August

Q: I have been following your BIOGENIC DIET and wonder if you can drink wine?

A: That all depends upon what your purpose in following the Biogenic Diet is. If you are attempting to detoxify your body over a fairly short period of time wine is definitely not in the offing. If on the other hand, you like leading a biogenic lifestyle in which the vast majority of your foods are eaten fresh and raw, there is no reason why a glass or two of wine will do you any particular harm, provided of course your liver is healthy. Wine is a far better form of alcohol to drink than beer or spirits. My philosophy has always been if you are going to drink wine, drink only the best. It is much less likely to create high levels of oxidation damage in the liver (this is the concern about alcohol, not the alcohol itself) than cheap plonk. So have your glass of wine a day and enjoy it.

Q: Your X-FACTOR DIET which is to be published in January 2002 contains two programs, KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE. Who are they for? And how do I know which one’s right for me?

A: If you are a veteran of countless high carbohydrate, low fat diets who is still overweight – and/or exhausted, depressed, and plagued by food cravings, yet unable to put your finger on why - it is very likely that one of the X-Factor diets can help you shed fat forever and build high level health. And you, like so many of us, are likely to be experiencing the negative effects of Syndrome X. This is exactly what the X-FACTOR DIET is designed to counter. Syndrome X is also known as insulin resistance, an umbrella term for a collection of metabolic disorders, including high blood pressure and overproduction of insulin - the hormone that helps ferry blood glucose to the body cells to be burnt as energy. Left unchecked, Syndrome X predisposes you to disorders like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s, to mention only a few.

Both KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE vanquish Syndrome X by:

• Rebalancing levels of insulin.
• Encouraging your body to burn fat instead of glucose.
• Forging a lean sleek body.
• Boosting your vitality.
• Slowing the process of aging.

KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE work their magic in a simple and natural way – by turning the high-carb-low-fat rule. Instead of eating all that pasta and bread you will:

• Eliminate refined and high glycaemic index carbohydrates, including flour, starchy vegetables like potatoes, white rice, sugar, and other sweeteners.

• Concentrate on natural, fresh, organic, unprocessed foods.

• Eat many of your vegetables and fruits raw if you can.

• Make non starchy vegetables, high in phytonutrients and antioxidants your primary source of carbohydrate.

• Steer clear of soft drinks, fruit juices, alcohol and other highly processed drinks.

• Eliminate processed vegetable oils rich in omega-6 fatty acids, all margarine’s and all convenience foods containing these junk fats. Instead, use cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for your cooking and flaxseed or extra virgin olive oil for your salads.

• Enrich your diet with omega-3 fatty acids from eating cold water fish several times a week and using flaxseed oil on your salad.

• Eat good quality protein such as fresh fish, free range chicken, eggs, game, organic meats and low carb soya protein at every meal or snack.

• Eliminate coffee, especially on KETOGENICS.

• Stay away from commercial foods.

• Gradually determine your own best level of carbohydrate for weight loss and maintenance and then stick to it.

• Take a multiple vitamin plus plant factor antioxidants including flavonoids, pygnogenol and alpha lipoic acid daily.

• Practice strength training four days a week for thirty minutes a day to enhance your lean body mass and create a fat burning body.

• Walk briskly for twenty to thirty minutes a day to counter insulin resistance, enhance energy, improve your body’s uptake of glycogen and maintain good emotional balance.

KETOGENICS OR INSULIN BALANCE – WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE use the same principals to work their wonders but they differ in important ways. KETOGENICS rapidly kick starts your system into burning fat. INSULIN BALANCE is a gentler way of losing body fat and can be adjusted to form a life long way of eating. Remember these are not low calorie slimming diets, they are eating programs designed to help your body shed fat naturally. Both KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE differ from other low carbohydrate diets in that they are designed specifically to enhance your overall health thanks to their high phytonutrient content and omega-3 fatty acid content. The permanent fat loss which they bring happens as a result of restoring high level health to the body.

To decide which program is right for you, you need to calculate the percentage of fat in your body. This is an easy thing to do using calipers or a bioimpedence machine. Go for KETOGENICS if, as a woman you carry more than 35 percent body fat or as a man you carry more than 22 percent - or if you are a healthy individual who wants a more dynamic method of fat loss. Do not use Ketogenics if you are pregnant, about to undergo surgery, have kidney or liver problems or are a Type 1 diabetic.

Go for INSULIN BALANCE if, as a woman you carry less than 35 percent body fat or as a man you carry less than 22 percent. INSULIN BALANCE is safe for just about everyone.

On KETOGENICS the ratio of carbohydrates to proteins will be:

• 20% of your calories will be low glycaemic carbohydrate

• 30% of your calories will be good fats

• 50% will be high quality protein

On INSULIN BALANCE:

• 35% of your calories will be carbohydrate

• 30% of your calories will be fat

• 35% will be protein

Look for THE X-FACTOR DIET to be published January 2002. Inside you will find the full details on how to use this dynamic duo to transform your life and shed fat permanently.

Q: I am forty three years old and have a three and a half year old daughter. I have tried to conceive for the past two years. I have seen a fertility specialist and the diagnosis is that I probably have inferior eggs due to age - chances of getting pregnant are 5 percent. Would your AGELESS AGING principles apply here? Which of your books or "diets" would you suggest trying? Thank you for your wonderful book and your website, it is fantastic. I am so inspired and motivated by your work and I would love to be involved if ever you have a workshop and require staff helpers.

A : Infertility now affects one in five women in the West. Many women who have difficulty conceiving or who have had several unexplained miscarriages in the first trimester of pregnancy are low progesterone producers, a condition known as luteal phase deficiency – where the corpus luteum in the second half of the menstrual cycle produces so little progesterone that the endometrium (the womb lining) is not properly prepared for secure implantation of a fertilized egg. Others, because of oestrogen dominance – too much oestrogen in their system and too little progesterone – are not ovulating normally. It is worth trying a progesterone cream for three months as a way of conceiving. Dr. John Lee - considered the world expert in the use of natural progesterone creams - recommends that such a woman use a progesterone cream starting with day 10 or 12 of her menstrual cycle - just before ovulation should take place - through to day 28 of the cycle. Then she should stop using the cream and begin counting again from day 1 when her period begins. This is done for three months. Cycling in this way suppresses ovulation and ensures that hormonal cycles become regular. On the fourth month he tells the woman to stop using the cream, anticipating that the follicles and ovulation will proceed at the right timing and that the woman will now have a better chance of becoming pregnant. Lee has had this happen so successfully with so many women that he knows it works. They ring him to say, " Hey, I’m pregnant. We’re going to name it after you!" Lee believes that oestrogen dominance and the inability to get pregnant have a common cause - that a woman may not be completing ovulation and this may be putting her ovaries at risk. The progesterone that such a woman is given helps bring about full follicle development and ovulation, making becoming pregnant less difficult. Good luck.

Q: Following your recent documentary TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE I’d like to know where I can get assistance in going onto either an INSULIN BALANCE or KETOGENIC way of life that you used on the program Do we have to wait until the book is published in January?

A: The programs we used on TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE are fully set out in THE X-FACTOR DIET to be published in January 2002. Unfortunately there is not another book that covers this material. I suggest you look for a practitioner of functional medicine who is well trained in working with people using these two transformative processes. Please see the Leslie Recommends section on my website for a list of people in your area that you can consult.

Q: I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twenty four years ago and was doing pretty well with a mostly natural diet, supplements etc. Four years ago I ended up having heart surgery which left me on warferin so I am very limited as to what I can consume, hence I am always feeling tired and really unwell. I know it is a difficult question but do you think there is anything I can do to get back a bit of my life?

A: I think it is important to identify a medical doctor near you who is trained in functional medicine, who can support your biochemistry at the very highest level. He can also determine exactly what nutrients and supplements you need and advise you on your diet including making sure that you get plenty of the right kind of essential fatty acids to preserve the myelin sheaths so important in protecting the nerves from degeneration. I suggest you take a look at the resources list on my website. Given your past history it is important that you work with a medical doctor in preference to any other practitioner of natural medicine as he or she will be able to guide you through the labyrinth of dealing with drug issues as well as helping to establish what kind of biochemical support is the best for you.

Q: What is the best thing I can do/eat to improve my skin? It is prone to constant break outs in acne. When I was sick once I couldn’t eat and it cleared up so well so could it be my diet? I am prepared to do anything.

A: The best thing you can do to improve your skin is to detoxify your body. I suggest that you take a look at my book THE TEN DAY CLEAN UP PLAN which takes you through the whole process of detoxification. In addition, try eliminating all milk products and all wheat, flour and anything made from it from your diet and make sure you have some cold water fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines or tuna several times a week. If there is any tendency to constipation you need to add some fresh flaxseeds - you can grind them in a coffee grinder - to your salads, cereals or simply mix a teaspoon or two in a glass of water and drink it three times a day. When the body is not clearing its toxicity and if your skin has a tendency to break out, that’s when it happens. Clear the toxicity and in most people the acne clears. One other thing – stay away from convenience foods and junk foods of any kind, including soft drinks and anything that has sugar or artificial sweeteners in it.

Q: Will you come back to Wales to visit?

A: I certainly will return to Wales, having had a wonderful home in Pembrokeshire for 22 years, there’s no way you could keep me away from it. I still have a lovely cottage in the village that I have lived in for so long. I still run along the cliffs above the sea and find myself completely inspired by the atmosphere. Wales – particularly Pembrokeshire – has become part of my blood. There is no way I will ever not return there frequently.

Q: I look after my skin well. However, around my top lip wrinkles are becoming prominent - although the rest of my face is relatively okay – and covered with facial hair on the top lip, which I am reluctant to remove for fear of regrowth that becomes darker and thicker. Do you have any suggestions?

A: Small lines around the upper lip are best treated with collagen injections. The trouble is they are not cheap and they have to be done fairly often. When it comes to facial hair, new studies indicate that five alpha-reductaes, an enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) often contributes to the development of unwanted facial and body hair in women. The plant, Saw palmetto, inhibits dihydrotestosterone being formed as well as preventing any already formed from binding with cells. This inhibition of five alpha-reductaes also often prevents acne that results from high concentrations in the skin and leads to the conversion of testosterone to DHT. It is certainly worth a try.

Q: I understand on your KETOGENICS and INSULIN BALANCE programs you recommend the natural sweetener stevia. What is it and where can I get hold of it?

A: A South American plant, Stevia rebaudiana, has been used for generations as a sweetener. In its natural fresh or dried leaf form stevia tastes ten to fifteen times sweeter than common table sugar, or up to three hundred times sweeter when you use it in its extracted form. Extracts of stevia are stable during heat processing, the plant has been used widely in Japan for decades. As far back as 1987, a total of 1700 metric tonnes of stevia leaves were harvested each year to yield almost 200 tonnes of stevioside extract. Before long more than half of the sweetener market in Japan became filled with stevia, so stevia is hardly an untested element. In the United States the FDA in one of its many misguided attempts to "protect" Americans (much more likely to protect the corporate giants which manufacture artificial sweeteners) refused to make stevia legal. After many years of public pressure, however, stevia began to be allowed to be sold as a herb, not as a sweetener. This is the situation that Americans are in with it today. The FDA does still not permit stevia to be labeled as sweetener.

Stevia comes in many different forms. You can buy the plant and grow it yourself and use the leaves either fresh or dried, or you can buy it in extract form, either in liquid extract form or as a white powder. These two forms have the least aftertaste to them. It is generally available in health food stores everywhere. Researchers in Canada are currently working on a new extraction process which completely eliminates any aftertaste (I personally don’t mind the aftertaste, in fact I have grown to rather like it). It is important to be aware that not all brands of stevia products that you buy from health food stores, which is where they are most available at the moment, are the same. Stevia is the only artificial sweetener that I would recommend 100 percent wholeheartedly. It has absolutely no side effects and indeed is rich in phytonutrients.

Q: I need to find a way to wind down each day so I can face tomorrow with energy.

A: I suggest you practice a simple form of meditation which will balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of your autonomic nervous system, create more energy, and enable you to work and live longer and harder without experiencing exhaustion or stress damage. It is also important to get plenty of exercise - take a walk for thirty minutes a day at least four times a week. Try zazen meditation. One of the simplest ways of meditating, this technique involves nothing more than just being aware of your breathing. But don’t be fooled by its simplicity. It is a potent tool for stilling the mind and regenerating the body. And concentrating your awareness on the breath is not as easy as it sounds. Here’s How:

• Find yourself a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. You can sit cross legged on the floor with a small cushion underneath you or you can sit on a chair if you prefer, but your back should be straight. (The straight back position is a requirement for many meditation techniques since it creates a physical equilibrium which makes calm mental focus possible). Let your hands rest quietly in your lap.
• Close your eyes, take several long slow breaths, breathing from your abdomen so that it swells out with each in-breath and sinks in again when you breathe out.
• Now rock your body from side to side and then around in large gentle circles from your hips to the top of your head. Rock in increasingly smaller circles until you gradually come to rest in the center.
• Now breathe in and out through your nose without doing anything to your breathing – that is don’t try to breathe deeper or slower or faster, just breathe normally. With each out-breath count silently to yourself. So it goes: in-breath, out-breath, "1….in-breath, out-breath, 2…. and so on up to 10, counting only on the out-breath. When you get to 10 go back and begin again at once. If you lose count halfway it doesn’t matter. Go back and start the count at 1 again. Counting is not the point, it’s a way of focusing your mind on the breath. If you are like most people, the first few times that you do the exercise you will find you lose count often and that you are frequently distracted by thoughts or noises. It makes no difference. It works just as well anyway. Each time some random thought distracts you, simply turn your mind gently back again to counting the breaths. Distractions don’t change the effectiveness of the meditation.
• After 15 minutes - sneak a look at your wristwatch if you must - stop. Sit still for a moment, then open your eyes and slowly begin to go about your everyday activities again.

The exercise, like most techniques, is best done twice a day morning and evening. A beginner will usually notice positive results by the end of a week, but they become increasingly apparent the longer you go on doing it. Some Buddhist monks do this exercise for two or three years before beginning any other form of meditation.

Q: I’m worried about mammograms. I have heard that regular mammograms may actually predispose me to breast cancer. I’m fifty two and I’m avoiding my doctor’s reminder to have one. What do you suggest?

A: A mammogram is an x-ray taken of the breast, which is used to diagnose breast cancer at its earliest appearance, supposedly before it can be felt by a physical examination. It is standard medical procedure in most countries still to have mammograms taken of the breasts of women who can afford it every year or two. There is however, mounting research that began with a large study carried out in Canada – the National Breast Screening Study - which followed 89,836 women between the ages of 40 and 49 for an eight year period, during which half of them were given mammograms every year to 18 months, while the other half were only examined physically. To the surprise of the researchers when all results were tallied they discovered that deaths among the women who got regular mammograms were significantly higher than those who had none. When finally the results were published – which incidentally did not happen until a full four years after the study was completed – the National Cancer Institute finally announced the increase in deaths from breast cancer was 52%. Since this research was done other research projects have turned up similar results. I think that this is a question that only you can answer for yourself. I personally have never had a mammogram and don’t intend to have one. However, I would doubt very much that one mammogram is going to make any difference one way or another to how at risk you are of breast cancer. I hope this helps.

Q: I watched with fascination your recent documentary TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE in which you took eight people between the ages of thirty and sixty and quite literally transformed their lives, rejuvenating their bodies in medically measurable ways and bringing about successful fat loss. The people looked radiant and I want to know how to follow this program myself. How can I find out about it?

A: In January 2002 my book THE X-FACTOR DIET which carries both programs used on the documentary is to be published. I suggest you take a look at this book. Further on next year – it is scheduled for September 2002 – a much more comprehensive book which incorporates both of these diets as well as much other information about slowing down and even reversing aging. in the body will appear. I am currently writing that book now. It will be called AGE POWER. You might like to take a look at that as soon as it comes out as well. The diet and exercise program which the participants used on TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE is simple to follow, yet very different from the kind of information that governments are still handing out about what is a healthy way of living, so it is important to grasp the whole. Unfortunately to my knowledge there is no other book on the market (and I think I have looked at just about all of them) that deals with a way of life based on these remarkable new findings about how we thrive on a Paleolithic diet and much higher levels of exercise – particularly weight resistance.

Q: I keep hearing about progesterone and wild yam creams. What is the difference?

A: In the past few years thanks to a growing awareness that natural progesterone cream used daily on the body can help protect from osteoporosis as well as many other menstrual and menopausal problems, the market has become flooded with progesterone creams and other creams containing wild yam. There is an enormous amount of misleading information out there. Laboratory testing of both wild yam and so called progesterone creams show that most are virtually useless. Here’s the story: Drug companies use diosgenin – the active ingredient in wild yam (dioscorea) as a base for creams, but by itself diosgenin cannot be turned into progesterone in your body nor does it bind to your progesterone sites because your body does not have the enzyme needed to complete the chemical step that turns diosgenin into progesterone. What companies do is they use a single step chemical process to change the diosgenin in wild yam into the biologically active progesterone before adding it to their preparations. Steer clear of wild yam creams. Most do not contain progesterone and cannot be of help to you. The creams that do contain progesterone all have pharmaceutical progesterone added to them. It is not in a true sense "natural" but rather "nature-identical". This means it is exactly the same molecule that you’ll find in the human body – very different than the progestins and the progesterogins used in drug based hormone replacements. There are a number of American creams that do indeed contain natural progesterone. Those can be ordered over the net. You will also find natural progesterone creams in your specific country, but many of these have been imported from America. Ones that I know you can be sure off are: Natragest (Broadmoore Labs Inc.: Ventura, CA), Ostaderm (Bezwecken Biaverton: OR), Probalance (Springboard: Monterey, CA), Pro-G (Trimedica: Scottsdale, AZ), Pro-Gest (Prof and Tech Services Inc.:Portland, OR), Progonol (Bezwecken Biaverton – OR).