Judging by your comments, some of you are taking umbrage with our analysis of the weight loss sector. In retrospect, we should have kept the analysis to ourselves. But then, those of you who are interested wouldn’t have the perspective that the analysis provides.
The long and short of our analysis of weight loss products shows that the historic approaches to weight loss delivers short-term benefits. But, once the: stimulants, fat blockers, carb blockers, starvation diets, specialty diets, special packaged foods or strenuous exercise stops, people regain weight.
Some time ago, we prepared a paper titled: “Today’s Choices are Tomorrow’s Consequences”. In it, we made the point that the dietary choices people are making, everyday, contribute to either declining health or reliable health.
Choosing fast, processed and preserved food is a choice, made knowingly or unknowingly, to accept the prospects of declining health.
Further, we suggested that people could reduce the likelihood of enduring the symptoms of declining health by choosing whole, fresh food more often and filling the gap with supplements.
Next, we prepared a paper titled: “The Missing Diagnosis”. In it, we made the point that many of the discomforts of declining health can be attributed to one diagnosis: Hand to Mouth Disease.
Frankly, I can only empathize with those of you who are experiencing declining health, because I am healthy. I make the choice, everyday to invest in health.
I chose to consume foods and beverages that feed my body rather than those that challenge my body. And, I use supplements to fill the gaps brought on by choosing to eat cooked foods (I take enzymes) and live in Colorado where fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t grown year-round. (I take trace minerals, red and green phytonutrients).
We prepared a paper title: “Invest in Health or Pay to be Sick” to describe the logic involved in making a decision like the choice I make to care for my body.
The point is: dealing with being overweight or obese is not like dealing with an occasional headache. You can’t take a pill and make it go away. Gaining weight, from our perspective, is one of the symptoms of declining health brought on by dietary choices that culminate in metabolic dysfunction, malnutrition, constipation and addiction to foods with a high glycemic load.
Being overweight is a symptom. It is a predictor – that you will experience other symptoms, in future years, that are the consequences of you choices.
Some years ago, we presented a paper, Healthy People Don’t Get Sick. It is as true today as the day we presented the paper. While you should read this paper, the summary is: if you treat you body with respect, it will return the favor.
Another article: “Caring for Your Body”, strips away the scientific jargon to examine, in plain English, the simple elegance of the functioning of the body. But, it is only applicable once you examine and discard the myths that are contributing to declining health.
Back to Weight Loss …
A good guess is that most of you are malnourished from eating too many “quickie” meals and over-stimulated at work and home. Why throw more wood on the fire?
All of the attempts to deal with weight gain fail to deliver, in the long run, because they fail to account for the cause – habits. The false paradigms the allow people to believe they can ignore the needs of their bodies and still stay healthy; that someone, or something, can fix what they have broken.
When you stop treating weight gain and obesity as a disease, and recognize that it is a sign of declining health, which is a symptom of Hand to Mouth Disease, the prospects for meaningful long-term weight management improve dramatically.
The choice is yours. If you continue to abuse the resiliency of the human body, it will, sooner or later, fail to bounce back from your abuse.
