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8 March 2010
The Real Truth About Weight Loss:
How To Outwit, Outplay and Outsmart
The Giant Food Manufacturers
Cliff Baker
Warning: The following information may be hard to swallow. You may resist it. You may even ignore it. Before you take another bite of processed, packaged foods or eat another hamburger or slice of bacon -- or even that chicken breast -- read this entire article carefully. It may just save your life!
What if I told you that you never had to count another calorie in your life?
What if I told you that there were foods that you could eat in practically unlimited quantities -- and still lose weight?
And what if I told you that this was no fad diet, didn't involve any dangerous drugs and certainly didn't require adoption of any unhealthy eating programs?
You'd probably call me crazy. But before you click away, thinking I've lost my mind, read these amazing statistics gathered by Dr. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II, authors of The China Study.
One of the questions asked in this book was: Why was even the most sedentary of the Chinese population healthier and slimmer than many Americans (and a growing number of Europeans as well).
The answer: whole foods, whole grains . . . and very little -- if any -- meat.
The study readily admits that a healthy plant-based eating plan is the ultimate key not only to near effortless weight loss, but to maintenance of that healthy weight as well.
Individuals living in rural China eating a plant-based diet (think vegetarian here!) actually "consumed more calories per pound of body weight than Americans." While you're first thought would be that they must be heavier, the opposite is still. "The rural Chinese are still slimmer while consuming a greater volume of food and more calories."
But there are even more statistics to back this up. Studies in both the United Kingdom and Israel also reveal that vegetarians consume at least or more calories than others and still weigh less.
So why should this be -- if a calorie by any other name . . .? It's a process called thermogenesis. This describes the production of your body heat during metabolism. (Ah, that word again "metabolism!")
Vegetarians appear to have a higher rate of metabolism than meat eaters while they are at rest. While this may not sound extremely important, in reality, it really is. This means they actually burn more of the calories they ate in the form of body heat. The other alternative? Having the calories being stored as body fat.
It only takes a small increase in your metabolic rate to morph itself into a large number of calories being burned in 24 hours.
The rise of metabolic rate brings us naturally to a second, essential component of any weight loss system -- even one based on plant-based foods. And that's exercise. Ouch! I know many of you don't want to hear about this. But there's good news even on this front.
A plant-based diet encourages you to be more physically active. You may actually feel as if you want to move around more!
As incredible as it seems, it really is true. Campbell and Campbell provided a vivid illustration of this in The China Study.. In a double-blind study using rats, one group was fed traditional 20 percent casein -- casein being cow's milk protein. The other group received 5 percent casein diets.
Even on the first day of the diet, those who had a diet of the 5 percent were more active than the other. In fact, according to the researchers, they "voluntarily 'exercised' . . . about twice as much as the 20% casein animals throughout the two weeks of the study."
Not only that, but those rats maintained this higher incidence of exercise throughout the study.
But there appears to be long-term benefits that go beyond weight loss. Those animals on the 5 percent casein diet had on average lower blood cholesterol levels and less cancer. Not only that, but on average, they also lived longer.
The evidence seems to be overwhelming at this point. Having doubts that you could convert to a total vegetarian diet? Many of us have the same thoughts. But with these stunning statistics, it's really difficult to ignore.
Why not make progress toward a plant-based diet? Instead of giving meat products the largest portion of your plate at every meal, why not dish yourself more vegetables? Instead of that bacon or sausage with your morning eggs, why not eat a large bowl of fresh fruit?
And since you can practically eat all of these foods that you like, without the real need to count calories, you can even add them to your snack list. At first, it may seem unnatural. But after a couple of purposeful handfuls of nuts, an apple in the evening and other healthy snacks, your body will actually crave these. And definitely thank you for it.
Indeed, even these gentle steps toward a plant-based diet can help. Why not make a commitment today to add noticeably more fresh fruits and vegetables to your meals? At the same time, make a commitment to live with a little less meat. You just may find living with less meat means living healthier . . . and with a more active life style . . . and best of all living longer!
Refs: The China Study
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