Source: "Health Confidential for Men", August, 2003
Al Sears, M.D.

If (you) watch television, read magazines, or surf the
internet, (you're) bombarded with hyped-up diets.
I'll addres some of the popular diets readers ask me
about most frequently.

I have 4 problems with the most popular weight loss
approaches:

* Most are ineffective. They will not make you lose
weight.

* If you do lose weight, you cannot keep it off.
Studies show over 90% of people who lose weight
through dieting eventually gain 100% of the weight
back.

* Many create serious nutritional deficiencies.

* They all fail to differentiate good weight -- like
muscle, bone and internal organs -- from bad wieght,
like excess fat.

Here is a list of some of the most popular diets:

THE HOLLYWOOD DIET:
This one often appears in television commercials. The
idea is to only drink this diet "juice" for a few days
and you'll lose weight. This is basically based on
starvation. You may lose weight, but probably only
becaue you are dehydrated. You'll lose only water
weight. As soon as you eat or drink anything, you'll
gain the weight back. The occasional fast is not
dangerous. But dehydration will make you feel like
hell and can be dangerous.

WEIGHT WATCHERS:
Weight Watchers uses a point system to rank food based
on calories and fat. First of all, it's a pain in the
butt to track points. More immportantly, most
proteins are higher in "points" under this system so
dieters are discouraged from eating them. This is
basically another failed low-fat approach. Results
are short-term at best, and you should never be duped
into skipping protein.

* Protein enables the body to lose fat efficiently

* Protein maintains muscle, heart and brain

* Protein lessens metabolic decline with age

* Protein controls appetite

THE CABBAGE SOUP DIET:
The gimmick here is to temporarily eat only cabbage
soup to cleanse your system and shed pounds. This one
is floating around the internet and may appear in your
mailbox. The danger with this diet is obvious. No
cabbage soup recipe can provide your body with the
nutrients it neds. Any weight loss is due to
starvation and malnutrition. Cabbage-soup dieters
often feel weak and lightheaded. Not to mention, when
you do eat again, your body will try to put on extra
fat preparing for the next time you starve yourself.

CALORIE COUNTERS:
Somewhat similar to Weight Watchers, you count and
record calories eaten and control total calories.
But, again, it doesn't so much matter how many
calories you eat. The key is where the calories come
from because this determines what your body will do
with the calories. Let's say you snack on a candy bar
and a soda. The sugar and insulin make you feel tired
so you take a nap. Someone else eats the same amount
of calories, except they eat fish and spinach. They
feel charged and play fetch with their dog for 30
minutes. Who do you think would lose more fat?

EAT RIGHT 4 YOUR BLOOD TYPE:
The "break-through" here is that you should eat a
specialized diet according to your blood type.
Creator Dr. Peter D'Adamo believes that blood types
are evolutionary "markers," and your blood type
determines which foods are best for you. This is just
bad science. Blood types evolved hundreds of
thousands of years before agriculture and modern foods
were available. Therefore, we all ate the same
hunter-based diet regardless of our blood types. If
you have this book, you can get some use out of it.
Just follow the high protein Type O diet regardless of
your blood type.

SLIM FAST:
is one of the most foolish dieting fads. The
recommendation is to have two of their "diet shakes"
and one "sensible meal a day." The problem is that
these shakes are mainly sugar. They are nothing but
"refined junk". These shakes will not give you the
nutrients you need to stay healthy. You will burn off
muscle and turn to flab. You'd be better off to diet
on Snickers bars.

.....these fad diets are impossible to stay on
long-term. So be wary of diets that:'

* Have little scientific evidence to support their
claims

* Claim rapid weight loss

* Have you only eat one food or recipe

* Involve pills that rely on "chemical reaction"

* Make large claims too good to be true

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe Herbalife is based on good, sound scientific
evidence to support their claims. I, personally, can
attest that my health has greatly improved on the
Herbalife way of life. I no longer am on cholesterol
prescription drugs and my blood cholesterol is now a
*very* healthy 123!!! I have also been able to go off
my high blood pressure medication. Not to mention
losing the backache and being able to walk without a
cane and not have to use the electric carts in the
stores and all the other embarassing things that go
along with carrying around an extra 100 pounds ...
like relatives that don't even recognize you and
having to ask for extension in airplanes and flight
attendants forgetting to give them to you!

I thought this information was very interesting! I
hope you do too.

Hugs, Tresa


=====
! HERBALIFE !
Natural herbs for your Nutrition,
Skin Care & Safe Weight Loss
~~~~~~~~
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RecipeAholics/

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