INTERVIEW: Dr. Gioffre on How to Eliminate Acids and Reshape Your Life
Dr. Gioffre recently sat down with Glitter and gave us some insight on how kicking sugar completely, in addition to eliminating acids, can help reshape your life, and help you lead a more fulfilling and happy life.
How does sugar and acid correlate exactly? Well, sugar turns into acid, and acid causes inflammation, which is uncomfortable for most people. The good news is kicking these habits are not as hard as one might think. Dr. Gioffre’s new book, Get Off Your Acid, is the perfect nighttime read to help change this unhealthy habit.
GLITTER: How long have you been practicing medicine? Was it always something you wanted to do?
GIOFFRE: I am a wellness consultant and a board-certified chiropractor in the state of NY for the past 18 years. I always had a passion for helping people growing up, but never really thought that it would turn into my professional career (my mom still laughs to this day that I teach about an alkaline plant-base diet when I DETESTED vegetables as a kid).
I played soccer at Boston College and for the under 20 Men’s National Team, and I had a severe injury and after seeing 6 different specialists, I was told I would not play competitively again. It was at that time that my dad suggested a chiropractor, as that had always helped him in the past with injuries, colds, etc. I went, and a couple of adjustments later, I was back playing. What amazed me was that this doctor looked outside of the box and found the TRUE CAUSE to why I was injured, where every other doctor was giving me pain pills and anti-inflammatory’s which at its best, minimally masked the pain. As I learned more, I discovered that being healthy was about balance, and to achieve that balance, you had to address the TOXICITIES and DEFICIENCIES in your diet. That is how I overcame my life-long addiction to sugar and lost 42 pounds in a few months.
GLITTER: Do you think kicking sugar completely can help people health wise?
GIOFFRE: Absolutely. Sugar one of the most acidic foods you can put into your body and directly triggers inflammation. But when you get down to the reason WHY people crave sugar – it’s because they are deficient in minerals, especially magnesium. Kicking sugar doesn’t need to be about deprivation, because that approach RARELY (and perhaps, never) works. It never worked for me. As I added minerals into my diet, in the form of alkaline green juices and smoothies, within a couple of weeks, my sugar cravings disappeared. As a result of getting the minerals that my body needed, inflammation reduced, my energy increased, and I lost 42 pounds over the course of a few months.
Sugar = Acid, and Acid = Inflammation. When you eat sugar, whether processed sugar or grains, your body releases its fat storing hormone, insulin. I call insulin the traffic cop to all your other hormones, because once that releases, your body burns sugar for fuel, which is bad. Because as it burns sugar, what do you think you crave? Sugar! It becomes a viscous cycle of acid and inflammation. The key to crushing your cravings is to increase the minerals and healthy fats in your diet, and when you do, not only will the sugar cravings dissipate, but you will gain energy, and melt any excess fat off your body.
GLITTER: What can you tell us about your new book, “Get Off Your Acid”?
GIOFFRE: It’s all about the four-letter word that is secretly destroying your health – ACID. Most people have an acidic lifestyle – consuming foods such as sugar, grains, dairy, artificial sweeteners, too much meat, processed foods – along with a lack of exercise and proper hydration, and stress…cause inflammation. And inflammation is the culprit behind most of our current ailments, from low energy, weight gain, bad skin, poor sleep, to chronic disease.
My book gives you all the tools you need to rid your diet of highly acidic foods, alkalize your body, and balance your pH. There is a 7-step plan that is powerful yet easy to implement, that is based on adding and not taking away. Deprivation NEVER works and is not sustainable. Plus, 65 of my most delicious alkaline recipes that taste so good you’ll feel like you’re cheating.
GLITTER: Does inflammation make you fat?
GIOFFRE: YES. The problem is that chronic inflammation impairs the brain’s ability to receive leptin’s appetite suppressing message, which is the main driver of fat gain in humans. Acid foods such as fructose create massive inflammation in the body and cause leptin resistance, which many researchers say is the key hormone linked to obesity. Leptin is the “satiety hormone” made by your adipose (fat) cells that helps you regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger.
Here is how it works: the more acidic foods you eat, the more inflamed you get, the more fat you accumulate, the more those cells tell your body to produce leptin. The more leptin you produce, the more your body tells you you’re full and the less food you eat. Likewise, the less fat you have, the more leptin is inhibited, and hunger feelings kick in. It is an important survival mechanism. Inflammation causes our master weight control hormone, leptin, to be less effective, thus causing weight gain.
GLITTER: Is it true that eliminating acid intake will help you lose weight? Are there any steps people can follow, or any rule of thumb that will help people remember what not to eat?
GIOFFRE: As far as foods go, you need to INCREASE your foods high in minerals (dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, chard, watercress) and healthy fats (avocados and oils such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, black cumin seed oil, etc). At the same time, you need to keep your NET CARBS down (total carbs minus fiber – for example, banana has a net carb of 24). If you keep your net carbs below 50 grams per day, you will be in accelerated fat burning mode. If you keep your net carbs between 50-100 grams, you will lose 1-2 pounds per week, which I call the ‘sweet spot’ for weight loss. 100-150 grams is maintenance, and anything above 150 grams per day is creating inflammation, weight gain, and moving towards chronic disease.
Here are some additional steps in the book from my TOP 7 WAYS TO GET OFF YOUR ACID starting on page 135.
Yes, because being overweight is an ACID problem. When your body has too much acid, it uses fat to buffer or neutralize the acids, then parks them in the tissues for safe keeping, until your body has enough energy to eliminate them out. In the short run, fat is saving your life from the damaging effects of an acidic lifestyle. In the long run, it’s making you more toxic and acidic and overweight.
First and foremost, we need to start breathing. People don’t realize that 70% of the total acid load in the body is eliminated by your breath, yet most people are chronically stressed, and go into fight, and flight, and stop breathing. Start doing the 3:6:5 power breathe (breathe in for 3 seconds through nose, hold for 6, then exhale out mouth for 5) in the book once daily.
In addition, we need to drink more water, but not just any water, alkaline water high in minerals. 90% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, and that is making us retain water and weight. Drink 3-4 liters every day, and add some Alkamind Daily Greens or Daily Minerals to make it more alkaline.
Jump on a rebounder every day – hands down my favorite form of exercise. NASA did a study comparing rebounding to running, and showed that the rebounder is 68% more effective than running at cardiovascular health and losing weight.
Daily Detox with some lemon water that is highly alkaline forming, or do my fat flusher shot, which is 1 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil and the fresh juice of ½ lemon, or a chia shot to get rid of constipation that is making you fatter – 2 tbsp. of chia in 6 oz of water. Let it sit 10 minutes then drink. The chia expands up to 27X its size, then goes through your intestines like an internal shower, getting rid of all the C.R.A.P. (Completely Refined And Processed foods)
GLITTER: How is acid destroying most people’s lives? Can it cause life threatening diseases?
GIOFFRE: Acid is making peoples body’s and brain become inflamed, and that leads us to chronic disease. There are 5 essential stages of acidosis that people go through, with the end product of neglect for too long, chronic disease. The first two stages of acidosis—energy loss and food sensitivities—are easy to miss. Who hasn’t felt one of those things and dismissed it as an off day? Those are common side effects, yet often overlooked, so if you have low energy, it may be the first warning sign there is too much acid in your system. The same is true of food sensitivities. So many people experience these symptoms but don’t realize it’s because they’ve indulged in heavily acidic foods. But of the acid and toxins keep building up, this turns into inflammation, then ulceration and sclerosis, then the last stage of acidosis – chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, etc.
GLITTER: Will people have more energy by limiting their acid intake?
GIOFFRE: Certainly. Alkaline foods have phytonutrients, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes which require must less energy to digest and assimilate in your body than acidic foods (i.e steak). When you are pumping your body with acidic foods at every meal, the those foods create. deal with the acidic chemicals. body has to work so much harder to break down those foods and the acidic byproducts those foods create.
For example, eating sugar will produce lactic acid. Perhaps the worst sugar of them all, fructose, will create uric acid (which contributes to gout and kidney issues, even type 2 diabetes). Consuming grains, specifically wheat, will produce sulfuric acid. Teas and coffee are high in tannic acid. Unhealthy fats will produce acetic acid and lactic acid. Colas are high in phosphoric acid, and carbonated water—a beverage I label as one of the most surprising acidic suspects—will create carbonic acid. Eating steak produces sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and nitric acid—dangerous acids that must be immediately excreted by your kidneys.
GLITTER: By limiting acid intake, will people lose weight?
GIOFFRE: When you alkalize your body, your body will naturally begin to detoxify itself, and the fat that is attached to the toxins, will literally be escorted out of the body, and you will notice the fat melting away as a result. I am coaching a large group through our 7-Day Alkaline Cleanse right now, and as Kelly Ripa said on her show, this cleanse is SO manageable – you eat more on this detox than you do in real life! Our leader has lost 7 pounds in only THREE days! How cool is that! So when you GET OFF YOUR ACID, you lose weight, feel energized and great, and still eat delicious alkaline foods that taste so good you’ll feel like you’re cheating!
GLITTER: What is Kelly Ripa’s favorite smoothie from this program?
GIOFFRE: ‘Bloody Mary’ Smoothie.
INGREDIENTS [Serves 2]
4 small tomatoes (Roma works well)
1 celery stalk
½ cucumber
1 lemon, fresh juiced
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ tsp. sea salt (Celtic Grey or Himalayan)
½ tsp. pepper
DIRECTIONS
Put all ingredients into a blender and mix well. Pour into a glass with ice, and enjoy your alkaline mocktail!
GLITTER: What pushes and motivates you on a daily basis?
GIOFFRE: This is my WHY. The book is dedicated to my father and all the brave souls battling cancer. That is what pushes me. The afterword is very emotional for me, because it was about the day my father died of cancer, and subsequently, the book finished that week. And I held his hand as he died, and my last words to him Then I made a vow to him. The last thing I told him was that I would make it my life’s mission to do whatever I can with the information I’ve learned to prevent as many people as possible from suffering as he did—no matter what it takes. That doesn’t push me, but rather pulls me. When I see an obese child, or a child with cancer or ADD, that pulls me. There is too much sick and suffering in our world, and I am not ok with that.
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