Inflammation Cure

HEAL FROM WITHIN: Erase painful symptoms and shrink your waistline 650% faster by cutting out dairy. Ivy league-trained Joel Fuhrman, M.D., says you can drop 15 pounds in a month! Here's how

- LISA MAXBAUER

RESULTS

OVERWEIGHT WOMEN LOST 19 POUNDS IN 8 WEEKS ON A LOW-DAIRY, LOW-STARCH DIET -Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy

There's a reason cheese and other delicious dairy foods have been called addictive. "When we're babies and we get milk from our mom, there's a chemical trigger that gets released in the brain for safety and comfort," explains Bailey Ruskus, known as Chef Bai, a holistic nutrition coach trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. "And when we drink a creamy, milky latte as an adult, we get that same feeling." No wonder so many of us turn to dependable dairy foods (hello, ice cream!) in times of stress. But those same comfort foods may be stressing our bodies, triggering inflammation, pain, disease and weight gain.

Chef Bai knew it all too well.

She suffered from severe endometriosis, an inflammatory disease, for 16 years-often ending up in the emergency room or needing painkillers to make it through the day. As a chef classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu, she didn't realize that her dairy-heavy diet was contributing to her illness. She says, "I call it the downfall after the cheese high." If you can relate-experiencing weight gain and feeling sore, achy and inflamed-a dairy detox may be helpful. There are valid healthrelated reasons to consider cutting back on dairy consumption. In fact, growing evidence points to the slimming, total-body benefits of reducing dairy and replacing it with plant-based foods.

For starters, milk is known to inflame and aggravate the sensitive lining of the gut and bowel. Indeed, 68% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. One study finds that when participants avoid foods that drive gut irritation-especially gluten, dairy and added sugarthey reduce inflammation and shrink their waist 650% faster than people not avoiding these foods.