According to authorities like Mark Hyman MD, humans are genetically programmed to put on weight. This theory does make a certain amount of sense. When primitive humans were still predominantly hunter gatherers they went through lean times when their stores of body fat had to sustain them. Therefore, we evolved to store excess ‘food’ as fat to be used in times of hardship. When we stopped our nomadic existence and became farmers instead, constant food was more readily available, and we didn’t need those fat reserves quite so much. Unfortunately though the genetic predisposition to store fat remained with us.

Today humans resort to all manner of measures to try and combat this troublesome genetic tendency to store fat. There are also plenty of myths about how to do it effectively, including what one should and shouldn’t eat, and should and shouldn’t do. Myths like the following:

Myth – all calories are the same. Calories are a measurement of energy so in this respect they are the same. Technically 1000 calories supplied by processed sugar products ie soda produces the same amount of energy as 1000 calories from a fruit or vegetable source. That’s where the similarity ends though! Your body can use some types of calories very efficiently whilst other types of calories cause havoc.

Therefore, the old concept that so long as your energy ie calorie intake remains less than your energy output you’ll lose weight is not necessarily true. Calories from processed products cause a whole heap of other issues that predispose the body to put on weight, regardless of how much fuel you may be burning. 

For example, processed sugar from things like soda, candy, and many processed foods, is dumped en masse straight into the blood stream where it causes insulin spikes, and triggers a host of detrimental processes throughout the body, some of which cause weight gain. Natural sugars in fruits and vegetables on the other hand are bound up in the tissues of those products, which the body has to break down in order to extract the nutrients, including sugar. The result is a much slower, more sustained release of sugar into the blood stream, which is what we’ve evolved to process.

Myth – fat is not good for you. Fat is an essential part of a healthy diet, not the least because fat-soluble vitamins require it for metabolism. Research is also increasingly finding more reasons to include fat from healthy sources such as dairy, in a balanced diet. The fat to avoid is artificial trans fat.

To sum up – experience and science are increasingly proving that a healthy balanced diet combined with plenty of exercise is the pillar of any successful weight loss program. To sustain the weight loss though healthy choices must become a way of life, not a fad to be picked up and put down again when the mood strikes. However, many of us do struggle to stay on the straight and narrow, especially if we’ve been doing all the wrong things for most of our lives. Bad habits die hard! That’s when the help of dietary aids like the Angelina Jolie keto pill may come in handy to help you negotiate the difficult times, particularly in the beginning.

Joyce Laroche