The Shocking Truth On How I Got THIS FAT

It's always been blamed on calories...

You're too fat because you eat too much! Weight loss is impossible without cutting calories, they say.

Simple . . . right?

Or is it so simple?

Technically, the definition of obesity is when a person's caloric intake exceeds the amount of energy they use up, and the body stores the extra calories in the fat cells present in adipose tissue.

Going by this, weight loss should be achieved simply by taking in less calories, or by burning more calories, than are ingested.

But are calories alone the cause of weight gain and the secret to weight loss? Most Americans actually eat less calories now than they did at the beginning of the century. If everything depended upon calories, we'd all be thin. Unfortunately, we're not. In fact, we're heavier than ever.

Why? One reason is we are more sedentary now. But also, our diets are not the rich sources of nutrients they once were. While at the same time, they ARE a rich source of artificial chemicals and hormones that unbalance our systems.

What Are We Getting In Our Food?

Most of the foods we eat are now grown on huge agribusiness farms with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The land has been farmed so long with chemicals that all trace minerals have been farmed out of it long ago.

Not only that, but the excess chemicals in our bodies are more than most people's kidneys can filter out. The body must find a place to store the excess chemicals it can't process.

Where are they stored? You guessed it - in the fat cells! Unfortunately, fat cells that store chemicals are not easy to get rid of. Weight loss can be a losing battle unless we nourish ourselves better and stop ingesting the chemicals.

Hormones in Meats

Then there are the hormones in our meats and poultry. Agribusiness now produces chickens from hatchling to table in a fraction of the time nature intended. They can fatten up a calf in no time. They do it with hormones.

Nice, plump, hormone-laced chickens and meats are served on our tables, in fast-food establishments, and restaurants daily.

These are hormones nature never intended to be in our bodies. They don't exactly enhance our natural hormones. But rather, they disrupt our natural levels and natural cycles. And when hormones are unbalanced, obesity can easily result. And weight loss becomes nearly impossible.

Plastics Leech Hormones

Plus, there's another source of outside hormones that all of us are exposed to unknowingly - plastics. Plastics leech hormones into the air and into food. Storing food in plastic containers in your refrigerator is NOT a good idea. It's much wiser to go back to glass, pyrex, and stainless steel (make sure nickel hasn't been added).

And did you know that the nice coating lining the inside of canned foods nowadays is plastic? It makes the can look so much nicer on the inside, but it dumps heaping helpings of hormones into your system.

Worse yet is microwaving food in plastic containers. Plastic leeches many times more hormones when heated than at room temperature.

Which brings me to the subject of microwaving…

Is the Microwave Healthy ?

The simple answer is: Absolutely not!

Microwaving destroys food cells and the nutrition in them and adds radiation. What a combination! Not only is your body unable to utilize the microwaved food, but you get radiated as well! It's a recipe for disaster.

I used to work with a woman who, when we started working together, was healthy and strong. But every following year, she looked paler, weaker, and heavier. She began missing work often and caught every bug that was going around. She was gaining weight faster, and began complaining of a multitude of symptoms, as well as being tired all the time.

After several years, she discovered she had radiation sickness. She had been eating three microwaved meals a day for years, but never thought twice about it…until now!

The Importance of the Right Kind of Fats

The other important point to mention is the role of fats in a diet. We have been conditioned to believe that fats are all bad. That we need to stay away from them if we want to stay trim and slim. It's simply not true.

Fats are really a very important part of our diet. Did you know that your hormones are made out of cholesterol? That's right -- without cholesterol, hormones cannot be produced in the body. The body uses HDL (high-density lipoproteins) to produce hormones such as pregnenolone, cortisol, progesterone, estrogen, DHEA, testosterone, etc.

By going on a low or anti-cholesterol diet, the chances of those hormones being produced in your body are greatly reduced. Low-fat, low-cholesterol diets can cause women to go into menopause early, or cause devastating PMS symptoms.

In addition, Vitamin D is made in our skin (that is exposed to sunlight) from cholesterol. It is also used in the insulating membranes that cover our nerves. Cholesterol is not the inherent evil we have been led to believe!

Of course, this doesn't mean that an over-abundance of fat in the diet is healthy, either. It's best to follow the "everything in moderation" rule here.

Harmful Fats

We have all heard about the dangers of saturated fat. But there is another source of harmful fats that has crept into the processed food industry. That source is trans fat, found in nearly all snack foods.

The FDA does not require that labels mention trans fat. Yet trans fat is considered worse than saturated fat by some scientists. It elevates bad cholesterol, lowers good cholesterol, and increases triglycerides. And it makes blood platelets stickier, increasing the chance of clots. Even if the saturated fat content of a food is low, the trans fat content can be very high. But only the saturated fat content is required to be listed on the label.

So consumer beware. That "low-fat" snack food may actually contain hidden and harmful trans fats.

Be wary of the hidden dangers in canned and processed foods. And know that the process of microwaving can cause harm to your food and your health.

How to Succeed at Weight Loss

In order for your weight loss efforts to be successful, you have to do more than just count calories. You need to know that snack and junk foods are not nutritious and not conducive to your health or weight maintenance.

You need to avoid microwaving your food or storing it in plastic containers. And avoid eating canned foods. You need to increase your level of exercise and physical activity. And eat a balanced diet that includes a couple servings of beneficial fat each day.

If you have been eating a diet abundant in processed foods, microwaved cooking methods, and/or heavy meats, you may want to consider a temporary detoxification diet.