I exercise, why can't I lose weight?

I have been asked that question numerous times by friends who know I have lost 130 pounds and am continuing to lose even more. Many of them are fairly active people who exercise faithfully believing that is the answer. The truth is all the exercise in the world is not going to take off an ounce, if you don't eat right.
     The Standard American Diet is stacked against us. Americans, for the most part, have fallen prey to the slick advertising that convinces us that one packaged product or another is going to give us the healthy nutrition we want by putting it first into the microwave then into our mouths. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have heard the LOW FAT mantra for decades, and the simple truth is we need fat in our diet. Our cells are made of fat, including cholesterol of which our brains are made. What we don't need is sugar in any of its many forms which packaged foods producers put in to replace the fats they have removed. When they take the fat out, they take out the flavor, so they use sugar to put flavor back in.
     Sugar is twenty times more addictive than cocaine and works on the same receptors in our brains as the drug. That is why the cravings for sweets and starches are a by product. Our primitive ancestors only got sugar one way. By eating natural sources like fruits and berries. And it was a seasonal thing. Those items were only available during the limited growing season that produced them in the area in which they lived. Not so today. Fruits, even exotic ones, are available all year long through international transportation. But fruits are good foor us, isn't that so? Yes, fruits can give us needed vitamins and minerals,fiber, and phytonutrients if they are eaten in their natural form, not made into fruit juice drinks sold inbottles. They can be as bad as soft drinks that are loaded with sugar, or even worse, High Fructoe Corn Syrup.
     The biggest culprit is high fructose corn syrup that is cheaper than sugar and twenty times sweeter. That is why it is used extensively in the soft drink and fast food industies. Did you knw that sugar and salt are added to the french fries you get at the local McDonalds or Burger King? Did you know that they have scientists working for them to find new combinations that will act on the addictive areas of our brains so we will get a high when we eat their laboratory created concotions and lure us back for more. The fast food industry is not alone. General Mills, Kraft, Post, and every other  manufacturer of packaged trash you find on super market shelves does the same thing. Why do you think our children are becoming obese at earlier and earlier ages. Why is ADD and ADHD on the rise. Add in Autism and food allergies and the picture becomes more clear. Do you think the cause might be their constant diet of quick and easy foods we shove in front of them? Perish the thought!

Appalled by St. Jude Chidren's Hospital Ad.

Don't get the wrong impression. I was not angry with St. Jude's about the content of the ad, but that the ad was necessary at all. It showed a number of children who had lost their hair due to chemotherapy and had an unhealthy pallor to their skin. What pissed me off is that the suffering and pain these innocents and scores more like them have to undergo because the food supply in the USA is so toxic that it is making everyone sick, not just those poor children. St. Jude Hospital is worthy of my support, which I give gladly, and yours, too. 
      The science has been around for decades that the food that is reaching the shelves of local groceries is contaminated with every kind of poison imaginable. Herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals and molds are inserted into the food supply because of the way the farming is done on factory farms that produce the majority of what we eat. 
      Chemical companies, like Monsanto, one of the worst of a bad lot, patent seeds that are genetically engineered to withstand massive doses of the herbicide Roundup ( that incident-ally conains the same chemicals that made up Agent Orange of Viet Nam era infamy). It is sprayed on wheat, corn, and a plethora of other crops that go into our food supply either directly or as livestock feed that is eaten by cattle, pigs, and chickens. Even organic farms are affected by overspray and wind drift, so no really safe food is a rarity. 
     Parents who think they are providing wholesome, nurishing food to their kids are un-knowingly poisoning them. The public has been lied to so often that it now believes the lie to be the truth. A tactic used extensively by Adolph Hitler. The only way to defeat the conglom-erates that control the food chain is to not support them by buying the trash they are supply-ing.  Skip the sugar laden boxed breakfast cereals and fix them some oatmeal or bacon and eggs. At least you will know what they are eating. The next time you think about stopping at McDonalds or Burger King for that easy way out for you by buying dinner on the way home from work, ask yourself, "What kind of meat is in this? How much salt? How much sugar?" before you do. Save your kid's life.

Wow! Did I blow it!

     I goofed big time on my last posting by saying there was no rating system for doctors that was readily accessible to people searching for an MD when, in fact, there are several. All it takes is the right search parameters to find them. I even found one that listed the internist I visit regularly, and she has a five starr rating which is not what I would give her as she is primarily a pill pusher and does not treat the core problem but only the symptoms.
     All this is well and good, but I question whether people who have problems with a doctor are going to post on that type of site  On the ones I checked, there was a lot to say about the doctor;s education,  specialty, location, etc., but nowhere for poor performance to show up without reading each rating which identifies a  poster as a verified patient. How many people with grudges or lawsuits against a doctor are going to post in a place like that. Any negative or anonymous postings can be easily deleted by the site's master.
      To me, rhis kind of site, that, incidentally, most are run by doctors or groups of them, is no better than looking in the Yellow Pages if you want to find an MD who practices holistic medicine near you. Good Luck with that!

The Buddy System

In the medical profession, just like any other, there are good practitioners and there are bad. The problem is when a doctor is either incompetent, careless, greedy, or just plain dishonest. The only way that a patient can find out if any of the above applies to his or her physician is usually after the fact. There is no way for a patient to see the legal or medical status of a doctor to know how others find his performance.

     There is no rating system, nor is there any means to learn how many lawsuits have been filed against him, or if he has been found derelict and sanctioned by his peers unless it appears in the newspapers or on TV. One doctor blowing the whistle on another is a rarity. Medicine is an exclusive fraternity, and its members stick together. One would be hard-pressed to find a dozen instances in any locality over the period of a year.

     What then is a patient to do when looking for a physician? If they are already under a doctor's care, they can get a referral from him to a colleague who may be a specialist in the area where treatment is needed. In some states, there are Doctor referral services online, but these are a crapshoot in that only the name the address and the specialty are shown. Most of the time, the best reference comes from a friend who has had experience dealing with a specific doctor. This is usually your best recourse. You never know if there is a kickback on referrals, or if the referring doctor actually knows anything about the person to whom he is referring you personally.

      Don't get me wrong. Most doctors are well-meaning, caring people. They have spent a good portion of their lives getting the education they needed to do what they believe in: the practice of medicine. It is a laudable and honorable profession, and they deserve the fruits of their labors. The sad thing is that most of them have become pill pushers who believe that medications are the only solution. To address that problem is the reason for this blog.

Big pharmacy and medical schools

      Pharmaceutical companies have a huge amount of control over universities and colleges that have medical programs. Many of the teachers are doing research funded by the drug companies. They control the experiments done and the results of those experiments. If the results of an experiment involving one of their drugs does not show the results that the drug company is looking for, it will be quashed, and no one will know those results.

      Both this scientists and the drug companies have a vested interest to protect. The researchers, themselves, want to keep the funding that the drug companies provide to maintain the wealth and status of the University of which they are a part. The drug companies know that their financial clout will bias the universities in their favor. The research done at the schools can give a drug company new products which they alone will have a right to produce. This is a huge profit incentive for them to finance the schools.

      Once the research on product is complete, the drug companies only release those portions to the public that they want them to see. Side effects of drugs are played down or hidden until they show up. Even though the FDA has strict rules for the testing of medicines many are still allowed on the market that are potentially dangerous to some people.

      Drug companies have a cavalier attitude toward their products and their safety. The analogy of breaking eggs to make an omelette usually typifies their thinking. They will put a drug on the market, and if a few people die, they will pay off the families and keep the product going until they are stopped by the government or by public uproar. 

      Suits against drug companies are as common as ambulance chasers. Lawyers know that juries will usually lean to the favor of the plaintiff. This means good business for them. The fact that these companies use sophisticated marketing to get their drugs into the hands of suffering people through TV advertising and marketing to their doctors shows that only money is the reason for what they do. That bothers me, and it should bother you.

Drug Money and Your Doctor

     I am not saying your doctor is doing anything illegal, but chances are he/she is acting on behalf of Big Pharmaceuticals to get their products into your hands. There is an enlightening video on YouTube of an HBO show "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Marketing to Doctors" that is really funny, but filled with some scary truths. In it, he states that drug companies spend more on marketing to you and your doctors than they do on research: an amazing $24 billion annually.
     It is a known fact that the drug producers don't want to find cures for disease, but, instead, want to "manage" them.so the person suffering will have to depend on them and be a repeat buyer. To me, this is criminal, but the government, Big Pharma, and Big Agriculture are all working against us. The system is so corrupt that it is going to take a revolution to change it.
      There is already in existence a group that calls itself The Food Revolution Network that tries to get the word out to consumers. It is run by Ocean Robbins, son of John Robbins, a long time advocate of healthy eating and battler against the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into our diet. Why has he done that? Because no one knows how the human body will react to them in the long term.
     Science has already produced corn that has a built in insecticide by moving genes from differing plants into it. If the product will kill insects, what will it do to people? The company producing it claims it is harmless, but who really knows what the effect will be in 20 years.
     The strategies of the drug companies that target you through your doctor are wrapped in glossy paper and tied with pretty ribbons so they appear harmless but are really insidious. They beguile the doctors in many ways using food, sex, and psychology, and track the prescriptions they write so they know exactly how effective their campaigns are. And, the doctors are rewarded if they write enough prescriptions to satisfy the drug companies.
     So, think before you ask for one of the drugs being so heavily advertised on TV, your doctor may have a personal profit reason to give it to you. If he does, he knows you will be back for more. Repeat business is always a good thing, isn't it?

Treating the Symptoms, Not the Cause

      Today, students being trained in medicine are learning in schools mostly funded by large pharmaceutical companies that have a vested interest in promoting the use of medicines to control rather than cure a disease. These young doctors in training are taught to treat the symptoms with the use of medicines rather than to search for the source of the problem which often leads to prescribing pills or potions that have side effects frequently as bad as the ailment they are supposed to treat.              Looking at the literature that comes along with modern medications can be a scary experience, especially when you get past the "how to use" portion of the document and get to the section covering side effects. I have personally read on some of the prescriptions that I have received over the years side effects includingcancer, heart attack, and death. So, if you take this "medicine" that is supposed to help you, it could kill you. Sadly, most people never read past "how to use." Unless your doctor practices Functional Medicine, you cannot expect anything different from a doctor currently in practice.
      Functional Medicine is where a health practitioner searches to find the source of the problem rather than simply addressing the symptoms. They will first seek natural means of alleviating the symptoms rather than writing a prescription for a medication. In other words, they will direct you to change your diet to correct your diabetes, arthritis, or stomach pains rather than having you take a pill or an injection, if you have not already past the point where that strategy will work. They will guide you with the knowledge to make whatever changes they want you to make. They will not hand you a prescription and shuttle you out the door. If your doctor does not practice functional medicine, I suggest you look for another.