I'm really into holistic health. Had a family member come visit last month. She is overweight. She asked me if there was any pill over the counter she could take to help her lose weight. I told her she could take berberine which would help her glucose levels, but she needed to fix her diet. She eats constantly and it's all processed food…
I'm really into holistic health. Had a family member come visit last month. She is overweight. She asked me if there was any pill over the counter she could take to help her lose weight. I told her she could take berberine which would help her glucose levels, but she needed to fix her diet. She eats constantly and it's all processed foods, never drinks water, always cokes. I told her she needed to cut all that out. She didn't want to hear that. People are lazy and too comfortable. They want an easy fix and still be able to live the lifestyle they always have. She is younger than me and already had a stent put in and also had a stroke. And she's not jabbed.
I think more than lazy, they are addicted. Addictions are hard to break. The fact that (as RFK Jr. points out) food companies have (former tobacco) scientists in labs creating additives which will make the food addictive is the key to the whole mess. It's possible to change and get healthy, but first people have to connect the dots: understand they are addicted and that their health issues are the result.
Choices lead to addictions, and also get us out of them. My point is that it helps to understand that your diet is filled with addictive substances. It's not about abdicating responsibility but gaining empowering knowledge that can help support better, conscious choices.
I spoke with a retired friend who worked as a nurse in mental hospitals. She said she never treated people who were addicted as victims. She said that if they never understood that where they were was the result of life choices, they would never change. Until they take responsibility for their actions, no change will ever occur.
Your right Leah Rose, the processed food, is full of addicting additives. And people just don’t wanna work hard to get unaddicted. It’s a shame. Sugar is as equally addictive as crack for some people.😢
I fully understand the addiction. But if you want to do something bad enough, you find a way to do it, addiction or not. And if you refuse to even consider it, I just don't know. It's sad.
The addiction associated with food is a little different than the addictions associated with alcohol or drugs or nicotine. We NEED to eat food but we can live our whole life without consuming the latter substances. I certainly was not aware of how addictive sugar is for most people. Similarly, I had no idea they genetically modify fruit varieties to be sweeter and therefore, more addictive. This isn't simply a matter of "well just stop eating what's bad for you." People need to be educated that it is even happening and then given alternatives. Some will make changes and some won't. Tale as old as time.
I miss the old pineapples that were actually tart. Now they are just sweet syrup. When they have any flavor at all. Organic Maui Jet Fresh used to be good, but it was too expensive for them to continue bringing over to mainland.
It's like the honeycrisp apple. I call it the ignorant person's apple (sorry if you like them). There are soooooo many better apples out there, but people are afraid of complex flavors now, it seems. Has to be 100% sweet and only sweet. Or the tart can't be too assertive, or peeps freak out.
I sold apples wholesale and at farmer's markets for years. At the FM, I always tried to educate my custy's about each apple variety, why we didn't sell the "club" apples (the one's you have to pay a fee to grow, like Opal (TM) etc.). What always got me was people asking for honeycrisp, which we had but only for 2 weeks at a time, and when I would suggest something similar (crunchy, juicy, sweet-tart, and no WAY does it bruise as easily as a honeycrisp) they just could not experiment. Not even for one. They would rather go to a store and buy offshore product or WA out of controlled atmosphere, all of it disintegrating by the minute.
SMH
Education is key, but a little curiosity would help too.
Spitzenberg, Black Twig, Arkansas Black, Pippen, and Hauer Pippen all close seconds.
For a "Mainstream" apple 🤣 I like Mutsu or Jonagold.
EDIT: a good alternative to Honeycrisp that you can find in a store (it is a club apple though) is Cosmic Crisp. It is not at all the same look, but super crunchy (has thicker skin so won't bruise as easily), good sweet/tart balance.
Oh, I forgot about Romes (ate those when I lived on East Coast). Those are great, I liked Macouns when I was back there too. We don't have those, and no good Macintosh here.
We love apples in NY and my favorite varieties are Empire and Cortland. I like crisp, tartish and white-flesh. Macintosh can be either really good, or just meh depending on the particular harvest year. Pippen are good too. I can live with Galas. One variety I really have never liked or understood the popularity of: Red Delicious. Yuck.
If you get red delicious or gold delicious off the tree, they are, actually, delicious (to me). The farm I worked for grew them and they were completely different animals from the store-available kind.
What a shame! She’s being drugged with that food, in the past year I’ve done a serious redo with my food…slowly but surely I’ve lost 20lbs, I haven’t started a work out plan yet but that’s step two. Figure if I can lose another 20 this year I’ll be where I want to be on the scale. It’s reducing one thing at a time, IMHO, drastic measures only work 5% of the time, I finally feel like I get it! AND NO shots in my stomach!! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
It’s 80% diet, 20% exercise. You have your priorities straight. You can’t outrun a bad diet and you’ll see faster, better results from your exercise by fueling your body the right way.
Getting a dog will motivate you to get out and walk every day 😊 That’s all your body needs to have a healthy heart. Add some weights 3 days a week and you’ll have healthy bones too.
For one thing I don’t drink pop, I may have some diet lemonade but otherwise just water and tea. I do a bit of fasting, not every day but probably 4-5 days a week I don’t eat breakfast. I don’t (if I can) eat after 6:00, only drink water. Snacking is hard for me, I love crunchy 🤦🏻♀️ so I substituted crackers/cheese etc with pistachios. I’ve just recently given those up and replaced with veggies. Frankly, it’s just pulling out or changing a bad food habit and adding a better one. What can you substitute that’s healthy for something you love. One big one, last week, I gave up coffee (with cream 😭) it’s not been easy but I do feel better and now drinking tea in the morning.
Thank you! I really like crunchy snacks too - good suggestion regarding veggies. Did you give up coffee because of the cream? Do you not like unadulterated coffee? I'm not a huge coffee drinker and much prefer tea, but that is the one time I do add some sugar.
EDIT: just saw your response to Robin. I drink one cup of 1/3 caffeinated coffee in the morning and then one cup of tea in the afternoon (it's a ritual with my husband - we sit down for a cuppa and talk about our day on our back deck weather permitting).
As far as giving up the coffee with cream, I saw on Shark Tank that a woman who gave up coffee came up with a non coffee coffee made with chicory and carob. It's called SIPS. The panel all liked the drink but no one invested. I'm thinking of giving it a try as it would be better for me than coffee.
Teechino is made with chicory; you can buy it in a bag to brew like tea. I buy the one with dandelion, which has its own health benefits. Just know that chicory is a prebiotic fiber so a lot of people tolerate it only in moderate amounts. https://a.co/d/753kajb
Thanks I’ll check it out…honestly the withdrawal from the caffeine is the hardest. I was a 3 cup a morning (espresso) drinker. Not small cups either. My body was telling me it’s time to stop…🤷🏻♀️
So true. Sadly, our daughter always looked to pills to fix everything instead of changing her lifestyle. The bartender at a restaurant told us she had a hip replacement and in the next month , will have both knees replaced. She's 47. Lifestyle people. Diet. Cancer in a can, fried everything, fast food, and processed food will destroy your body. None of it is food.
Coke? Diet? How many skinny ppl drink diet drinks? Maybe I don't pay attention unless they are obese. I've been obese most of my life. Educated by an upside down pyramid built by GOV acronyms and payouts.
The food pyramid and then the stupid, "healthy plate," did so much damage. Anecdotally, I gave up drinking my afternoon can of Coke one year for Lent and in 6 weeks, making absolutely no other change in my diet or exercise habits, had dropped 7 pounds. It was crazy.
Got a goofier one for you, 21 years ago, I built our stone house, with help of course . Each day at lunch, the stone mason and I would go into town for fast food. I got a Burger King Angus burger and a small fry. Drank water. Gave half the fries to my 2 dogs. In 2 weeks , I put on 5 pounds. I switched to a bowl of ice cream at lunch. In a week, I dropped the 5 pounds.
One winter in upstate NY - probably about 20 years ago now - my FIL was having to shovel his driveway on an almost daily basis. Well, by the time winter was over, he had dropped 10 pounds. Again. No other dietary changes, just a daily dose of physical activity. It made an impression on me. Same thing happened when he took on building a retaining wall in his yard.
The Lent I gave up drinking Coke was probably 20 years ago now and I can't even take a swallow of the stuff now. Once you lose the taste - it's gone.
Just curious, why don't you add ice? My mom doesn't like drinking water at all, but adds lots of ice to everything. I was happy about this because I thought that all the ice would help with hydration, no?
Anything below body temperature requires the body to spend energy to heat the food or liquid. Energy that an be used for better purposes. Been told this, and read this, a number of places.
Yes, true. Many years ago, experts suggested people trying to lose weight put ice in their drinks so as to force them to use more energy to warm it up!
I don’t lose weight unless I also lose my recurring soda addiction (honestly, I will have one after several weeks without and it tastes like the chemicals it’s filled with….but I push through and finish it anyhow!!! So stupid of me, it’s embarrassing! But I can be stronger than this damn addiction….had soda on a long drive yesterday to stay awake, but not having it again on the drive home!! I might force some coffee down my throat and learn to like that somehow but soda has to be off the table!)
How long did they laugh at Atkins? He was telling everyone in the 80's to stop the carbs. He lived into his 80's and till his dying day the media ridiculed him. But he knew the problem was the American diet.
I believe one of the worst addictions in America are “diet” drinks. I used to work with a guy who was obese and he was constantly drinking a diet Dr. Pepper. He had twelve or more every day. I really wanted to tell him that they weren’t working. The chemical additives in those drinks are highly addictive and destructive to your metabolism. It’s sad that the health of so many has been ruined by lies.
I’m starting a group FOR FREE on Substack and X November 1. We’re going to dive into the nitty gritty how to fix your food problems for life This is for any budget, and any stage of life. I’ve healed so many diagnoses and the beginning of all healing is, let your food be your medicine.
Exercise helps, even just walking. Daughter can't stand to "just walk," so she took up pickleball after years of tennis. Easier to find people to play 3+ times a week.
She pestered me to play several times a week, which told me she was serious about the change. That lead to us playing 2-3 times a week. Mostly try to play when she can't find anyone else so she doesn't HAVE to suffer through walking. But she will walk or play every single day now.
Huge change, lost 20 lbs the first month, now looking for the next thing she can improve. She was finally ready.
One step forward that you can sustain leads to another...
I have 3 ppl in my close circle that started looking for a way to improve health when a med test result showed concern the second time. First time ignored, second got their attention. I've talked for years about friends that got healthier with diet and exercise changes.
One got the pre diabetic scare. Walked 5 miles 2X per week like she was training for the Olympics. Now she runs 3X per week and competes in 10K races. She won her age bracket recently for the first time. Loves running, can't stand tennis or pickleball. Counts carbs bc that was he main food obsession.
And now has much improved blood pressure. And not remotely close to pre diabetic.
Another one... went to doc with extreme blood pressure, doc says go to ER, he refuses (no insurance). Decided to start walking an hour a day. Half mile first time. A year later, he's up to four miles a day, always in the South Texas heat and humidity. He says he's paying the price for his ignorance. Down 50 lbs to a healthy weight, looks great. Now eating better with a similar step by sustainable step approach to improve.
Fat encapsulates poisons in your system that would be damaging if they entered your bloodstream. Get rid of the toxins and the fat just disappears. This also applies to medications. Many ailments that people are taking prescriptions for can be remedied with natural protocols. Drugs disrupt body processes.
Maybe if she was paying a nutritionist, she might behave better. It’s the same reason people hire a personal trainer even when they know how to exercise themselves.
I'm really into holistic health. Had a family member come visit last month. She is overweight. She asked me if there was any pill over the counter she could take to help her lose weight. I told her she could take berberine which would help her glucose levels, but she needed to fix her diet. She eats constantly and it's all processed foods, never drinks water, always cokes. I told her she needed to cut all that out. She didn't want to hear that. People are lazy and too comfortable. They want an easy fix and still be able to live the lifestyle they always have. She is younger than me and already had a stent put in and also had a stroke. And she's not jabbed.
I think more than lazy, they are addicted. Addictions are hard to break. The fact that (as RFK Jr. points out) food companies have (former tobacco) scientists in labs creating additives which will make the food addictive is the key to the whole mess. It's possible to change and get healthy, but first people have to connect the dots: understand they are addicted and that their health issues are the result.
Addiction is not a disease. It’s a series of choices.
Choices lead to addictions, and also get us out of them. My point is that it helps to understand that your diet is filled with addictive substances. It's not about abdicating responsibility but gaining empowering knowledge that can help support better, conscious choices.
I spoke with a retired friend who worked as a nurse in mental hospitals. She said she never treated people who were addicted as victims. She said that if they never understood that where they were was the result of life choices, they would never change. Until they take responsibility for their actions, no change will ever occur.
🎯 ⬆️ 💯 ‼️
Your right Leah Rose, the processed food, is full of addicting additives. And people just don’t wanna work hard to get unaddicted. It’s a shame. Sugar is as equally addictive as crack for some people.😢
Being someone who no longer eats sugar because I became addicted, I can vouch for your statement.
I fully understand the addiction. But if you want to do something bad enough, you find a way to do it, addiction or not. And if you refuse to even consider it, I just don't know. It's sad.
The addiction associated with food is a little different than the addictions associated with alcohol or drugs or nicotine. We NEED to eat food but we can live our whole life without consuming the latter substances. I certainly was not aware of how addictive sugar is for most people. Similarly, I had no idea they genetically modify fruit varieties to be sweeter and therefore, more addictive. This isn't simply a matter of "well just stop eating what's bad for you." People need to be educated that it is even happening and then given alternatives. Some will make changes and some won't. Tale as old as time.
I miss the old pineapples that were actually tart. Now they are just sweet syrup. When they have any flavor at all. Organic Maui Jet Fresh used to be good, but it was too expensive for them to continue bringing over to mainland.
It's like the honeycrisp apple. I call it the ignorant person's apple (sorry if you like them). There are soooooo many better apples out there, but people are afraid of complex flavors now, it seems. Has to be 100% sweet and only sweet. Or the tart can't be too assertive, or peeps freak out.
I sold apples wholesale and at farmer's markets for years. At the FM, I always tried to educate my custy's about each apple variety, why we didn't sell the "club" apples (the one's you have to pay a fee to grow, like Opal (TM) etc.). What always got me was people asking for honeycrisp, which we had but only for 2 weeks at a time, and when I would suggest something similar (crunchy, juicy, sweet-tart, and no WAY does it bruise as easily as a honeycrisp) they just could not experiment. Not even for one. They would rather go to a store and buy offshore product or WA out of controlled atmosphere, all of it disintegrating by the minute.
SMH
Education is key, but a little curiosity would help too.
Michele, what's your favorite apple?
ASHMEAD'S KERNAL FOR THE WIN!!!!
Spitzenberg, Black Twig, Arkansas Black, Pippen, and Hauer Pippen all close seconds.
For a "Mainstream" apple 🤣 I like Mutsu or Jonagold.
EDIT: a good alternative to Honeycrisp that you can find in a store (it is a club apple though) is Cosmic Crisp. It is not at all the same look, but super crunchy (has thicker skin so won't bruise as easily), good sweet/tart balance.
Num, thanks. BTW my dad used to love Macintosh apples. Rome Beauties seemed to be favored, too.
Oh, I forgot about Romes (ate those when I lived on East Coast). Those are great, I liked Macouns when I was back there too. We don't have those, and no good Macintosh here.
We love apples in NY and my favorite varieties are Empire and Cortland. I like crisp, tartish and white-flesh. Macintosh can be either really good, or just meh depending on the particular harvest year. Pippen are good too. I can live with Galas. One variety I really have never liked or understood the popularity of: Red Delicious. Yuck.
If you get red delicious or gold delicious off the tree, they are, actually, delicious (to me). The farm I worked for grew them and they were completely different animals from the store-available kind.
Perfect.
Have you noticed that all the weight loss programs (Noom, Weight Watchers, etc) are all prescribing weight loss meds?
I wasn’t aware of that. Wow. Just crazy. And sad.
What a shame! She’s being drugged with that food, in the past year I’ve done a serious redo with my food…slowly but surely I’ve lost 20lbs, I haven’t started a work out plan yet but that’s step two. Figure if I can lose another 20 this year I’ll be where I want to be on the scale. It’s reducing one thing at a time, IMHO, drastic measures only work 5% of the time, I finally feel like I get it! AND NO shots in my stomach!! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
It’s 80% diet, 20% exercise. You have your priorities straight. You can’t outrun a bad diet and you’ll see faster, better results from your exercise by fueling your body the right way.
Getting a dog will motivate you to get out and walk every day 😊 That’s all your body needs to have a healthy heart. Add some weights 3 days a week and you’ll have healthy bones too.
Gigi - do you mind sharing some of the modifications you've undertaken?
For one thing I don’t drink pop, I may have some diet lemonade but otherwise just water and tea. I do a bit of fasting, not every day but probably 4-5 days a week I don’t eat breakfast. I don’t (if I can) eat after 6:00, only drink water. Snacking is hard for me, I love crunchy 🤦🏻♀️ so I substituted crackers/cheese etc with pistachios. I’ve just recently given those up and replaced with veggies. Frankly, it’s just pulling out or changing a bad food habit and adding a better one. What can you substitute that’s healthy for something you love. One big one, last week, I gave up coffee (with cream 😭) it’s not been easy but I do feel better and now drinking tea in the morning.
Thank you! I really like crunchy snacks too - good suggestion regarding veggies. Did you give up coffee because of the cream? Do you not like unadulterated coffee? I'm not a huge coffee drinker and much prefer tea, but that is the one time I do add some sugar.
EDIT: just saw your response to Robin. I drink one cup of 1/3 caffeinated coffee in the morning and then one cup of tea in the afternoon (it's a ritual with my husband - we sit down for a cuppa and talk about our day on our back deck weather permitting).
As far as giving up the coffee with cream, I saw on Shark Tank that a woman who gave up coffee came up with a non coffee coffee made with chicory and carob. It's called SIPS. The panel all liked the drink but no one invested. I'm thinking of giving it a try as it would be better for me than coffee.
Teechino is made with chicory; you can buy it in a bag to brew like tea. I buy the one with dandelion, which has its own health benefits. Just know that chicory is a prebiotic fiber so a lot of people tolerate it only in moderate amounts. https://a.co/d/753kajb
Thanks I’ll check it out…honestly the withdrawal from the caffeine is the hardest. I was a 3 cup a morning (espresso) drinker. Not small cups either. My body was telling me it’s time to stop…🤷🏻♀️
I make brewed green tea, then over ice in a pitcher. It keeps my husband away from soda. And good for men anyway.
Love this--haha I am pulling my carrots and celery out of my lunch bag now! Gotta have the crunch!
So true. Sadly, our daughter always looked to pills to fix everything instead of changing her lifestyle. The bartender at a restaurant told us she had a hip replacement and in the next month , will have both knees replaced. She's 47. Lifestyle people. Diet. Cancer in a can, fried everything, fast food, and processed food will destroy your body. None of it is food.
😔😑 So sad to hear.
Coke? Diet? How many skinny ppl drink diet drinks? Maybe I don't pay attention unless they are obese. I've been obese most of my life. Educated by an upside down pyramid built by GOV acronyms and payouts.
The food pyramid and then the stupid, "healthy plate," did so much damage. Anecdotally, I gave up drinking my afternoon can of Coke one year for Lent and in 6 weeks, making absolutely no other change in my diet or exercise habits, had dropped 7 pounds. It was crazy.
Got a goofier one for you, 21 years ago, I built our stone house, with help of course . Each day at lunch, the stone mason and I would go into town for fast food. I got a Burger King Angus burger and a small fry. Drank water. Gave half the fries to my 2 dogs. In 2 weeks , I put on 5 pounds. I switched to a bowl of ice cream at lunch. In a week, I dropped the 5 pounds.
Just crazy!
One winter in upstate NY - probably about 20 years ago now - my FIL was having to shovel his driveway on an almost daily basis. Well, by the time winter was over, he had dropped 10 pounds. Again. No other dietary changes, just a daily dose of physical activity. It made an impression on me. Same thing happened when he took on building a retaining wall in his yard.
The Lent I gave up drinking Coke was probably 20 years ago now and I can't even take a swallow of the stuff now. Once you lose the taste - it's gone.
Yup. Same with sugar in coffee. We drink Zero sodas. And don't add ice to anything. Should have mentioned that in the protocols.
Just curious, why don't you add ice? My mom doesn't like drinking water at all, but adds lots of ice to everything. I was happy about this because I thought that all the ice would help with hydration, no?
Anything below body temperature requires the body to spend energy to heat the food or liquid. Energy that an be used for better purposes. Been told this, and read this, a number of places.
Yes, true. Many years ago, experts suggested people trying to lose weight put ice in their drinks so as to force them to use more energy to warm it up!
Huh, very interesting. Thanks for your reply!
have a friend that drinks only warm water. I settle for room temperature
Wow 😮
I don’t lose weight unless I also lose my recurring soda addiction (honestly, I will have one after several weeks without and it tastes like the chemicals it’s filled with….but I push through and finish it anyhow!!! So stupid of me, it’s embarrassing! But I can be stronger than this damn addiction….had soda on a long drive yesterday to stay awake, but not having it again on the drive home!! I might force some coffee down my throat and learn to like that somehow but soda has to be off the table!)
I love your self-deprecating humility. You can do this!! :)
How long did they laugh at Atkins? He was telling everyone in the 80's to stop the carbs. He lived into his 80's and till his dying day the media ridiculed him. But he knew the problem was the American diet.
I believe one of the worst addictions in America are “diet” drinks. I used to work with a guy who was obese and he was constantly drinking a diet Dr. Pepper. He had twelve or more every day. I really wanted to tell him that they weren’t working. The chemical additives in those drinks are highly addictive and destructive to your metabolism. It’s sad that the health of so many has been ruined by lies.
I've never understood how anyone could drink multiple sodas a day....diet or otherwise.
YES! Not enough people know this about diet drinks.
I’m starting a group FOR FREE on Substack and X November 1. We’re going to dive into the nitty gritty how to fix your food problems for life This is for any budget, and any stage of life. I’ve healed so many diagnoses and the beginning of all healing is, let your food be your medicine.
Do you have links to your Substack and X yet?
You might have lipedema which makes losing weight in hips and thighs almost impossible.
Start them off with one change they can hold that has a positive impact they can see or feel.
That leads to motivation to look for the next sustainable change.
"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.". Somebody smart said that once, probably a little different and a long time ago. Wise.
Exercise helps, even just walking. Daughter can't stand to "just walk," so she took up pickleball after years of tennis. Easier to find people to play 3+ times a week.
She pestered me to play several times a week, which told me she was serious about the change. That lead to us playing 2-3 times a week. Mostly try to play when she can't find anyone else so she doesn't HAVE to suffer through walking. But she will walk or play every single day now.
Huge change, lost 20 lbs the first month, now looking for the next thing she can improve. She was finally ready.
One step forward that you can sustain leads to another...
Sorry for the spam...
I have 3 ppl in my close circle that started looking for a way to improve health when a med test result showed concern the second time. First time ignored, second got their attention. I've talked for years about friends that got healthier with diet and exercise changes.
One got the pre diabetic scare. Walked 5 miles 2X per week like she was training for the Olympics. Now she runs 3X per week and competes in 10K races. She won her age bracket recently for the first time. Loves running, can't stand tennis or pickleball. Counts carbs bc that was he main food obsession.
And now has much improved blood pressure. And not remotely close to pre diabetic.
Another one... went to doc with extreme blood pressure, doc says go to ER, he refuses (no insurance). Decided to start walking an hour a day. Half mile first time. A year later, he's up to four miles a day, always in the South Texas heat and humidity. He says he's paying the price for his ignorance. Down 50 lbs to a healthy weight, looks great. Now eating better with a similar step by sustainable step approach to improve.
Anyone motivated can do it, one step at a time.
Incredible.
That's a great and inspiring anecdote. May her success continue!
Fat encapsulates poisons in your system that would be damaging if they entered your bloodstream. Get rid of the toxins and the fat just disappears. This also applies to medications. Many ailments that people are taking prescriptions for can be remedied with natural protocols. Drugs disrupt body processes.
Maybe if she was paying a nutritionist, she might behave better. It’s the same reason people hire a personal trainer even when they know how to exercise themselves.