Natural Healing Making a Fresh Start

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Many people start the New Year with resolutions to lose excess body fat. This often leads them to search for some magic bullet supplement to help with fat loss, or to embark on whatever might be the latest food-restriction fad.

Recipes
FAT FLUSH PICKLES
MARINATED MUSHROOMS
YUMMY YAM CHIPS
FAT FLUSH CHICKPEA PEANUTS 

Healthy New Year recipes
DRIED FIGS WITH FENNEL SEEDS
BAKED APPLES WITH DATE-NUT FILLING
CRANBERRY-APPLE COMPOTE
STEWED PEARS WITH ANISE
DATE COCONUT ROLLS STUFFED WITH NUTS

Although the intention is good, usually this approach produces little or no loss of body fat. If it does produce some fat loss, in 95 percent of cases the individual eventually abandons the supplement(s) or restrictive diet. This almost invariably results in a regain of weight, and the gain is usually larger than the loss!

This approach consistently fails because it focuses on quantity, not quality, of food consumed, and fails to effect a permanent change in food choices and activity habits that cause accumulation of excess fat. This year, try a fresh approach. Instead of focusing on restricting the quantity of food you consume, focus on improving the quality of the foods you eat. Most people will lose much of their excess body fat simply by taking this step toward better health. Here are some suggestions:

1. Stop eating processed vegetable oils, hydrogenated oils, margarine, and shortening.

Substitute extra-virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut butter/oil, ghee (clarified butter), and butter, and use them in moderation. Processed fats and oils, including refined and most polyunsaturated oils, are unwholesome promoters of heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. In contrast, the natural fats and oils (above) have nourished humans for millennia, and there is no evidence that they are harmful when used in moderation.

2. Remove refined white-flour products and white rice from your diet.

Replace them with 100 percent whole-grain products that have been soaked, sprouted, or naturally fermented. Replace spongy white wallpaper-paste ``bread’’ with 100 percent whole-grain breads produced without yeast, using traditional desem or sourdough methods. The label should contain only grain, water, and sea salt. Dimpflmeier, French Meadows, and Food For Life are examples of three brands of this style of bread, sold in natural foods stores and the freezer section of some supermarkets.

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