How juicing saved his life

Joe Cross, a financially successful Australian in his early 40s, was burdened with a serious health problem: he was overweight by 100 pounds, and for nine years had been taking medication for an autoimmune disease.

Tired of swallowing pills and worried that he’d soon end up dead, most probably from a heart attack, Joe challenged himself to lose weight the natural way—by drinking a juice recipe of vegetables and fruits for 60 days and documented it on film.

The result, as captured in the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” is so inspiring that viewers are likely to follow Joe’s lead. First released in 2010, the film won the Best Documentary Feature in the Iowa Independent Film Festival, the Turning Point Award and the Audience Choice Award in the Sonoma International Film Festival, all in the same year.

Although it got mixed reviews—the negative ones saying it’s simply self-promotion—the main message of Joe’s film is not just about juice diets, but maintaining a balanced lifestyle to achieve good health.

Joe is in Manila to help promote “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” which will be shown starting today in several Metro Manila theaters. Recently, he granted Inquirer Lifestyle an exclusive e-mail interview.

In the film, you said you used to eat two whole pizzas. What other foods did you indulge in before you decided enough was enough?

From the time I was a boy, I had a serious sweet tooth and would eat more than my fill of lollies, breakfast cereal and baked treats, and wash it all down with Coca-Cola. But I also loved fast-food hamburgers and fries, and basically anything fried. What I never indulged in were fruits and vegetables—and happily, now I can’t get enough of them.

Your parents also said that you ate a lot even as a child, but you started gaining weight only when you were working in the stock market. How do you explain that?

Principally, I was on my own as an adult, and even though I had always been prone to overeating, I no longer had any mechanism to regulate what I ate—so the brakes were really off the car at that point!

Second, I didn’t have the institutionalized, organized exercise that you get as an active kid who plays rugby or footie at school—and the absence of exercise didn’t help.

Third, I was under lots of pressure in a high-stakes job, and I probably turned to food as support. And finally, like everyone, my metabolism started to slow down after my teenage years.

You used to get into a fruit and veggie diet but eventually went back to your old ways. Was it because your willpower to lose weight was not strong enough?

I think it was because I didn’t realize how high the stakes were. When I turned 40 and looked in the mirror, I really understood that I had spent decades making choices that were going to end my life prematurely. And that scared the dickens  out of me—let me tell you, fear is a powerful motivator!

How did you learn about the juice diet?

I had tried it before in a limited way, but I worked with several doctors to create the plan I followed. The premise was less about “juicing” and more about getting massive amounts of fruits and vegetables into my system as quickly as possible while cutting off the supply of processed food—and there’s no better way to do that than juicing, in my opinion!

Was there a detailed plan (daily menu, specific fruits and veggies) before you started doing it?

I created one with Dr. Joel Fuhrman, director of research of the US Nutritional Research Foundation. But after a few days and as I got more comfortable with juicing, I started to experiment and get creative.

Was doing a documentary on your 60-day juice diet the primary motivator for you to succeed?

The motivation for my success was literally to save my life. But I reckon having a camera crew around will keep you honest!

In your website, it is mentioned that it is not required of everyone to do a 60-day juice fast. Why did you go to the extreme?

I had an extreme problem—an excess 100 lbs, an autoimmune disease and daily doses of powerful and debilitating drugs—so I chose a pretty extreme solution. But I now “reboot” every few months or so for five to 15 days and that is enough to keep me on track, now that I have restored my baseline health.

In the film, it is noted that you started losing weight as early as the first or second week of your juice fast. What difficulties or challenges did you encounter as the days went on?

The first few days were tough, since my system was detoxing and my brain was grappling with letting go of so many habits and “crutches” that I relied on during times of stress. Since then, I’ve learned more about how to prepare for a period of juicing, and I provide people doing a reboot with lots of information—like weaning yourself off processed foods and animal products before you begin.

But truly, after the first five days, which were tough, everything became very effortless, and the results were so positive that I was motivated to continue.

You have gone back to a solid food diet and only do a juice fast every three months for 10-15 days. Does that mean you’re back to eating meat again?

Very sparingly—every few months, I might get a hankering for a bit of steak and if I do, I will eat it. What is great is that I no longer really want it. The cravings I was afraid of when I started this journey just simply aren’t there.

Would you recommend juice fasting even for children?

No, children have special dietary needs and require a very balanced diet to grow and be strong! However, I think that adding a fresh juice of vegetables and fruits to their diet is a great way to enhance their nutrient intake.

What’s the greatest thing you learned from your juice fast, aside from the insight that the body can heal itself?

The power of community and communication. The help and encouragement I received from friends and family was so crucial to my success, and I have been trying to pass that along to people around the world. I get hundreds of stories of personal triumphs every day and one of the key factors that people cite is that they had a friend, or family member, or were on our online community and received encouragement. I believe, with the right information and a healthy amount of support, incredible change is possible. I’m living proof!

“Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” will be screened today at Newport Cinema 3 of Resorts World Manila; tomorrow at Cinema 3, Gateway Mall; and May 31, Cinema 3, Shangri-La Plaza. All screenings are at 6:30 p.m. For free tickets, log on to breville.com.ph/joe-cross-in-manila

Everything in moderation

I USED TO be skinny, but gained weight in recent years due to an increased appetite, coupled with drinking alcohol regularly, especially after work assignments. I used to do brisk walking for exercise, but it got rare due to the long nights out (going to bed at 4 a.m. was the norm), which made waking up early an arduous task.

The sight of a bulging tummy bothered me, and the sharp, creeping pain in my chest that I occasionally felt gave me the creeps.

After watching a DVD copy of “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” I thought of trying the juice diet, which consists of three kinds of vegetables and two fruits to be put in a juicer and drunk the whole day, without any solid food.

With a blender, which used to mash my son’s food when he was a baby, I started taking only juice for meals last May 6. I would “cheat” once in a while with the soup of sinigang na bangus or a serving of pinakbet. But generally, it was just juice that I had for breakfast and which I also brought to the office in two one-liter jugs, kept in the ref and drunk for lunch and dinner or every time I felt hungry.

In the first few days, I lost 10 lbs, followed by another five pounds within a 12-day period. The most wondrous thing was that I never felt weak; on the contrary, my energy was at an all-time high during those 12 days, my mind very much alert to the demands of editing and writing stories late into the night.

Now I like what I see in the mirror: no more puffy face and no protruding tummy, either. My waistline shrunk by at least two inches, so I have to tighten my belt. Also, I got back to brisk walking and noticed that I don’t get tired at all.

It doesn’t mean, however, that I’m turning vegetarian. I had a few slices of beef steak a few days ago, and I’m looking forward to having a bite of the roast pork belly at Resorts World. I’m just following Joe Cross’ dictum, which is actually the universal maxim to living well: everything in moderation. Pocholo Concepcion

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Cranberry juice may beat kids' bladder infections

NEW YORK - Cranberry juice rich in certain antibacterial substances may help prevent repeat urinary tract infections in kids, a small study suggests.

Researchers found that cranberry juice made with high concentrations of proanthocyanidins (PACs) cut kids' risk of repeat urinary tract infections by two-thirds, versus a comparison juice.

Since the juice on your supermarket's shelves may not have that PAC level, the researchers say their findings are not an endorsement of any product.

But the results, published in the Journal of Urology, do give support to cranberry as a UTI fighter, according to a pediatric urologist not connected to the study.

PACs are the compounds thought to give cranberries their bacteria-fighting potential. Women have long turned to cranberry juice and supplements to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) - though studies have been mixed on whether they work.

There has been little research on kids, even though UTIs are relatively common in children. Girls have about an 8 percent chance of contracting the infection at some point in childhood; boys have a 2 percent chance.

Besides being uncomfortable, recurrent UTIs can eventually damage the kidneys in some children. So doctors may prescribe antibiotics to help prevent them.

But antibiotics can have side effects, and using them long-term can breed drug-resistant bacteria. So researchers are looking at whether cranberry products can be a good alternative.

For the new study, doctors at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, recruited 40 children who'd had at least two UTIs in the past year. They randomly assigned the kids to drink one of two juices made for the study: a cranberry juice rich in PACs or a juice free of all "cranberry products."

Over the next year, kids who drank cranberry juice had UTIs at a rate of 0.4 per child, compared with 1.15 in the comparison group.

The power of cranberries against UTIs "was initially regarded as an old wives' tale," said Dr. Hiep Nguyen of Boston Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the study.

But Nguyen said he now often recommends cranberry - either juice or supplements - when kids have recurrent UTIs.

"It can be a great alternative to prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics," Nguyen said.

That doesn't mean cranberry is the cure-all. If a child has frequent UTIs, Nguyen said, antibiotics may be necessary to "break the cycle." On top of that, many children's UTIs are related to less-than-ideal bathroom habits - like "holding it in," rather than going when they need to.

Drinking enough fluids, going to the bathroom regularly, and - if needed - tackling constipation problems are all considered important in warding off kids' UTIs.

So Nguyen cautioned parents against simply running to the grocery store for cranberry juice. "They still should see a doctor, so they can try to address the underlying problem," Nguyen said.

What's more, there's no guarantee that the cranberry juice you buy would have the PAC content that the juice in this study did.

"The findings of this study should not be construed as an endorsement of any commercially available cranberry products," write the researchers, led by Dr. Kourosh Afshar. (Afshar could not be reached for comment.)

Nguyen agreed that juice can be tricky. "Pure cranberry juice often doesn't taste so good," he noted. So manufacturers often mix it with something more palatable, like apple juice, or add a lot of sugar.

Cranberry juice mixed with other juices would likely have lower PAC levels. If there's added sugar, that means calories; drinking a lot of sugary juice can also cause diarrhea in kids.

"We do worry about the sugar content," Nguyen said.

So it would be important, he noted, not to overdo cranberry juice. In this study, the daily dose prescribed to each child was based on body weight.

Cranberry tablets are the other option. But no one knows the exact dose needed to prevent any one child's UTIs. Right now, it's basically a matter of following the product's labeling, according to Nguyen.

Six kids in each group of the study dropped out before they had completed it. The top reasons were the parents' belief that the juice wasn't working, and kids just refusing to drink it.

Getting children to drink cranberry juice can be a challenge, Nguyen noted - especially the pure variety without a ton of sugar.

Ocean Spray provided both juices used in the study. The work was funded by the Lions Gate Healthcare Research Foundation. - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com