Good Fats and Bad Fats

It was only about a decade ago that all fat was considered bad for natural weight loss. However nowadays fat is divided into two different categories – good fats and bad fats. The good fats are essential to heart health brain functioning and healing. The bad fats cause all kinds of ailments including diabetes, cancer and heart attacks.

Contemporary research shows that you can make yourself sick by cutting all fats from your diets. The good fats are called unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are divided into two categories – monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Both types can help lower elevated cholesterol levels. Monounsaturated fats have a dual purpose – helping to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) while raising levels of HDL (good cholesterol) at the same time.

Monounsaturated fats also have a slight edge health wise over the polyunsaturated kind because they are thought to be more stable biochemically and less likely to cause free radicals to let loose in the body.


Still polyunsaturated fats are not worthless. They are a fantastic source of essential omega-3 fatty acids. These types of acids are found mostly in dark leafy greens, nuts cold-water fish, flaxseed oils, vegetable oils and some types of seeds. Our bodies cannot manufacture essential fatty acids. Consuming these fish, seeds and nuts is the only way for our bodies to take advantage of their benefits. Essential fatty acids are thought to lower blood pressure, combat LDL (bad) cholesterol, protect the brain and nervous system and have healing effect on the body in the general.

Most cooking oils consist of unsaturated fats. Two oils are a superior choice for cooking because they contain optimum levels of monounsaturated fats. These two oils are canola oil and olive oil. These are the only two oils you should be cooking with if you want to lose weight.

However it is important to remember that whether fat is classified as good or bad it still counts as a calorie. That does not mean that the oil has fewer calories. Whatever type of oil you are eating it will always be one hundred percent fat.

The worst fats are found in meat and dairy. These are called saturated fats and are found mostly in dairy and meat products. You can tell a saturated fat from an unsaturated or monosaturated fat because it remains solid at room temperature. Eating these types of fats on a regular basis also has the effect of directly raising your LDL (bad cholesterol) as well as the count of your total cholesterol.


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Why Are Some Cultures Thinner Than Others


It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.

The problem with the notion of dieting is that it does not address the lifestyle changes that need to be made in order to permanently take the weight off. Losing weight is not something that can be bought or sold. It is not a commodity. Sometimes the problem is cultural. We become trapped in old habits that have us eating unhealthy foods for a lifetime.

The key is to adjust your lifestyle. This means eating a plant-based diet based on whole foods and embarking on an exercise program… There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to obesity. Once you are diagnosed with it chronic disease it can set in quite quickly and the longer you wait to embark on a natural weight loss plan the harder it will be on your health in the future.

You only need to look around you at the people you know to determine who is healthy and who is sick because of their fat accumulations.

Think of the people that you know who are fat. Are they sick all of the time? What is his or her diet like? They probably eat a lot of sugar, salt, and junk food. They possibly also drink a lot of alcohol.

Now think of people that you know who maintain a healthy weight. You will notice they do not eat a lot of junk. In fact you might have noticed that these are the vegans that you know or the people who you know who like to consume Italian, Greek or Asian diets.

Traditional cultures from the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia know how to eat without gaining weight like Americans do… Think of the traditional Asian body and how svelte the physique usually is… In China, Persia, Japan and India people have been eating a mostly plant based diet for thousands of years and it seems to keep the majority of these massive populations fit.

After you are done picturing the body shape of the average Asian then picture what your average American looks like. Then picture him eating snacks at a baseball game. Visualize the beer full of calories and the hotdog full of fat. This is not health food and this is typical of the unhealthy eating habits of the average American.


To meat or not to meat?

When was the last time you saw a really fat vegan? Then ask if you could handle being on a diet that was had more vegetables rather than meat. That is your first step towards embarking on a fully effective, yet natural weight loss plan.

So just how much weight can you immediately lose if you become a vegan? During a study at the Pritikin center there were 4,500 patients who went through a program of eating as much as they wanted of low fat, plant based whole food lost 5.5% of their body weight. They also lost an average of seventeen pounds!

Calorie Deprivation Diets Don’t Work

calorieAlmost all diets are based on calorie restriction one way or another. These diets simply do not work because they are based on self-denial. Sooner or later we give in to temptation, as it is human nature to simply crave variety when it comes to food. It is also too much of a punishment to be denied food as well as it is a natural urge to fill our bellies.

Psychologically and physically it is too hard on us as humans to stay hungry or not eat enough. We punish ourselves by not eating enough fat or calories or just a single food. This can cause psychological problems and compulsive behaviors like bulimia or anorexia.

The worst diets for your nutrition are the ones that force you to eat a single food only. A good example of was the Cabbage Soup Diet. We were led to believe that eating some magically fat burning combination of cabbages, V8 juice and Lipton Onion Soup Mix combined with eating only bananas one day or only drinking milk another would lead to weight loss.

This is a great example of a diet that is based completely on calorie deprivation – about 800 to 1000 calories a day. Starvation leads to rebound weight gain even if you lose a bit of weight at first on this type of diet. This is because after denying yourself of the fats, oils and carbs that you crave all day you tend to binge on them even more.

Another good example is the classic Grapefruit Diet, which is largely all meat, no carbs, grapefruit and black coffee. It is also a diet that is below 1000 calories a day. Any diet that is that low in calories is bound to be ineffective and it can also make you very sick. All humans need a variety of foods to function properly.

Think Weight Watchers is the healthy way to go? It isn’t. The problem with the Weight Watcher’s Program is that you are still limited in calories and that the foods that you are allowed to eat or given to eat are often very acidic in nature. The result is that your body becomes more vulnerable to disease in general because the body is more prone to losing weight and staying healthy if it is in an alkaline state. The prepackaged food involved with Weight Watchers is not that healthy either.


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To keep your body in an alkaline state you need to eat in a healthy way that includes the consumption of organic vegetables and juices. Find a diet that is vegetarian or based on the European food pyramid and you will be much healthier.

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The Health Consequences of Excess Weight Gain

ImageIs your weight gain out of control? Don’t think that you can go on like you have been without making any kind of lifestyle changes. Obesity has a disastrous effect on your health.

Here is a brief rundown of the health consequences that can result from carrying around excess weight.

1. Carrying around excess body fat will decrease your energy levels because you become needlessly heavy. Having just 10 lbs. of excess body fat is like carrying around a 10 lb. bag of lard. You will feel dragged out, weak and less like exercising.

2. Your heart has to work overtime to support the extra weight. Obesity has a harmful effect on your entire cardiovascular system. Your cardiovascular system includes your heart, your lungs, and all of your arteries and veins.

3. You may develop breathing problems. For example, sleep apnea is a breathing problem that causes you to stop inhaling or exhaling for long enough that you can actually accidentally suffocate to death.

4. You can become sleep deprived from having to sleep in a way that accommodates your excess fat. This can affect your posture and cause leg and back pain.

5. Obesity can cause infertility. If you are trying to have a baby but can’t, stepping on the scales might give you a clue as to the reason you can’t conceive.

6. Type 2 Diabetes has been linked to obesity so if you want to lower your risk of getting this disorder then try shedding some pounds.

7. Extra weight will put you at a higher risk for certain types of cancer. Obese men have a higher risk of developing colon, rectum, or prostate cancer. Obese women have a higher risk of developing gallbladder, breast, uterine, cervical, or ovarian cancer.

8. Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risks of gall bladder disease, incontinence, increased surgical risk, and depression.

9. Obesity can affect the quality of life through limited mobility and decreased physical endurance as well as through social, academic, and job discrimination.

10. Being overweight may have an effect on your self-esteem that, in turn, will have a negative effect on your overall health.

Let’s Fight Obesity!

These are only some of the consequences of not shedding those excess pounds. In the long run being overweight is absurdly expensive both to your morale and to your pocketbook. That is why it is a good idea to embark on a natural weight loss regimen now.