In order to achieve speedy weight loss, we first need to understand why and how we gain weight. Most simply, weight gain results from some combination of a lack of exercise and overeating of the wrong foods. The shift in our diet over the last 40 years has been dramatic and really quite horrifying. What passes for food these days is, chemically speaking, not food at all and surely not healthy. Processed foods are packed with non-nutritive preservatives and additives that put extraordinary stress on the body and can render the food undigestible. Undigested, unutilized food is stored as fat. The additives that don’t pass through our body are distributed to our fat cells, thus making them larger.

If there were one simple change we could make to improve the quality of our health and the weight of our body, it is simply this: eat more foods in their most wholesome state. More fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, brown rice and other whole grains, breads prepared with non-refined flours, nuts, seeds, beans, and lean meats that are not fried. Cut down on packaged foods, fast foods, deli meats, fried foods, and foods with artificial ingredients.

Even the high fructose corn syrup contained in our sodas and many other boxed foods is a non-natural sweetener. The sugars in high fructose corn syrup break down very quickly in the body, signaling very sharp rises in insulin, which in turn tells the body to store fat. High fructose corn syrup is one of the single greatest contributors to obesity in the world today.

A healthy diet can taste good and be very filling and nourishing. A healthy diet does not require you to give up sweets. There are quite a few excellent healthy alternatives to sugar. The amount of your food consumption does not have to change as much as the quality and nutrition of the food you eat.