Review: The Slow Down Diet By Marc David

Happy New Year! Making a health and wellness resolution is the new tradition of New Year, so here is a book on diet that I highly recommend. This is by far the best book on healthy eating I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot), serves well any time of the year for all age and gender groups.

Although The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy, and Weight Loss is about healthy eating and full of case studies of weight loss, it NEVER discusses numbers such as calories, fat grams, etc. Pretty unique, huh? Instead, the author, who is a nutritionist and psychologist, writes how our mentality affects the process of digestion and overall metabolism.

What you eat is NOT what you get

He skips the part about numbers for a good reason — because it’s largely meaningless. Just because you eat, say, 40 grams of protein or 1000 mg of calcium, doesn’t mean you receive that much of protein or calcium. If your metabolism is down, you cannot assimilate what you eat. And if your metabolism is down, you cannot fully burn what you eat — which leads to weight and other health problems. Further, there are various hormones that determine how the calories get utilized.

Our metabolism is different from one person to another, and it changes within the same person. This is why dogmatic approaches such as “We must never eat any animal products.” fails. Yes, eating plant-based diet is helpful for many people, but there is no one ultimate best way to eat.

For instance, if you eat under stress, worrying about work, money, relationships or eating on the run (I heard some people eat in the moving vehicle!?), your sympathetic nervous system becomes dominant and your adrenals produce stress hormones like cortisol and insulin. Sympathetic nervous system drives the blood to your muscles, not to your midsection where your stomach is. This made sense when the stress was caused by a bear and we had to run as fast as possible.

So our bodies are designed to sacrifice digestion when we are under stress. It was okay when the stress was short term — we could eat and digest after we got away from the bear. Today, however, we are under constant stress, so our digestive system, too, is routinely stressed.

At the same time, stress hormones work out another reactive strategy in our body — it stores fat. It’s kind of like us restricting spending and trying to save money under bad economy. Studies show that the same persons eating the same diet can gain or lose weight and fat depending on the stress level under which they eat.

8 factors that improve your metabolism

The author discusses eight factors that affect our metabolism:

1. Relaxation
The above explanation is only tiny part of stress response in our body. There are more, like bone loss with stress. So slow down and relax. Eat like the French and Italians, blessing the foods and enjoy the company of your loved ones. Consciously breathe deeply — it gets you to relax. (And I say, don’t fool yourself thinking that eating in front of the TV is relaxing. It’s not.)

2. Quality
Foods contain not just known nutrients but also more organic information. This is confirmed by quantum physics — every matter is energy and information. And this information in the foods affects our metabolism. So eat the best quality foods that convey good information to your body. Fresh, organic, whole foods that are prepared with love. If you choose to eat meat, choose happy, humanely-raised animals that are free of growth hormones, antibiotics, and stress.

3. Awareness
30-40% of digestion is due to cephalic phase digestive response (CPDR), meaning your recognition and awareness of the foods. So don’t multitask, be present when you eat. Enjoy the look, smell, and taste of your foods. This naturally controls your appetite.

He also writes about the “brain in the gut”, enteric nervous system (ENS). Our head brain doesn’t tell the gut how to digest — our gut brain figures it out and tells some more to the head brain. We can be the best nutritionist for ourselves by trusting our own ENS.

I guess slowing down and eating high quality foods helps boost your awareness of eating. So these factors work in tandem.

4. Rhythm
Our metabolism change according to the circadian rhythm, so eating to the rhythm helps our body. It’s best to eat the largest meal at lunch, not dinner. Eat breakfast to jump start your daily metabolism, eat substantial lunch, and eat light dinner well before bedtime. And sleep well — remember, stress makes you fat.

5. Pleasure
Enjoy your foods. Eating is inherently pleasurable — we are wired this way. When we eat (without the sense of guilt and shame), endorphins are produced, making us feel happy, and — take note — endorphins also burn fat. Our pleasured body also produces a chemical called cholecystokinin, boosting digestion and telling the body when to stop eating. (So, counter to common belief, good pleasurable meals don’t make us eat endlessly. It has natural appetite control system.)

Eating for pleasure doesn’t mean you want to party with sugary foods, caffeine, and alcohol. Health is the ultimate pleasure factor. (The author does emphasize including healthy fat to boost the sense of pleasure.) Also, bring in more pleasure and joy to your other areas of life. This reduces the need to seek pleasure only in foods and thus prevents overeating.

6. Thought
What we think and feel about foods affects our metabolism. Our thoughts in the cerebral cortex (the higher brain) are transmitted to the limbic system (the lower brain), causing feelings. Then the hypothalamus in the limbic system sends out messages to various parts of the body, regulating sympathetic / parasympathetic nervous systems, hormones, etc.

Do you have a friendly relationship with foods? Or are you loaded with negative beliefs about foods — leading you to negative consequences? (Remember The Biology Of Beliefs by Dr Bruce Lipton?)

7. Story
We all have stories about ourselves. Is your self story filled with love and energy? Or is it a story of a victim? Victim story dampens your metabolism. Change your story to an empowered one and boost your metabolism.

The author further suggests aligning the way you eat with your life purpose. I think this is cool. (You know I’m big on living on purpose.)

8. The Sacred
Even though science hasn’t uncovered the exact relationship between our soul and the body, our spiritual well-being affects our physical health. The author maintains spiritual qualities such as love, truth, courage, commitment, compassion, forgiveness, faith, and surrender are as essential to the body as food and water. They support our metabolism. By contrast, when we choose to, say, carry grudge rather than to forgive, our own metabolism carries its weight.

Dump the calorie equation thinking

The mechanical idea of “(Calorie intake) – (Calorie output) = Weight gain / loss” is so outdated. I hope you are starting to see this.

I strongly recommend this book if you’ve ever had challenges in eating better, if you ever felt your willpower to quit eating certain foods or certain amount wasn’t strong enough (most likely, it has nothing to do with willpower, he maintains), if you have weight or other health problems, or if you want to learn truly healthy way to eat. Gee, that might mean the majority of the population, I guess.

Detox Your Body And Mind

In the previous post Eat For Your Health And Spirituality, I suggested you explore your own best way to eat by consulting with your body. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let someone else — whether they are professional nutritionist or spiritual leader — decide that for you. Because each of us is different. And because you are responsible for your truth. (Of course, this is not just about diet — don’t buy into someone’s else’s truth just because he or she has a nice title or reputation).

Learning from the pros and more experienced people is good, but you make your own final decision.

Now here is one caution in doing so. Are you really free to make your own decision? Or is your decision influenced by internalized ideas and years’ of habits that have taken roots in your body? (Photo credit)

Addictive thinking

Most of us are addicted to certain substances and behaviors. It doesn’t matter if the substance is legal or not (that’s another aspect of the problem) — if you are conditioned to do / eat whether you really want to or not, then you are addicted.

All addiction share one common patten of thinking: It tries to justify itself. Whether your addiction is to drugs, alcohol, sugar, caffeine, or something more specific like hamburgers or fries or chocolate or ice cream, while the substance and the behavior pattern is in you, you are not really making your own decisions. Your addiction is making your decisions.

So, in order to make your own decision, you need to detox yourself. Otherwise, it will be like, “Okay, I’m going to eat meat. Let’s collect all the supporting data that justifies meat eating. Which famous spiritual leaders eat meat? Which nutritionists support meat?” Pretty soon, you do have a very strong argument how wonderful meat is.

My experiment with caffeine

Let me explain by example. I used to drink a small coffee almost every day. I could say I didn’t particularly like coffee, but I was in the habit of going to coffee shops anyway.

To find out if caffeine is really okay or not for me, I decided to stay away from it for a while. In theory, there are both studies that supports caffeine and cautions its negative effects on health. And as long as I keep drinking coffee, I naturally tend to listen to comforting opinion that says caffeine is fine. Further, I have no problem making a long list of famous coffee drinkers who seem to be quite fine.

But none of such things really matter. The best, most fair way to find out my truth with caffeine is to distant myself from it.

If I felt no change without caffeine, at least it’s not doing any wrong. If I felt better without caffeine, then I know caffeine is not good for me. If I felt bad without caffeine, then I need to figure out if it’s withdrawal symptoms or deficiency symptoms.

For withdrawal symptoms to calm down, it usually takes two to four weeks, so I decided to stay away from caffeine at least two weeks. No coffee, no tea, no soda, no chocolate.

Bam. I had horrible headache in the first few days of withdrawal. Then, it cleared like a magic. By the end of two week experiment, I didn’t even think about coffee.

In this case, it was obvious that the initial negative effect was withdrawal symptoms. And if a substance gives withdrawal symptoms, we know it is not good for our physical and emotional health.

How to do find out if a certain food is affecting you or not

So whether it’s meat, dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, sugary foods, or specific junk foods, the best way to find out the true effects of the food on YOU is to stay away from it for at least two weeks. Come on, I’m not saying forever. You can always go back to your old eating habit if you so decide.

Think of it as an experiment, not a diet change.

Now if the food in question is addictive, you are likely to have withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Deal with it one day at a time. It’s only for two weeks. Or you may be ready to go without it, like me waking up to be vegetarian one day, with no cravings or withdrawal symptoms.

Major detox

If you are more ambitious, you might want to do a major detox to cleanse your system. This will reset your overall food preference.

Water fasting would be ideal because it insulates you from all kinds of foods and their effects. Second best would be juice fasting. Third best would be to eat only vegetables with limited amount of carb vegs and fruits. (There is practically zero evidence that low carb vegetables such as greens can have negative effects on our health.)

You might want to use detox supplements like this along with controlling the food intake. Detox bath, such as adding 1 – 2 cups epsom salt, may help, too.

I’m currently doing the third option (eating plant foods only, paired with supplement and occasional detox bath).

What happens when you eat “bad” food when your system is clean

Here is an anecdote you can take amusement from. And a caution.

I ate cheesecake two days ago. I finally completed the draft of my eBook, so I was in a mood for celebration, and . . . my mind led me to cheesecake. Old habit dies hard.

It didn’t taste as good as I though it would. Oh, well.

Next morning, I had terrible stomachache. And embarrassing trips to bathroom. My head felt cloudy, and I had to take a nap afterwards. Ouch!

I didn’t have such a reaction when I was eating dairy often. It means my system is getting clean that even a bit of nasty stuff can cause major results. This is good — this way, my system is protecting itself. But it’s uncomfortable.

(Just to let you know — I know the cheesecake wasn’t spoiled. If it were, my system would have rejected it at the mouth, by automatically spitting it out, or at least at the stomach, by vomiting. I know this because my system does this with most of the fish sold in America or non-organic milk.)

Think about it — if you ingest a slightly toxic substance, which would be an effective way to protect your system, quickly getting rid of it or doing nothing? In the latter, the toxin stays in your system, your liver has to work hard, and still most of the toxins accumulate in your system. (And you may have though I’m the “weak” “sensitive” type. . . the truth is I’m healthier than the people who are okay with compromised foods.)

Detoxing and freeing your mind

The important point is this is not just about physical health. As I said in the beginning of this article, this is about freeing our mind. When we are physically addicted, our mind is addicted as well.

And my experience says detoxing the mind takes even longer than detoxing the body. My body is already out of cheesecake – the sugar and fat just don’t taste very good any more. But the conditioning in my mind still led me to have one. (Okay, lesson’s learned.)

How does our belief affect our health?

Just one more thing. Dr Bruce Lipton makes a big point about the placebo effect in his book The Biology of Belief. So, are all the effects of good eating really coming from our mind? For instance, raw food diet is all the rage now. There are so many stories of miraculous healing with raw foods, from obesity to cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Is it really raw foods that’s doing the good (physically), or is it because we hear these wonderful stories about raw foods and believe in them that bring out the miracles?

I don’t really know. I’d say, if it’s a positive effect, I care little if the cause was purely physical (foods) or belief. Or the mix of both.

I do think we are wise to be careful with negative beliefs. So if you are going to eat something that’s supposed to be no good to your health, have complete belief that the food is good for you. If you have any doubt or hesitation, even in the subconscious level, it can negatively affect you.

Dr Lipton says, in one of the YouTube video, “Belief is like pregnancy. You either believe or not.” Wanting to believe is not belief. Belief is simple and clear.

If you don’t 100% believe your food is good for you, you might want to change your eating habit.

So what do you think? Did this article inspire you to quit any foods or habits that you are addicted to? Please share in the comment.

Update: Here is a great article that beautifully explains the emotional side of food addiction. I think it helps a lot to understand our relationship with foods.
What Food Is Not at Choosing Raw