LIVING AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE #61

By Rhonda Jones

Just thinking about dieting makes me hungry, so I totally relate to the trials of dieting. After doing Weight Watchers, Atkins, the cabbage soup diet, the banana and wiener diet, and the Scarsdale diet, I came to the conclusion that I hate dieting and being deprived of food. When I diet, I can’t stop thinking about food. Actually, a study proved that when someone is on a diet, all they can think of is food.

The “Minnesota Starvation Experiment” during World War II proved just that. Thirty-six participants spent 11 months at the University of Minnesota participating in this study. Participants spent three months eating a normal diet, six months eating only 1,570 calories a day, and then two months refeeding at 2,000 to 3,200 calories a day. However, 12 of the participants had unrestricted eating during the refeeding stage. Those participants regained the weight they had lost plus more, but eventually, they returned to their original weight.

During the restriction stage, food became an obsession. The participants had a decrease in sex drive, depression, and gastrointestinal discomfort. Some of the participants lost as much as 50 pounds. Oddly enough, potatoes seemed to be their preferred food both during the starvation phase and after. The potatoes seemed to be more filling.

We fast-forward now to the current weight loss strategy, which seems to be abundant protein, daily injections, or gastric surgery to reduce stomach size to reduce eating. But are these diets effective, and what are the long-term effects of this type of eating?

The high-protein diets work because they throw the body into a state of “ketosis,” which is really a state of sickness as the body generally produces ketones during illness. The body then begins to burn fat and actually mimics sickness and reduces hunger. After about three days, the body thinks it is in starvation mode, so the appetite is greatly reduced as the body feels sick and is concentrating on recuperating. During this time, the body will burn the glycogen stores. For every pound of glycogen burned, the body will lose two to three pounds of water. It appears that weight is being lost rapidly but it is actually water that is lost. That is another reason why weight is gained so rapidly once normal eating is resumed. People following a low-carb diet will see lower blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., but the same effect can be achieved through chemotherapy.

Injectable drugs like Ozempic also work on the same premise of making you sick. These glp-1 drugs are actually derived from the poisonous venom of a gila monster. Symptoms from being poisoned by this venom are nausea, diarrhea, indigestion, stomach pains, and general gastric distress, thus decreasing appetite. The drug also slows digestion to the point that food actually rots in the stomach, causing extremely bad breath, and this leads to more nausea and loss of appetite. Thus, the body is in a constant state of illness.

Then there are many surgeries to reduce the stomach, making it impossible to eat very much but doing nothing to decrease appetite. The failure rate for these surgeries is about 95%.

Dieting means nothing if weight loss only makes you sick. There is nothing more healing to our bodies than fruits and vegetables. Eaten raw or cooked, they still have supreme nutrition, making us healthy and trim. A variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts provide a host of nutrients but will also end cravings because your body is nourished and satisfied. If you are now eating a healthy plant-based diet, please continue. If you are thinking about it, try eating plant-based for 30 days. Give it just 30 days. The change will be amazing.