Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

For most of recorded history, fat was revered as a sign of health and prosperity. Plumpness was a status symbol. It showed that you did not have to engage in manual labor for your sustenance. And it meant that you could afford plentiful quantities of food.

For most people, however, being fat was simply not an option. The constant struggle to hunt and harvest ensured that we stayed active. And for those with little money, the supply of calories was meager. This ensured that most of the working class stayed slim.

Rich people were fat. Poor people were thin.

Today, the polar opposite is true. Numerous studies show that low-income children and adults are far more likely to be overweight than those of greater means. And the statistical distribution fits a nice, neat curve – as income falls, the rate of obesity rises.

The following graph from a population study in Utah puts this in perspective. The tallest bar on the left represents the lowest income group… and the highest rate of obesity.

In the last 20 years, the number of overweight children and adolescents has tripled. Adults have fared just as poorly. Currently more than two thirds – almost 70% – of Americans are considered overweight or obese.

But it has very little to do with how much or the types of food we put in our mouths. That is, if you listen to the candy and snack food manufacturers, beverage companies, processed food industry and the fast food restaurants. According to these groups, the reasons why we are so fat are because we are just lazy and sedentary. We don’t exercise enough.

I won’t argue that most of us should be more active. But that is NOT the reason we are so fat. In fact, studies show that exercise is quite ineffective when it comes to weight loss. But more on that in a moment…

This week, I watched the documentary Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat. In one segment, the filmmakers highlight the government’s efforts in 2007 to address the obesity crisis. President Bush, various legislators and the Department of Health and Human Services were all involved in drafting the government’s statements and recommendations.

But rather than viewing this as an opportunity to improve the nation’s health, the food industry saw it as a threat to their business. They were concerned that the government might recommend eating less processed junk food (Gasp!). So they mobilized their full army of lobbyists to shape the government’s message to their benefit.

Do you think more about good food to eat or more about what you are supposed to avoid? The first way of thinking leads to fulfillment and satisfaction, making you likely to eat less. The other leads to guilt and regret and the likelihood to eat more — something all of us want to avoid.

Today I want to tell you about one of the most exciting new “super foods” I’ve come across in years… It comes from the African plant, Irvingia.

Turns out Irvingia, as part of a diet and exercise program, can help you lose weight — and more.

Researchers in Cameroon recruited over 100 volunteers for a ten-week clinical trial. Some were healthy, some were overweight, and some were obese.

Just as there are many “miracle” exercise products which deceptively promise an Atlas-like body in just a few minutes a day, in the food world there are promises of weight loss from super foods or “miracle” juices (think acai berry).

Unfortunately, there is no one food that will magically melt away unwanted pounds. However, the overall quality of our diet IS crucial to our success with weight management, and can make or break our fitness level.

So what dietary measures should you to take to support weight loss and overall fitness?

You probably know someone who’s always on a diet. I used to be that person myself. In fact, I was born fat, was a fat child, a fat teen and yo-yoed as a young adult. I became a lifetime member of Weight Watchers at age 13. I was Dr. Atkins’ model in all his print advertising a number of years ago. I’m a NutriSystem expert and also a lifetime member of Jenny Craig…

One thing I’ve noticed in my experience as a yo-yo dieter is that when I had a few extra pounds on me, it made me look “matronly.” And that’s not just my opinion. The reactions I’d get from strangers confirmed my “theory.” As a size eight at only 5′3,” people tended to guess my age as older than I really was. Now, at a size 4, I’m 50 and I still get asked for I.D. to buy wine.

If you’ve ever vacationed in the tropics, you’ve probably seen people drinking from what looks like peeled coconuts with straws inserted. Now I’m finding more and more skinned coconuts in the fruit and vegetable section of grocery stores. Chop off the top, insert a straw and drink up. Coconut water is becoming so popular that there is now a whole bunch of canned coconut water drinks on the market.

So what’s the deal with coconut water?

Well, I can’t speak to the dozens of pre-packaged products that are showing up (usually sold in cans), but I can tell you what’s found inside the actual coconut. And it’s a nutritional bonanza that could easily be a boon to people trying to control their weight.

Here in South Florida the weather is warming up. Yesterday’s high was 92 degrees! The whole practice is talking about getting our bodies back in beach shape. A bunch of us are doing PACE, plus we’ve got a secret weapon to curb our cravings.

In fact, it makes losing that extra “insulation” that we all tend to pack on in the winter as easy as 1, 2, 3. Three natural supplements that I’ll explain in this article can help you:

• Achieve a leaner physique
• Stop being a slave to food and start creating a healthy relationship with it
• Keep blood sugar levels that are already within the normal range consistent to maintain ideal body functions

The first one is Garcinia cambogia, a pumpkin-shaped fruit from Asia. It has been used for centuries in places like Indonesia and India to make small meals seem more filling.

Garcinia’s rind contains hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a natural appetite-suppressing compound. In a Georgetown University Medical Center study, individuals taking HCA supplements decreased their appetite, lost a significant amount of weight, and helped maintain healthy cholesterol levels that were already within the normal range in just 8 weeks.¹

And Garcinia does more than recondition your body to eat less. It also helps you lose weight by blocking the action of an enzyme called citrate lyase, which turns excess carbs into fat. So, instead of putting on the pounds, your body ends up using carbs more efficiently.

There are no short cuts to weight loss. In my experience, I still find that the most effective way to help people lose weight is with the combination of a healthier diet and exercise along with addressing underlying metabolic imbalances — such as insulin resistance, thyroid gland function and stress levels (because stress hormones impact both insulin resistance and thyroid hormones).

However, there have been recent discoveries, and much discussion¹ about the role that so-called brown fat may play in weight loss. Brown adipose tissue — brown fat — is common to many mammals. It’s different from our blobby yellow fat in that it has a very high metabolic rate and contains a protein that converts calories directly to heat. That helps it do its job, which is to keep mammals warm in cold weather. Even when brown fat isn’t kicking in to raise body temperature, its high metabolic rate also helps keep those animals lean.

As humans, we are born with some brown fat, but it was thought that we lose all of it as we age. However, recent research in the New England Journal of Medicine² has discovered that adults do retain some brown fat, and that brown fat is inversely proportional to body mass index (BMI). Researchers now think that increasing our brown fat activity may help us lose weight.

Since the primary trigger for brown fat thermogenesis (burning) is having adequate levels of T3 thyroid hormone,³ metabolic balance and optimization is the most important factor in keeping brown fat as active as it should be.

However, I did some research and there are ways to enhance brown fat activity.

In a world where we are taught that the way to control our weight is to eat less and exercise more, the only thing that matters in our food choices is how many calories they contain. With this method you will see some shocking food comparisons which can make some very healthy food choices seem bad. Such food comparison bits have been on TV a lot lately with the recent release of book called, Eat This, Not That.