The result is this formation of rogue molecules, like the crust on meat or bread or wrinkles or brown spots. This is inflammation and accelerated aging. Sugar equals accelerated aging. But you can literally turn back the hands of time by getting rid of sugar. Okay, now i need to dispel a common myth that makes me insane. Its all natural so it must be okay. [audience groaning] all sugars natural. So natural sugar is sugar. And all sugarall sugar all sugar is problematic, okay . Sorry. [laughter] youre not looking at me so friendly anymore. But theres one sugar that is way worse than others fructose. Fructose found in highfructose corn syrup, those fruit juice concentrates, and agave, which, by the way, yes, is higher in fructose than highfructose corn syrup. Uhhuh, yeah. So fructose is worse than other sugars because it goes straight to the liver where it triggers something called lipogenesis, which means your body is literally making fat from it. Yeah, eek, right . It can create Fatty Liver Disease and its rapid absorption drives up insulin to cause you to store even more fat. You know, it used to be that we saw Fatty Liver Disease in alcoholics. Now we see it in kids because of the High Consumption of soft drinks and things with highfructose corn syrup. Fructose also raises triglycerides more than any other sugar, it glycates more than other sugars, and it literally pokes holes in your small intestine, which can lead to leaky gut. But somehow fructose is thought of as a healthier option. So now you know better, right . Do not be fooled again. Okay. Of course theres one thing worse than sugar artificial sweeteners. So we created artificial sweeteners so that we could have our cake and eat it too, right . So that we could have our sweets without gaining weight. Yet the studies are showing clearly that this is not working, that actually artificial sweeteners can cause you to gain weight. I know. Its, like, what . Everythings backwards. In fact, a recent study showed that people who drank a diet soda a day gained more weight than people who drank a regular soda daily. Wow. Put the diet soda down. [laughter] artificial sweeteners destroy your ability to appreciate the natural sweetness of a blueberry or cinnamon. You start to want increasingly sweeter foods. So if youve been hooked on artificial sweeteners, im going to beg youbeg you to stop them immediately and yes, i mean right now and start retraining your taste buds to appreciate the natural sweetness of fruit and nuts and cinnamon and vanilla. Now, in addition to those naturally sweet popsicles and those frappes i mentioned, i also have several recipes in my virgin diet book thats gonna make this transition fairly painless. [laughter] but if you need to use a sweetener, my favorite is xylitol. Its natural and it actually can help with weight loss because it suppresses a hormone called ghrelin that your stomach produces to tell you youre hungry. And xylitol doesnt cause cavities which is why youll see it in a lot of different gums and toothpaste and mints. So believe it or not, one of the biggest places people get a load of sugar is at breakfast. After all, most breakfast is dessert. [laughter] it is. Look at that muffin. Whats that muffin in . That muffins a cupcake. Its a cupcake, right . So you have your cupcake, your banana, your vanilla latte; thats more sugar than a supersized soda. So i teach people to start the day with a smoothie. And research is clear people who start the day with a smoothie not only lose more weight, they keep it off. And this is amazing. I have this one gal, she didnt listen to anything i told her to do except for one thing she started the day with a smoothie. And she said with that one change, her day was easier to get through, she had more energy and focus, less cravings, she was more confident from a smoothie. I mean, incredible. Now, heres the important thing here. This is not an adult milk shake. This is a smoothie. Okay, yes. So i have people start with a highquality pea rice protein blendlook for something with five grams of sugar or lessi use either chia or freshly ground flaxseeds, unsweetened coconut milk, and frozen organic berries. And now heres the advanced technique. You ready . Throw in kale or frozen spinach. And you might be making a little face. But you will not taste it. So its an easy way to get a couple more servings of veggies in, cause most of us are not getting our ten servings of vegetables a day, are we . Right . Its an easy way to get it in and not even notice it. I do this every single day. I even travel with a blender. You can do this. [laughter] next, i promised you i was going to reveal one of the worst offenders in our diet. That food is corn. Corn. Corn is the fourth of the seven foods i want you to remove from your diet for three weeks. Believe it or not, corn is a major hidden source of sugar. Corn. I want to clear something up right off the bat. Corn is not a vegetable. Its not a vegetable. Its a grain. Its a grain and a very starchy grain at that. And starches convert to sugar in your body. This actually starts to happen the minute you put it in your mouth. This is probably why we feed cows and pigs corn to fatten them up. Okay . So lets think about it. Were feeding cows and pigs corn to fatten them up and then were using popcorn as a diet food. [laughter] are we insane . No. Besides corn being a high glycemic starchy food, like soy, its also another one of the top genetically modified food crops, which means that it is heavily sprayed with pesticides. And genetically modified foods have been linked to infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. So if youre eating corn hopefully right now you put the corn down. If youre eating corn, theres some simple, delicious alternatives. Trade it for quinoa, black beans, or lentils. Now if youre using corn tortillas, try a rice tortilla, or better yet, use lettuce wraps. And if youre eating corn chips or popcorn, try crudites and either hummus, guacamole, or a black bean and salsa dip. I mean, these are all incredible, inexpensiveright healthy alternatives that will make your taste buds happy and your waistline happy. Very easy. Okay, now the fifth food. The fifth of the seven foods i want you to remove is actually one of my favorite foods. And for so many of us, its our goto food, especially for breakfast, because its fast; its cheap; its easy to find. But i had to rethink this food because i kept seeing so many people reacting negatively to it on food sensitivity tests. Im talking about eggs. Aww, i know. Oh, now whats she gonna take away . [laughter] it was hard on me too. Youll hear. I see so many people using hardboiled eggs as their grab and go breakfast, right . Yeah, you probably did it today. Adding chopped eggs to their salad, having an egg white omelet by the way, egg white omelets egg whites are worse for you because theyre whats triggering that immune response, not the yolks where all the amazing nutrients are. I get youre all kind of bummed. I get it. I felt the same way too. But i tested myself and i discovered that eggs were actually hurting me. And now that ive gone through my gut healing cycle, i can eat them again periodically, but this should not be something youre eating every single day. Okay, have that smoothie i just talked about instead and then use things like chicken, wild salmon, Grassfed Beef for your clean lean protein sources. So let me tell you about jeff taff. Hes nearly 60. He was a professional Football Player, but after his career, he was left in chronic pain, he had sleep apnea, couldnt really exercise, and he gained weight. But last year, it all came to a head when his father died and he tried to get off some of the medications he was on. His pain and his emotional stress were at an alltime high. So what did he do . He ate. He turned to food for comfort, and his weight skyrocketed, and his pain intensified. He didnt know that food intolerances could be doing this to him. Then he found my plan. And in one week, he said everything got easier. He could do work around the house; he could walk the dog. He lost nine pounds. Hes able to take care of his 86yearold motherinlaw again. For a while there, he was feeling older than she was. Now hes starting to feel like himself again, the pro Football Player self again. And hes Getting Better every day. And ill tell you, thats why i do this. It is so gratifying to see success like jeffs. I want you to have that kind of success, to recapture the vitality in your life, to live free of pain and fatigue, and to keep your mind sharp. And you can have this just by following the plan im giving you today. This plan is simple, and its only three weeks long. And youll be amazed at the transformation it will make in the way you look and feel. If youre like most of my clients, youll probably lose up to seven pounds in the first seven days. Thats exciting, yes . Yes, yes. Thank you. [applause] in the next segment, im going to share the final two foods that could be preventing you from losing weight and from looking and feeling your best. Worse yet, they can actually be addictive and could be doing more damage inside you than you can imagine. Plus, im going to give you more simple lateral shifts that you can make to replace these foods with healthier, delicious options so you wont even miss them while the weight falls off. Stay with me. Thank you. [applause] welcome back. Okay, now in the last segment, we talked about sugar. Were done with sugar . All yes. Artificial sweeteners, corn, and eggs and how they can not only make it hard for you to lose weight; they can make you age faster too. Whoo. The only thing we want to do fast in this program is lose weight and feel better, right . Yes, yes. [cheers and applause] so get ready to have more energy, say goodbye to joint pain, and have that brain clarity return because ive seen the biggest impact with the elimination of these last two foods. Now these last two will probably be the toughest for you to drop as they are the most addictive of the seven i have you pull. I saved the best for last. [laughter] and these final two foods . Dairy and gluten. [gasps] dont take my cheese. I can feel it. Before i give you the good news that this will be easier than you think, let me first tell you why these two are the big ones. Because they can create an opiatelike effect on your brain. I so often hear, i cant give up my cheese. I cant give up my morning bagel. Im not giving up my latte. I cant give up that pizza. Aha. Caught you. [laughter] this is where my manta of its just three weeks of no pizza its just three weeks comes in, okay . Okay. You all saw it. Okay. Now im going to let you in on my own little secret. I love dairy. Love it. Cheese, oh. Lattes with foam. Dense cheesecake. Yeah. Yeah. Tart frozen yogurt. Bring it on. You with me . [sighs] but at what price . I struggled my whole life with skin problems. I went to so many doctors who told me that diet had nothing to do with it. And i always ten pounds heavier than i wanted to be, despite working out like a fiend and watching everything that i ate, which is bad juju for a health and fitness expert. All right . And i had digestive problems, painful gas and bloating that seemed to hit at the most inopportune times not like theres really a good time for that. [laughter] but ill tell you, i didnt want to cut out the dairy or gluten. I fought those changes hard. But guess what . My lifelong battle with acne, over 30 years, ended in a few days when i gave up dairy. My chronic joint painive had five knee surgerieswent down 75 when i gave up gluten. My chronic bloatingjust enough to be annoying. But i thought it was normal for me cause i was aging went away when i replaced the eggs with those protein shakes. My only regret why the heck didnt i do this sooner . I mean. Now im almost 50 and i look and feel better than i did in my 20s andwhats even better with a lot less effort. My food cravings are gone. My weight is stable. Im two sizes smaller, ten pounds lighter, 10 less body fat than i was in my 20s. You can do this too. Its only seven foods for three weeks. Just three weeks. Think of where you are now and what youre accepting, tolerating, as just the way things are. If youre tired, if your joints hurt, if youre carrying extra weight, if youre struggling with brain fog and poor memory, thats not the way things have to be. With one simple choice to follow this plan, youll get your energy back, youll look and feel better, and the weight will finally come off, sometimes in just days. Its that fast. So lets talk about dairy first because theres definitely some misinformation about it out there, isnt there . Yes. The first big urban legend is that dairy helps you lose weight. Hey, i wish this was true. Trust me. But the studies just arent bearing this out. A study led by dr. Walter willett at Harvard School of Public Health found that children who drank three servings of skim or 1 milk each day were more prone to becoming overweight than the children who drank fewer servings of milk each day. Strike one. Now what about skin . Remember i told you that my skin cleared up when i dumped the dairy . One of the largest and longest studies of Womens Health is the Nurses Health study, which looked at over 77,000 nurses over 12 years. And guess what they found . Those who drank more milk as teenagers had higher rates of severe acne than those who drank less. And heres the big shocker skim milk was worse than full fat milk. It turns out that when you take the fat out of milk, youre left with more lactose, which is another word for milk sugar. Strike two. When i recommend pulling dairy from the diet, the biggest concern i hear is about bone health. Now i want you to have strong bones, but i dont want you to do it by relying on dairy. Because guess what . That same Nurses Health study also showed that those who had the highest milk consumption had the highest risk of bone fractures. Strike three. So dairy could make you gain weight, break out, and probably doesnt help your bones stay healthy either. And whats up with the milk mustache . Not hot. Right . So are you willing to dump the dairy for the next three weeks . Yes. Not convincing. [laughter] all yes. Im gonna give you some super simple switches so you wont even miss it. Take your milk, trade it for coconut or almond milk. Take your yogurt, trade it for coconut greekstyle yogurt. Replace your cream cheese with either hummus or almond butter. Now i have a bunch more easy switches just like this in my book, the virgin diet. But remember, its just three weeks. [applause] so let me share a little bit more about the final piece of the puzzle. Lets battle the whole grain goodness myth. [audience muttering] the seventh and final food for you to lose is gluten. This is a protein found in most grains, especially wheat, barley, and rye. But its also used as a thickening agent and stabilizing ingredient, so it can show up in some of the craziest places, like mustard and luncheon meats and beer and msg and salad dressing and most processed foods. All right, so now why is gluten so bad . It can disrupt your digestion by damaging the walls of the small intestine. And when that wall is damaged, it becomes more permeable which, you may remember, can lead to leaky gut, food intolerance, immune problems, inflammation, and an inability to absorb nutrients and make b12. What this all adds up to is several different ways gluten is negatively impacting your health, the way you feel, and causing you to gain weight and then struggle to lose it. This is about connecting the dots about the way you look and feel and the foods youre eating. You dont have to suffer with inflamed joints and excess weight. You can get your energy back and protect your brain health. On my plan, youll know right away which foods youre reacting to and youll begin to heal fast. I had a client, mary, a few years ago whod been struggling with achilles tendonitis for a year. For 12 months, mary went to physical therapy three times a week with no real success. I pulled her off gluten, and a few weeks later, her chronic tendonitis was gone. Can you imagine this change in her life . Another big, big issue with gluten is its connection to autoimmune disease. Autoimmune disease affects 23. 5 million americans. Its thought to be the most common cause of all disease worldwide. And it turns out that gluten could be at the root of it. So if you have a Family History of autoimmune disease or youve been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, gluten does not have a place in your diet. And eliminating it could turn your life around if youre suffering with one of these conditions. Now, another issue with gluten and all grains for that matter and why i take such offense to this idea of whole grain goodness is that they all contain lectins and phytates, which are basically antinutrients that can have a hugely negative impact on your health. Lectins are a type of protein that bind to carbohydrates. They can bind to insulin receptors which creates insulin resistance which means that your blood sugar rides higher, making it harder to burn off fat. They can also bind to your intestinal lining which contributes to altered gut flora causing you to store more calories from the food you eat and, worse yet, store it as fat. Lectins can also be associated with leptin resistance. Since leptin is the hormone that helps regulate feelings of hunger and fullness, leptin resistance makes you hungrier even when youve had all the food that you need. It also puts you at risk for metabolic syndrome the triple threat of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. These are not the inevitable side effects of aging. These very Serious Health problems can be tied to gluten. So heres the good news. Lighten the mood. Okay. It was, like, woof. There are some very easy shifts for gluten so you wont miss it. Not much, okay . So how do these sound . So instead of pasta, try rice or quinoa pasta or better yet, the vegetable spaghetti squash. Okay . Instead of tortillas, switch over to rice tortillas or pieces of romaine lettuce. Trade your wheat flour or rye flour for almond flour or coconut flour. If youre doing couscous, switch over to quinoa. By the way, have you tried quinoa . Love quinoa. Its actually not a grain, its a seed, and you can cook it with organic chicken broth. It is amazing, awesome. Instead of floury pizza crust. [laughter] try a slice of eggplant or portobello mushroom the next three weeks, okay . All right. Now, dont all those sound amazing . Okay, so theyre delicious. Theyre easy. And i bet you, once you see the difference in your health, you will not want to add gluten back to your diet. Take it from riva. Shes a client of mine in her 60s. She was dealing with inflammation in her joints which she was convinced was arthritis. Except now, its 90 gone. At 55 she weighed 170 pounds. She was a yoyo dieter. She was exhausted and feeling her age. The virgin diet