Sara Gottfried > Quotes

“Science has proven that while your genes control your biology, a rather simple, nondrug formula of nutrient-rich food, targeted supplements to address missing precursors, and lifestyle changes can keep your genes in perpetual “repair” mode.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure: Reclaim Balance, Sleep, Sex Drive and Vitality Naturally with the Gottfried Protocol

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Hormonal problems are the top reason I find for accelerated aging,”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“Weight gain, mood swings, fatigue, and low libido aren’t diseases that can be “cured” with a quick injection or a pharmaceutical. Most of these problems can’t be permanently solved by eating less or exercising more. They are hormonal problems. They mean our bodies are trying to tell us that something is wrong.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure: Reclaim Balance, Sleep, Sex Drive and Vitality Naturally with the Gottfried Protocol

“DO YOU HAVE OR HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS . . . — PART A — ■ A feeling you’re constantly racing from one task to the next? ■ Feeling wired yet tired? ■ A struggle calming down before bedtime, or a second wind that keeps you up late? ■ Difficulty falling asleep or disrupted sleep? ■ A feeling of anxiety or nervousness—can’t stop worrying about things beyond your control? ■ A quickness to feel anger or rage—frequent screaming or yelling? ■ Memory lapses or feeling distracted, especially under duress? ■ Sugar cravings (you need “a little something” after each meal, usually of the chocolate variety)? ■ Increased abdominal circumference, greater than 35 inches (the dreaded abdominal fat, or muffin top—not bloating)? ■ Skin conditions such as eczema or thin skin (sometimes physiologically and psychologically)? ■ Bone loss (perhaps your doctor uses scarier terms, such as osteopenia or osteoporosis)? ■ High blood pressure or rapid heartbeat unrelated to those cute red shoes in the store window? ■ High blood sugar (maybe your clinician has mentioned the words prediabetes or even diabetes or insulin resistance)? Shakiness between meals, also known as blood sugar instability? ■ Indigestion, ulcers, or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)? ■ More difficulty recovering from physical injury than in the past? ■ Unexplained pink to purple stretch marks on your belly or back? ■ Irregular menstrual cycles? ■ Decreased fertility?”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“● We make changes when the pain of staying the same (same weight, same mood, same stress-crazed schedule) is greater than the perceived pain of change. I discovered (as have my patients) that there is a way to make those changes that is safe, proven, effective, easy, and, most importantly, fun.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure: Reclaim Balance, Sleep, Sex Drive and Vitality Naturally with the Gottfried Protocol

“The “calories in, calories out” mind-set is the old-school approach of a one-sided conversation with the body: You need to eat this, not that. Submit to my will. The problem is that coercion doesn’t work for women, who don’t like to be forced, deprived, or disempowered. The outside-in approach tries to beat you into submission. It’s a boot camp for your body, when what a woman’s body really needs is three days at a spa. The female body responds far better to the coax than the shove.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Fermented foods contain natural probiotics, or healthy bacteria, that can take your health to the next level. Nearly every culture has a version of a fermented food: yogurt, kefir, miso, and fermented vegetables, including sauerkraut, pickles, and kimchi.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“What we’ve been taught about dieting is wrong—even what I was taught in medical school more than twenty-five years ago. Harsh deprivation, beating myself up over the waning willpower, daily fights with food and whether to be “good” or “bad” in my nutritional choices—these dieting skirmishes actually left me more stressed; worsened my hormonal imbalances, body shame, and food addiction; and kept me out of a genuine conversation with my body and what it actually needs.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Define Your Why Next, you need to articulate your why.”
― Sara Gottfried, Younger: A Breakthrough Program to Reset Your Genes, Reverse Aging & Turn Back the Clock 10 Years

“By working with the innate intelligence of your body, you’ll learn to notice, listen to, and once again trust your own experience when it comes to the foods that trigger your immune system into alarm mode and cause problems with weight gain.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Why three days? Because that’s the minim amount of time to reset a metabolic hormone. When you disrupt these seven hormones in three-day bursts, it takes you a total of twenty-one days to recreate a collaborative team of your metabolic hormones.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“The truth? Diets don’t work for most women. Fatness is the result of major hormonal misfires in women, and forceful approaches to losing weight fail to address the hormonal root cause in strategy, tactics, and delivery.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Meat consumption is at an all-time high. In 2000, we ate 195 pounds per person, and that’s 57 more pounds more than in the 1950s. Even though I think of meat eaters as being mainly men… it’s fascinating to me how modern meat is the food that disturbs estrogen balance the most. Since women have far more estrogen than men, that means we’re more vulnerable to the effects of meat and alcohol, which raise estrogen. (Too much estrogen makes you fat.)”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Hormones dictate what your body does with food.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Paced breathing—this cuts flashes by 44 percent! Not too shabby. Breathe deeply twenty minutes twice per day with a five-second inhale, a ten-second hold, and a five-second exhale.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“The burst of cortisol in the morning, generally between six and eight, is known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR). Under normal circumstances, your CAR gets you out of bed feeling restored. It also sets up one of your most important circadian rhythms, another crucial aspect of hormonal control. Operating on a twenty-four-hour cycle, circadian rhythms establish your biochemical and physiological peaks and valleys, almost like a tide within the body. When the cortisol tide is out, around midnight, and your cortisol is at its lowest, your cells perform their greatest repair and healing. If your cortisol is still high at night, your body can’t do the repair work it needs. Sometimes, when you should be winding down, you get a second wind. That’s no good: when you are most in need of rest, the high cortisol makes”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“Keep in mind that sugar is powerfully addictive.7 I put sugar in the same category as addictive drugs like crack or heroin. Take Oreos, for example. One study from Connecticut showed that rats fed the iconic cookie liked it as much as cocaine and morphine.8 When the rats ate Oreo cookies, the pleasure center of their brains, the nucleus accumbens, lit up like a Christmas tree—the same area in the brain that lights up with cocaine. Sugar and cocaine both stimulate the addictive part of the brain with a neurotransmitter called dopamine, known for its role in pleasure and satisfaction. Rats in the study even broke open the cookie to eat the sugary middle first. Still not sure if you’re addicted to sugar?”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Bad circadian rhythm. Leptin may get out of balance when you disrupt your delicate but incredibly important circadian rhythm by becoming addicted to caffeine, alcohol, or sugar. Eliminating these substances allows your body to get back to its natural rhythm.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“The whole feels much greater than the sum of the parts,”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“The best tested are Elevate, Lumosity, Fit Brains, Brain HQ, and Brain Workshop. Many are effective in as little as ten to twenty minutes per day, five times per week, and four of the five (at time of publication) can be downloaded and used on your smartphone.”
― Sara Gottfried, Brain Body Diet: 40 Days to a Lean, Calm, Energized, and Happy Self

“As you smell the aroma of the burgers cooking on the grill, you may be unaware that they were previously part of cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and fed grain, typically genetically modified corn rather than grass, and highly stressed.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“hormone is a substance that regulates function in the body.”
― Sara Gottfried, Women, Food, And Hormones: A 4-Week Plan to Achieve Hormonal Balance, Lose Weight, and Feel Like Yourself Again

“You eye the burger with anticipation, and you don’t think about how the standard practice for cattle is to treat them prophylactically with antibiotics and dewormers, thereby breeding bacterial and parasite resistance and leading to the rise of superbugs, which can trigger hard-to-treat infections and foodborne illnesses.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Today’s meat offered at most grocery stores and restaurants is nothing like the wild game our ancestors ate—it promotes inflammation and makes us hoard fat. Because we women are so efficient at fat storage, I believe that’s a common reason why Paleo (diet) doesn’t give women the results that men enjoy when it comes to losing weight, getting lean, and reducing inflammation.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“After I take this small dose, my melatonin level initially”
― Sara Gottfried, Younger: A Breakthrough Program to Reset Your Genes, Reverse Aging & Turn Back the Clock 10 Years

“If all this talk about mood and libido sounds familiar, it should: testosterone has an overlapping role with our old friend estrogen. You see, testosterone can be converted to estrogen; fat cells contain an enzyme, called aromatase, that converts testosterone to estradiol. The more fat you have, the more likely it is that you’ll create an excess of both androgens and estrogens. We know that excess estrogen may make it extremely difficult to lose weight, which then reinforces the cycle of more fat, estrogen, and weight.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure

“Alcohol poses a major problem for women with estrogen dominance. It slows down metabolism by more than 70 percent (temporarily—for about one day, which adds up if you drink daily), congests the liver, raises bad estrogens and cortisol, disrupts sleep (which raises cortisol even further), and gives you the crazy idea that eating more of the wrong foods is somehow a good idea”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“The idea behind the Hormone Reset is simple: in three-day bursts, you’ll focus on making specific dietary changes, starting with eliminating meat and alcohol, which resets your estrogen, liver, and gut microbiome—the genetic material of the trillions of microbial critters that live in your body. Every three days you’ll eliminate specific metabolism-wrecking foods and trade up for better foods, which will reset your misfiring hormones, building on the collaboration and regulatory synergy between them so you can feel like yourself again, in body harmony.”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days

“Endometriosis, or painful periods? (Endometriosis is when pieces of the uterine lining grow outside of the uterine cavity, such as on the ovaries or bowel, and cause painful periods.) Mood swings, PMS, depression, or just irritability? Weepiness, sometimes over the most ridiculous things? Mini breakdowns? Anxiety? Migraines or other headaches? Insomnia? Brain fog? A red flush on your face (or a diagnosis of rosacea)? Gallbladder problems (or removal)? — PART E — Poor memory (you walk into a room to do something, then wonder what it was, or draw a blank midsentence)? Emotional fragility, especially compared with how you felt ten years ago? Depression, perhaps with anxiety or lethargy (or, more commonly, dysthymia: low-grade depression that lasts more than two weeks)? Wrinkles (your favorite skin cream no longer works miracles)? Night sweats or hot flashes? Trouble sleeping, waking up in the middle of the night? A leaky or overactive bladder? Bladder infections? Droopy breasts, or breasts lessening in volume? Sun damage more obvious, even glaring, on your chest, face, and shoulders? Achy joints (you feel positively geriatric at times)? Recent injuries, particularly to wrists, shoulders, lower back, or knees? Loss of interest in exercise? Bone loss? Vaginal dryness, irritation, or loss of feeling (as if there were layers of blankets between you and the now-elusive toe-curling orgasm)? Lack of juiciness elsewhere (dry eyes, dry skin, dry clitoris)? Low libido (it’s been dwindling for a while, and now you realize it’s half or less than what it used to be)? Painful sex? — PART F — Excess hair on your face, chest, or arms? Acne? Greasy skin and/or hair? Thinning head hair (which makes you question the justice of it all if you’re also experiencing excess hair growth elsewhere)? Discoloration of your armpits (darker and thicker than your normal skin)? Skin tags, especially on your neck and upper torso? (Skin tags are small, flesh-colored growths on the skin surface, usually a few millimeters in size, and smooth. They are usually noncancerous and develop from friction, such as around bra straps. They do not change or grow over time.) Hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia and/or unstable blood sugar? Reactivity and/or irritability, or excessively aggressive or authoritarian episodes (also known as ’roid rage)? Depression? Anxiety? Menstrual cycles occurring more than every thirty-five days? Ovarian cysts? Midcycle pain? Infertility? Or subfertility? Polycystic ovary syndrome? — PART G — Hair loss, including of the outer third of your eyebrows and/or eyelashes? Dry skin? Dry, strawlike hair that tangles easily? Thin, brittle fingernails? Fluid retention or swollen ankles? An additional few pounds, or 20, that you just can’t lose? High cholesterol? Bowel movements less often than once a day, or you feel you don’t completely evacuate? Recurrent headaches? Decreased sweating? Muscle or joint aches or poor muscle tone (you became an old lady overnight)? Tingling in your hands or feet? Cold hands and feet? Cold intolerance? Heat intolerance? A sensitivity to cold (you shiver more easily than others and are always wearing layers)? Slow speech, perhaps with a hoarse or halting voice? A slow heart rate, or bradycardia (fewer than 60 beats per minute, and not because you’re an elite athlete)? Lethargy (you feel like you’re moving through molasses)? Fatigue, particularly in the morning? Slow brain, slow thoughts? Difficulty concentrating? Sluggish reflexes, diminished reaction time, even a bit of apathy? Low sex drive, and you’re not sure why? Depression or moodiness (the world is not as rosy as it used to be)? A prescription for the latest antidepressant but you’re still not feeling like yourself? Heavy periods or other menstrual problems? Infertility or miscarriage? Preterm birth? An enlarged thyroid/goiter? Difficulty swallowing? Enlarged tongue? A family history of thyroid problems?”
― Sara Gottfried, The Hormone Cure