CHAI CHAMPAGNE 

ALCOHOL FACTS

When people go on a diet, they often choose the “light” version of their favorite alcoholic beverages in order to save a few calories. However, that is only a small piece of the puzzle. Fat metabolism is reduced by as much as 73% after only two alcoholic beverages. This scary fact shows that the primary effect of alcohol on the body is not so much how many calories we consume, but how it stops the body’s ability to use your fat stores for energy.

Muscle Tip: Drinking alcohol is the most efficient way to slash your testosterone levels; women…we don’t want this to happen either. Just a single event of serious drinking raises levels of the muscle-wasting stress hormone called cortisol and decreases the levels of testosterone for up to 24 hours. If you are working out to build strong fat-burning muscles yet consuming alcohol, this actually breaks down muscle further and you end up with a slower metabolism. This is because you break down muscle as you lift weights and you repair them as you rest if you have proper hormone levels…if not, you never repair your muscles properly!

Alcohol in the body is converted into a substance called acetate. Unlike a car that uses one supply of fuel, the body is able to draw from carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy. When your blood acetate levels increase, your body uses acetate instead of fat. To make matters worse, the more you drink the more you tend to eat; and unfortunately, drinking will make your liver work to convert the alcohol into acetate, which means that the foods you consume at this time will be converted into extra fat on your body.If that didn’t sound bad enough; alcohol stimulates appetite and decrease your testosterone levels for up to 24 hours and increases estrogen by 300%. The infamous “beer belly” is really just an “estrogen belly.” Biochemically, the higher your level of estrogen is, the more readily you absorb alcohol, but the slower you break it down.

Also, we all know that alcohol dehydrates us. In order for fat to be metabolized, it must first be released from the fat cell and then be transported by the bloodstream where it is pushed to the liver to be used as fuel. If you are dehydrated, the liver has to come to the aid of the kidneys and can’t focus on its role of releasing fat.
Alcohol affects every organ of the body, it’s most dramatic impact is upon the liver. The liver cells normally prefer fatty acids as fuel, and package excess fatty acids as triglycerides, which they then route to other tissues of the body. However, when alcohol is present, the liver cells are forced to first metabolize the alcohol, letting the fatty acids accumulate in huge amounts. Alcohol metabolism permanently changes liver cell structure, which impairs the liver’s ability to metabolize fats, which causes fatty liver disease.

To read more, check out my book:

Keto.
The Complete Guide to Success on The Ketogenic Diet, including Simplified Science and No-cook Meal Plans

This book is really amazing and a complete guide to everything you need to heal and reach your weight loss goals. It breaks down all the latest science and information into very easy to digest pieces. It breaks through the keto myths and keeps you from going down the wrong path. Some of the topics discussed are:

1. How manipulation by the sugar industry resulted in decades of fearing fat.
2. How to look for root causes of disease instead of putting bandaids on symptoms (prescriptions).
3. What tests are good markers for health and longevity.
4. How our bodies really work including oxidative priority, fat flux, lipolysis and the reasons for metabolic disfunction.
5. What is a well formulated ketogenic diet and how to figure out your own optimal macro ranges based on your body and your goals.
6. All about our hormones and how they affect our bodies, moods and more.
7. How to modify keto or add to it for healing from specific diseases and chronic illness.
   • Including thyroid, Crohn’s, blood pressure, gout, acid reflux, IBS, gallbladder, gastric bypass, acne and eczema, depression and anxiety, fertility, Alzheimer’s, menopause, bone health, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes (1 and 2) and much more!
8. Dispelling common myths and mistakes in a ketogenic diet.
9. What are the most nutrient dense foods and why nutrient density matters.
10. Fasting, both intermittent and long term and how to do it properly.
11. Exercise and Keto Athletes.
12. Complete pantry list and TWO 7 day no cook meal plans (one is dairy and nut free!).
13. Additional tips and methods for healing at a cellular level.

I find if very interesting that 25% of the alcoholic patients in a particular treatment center in MN have gone through weight loss surgery.

Alcohol and sugar addiction go hand in hand. I have a heavy heart for those with food addictions because, unlike alcohol, food is unavoidable. We need it for survival. Many people claim that you can’t be addicted to sugar, but research has proven that when people binge on carbs (i.e. sugar molecules hooked together in a long chain) and then restrict, the body creates an endogenous opioid. It is released in the body much like the chemicals released when people are doing other drugs. PET and CAT scans of food addicts look just about  identical to that of drug addicts and alcoholics. What I find really interesting is that “carb-addicts” carry the same D2 dopamine receptor (a gene that identifies addiction); which proves that biochemically, food addiction is just like addiction to other narcotics. A lot of my clients who are in Overeaters Anonymous tell me that they started consuming carbs and sugar just as if it were alcohol. Click HERE for reference. 

The problem is that we see alcoholics as having a problem, but desiring carbs and sugar is seen as “normal” and is just a part of the typical American diet. This reminds me of one of my clients who lived in England for 10 years. Her boss came to her and had an intervention with her, claiming that she had a food addiction and the company paid for her to go to treatment. She told me how in England, they saw her problem and how it effected her work, but now that she is in the U.S., she is seen as normal.

I want you to know that there are ways to help your brain chemistry! You do NOT have to suffer from a food addiction or alcohol addiction. Alcohol turns into sugar so alcoholics are naturally drawn to sugar once they quite alcohol. Sugar (and alcohol) blocks serotonin receptors. Leading to more cravings for carbs and alcohol. Do you know where serotonin comes from? Not the brain…it is the intestinal tract. So how can we fix these terrible life-consuming cravings for sugar/alcohol?

I first recommend something called Bifido bacteria. This is a probiotic that you can find in food sources such as kim chi and other naturally fermented veggies. But since we don’t eat enough of these foods, I suggest a supplement to increase serotonin. Click HERE to find the one I take daily (my kids also take THIS one). 70% of our immune system is in our gut. This is the best thing for anyone who is depressed or dealing with cravings should take.

Chai Bubbly

Maria Emmerich

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Servings 4

Calories

Ingredients

  

0.25x0.5x1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 chai tea bags I used decaf
• ▢ 1/4 cup Natural Sweetener or stevia glycerite to taste
• ▢ 2 cup SodaStream fizzy water OR LaCroix mineral water coconut flavor
• ▢ 1/2 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk
• ▢ Garnishes:
• ▢ nutmeg
• ▢ lemon twists
• ▢ coconut cream/organic cream whipped (sweetened with a touch of Swerve confectioners or stevia glycerite and a vanilla bean)

Instructions

 

• Combine 2 chai tea bags and 1/2 cup boiling water in a small bowl.
• Steep tea bags in the water for 10 minutes.
• Remove tea bags. Squeeze tea bags into the water to get extra flavor out.
• Add natural sweetener and fizzy water to the hot water, then stir in the unsweetened almond/coconut milk.
• Garnish with sweetened coconut cream (or organic whipped cream), nutmeg, and/or lemon twists.
• Serve chilled.

Notes

Traditional Chai Bubbly = 120 calories, 0g fat, 0g protein, 24g carbs, 0g fiber
"Healthified" Chai Bubbly = 15 calories, 0g fat, 0g protein, 0g carbs

Testimony of the Day

Phone Consult Photo Testimony! “Dear Maria, It has been a miraculous month full of wonders and discoveries since I started with our phone consult! Here is the list of what me, my husband and – believe it or not, lol! – 3 our cats achieved during this month:

1. Bowel improvement – regularity, pain, itching, blood, bloating, free. One of my cats used to get terrible constipations that would require physical assistance and medications and result in bleeding and other things which are completely gone now.

2. Candida clear – no more white tongue, runny/stuffed nose or itchy “downstairs”

3. Weight-loss (including our 3 cats who for some reasons now started preferring our food – coconut cream as well btw! – to the high-carb cat food thing which they used to go crazy about because of the valerian root ingredient that has no more dramatic effect on them anymore). One of my clients I started working with recently told me yesterday, “I want to have a body like yours – looks so athletic, muscly, healthy!” And the last pair of jeans I got was size 0! Don’t worry, though, about me being too lean – I’m really short, 5 feet even))

4. No more teeth sensitivity

5. Skin improvement – hyper-pigmentation after oral contraceptives (which btw I’ve had from 2008 and couldn’t remove even with chemical peeling procedure – terrible thing, really! they would give me acid burn every 2 weeks from October till the middle of December! – or liver cleansing pills) is almost gone! Considerable acne and blackhead reduction – I still get some acne right before my period), no more excess grease. Noticeable skin turgor – it’s not as loose as it used to be, even my parents mentioned that!

6. Body temperature and blood pressure normalization – I used to be always cold, my normal body temperature was lower than normal people are supposed to have (35.1 instead of 36.6 C), same with blood pressure – 80/50 or even 80/- on a bad day sometimes which made me pale, dizzy, inactive, lazy…. Now I’m always hot, my lips are red and even my cheeks pretty often get rosy!

7. Joint pain and cracking free – my husband’s joints have been a trouble for years and mine started killing me after the last surgery and antibiotics.

8. Muscle pain free – in fact, much more flexible and responsive than ever!

9. Energy level is just fantastic! To be honest, I only felt this way on Prozac – happy and too energized. But it’s much better, because I’m not on meds, because there is no side effects like insomnia, hand shaking and stomach issues. I sometimes get so much energy, I’m actually scared of myself, lol! My husband calls me Turbo-broom 😀 I wake up and fall asleep easily and get those precious 8 hours! I feel fantastic both physically and emotionally! I can say the same thing about my cats who become much more playful and energetic lately! My husband just offered to go on the last bike ride this year – and it’s only 39 degrees F today!

10. Clear mind – my mind has been foggy for years now, my memory was terrible and not only would I forget events or people from some years ago but even some simple words, like everyday things, used to have troubles with grammar while speaking – it feels completely different now! Memory is sharp, attention is focused, even the abilities to taste and smell things increased, and all the other things one needs to feel great!

11. Great economy! First at got expensive – meat/fish/seafood is more expensive than grains, fruit and veggies. But now that the consumption of food has reduced drastically – I only need coffee with coconut cream and oil in the morning and one (rarely two) meal/s a day. The meal size is smaller too – don’t need that much anymore. Same with cats! And I don’t need that huge cup of coffee, just a small cup, about 4-5 sips.

11. My cooking skills improved, even though I’ve always loved cooking but it’s gotten to a brand new level with your helpful tips, advice and detailed instructions! All the things I cooked according to your recipes we just loved!

Thank you for teaching me this way – a real godsend way for me and all my family! And you’ve made it so easy and understandable! You are making difference in a great way! God bless you and your wonderful family!

Meanwhile, have a Happy Thanksgiving and take those huge thanks from our family!” Irena

To start on your path to health and healing, click HERE.

Testimony of the Day about Autism and Hair Loss

“My 9 yr old daughter with Down Syndrome is pretty high functioning and has minimal health issues but does have hypothyroidism since birth. She lost all her hair suddenly at age 5. We went through tests, celiac was negative, deficiencies negative, thyroid stable. At the same time, my third child was just born and my 3 yr old son was diagnosed with autism. I had gone back and forth trying the gluten free for my son, as well as casein free. But still seemed like I was going off anecdotal symptoms and no doctor on this end was going to tell me his issues were stemming from diet.

Meanwhile, the dermatologist wanted us to do a rogaine/steroid concoction on our daughter to grow her hair back. we just couldn’t do it. But after that, I started keeping the gluten minimal to none for all kids. Well her hair started growing back within 2 months of total hair-loss with no drugs. She still had some bald patches but has a cover of hair again. Some new loss had started a year ago, and she was still getting some snack that had gluten…but then I stopped that and noticed her hair loss stop. Still not making the connection until I read your book a few months ago! Now I truly believe it’s a gluten intolerance and/or diet-related. Oh and I forgot to mention the psoriasis patch she was diagnosed with (which no creams worked for) and a recurring rash on her buttocks for 2 yrs…gone after going gluten free. – Karen”

DAIRY FREE WHIP CREAM

If you are trying to go dairy free, but still want a little “whipped cream” on your drink or keto-pie this holiday season, try my trick: Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight. Gently remove from the fridge and open the can (cream will be on the top and coconut milk will be on the bottom). Scoop out only the cream and place into a medium sized bowl (leave the water in the bottom). Scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean into the coconut cream and sweeten to taste with a little Swerve Confectioners or stevia glycerite. Enjoy!