Family Health - Why are we so fat?

In the late 1970's the American Heart Association came out and scared the pa-geesus out of us with their cholesterol = risk of heart attack campaign and began recommending a low fat diet. And that my friend, was the beginning of our love affair(now love hate relationship) with carbohydrates. You see before the whole cholesterol is bad for your heart campaign, Americans were very much meat eaters. Our diets in those days was very much meat, vegetables and fruit with some bread, and our portions were small. Once the panick about fat in the diet equals cholesterol in your arteries which equals certain death by heart attack hit our American society we began to eat significantly less meats and more carbs. And the more carbs you eat the more you eat!!! Am I telling you that the USDA got it wrong and totally blew our wastelines? Absolutley, that is what I am telling you! Because in lieu of eating a low fat diet to save ourselves from a massive heart attack we chose to eat more starchy foods. Cereal instead of eggs for breakfast, large salads with heavy dressing for lunch and pasta instead of meat for dinner. The more carbs you eat the more calories you store. It is the carbs in the diet that store fat and cause weight, not the fat in the diet. If it were the fat in the diet then Atkins would not work, but it does. The truth of the matter is the food pyramid is wrong, wrong wrong and it is the reason we are so fat fat fat. I have been working with only weight loss patients for over three years now. I have a true passion for educating myself and my patients on what healthy eating is and have read many many things on my journey and I can tell you with 100% certainty that what you just read is true. The food pyramid is wrong and that is why we are fat. How did this happen? It just did. There were no formal studies, no factual data and no science behind the food pyramid. It was a recommended diet that completely backfired and began our obesity problem in America. Now we have low fat foods, low carb foods, lite foods, sugar free foods, fat free foods and yet we are getting fatter and more confused than ever. So now what? Now we have to change the way we think about food and they way we eat. Not go on a diet but a lifestyle change. To see change you have to make changes in your thinking. First, protein is your friend. Second, carbs are enemy nomero uno. And third, its okay to feel hungry. Take a look at the old food pyramid.

I want you to replace the base of the pyramid with meats, low fat cheeses and eggs and where the milk yogurt and meat portion was is where your bread, cereal, rice will be. You are essentially swapping them out . Your protein will be your base for your nutrition, not carbs. Focus your meals around the protein with some carbs, instead of carbs with some protein. Understand that when you first make these changes you may feel hungry..it is okay to feel hungry…you don't have to eat. Once your body stops with-drawaing from the carbs and gets used to the protein , you will naturally not be as hungry as you used to be. Protein actually suppresses your appetite(unlike enemy numero uno). When it comes to the fat free vs sugar free stuff, always go with the low carb/sugar free stuff. Fat free tends to mean high carb but sugar free simply means sugar free.

I hope you have learned something today that you can use in your everyday life to help improve the quality of your health. School is out, mornings are calmer and it is a good time to begin to make changes for you and your family. Next time you are at the grocery store, spend most of your time on the periphery were all the vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses and eggs are, all the bad stuff tends to be in the middle of the store! Summer time is a great time to take inventory of you and your life and make any changes that might make it better. That way when school starts back up you have your new lifestyle changes in place and ready to go!