Cinnamon
Coriander (cilantro)
Dried orange peel
Garlic
Ginger
Ginseng
Kidneys
Leeks
Liver
Marjoram
Mung beans
Mussels
Nutmeg
Peppermint
Radish
Rosemary
Shrimps
Soybean oil
Walnuts
induce sweating. When consumed, they warm the circulation in the digestive system and bring the blood to the surface of the intestinal wall where it can more easily absorb nutrients from the intestinal contents. This is highly beneficial for both good health and appetite control.
WATER RETENTION—AN IMPORTANT CAUSE OF OVERWEIGHT
The Oriental concept that overweight is caused by excessive dampness in the body is very interesting from a Western point of view. Not all excess body weight is fat. As pointed out in my book The Waterfall Diet, hidden water retention is extremely common and can add many pounds to the scales. From a Western viewpoint there are several causes of water retention, ranging from food intolerances (sometimes known as food ‘allergies’) to excessive salt consumption.
CAUSES OF UNEXPLAINED WATER RETENTION
Food intolerances (allergies)
Protein deficiency (usually in people on very low-calorie diets)
Deficiencies of vitamin B6 and/or magnesium
Lack of fruit and vegetables
Lack of exercise
Excessive salt consumption
Anaemia
Some medications
Inflammation due to high toxin levels
Unexplained water retention can account for 10 lbs or more of excess body weight. If you eat the right foods all this water can be urinated away within a week!
The Waterfall Diet provides foods that help address these causes, and omits foods that could potentially contribute to water retention. Many of the soup recipes in this book are suitable for the Waterfall Diet (see the Index on page 131). If you want to see whether you need the Waterfall Diet, try consuming just these soups and nothing else for 10 days. If you spend a lot of time urinating and your clothes quickly begin to hang loose, then you definitely need to read more about the Waterfall Diet (see Resources, page 277) so that you can combat this problem on a more long-term basis.
If you have two or more of the following signs you may be suffering from water retention:
You have worked hard to lose weight using conventional methods, and found that you cannot get below a certain weight even by persevering for months or years
Pressing a fingernail firmly into your thumb-pad leaves a deep dent that won’t go away after a second or two
Pressing the tip of your finger into the inside of your shin-bone leaves a dent
Swelling of legs, feet or ankles
Your shoe size seems to increase as you get older
Rings sometimes seem not to fit any more
You seem to have a major swelling problem in hot weather
Your tummy is often tight and swollen
Breast tenderness (in women)
Premenstrual weight gain (in women)
Your weight fluctuates by several pounds within the space of only 24 hours
FOOD ADDICTIONS
If you have a lot of weight to lose, the good news is that the Big Healthy Soup Diet is ideal to help you. But of course there is more to weight-loss than just eating the right diet. Exercise (see page 17) is equally important. And, due to the well-known problem of food
ADVICE TO COMBAT FOOD ADDICTIONS
Don’t miss meals. Missed meals lead to much greater cravings for addictive foods. Eat extra portions of soup for the first two weeks while you are going through sugar withdrawal.
Whatever happens, never, ever keep your favourite addictive foods (such as chocolate) in the home, not even for your children.
Have a treat every day. It should be something you like but are not normally addicted to. For instance, if you used to eat chocolate bars every day, replace them with home-made hot chocolate drinks. The ‘comfort factor’ won’t be anything like 100 per cent at first, but after about two weeks it will reach the 80-90 per cent level. Commercial hot chocolate mixes are very high in sugar, so make your own by whisking cocoa powder and a little raw sugar into hot low-fat dairy milk or rice milk. Add a dash of vanilla for extra flavour. Every time you find yourself craving chocolate, take your mind off it by going to make yourself one of these drinks. Or eat a bowl of soup!
If you have consumed a lot of sugary foods and drinks in the recent past, you should take a good quality daily multivitamin with minerals (including chromium). This will help restore and rebalance your system and give your hormones the best chance of maintaining your blood sugar on an even keel, which will help control physical craving sensations.
addiction, not everyone finds it possible to cut down or stop eating comfort foods straight away, even if they follow a diet that leaves them never feeling hungry.
Food addictions can be as difficult to overcome as addictions to alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Chemical changes—perhaps the release of endorphins—occur in your body on eating the addictive food. These changes are experienced as pleasurable and comforting sensations, and the addiction comes from associating the food with these sensations. You can even begin to feel mildly depressed when the pleasant sensations wear off, and this can cause insatiable cravings that keep you eating the problem food, just as nicotine withdrawal symptoms—no matter how mild—keep people smoking.
Since
