Jonathan: Hey everyone. Jonathan Bailor backsanesolution.com/CalMythSummitTranscripts/The... · needle movers – it doesn’t mean there won’t be outliers there – that’s what

entheos.com The Calorie Myth 1

Jonathan: Hey everyone. Jonathan Bailor back and today, in today’s

session, when thinking about quality and digging deeper than

just this calorie myth we’ve been told and this idea that our body

is a balance scale – I’ve got a sister that I never really knew about

because I’m out here saying the body is not a balance scale and

she’s out there saying, “Your body’s not a bank account. It’s a

chemistry lab.”

In fact, she’s made an awesome career out of helping people to

understand how the quality of food, not necessarily the quantity,

but the quality of foods and specific foods may be at the root of

not only weight gain, but all kinds of health issues. She’s done

that all around the world. She’s a freaking member of Mensa. I

didn’t know that and she’s a pretty smart lady. She’s awesome.

She’s also a New York Times bestselling author of The Virgin Diet:

Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds in Just 7 Days. As you would assume

http://www.entheos.com/

http://www.entheos.com/The-Calorie-Myth


from the title of her book, we’ve got JJ Virgin with us today.

What’s up JJ?

JJ: Hey, how are you?

Jonathan: I’m good. I’m good. Well JJ, when thinking about this topic of not

resorting to theories and calorie math that we were told in the

fifties, but modern metabolic science, obviously your name pops

up to the top of the list. You are all about food quality. Can you

tell us what gets you so excited about quality rather than

quantity when it comes to food?

JJ: Well, let’s see. What gets me excited is I can eat more. Early on –

and it just makes me crazy that this myth still persists. You still

hear it on these big TV shows, “Oh, it’s just calories in, calories

out.” I just want to smack those people when I hear it because it

sets people up to fail and it takes their hope way. When we start

to look at food as information and really look at the quality of

what we’re eating and realizing that yes, your body reacts very

differently to a candy bar versus a piece of wild salmon.

Guess what? You can actually train your body to like these foods

better. One of the challenges you see with food with poor

quality is that it’s got such addictive qualities to it too that people

get so trapped into it and then they want to believe the myth of

they can eat these things, but in small amounts. We have been

on this path together and it was so great to find you because I

was getting my butt kicked out there saying that calories – well,

calories count. Where they come from counts.

People are like, “You’re wrong.” I’m like, “No, I’m not. I’ve proven

it with thousands of people. Let’s look at the science.” It’s so

great to have this information out there and for people to move

past this silly bank account, balance scale model into this idea of

food is information and quality counts.

Jonathan: JJ, you’ve really honed in on a concrete example of where quality

counts. That’s hard to argue with and I love that. That’s food

intolerances. Any mother or father who has a child with a




peanut allergy knows it’s not the calories in the peanuts that will

cause their child to go into anaphylactic shock. Can you talk

about – we hear food intolerance thrown around. What does

that actually mean biologically, to be intolerant of a food?

JJ: I made up my own thing here. I took some poetic license

because food intolerance, I think, used to mean something very

different. It was more of a genetic condition like genetic gluten

intolerance. When I think of food intolerance I really put it out

there as an umbrella term where it can relate to both genetic

issues like fructose malabsorption or fructose intolerance,

fructose malabsorption, gluten intolerance or celiac disease or

lactose intolerance.

That’s one piece of it. The other piece of it is all of the

immunological issues, everything from what you mentioned first,

which is this immediate allergic response like a peanut allergy

and IGE response, which used to be rare and now are getting

more common, but then the uber common food sensitivities, the

IGG delayed food responses that honestly 70% or more of us

have.

I was doing testing and I was coming up with about 70% in that

area alone. I believe 90% of us are hit with food intolerances,

maybe 100. Could I be so bold? It’s hard to say 100 with

anything, but the food sensitivities are such a big deal because

the symptoms – the foods that these are caused by are

ubiquitous and the symptoms are things that we’ve been trained

to believe are normal for us like gas and bloating and joint pain

and headaches and skin problems and you can’t lose weight,

things that you’re just like, “Oh, you’re just getting older,” which

just makes me crazy.

Then, of course, all the hormonal issues like insulin and leptin

resistance, cortisol resistance, ghrelin issues, all those things that

actually these foods can perturb your body’s ability to hear

hormones so that you are hungry even when you’ve just eating.

Food intolerance to me is this big umbrella of all those things.




It’s created because we have so messed up our food supply and

gotten so far from whole food.

Every single time we do a tweak, whether it’s genetically

engineering or genetically modifying something, as in the case

with genetically engineering gluten to change its whole

chromosomal numbers and structures or genetically modifying

thins to put in tomatoes into salmon. Stop it. If it’s just a matter

of processing foods so that you totally take the nutrients out and

then make it something you eat every day all day long, which we

were never meant to do.

All of those things are creating this umbrella of food intolerance.

There is no one way to look at this becuse there are so many

different factors that play. The best way to look at it is to get key

culprits out of your diet. Give your body a rest. Give your body a

chance to get your hormones and balance your immune system.

Calm down. Get the fire calmed down and then really evaluate

and that’s where, again, we start to look at food quality and

evaluate which foods work and which foods don’t.

Jonathan: Is it fair to say food intolerance or tolerance is – there’s calorie

quantity and both you and I know it’s not as if calories don’t exist.

They’re not unicorns. They matter. It’s just that they’re – they’re

just irrelevant once we get the quality of our food correct

because our body is brilliant and will take care of the rest, but

when we say food intolerance, is this essentially an umbrella

term which while the quality – let’s say eggs for example – while

an egg may be tolerated by one person – again, tolerance has

nothing to do with calories.

It means what’s the immunological response? What’s the mood

response? What’s the gut response? What’s the bathroom

response? What’s the energy response? The mental response?

Everything other than calories? Another person may not tolerate

eggs, so that’s why there’s also this confusion about well this is

healthy, no actually it’s not. It varies by individual. I just said a

lot, but what do you think about that?




JJ: I was like, “And the question is?” It really comes down to we’re all

biochemically unique. There are some back foundational things.

As I was doing testing through doctors’ offices looking at basic

food sensitivities and genetics issues, I saw the most common

needle movers – it doesn’t mean there won’t be outliers there –

that’s what I really picked up on, but the deal is we’re all

different.

You may be able to handle eggs just fine. They may be hurting

me. It’s really does it help you or hurt you? When I looked at my

top seven needle mover foods, they were the ones that I

classically saw the most. It doesn’t mean that all seven are going

to be an issue for someone, but I’ve yet to see where at least one

or two and usually four or more create an issue. It also doesn’t

mean that they’re an issue forever.

Quite often these foods are creating the problem either because

we’re picking a low quality source of them – there’s a huge

difference between a pastured egg and a factory raised egg, as

we know. It’s not just that you are what you eat. It’s you are

what you eat, ate. There’s that piece of it too, but also if you’ve

got some gut issues, leaky gut where you’ve changed the

permeability of your gut wall either due to stress or gluten or

pain medications.

There are so many things that start to loosen the tight junctions

in the gut and you couple that with poor digestion, speed eating,

stress eating, lots of fluids while you’re eating, aging, so your

stomach acid is lower. Now you’ve got proteins that have not

been broken down well, going into the small intestine, getting

out in circulation, your body freaking out going, “This should not

be here,” and launching an attack.

When you’re doing the same foods every day, even if it’s just a

little bit – that’s why the moderation myth makes me crazy too –

your body starts to create a problem. You may find that – for

me, I had an issue with eggs at first. Then over time I healed my

gut and I’m able to tolerate high quality eggs now and then.




I think one of the reasons eggs are an issue are because of us –

and we’re of that generation where we didn’t know better and

we were getting massive vaccinations all at once when our

immune system wasn’t ready. It’s like, poof. Those were cured

with egg protein and so I think that’s part of the issue too. It’s an

early on, “This is bad,” problem.

Jonathan: You gave a wonderful analogy in there JJ, which made it seem –

and is this fair or is this taking it too far – that when you are

intolerant of a food and you eat it, it’s almost as if you’ve

ingested a virus that your body will then attack. It’s like this little,

mini disease state your body enters into. Is that fair?

JJ: I think that’s a great way to put it. I’m probably going to steal

that Jonathan.

Jonathan: As long as you attribute my name.

JJ: I like to think of it as we are suffering so much from a massive

toxic load. Our bodies were never meant to handle the things

that we – our immune system and our detox systems weren’t put

together to handle what we are now faced with. When you’re

eating foods that don’t work for you it is like it’s a virus or a toxin.

If you look at every disease state, every disease state is coupled

with an inflammatory response.

That’s what you see when you eat these foods that your body

can’t handle. You get this big inflammatory response, which

starts a massive bad cascade. It’s a great way to explain it. You

look at inflammation and we know that the more inflamed you

are the more obese you become and the more obese you

become the more inflamed you are. We know the more

inflamed you are the more insulin resistant. The more insulin

resistant the more inflamed, so all these things start to create

this terrible downward spiral that it’s hard to dig out of.

Jonathan: JJ, just to really, really help people understand calories, a calorie

cannot – a calorie doesn’t cause inflammation. It’s everything

other than calories that cause inflammation. Is that accurate?




JJ: It’s what the calories are made up of that create the

inflammation and if those calories don’t work for your own

chemistry lab – now, there are some ubiquitous ones we know

will create problems. Genetically modified corn and soy, they’re

going to be a problematic. Gluten, I think is problematic for

everybody. Can I go out on a limb and say that? Now, I’m not

talking about your over in Europe eating old Einkorn wheat.

That’s different, but we’re not getting that there.

It’s been fermented and we’ve lowered the lectins and the

phytates. Here in America where we’re eating this genetically

engineered dwarfy gluten that’s so condensed and so high in

super starches it’s a different deal. I think some of the issues are

some people may handle grass fed dairy that’s been fermented

just fine. Some people can do pastured eggs, but it really comes

down to seeing what works for your chemistry lab.

Again, I know artificial sweeteners and sugar, unwrapped – I’m

going to say unwrapped sugar, sugar out of its natural habitat or

too much in its own habitat. Fruit is not a free food. I just was

somewhere Jonathan, where they were like, “And that person’s a

fruitarian.” I go, “People are still doing that?” Unbelievable.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say gluten and corn and soy,

anything genetically modified, artificial sweeteners and

unwrapped sugar don’t have a place in healthy diet for anybody

anywhere. Pastured eggs, once you check to see how your body

handles them and again, the single best way to really find out if

you’re food intolerant is not one test. You’d have to do a load of

testing and I don’t believe it would be conclusive because we

don’t know all the ways you can react to food at this point.

The single best test is to treat your body like a chemistry lab, not

a balance scale or bank account. Pull these foods out. Give your

body a cooling off time, at least three weeks. During that three

weeks is in amazing time because you realize in the first couple

of days how addicted you are to things. It’s unbelievable, even if

you’re eating a healthy diet. After that time to just go back and




challenge these foods, even if you know you’ll never eat it again –

I have people do a little gluten so they go, “Wow, I had no idea

that it made my fingers swell or made me double over in

stomach cramps.” That’s a very different conversation. Now

you’ve really moved it off of calories and into quality because

you’ve just connected the dots between what you’re eating and

how you feel and what you weigh.

You’re like, “This is an empowering situation,” because you won’t

look at something and go, “Oh, I’m just going to have a little bit of

it and be bad today,” because you’re like, “I really don’t want to

have diarrhea, be doubled over. I think I’ll pass on that.”

Jonathan: I love that you said empowering JJ because it seems like once we

understand what we tolerate we can rely on our internal

intelligence and I don’t mean that in a woo-woo way, I mean our

hypothalamus and our gut bacteria and our hormones to tell us

when we’re full and when we’re satisfied and we can eat these

foods that we tolerate whenever we’re hungry until we’re full and

then we stop and we live our life. We stop worrying about it or is

that too optimistic?

JJ: That is not optimistic at all. That’s actually what happens. Now,

it’s a tough sell to tell people that because they’re like “Pfft,” and

then the butterflies will fly around you and fairy dust will come

down. It sounds too good to be true, but in reality we know that

the drug-like effects of gluten and dairy and the fructose impact

totally destroy your appetite control center.

When you reclaim that and get rid of the cravings, which can

happen so quickly, you do get to this point where you’re just not

hungry and you don’t have this thing where – I used to be

governed, full disclosure, I used to be governed during the day

by when I was going to get a loaf of sourdough bread because I

was eating fat free you see, so I could have as much sourdough

bread and when I was going to get my frozen yogurt, again fat

free, and when I was going to have my diet sodas.




All my day – that was back when I was a personal trainer and I

would just junk through – that was great fast snack food. I

snacked all day long too because I was starving all the time and

craving. What a nightmare to be governed by food addiction like

that. Our food supply is set up to create these problems for us.

It’s set up to make us need to eat every two to three hours.

We don’t need to eat every two to three hours. That’s just silly. If

your body is working correctly an you’ve eaten food in a

balanced way so that your body is now able to access stored fat

for energy you should not have to eat every two to three hours.

If you do and you are, you’ve got something damaged in your

metabolism or you just did a boo-boo with what you ate. You did

not eat a hormonal winner, as I would say.

Jonathan: A brilliant point JJ and one that I want to celebrate for a second

because it’s seemingly obvious when we make it explicit, but our

culture hasn’t. That is if we are storing extra fat on or body and

we’re perpetually hungry that seems to indicate that there’s an

underlying problem because couldn’t our body just eat some

food off our hips rather than food that went through our lips?

JJ: Right. Now if you’re fat stores are locked. If you’re eating a

higher carbohydrate, pro-inflammatory diet all throughout the

day that means insulin is staying up. You’re perturbed your

insulin metabolism. Remember, if insulin is up the message to

your body is, “Hey, incoming. We’ve got all we need. We don’t

need to access stored for fuel because we’re cool here.”

It’s such a nightmare to be hungry and over fat and know that

you’ve just eaten and wondering why – what’s going on. Fructose

is the biggest problem for that. We know fructose – it’s so funny

because you read the story of fructose. They go, “It’s great for

diabetics. It doesn’t raise insulin.” I’m like, “Oh my gosh, it’s great

for diabetics because it bypasses the normal signaling system

and just goes straight to the liver and says make fat.”

Is this great? That doesn’t sound great to me. Fructose is the

worst because our body adapts to higher and higher levels of




fructose and as it adapts it just completely destroys the appetite

messaging center so you can’t hear insulin, leptin and ghrelin,

which means that you’re having that fruit juice they said was just

fine for you to have – I just heard a big famous diet doctor on a

national show say, “A glass of juice is fine.” I’m like, “Fine?”

I can’t think of any situation where I think a glass of juice is fine,

honestly. I honestly can’t. I would never say that’s fine. To me,

that’s like a soda. If you look at something like apple juice, which

is a higher fructose to glucose ratio, apple juice is worse than a

coke. You look those things and your body is adapting now to

that, so it’s just getting better and better and better at storing fat.

This is not what we want to teach our bodies to be good at.

Jonathan: Brilliant. Brilliant. You’ve touched on a subject here JJ that I want

to dig into and I think yo9u’re uniquely qualified to talk about

and that is this moderation myth as both you and I call it. The

reason I want to talk with you about it is I know in addition to

being brilliant in the public eye and also just brilliant from a

scientific perspective, you are also proprietor of a family. You’ve

got to take care of kids and there are all these complicating

factors.

Is this actually realistic for someone to do? Are you saying I can

never trick or treat or have a birthday party? How does this myth

of moderation work in the real world?

JJ: You know what’s so great about all of this is the healthier you at

the worse the bad stuff tastes and the more it hurts you. One

cool thing about having kids is that they don’t go to the store. If

it’s in the house they eat it and if it’s not there they don’t. Now,

granted, they do go to school, but again, for the part that I have

control over, they’re eating really healthy. They tend to make

healthier choices.

Now, the whole moderation issue falls apart when you blow up

the calorie idea because in the calorie idea moderation would be

fine as you’re having just a little bit, but when you start to look

beyond that to food intolerance and you realize that it’s the little




bit that can create the huge response that creates the

inflammatory response – case in point.

I was addicted to – and it’s so funny because I don’t have the

addiction gene, which is this DRD2 gene. I’ve done all my genetic

testing. I’m not an addictive person. We can all become

addicted. Foods are designed to be addictive. I want to throw

that out to you because if you’re trapped in this, this is not your

fault. It is now because now you know better.

Prior to this you were really a victim of the food companies and

what they’ve created to keep you buying the food. I was totally

hooked on Americanos with the little foamy milk on top and I

was having just a little bit, but I, everyday, had to beeline to go

get this and if I didn’t have it I was destroyed. I was so frustrated.

It was funny. I did a food sensitivity test and I showed a sky high

reaction of plus five to dairy and I’m having, literally [inaudible

21:09] twice a day. I’m having maybe a fourth of a cup and that’s

what’s creating it. Now, isn’t that a moderate amount? But, it’s

the little bit that you’re having that’s having a big impact.

Moderation doesn’t work and it really doesn’t work in foods that

have an addictive property like gluten, like dairy, all the

processed foods, sugar, because that little bit just keeps you

wanting more and more and more.

As we know, food intolerance, the immune response actually

creates its own addictive set of properties. A great take away for

all of that is if there’s a food, as I’m talking, that you’re going, “All

right JJ, I’ll cool it on the corn. Who cares? Soy, no problem.

What’s one of the other ones? Peanut butter, okay I’ll switch to

almond butter [because we do all these healthy swaps]. I’m

willing to leave out the eggs for a while and maybe do some

smoothies, but the cheese?”

If there’s one you’re going, “Or the bread or the pasta,” – if you’re

thinking that, that’s your kryptonite. That’s your issue. That’s the

one that’s got to go. Again, it’s only for three weeks. This allows

your immune system to cool off so you can connect the dots and




see this, but what’s so exciting about that is that you can feel

entirely different in three weeks and actually in seven days.

That’s why we say, “Drop seven foods and seven pounds in seven

days.”

When you pull out foods that you’re intolerant to the results are

so fast and so dramatic it’s crazy because your body – again, the

first couple days you’re going to crave the very foods that hurt

you, but then after that it’s like, boom. The inflammation has

gone down. Your focus is better. Your skin clears up. Your

joints stop hurting. You’re not bloated and gassy. You’re

dropping weight, but you’re free from those cravings that have

been governing your life and you’re actually starting to get your

appetite to resume again.

It takes about three days for you to start to shift that whole

fructose issue. As you’re dropping your fructose load down,

you’re starting to have your body be able to hear your appetite

again. Same with getting the gluten down, all these things that

perturb your whole appetite signaling centers.

Jonathan: It seems like quelling that inflammatory response, one, it’s

exciting because it is – I can see how that can be done so much

more quickly. If you have a loud noise blaring in your ear as

soon as you turn it off it’s done. It’s not like now your ear has to

do something. It’s quick. It’s fast, whereas burning fat, of course,

is going to take time. Have you found that this immediate food

quality switch enables people to then – it gives them that boost

and that positive reinforcement they need to keep it up?

JJ: What’s so critical – and it was a big mindset shift for me – I was

working with a doctor for years, Dr. Diana Schwarzbein and her

whole gig was you have to get healthy to lose weight, not lose

weight to get healthy. It might take you three to six months

while you’re healing your adrenals and getting rid of the insulin

resistance before you lose any weight.

That’s a tough sell. I know from the research – try selling that to

someone they’ll go, “Well, I think I’ll just go to Jenny Craig and




lose five pounds this week instead. Catch you later.” People –

we know from the research – really need to see a fast result to

get in the game, to get the nose of the camel in the tents, before

the whole camel comes in.

What I love about this is that you do see results so quickly. Now,

the results are going to vary. I’ve seen people lose 2 pounds and

I’ve seen people lose 12 pounds in the first week. It really has to

do with what’s going on with you metabolically because as we

know, in weight loss resistance, which is my field, there are other

areas that can create problems here, everything from insulin

resistance to thyroid issues to sex hormone imbalances, to other

gut issues like candida and small intestinal bacteria overgrowth

and an extreme toxic burden.

But, it’s interesting because a lot of those start to correct while

you correct your food. Some of the adrenal stress issues, well,

eating the wrong food creates stress in the body. Eating the

wrong food creates insulin issues. The stress feeds back on your

thyroid. You get a lot of stuff happening quickly, which is why I

see this as a great foundation. Then, you can look and go,

“Where am I now? Do I need to now go work with a functional

doctor on hormone balance, on more advanced detox

strategies?”

This, to me, is the first line of defense for starting any health

program. Really, when you look at it, medical elimination diets

have been around how long? I love someone was like, “Oh, this

is a fad.” I go, “Medical elimination diets have been around for

decades.” All I did was package this in a user-friendly way

because as we know from our wonderful doctor pals, they tend

to make things complicated and boring and I just made it fun

and easy to do. That’s all.

Jonathan: When it comes to user friendly JJ, are there – you mentioned

some substitutions. For some of these key inflammatory foods

like let’s say pasta for example or a bread, are there substitutions

we can make or is it just nothing like pasta ever again?




JJ: Yeah, wouldn’t that work well? Never have that again. I realize

that’s your favorite food. First off, it’s just three weeks because

after three weeks you’re going to connect the dots and find out

where this food fits into your diet. Is it something you can have

occasionally and need to avoid all together? You’ll be

empowered and you’ll make that decision and customize the diet

for you for your health for the long term.

But, one of the key things here – and I know you’ve probably

seen this too – I discovered that if you tell people, “Let’s take out,”

and you don’t tell them what to put in that some of the things

they put in were worse than the first things. Besides, it’s just

mean. I looked at every single thing I was having people pull out

and I give simple swaps for all of those things. Now, pasta is

such an easy one. I’ve got to tell you. Don’t you love quinoa

pasta?

Jonathan: Well, I don’t eat quinoa pasta.

JJ: I think quinoa pasta is better than regular pasta. Now, I’m sort of

a Paleo plus gal, so the only thing I eat in the slow, low carbs are

legumes, but I have put some in my new cookbook and it’s

amazing tasting. We made it the other day. I’m like, “This is

really good.” Quinoa pasta tastes better than regular pasta for

those of you who like it. I love that becuse it’s a seed. It’s got

more protein.

I’ve got to tell you – I haven’t found – I know there are Paleo

breads out there and all these – I’m not a fan of gluten-free

breads. I think they’re just icky. Same with pizza crust. I’m like,

“There are just certain things that just don’t work well,” but why

not just use a lettuce wrap? Honestly, it’s so easy. We do a

lettuce wrap. If you’re doing dairy you can actually make an

amazing cheese out of cashews that’s incredible.

We have a salt and pepper cashew cheese, raw cashew cheese

that’s just phenomenal. As far as eggs go I have people start the

day with a smoothie. That’s easy. If they’re using butter they can

just use avocado. If they’re using peanuts, tree nuts are better.




We give simple swaps all the way through, but what’s interesting

there is we’re creatures of habits, we all are. We all have our

things we eat all the time.

When you switch people and show them these different things

the number one issue I have with this plan is not what people

would think it is. Once someone makes the decision they get

their hope back, so I think for so many people they’ve just lost

hope. They’ve tried all these silly things like eating six times a

day and finishing the night because there is one popular diet out

there that says you can have chocolate covered pretzels as a

snack and that a diet soda is fine.

It’s the habits around it that are the problem. I kid you not. I

won’t name names, but that upset me. Now I go on this terror

and I’m like, “What was I even talking about with this?” Do you

remember because I don’t?

Jonathan: How empowering it can be and once you make this transition.

JJ: Oh, thank you. Okay, so once you get you hope back you realize,

“Wow, this is entirely different than anything I’ve ever heard.” I’m

so excited for your book to come out for people to go, “Okay, it’s

all about the food quality.” While calories count, once you shift

what you’re eating it’s a non-issue because you’re full. You don’t

overeat because these foods are set up to make you overeat,

quality foods aren’t.

Once you get into this and break into this whole thing the issue I

have with people is after they go on the three weeks and they’re

now supposed to challenge back these foods they like the swaps

so much better because again, we’re just changing habits. All of

a sudden they’re doing coconut milk instead of soy milk and

they’re like, “Well, this tastes better.” The challenge I have is they

don’t want to then go into the phase where they’re going to test

and see how they do with the top high food intolerance foods.

They’re just like, “I just want to stay here. I like it.” Honestly, I

think we’d all be better if we didn’t eat gluten, if we didn’t eat




corn, if we didn’t eat soy. I don’t know why you bother with

peanuts that waste. If you never touched an artificial sweetener

again, if you really kept unwrapped sugar out of your diet and

you saw really if dairy worked for you and if it does, it’s grass fed

and it’s fermented and if eggs worked, they’re pastured.

I think we’re better off there, but I do want you to connect those

dots. I do want you to know. I know that if I eat gluten my

fingers are swollen. I know it. If I eat dairy, my face breaks out.

This is great information for people to have because then they

don’t look at food and say – I come from the diet world Jonathan.

I was good today. I was bad today. It’s like stop it. Stop it.

Versus going, “Oh, you know what, I’m going to skip that because

I know what it does to me. It hurts me.”

It’s a whole different thing. Plus, then all those diet sabotagers

out there who really don’t want to eat the cake without seeing

you eat it too, when you say, “I wish I could eat that, but I will

wake up tomorrow, I won’t be able to walk. My knees will be

swollen.” They won’t pester you like they used to.

Jonathan: JJ that – you can borrow my virus analogy if I can use that

example because that’s the number one thing I’ve seen people

struggle with is if you say you’re a vegan or a vegetarian and you

pass on something no one judges you or thinks less of you, but if

you just say – someone brought a birthday cake into the office or

into the classroom and you just say, “No, I’m not going to have

any,” people are like, “Oh, well, excuse me. You’re better than

me. Okay.”

Say it again because that’s brilliant. I’m in a situation where I’m

avoiding foods that I’m intolerant of, give us some talking points

to make people not give us a hard time.

JJ: I love that analogy because no one goes to a vegan, “You just eat

this chicken right now missy.”

Jonathan: What do you think you’re better than me? Exactly.




JJ: Or, you Paleo person, eat the bread. No one does that, but

here’s the thing. We don’t mess with people who have medical

conditions, so when you say, “I wish I could eat that, but I’m

intolerant to it and if I do it’s going to make my joints get

inflamed and then I can’t walk tomorrow,” they’re not going to

say, “Oh, just have a piece of cake anyway.” Well, my mother

does, but she’s different.

My mother was so distraught that I could not eat dairy and I go,

“Mom, I’ve struggled with acne for 30 years. You know this and I

fixed it in a week when I finally got the dots connected with the

dairy thing.” “Oh, honey, just a little bit. Food is the best

pleasure in life.” I’m like, “Mom, I’m not,” – but it was just

because she wanted to – my mom’s one of those people that

wants the dessert. Here’s another pearl.

She wants the dessert. She wants to eat the whole dessert, but

she doesn’t want it to seem like she’s eating the whole dessert,

so she always wants to share the dessert. If you just say, “Hey,

let’s get it.” She’ll go, “Well, I’m only going to eat half of it.” I go,

“Well, you can eat half of it and leave it.” Oh no, that’s a waste of

money. Maybe they’ll only bring me half. I’m like, “Well, have

them bring you half and charge you for the whole thing.”

I just say, “Let’s get it. We’ll share it.” The thing is she never

notices that I didn’t eat it anyway because she’s too busy

gobbling it all down. The other thing I would say there is if you

don’t make a big deal of it, they won’t make a big deal of it. If you

know that you’ve got a known obnoxious food pusher who’s not

going to leave you alone, take the cake, set it down somewhere,

back away and don’t make an issue of it.

It’s just like if you’re at a party and you’re the one not drinking

and everyone’s drinking. If you make a big issue of it, oh my

God, they’re going to be spiking your punch, but if you make no

issue of it and you’re holding onto a drink and it’s sparkling

mineral water with a lime, they don’t know what it is and you

shut up, no one will bug you.




It’s really about explaining that it’s really hurting you and

damaging your health, is the first key and then also not

becoming an obnoxious – as much as I love people to pay it

forward and share the information, you also don’t want to be an

obnoxious evangelist, a better than thou one.

Jonathan: That’s just brilliant here JJ because when you say, “I have a

medical condition,” no one can say, “Oh, well I feel bad about

myself because I’m not doing that too.” You take it off the level

of discipline.

JJ: I’m better than you.

Jonathan: Exactly. It’s more like, “I wish I could eat bread. I wish I could,

but I can’t. Good for you for being able to,” almost. Obviously,

we would never say that, but that’s the image the person will get.

JJ: Yes.

Jonathan: JJ, you mentioned a cashew cheese, which is spectacular and that

led me to ask what’s next for you? What are you formulating

next in your arsenal of helping people to overcome food

intolerance?

JJ: Can you tell that I’m working on a cookbook because I have all

the stuff? There are two things that came out of The Virgin Diet.

These are my next two books because I think the easiest thing

that you do is just give people what they ask for. They were

asking for all these recipes. Now, my idea of cooking is cook a

chicken, get some salad greens, put it on top, add some avocado.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

But, I actually came from the culinary world. When I was

graduating from college I was either going to go to graduate

school in exercise science or the culinary institute because I

catered my way through college. Now, I’m like that – and I’ve had

food businesses all along the way. I worked with a team of

amazing chefs because the way I cook I’m just throwing stuff in

and they’re like, “No, you actually have to write down amounts.”




Okay. We have the most amazing cookbook and what I did that I

think is fun and unique is the virgin diet – I’m kind of a Paleo plus

gal, but the virgin diet is agnostic. We embrace vegans, all the

way to Paleos. You can dash on it. Whatever one’s your plan, we

embrace you. We made this so that it fits with anybody’s diet

religion and then we created meal plans for the Paleo, for the

family, on a budget, on the go, vegans, diabetics, so that you can

then take all the different things and fit them in and know how to

work it for what works for you.

The I also – it’s fun writing a cookbook because it’s sort of a

hybrid. It’s sort of not just a cookbook. What I did was

everything that had come up since The Virgin Diet, all the big

questions, which I thought I’d already nailed from all the times I’d

done this online, but I didn’t. The difference from a couple

thousand people doing your program to hundreds of thousands

of people doing your program is you get a couple more

questions.

The book – we really took all those questions and then the book’s

got chapters of new information and then 150 incredible recipes

and loads of meal plans and great resources. That comes out in

February. The other book that comes out in – I was dying. My

nose was itching. I’m like, “Just don’t itch it. You’re on video.”

This is real life baby.

Next year, right after Halloween we’re also coming out with The

Sugar Virgin because the other question people ask about was

sugar, but you have to wait on that. The big first hit is going to

be the cookbook and we’re launching a series of great cooking

videos. It’s going to be all about cooking for the next couple

months.

Jonathan: I’m assuming that will also be available for pre-order, hopefully. I

know viewers are watching.

JJ: It’s available now for pre-order.




Jonathan: Now? I love it. I love it.

JJ: Yeah. Can I give a little shout out on that? It’s available now for

pre-order. There are a few people who’ve decided that they’d

like to ride my brand and so if you see other things out there

that are not by me, they’re not mine. I didn’t endorse them. In

fact, I looked at a couple of them and they’ve put some things in

that don’t really follow the virgin diet despite using the name.

I love this My Virgin Diet, My 7 Day Virgin Diet. I’m like, “Those are

not mine.” The Virgin Diet and The Virgin Diet Cookbook by JJ Virgin,

those are mine. The other ones not mine, so buyer beware on

that because I did do a little review and I’m like, “Okay, so you

plagiarized my stuff here and then you don’t do the right – and

then you throw in some stuff that’s wrong.” I don’t want people

misled in doing things that won’t work for them.

That’s a little frustrating. Grab the – you can pre-order that. We

will be doing a lot of fun stuff with that, so you’ll get some cool

bonuses and tings as we get closer to the launch too. Stay up on

the website because I’m going to be shooting out – we’re already

shooting out recipes from the cookbook now so you can get

started because who wants to wait? I’m not good with delaying

gratification.

Jonathan: JJ, where are people going to get updated on all these things,

subscribe, get that info?

JJ: The best place to go is just to the virgin diet, no it’s not. We have

now got – I was like, “What are we going to do with all these

websites?” If you go to jjvirgin.com then you’ll see The Virgin Diet

and The Virgin Diet Cookbook, so you’ll get everything and you’ll

get on the list where we send out all of our freebies.

One of the things that I really made a point of doing this past

year was trying to get as much free training, free recipes, free

exercise stuff out there so that there was no objection to getting

started. You couldn’t tell me, “Oh, I couldn’t buy the book.” I’m

like, “Well, first off, the books 20 bucks on Amazon.” I think it’s




15, but I want people to be able to get started immediately and I

want to get as much information out there.

Just like your information is awesome, one of my favorites, I think

it’s really critical for us to keep feeding people information and

letting them hear it and hear it and hear it and also hearing – I

always try to support everybody because sometimes they’ll hear

me say it, then when they hear you say it you just put that little

tweak and they go, “Okay, I got it.”

Jonathan: I love that. JJ, I love that. You’re celebrating everyone’s

similarities and you’re supporting – this is really – what we’re

talking about here is enabling people to live better and to be

happier and to contribute more fully ad to be a better version of

themselves. Why bring any negativity into that at all? Anyone

with that goal seems like they should be celebrated and if we

want to go negative, why not go negative against the people who

are producing these edible products that are causing the

problem in the first place?

JJ: Well, that’s why we do all need to ban together and get the

information out there. I feel like the internet’s been the great

equalizer where now we finally have a voice and we share such

great information and people are smart. They want the

information and they’re not falling prey to it anymore. That’s my

biggest message that I want to leave everybody with is if you’ve

been feeling like, “I’m just stuck and trapped and I was doing

everything right,” hopefully, from what you’ve heard here is that

there’s a different way out there that you may not have heard, if

you’re listening more to say some of the more popular media

that’s governed a lot by these companies.

I always have to modify things when I’m on TV. I’m not out there

saying, “Yes, eat your whole grains,” but I do always have to

temper my message a little bit because the food companies

control the advertising. That’s why I love my PBS show because I

can say what I think and there are no advertisers holding it over

on you.




But, we do have an ability to get this information out. My biggest

goal with people listening is that they get their hope back and

they go, “Okay, this sounds like something I can embrace.” All

those things you were describing from gas and bloating, to joint

pain, to feeling older, to poor focus, to not being able to lose

weight, it’s like check the box.

I’m going to take the time and get these things out, swap in

healthy foods, let my body cool off and really connect the dots

and focus on food quality and just free yourself from the calorie

prison.

Jonathan: Boom. I love it. I’m excited. I’m excited. Well folks, this has

been just brilliant. JJ, thank you so much. I know you’ve got a

million things going on. Thank you so much for sharing your

time with us today. It’s been absolutely fabulous.

JJ: Oh, thank you. Always a pleasure.

Jonathan: Well viewers, this is JJ Virgin, the electrifying woman we’ve been

joined, had – I’m so excited I don’t even know what I’m saying –

who’s joined us today for the past 40 minutes. You can learn

more about her at jjvirgin.com. Her first book is The Virgin Diet

and her upcoming book, The Virgin Diet Cookbook sounds like it

will be epic. Check it out, jjvirgin.com. Remember, this week and

every week after, eat smarter, exercise smarter and live better.



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Jonathan: Hey everyone. Jonathan Bailor backsanesolution.com/CalMythSummitTranscripts/The... · needle movers – it doesn’t mean there won’t be outliers there – that’s what