Cook - The Probiotic Promise: Simple Steps to Heal Your Body from the Inside Out

Praise for Weekend Wonder Detox

Michelle Schoffro Cook outlines six three-day programs designed to help readers look and feel better. Cooks plans combine detox recipes and nutritional advice with other healing therapies including mediation, acupressure and yoga.Inside Toronto

Praise for The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan

Michelle shares her compelling story of healing with wisdom and compassion as she gently guides you through this exceptional book. Read her book carefully and put into practice her simple, straightforward, commonsense principles, and you will be glad you did for the rest of your long and healthy life.Harvey Diamond, #1 New York Times best-selling coauthor of Fit for Life

Michelles detox plan is an elegant, gentle, yet life-saving methodology, well-conceived through personal experience and thoroughly grounded in research. I heartily recommend it.Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, editor-in-chief of American Fitness

After the first week or so, you settle into a routine, get more adventurous in the kitchen, and start to really enjoy feeling good about the healthy choices being made. My 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan results: Lost5 pounds; Gaineda much healthier attitude to food; UpsideMy clothes fit better. I feel better. Im eating better food and having way more fun in the kitchen. Insomnia is a thing of the past. Walking has become a regular part of my life. Downsidenone.Robin Summerfield, contributing editor, Calgary Herald

Also by Michelle Schoffro Cook

Weekend Wonder Detox: Quick Cleanses to Strengthen Your Body and Enhance Your Beauty

60 Seconds to Slim: Balance Your Body Chemistry to Burn Fat Fast!

The Ultimate pH Solution: Balance Your Body Chemistry to Prevent Disease and Lose Weight

The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan: A Program for Greater Energy, Health, and Vitality

Copyright 2015 by Michelle Schoffro Cook

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02210

Designed by Jack Lenxo

Set in 11-point Sabon by the Perseus Books Group

Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-0-7382-1795-6 (e-book)

First Da Capo Press edition 2015

Published by Da Capo Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

www.dacapopress.com

Note: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. This book is intended only as an informative guide for those wishing to know more about health issues. In no way is this book intended to replace, countermand, or conflict with the advice given to you by your own physician. The ultimate decision concerning care should be made between you and your doctor. We strongly recommend you follow his or her advice. Information in this book is general and is offered with no guarantees on the part of the authors or Da Capo Press. The authors and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special ..

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To Curtis, the love of my life and my soul mate. I am blessed to share life with you and dedicate this book to you. Never before have two loved more.

Contents

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

World Health Organization

Anne Overcomes IBS

Anne, a stay-at-home mother with two young children, came into my office looking for a natural approach to what she suspected was irritable bowel syndrome. Test after test had ruled out colitis, Crohns disease, colon cancer, and just about every other intestinal disease imaginable. She had read about irritable bowel syndrome and suffered from the symptoms of the condition, including abdominal cramping with alternating constipation and diarrhea, among others.

After reviewing the diet diary I had asked her to complete for the week prior to her appointment with me, I found she ate like most North Americansa lot of junk. Because she was always chasing after a two-year-old (Im sure most moms can attest that this is no small task on its own!), trying to keep a clean home, balance her husbands hectic work and travel schedule with the needs of her mother who required ongoing care and attention, she often resorted to TV dinners or frozen packaged foods.

I explained to her that you really are what you eat: what you eat is broken down into the building blocks of every cell, tissue, and organ in your body. So if youre suffering from ill health, thats a sign your body may be failing at the cellular levelnot getting adequate nutrition to form healthy cells and tissues. I also discussed that our bodies are not meant to eat the myriad chemicals found in packaged foods, nor are they meant to ingest so much sugar. Although she insisted she didnt eat much sugar, I kept a couple of empty packages from frozen foods in my office and pointed out the number of grams of sugar each one contained. I also explained that we should never eat that much sugar at a single meal. Even if she didnt eat dessert, she had already eaten the equivalent in sugar at every meal whenever she ate these packaged foods.

She still didnt get what the big deal about sugar was. I explained that high amounts of sugar literally sent her body into crisis mode, causing her energy levels, moods, and bowels to respond. Depending on whether she was eating enough fiber on any particular day, that flood of sugar into her intestines might result in cramping, diarrhea, or constipation.