I’ve read a lot of books over the years, and most have something useful in them, but often it stays at that: nice to know, interesting, and then… next. But the book I’m about to share with you was different.
It changed my life, and I don’t say that lightly.
The Pattern I Knew Too Well
I was with a friend the other day, we were in the kitchen. I was prepping my meals for the day and she was asking questions about it. I explained that I’m currently eating five times a day and my meals are quite structured and planned out, because I want to make sure I eat enough.
She replied that she’s the opposite, always trying to eat less, because for her the weight comes on so easily. She said she eats quite healthy though, and doesn’t understand why that is.
She’s not the only one, I hear this a lot: I eat healthy, but the weight just doesn’t go down, or it does, but then it comes back on.
I asked her what she usually eats, and she listed the typical things: veggies, fruits, yoghurt, eggs, cottage cheese, salads, wholegrain bread, cheese, and so on. The standard “healthy diet” we all know. She also added, “I do eat pasta quite often though… I’m sure that doesn’t help.”
I could relate.
From my teens to my late 20s, my weight would often fluctuate between 55–65 kg (121–143 lbs). A 10 kg (22 lb) swing is not a small thing, that’s a significant change.
I ate healthy most of the time, but then I would also have episodes of overeating (or binge eating), and quite often. I’d be “good” for a few days, then get massive cravings and binge my face off, then back to being “good” again. This was a usual cycle for as long as I could remember, so my weight fluctuated, of course. Putting weight on was easy, but getting it off again felt like such an effort.
Food Sensitivities: The Missing Piece
Whether I was on my “healthy” days or binge days, I would still feel bloated, gassy, and uncomfortable most of the time. It made sense when I loaded myself up on pizza and ice cream, that was expected, but I didn’t feel exactly great either even when I was choosing healthy meals.
But I thought that was normal. I thought feeling bloated and having gas was just part of the human body experience, as normal as going to the bathroom every day. You eat, your stomach gets bigger, you get gas… that’s just how it works, right?
Until a friend once told me, “You know having gas is not normal, it usually means something’s off.” Embarrassing as it is to admit, I didn’t know. I didn’t know because it had been like that my whole life. I had never experienced anything different.
Around that time, I came across a book called The Virgin Diet: Drop 7 Foods, Lose 7 Pounds, Just 7 Days by JJ Virgin, a holistic nutrition expert. It talks about food intolerances as the hidden cause behind weight gain and many other symptoms, such as gas and bloating, to name a few.
Most people know about food allergies, but don’t know about food intolerances, because these symptoms, unlike allergies, are often more subtle. With allergies, the response is usually fast and intense, you’ll know straight away that something is wrong, but with intolerances, the symptoms can show up hours, or even days after eating, which makes it much harder to connect them to specific foods.
“Most people test negative for food allergies, but have at least one type of food intolerance, and many have several.” — JJ Virgin, The Virgin Diet
The top seven high food-intolerance (high-FI) foods the book focuses on are:
- Gluten
- Eggs
- Soy
- Corn
- Dairy
- Peanuts
- Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
Healthy… or Not?
Meals like a veggie omelet, Greek-style yoghurt with fruit and peanut butter, or a tuna pasta salad with corn and a sour cream dressing are healthy meals, right?
Well, as it turned out, it depends.
Yes, these are healthy, nutritious foods, but there’s a catch: context. A food can be “healthy” in general, but not necessarily healthy for your body if it reacts adversely to it.
Also, quality matters. If food is highly processed, sprayed with chemicals, or filled with additives, it can quickly turn something “healthy” into something that doesn’t support your body at all. For example, there’s a big difference between highly processed, genetically modified corn and an organic, whole-food version. They may technically be the same food, but they’re not the same input for your body. Food is information, and these two versions of corn would send very different messages to your body and trigger completely different responses.
The First Time My Body Felt Calm
I went through the program described in the book and removed the seven foods for three weeks. For the first time in my life, I experienced what a calm, quiet, flat belly actually feels like.
I was blown away. I had never felt like this before, and for the first time realized how good I was really meant to feel.
Before this, I knew about food allergies, and because I didn’t have any, I assumed I could eat anything. I also thought food-related symptoms were mostly limited to digestion, things like bloating or gut issues, I had no idea they could show up as headaches, skin problems, fatigue, or so many other things.
For example, I used to have this persistent skin issue where my scalp was constantly itchy. I went to dermatologists, got tested for different things, and was given shampoos and creams to apply, but nothing really helped. Then, after eliminating those foods, not only did the bloating and gas disappear, the head itch went away completely. I had no idea these things were connected!
As JJ Virgin writes in her book, some of the most common symptoms of food sensitivities include digestive issues, fatigue, poor sleep, congestion, joint pain, skin problems, brain fog, anxiety, low mood, unstable energy, weight gain, and even signs of premature aging.
That was eye-opening to say the least.
"Most people ignore their bodies’ responses to the foods they eat, or maybe they search for ways to mask the symptoms. But weight gain, bloating and fatigue are not just annoying facts of life. They are your body’s way of telling you that you’re eating foods that aren’t working for you." — JJ Virgin, The Virgin Diet
I invite you to take a look at your current diet. How does the food you eat actually make you feel? If you recognize yourself in some of the symptoms mentioned above, it might be worth exploring whether certain foods aren’t working for your body as well as you think.
And Then There Was Sugar
While eliminating the other six foods felt doable, sugar was different. I realized just how addicted I was to it, and how directly it was tied to my binge eating episodes, keeping me stuck in a vicious cycle of cravings that I couldn’t seem to break.
So it made sense that JJ Virgin wrote a whole separate book on it, The Sugar Impact Diet, focused solely on helping people break free from sugar. I followed the approach in that book as well, and was finally able to say goodbye to sugar. My cravings disappeared, the binge eating stopped, and for the first time, my weight became stable. Quitting sugar was one of the best things I’ve ever done for my health, and I haven’t gone back since.
Now, years later, I do eat some of the foods from the high-FI list again, some regularly, some only occasionally, but sugar isn’t one of them. That one’s out for good (but more on that another time).
Where It All Led Me
Looking back, this book was one of the first real catalysts for me on my “health detective” journey. It opened the door to a completely different way of living and relating to my health. It shifted me from being completely unaware and stuck in patterns like binge eating and yo-yo dieting, to becoming more aware, and more intentional with my choices. It made me so curious: if food can affect how I feel this much, what else is affecting me this way?
It didn’t just change what I was eating, it changed how I related to my body and environment. And that changed everything.
