The Virgin Diet

Last month I started a diet recommended to me by my chiropractor. He learned about it from a PBS program. The creator of the diet is J. J. Virgin. She recommends eliminating seven foods from your diet for three weeks. She believes that these seven foods cause inflammation in many people, even though they are thought to be healthy. The seven foods are eggs; soy; corn; peanuts; sugar and sugar additives; dairy; and gluten.

Virgin recommends this diet for people with autoimmune diseases, joint pain, fatigue, and people who have been struggling to lose the same 10 or 20 pounds for many years. Virgin explains in her book and on her website that as you age, foods that you may be sensitive to leak out into your gut and cause inflammation. She has done blood tests on her clients and they the seven foods above all came back positive for increased IGGA (allergen) levels.

I did lose three pounds although I was not using the diet to lose weight. I have been struggling with a severely bloated stomach for nine months and within four days the bloated belly was gone. I was also having some pain in my right forearm and my right hand was swollen. The forearm pain and swelling in my hand influenced my chiropractor to recommend this diet to me.

After 21 days, you add back four of the most commonly offensive foods on the list, one at a time, for one week each.

Thankfully, I was able to crush my dark chocolate fetish while on the elimination portion of this diet. That's a GOOD thing! I don't even crave it any longer.

I am confident that I am sensitive to eggs and I'm not adding them back. I have been eating four to six egg whites a day for the past three years. I noticed when I had no egg whiles in August when I was hospitalized that my bloated belly went back to flat. The same thing happened after four days on The Virgin Diet. I think I may also be sensitive to cheese. I had pizza a couple of times and the pain returned.

I'm not one to go on fad diets but I really love this diet. I am eating gluten free oatmeal right now. When I finish the bags I will go back to steel oats and then regular oatmeal just to see how I do with it.

I have two other friends who have followed Virgin's Diet and they've lost weight. One of my friends looks years younger.