Causes of Obesity in America

What are the causes of obesity in America? There are several causes, and they are all in our food. If you are overweight, you are not eating right.

• There are several hidden food additives in American food that cause obesity.

Consider this - If you became obese by eating the way you currently eat, then you need to change something.

Benjamin Franklin defined insanity as: "doing the same thing over and over each time expecting a different result." It is time to change. Don't worry. I'll help you. I'm doing it myself.

People interested in at home weight loss usually buy the latest "abdominal fat destroyer" piece of exercise equipment. Others join a health club and/or pay for a personal trainer. The result is usually becoming an obese person with good cardio conditioning.

Lack of exercise is not primarily what causes obesity. You are led to believe that you can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise. This is a load of bunk.

• You cannot exercise away bad nutrition!

You cannot feed yourself a diet of donuts, bagels, candy bars, crackers, soda pop, ice cream, potato chips, and pizza rolls and think that you can simply exercise to compensate.

Even heat-and-eat "diet" meals that are supposed to be healthy are just processed junk food in a health food label. Think salads are healthy? Read the label on your salad dressing.

Exercise is good for you and is necessary for health and weight loss, but on its own will not cure obesity.

You must eat what is actually healthy for your body. Curing obesity is 20% exercise and 80% eating. I don’t mean starving yourself either. Starvation dieting is actually one of the causes of obesity.

• Fast Food

Of all the causes of obesity, fast food obesity is probably the worst. Fast food is processed beyond recognition. It has virtually no positive nutritional value.

It is loaded with chemicals, including monosodium glutamate (MSG), that directly cause obesity, lethargy, and intense hunger. Have you ever noticed how you are ravenously hungry an hour or two after eating fast food?

• Restaurants

Almost all restaurant food causes obesity the same way fast food causes obesity. Restaurant supply companies load their food with the same obesity causing chemicals. Many restaurants claim not to add MSG. They don't need to.

• MSG

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is one of the main causes of obesity because it chemically alters your metabolism. MSG also causes food addiction and intense hunger which lead to binge eating.

All processed food is loaded with it. It's not easy to spot on ingredient labels because they hide it under approximately 40 different names. MSG chemically programs you for obesity.

Many migraine sufferers are sensitive to MSG poisoning. My wife's debilitating migraines with photophobia stopped permanently after eliminating MSG.

• Sugar

Another one of the main causes of obesity is sugar addiction. In the name of avoiding fats, we have switched to sugar. Sugar takes many forms like flour, corn syrup, dextrose, and many more.

Sugar makes you fat. Our Great Grandparents knew this, but we have been brainwashed into thinking that sugar is a healthy, low fat food. It’s not. Sugar addiction is a predominant reason for obesity in America.

• Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial Sweeteners (aspartame) are the most devious of the causes of obesity! You consume them because they have no calories, right?

Technically they don't contain calories. Practically they contain all the calories or sugar and maybe more. Your body metabolizes them as sugar.

Worse than the calories, they are an excitotoxin that crosses the blood-brain barrier unrestricted.

They can cause migraines, vision problems, memory loss, sugar addiction, and of course obesity. They are a toxic poison to be completely avoided. I have not had a single migraine headache since eliminating them.

Stevia is OK because it's an herb extract. Make sure it's pure Stevia and not a blend.

• Soy

Food companies also load our food with the cheapest fillers they can. Unfermented soy is the filler of choice because it is plentiful and cheap.

Unfortunately soy boosts estrogen levels, causes hypothyroidism, and is a carcinogen.

"Asians are thin and they eat soy!" Asians only eat fermented soy like tofu. The dangers of soy are many. Soy is not health food!

• Hormones

More causes of obesity for Americans include meats that are full of animal hormones, nitrites, nitrates, and more. The animals we eat are fed amazingly gross things.

Our cattle are fed grain to fatten them up for sale. Cows are supposed to eat grass. Grain to cows is like sugar to us. This destroys its positive nutritional value.

• Processed Food and Meat

Processed food and meat is the culmination of all other causes of obesity. It has sugar, MSG, soy, hormones, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and a host of other chemical additives.

These items add up to make processed food the nuclear bomb of obesity. Anything that is not a whole food that you prepare in your kitchen is a processed food.

If it is heat-and-eat or open-and-eat, there is a 95% chance it's bad for you. If it is not a natural product, it is processed.

You must learn to cook for yourself. Prepackaged diet food is just processed food in a health food box.

• Bovine Growth Hormones in Dairy

Bovine growth hormones in modern dairy is also one of the causes of obesity. Our dairy is full of hormones and antibiotics.

Pasteurization kills all of the life-giving enzymes, protein, and calcium. Pasteurized dairy is dead food with no nutritional value.

Seek out a source of grass fed (beyond organic) raw milk and dairy.

• Low Calorie Diet

Low calorie diets cause obesity because they lead to binge eating.

If you eat too few calories, your body will slow down its metabolism to compensate. Your body is programmed not to starve to death, so trying to starve yourself thin is almost impossible.

Low calorie dieting is a starvation technique that leads to binge eating and nutritional deficiencies.

• Low Fat Diet

Low fat diets cause obesity for the same reasons as low calorie diets. It is based on the incorrect concept that if you eat dietary fat, your body will store fat.

Dietary fat is a necessary part of a healthy diet just as much as protein or vitamins. It is burned for energy and used as fuel for the heart.

Fat makes you feel full when you eat it. A low fat diet makes you hungry all the time. This leads to obesity from binge eating.

There are several vitamins that you can only get from a fatty source. Therefore, low fat dieting also leads to vitamin deficiencies.

• Low Cholesterol Diet

The low cholesterol diet has become one of the causes of obesity. Lowering our blood cholesterol levels has become such an obsession, we have sacrificed everything else for it.

Obesity is a far greater health risk than elevated cholesterol. Low cholesterol diets allow anything as long as it technically low in cholesterol.

We consume things like margarine, a man-made chemistry experiment, instead of natural, healthy things like butter.

Junk food like pretzels and flavored crackers are consumed because they are cholesterol free. The problem is that they are junk food that cause obesity. Read more about junk food obesity here.

• Everyday Toxins

Everyday toxins have poisoned our world. Our air, water, food, homes, cars, and personal care products are all sources of everyday toxins.

When we are exposed to more toxins than our bodies can expel, they are stored in our fat. Toxic fat cannot be easily burned. We must detoxify our bodies to lose weight and be healthy.

• Food Additives

Toxins and food additives also contribute to obesity. Our fruits and vegetables receive an average of 15 applications of pesticides. This poison winds up in our food.

These poisons add up over the years and start to cause health problems. You have heard that it’s all down hill after 40. That’s largely due to the build up of toxins and poisons reaching a critical point that begins stealing our health.

The FDA allows food additives in unrestricted amounts in our foods. Learn what "generally regarded as safe" means to the FDA. You may not agree with them. I don't.

• Food Addiction

Food Addiction is one of the major causes of obesity. Fast food companies, restaurants, and food manufacturers use MSG in massive quantities because of its addictive properties.

Sugar, artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, and several other food additives are used to make food addictive.

You eat more, and they make more money. You can break food addiction by eliminating processed food from your diet.

• Television

Television contributes to obesity. You don’t need to do huge amounts of exercise, but you do need to get off the couch.

There are TV shows I like to watch, but I record them on my DVR and watch them at my convenience, zapping the commercials to reduce my time on the couch which increases my activity level.

• The Obesity Gene

Is there a genetic reason for obesity in some people. While some people are more prone to weight gain than others, the existence of an obesity gene doesn't really make sense.

Our metabolism and insulin levels are chemically altered by the food we eat in America. If you follow my diet plan, I think you will find that the obesity gene is not one of the causes of obesity.

• Conclusion

These things are what we found to be my main causes of obesity. Think about how people ate 150 years ago and you will have a good idea of how we should eat now.

Our modern diet food is total garbage. Diet food is simply processed, nutritionally deficient, lower fat or calorie food. It is based on the starvation principle. You cannot starve your way to good health.

Your body needs nutrition in order to be healthy. Before we changed our ways, my wife and I were overweight and sickly all the time. Now we have lost significant weight and never get sick.

We enjoy vibrant health and wellness through eating healthy, hearty, satisfying, whole foods. We don’t snack between meals because we are not hungry between meals.

The greatest cause of obesity in America is ignorance of nutrition.

Americans are convinced that we are too busy to cook, so we resort to heat-and-eat, fast food, and restaurants to supply our nutrition. These companies are interested in profit, not your health.

Spend some more time here learning how to eat healthy. It's a learning process and an unlearning process at the same time.

YOU CAN DO IT! We're doing it, and we're here to help you.