Weight loss not a goal in itself

The weight loss industry grows at six per cent a year and yet the incidence of obesity also increases by six per cent every year! Obviously something is not working.

To make matters worse, we are deafened by a cacophony of conflicting dietary advice from the Cookie Diet to the Cabbage Soup Diet and everything in between. If you’ve found it hard to maintain or lose weight, you need to go beyond the familiar “diet and exercise” mantra. There are three hidden causes for the obesity epidemic.

1. The “Overfed / Undernourished” Syndrome
Depleted soil conditions and refining give us nutritionally bankrupt foods which fill us without nourishing us. This leads to constant hunger at the cellular level.

Solution: Turn to “superfoods” such as wheat grass and alfalfa sprouts to satisfy your ‘cellular’ hunger. Voila! You will eat less and feel more satisfied without dieting!

2. The “Craving-for-Refined-Foods” Syndrome
It is not the lack of will power, but undiagnosed food allergies that make you crave processed foods high in sugar, flour, yeast or fat. Such foods force the body to protect itself from symptoms such as fatigue and digestive upsets by releasing narcotic-like chemicals called opioids. You get addicted to this feeling and unknowingly seek out foods that make you euphoric. To protect from these invading food allergens, your fat cells bloat and act as buffers between the ‘toxic’ chemicals and your organs. No amount of dieting will get rid of that stored fat!

Solution: Identify food allergies and get rid of some common culprits such as white flour, white sugar, dairy products, soy products and wheat/gluten.

3. The “Clogged Liver” Syndrome
Eating processed foods clogs the liver, slowing it down, making it hard for it to perform vital digestive and energy-balancing functions.

Solution: Cleanse, detoxify and flush the liver. One simple way is to go on a vegetable juice “fast” for three to five days. Good vegetables to juice are: carrots, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, etc. (See a naturopath for more elaborate ways to cleanse the liver).
By including “superfoods” in your diet, breaking the opioid cycle and maintaining a clean liver, your health will improve dramatically and the weight will come off effortlessly! Remember, weight loss should be a pleasant side-effect of getting healthy... and not a goal in itself.