Do you need to lose weight or get healthy? Because if you do, you need to make a  big, permanent mental transformation in the way you think about food. If you’ve been viewing food in terms of calories and fat, you’re on the Diet Ferris Wheel: trying to eat low cal, starving, overeating, trying to eat low cal, starving, overeating.  Low calorie diet foods, or low fat meals leave you hungry and unsatisfied.  Those kinds of meals are usually full of easy to digest, processed, refined carbs that get digested and leave your stomach very quickly.  The result: True Hunger.  If you’re eating processed/refined foods, those foods are created and designed to Make You Hungry Again Soon.Do you know what “Bliss Point” is?  It’s a term in Food Science that means a high level of Pleasure Neurons are stimulated, but Satiety is NOT stimulated (satiety comes from particular hormone signals). This isn’t a joke.

Food products are tested over and over with hundreds of subjects submitting to very technical tests to exactly determine what formula induces the highest Bliss Point.  That’s why you can’t get enough soda, crackers, frozen pizza, donuts, granola bars, etc.  These foods were created to stimulate your hunger; not satisfy your hunger.  The Snickers commercials about Snickers satisfying???  Snickers TRIGGERS the desire for more sugar or more food.This leads me to something I get asked about often: should you abstain, or can you eat junk food, or any trigger food, in Moderation?  Answer that question honestly for yourself.  Some people can’t do moderation.  They just get way too overstimulated from certain foods.  Sometimes even the THOUGHT of trigger foods sets off stimulation. (That’s why it’s smart to keep trigger foods OUT OF YOUR HOUSE OR IMMEDIATE WORK ENVIRONMENT.  Those things can call to you!) If that’s you, just be honest with yourself. If you can be truly moderate, as in a bite here or there because you’re being polite, or it’s a special occasion, be moderate.

Here’s some shocking information: Processed, refined food consumption increases every year. 70% of the foods Americans eat is Processed;  Diet Product consumption is up,  American’s total Calorie Consumption is DOWN, American’s weight continues to go UP (70% of all Americans are Overweight). Let’s just use common sense to connect these dots. Here’s a little example of a Processed Diet food, promoted to make you slim: Skinny Cow Milk Chocolate Dreamy Clusters. Skinny Cow junk foods have done an incredible job grabbing some market share as they’ve convinced lots of us that by eating their products, you can lose the pounds but keep the indulgence. Their ingredient list is protected, so I couldn’t copy it, but here’s the breakdown:  11 sources of refined carb/artificial sugar/real sugar = Insulin Up/Fat Storage increased; 3 sources of soy lecithin(allergenic, thyroid disruptor, phyto-estrogen); carrageen (major gut irritant/damager); and caramel color (carcinogen).

Your liver has to break down these chemicals, and it’s not easy.  So let’s add “liver clogger” to the list. (I’m pretty sure that’s a medical term!) Your liver is the majority of your Metabolism.  Clogged Livers = Slow Metabolism.

Does this sound like a good product to use if you want to get healthy or lose weight???  Plan, shop, chop, prep, cook in giant batches; if you want to indulge, at least make sure it’s homemade. Forget about the calories, worry about the ingredients.

Looking for recipes?  Visit these sites:  CivilizedCaveman.com, OMGPaleo.com, EverydayPaleo.com, ThePaleoMom.com, TheFoodLoversKitchen, AllDayIDreamAboutFood.com. The recipe sites are endless- you’ll never need another cookbook again unless you just like cookbooks.And last, as we get to Farmers Market Season, here’s a great website to find Farmers Markets, Co-ops, Cow Shares, and local farmers selling local products near you, visit www.localharvest.org.