Click here for part 1.
Being Overweight Is Not Your Fault
The food industry would have us believe that controlling our weight is about personal responsibility. Tell that to a 200 pound five-year-old with diabetes and liver failure. Our taste buds have been hijacked by the food and diet industry. We are programmed to like sweet, salt, and fat tastes.
And those slick combinations of sugar, fat and salt in junk and processed food have hijacked our taste buds, our brain chemistry, and our metabolism. These foods are biologically addictive. We are held hostage by the food industry and we blame ourselves.
This is food terrorism! The biggest threat to our lives is not Al Qaeda but Coca-Cola (and the other food industry giants)!
How does food addiction happen?
New research shows that industrial food full of processed sugars, fats, salt, and chemicals are powerfully addictive.
And sugar is the worst culprit.
One animal study found that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.
When rats were given the choice between mainline cocaine right into their veins or sweetened water (in fact, they used an artificial sweetener), they found that sugar was eight times more addictive than cocaine. Even the rats already addicted to cocaine switched over to diet drinks!
And what’s even more interesting is that while cocaine and heroin activate only one spot for pleasure in the brain, sugar lights up the brain like a pinball machine!
If these foods are addictive and drive overeating, then the whole idea of moderation just doesn’t work. Hey, just have that one line of cocaine or that one hit of heroin.
We can’t stop eating, but we can stop eating junk and sugar!
So we have to take back our taste buds, take back our brain chemistry, and take back our bodies from the food and diet industry.
How do we do that?
Bottom Line: By eating real food – chicken, fish, veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, and a little whole grains will reset your taste buds and your brain chemistry automatically.
Exercise Your Way to Weight Loss
The food industry and diet industry push exercise. Even Michelle Obama’s childhood obesity initiative focuses on exercise in its name, “Let’s Move”. But it should be really called “Let’s Eat Real Food.”
Here’s why. Sugar sweetened drinks make up about 15 percent of our calorie intake every day.
But you have to walk 4.5 miles to burn off one 20-ounce soda, which contains 15 teaspoons of sugar.
You have to run four miles a day for one week to burn off one super-size meal. If you have one super-size meal everyday you would have to run a marathon every day!
You can’t exercise your way out of bad diet – except if your run a marathon every day.
Drinking 32 ounces of Gatorade after a workout is a dumb idea, unless you run around like Kobe Bryant on the basketball court for 48 minutes. There are better ways to replenish your energy and electrolytes than colored sugar water with a few minerals sprinkled in.
To paraphrase my friend Bill Clinton, “It’s the food stupid!”
Bottom Line: Exercise is critical to long-term health and weight loss, but you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet.
Thankfully science is shedding light on the ideas that keep us fat and sick. Unfortunately, scientists don’t have billion dollar marketing budgets. But we as a community of thinking people wanting real information can speak out, can spread the word and turn the tide of obesity and chronic disease together. Share this article with your community and friends.
Get started today! Get your copy of The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook today. When you purchase this book from this link you will gain access to these exclusive Dr. Hyman bonuses:
- 1-Week Gluten-Free Meal Plan – Maps out a full week of breakfasts, lunches and dinners PLUS all new recipes for these.
- Access to Dr. Hyman’s Kitchen Videos – Including cooking demos, Fridge and Pantry makeover, supermarket shopping tips and more. Over 60 minutes of footage.
- You will be invited to a live online presentation hosted by Dr. Hyman on March 27th, 2013.
Click here to learn more.
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below – but remember, we can’t offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!
Originally published on Dr. Hyman’s website.
Image sourced: Natural Running Center
The post How Diet Soda Makes You Fat – and Other Food and Diet Industry Secrets (Part 2) appeared first on Intent Blog.
