William W Li - Eat to Beat Your Diet

The contents of this book are for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice; and is not intended to be a substitute for, or replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, and before following or relying upon any information in this book. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this book. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Copyright 2023 by William W. Li, MD

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022949190

ISBNs: 9781538753903 (hardcover), 9781538756539 (large print), 9781538753880 (ebook)

E3-20230211-JV-NF-ORI

Contents

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I am not a fan of diets. Never have been. I dislike fad diets, crash diets, pop diets; in fact, any diet that promises massive weight loss in no time at all! Most popular diets are not based on science and dont address the true basis for healthwhich you cant see in the mirror. I am a physician and scientist, and my focus has always been on health, not vanity.

Eat to Beat Your Diet was written to bring you the real science that is missing from all those diet plans. Fighting body fat is vitally important for your health, but not for the reasons you might think. And food is not your enemy. In this book, you will learn through a remarkable set of discoveries backed by validated research studies that the right foods can improve your metabolism and strengthen your bodys natural health defenses. By the time youre done, youll understand how to eat these foods to your advantage, beat back body fat, and optimize your healthall without ever needing to go on a diet, hence the books title.

Most diet books preach deprivation and lay out strict rules that take the fun out of your natural way of eating. Instead, I will tell you what foods to add to your life and how to enjoy them while healing your metabolism and getting you to your next level of health. Along the way, Ill explain the latest science about how your metabolism really works (its probably not what youve been told), what your fat does to support your health, how shedding even small amounts of weight can have big health benefits, and why, regardless of your age, body type, or size, you do not need to deprive yourself of the joy of food while you are elevating your fitness and ability to resist and fight disease. This book is about mastering your health through metabolism while loving food at the same time. But along the way, youll also learn how to lose extra weight and shrink your waistline in meaningful and science-backed ways.

Eat to Beat Your Diet is a sequel to my last book, Eat to Beat Disease , in which I discussed how your body resists disease through its five health defense systemsangiogenesis, regeneration, microbiome, DNA protection, and immunityand how specific foods can support one, two, or even all five of these systems at once. I described the evidence showing how more than two hundred foods can activate these defenses to help us avoid the diseases we fear the most: cancer, heart disease, dementia, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and more than seventy other conditions, based on the new science of molecular nutrition. By adding these beneficial foods to your life, you can raise your health shields against disease. My main message is that some of the most powerful tools for improving your health exist naturally in the foods you eat; you just have to become aware of the complex ways your body responds to what you feed it. This book takes off from there and extends the connections between food and your health defenses to your metabolism and their interplay with body fat.

After Eat to Beat Disease was published, I received thousands of emails from readers telling me they felt more fit and had more energy after eating the foods I wrote about. They were happier and more confident about their health once they realized they could embrace food and not fear it. They said they felt empowered to take control of their health using the simple steps I described that they could implement at home. Some even let me know that they were able to stop taking their prescription medications after following the 5 5 5 plan I proposed in the book.

What caught me completely by surprise was that I also began receiving messages from readers who gleefully told me that they had succeeded in losing weight and slimming down in ways they hadnt experienced before. They were eating the foods I recommended, not starving themselves, and shedding pounds anyway.

Wait , I thought, they were not reducing their food intake. How could eating food lower their body mass and body fat ?

Drawing on my years of research in medicine and physiology, I did a very deep dive into the science of body fat. I looked at the links between metabolism, fat (also called adipose tissue), and food. What I discovered was mind-opening: most of the ideas we accept as fact about metabolism and fat are not true. Even doctors and nutritionists were getting it wrong!

For instance, you are not born with a slow metabolism that causes you to become fat. Its the other way around. Having too much body fat slows your metabolism. Another common misconception is that you dont need to worry about excess fat unless you are overweight or see unsightly bulges in the mirror. Medical research tells us that slim people can grow dangerous amounts of fat packed inside their bodies.

On the other hand, fat can contribute to good health, because fat is actually an organ. Thats right, an organ just like your heart, liver, and lungs. In fact, your fat releases hormones that control the normal function of many of your other organs, even your brain. Fat is also an important heat generator in the body. A layer of it not only provides insulation against the cold; a unique type of fat called brown fat can burn away excess amounts of other fat around your middle and elsewhere. By burning fat for energy, brown fat increases your metabolism. Of course, fat is also a cushion, but it is so much more. The goal, then, isnt to rid yourself of all your body fatyou just need to tame it.