Weight Loss Secrets

The following secrets may not be secrets from you if you've been reading my newsletters for a while, but they are from 99.9% of America and their ignorance may affect you greatly.

Food is a very social item. Many people have to schedule when they do their Master Cleanse because they "have to attend" a wedding, or a birthday party, or other social occasion. So, the more we can educate our friends, co-workers, and family, the easier it will be to have a social event and still do a Master Cleanse or eat healthy food. Therefore, I encourage you to spread these "secrets" far and wide, to all those who break bread with you. They'll benefit... and you'll benefit, too!

Not All Toxins (Poisons) Kill

While some toxins (like rattlesnake venom) kill very quickly, others worsen a person's health, but don't kill. For example, lead "poisoning" causes learning problems and increased violence; thus ruining a person's life, but not killing them quickly. Still others merely make us feel tired or irritable.

There Are Several Types of Toxins

Besides environmental toxins (like DDT, lead or mercury), some toxins are the result of normal body function. For example, uric acid from normal digestion of meat causes gout; lactic acid from muscle exercise causes sore muscles. Still others are from food additives or chemical sensitivities.

As of 1995, over 75% of all adverse reactions (bad side effects of a drug) reported to the FDA were due to aspartame. Aspartame is the technical name for NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. ("Aspartame: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," Dr. Joseph Mercola)

A study published in the March 1986 issue of Preventative Medicine examined the use of artificial sweeteners by 78,694 women ages 50-69. It found that users were "significantly more likely than nonusers to gain weight.... " It concluded that long-term artificial sweetener use neither helped weight loss nor prevented weight gain.

An article in the NY Times, February 5, by Nicholas Bakalar reports on a new study published January 22, 2008, by the American Heart Association in its online journal, Circulation.

He reports that the study was conducted for 9 years on more than 9,500 men and women 45 to 64 years of age.

The authors of the study found that eating a diet of predominantly refined grains, fried foods and red meat (Standard American Diet) had a 17% increased risk of increasing cholesterol, blood pressure, and obesity. Readers of my newsletter won't find that surprising.

However, their findings that one, that's right, just one can of diet soda, increased their risk 34%. That's more than double the risk!

The Body's Defense

The body protects itself from toxins by storing them primarily in fat cells. The more toxins consumed, the more fat is needed to protect the body. "Toxins ... are stored in the fat cells and tissues of the body," William Richardson, MD ("Cleansing and Detoxification to Build a Healthy Immune System") Detoxification can therefore result in weight loss. More importantly, it can also lead to increased energy, well being and increased happiness.

If the original problem is toxins, merely restricting calories will not solve the problem permanently. "Yo-yo dieting" (going on and off diets, never permanently losing weight) may occur when someone ends a calorie-restricted diet that did not reduce toxins (and perhaps even increased them) and begins to eat again. The weight goes right back on because the body needs to protect itself from the toxins that are still there!

Detoxification diets (detox diets) on the other hand do lead to permanent weight loss as long as a person's diet remains relatively clean. On June 1st, 2002 I weighed more than 230 pounds. (I'm 6'1".) After 6 months of eating as much as I wanted on a completely 100% raw vegan diet, I weighed 198 pounds. Then I did a 20-day Master Cleanse. At the end of it I weighed 175 pounds.

Since then I have eaten a mostly raw vegan diet, but there have been weeks and occasional months when I ate a standard American diet. However, I have done a Master Cleanse every 3 months or so.

What do I weigh this evening (August 12, 2007) 4 ½ years later? 177 pounds.