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Are The Barriers Of Dieting
Psychological Or Physical?
Jeff Henson Garcia
Part 1.
On the last count the word 'diet' produced in excess of 157
million web pages of diet plans, pills, potions and dieting
tips from health institutions, diet companies, nutritional
professionals and otherwise - from all over the world. And
yet we are approaching the peak of an obesity epidemic which
is causing untold mental misery and depression, aside from
the ever increasing debilitating diseases being linked to
those overweight or obese. With such an abundance of information
available - how can this be?
The trend is unforgiving and is second only to smoking in
terms of the cause of self-inflicted premature loss of life,
but left to its own devices within the next five years obesity
is sure to take the number one slot. Mother Nature is ruthless
in her approach to life, in that she only allows the fittest
to survive and the trend we see today is her reaction to the
effects of a diet that is clearly not suited to the well-being
of the human body and mind. We only have to stop, take a step
in back and look around us to see that there is one hell of
a serious problem. There is no need for statistics, reports
or media news to tell us such. It's clear that we as individuals
have to make a change in what we do if we have any intention
to reverse the current obesity trend. The ultimate responsibility
lies with each and every one of us to act for the benefit
of ourselves.
We have to accept the fact that the grocery industry is a
host of contradiction in that it sells both dietary products
along side the very products that cause us to be overweight
or obese in the first instance. This is so obvious in our
supermarkets today. It has become human nature that profit
has a higher weighting than human health, and this is evident
in many industries around the world, and is far from unique
within dieting circles. We must also bear in mind the diet
companies, whilst they portray an air of interest and concern,
in reality they are totally dependent on your failure to diet
for their very own business survival. If they were good at
what they do - their businesses would surely fail. So who
can we trust aside from ourselves. The evidence is clear -there
is no debate.
We may have one reprieve but it will be sometime in the future,
but not now. Science and technology is getting nearer and
nearer to the possibility of a wonder drug with the ever-increasing
understanding of the human genotype and genetic engineering.
But in reality, who would ever wish or want to be dependent
on diet drugs, potentially an ongoing daily basis, simply
because of a lack of understanding about the relationship
between the food our body has been designed for, and the food
we eat. Why is it, we knowingly overeat when we know it is
bad for us and that we are doing harm to ourselves? Why is
it, that the only time we choose to ignore our food is the
time when we are eating it!
So, is it a psychological thing, a physical thing or is it
both?
In order to answer this we must first look at the change in
our diet over the last 50 years. Consumption trends of refined
carbohydrates such as sugar has risen dramatically, but at
the same time the consumption of fats and proteins has remained
reasonably stable. Saturated fats has indeed become and still
is a problem although thankfully now overall consumption of
saturated fats has dropped slightly, but still remains an
issue.
Many studies, particularly those associated with research
in how the Atkins diet worked, revealed that the effect of
refined carbohydrates and fats both have a form of addiction
associated with them. Studies have shown that refined sugars
have the effect of playing havoc with the fine balance of
maintaining the level of glucose in the bloodstream. This
in turn has a detrimental effect on our hormonal activity,
such as insulin and glucagon which are both responsible for
maintaining the level of glucose to its normal level following
a 'surge' intake of refined carbohydrates in our diet. These
acceptable levels of glucose in the bloodstream are maintained
at surprisingly narrow margins.
Refined sugar therefore induces excessive hormonal activity
in its attempt to restore homeostasis. These unnatural 'swings'
in hormonal activity often cause differing mood swings from
that of being happy and content to being sad, on edge, and
even feelings of anxiety or panic. Prolonged exposure to these
hormonal swings can often lead to the whole process becoming
less effective and subsequently diabetes can be the end result.
Other studies have shown surprisingly that the effect of eating
significant quantities of fats actually leads to an unexpected
human reaction in terms of nutrition. You would think that
eating food rich in fats would have the effect of satisfying
feeling of hunger. But amazingly medical research has shown
the opposite to be true. Clinical trials have shown that foods
rich in fats actually induces people to eat more not less.
At the time the results from such experiments were groundbreaking
as they completely contradicted the nutritional thinking of
the time.
It is also interesting to learn that further medical studies
have suggested that foods rich in protein have been linked
to the response that indicates that you have consumed sufficient
food. In other words, it is believed that proteins in some
way, triggers the 'I am full' response.
And then of course there is the massive change in our energy
expenditure. We used to hunt and gather food but now we happily
pop to the local supermarket to buy it, or at worse, have
it delivered to our front door. Food has changed from being
scarce to being in abundance (at least for us), and we have
changed from being 'active' to relatively 'dormant'. Move
less and eat more…what should we expect?
And many believe that even the act of not exercising can trigger
the bodily response to lower the metabolism and build fat
layers under the skin for 2 key reasons, both being linked
to human survival. In evolutionary terms, it may be that you
are unable to 'hunt' and therefore unable to secure food.
Reducing the metabolic rate of your body makes total sense
to preserve energy. Secondly, if food is available during
a spell of non activity, does it not make a whole load of
sense to lay down fat layers under the skin to retain bodily
heat and secure an energy source during potential 'lean times'.
Perfect sense, perfect design and yet we don't understand
ourselves and if we do, many choose to ignore the warning
signs out body is offering.
In essence therefore, it is very clear that part of the problem
within the dieting world that we humans face is certainly
a physical one that is linked to the interaction of the food
types we eat with that of our body. And clearly, over the
last 50 odd years our diet has changed out of all recognition
and yet our body is doing the same as it has been doing for
well over the last 100,000 years. We are in the 21st century,
our body is still in the 'Stone Age'. Evolution is a slow
slow process but over millions of years the relationship and
reaction of chemicals in our food with the cells of the human
body has been cemented and cast, for eons of time.
So, it is us that need to change…because Mother Nature will
not entertain us for thousands of years to come…
Run with it, eat what your body has been designed for and
successful weight loss will follow for sure…
Jeff Garcia
Part 2 to follow…
Jeff Garcia, author of Glycemic Superfoods, qualified
as a biologist, served the public for 15 years in the retail
trade, and for the last 3 years has subsequently retrained
and successfully markets on the Internet. For more information
please visit: http://www.glycemicsuperfoods.com
Email: jeffgarcia@glycemicsuperfoods.com
Article Source:
www.iSnare.com
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