When is a Diet not a Diet? When Its a Lifestyle!

Dieting and weight loss is almost certainly the most lucrative of all health- related businesses both online and off. our waistlines are bulging, our health is deteriorating and diet "guru's" are on the run..all the way to the bank!

Simply put, we have become a nation (indeed, a World) of overfed, undernourished and over-indulged complainers, whose problems are always "someone else's fault" and who expect an instant fix for everything from obesity to cancer.

Well guess what? IT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.

Yes, you heard me correctly - unless you actually make some effort, take responsibility and change your lifestyle, no amount of short-term self-denial or little pills/patches/potions are going to make ANY long-term difference.

You see, those of us who are overweight, and that's over half the population now, haven't got there overnight. It takes weeks, months even years of eating too much of the wrong foods to get to the state we're in (depending on just HOW overweight we are). Logic then dictates that it is going to take considerable time, proportional to the original weight GAIN in order to lose significant weight.

What's more, if you then expect to be able to go back to your previous lifestyle, guess what's going to happen - yep, you guessed it, you will go right back to being just as overweight again.

The ONLY simple, reliable and practical method of weight loss then becomes to change your lifestyle. If you are not prepared to do so, you should take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide to accept what you are - whatever that is, becasue unless you decide to make that lifestyle change, that is how you'll stay. Period.

Now, this may not be what you want to hear, but it IS what you NEED to hear (if you want to lose weight). Few phrases are truer than "what you are is what you eat". It then follows that if you want to be something different, you need to EAT something different, i.e. change your lifestyle.

Unfortunately, the World is full of those eager to cash in from your misfortune - everyone from "slimmers clubs" to Doctors and pharmaceutical companies are eager to sell you "this weeks cure" - at a price. And WHY are they eager to do that? Because a) it makes them a tidy profit and b) they know you'll be back for more next time you have a wedding/party/vacation to go to that makes you want to get in that dress/outfit/swimsuit that you bought in anticipation of losing "a few pounds".

Unfortunately, most of the information trotted out (most of it from the marketing machines of big business) is little more than propaganda designed to keep you in the "diet industry" as a customer for ever. The fact is that if you are overweight (except in a VERY few cases) you eat too much of the wrong foods. Period. The question then becomes, "what are the wrong foods", and THAT is where the problems arise.

Since the 1950s (shortly after margerines were introduced) we have been fed the propaganda that "saturated fat is bad for you", including butter, red meat, dairy products etc. Now, it is perfectly true that due to modern production that many of these otherwise natural foods are tainted with chemicals, hormones, poisons and other things that would make your skin crawl.

What is patently clear is that our ancestors ate these foods for centuries without developing "high cholesterol" or "ischemic heart disease", both of which are a recent phenomenon and followed directly from the conversion of diets from natural fats to unnatural plastics (otherwise known as margerines, hydrogenated vegetable oils and trans fats). You need only look at the work of Dr Mary Enig or Dr Udo Erasmus to understand this (try copying and pasting either name into the google search box below and check out the results - they will amaze you!).

At the same time, we have been told by Government, Doctors, Dietician and scientists to eat more carbohydrates, such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta (and other flour products) etc, i.e. starchy carbohydrates.

The result - ever increasing waistlines and increasing rates of chronic disease! Does that sound like a successful plan to you? Me neither!

At the same time, the PR machines of these huge conglomerates and self-serving "professional" groups have been working overtime to bury the properly-researched and infinitely more appropriate advice from those who have chosen to research obesity and heart disease independently of corporate research grants.

The work of innovators like Weston Price, Linus Pauling (TWICE Nobel prize winner!), Mary Enig and Udo Erasmus clearly shows the folly in this "traditional" approach and the much greater benefit from eating a balanced diet high in organically grown fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, natural fats and oils, (unpolluted or chemically treated) water and (according to personal preferences) some organically reared and humanely reared meat.

What is not natural, and CANNOT be argued as such is to have huge amounts of fast foods, packet foods, ready meals, sweets, alcohol, canned foods and other foods full of chemicals, preservatives, "flavourings", "enhancers", hormones and "bulking agents". Such compounds do not exist in a healthy, natural diet in the same way that cattle do not naturally eat corn, soya, pork, beans or, to put it bluntly, chicken shit!

What this highlights is a huge gap between what we are taught by corporate interests (invariably trying to sell something) and what we NEED (wholesome, natural food).

The only way to resolve this issue is to research it for yourself and look at the examples of peoples (such as the 26 societies isolated from Western culture examined in detail by Weston Price) who have NO history of heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer or any of the other common chronic diseases.

Then it comes down to a simple choice - change your lifestyle or live with the consequences of your current one and accept that it is YOUR CHOICE and not someone else's fault.

Brian Adamson
Natural Health Information Centre

Understanding Weight Management

Glycemic index and it's effects on weight management

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