A new year is upon us once again and for yet another January many of us are resolute in our goal to lose fat and get healthy. Just as in past years the media is awash with speculations as to just why we are getting so fat and unhealthy. We are also bombarded with supposed solutions, just as we were last year and the year before that and the year before that.
I have heard just about every possible reason for our problems, but have yet to hear anyone in the media identify the real, underlying problem. Before a successful and permanent solution can be found, we must first identify the true, root cause behind why our society is becoming so uncontrollably fat and unhealthy.
Let me start with some of the red herrings. These are things that usually get the blame but are simply NOT the true, underlying causes of our problems:
- Sedentary lifestyles
- Lack of exercise
- Fast Food
- Genetics
- Hormones
The Real Problem:
The real, underlying problem here is that what we commonly eat today and what we have come to know as “our food” is not what humans are naturally meant to eat.
So what are humans biologically meant to eat?
- Naturally raised animals (meat, fish, birds, eggs, etc.)
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts and seeds
So WHO is responsible for the fattening and unhealthy modern diet most of us consume today?
1 Our modern food industry: huge, powerful multinational companies and organizations including:
- Monsanto
- Con-Agra
- Cargill
- ADM
- General Foods
- McDonalds
- Walmart
- The Salt Lobby
- The Sugar Lobby
- The Dairy Lobby
- etc.
2 Our governments: who are under the influence of the food industry
Question: Why do these companies do this?
Answer: They are huge corporations that exist to make as much money as possible
Question: How do they do this?
Answer: a) They create low cost, addictive foods. They “supersize” these foods and pack them with cheap, dense fat and sugar calories
Why? So we’ll buy more of their food; because:
- We are still “hard-wired” genetically to survive “food scarcity”
- So, we naturally prefer fats and sugars – the richest calories
b) The Government subsidizes and promotes these foods
Why would our governments do that?
- To appease the influential, powerful modern food industry
- protect jobs and promote domestic agriculture
So, our government, the media, dietitians, our schools and other institutions perpetuate this modern diet causing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many other illnesses.
How? Via the enormous money, power and influence of the modern food industry.
Please click on the link below to view a diagram outlining our modern food cost imbalance:
What about the diet and fitness industry?
Diet
- Contemporary diets do not work against high calorie modern food
- So we restrict our calories, but that doesn’t work because:
I. Our metabolisms slows further and further to preserve fat calories
II. Highly addictive food requires great will-power to avoid – eventually fails
III. There is even less low nutrition food to try and maintain good health
Exercise
- Does not work to counter the large caloric surplus caused by modern foods
- Too much discipline/hard work required – Bootcamp, etc. are not maintained
- Increased appetite = more modern food = caloric surplus = additional body fat
Proof: The Diet & Fitness industry is now over $40 billion/year, but we’ve never been fatter or more riddled with diet related diseases
So even after spending countless hours exercising and lifting weights, most of fail to reach our goals. After all the hard work, invariably we end up in one of the following categories:
“bulky” weight lifting people
“In-shape” fat people
“Skinny-fat” people
The Solution:
How to lose fat, gain muscle and be healthy – permanently
Step 1: Achieve permanent caloric equity/deficit with a healthy, evolution based diet:
– Eat naturally raised animals, fruits, vegetables as your staple foods
– Never get hungry, eat all the time
– Minimize rice, corn, beans, potatoes and other starchy roots
– Avoid all other grains and dairy
– Make sure all the food you eat is as UNPROCESSED as possible
REPEAT: DO NOT EAT PROCESSED, INDUSTRIALIZED FOOD
Please click on the link below to see a suggested food pyramid to follow:
Blog – Food pyramid and reminder
The Solution – Step 2: Maximize the three ways your body burns calories (fat)
1. Resting metabolic rate = 60-75% of fat burn
– MUSCLE BURNS FAT! So increase your resting metabolic rate by building new muscle. Strength training is the optimal way to build muscle
– Strength training = fastest way to build functional muscle & maximize fat loss
– Strength training = most benefits/least time invested
2. Thermic effect of food = 7-10% of fat burn
– Eat the foods from Step 1!
– Don’t let yourself get hungry, eat all day
3. Physical activity = variable % of fat burn
– Do only things you love
– Avoid meaningless, boring, hard “cardio” gym workouts
– 60% of max heart rate = optimum fat loss/preserves valuable muscle (examples include: walking, gardening, bicycling, vacuuming a carpet, or dancing
Summarizing:
We are getting increasingly fat and sick (diabetes, heart disease, etc) because about a dozen huge, multinational food companies absolutely need us to eat the foods they produce! If we become increasingly fat and sick as a result, that’s our problem, not theirs. Although it is not yet a legal requirement that we eat only their foods; they have made it almost impossible for the small farmers who produce our natural, healthy foods to exist.
Is a little fresh bread, milk in your tea, or some artisan cheese going to hurt you? Of course not. The problem is the wild proliferation of harmful industrial food over the last 40 to 50 years. These highly processed foods have taken the place of our natural evolutionary foods as the staples we eat. That, in a nut shell is why we are increasingly obese and chronically ill.
Why have you never heard this before from the Surgeon General, CNN or another major news network or magazine?
Because the huge companies comprising our modern food industry are immensely powerful and would not like that at all! The medical, pharmaceutical, and diet & fitness industries would also potentially lose billions of dollars. Conversely, the small, local farmers and natural producers of our natural, healthy food would prosper.
Want scientific, documented proof of this? Want to know more about how to do this? I’ve been researching and practicing (along with many others) this simple, efficient and healthy lifestyle for close to 20 years. I’m happy to provide you with more detail along with all of the great scientific references.
Thank you and happy New Year!