Reboot Your Body with Dr. Mark Hyman’s New Book

A mere ten days of paying attention to what and how you eat can help set you on the path to better eating and better health, according to Dr. Mark Hyman’s latest book, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet (Little, Brown and Company, 2014). 

Mark Hyman, MD, a seven-time New York Times best-selling author, family physician, and frequent contributor to Organic Connections, describes in The 10-Day Detox Diet how certain foods contribute to excess weight, food addiction, inflammation and blood sugar spikes. His antidote, described in detail in the book, is the elimination of these foods, behavior modification, and the addition of key nutrients, like magnesium.

The 10-Day Detox Diet

The 10-Day Detox Diet comes on the heels of Dr. Hyman’s previous book, The Blood Sugar Solution, a six-week plan for preventing, treating and even reversing diabetes and pre-diabetes. The detox is designed to put readers through a fast “reboot” of their systems, which sets them on the path to more stable health and weight management.

Dr. Hyman sees the fast-track plan as having considerable value. “Most people don’t connect the dots between what they’re eating and how they feel,” he said. “Most of us don’t realize how bad we feel until we start feeling good. The best way to achieve that is to do a quick-start reboot. What you’ll notice is that not only will your cravings reduce, not only will your energy improve, and not only will you lose weight—which is actually a side effect of getting healthy—but a whole list of health problems may improve or disappear entirely.”

One might wonder why people can’t simply change eating habits—why a detox? The answer is rather insidious. “Food addiction is a real, scientifically proven phenomenon,” Hyman pointed out. “Brain imaging studies show that Oreo cookies cause the brain to light up the addiction center more than cocaine. In actual fact, sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine. Addicts require a scientifically designed detoxification program because it is necessary to minimize withdrawal and rebalance the hormones and neurotransmitters that drive addiction.

“These addictions are driving today’s epidemic of obesity. The food industry has hijacked our kitchens, our taste buds, our brain chemistry and our metabolism, and the 10-Day Detox Diet is a simple plan to take them back. Once we have our biochemistry back, our cravings disappear and we lose weight automatically by eating real food.”

How It Works

“The 10-Day Detox Diet eliminates foods that contribute to inflammation and to blood sugar and insulin spikes,” Hyman explained. “It is a very low-glycemic diet using good quality protein—fish, chicken, grass-fed animal protein, nuts, seeds and even things like non-GMO whole soy foods, such as tofu or tempeh—and lots of fruits and vegetables.” Foods that are not allowed on the Detox Diet are sugar, grains and dairy.

The book is packed with tools, including meal plans, recipes and shopping lists, as well as step-by-step, easy-to-follow advice on green living, supplements, medication, exercise and more.

“It’s also important, if you want to change your behavior, to notice it; so we have tools to help people track results at our website. We’ve created an online community too, where you can join with others doing the 10-Day Detox Diet and support each other. You can get further support from my nutritionists, who will coach you through the whole program,” Hyman said.

Value of Magnesium

It turns out that magnesium—an essential mineral often seriously lacking in today’s diets—plays a key part in controlling blood sugar levels.

“Magnesium plays an important role in modulating the hormones that maintain normal blood sugar balance,” Hyman continued. “Studies have shown that there is an inverse relationship between magnesium intake and risk of diabetes. Simply put, when you eat more magnesium—rich whole foods, like pumpkin seeds and spinach, removing the junk food robbing your body of magnesium—and take a smart supplement that combines magnesium and a couple other nutrients that control blood glucose levels, you will lower fasting insulin levels* and better control blood glucose. Controlled glucose levels prevent diabetes.”

New Research

According to Dr. Hyman, recently published research has made the 10-Day Detox Diet possible. “Over the last few years, abundant research on the nature of food addiction has emerged. A new textbook was published called Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook, which documented in great detail the biology of food addiction. And the deep investigative journalism of Michael Moss in his book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us profoundly exposed the intention of a food industry that used ‘craving experts’ to find the ‘bliss point’ of food to create ‘heavy users’ and gain more ‘stomach share’ (all terms used by food industry insiders).”

The Bottom Line

The 10-Day Detox Diet will inspire readers to put down the junk food and give the prescribed reboot a try. Depending on your current eating habits, it can be time consuming, expensive and a radical change from what you are used to eating. But if you can manage ten days without sugar, you will be surprised at how cravings for it are diminished. Considering that health is one’s primary consideration for energy, happiness and longevity, this book is certainly worth the read.

*fasting insulin level: insulin level measured before eating, such as in the morning.

Buy Dr. Mark Hyman’s book The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet at the Organic Connections bookstore.

For more information on Dr. Hyman and his work, please visit his website at www.drhyman.com.