The biggest problem that this author sees, in the US today, when
it comes to what foods are optimal for weight loss and health, is the
confusion over the subject. One expert says one thing, while another
expert completely contradicts the first one and says something totally
different.I feel that a little bit of thinking and common sense goes a long way towards solving the dilemma of what foods are beneficial for weight loss and our declining health statistics.
If we lose the weight, but in the process, ruin our health, it is all for nothing as we will soon gain it all back plus some and our health will be closer to the brink of serious, possibly debilitating disease. This is the situation I was faced with about 2 years ago, and it caused me to get really serious about my health. I did a lot of research on the subject.
What I found when I started looking at the data and the conclusions I reached were really common sense, and I think if you will do the same, you will most likely come to the same commonsensical conclusion.
When you look at the graphs of escalating levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, celiac disease, cancer, autism, ADD, IBS and many other "modern" diseases that are far too numerous to mention here with the increasing consumption of refined foods, High Fructose Corn Syrup, sugar, genetically modified crops, feedlot animal products, dairy where the cattle are injected with growth hormones for increased production, meat that is treated with antibiotics to offset the diseases caused by unnatural grain diets and vegetables that are treated with pesticides the graphs are almost identical in their rise from 100 years ago to today.
What is going on here?
Medical Science has progressed by millennia with the advent of super computers that can do in minutes now, what used to take years. So why, with all of this "progress" are we regressing when it comes to our health as a whole?
Why is obesity and diabetes increasing, why is heart disease progressing, why are cancers more commonplace? Why are ADD, Celiac Disease, autism and countless other maladies going through the roof, when only 50 years ago many were almost unheard of or at least extremely rare?
What is different? When you do a little research, it is overwhelmingly obvious. Our food is different. What we eat on a regular basis as normal American food has undergone monumental changes for the worse in the past 50 years.
We are a society that values and embraces progress. I propose to you that we are regressing, not progressing as far as weight gain and health matters are concerned.
So, what do you do about it and how does this concern weight loss?
The answer is, you rewind the clock about two hundred years when it comes to making food choices. It really is as simple as that. The wheat we eat today is far different from the wheat our grandparents ate and that applies to soy products, corn products and many others. It also applies to mass production feedlot animal and their products, refined oils that are touted as "good for you" because they are easy and cheap to produce, and vegetables that have pesticides sprayed on them to increase production.
Many, extensively researched books could be written concerning this subject, but that is beyond the scope of this article and my only goal here is to bring to your attention, what I have found to be the worst offenders of abnormal weight gain and worse, diseases caused by diet in the western world.
When I changed my diet to line up with this, the weight fell off and all of my biomarkers of health improved drastically. It is up to you to further research what I am proposing as a fit and healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle change that has done wonders for me, my family and many friends.
The Worst Offenders
1) Wheat, Corn and Soy Products. (Read "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis M.D.)
2) Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup and the many products where these are hidden.
3) Refined Foods (Read "Samurai Diet" by Nate Miyaki)
4) Processed Foods (Read "The Fat Burning Kitchen" by Mike Geary and Catherine Ebeling)
5) Feedlot Produced Animals and their Products. (Chose instead grass fed, free range, cage free and wild caught)
I encourage you to research what I propose as a fit and healthy lifestyle. If you do, I'm sure it will all start to make sense to you too, and hopefully spare you the agony of unnecessary diseases brought on by our diet in today's world.
