Much of this has been blamed on Elvis’ deep-fried, Southern-comfort diet and well-known penchant for opiates. Lots of fatty and highly processed foods mixed with motility-slowing drugs will surely affect a body’s ability to purge, but what if there were other factors as well?

“All the medications he was taking wouldn’t have caused the degree of constipation he had,” claims Dr. Nick, who noted that at the autopsy pathologists found barium in Presley’s stool that had been there for three or four months.

“The nerves have to stimulate the colon to propel the material out,” the Dr. notes. “Either there were no nerves or there was a viral disease that affects the nerves. I’m just using this as an example, but polio, for instance, is a virus that affects the nerves.”

Of course, I have my own theory on the matter. Did you expect anything less?

As much as Dr. Nick is being accused of presenting this theory now as a way to exonerate his role in Elvis’ death as his drug prescriber, I do think he’s spot-on about the nerves of the colon and that they were obviously not functioning in normal peristalsis, the muscular contractions that propel waste matter through the colon and out of the body through the anus.

In a healthy colon, the sensations of peristalsis signal that it is time to get thee to a toilet. In a chronically stopped-up colon, peristalsis slows or ceases completely, and the colon becomes so stretched and distorted that the sensation that you “have to go” is muted or nonexistant.

Many readers of this blog have commented that fiber and water can help clear occasional constipation, and they are correct when you are looking at a normal colon in a healthy person. Adding fiber to a diet can actually  make constipation worse if there is an underlying inflammatory condition that is not being addressed.

In untreated Celiac disease sufferers, for example, the continual and chronic irritation of the lining of the bowels and intestines can cause permanent damage to the nerves and tissues of the gastro-intestinal system, including the sensitive fingerlike villi lining the gut that are responsible for breaking down and absorbing nutrients and assisting peristalsis.

Scientific American magazine reported in the August, 2009, issue that Celiac sufferers and in fact most, if not all, autoimmune disease sufferers, have unusually permeable guts due to constant inflammatory response to environmental substances, i.e., undiagnosed food and chemical sensitivities. Because this inflammation negatively affects the assimilation of nutrients, symptoms can manifest that are as diverse as anemia, arthritis, bone loss, depression, fatigue, infertility, joint pain, seizures, and numbness in the hands and feet. Etcetera, etcetera.

As Celiac patients know, the only  way to heal the bowel and feel better is to eliminate the cause of the inflammation and irritation, in this case gluten in the diet, and allow the tissues to calm down and recover. If identified early enough, the bowel can completely heal and regain normal function. After too many years of continual inflammation, however, the damage may become permanent.

While only 1% of the global population actually suffers from gluten intolerance, the numbers unknowingly afflicted with gluten or other food or chemical additive sensitivities could be exponentially higher. These “Type IV delayed hypersensitivity reactions” spark a histamine/cytokine/chemokine mediator release that can manifest as inflammation localized in the bowels and producing constipation and/or diarreah or as a general system-wide inflammation that can look like anything from migraines to  fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, ADD/ADHD… and on and on.

Perhaps Elvis suffered from undiagnosed food sensitivities that instigated a constant inflammatory response in his colon, effectively closing it to excretions and causing the stool to back-up and expand the colon exponentially in diameter to contain all that rotting fecal matter, and hence lose muscle tone and sensitivity in the villi.

In my experience, once you cross that tolerance threshold for one substance, the thresholds for others drop lower as well, causing a cascade of substances which you can no longer tolerate and so that you become constantly inflamed internally. Returning to a point below these lowered tolerance thresholds takes information, time, and dedication, but it is possible.

What can we learn from these revelations into The King’s toileting life?

First, it’s probably wise to lay off the opiates, especially if you’re already constipated. They’re not going to help.

Second, a deep fried diet laden with processed foods and famous for peanut-butter-banana-and-bacon sandwiches is not conducive to robust health.

And, third, don’t wait until it’s too late to act to save your colon — and your body — from permanent damage like the kind seen in Elvis. Dr. Nick offered Elvis a colonectomy while he was alive in a desperate attempt to find a solution to his chronic problem. Elvis demurred (it would have meant wearing an external colon bag). It’s infinitely more preferable to change your diet than lose your colon, don’t you think?

If you are suffering without finding relief, you might want to consider looking into possible food and/or chemical additive sensitivity issues (not food “allergies” that create IgE antibodies, but “sensitivities” that cause the release of mediators like histamines and cytokines and cause inflammation).

We can’t all be “The King,” but at least we can rule over our own bodies and take control over our own health!

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Check it out, enter, and win your own signed copy of Glorious One-Pot Meals!

Of course, you can always purchase one for yourself over at Glorious One-Pot Meals.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

I saw you do a cooking demonstration in a cookware store last month. I am having trouble trying to choose some recipes to get started with the One Pot Meals. My kids are back home from college, living here while they look for jobs, so I am cooking for four now. My family likes everything, so could you give me a few suggestions -like your most popular recipes – that will help me get going? Thanks!! – Cissy K, Englewood, CO

Hi Cissy,

I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble selecting recipes but glad to know you feel there is a large selection in the book (more than 100 recipes!).

Here are a few recipes that fans have told me are their favorites. I would suggest you look at the ingredients and see if they are flavors that your family likes, and then go from there.

Remember: everything in a GOPM is substitutable. That means that any protein can be substituted for any protein, any carb for any carb, and any veggie for any other veggie. Feel free to mix an match fresh and frozen ingredients within a recipe, and swap out ingredients your family doesn’t like for ones they do.

Honey and Spice Pork (page 97)
Bahamian Chicken (page 118)
Rosemary Chicken (page 150)
African Peanut Butter Stew (page 116)
Chicken Cacciatore (page 122)
Scallops and Sweet Potatoes (page 74)
Thai Curry with Tufu (page 200)
Cajun Fish (page 26)

Be sure you are using a cast iron Dutch oven and that your oven is at the right temp (450F) and I’m sure you’ll enjoy whatever recipe you choose to make!

Check out some of my streaming video recipe demonstrations here and here, too, for more ideas. I like to make the most delicious meals on camera! 

Happy cooking!

PS: You might enjoy a GOPM cooking class on DVD — they are 50% off this month and, along with autographed cookbooks, are available over at the Glorious One-Pot Meals store!

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Glorious One-Pot Meals introduces my unique, patented infusion cooking method through over 100 recipes for quick and easy dinners.

Created by layering whole foods into a Dutch oven and then flash-cooking for 30-45 minutes, Glorious One-Pot Meals are deliciously nutritious complete meals — and clean-up is only one pot!

I have resisted selling the new Glorious One-Pot Meals directly from my website thus far this year, but now I am offering to personally autograph any cookbooks ordered through the GOPM site store through December, 2009.

Who could use a copy of Glorious One-Pot Meals to make their lives easier and healthier?

- busy moms
- empty nesters
- singles
- health-conscious people
- budget-conscious people
- those with food allergies (gluten-free, dairy-free, etc.)
- vegetarians and vegans
- time-challenged people
- seniors
- new graduates
- R.V.ers

Did I miss anyone?! Probably. The better question may be: Who wouldn’t want to have a quick and easy solution at their fingertips to the daily question of “What’s for dinner?”

Purchase your autographed copy of Glorious One-Pot Meals by December 20th and receive it by Christmas!

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Laura Miller explains it better than I can in Salon’s review of Food Matters, a recent book by Mark Bittman that’s “an unusual blend of manifesto, self-help manual and cookbook designed to convince people that they can drastically improve their diets with relatively little discomfort.”

She writes: “Of all the challenges confronting the “Food Matters” plan for “responsible eating” … probably the single most obdurate is the fact that so many contemporary Americans simply don’t know how to cook. By “cook,” I don’t mean being able to concoct an impressive dinner the one night a month you have guests over while otherwise subsisting on nuked Lean Cuisine. Real home cooking means having a good repertoire of reliable, quick, uncomplicated recipes and understanding enough of the underlying principles to improvise when needed. It means knowing how to stock a pantry and plan your menus so that you shop for groceries only once a week. It’s a set of skills manifested as an attitude, something you can acquire only through regular practice, and it’s the one thing that can make a person truly at ease in a kitchen.”

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Thanks, Susan! Please keep spreading the word and enjoying deliciously healthy meals.

I love hearing stories like Susan’s — they keep me going when it feels like the world just doesn’t get it about how revolutionary and helpful this cooking method is. Your stories, dear readers, inspire me to keep developing recipes for the next book and not give up on this career path. I am so appreciative when you share them with me. 

Happy cooking!

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Food, Inc.

Following the honorable footsteps first laid in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle,and coming from a movie lineage that includes Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me, Food Inc.’s goal is to raise awareness and bring focus to these dirty little industrial food production secrets that make us sick to think about as well as physically ill.

Watch the Food, Inc. trailer to get a taste of what’s in store… or rather, what’s in the stores.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Luckily, we, the purchasing public, are not so easily fooled.

High fructose corn syrup is the result of a highly complex chemical process conducted in a laboratory — this stuff does not occur naturally on our planet, it has to be synthesized. Just knowing this should be setting off warning bells.

If you read Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, you know that we overproduce corn in this country, and in an effort to help our farmers add value to the US corn crop the University of Iowa developed a host of corn byproducts, including HFCS.

A sample of products made with high fructose corn syrup

HFCS exploded on the market in the early 1980s because it was cheaper than sugar and had a longer shelf-life. Coincidentally, the obesity epidemic in this country really began to build around this time (it really exploded in the 1990s). In the last twenty years, HFCS has captured 56% of the sweetener marketplace. Hmmmm…. Could there be a connection?

There have been enough complaints stirred up about high fructose corn syrup in products that some companies are responding to customer demand by switching to real cane or beet sugar, including Snapple, Ocean Spray, Log Cabin Syrup, and some Pepsi products.

Is it better to ingest products made with sugar than those made with HFCS? In a word: Yes.

And no.

While sugar will be metabolized much better than HFCS, it can still carry a glycemic load and can spike blood sugar levels and then send you crashing down afterward. The most preferable way to eat sugar is to have sweet things following a healthy meal, when the stomach has other foods in it to buffer the digestion. The least perferable way to eat sugar is on an empty stomach.

Most unfortunately, I did see recently that soon all of the sugar beets in this country will be genetically modified beets. Sigh.

When I purchase sugar to use at home, I choose raw, unbleached, organic cane sugar.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Yeah, you read that right: restaurants intentionally add things to their foods to make them craveable, so that you truly can’t eat just one. I’m sure you’re not completely surprised to learn this, but you may be surprised as to the extent.

In Kessler’s new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, he describes dumpster-diving to rescue ingredient labels from popular chains like Chili’s, Bennigans, etc. to see just what is inside those mouthwatering dishes like Southwestern Eggrolls or Boneless Shanghai Wings. Ironically, it was Kessler when he was with the FDA who instituted the labeling of restaurant foods that travel across state lines to begin with, but as a citizen when he politely asked to see those labels he was flatly denied.

Dumpsters, though, are open to anyone who cares to take the plunge. We’re lucky Kessler decided to do just that.

The labels showed the foods were bathed in salt, fat and sugars, beyond what a diner might expect by reading the menu, Kessler said. The ingredient list for Southwestern Eggrolls mentioned salt eight different times; sugars showed up five times. The “egg rolls,” which are deep-fried in fat, contain chicken that has been chopped up like meatloaf to give it a “melt in the mouth” quality that also makes it faster to eat. By the time a diner has finished this appetizer, she has consumed 910 calories, 57 grams of fat and 1,960 milligrams of sodium. Yikes!

This is a salt-fat-sugar one-two-three-pow that make you crave more and more of it, leading to overeating.

Don’t assume that this practice is limited to Chili’s; you should assume that EVERY item on a restaurant menu contains more fat, salt, and sugar than it would if you were to re-create the dish at home. That’s how they make things so tasty, after all.

It’s a pretty good argument for cooking at home more often, where you have full control over what you and your family ingest. Not to mention the economics of eating out… Maybe this is why cookbook sales are up 9% while sales of other types of books are down?

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

What a great idea! Take the loss of a job as a gift of time to focus on your health! When else are you going to have as much free time to hang out at the gym? Think of all the benefits: lose weight, get more energy, enjoy a better outlook on life, live a longer life…

I recently read a fun novel where the main character took an early exit package from her company and discovered happiness by using the time to start exercising regularly (walking) and turning a hobby into a business. Along the way, she finds some new friends and expands her horizons. If you’re looking for a feel-good novel starring some uppity middle-aged women, this one was recommended by Barbara Kingsolver.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.