The Inflammation - Aging - Disease - Obesity Connection

The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet Personal Daily Journal: A Diet Journal to Keep You Focused on Your Weight-Loss Goals
by Nicholas Perricone, M.D.

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One's mind, once stretched by a new idea,

never regains its original dimensions.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

As many readers of my earlier books know, the original anti-inflammatory diet is both a powerful antiaging, disease-fighting tool and the secret to clear, wrinkle-free skin. It was not specifically designed for weight loss. However, once I realized that people who needed to lose weight were rapidly losing it on this eating plan, I recognized a whole new world of potential for the overweight man or woman-whether he or she needed to shed a mere 10 pounds or was morbidly obese.

I altered and adapted the original anti-inflammatory diet to focus on the specific foods and supplements that were proven to accelerate healthy weight loss while maintaining muscle mass. In fact, the anti-inflammatory weight-loss diet in this book closely parallels the very diet that I follow on a daily basis. The recommended foods will not only enable you to quickly drop excess weight, you will find increased energy, and an increased sense of mental well-being. When we realize that most dieters are subject to chronic crankiness, this is good news indeed.

In this book, you are going to learn some surprising facts-facts that actually startled the scientific community when they were first discovered. You are going to learn that excess body fat is a living, breathing, multiplying endocrine organ-and that fact alone ensures that the fatter you are, the fatter you will get. This book is going to change your ideas about weight gain and weight loss. It is not about your daily intake of fat-and it is not about cutting out the carbs. It is about something no other book has ever explained: the connection between inflammation and body fat (and the fact that one is never present without the other). You will learn what foods cause this inflammation, and how to decrease and prevent it, thereby permanently eliminating all weight problems.

Inflammation 101

Let's take a look at what I mean by inflammation. Inflammation, which is the response of the body's immune system to infection or irritation, exists in a very wide spectrum. At the extreme end it causes visible redness and swelling, such as in sunburn or an injured finger. On the low end of the spectrum, the inflammation is invisible; we can't see it and we can't feel it. But it does exist, and it causes a host of health-related problems. The bright red and painful sunburn that exists at the extreme high end is usually only present for a short period of time. Physicians refer to this type of inflammation as "acute inflammation." The invisible inflammation that exists at the low end of the spectrum is usually present for longer periods of time and is termed "chronic inflammation."

The question you may be asking is, "If it is invisible, and we can't feel it, then how do we know that this low-grade inflammation exists?" The answer is simple: some of this inflammation can be detected under the microscope. However, low-grade inflammation can also be invisible even with a microscope because it exists on a molecular level, but it can be detected through chemical tests using special instruments.

Research indicates that the effects of this chronic, low-grade, invisible inflammation is at the basis of aging and age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain forms of cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and autoimmune diseases-and even wrinkled, sagging skin.

However, it doesn't stop there. I am now categorically stating that this same chronic, low-grade, invisible inflammation is at the very basis of excess body fat, out-of-control appetites, food cravings, food addictions, diabetes, and the inability to lose excess body weight.

If that is the case, you may be thinking, "Why don't I just go ahead and take an ibuprofen tablet and get thin?" Unfortunately it is not that simple-especially when you consider this inflammation is not just a one-time event reacting to a one-time cause. Our bodies are under a constant barrage, a continual assault of physical insults resulting in this inflammation-beginning with that bag of potato chips and ending with the creation of a veritable factory in our body whose one job is to grow more fat cells and produce more inflammatory chemicals.

The answer lies in learning to recognize and avoid the factors that are creating the inflammation in the first place, and then, through natural means, reducing the existing inflammation to successfully lose the excess body fat. By embracing the anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, you will not only lose the weight, you will dramatically alter your quality of life-and increase your life expectancy.

The effect of this low-grade, invisible inflammation (also referred to as "subclinical" inflammation) has been at the cutting edge of medical science for the last decade, and it has been the focal point of my own research for the past two decades. After years of either being ignored or relegated to a "by-product" of the disease process, cellular inflammation is finally coming to the attention of the mainstream media, and in fact, was the topic of a cover story in Time magazine.

The Dangers of Inflammation

Acute inflammation is a protective response of tissue to irritation, injury, or infection, and is characterized by pain, redness, swelling, and sometimes loss of function. It is, under normal circumstances, beneficial, and helps the body repair the effects of trauma or infection. However, prolonged, excess, or chronic inflammation becomes harmful.

When low-grade invisible inflammation occurs in the very cells that comprise our organ systems, a concept I introduced in my first book, The Wrinkle Cure (2000), we are placed at great risk for a host of degenerative, age-related diseases. This is because cells that are attacked by self-generated inflammation will not function properly (meaning that we did something to precipitate a pro-inflammatory response in our cells, thus causing malfunction and sometimes complete breakdown).

In other words, cells respond to the way we treat them. If we keep them healthy and free of injury, if we give them the proper nourishment, they keep us alive and running at top form. If we don't, if we expose them to too much sun, to environmental toxins, to extended periods of stress, or to high-glycemic sugars and starches, the cells will react by producing inflammatory chemicals as a deviation of the normal defense mechanism. And if we mistreat our cells in this way on a regular basis, we can end up with organ system failure, and diseases like the ones listed, including metabolic syndrome, that can lead to diabetes and obesity.

This hidden inflammation is a novel and previously unrecognized "missing link" in our obesity epidemic. The goal of the Perricone Weight-Loss Diet is to show you how to decrease this inflammation and prevent future inflammatory responses, thereby eliminating the problem of unwanted weight gain and its serious threat to your overall health, self-esteem, and well-being.

The Road to Discovery

As a dermatologist, I have had the unique opportunity to actually see the very negative effects of this subclinical inflammation on my patients because, unlike the heart or the liver, the skin is a visible organ. The skin is also an excellent barometer or measurement of our internal health and clearly reflects what is going on inside. This can be something as subtle as a change in ruddiness, or an increased pallor-in fact, physicians can look at the skin and make a diagnosis of internal diseases very accurately.

Many of us think of the skin as simply a cosmetic cover for our body. We pretty much ignore it unless or until something goes wrong, such as a breakout of acne right before a big date.

Copyright © 2005 by Nicholas Perricone, M.D.. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

Dr. Perricone has a private practice in Connecticut. He is the author of numerous scientific papers that report his research on aging skin. He has his own line of acclaimed skin care products, NV Perricone Cosmeceuticals, which are available at Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sephora.