote inflammation and a surfeit also creates a relative deficiency of omega 3 oils which compete for the same enzymes. Try and reduce the frequency with which you eat meat and dairy products and/or reduce portion sizes. However, it is better to use small amounts of butter than any margarine (even if you are dairy-intolerant you may be able to tolerate butter).

Grapefruit

Grapefruit contains substances that are known to inhibit liver detoxification, so consider excluding or reducing intake of this fruit and its juice whilst you are ill.

Processed and Organ Meats

Consumption of processed meats such as bacon, sausages, corned beef, hot dogs and hamburgers should be kept to a minimum and any barbecued or burnt meat avoided wherever possible. Like us, animals store toxins in their body fat and their organs of excretion such as their liver and kidneys also become toxic so avoid organ meats and remove excess fat from meat where possible.

Sulphur-Containing Foods

Whilst sulphur is required for detoxification and inclusion of sulphur-rich foods and supplements is often recommended for FRS, experience shows that many sufferers find that consumption of these foodstuffs can prove problematic. This may be because sulphur is known to cause redistribution of mercury and to promote yeast growth in metal-toxic individuals, or may be due to the body vigorously detoxifying when supplied with sulphur-rich foods. If you find that one or more of these foods disagrees with you, you may wish to experiment with excluding all sulphur-containing foods and supplements for a while and reviewing your symptoms. Sulphur-rich foods include the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, turnip and swede) in addition to peas, beans and their products, leeks, carob, chocolate, coffee, dairy products, eggs, lentils, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, onions, garlic, soy and its products, peanuts and spinach. Sulphur-containing supplements include: alpha-lipoic acid (ALA); chondroitin and glucosamine sulphate; glutathione; garlic; methylsulphonylmethane (MSM) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC).

The ‘Ugly’ Foods

Sugar Substitutes

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener used in a lot of diet products and soft drinks and marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful or Equal Measure. As Russell Blaylock writes in his book Excitoxins, it acts as a neurotransmitter or ‘excitotoxin’ in the brain and in excess can literally stimulate nerve cells to death. Aspartame alone is responsible for three-quarters of all the complaints made to the powerful US Food and Drug Administration. It contains 50 per cent phenylalanine, 40 per cent aspartic acid and 10 per cent methanol. The phenylalanine is known to deplete serotonin levels in the brain causing depression and at body temperature the methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde which is highly toxic. Aspartame is recognized to cause nearly one hundred symptoms that can affect almost any body system and these include many of those that are familiar to FRS sufferers. However, the most consistent finding associated with Aspartame is that of memory loss.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been introduced in recent years to manufactured foods and drinks because it is both cheaper and twenty times sweeter than sugar. It now accounts for the majority of sweetener used, however it does not activate the insulin response, it encourages fat deposition and raises blood fats whilst failing to satiate and is thought to be a major cause of obesity. To add insult to injury, the majority of supplies are also mercury contaminated! There is also growing concern about the sweetener sucralose which is marketed as Splenda too – so scrutinize labels and eliminate all products containing artificial sweeteners.

Monosodium Glutamate

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is also an excitotoxin which is added to a lot of savoury foods as a flavour enhancer. It can also be labelled as ‘flavouring agents’ or ‘hydrolyzed vegetable protein’ and is added to practically all ready meals, convenience foods, soups, snacks and nearly all fast foods. MSG causes such catastrophic metabolic and endocrine problems that it is used to induce obesity in experimental rats and mice. Cut out all products which contain – or might contain – MSG.

Hydrogenated and Trans-Fats

Hydrogenated fats will contain a proportion of trans-fats and both have been created by boiling vegetable oils under hydrogen in the presence of nickel to create hard fats that are cheap substitutes for butter. The trans-fats produced in this way have a different-shaped molecule and are completely synthetic, but the body mistakes them for naturally occurring oils and incorporates them into cell membranes where they impair various aspects of cell function. Eliminate hydrogenated oils or trans-fats completely, especially if you have fibromyalgia or a rapid respiration rate at rest. Look closely at labels because they are often an ingredient in manufactured foods such as biscuits (cookies), ice cream, cakes and sweets (candies). Note that both trans-fats and aspirin also block conversion of the good fats.

Special Diets

In addition to following the basic FRS diet, the specific dietary considerations required to manage food intolerances, overgrowth of Candida, hypoglycaemia, hypothyroidism and being overweight are addressed in more detail below. If your digestion is terribly compromised you also might want to consider using meal replacement powders such as Metagenic’s Ultrameal to replace one or more meals a day. These do not need much digesting since they are a drink, supply a good balance of nutrients and largely eliminate the possibility of food intolerances.

Food Intolerances

The term intolerance is usually used to refer to foods that your body has difficulty digesting because you lack a particular enzyme, or refers to foods that have a detrimental effect upon your mental or physical processes in some way. This is in contrast to true food allergies which are usually more serious and more immediate. The symptoms caused by food intolerance tend to be delayed and more subtle and include migraines and headaches, behavioural and psychological changes, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, eczema, rhinitis, rashes and catarrh. These symptoms also usually change throughout life so that many believe that they ‘grew out of’ a condition only to have the intolerance change its expression. Food intolerances can, however, change over time, so do not assume that because you once tested intolerant to a particular food you can never eat it again.

Identifying Food Intolerances

Your favourite foods often turn out to be the foods to which you are intolerant. This is because these foods have been creating a stress response which has been giving you a hormonal ‘high’ – whether you have been aware of it or not. You will certainly have been consciously or unconsciously including these foods in your diet every day or few days and may get cravings and withdrawal symptoms if you stop eating or drinking that particular foodstuff. The vast majority of FRS sufferers may have been controlled by these addictions and this may have played a large role in their developing chronic fatigue. You may need to seek professional help in identifying food intolerances and figure 18 shows three of the more common methods of diagnosis.

DIY Food Intolerances

Without undertaking these tests, there is still much you can do to help yourself. The first suspects are the foods or drinks that you couldn’t bear to give up – and they should be the first thing to go. Any foodstuff that you can’t stop eating or drinking once you have started is also a sure-fire indication of intolerance and/or addiction. Please refer to figure 19 for a list of food groups which may help you identify foods from the same family that you may also need to avoid and to identify substitute foods in alternative food groups. There is often a family history of a particular food intolerance – so if you know that your uncle or grandmother was intolerant to dairy products, for instance, eliminating those would be a good place to start. Racial heredity also plays an important role, with the vast majority of adults of Asian descent being lactose intolerant. However, gluten intolerance is rare in people of Asian or African descent, but common in those with Celtic ancestry. Please note that some people who have problems with dairy may also need to exclude beef as they contain similar proteins.

Elimination Diets

Another DIY option is to go on a restricted diet for a short period of time with the intention of eliminating the most likely allergens and then reintroducing them one by one and gauging the reaction. Options include:

• Eating the healthy Stone Age diet outlined previously, but cutting out all dairy products and gluten-containing grains because these two foodstuffs are responsible for the lion’s share of intolerances. The grains that contain gluten include wheat, rye, oats and barley and these can be replaced with gluten-free grains such as millet, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), buckwheat, rice and corn/maize (although corn is a common allergen too). When excluding dairy products cut out all milk, yoghurt, cream, crème fraiche, butter and cheese and check that products do not include dairy products in any form.

• Another alternative is to cut out the ‘sensitive seven’ most likely allergens which are: dairy products, wheat, sugar, corn, soy and its products, eggs and peanuts. The second tier allergens include: yeast, oranges, tomatoes, coffee, citrus fruits, beef, pork, potato, nuts, tea and chocolate. You could cut both tiers out and then re-introduce the second tier allergens first one by one, observing any symptoms.

• You can just eat lamb, pears and rice (you are very unlikely to be intolerant to these foods) for a few days. Alternatively, you can try eating a diet of exotic foods that you rarely eat such as rabbit, duck, lobster, kiwi fruit, pineapple, mango, and so on for a limited time as these foods are unlikely to be the culprits – or do a bit of both!

• Testing foods using the techniques described in the appendix may also be helpful.

• Another alternative is to try a powdered meal replacement such as Metagenics’ Ultrameal (dairy free) for a few days, although you should probably supplement this with some plain meat or fish.

It is quite normal when you eliminate a food to which you are intolerant to experience some quite severe withdrawal symptoms. These may include migraines, headaches and flu-like symptoms and typically occur within a few days, but may take weeks to manifest. You may also find that when you reintroduce the food, you may get an extreme reaction that you did not get when your body was habitually exposed to it. Some people also find that they lose a lot of water weight when they eliminate a food to which they are intolerant and may find that they bloat up when they consume the food again.

Reintroducing Foods

• Introduce foods one by one, keeping a food diary. Sometimes symptoms are not immediate so include aches, sleep patterns and headaches over the following few days.

• Choose the simplest, plainest form of any food. For instance, if reintroducing oats, try making oatmeal porridge with water and not eating an oat biscuit or cookie where any reaction could be to the other ingredients.

• You could monitor your heart rate and blood pressure an hour or two after eating to gauge a reaction, with any great increases in either measurement indicating a food intolerance.

• To confuse the situation even more, some sufferers are able to tolerate modest amounts of some foods on an occasional basis. However, if they have a food they tolerated on day one again on day two, they may have a reaction. For this reason, some people deliberately rotate ingredients in a four- or five-day cycle in order to avoid a reaction. Some food intolerances also seem to come and go and this may relate to how much mercury is in circulation at any given time. If you have periodically been able to tolerate a foodstuff during recovery, the ability to eat that food will return permanently if you keep going with the detoxification.

The Anti-Candida Diet

If you suspect that you have an overgrowth of Candida albicans (see figure 2) then you may need to stick to a strict anti-Candida diet until your symptoms have improved. Be warned, though, Candida converts into its cyst form when food supplies are scarce and can remain in this dormant state for years until foods are reintroduced. The anti-Candida diet is essentially the Stone Age diet but with particular emphasis on avoiding alcohol, refined carbohydrates, sugar, dairy, yeast and fungi. Please see figure 20 for a list of the foods that need to be eliminated according to the severity of your condition. Desserts are out – but you can have fruit after a few weeks and you may find that you tolerate berries better than other fruits. Treating candidal overgrowth by diet alone is treating a symptom rather than the cause – although it may provide essential management for a period of time. When you feel that you may have re-established control, you can start to reintroduce some foods one at a time, cautiously observing symptoms. When Candida dies it can produce an unpleasant Herxheimer (die-off) reaction and/or crashing cravings for its preferred foodstuffs and these are actually encouraging signs that what you are doing is working and furthermore that Candida is an underlying problem. Once you have weathered these storms, you may start to feel quite a lot better than you have felt in a long time. There are many books devoted exclusively to this subject and any natural health practitioner will be able to help you.

The Hypoglycaemia Diet

Eating a diet that regulates your blood sugar levels is a very important part of recovery. This means eating according to the glycaemic index or glycaemic load of foods (GI/GL index), which is a measure of the impact that specific foods have on your blood sugar levels. There are many books devoted exclusively to this subject. In brief, the rules for low GI eating are:

• Cut out all sweet and refined foods.

• Cut down or cut out consumption of alcohol and fruit juices.

• Substitute xylitol (a naturally low GI sweetener) for sugar.

• Eat smaller meals regularly and do not skip meals – especially breakfast.

• Eat whole foods as much as possible.

• Root vegetables (excluding potatoes) are a good source of slow releasing carbohydrates.

• Eat low GI fruits such as apples, apricots, berries, cherries, citrus fruits, pears and plums.

• Try to combine proteins and carbohydrates in both snacks (hummus on oatcakes) and meals (fish or meat and vegetables).

• Finally, consuming a protein drink with meals may help to regulate your blood sugar.

The Hypothyroidism Diet

If you have an underactive thyroid gland, then it might be best to avoid consuming foods known as goitrogens which interfere with the synthesis of thyroxine and can cause a swelling of the gland known as a goitre. The jury is still out as to how much harm some of these foods do in practice, and cooking may deactivate some of the components, however it would be wise to avoid inclusion of excessive amounts of the goitrogenic foods in the diet. Equally, the body requires both the amino acid tyrosine and the trace element iodine to synthesize thyroxine, and so foods containing these compounds are beneficial to thyroid function and should be included (within reason) in the diet. Foods in both categories are listed in figure 21.

The Weight-Loss Diet

Other books will confidently inform you that regular exercise combined with a healthy diet will result in weight loss. My experience is that (depending upon your particular toxicity or endocrine dysfunction) excess weight cannot only prove damnably hard to shift, but impossible for some with FRS. Certainly don’t be tempted into using extreme or damaging measures such as fad diets, diuretics, abusing laxatives or surgery.

Consider the following possibilities if stubborn excess weight is an issue for you.

• If you have an untreated or inadequately treated underactive thyroid gland, it will be impossible to lose weight. Some of those with hypothyroidism may have metabolisms which are running at 50 or 70 per cent of the ideal. The thyroid gland also starts to produce reverse T3 (rT3) when food is restricted and this mechanism can reduce the metabolic rate by a further 30 per cent, meaning that you literally can’t eat little enough to lose weight without starvation. It is probably a survival strategy and may also be the mechanism by which dieting makes you fat. You are effectively warning your body that food may occasionally be scarce and to conserve supplies. Certainly consult a doctor and/or naturopath if weight loss is all but impossible or you are getting bigger in spite of all your best efforts to lose weight.

• Ensure that you have identified all your food intolerances and that you strictly avoid these foods.

• Toxin levels in fat can be up to 1,000 times higher than those in the blood and if you are still very toxic your body will refuse to release fat from storage and even if it does, the fat typically becomes dimpled and reforms the minute you resume eating anything approaching a normal diet. This is why cellulite is so hard to get rid of and why you may feel a whole lot worse if you do manage to lose weight as you experience a toxin surge. Do the best that you can and keep detoxifying.

• Kidney damage may also mean that you are retaining a lot of water and this will eventually be resolved by detoxification.

• Some people, particularly those who may have had childhood experiences of sexual abuse, may be running a subconscious programme that being overweight provides some sort of protection. If this is the case, no amount of work on the physical will override this programme for very long. If you think that this might be true for you, then seek the help of a specialist practitioner who can access the subconscious and re-programme this belief. Therapies such as PSYCH-K, kinesiology or Emotional Freedom Technique can be particularly valuable in this regard.

• Historic loss of a child can profoundly impact blood sugar management and be the underlying cause of morbid obesity or enormous struggles with weight and this applies to men as well as women. Again, you may need to seek help to resolve this underlying issue in order to lose weight.

Fasting

Fasting may seem like an appealing way of rapidly detoxifying and losing weight, but fasting is best reserved for maintenance of health in essentially well people for several reasons. First, starvation is a huge stress to the body and taxes potentially exhausted adrenal and thyroid glands yet further. Second, as fat stores are broken down, the toxins stored are released at the same time as the body is deprived of the nutrients and energy it requires to detoxify them. Third, fasting also induces greater phase I detoxification in the liver which means that highly toxic substances are generated that cannot then be further processed because the cofactors required for phase II detoxification are absent. Fourth, with a complete lack of fibre, toxins excreted in the bile will be reabsorbed. Last but not least, the complete lack of dietary antioxidants means that there will be more reactive oxygen species damage occurring throughout the body.

Fluids

The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid in which if floats that degenerates. Renew this fluid at regular intervals, give the cells what they require for nutrition, and as far as we know, the pulsation of life can go on forever.

Dr Alexis Carell

We are about 75 per cent water by weight and 99 per cent of the molecules in our bodies are water molecules. Next to oxygen, water is the most vital substance for sustaining life and dehydration is the most threatening stress to any living thing. Adequate water supplies are essential for efficient blood and lymph flow, the production of digestive juices, the prevention of constipation, kidney function, cushioning and lubricating the joints and intervertebral discs and for the efficient function of the brain. Most people in the developed world are chronically dehydrated because most of the preferred beverages cause a net loss of water over time. Many only drink when they feel thirsty too, when thirst is really an alarm signalling dehydration. Even just existing, we need to replace the 2 litres (3.5 pints) of water a day that are lost through sweating, moisture in our breath, urinating, tears, defecating and menstruating. Chronic dehydration can manifest as the symptoms of many different illnesses that often then get treated with medication. Whilst we come equipped with an efficient drought management system that ensures that the vital organs always have the constant supply of water they require in order for us to survive, constant flushing of the intercellular fluid and kidneys is vital to recovery in the mercury-toxic individual.

What to Drink

Try to avoid drinks that contain sugar, caffeine, any kind of colouring or preservative, or dairy (if you are dairy intolerant). Caffeinated drinks are not only dehydrating, but also stress your overworked adrenal glands and kidneys. Many people with FRS may not tolerate fruit juices or smoothies very well because they deplete sodium reserves, present a big challenge to your blood sugar control mechanism and promote the overgrowth of Candida. In addition to the declared chemical constituents, canned drinks are often made using fluoridated water and may contain traces of both Bisphenol A and the metal used in the can. Basically, whilst you can enjoy a variety of herbal teas and some fruit and vegetable juices, the majority of the time you need to be drinking room-temperature water.

Whilst tap water is usually hygienic, it may contain chlorine, fluorine, herbicides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and various toxic metals. Ideally, your domestic supply of water for drinking and cooking should either be bottled or processed using a reverse osmosis filter and once installed, these provide a plentiful supply of pure water relatively cheaply. Simple carbon jug filters are cheap and better than nothing and even leaving water to stand in a wide-necked glass jug (preferably on a windowsill in the sun) allows much of the chlorine to evaporate. Adding a couple of grains of Celtic Sea Salt to each litre of water drunk can also help to provide the trace minerals that your body requires without making the water salty. Some mineral waters (such as Badoit) are particularly high in magnesium and other minerals and may be of benefit, however, plasticizers from plastic bottles can contaminate the water, so buy your water in glass bottles where possible. Be careful to check the labels of any healthy-looking flavoured waters, which often contain chemical flavourings and sweeteners. It is a good idea to devise a system for making sure you are consistently drinking adequate amounts of water by, for example, filling a bottle in the morning and drinking it throughout the day. Whilst drinking too much water too quickly is counterproductive, even when you are drinking plentiful supplies it may take months for the effects of chronic dehydration to reverse. Try also to avoid drinking with meals as this dilutes your digestive juices – although drinking mineral water with a meal has been shown to increase magnesium uptake.

There are also specific water products that aim to promote hydration and electrolyte balance, and water that has been alkalinized and energized in various ways, and these may also help. Finally, Masaru Emoto developed a technique of photographing the ice crystals formed by water from different sources treated in different ways and these are illustrated in his books such as The Hidden Messages in Water. Some of the most beautiful crystals produced relate to water that has been blessed and may shed some light on the old wisdom of blessing your food and drink before consuming it.

Alcohol Intolerance

A lot of people with FRS become alcohol intolerant, especially to the alcohol produced from grapes and grains which includes such drinks as wine, bitter, lager, whisky, brandy and sherry. This is most probably because overgrowth of Candida has depleted the liver of all the nutrients required to process alcohol. As a result, even having just a tiny amount of wine can make some FRS sufferers feel hung-over and generally unwell the next day – or for several days afterwards. You may find that you can tolerate modest amounts of spirits such as tequila (made from cactus); gin (juniper berries); rum (sugar cane); sake (rice); Campari (secret formula – but seems OK) and any spirit made from other fruits such as Cointreau (oranges), Limoncello (lemons) or Dubonnet (blackcurrants). Some can also tolerate champagne because it is double-fermented and lower in yeast than wine. Basically though, your liver is struggling to detoxify alcohol and the signs that this is particularly true for you include getting hot, sweaty or restless between 1 and 3am or being wakeful during these hours. If you have insomnia then alcohol, along with other stimulating drinks such as coffee or cola, should be the first thing to go. Alcohol only gives the impression of helping you to go to sleep, but actually profoundly disrupts your sleep patterns and may leave you restless after a few hours of unconsciousness.