“Let food be
thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates
Obesity
I have not
come across anybody who has been living the raw vegan lifestyle for a while,
who is also obese. I think that speaks for itself.
The
popular view of obesity is that people should just eat less and
exercise, and that somehow or other they have a character defect if they
don't. Well this is easy to say, but it's not as simple as that. I think
it is both arrogant and condescending to think this any more. Having
come across some amazingly cleaver intelligent people, who also have a
weight issue, I think you should really listen to what they are saying
very carefully.
Having
walked around for a few hours with some friends and a pedometer, the
result showed that we could eat half a packet of crisps (if your into
that type of thing) for all that effort. Obviously exercise has enormous
benefits, but you would have to be a bit of a fitness fanatic to burn
off much weight.
Well what
does an intelligent person with a weight challenge actually eat?
Generally they are focused on some aspect of life, other than nutrition,
but they believe that they eat a fairly healthy diet. When you examine
this more carefully, it has been my experience that much of their food
choices are mostly from a range of processed foods, making selections
based on the healthy eating claims from a huge number of different
adverts.
Now
supposing that somebody drank several pints of lager every day and then
had a weight problem (as well as a headache) ... well it's easier to see
why they might have a weight problem!
But
supposing that there was something in all processed food and drink, that
simply converted to fat shortly after you'd consumed it, and switched
off the signal to your brain that you'd eaten enough. Supposing that
there was no fibre at all in any of this, to speed this process up. In
that case you'd always be hungry no matter which processed food you ate
or how much you ate, and you'd just get fatter ...
If you are
on a diet of processed foods you may want to understand more about
what's in them. More
specifically you may wish to understand fructose. See Dr Lustig's video clip
"Sugar: The Bitter Truth"
Take a
look at John Robbins video clip "Diet
for a New America part 2" ... it might shock you!
