According to the latest statistics from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC):
- 66% of adults over the age of 20 are overweight (including obese)
- 32% of adults over the age of 20 are obese
- 17% of teens ages 12 to 19 are overweight.
- 19% of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight
Those are really horrible statistics. We have become a large group of people, but we lie to ourselves to try and find peace with that by saying things like: “I am comfortable with my appearance”, “I am not as big as her”, or joking about it saying “I’m shaking what my mom gave me”. I have news: your mom did NOT give you that. But it may have given you some bad eating habits.
There is no magic bullet behind weight gain, and there are a myriad of reasons why we may suffer from it more or less than those around us. But there are some simple tips and nutritional knowledge that I can give you that can help you. Since most people don’t like to read sooooooooo many articles, I’m going to keep this as simple as possible:
1. Stop eating white trash!
White trash is typically refined sugar, white bread, white buns, bagels, white rice, white flour, tortillas, white potatoes, white corn, etc. But I like to expand this definition to include what foods you would expect to find on a typical American barbecue (I call it the “white trash barbecue”): hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, macaroni salad, fried chicken, French fries, French fries, baked beans (sugar!), corn on the cob (metabolizes to sugar and starch!), and then of course the pies, cakes, and muffins for dessert. And beer and soft drinks to go with it all.
The first obvious mistake with these white junk foods is that many of them are not “food” at all. They are refined and processed, extracting nutrients in some cases (to preserve shelf life), adding synthetic nutrients again, adding nitrates and nitrites as preservatives, sugars, corn syrup, etc. While many of us will avoid butter or royal mayonnaise in an attempt to lose weight, we will continue to eat these other non-food offenders all the time. At least our bodies know how to handle “real fat” or “real food” like butter. With adulterated food products, our bodies have a hard time knowing what to store and what to burn.
The second obvious mistake with white junk foods is that most of them metabolize to a high glycemic index and raise your blood sugar, which triggers the release of insulin in your body; in turn, it tells your body to store excess as fat or to create new fat cells. This response occurs BEFORE you hit the gym. So the next time you think you’re going to burn it off at the gym later, remember that your body is busy storing it hours in advance.
Since your body doesn’t get the proper nutrients from “whole” foods (unadulterated, unprocessed, uncanned, unprocessed), he clings to everything he can.
2. Know the health history of the animal you are eating.
Do you know if your salmon was farmed, injected with antibiotics, and fed corn and pink food coloring? Many farmed salmon are. The vast majority. Are your chickens injected with saline to make them fat, or are they (again) fed corn and caged so they can’t move (so they gain weight quickly) and are they injected with hormones and antibiotics? Make sure … they are sometimes raised without antibiotics, but pumped with them on the way to meat processing plants.
Same with beef. It is still America’s favorite meat. But the vast majority of cows are kept in pens and fed only corn, AGAIN corn. They are kept confined so that they gain weight quickly. They continually eat what is NOT part of their natural diet. They are brought to their full weight in 1 year (making them obese) so they can be euthanized BEFORE they die from the ulcers they get on the corn diet (which, as I said, is not part of their normal eating).
That is why we eat obese and sick animals. No wonder we ourselves are sick and obese!
The reason this is so important is also because of toxins and how they relate to fat cells and obesity. I was recently working in a women’s gym and EVERYONE there wanted to lose weight. But their eyes would cross if I told them they have an obvious gallbladder problem. So, I know that for people to listen, “weight is the bait”, so now I am going to tell you why you should be concerned about the health of the animal you are eating.
Simply put, toxins are stored in fat cells. Those two things are married. So if you can detox, it will make it easier for you to lose weight. Women: pay attention to this: we have a higher percentage of fat in our body naturally. So we are even MORE susceptible to toxin storage. And again, it creates the vicious cycle of difficulty and / or inability to lose weight. Meats have a higher percentage of fat, so it is more important to pay attention when considering their origins.
It is also widely believed (myself included) that these stored toxins are largely responsible for many of the cancers in our reproductive organs.
I am not a vegetarian myself, but I advise people to be careful when buying their meats. This is a great reason why we have such a sick society. We demand cheap food, but we are definitely getting what we pay for. Trust me, I’m very budget conscious myself these days and can’t always buy the highest quality food. But I have decided to reduce the meat a little to eat better qualities.
THE GOOD NEWS
As more and more people in the US are exposed to the truth about the food supply, vendors listen to us and give us what we want. We have more access to organic food than ever; We have Farmer’s Markets, we have the Internet, so these things like “unhealthy farming practices” are no longer a secret for long. We can go to our local Trader Joe’s and order grass-fed beef. We can easily find “cage-free / allowed to graze” chickens. The more people ask for it, the more economics of supply and demand will drive prices into a more affordable range.
But awareness is key, and we need to make the changes ourselves AND tell our families and friends … that way, we not only encourage ourselves and gain support, but create the kind of demand for healthier foods that will help our bodies to be healthier. able to metabolize better.
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In conclusion, those are 2 simple things you can do right away for your health and the health of all your loved ones: eat food in its natural state (more vegetables of all kinds and colors, not white junk!), And be mindful the health of the animal whose meat you are eating.
Taking care of your diet on both fronts addresses two KEY issues behind weight loss difficulties for almost everyone: insulin and toxins. I guarantee that if you follow these two tips, you are worth more than all the calorie counting, food weighing, and lap band surgeries in the world.