Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/85232
034: pinklifestyle I AM A BOOK WORM... I could disappear from the world for days and read. At the moment I am reading… The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine family (broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower) is great for casseroles, soups, stews and juices. Add them wherever you can to up your intake because these delicious foods contain what our liver needs to detoxify. What is detoxification? There is a lot of misinformation out there about what detoxification actually is. Detoxification is a process that occurs within all of us every day thanks in part to the liver. The lifestyle choices we make determine how efficiently our liver worrying about what they can't eat and what they can't do, cutting themselves off from living in a world of abundance. Therefore I ask people to change their focus because 'what you focus on, is how you feel'. I can tell you what every item of a food is worth from a calorie perspective, but this does not enter my mind when I eat. I've trained my mindset to reflect 'will this nourish me?' If something is going to nourish my mind, body and soul, then I don't hesitate… no matter what it might be. When I catch up with girlfriends I may eat something that does not tick all the nutritional boxes, but I don't give it two thoughts because it's all about nourishing my soul by connecting with people and we just happen to be doing that over food. It's a freedom when we can move away from worrying about calories and grams of fat and carbohydrates and shift our thinking towards the nourishment of vitamins and minerals because that's what keeps us alive. The focus then becomes about health, not size or the way our clothes fit. My passion is freeing people from that limitation and helping them to share their gifts with the world. What should I eat to lose weight? The World Cancer Health Research Fund is the most respected cancer medicine research body in the western world. Their position on red meat consumption is that to reduce risk of developing numerous cancers, as well as breast cancer, it is a must to keep red meat consumption to less than 300gms per week. Most people in this country eat that per day. A plant based diet is not only beneficial for general well-being, health, energy and vitality; it also helps in reducing cancer and in particular breast cancer. That doesn't mean excluding all other foods but the focus definitely needs to be on fruits and vegetables. A high plant diet, especially rich in vegetables from the brassica is able to do its job. Alcohol, caffeine, sugar, trans-fats and synthetic substances including medications, pesticides and skin care are things I like to call 'liver loaders'. It's crazy to think that chemicals are not absorbed through our skin into our blood supply, considering the way nicotine patches work. That's why it is so important to understand the importance of organic, healthy skincare. Our livers have to change these substances into less harmful forms so the body can then excrete them. There are two stages to the natural detoxification process, which are simply called phase one and phase two. It's not just the things that we choose to consume that the liver has to detoxify; there are also the substances that our body makes itself such as cholesterol and oestrogen. What role does oestrogen play in my weight gain/lose? Oestrogen is perpetually being made in a woman's body and once it has reached its shelf-life, it has to be detoxified or changed before it can be excreted. One of the biggest challenges women face is that in phase two liver detoxification, pathway deposits over time can get banked up like traffic on a motorway. Where once the oestrogen flowed through the liver and was detoxified very quickly, road blocks mean it can't be changed any further. It also cannot stay in the liver because there's more rubbish constantly coming in, and it is this product that has been so highly linked to cancer including breast cancer. Over 90 percent of women have oestrogen dominance. This means they have made a lot of oestrogen in their lives, may have had problematic periods, heavy clotting periods, swollen tender breasts during menstrual years… and that excess of oestrogen also puts a strain on the liver. Other influences on liver function that can affect its ability to detoxify may include viruses, hepatitis or glandular fever. The two major points I want to make are - the power of plant based diets and how crucial having a healthy liver is to reduce our reproductive cancers, especially breast cancer. ABOUT DR LIBBY Dr Libby Weaver (nee Ellis) (Ph.D) is one of Australasia's leading nutrition specialists and weight loss experts based in Auckland. The girl from the New South Wales country town of Tamworth came to New Zealand in 2007 after meeting and marrying a 'delicious' kiwi man. Libby's passion for empowering people to make optimum health choices has led her to consult privately with individuals, in the corporate health arena, as well as with universities and the media. The 38-year- old's 'children' are her highly successful books Accidently Overweight, Rushing Woman's Syndrome and her recent cookbook, The Real Food Chef. The recipes in this story are extracts from Libby Weaver's The Real Food Chef, $49.95. All of Libby's books can be purchased from www.drlibby.com