Clergy Health Council More about Weight Loss Obesity

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Not only are these 7 foods/groups fattening, it's much worse than that. They are all HEALTH DAMAGING foods. They are all at the root cause of almost all diseases in this country. Want to make a real difference in your health? Make a promise to yourself not to eat any health damaging foods. Now that you know what foods are health damaging, you can make good decisions. If there is no healthy food available where you are, drink water and wait till you can get somewhere to get something healthy. (fasting is a healthy and healing activity - it gives your body time to heal the damage done from all the toxic food you have eaten thus far in life). Be strong. Be committed. Your body will reward you with vibrant health and energy. All you have to do is give your body "clean health enhancing food".

If you want to label it the best is "Whole Food, Plant Based Diet"

Weight loss can be over simplified by just saying... it's calories in verses calories out (burned) but even this is wrong as recent studies show meat and dairy are way more fattening than just their calories account for. Likely the same for others on the list with the exception of oils.
The best way to get to a healthy weight is to go on a simple diet that starts with 100% whole food plant based ingredients, drop all the sugar and added oils and begin a regular walking regimen. Avoid all restaurant food and processed/convenience foods. After a few weeks on this "clean" diet you will loose your cravings for sugary, salty and fatty foods that hijack your meal choices using adicting chemistry. Properly done, you will have so much energy all day that you will find it easy to exercise. Lifting weights is proven to be the best way to drop pounds as a bonus you also tone up and strengthen your bones too. Ease into it slowly, the more weight you loose, the easier the exercise will be. Unlike what is portrayed on TV's "The Biggest Loser" you don't have to torture yourself on a tread mill to loose weight. When you eat a whole foods plant based diet the pounds will melt off, and as you feel better, the inflammation is gone from your joints and you have much more energy, then the exercise routine will be easier and more enjoyable.

UNDERSTAND THE CHEMISTRY OF THE BRAIN
One of the things that will work against you on this journey and has likely contributed to your weight gain is the pleasure center of the brain (dopamine). There are chemicals in our food that are there because food chemists know they stimulate the pleasure center of the brain. It's how people get addicted to drugs but also meat, dairy, ice cream, chips, sugar/candy and processed foods. There have been studies using rats that prove that sugar is more addictive than cocaine! Dairy is just as addictive.
Please understand that for the first few weeks on a "clean diet" you will have serious cravings for these foods and it will take some heroic will power to "kick" the habit. You can do it but you have to be 100% committed. Give the one finger salute to the "food scientists" and go cold turkey off these addictive foods that are slowly poisoning you and making you sick.
A good book on this subject is called "The Pleasure Trap" by Douglas Lisle

Watch this 40 min video to better understand this and learn a lot more from Dr Neal Barnard - How the body is tricked into eating junk - and how to stop

Meat, dairy, breads/gluten, sugars, oils,
free glutamate, chemicals and toxins make you fat.

Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and legumes keep you thin (and healthy).

See our Getting Started page for more info on healthy eating

WHO IS TO BLAME?
How can it be that our food system has gone so far down the wrong path that it is the cause of almost all of our diseases including obesity? The sad fact is that over the years our government has been influenced (read bribed) by these industries to receive favorable legislation, farm subsidies to make toxic animal food cheap, and policies to make clean "organic" food expensive to prove it is "clean". The FDA uses only the companies own testing to decide if something is safe, and buries its head in the sand when problems start to show up that these food additives, pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified crops show definitive proof that they are indeed not safe. There is over a trillion dollars at stake to keep the status quo and not make any major changes to the system because so many are making obscene profits treating all the sick and obese people. Don't expect to hear the truth as it is represented on these pages from any mainstream media source or doctor. The media is the king of misdirect and confusion on these issues, and most doctors would loose their privileges or license if they go "off protocol" on their recommendations. You hold all the cards and only you can decide to be 100% responsible for your own health. The doctors, hospitals, and clinics will be of no help to you to pursue this path but I know as sure as I'll take my next breath that this is the path to true health.

One of the observations I have that supports our direction is to observe the health of all animals in nature. Those that eat a diet as nature intended, uncorrupted by man, are healthy, and are not having epidemics of diseases. Conversely, The humans, dogs and cats who eat a diet far from what nature provided consisting of processed, cooked and altered foods grown with toxic chemicals are all suffering from a long list of terrible diseases.