The importance of rotating your foods

Most people don't take me very seriously when I tell them that it is important to rotate your foods. I see it all the time, everyone eats the same 10 foods over and over again. The truth though is if you have a lot of stress in your life, are sleeping poorly, eat a lot of processed foods, or drink a lot of caffeine then you are producing a lot of cortisol. How do you know if you have an issue with cortisol. Look down at your stomach and if there is more fat there than you would like, then this topic probably applies to you.

Cortisol punches small holes in the lining of your digestive system. This process leads to food intolerances and the more often you eat a food the more likely you are to develop an intolerance to the food. For example, most everyone that I see only eats chicken, beef, and some occasional pork or seafood. Many people only eat chicken. These same people usually only eat one or two types of vegetables so there is not much variety in their nutrition. It is very important to rotate your foods and eat as many types of meats, veggies, fruit, and nuts as possible. This will make you much less likely to develop these food intolerances.

So what happens when you eat a food that you are intolerant to. You will secrete cortisol in response to the food and this starts the viscious cycle over again since the cortisol will punch more holes in the lining of your digestive system. The other side effect of this process is that cortisol in excess will make you insulin resistant, this insulin resistance will raise cortisol again, throw off the balance of sex hormones in the body, and ramp down thyroid production. This is a viscious cycle that can be taken care of by removing foods that you are intolerant to. One of the easiest ways to limit your exposure to these foods is by eating different types of meat and veggies. For example if you always eat chicken and beef you might try to eat more turkey, buffalo, lamb, and salmon. If you always eat broccoli then try switching to asparagus, cucumbers, celery, etc.

Another easy way to identify food intolerances is to do an elimination diet for 3 weeks. By doing this you should eliminate all wheat, dairy, sugar, corn, soy, eggs, caffeine, tomatoes, peppers, and citrus fruits. These are the most common food intolerances. After 3 weeks of the diet you can introduce one of these foods and see how you feel. For example, you may try a piece of toast and see how you feel. If you don't feel as well after eating the toast then you are intolerant to wheat. In a study that I found recently the average weight loss in 12 weeks on an elimination diet was 35LBS. This is pretty impressive weight loss considering there were no other guidelines given other than to avoid these foods.