Good Morning Jo Jo,

I cannot eat a whole meal at once, unless I want to be sick later. Your stomach is starting to shrink and yes it does feel great! My co-workers, are always bringing in food and when I try to explain to them, that I cannot eat what they bring in, they become offended. When we had our potluck on Thursday, one of the girls brought me and my mentor a slice of cake. Since I was not there, my mentor explained to her, that I couldn't eat the cake and thanked her. I have also noticed that if I drink a lot of water, juice, coffee or milk, it fills me up and then I won't eat.

I am having a bowl of oatmeal squares cereal plain with a cup of coffee for breakfast this morning.

Congrats!!!

Zimmy

Speaking only for myself...please don't ignore your training and background...I think it's wonderful that you're here and have the training you do.

Weight loss is big business, and it seems to me that there's truly far more scams, dangerous drugs, scary treatments, etc. out there than there is good advice.

When I was reading the link that Miss Scarlett provided to the Mayo Clinic's website (and I trust the Mayo Clinic :) )....all of the posts and articles kept saying the same thing over and over in different ways.....

• there are no shortcuts
• there are no "magic pills"
• the only safe way to lose weight is to decrease calories and increase activity
• slow is safer
• a balanced diet is important
• eat more fruit and veggies, lean proteins, whole grains and drink more water

I wish there were a safe magic pill that could just solve the problem once and for all, but there simply isn't.

We have some code sayings in my family....one of them is "Tahiti is not an option." Doesn't mean that you can't actually go to Tahiti....you can :) ....it means that, for us, in that time and place, we have choices, but none of them is perfect, fun or easy.

For me, losing weight and getting healthier is like that.....it takes time, it takes work, and it takes making (sometimes) difficult choices. :rrose:

It is Miss Scarlett! Once you start it's not to hard to stick to, especially when given many different options like you did. I'm trying to stay 800 - 1000 calories right now.

Here is a recipe. I found it on a FB post haven't tried it but it looks interesting.

Southwest Taco Seasoning
-4 Tbs Chili Powder
-1 Tbs Garlic Powder
-1 Tbs Onion Powder
-2 tsp White Pepper
-3 tsp Black Pepper
-2 Tbs Smoker Paprika
-4 Tbs Cummin
-1 Tbs Kosher Salt
-1 Tbs Oregano

Place all ingredients in a coffee grinder and bled well. Place in an air tight container. Use on chicken, beef, shrimp and fish. Great on a taco salad.

um my friends aunt is a licensed nutritionist but thanks :)

Good Afternoon Anya,

When I took my Human Nutrition class, my professor was a licensed Dietician and the only person in my area who was also trained in Diabetic nutrition. I found everything she taught us very informative and educational. I didn't know until that class, that soybeans is the only non animal based protein that is complete.

Thank you,

Zimmy

In regards to Ali, Ali was my idea... It was just a thought... :) But I think differently now.. Thanks all for your input...

well i havent ate anything today, i dont know what i want, so im not eating, not a good idea i know

thats no bueno :) but like you said you already know that... :)

Glad you checked this, as I was going to dispute quite a few things (cold water after a meal causing cancer?) and was shocked to think Oz would have written this.

Mistie - see if you like green tea without the extra fruit juice added. Fruit juice (even not from concentrate) has a lot of added sugar.

Green tea by itself is an EXCELLENT anti-oxidant. I am to begin taking a supplement that equals 49 cups per day!

Definitely not a good idea to skip meals and get too hungry...that's when it's too easy to eat too much or eat our "sabotage" foods.

My latest trick when I'm hungry and don't know what I want is to grab a handful of mixed nuts and chew slowly while I decide. It keeps me from eating something bad for me, and the protein and healthy fats take the edge off the hungry....and I think all the crunching and chewing helps too. :)

To Mistie,

Want to cleanse and detox? Drink water. Lots of it. Squirt in some lemon juice if you don't like the taste of water. Substitutes (including green tea), just doesn't take the place of water. Choose purified over spring.

Sweetners - Skip refined sugars and artificial sweetners. Try Agave Nectar or stevia.

honestly.... knowing what I know today? I don't trust the medical field even a little bit. I also don't trust government.

there's no magic about it. Mostly common sense.

If its processed you already know in your gut it might not be good for you. right? Medicine and research constantly contradict themselves.

Eat whole natural fresh foods. We know this works but insist on thinking it's ok to drink soda. consume overly processed foods and fats. We'll find every excuse in the world and the answers or so simple.

‎"What surprises me most about humanity is man. He sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies never having really lived." - Dalai Lama


Its all insanity. Lapse of reason. Emotional traps and clever marketing.

please, no offense but I disagree. I am sure with your background this is what they taught you and through that research perhaps you formed your own opinions.

So tell me, based on your own opinion, do you feel that no matter what we drink or eat that our bodies do not retain toxins?
Also what are your views on vitamin therapy as a means of healing?
Do you think that if people were healthy, had proper diets, felt good that they would obtain an ideal weight?

thanks- again no disrespect.

I believe in Science-based medicine and feel this physician accurately speaks to your question. My post said nothing about vitamins so will not address that, other than to say that even vitamins taken in quantities larger than science recommends, can be unsafe.

When I speak as related to my background as a registered nurse, I again base it on science- not opinion.

If you have other thoughts-please feel free to pm me rather than use the thread.

“Toxins”: the new evil

Amy Tuteur, MD

They say that everything old is new again and that is certainly true in the world of “alternative” health. One of the axiomatic premises of contemporary “alternative” health puts its believers behind the times … by approximately 500 years.

A fundamental premise held by believers in “alternative” health is that we are swimming in a world of “toxins” and those “toxins” are causing disease. Like most premises in “alternative” health it has no basis in scientific fact; makes intuitive sense only if you are ignorant of medicine, science and statistics; and speaks to primitive fears and impulses.

The preoccupation with “toxins” is a direct lineal descendant of the obsession with evil humours and miasmas as causes of disease. It is hardly surprising that prior to the invention of the microscope the real causes of disease went undiscovered. The idea that disease is caused by tiny organisms that invade the body is not amenable to discovery in the absence of scientific instruments and scientific reasoning. And it goes without saying that the same people who were unaware that bacteria and viruses cause disease could not possibly imagine chromosomal defects, inborn errors of metabolism or genetic predispositions to disease.

Instead, people imagined that diseases were caused by excess evil humours, substances that were named, but never seen or identified in any way accessible to the senses. It was recognized that some diseases were contagious, and in that case, people invoked the idea of “miasmas” that somehow transmitted disease.

Even religion got into the act. Rather than attributing disease to evil humors of miasmas, religious authorities often claimed that disease was attributable to evil demons or to sin itself.

These theories shared several important features. The evil humours, miasmas, etc. were invisible, but all around us. They constantly threatened people, and those people had no way of fending off the threat. Indeed, they were often completely unaware of the threat that was actively harming them.

Evil humours, miasmas, demons, etc. were put to rest by the germ theory of disease. That was the first big breakthrough in our understanding that each disease was separate and has its own specific cause. The search for causes has taken us beyond bacteria and viruses, through errors of metabolism and chromosomal aberrations, right down to the level of the gene itself. We now understand that tiny defects in individual genes can cause disease or can increase the propensity to a specific disease.

But fear and superstition never die and the “alternative” health community has used that fear and superstition to resurrect primitive beliefs. It is axiomatic in the “alternative” health community that disease is caused by evil humours and miasmas. They just don’t call it that anymore; they call it “toxins.”

Toxins serve the same explanatory purpose as evil humours and miasmas. They are invisible, but all around us. They constantly threaten people, often people who unaware of their very existence. They are no longer viewed as evil in themselves, but it is axiomatic that they have be released into our environment by “evil” corporations.

There’s just one problem. “Toxins” are a figment of the imagination, in the exact same way that evil humours and miasmas were figments of the imagination.

Poisons exist, of course, but their existence is hardly a secret, and their actions are well known. Most poisons are naturally based, derived from plants or animals. Indeed, the chemicals responsible for more diseases than any others are nicotine (tobacco), alcohol (yeast) and opiates (poppies).

Nonetheless, “alternative” health advocates persist in subscribing to primitive theories of disease. For those who have limited understanding of science, primitive theories apparently make more sense.

Hence the obsession with “toxins” in foods, in vaccines, even “toxins” arising in the body itself. The height of inanity is the belief in “detoxifying” diets and colon cleansing. The human body does not produce “toxins.” That’s just a superstition of the “alternative” health community. The waste products produced by the human body are easily metabolized by organs such as the liver, and excreted by organs particularly designed for that purpose such as the kidneys.

“Alternative” health practitioners are nothing more than quacks and charlatans and their “remedies” are nothing more than snake oil. The fact that anyone in this day and age still believes in such crackpot theories is a tribute to the power of ignorance and superstition.

Evil humours and miasmas have not died, they’ve been reincarnated as “toxins.”


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Oh and of course, people might have their health improved if they ate healthier diets. I believe that is why Jo named the thread as she did.

That doesn't eliminate diseases such as type I diabetes or other familial, gentetic diseases. A healthy diet overall can only benefit us, regardless.

My family tree has HTN and heart disease-hence my own focus on low-fat and low sodium eating plan, etc.

Hi Sachita,

I assume that this statement is in response to my saying I trust the Mayo Clinic. :) And, yes, I do. Not to say that I trust them implicity and believe they are all-knowing, but in that I trust them more than I would trust a marketing message, a self-proclaimed "expert" or any one of a million sites on the internet that doesn't have their credibility.

Do I think that modern medicine knows everything? No.

I think it's a shame that doctors can become doctors without any significant education in nutrition.

Here's what's I also know to be true...my mother believes as you do. She grows her own food; she juices everything; she eats natural, organic everything, and she takes enough supplements to sink a ship.

As a result, she decided that she knew better than her doctors, and was "treating" her Crohn's disease on the advice of a "nutritionist" who was not a registered dietician, the manager of her local GNC store, and what she read in Prevention magazine. Now, I happen to believe that Prevention has some great advice, but it's no substitute for proper medical care.

She resisted "the system", resented the pharmaceutical companies, and said many of the same things that I've seen you post in various threads around the site. You two would probably actually get along. She retired early onto 95 acres, kept animals, gardened organically, likes to be self-sufficient and do things her own way. I imagine you'd get along famously.

Unfortunately, that point of view also led her to neglect her doctor's appointments, not take her medication regularly and "self treat" with juice, supplements, etc. Unfortunately, what she was ignoring and trying to "self treat" was advanced Crohn's disease, and cancer of the small intestine.

After 3 weeks in the hospital, an iliostomy and more....she has no colon at all, about half her small intestine, is on chemo for 6 months, a "belly wash" treatment to come, and it'll be a miracle if she lives until Christmas.

I'm not trying to dump on you at all, and absolutely believe that you have the right to your opinion, as do we all....but I seriously wish my mother had not believed what she did, and seen her doctor more.

:olive: