Do You Have FLC Syndrome? Food addiction—literally, true biological addiction to sugar, flour, and processed foods—drives our overeating behavior. And it makes us have FLC Syndrome, where we “Feel Like Crap.”
It’s quite simple: eat crap = feel like crap.
The hormones that get produced when you eat crap (anything that turns to sugar)—mostly insulin—do two horrible things when pumped out in excess.
First, insulin is a super fat storage hormone that causes all the calories you eat to be stored as belly fat. Second, it completely messes up your appetite control system, making you crave sugar and carbs. And then, the vicious cycle continues.
In fact, sugar and refined carbs reprogram your fat cells to make them hungry all the time. It’s this cellular hunger that makes you overeat, because the fat cells are demanding to be fed. Then they suck up all the calories you eat, and this causes weight gain.
Eating the wrong foods, toxic foods, addictive foods—sugar and refined carbs—changes your fat cell chemistry, making them ravenous.
The conventional wisdom regarding why we gain weight—we eat more calories than we burn—is, simply, dead wrong. It is the toxic, bad calories—calories that quickly turn to sugar—that are causing our obesity and chronic disease epidemic. There has been a decades-long misinformation campaign orchestrated by Big Food and aided and abetted by the U.S. Government. The message has been all about energy balance, that there are no good or bad calories, that they are all the same, that it is about eating less and exercising more. That advice has gotten us nowhere—except drowning under the weight of our obesity and diabetes epidemic.
My new book, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet, exposes the lies that keep us sick and fat and provides a goof-proof step-by-step 10-day plan to end food addiction and sugar and carb cravings and to cure FLC quickly, painlessly, and deliciously. Who knew detoxing could be so fun and easy?
Why You Need a Medical Detox Program
This is a medically designed detox program. I used to work in the emergency room and had to treat heroin addicts and alcoholics. We had to use a carefully designed medical detox program to “bring them down” from their drugs. Otherwise, they would get agitated, anxious, and even have seizures. In human and animal studies, the exact same thing happens when you quit sugar. It has to be done carefully.
After years of research and testing, I created the 10-Day Detox Diet to help you “come down” from the worst of all drugs (sugar) in a way that is gentle and fun. Believe it or not, your cravings will go away in just a day or so. And by following this food and lifestyle program and using a few powerful supplements, you will break free from food addiction and FLC Syndrome.
It is designed to rewire and reprogram your hormones and biology quickly, so you don’t have cravings, so you don’t go through bad withdrawal, and you can actually learn what it feels like to be back in your body, healthy and alive, back to your original factory settings.
Here’s what one of the participants in the initial trial of the 10-Day Detox Diet had to say about her experience:
I never thought I could do it…go a week without coffee, without chocolate, without wine, without cheese, etc. But I knew I had to make a drastic change and needed a jumpstart. I was very overweight, high cholesterol, pre-diabetic, and miserable. This has been an amazing gift. I am not saying that I don’t still have thoughts about the above, but they don’t consume me, and I feel like I finally have control. Prior to this Detox, I spent every free thought beating myself up for my food choices and how I looked and felt. Now, I am celebrating my accomplishments (down 12 pounds and in a normal fasting glucose range) and feel empowered. The biggest gift, though, is that I am finally out of the “food fog” that I have spent years in. I feel clear, awake, and alert. When I spend time with my children, I feel present and engaged, which is a blessing for us all. This journey is just beginning, and I have a long way to go and a lot to learn, but I have never been so excited and so overwhelmingly grateful.” —Kelly Aronson
What You Will Eat and What You Will Do
The basic idea is simple. Eat whole, unprocessed, real foods. Cut out food that causes inflammation and blood sugar and insulin spikes. Each day is carefully designed to create specific hormonal and neurotransmitter changes to rewire your biology very quickly to get all the signals back in balance, so you naturally feel good and crave real food, not junk. You are never hungry on this program; you never count calories, fat grams, or carb grams; and you can eat as much as you need to feel satisfied.
The magic of the 10-Day Detox Diet is in eating the right foods and in keeping a daily schedule of special practices. Though very simple, these actions have been scientifically proven to help you lose weight and keep it off, creating long-term health.
Simple things such as the daily UltraDetox Bath, the Take-Five Breathing Break, walking, designing your life in regard to eating, creating an emergency life pack (of food), journaling, tracking your results, the right supplements and a super fiber, connecting with others for success, and more can double your weight loss and success.
Here’s what one day’s menu looks like—not exactly deprivation or bland, boring diet food:
- Breakfast: Breakfast Detox Shake, such as my Whole Food Protein or Spiced Almond Smoothie
- Snack of nuts or dips and crudité
- Lunch: Dr. Hyman’s Super Salad or Green Goddess Broccoli and Arugula Soup with Chicken
- Snack: Snack of nuts or dips and crudité
- Dinner: Grilled Salmon with Onion Marmalade over Greens
Why Cooking Can Save Your Life
The propaganda that the food industry has convinced us of is this: cooking is hard, expensive, time-consuming, and messy. That’s why we have outsourced cooking to corporations, and we are now the sickest, fattest nation in the world because of it.
I recently visited a poor, seriously sick, and overweight family of five in South Carolina and taught them to cook good food on a tight budget, food stamps, and disability payments. They ate only processed foods, green beans from a can, and fast food meals. The father was on dialysis and needed a new kidney but couldn’t get one because he needed to lose 40 pounds first.
By teaching them to cook real food from real ingredients, by getting them to understand how the food industry had duped them with all the “healthy” processed options—which are still junk—they had a radical transformation. The mother lost 67 pounds and got off her blood pressure meds. The father lost 45 pounds and got a new kidney, and the 16-year-old son lost 40 pounds.
Anyone can do this. And everyone should do this—at least for 10 days. Read the “book” of your body. It will tell you the story of what works and what doesn’t. You will see how radically different you can feel in just 10 days.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD
