Are you a bit overweight, a little too fat, or bordering on obesity? Have you ever had someone mention to you that your condition is unhealthy? Does the one piece of advice that you hear constantly have something to do with improving your diet?One thing that you can be sure of is that almost all Americans could answer yes to at least one of those questions. What you might not know is that your liver could be the root cause of your problems and that all of your efforts at weight control have failed because you did not address the role that it is playing in your health. I realize that over the years you have been taught about your liver’s function as a filter for your blood; but you probably never heard it used in the same sentence as weight loss.Remember that bile that we discussed in Day 12? This yellowish-green fluid is produced in your liver, stored in your gall bladder and secreted into your small intestine. It is here that it takes on the responsibility for your weight.This bile is used by your body to break down fats and eliminate them. In a perfect world, your liver would continually produce enough bile and keep you healthy. However, in our polluted environment, the bile cannot absorb the nutrients that it needs because your liver is congested with toxins, metals and drugs.Recent research into bile and its functions has shown the importance of adding foods to your diet that contain lecithin. This is part of the first phase of detoxification aimed at cleaning and resting your liver. It includes eliminating ‘bad’ foods from your diet and reducing your total caloric intake to allow time for your liver to recuperate.In the “Fat-Flush Plan", there are specific rules to follow like do not mix milk and meat or do not mix fruits with vegetables. As in most good diet change plans, this book also advocates moderate exercise. In Phase II, you are instructed to increase your daily intake of calories and add more exercise; and in Phase III, these regimens are increased to even higher levels. All of this is designed to bring your body back into balance.If you can answer yes to any of the questions listed below, get yourself a copy of Ann Louise Gittleman’s book:Do you drink caffenated beveragesAre you taking presciption or OTC drugsDo you eat foods with hydrogenated fatsDo you take birth control pillsAre you on hormone replacement therapyDid you take antibiotics 2 or more times in the last yearDo you avoid fat at all costsDo you crave sweete and high-carb foodsDo you eat carbs 2 or more times dailyDoes at lease one meal contain processed foodsDo you eat less that 2 servings of protein dailyDo you drink less than 64 ounces of water dailyDo you sleep fewer than 8 hours a nightDo you lead a high stress lifeDo you skip meals because you are too busyDo you have a sedentary lifestyleWhat I found about the “Fat-Flush Plan" is that it referenced the connection between liver problems and free radicals. This fits in nicely with my belief in looking at our bodies as a large operating system consisting of many sub-systems that are continually interacting with each other. This means that if one system gets out of whack the others the other systems have the ability to take on the duties of the poorly functioning system. It does not present a problem until the healthy systems get overloaded and begin to fail also.Day 13 of my experiment and so far nothing at all unusual to report. I am just not used to taking medications on a schedule like this. I think it is having a positive effect on my psoriasis though.