Travis Stork - The Lose Your Belly Diet: Change Your Gut, Change Your Life

The Lose Your Belly Diet

Change Your Gut, Change Your Life

by Travis Stork, MD

Copyright 2016 Travis Stork, M.D.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission from the Publisher.

Published in Los Angeles, California, by Ghost Mountain Books, Inc.

ISBNs

Print: 9781939457592

Epub: 9781939457615

Mobi: 9781939457608

Cover design: Nadeem Mushtaq Jass,

Cover photo: Kremer Johnson Photography, www.kremerjohnson.com

Interior Design and Production: Dovetail Publishing Services,

www.dovetailpublishingservices.com

Dedication

It may seem silly, but Im dedicating this book to my pup of nearly 17 years, Nala. She was a rescue whom I adopted during my first year of medical school. I wasnt planning on getting a dog but it was pet adoption day while I was at the store. As she cowered in the corner with her fur coat covered in red clay, she kept looking my way. After a few minutes, I knew she was going home with me. Since that time, shes been by my side. From every exam in medical school to the writing of this book, she has taken every step with me. Even if her steps these days are taken a bit more slowly!

Note to Readers

The anecdotes in this book are used to illustrate common issues and problems that I have encountered and do not necessarily portray specific people or situations. No real names have been used.

As with all books, this one contains opinions and ideas of the author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, psychological, or any other kind of personal professional services or therapy in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, psychological, or other competent professional before adopting any of the concepts in this book or drawing inferences from it. The content of this book, by its very nature, is general, whereas each readers situation is unique. Therefore, as with all books of this nature, the purpose is to provide general information rather than address individual situations, which books by their very nature cannot do.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Acknowledgments

I want to personally thank Alice Lesch Kelly for her dedication to this book and her excitement for helping me bring this important project to life. A special thanks to Lisa Clark: your guidance and commitment to getting things right is refreshing and quite frankly, awesome. Andrea McKinnon for helping me hatch this idea while waiting at the airport in Austin, TX. And to everyone else who played a role in the development and evolution of this book, I thank you!

INTRODUCTION

Your Gut Health/Weight Loss Opportunity

L et me start by saying that I love food. Let me also say that the most important health lesson Ive ever learned is to let food be my medicine and not my poison. This has been my guiding principle for quite some time now. But heres the truth: our knowledge of how food affects our health and weight is always changing and evolving. The Lose Your Belly Diet is a book I was inspired to write because of our rapidly changing knowledge of the human gut microbiome and its effect on our health and weight. If you dont know what human gut microbiome means, dont worry, because you soon will! Its exciting stuff, and my goal is to be there with you every step of the way as you learn how to optimize gut health and maximize weight lossespecially the loss of harmful belly fat.

This plan focuses on food choices and portion control strategies that help you eat more of the high-quality foods that nourish you and make you feel full and satisfied, and fewer of the low-quality foods that lead to excess weight gain and fat accumulation. It checks all of the healthy-eating boxes while filling you up with delicious, enjoyable foods.

The Lose Your Belly Diet is an evolution of The Doctors Diet , a book I wrote a couple of years ago. I loved that book, because its such an effective, easy-to-follow plan and was the way I used to eat. But since that book came out, weve learned so much important new information about gut health and the impact of beneficial bacteria on our overall health and weight. Its changed the way I eat and it should change the way you eat, too.

This plan tells you the how and why of enjoying life-supporting foods, and it does so without deprivation. In fact, it gives you more freedom and flexibility than pretty much any diet out there. Not only does it encourage you to eat an abundance of gut-supporting foods, but it makes room for bread, pasta, and other whole grains that so many diets cut out these days.

And even more fantastic: this diet makes room for things like chocolate, wine, and coffee, which not only make life worth living (in my humble opinion) but appear to be beneficial for your gut bacteria, too!

A Boom of New Information

I wanted to write this book because I believe were in the midst of a dramatic change in our understanding of human health. The discoveries that scientists are making about the human microbiome are so important that I feel we should all start implementing them into our lives immediately.

Heres where it all started. I keep a pretty close eye on medical news. Not only is it my jobboth as a physician and as the host of The Doctors but its also my personal passion. I want to live the longest, healthiest, most vibrant life possible, so Im always on the lookout for ways to improve my health and the health of my family, friends, patients, and viewers.

During the past few years, one of the areas that has grabbed my attention on an almost daily basis is the growing field of human microbiome researchthe study of the various tiny organisms that live in our bodies, especially in our bellies. Nearly every day, another piece of research reveals previously unknown connections between our overall health and the well-being of the microbes that live in our gut.

This may come as a surprise. Were accustomed to thinking of bacteria and other microbes as being badand some, such as E. coli or salmonella in contaminated food, can indeed cause serious illness. But these bacteria bullies give their fellow microbes a bad rep. Most of the bacteria and other microbes in our bodies are actually very good; they do amazing things, such as working with our immune system to fight off dangerous invaders and helping our intestines digest food. When the microbe communities in our guts are healthywhen they are diverse and in balancethere seems to be a higher likelihood that we will be healthy, too. And, when our personal microbe community is in bad shape, it raises some big red flags for our overall health. Having an unhealthy personal microbiome has been linked to problems with immunity, gastrointestinal health, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, and asthma. Theres also evidence that it may be associated with obesity and other difficult-to-solve health problems.

This is a time of great discovery for microbiome researchers. In fact, the findings about gut microbes have been so promising that I am convinced the human microbiome is one of the most exciting new frontiers in medical discovery that weve seen in quite some time.