This is the question many Americans are asking themselves these days. The answer lies in a combination of issues, none of which involve swallowing the latest ultra expensive diet pill.
We as a society no longer look at food like fuel. We see it as entertainment, comfort and time filler. Think of it this way – You just filled your car with gas. You head on down the road and see another 7-11. Do you automatically think “wooo gas!” and pull over and top it off just because you can? Of course not. Yet how many of us have gone out to dinner, leaving the restaurant exclaiming, “I am so full!” yet, walk into our house only minutes later and grab a snack?
How did we end up viewing food not as sustenance but as an activity?
The other problem we are running into is the food itself. It used to be that if you read a label on a packaged food item you could readily understand it. These days that isn’t the case. There are muti-syllabic words that require a degree in chemical engineering to understand. This should be a warning sign. If you don’t know what it is and cannot even pronounce it, put it down.
One of the most prevalent additives in the food supply these days is HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). Though this one is easy to say and we have been bombarded with advertisements sponsored by the Corn Council telling us not to worry and how corn syrup is just like sugar only made from corn made to put our minds at ease. The reality of it is corn syrup is added to things that do not need to be sweetened in the first place (such as chicken salads, condiments like ketchup, and even breads) and it does cause weight gain. Additionally, most of the corn produced here in the USA has now been contaminated with genetically modified seed crops. This corn is not made by nature. It is man made in a laboratory. It is not healthy and can cause a wide array of ill health effects including:
tumors, metabolic syndrome, liver degeneration and necrosis, abnormal aging and premature death. These effects have been proven in studies done on rats, and I am quite sure will become more and more evident in the human population as time passes and more of these GMO foods are consumed.
Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners – “diet” has become synonymous with “weight loss”. Just because your food or beverage reads “diet” don’t be fooled into thinking it will help you in any way loose weight. It has no calories. However, these chemicals, though they can pass through the human body, were never intended to. They confuse your system actually making you hungrier leading to weight gain, not loss. As if this rouse wasn’t bad enough, aspartame has a laundry list of side effects including: obesity, depression, brain damage, insomnia, headaches, loss of memory, nausea, PMS, panic attacks, epileptic seizures, and cancer. Aspartame may also cause damage to the central nervous system. Once it enters the intestines it is converted in to two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine as well as methyl alcohol and formaldehyde! Methyl alcohol can cross the blood brain barrier causing brain damage, blindness or cancer.
The companies manufacturing these products do not care about your health. They do not care about your weight. They only care about their profit off of you and your willingness to buy their toxic products.
This is your body and your life. Take control of it again.
When you choose to eat real food “organic non GMO” which, in the old days was simply called “food” your body reacts differently than it does to the chemical and modified and processed counterparts.
This is another primary reason for weight gain…. In eating, our bodies seek nutrition to be able to run properly. Your body signals that it is hungry. You buy a Big Mac, fries and a soda. You eat your lunch (consuming upwards of 1300 calories) only to find that you may actually still be hungry! HOW is that even possible? Many people will feel horrible about themselves because of this… when in reality, it isn’t simply a lack of willpower, your body didn’t get what it needed in that meal. In turn it tells you so and requests more food. Quantity of calories is not what counts, we have all been lead to believe that “a calorie is a calorie” that simply is not true. Nutritional content is what is important. When your body eats a meal, regardless of calories, which contains proper nutrition you feel satisfied. You will no longer have the urge to keep eating.
Now, add to the things we are choosing to put in our bodies the sedentary lifestyle many of us lead and you have a recipe for disaster. The average American works a job where not a lot of physical activity is required. The old phrase “if you don’t use it, you lose it!” applies. As we age in complacency just going through the routine of daily life we are losing muscle tone and gaining fat.
Where do we turn for help? We as a nation have somehow been duped into believing the media when it tells us that magic pills or sprinkling some new random substance all over our food before we eat it is our answer to losing weight. Many advertised on television don’t even tell you what the ingredients are, just expecting you to trust them because they purchased advertising time on your favorite station. This is dangerous. Always know what you are consuming so that you can judge for yourself if it is safe and worth the risk.
So, what’s the answer? – There was a book written a few years back called “Eat Less, Move More” – They had it partly right. I would change it to “Eat Better, Move More.”
Add in more movement to your life. Go for a walk, park away from the stores, take the stairs, choose activities you find fun that require you to get physical – hiking, canoeing, going to the gym or a fitness class you like: yoga, martial arts, aerobics, Zumba, any increase in activity is positive.
Try to change your mindset when it comes to eating. Food IS fuel for the body. Its not there to comfort you or keep you occupied. So before you snack, ask yourself… Am I actually hungry? If you are, great. Carry on. If you are not, then put it down. This will recondition your mind when done continually.
Cut out of your food intake: all artificial sweeteners. Read the labels, you will be shocked to see how much food has hidden corn syrup in them.
Eat organic: When you grocery shop for fruits and vegetables look at the stickers. They are coded. If the code starts with a 9 – great! It’s grown organically. 4 – conventionally grown, and 8 – don’t touch it. This is GMO guaranteed produce.
Find an organic café or make your meals at home – chain restaurants and most restaurants in general buy their food as low cost as possible to be able to keep the prices low and profit high. This also means using lesser quality foods.
And last but not least – drink pure clean water – as close to a gallon a day as you can is recommended.
Vitamins and supplementation are wonderful ways to get the things you need when you cannot always eat right and get them through your foods. Though, food should be your primary source. For natural help with weight loss please visit http://www.hcbl.com/category/Weight-Loss/
All of our products are natural, and have all of the ingredients listed for you to review on your own or with your physician. They also carry a 100% money back 365 day guarantee, so if a supplement isn’t right for you, simply return it.
Good health IS your natural state. Believe it. Live it.
References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793308/
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/09/gmo-corn-rat-tumor
http://www.naturalnews.com/022785_food_sugar_sweeteners.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6210.cfm
We tend to think of dandelions as weeds that pop up in our lawns when spring rolls around. As kids we loved them. If you held them up to your face in the sunshine they would reflect yellow, and you could flip the flower heads off of them launching dandelion wars. 
