Surprising links between weight loss, your liver, your lymph and eating the right fat.
1. Love Your Liver
My Fat Flush Plan is dedicated first and foremost to supporting the liver in its daunting role as the body’s purifier. In reality, the liver is perfectly designed to detoxify itself automatically, without any help from you or Fat Flush, for that matter. As the body’s premier detoxifier (think of it as the filter in your personal engine) and fat-burning organ, the liver has an amazing built-in process that is in charge of breaking down everything that comes its way, from chemicals, preservatives, and heavy metals to the food and beverages you ingest.
Ah, but here’s the rub.
In order for the detox process to work smoothly, your body needs a plethora of heavy-duty nutritional elements to keep the detox pathways working optimally and to break down toxins. So, you need to be very well nourished to detox.
A liver clogged with poisons or excess fats cannot perform its fat burning and other essential duties, like maintaining blood sugar levels, storing glycogen, synthesizing and normalizing blood proteins, and helping to keep your body in hormonal balance. A poorly functioning liver results in stagnation. Freeing up your liver to do its job may be the single most important step you ever take in improving your overall health and achieving your weight loss goals permanently.
The Fat Flush program accomplishes this task in several ways. One is through the antioxidant/phenol-rich cranberry and water mixture you will be drinking during each seasonal Fat Flush to keep those detox pathways moving right along. The recipe for the signature Fat Flush cran-water is 1 oz. unsweetened cranberry juice to 7 oz of water (makes an 8 oz. glass of cran-water) to be consumed eight times throughout the day (64 oz. total).
And the benefits of cranberry keep on accruing. Cranberries were analyzed with other fruits for their antioxidant power by measuring their ORAC value (oxygen radical absorbance capacity). Cranberries register a 9,584 ORAC value compared to the second runner up (raspberries), which were only 4,882. So cranberries are powerful medicine in neutralizing harmful free radicals and preventing them from taking a foothold in the body.
Daily intake of foods in the liver-loving veggie cruciferous family (think cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts) also speeds the breakdown of fat-storing toxins and keeps new body fat from forming. Lemon and water first thing in the morning helps to thin out bile and tone up both the kidneys and liver. Eggs (preferably from chickens that don’t do drugs) are part of the regimen because their high sulfur content and lecithin helps the liver’s detox pathways and aids in the forming of bile salts.
When you clean up your act, the liver and its beautiful bile are nourished with the right foods and supplements, which will ensure efficient fat metabolism as well as efficient elimination of toxins and wastes.
2. Get Your Lymph Flowing
If the liver is your body’s filter, then the lymph channels are your body’s drainage system. Your lymph system is the foundation of your immune system and includes your spleen, tonsils, and thymus. If you have never heard of the lymphatic system, you are not alone. So many people, even those into detox, have no idea about the crucial role this system plays in health and in weight loss.
The lymphatic system is a complex network of needle-thin tubes filled with fluid that continually bathes our cells and then carries away the body’s “garbage”—toxins, waste products of metabolism, fat globules, and excess liquid—to filters called lymph nodes, where these substances are stored and then neutralized. But while blood has a pump (your heart) to keep it moving, the lymph must be pumped by the movement of muscles or through deep breathing. (You can begin to see how a sedentary lifestyle can affect your health.)
The lymph, like the liver, can be overloaded with chemicals, pesticides, and a variety of pollutants that can shut down lymphatic flow. Plus, the everyday stress we are under also is a lymph stressor. The muscles and motion of breathing are a primary way to move lymph and when we’re under stress, our breathing becomes shallower.
So what does this mean for your waistline? First off, if your lymph isn’t flowing, your tissues aren’t draining excess fluid. This creates a backlog that results in bloating. Waterlogged tissues can cause your body to swell up to two sizes—weighing-in with an extra ten to fifteen pounds—yikes! A lazy lymphatic system may also be connected to cellulite because backed up fluid “sticks” to fat cells. Last but not least, waterlogged tissues interfere with nutrient and oxygen absorption and utilization, so cell starvation starts to take place.
Cleanse your lymph with a special fitness program that focuses on rebounding —the best exercise for the lymphatics due to the gentle bouncing action. I recommend the ReboundAIR rebounder (let them know I sent you). The exercise component is fortified with Fat Flush Super Star Foods that saturate the system with detoxifying enzymes, antioxidants, and phytonutrients. The cran-water drink in the program, for example, is packed with flavonoids, enzymes, and organic acids that appear to act like natural digestive enzymes. From my observations, cranberry helps to digest lumpy deposits of lymphatic waste, which could be one of the key reasons Fat Flushers report that their cellulite disappears.
People who detox their livers and get their lymph flowing also notice they have clear, smooth, glowing skin and toned bodies. Sugar cravings vanish. More nutrients get to the cells and more calories become energy when lymph flows freely. Swelling and bloating are a thing of the past; radiant good health takes their place. So, healing the lymphatics is a big deal, not only for Fat Flushing but also for disease control. For those of you with Crohn’s disease, please take note. In the January 2008 issue of the journal Gut, it was found that Crohn’s is caused by inflammation and thickening of the lymphatics connected to the intestines—not an autoimmune disease or a genetic condition, as previously thought.
3. Eat the Right Fats
A flurry of new studies about fighting fat with fat first came out in The New England Journal of Medicine in early 2009. The media heralded these studies as the newest obesity theory, claiming that good fat, also known as brown fat because of its color, is a potent regulator of metabolism and weight. The research said that brown fat is deficient in overweight people and is primarily activated by cold.
This good fat, which triggers the body to burn more calories and generate more body heat, is key in keeping infants warm. By adulthood, brown fat is metabolically inactive in many individuals. However—what the researchers completely overlooked is the role of the essential fatty acid, gamma linolenic acid, more commonly known as GLA. Since the 1980s, it has been known that GLA stimulates brown fat activity through its prostaglandin pathways.
This is exactly why GLA has played a crucial role in Fat Flush since the origins of the program. It is found in its most balanced form in black currant seed oil, although borage and evening primrose oil are other rich sources. GLA is also included in the starter Fat Flush Kit as the GLA-90 supplement. It’s a must for beautiful, glowing skin and appears to keep the skin taunt during weight loss.
Stay tuned for my next blog in this three-part series – The 10 Fat Flush Commandments: Part 2!
24 Responses
When ever I take the GLA-90 faithfully (twice a day) after about two weeks I notice my fingernails are growing beautifully. Keep in mind that I am 47 and my whole life I have had nails that are weak and brittle. Sometimes they bend like cartilage, in the winter they are brittle and constantly chip. At other times I’ve noticed they peel in layers. Imagine my surprise when I noticed they were growing without any of these conditions. I could tap them, bang them, wash dishes…it didn’t matter. Eventually I’d have to cut them or file them down to keep them from growing out of control. I have experimented with this and it is the GLA-90 that does this. Nothing else effects them. So if it effects my nails so profoundly, imagine what else it does that we cannot see, such as what this article states. God is good to give us all we need to live healthy!
I have all three of your books but have never gone on the Fat Flush Plan. I just ordered the Whey protein because I like a smoothie in the morning. I just had my blood tested and my cholestrol is 283 hdl 54 ldl 170 and Triglycerides 295. What would your suggestions be to lower this without medication. I’m 30 pounds overweight as well and have high blood pressure which I am taking medication for but it is still high.
Any suggestions you may have I would appreciate.
what about a supplement for the liver?
Diane — Once you reduce your fruits to just two of the Fat Flush friendly low glycemic ones per day, your triglycerides will come down. So will your total cholesterol. We include the “skinny fats” like GLA, flaxseeds, and flax oil which will bring all of your blood values back to normal. GLA is great for blood pressure as is the cran-water drink that is our signature beverage to help normalize blood sugar levels as well as blood pressure according to our participants. The plan will work for you – just commit to the program and we will be here and on annlouiseforum.com to cheer you on.
Donna- We recommend the Liver Lovin Formula that UNI KEY makes according to Dr. ALG’s specifications.
https://www.unikeyhealth.com/product/Fast_Track_Liver-Lovin_Formula/Detox_Diet_Cleansing here is a quick link to the liver formula that Dr. ALG put together for UNI KEY.
If you are using Unikey’s Fat Flush Protein, is there any advantage to using the whey protein?
Kay Lynn,
The FF Whey ” provides amino acid building blocks that are precursors to glutathione—the liver’s premiere antioxidant, which destroys free radicals.”
The Body Protein is also good, especially for resetting your metabolism, but the benefit of glutathione is important for liver detox. I think it is good to do both. I line to alternate the two types of proteins and sometimes mix them half and half in my smoothie. I am doing the shakes as breakfast or lunch because they are quick and delicious, not as part of the Shakedown or Fat Flush program.
My dear 67 year old neighbor has GI issues and now “autoimmune” issue with the lining of her bladder. She is in pain and poor health and mainstream medicine isn’t doing to much for her. She is taking a drug which is made from the bark of a tree? a prescription which is supposed to help stabilize her bladder lining. Do you have any ideas/suggestions?
Thank you so much!!!!!
Loving friend who believes in Ann Louise’s Wisdom
Mary Reese
Mary Reese- One thing that comes to mind is that parasites are often to blame for autoimmune conditions. Your friend may benefit from the Expanded GI Panel available through UNI KEY.
https://www.unikeyhealth.com/product/GI_2_Panel/Parasite_Testing
i have a dairy allergy, including whey,. what should I do?
You might want to try Oxi-Key, available at unikeyhealth.com or 800 888-4353. It also contains glutathione.
do i use the small bottle of concentrate cranberry juice or the bigger diluted juice for the drink?
Charlotte, either one will work. Page 55 of the newest version of the Fat Flush Plan book has a recipe for either kind of juice.
I have a few health concerns. Chronic kidney stones (calcium oxalate), recent diagnosis of high blood pressure, and a recent melanoma surgery (malignant).
My endocrinologist has recently started me on a hormone replacement. Also have low iron, low B’s and D’s. I have never been a pill taker or vitamin user. Can i safely use your program especially with the kidney stone issue. I have to limit my “greens” ie) asparagus, spinach, anything with high oxalates.
Can you advise?
Yes, just observe the food restrictions you are aware of. The cranwater has been shown to also be helpful in keeping the kidneys clear.
Last year I did the FF program using the Body Protein and lost 20 lbs in 3 weeks. It worked even though I did not care for the taste. This year I would like to go back on the FF using the Whey Protein, but wanted to know if I can accomplish the same results?
Can you drink seltzer water while on fat flush?
Since it is not part of the protocol, I would recommend avoiding seltzer as it may impact your results.
hello
I live in UK, and finding extremely hard to get hold of unsweetened cranberry juice is there an alternative please
Hi Paula, The preferred alternative would be to add 2 TBS of apple cider vinegar to 1 quart of plain, filtered water. Sip this throughout the day for plenty of detoxifying benefits!
Biona in England makes an excellent cranberry juice.
What about all the chemicals and pesticides used in the growing of cranberries?
Angie, you can find organic cranberry juice, grown without the chemicals and pesticides. Knudsen’s makes one.
Can some who does not eat meat or dairy products do a fat flush and if so what do they substitute?