Optimal health means different things to different people. To me, it means waking up after a good night's sleep feeling happy, energetic, and looking forward to the new day; and just plain feeling good!

Many factors affect your health, including your daily habits, your work, and your living environment. The list goes on and on. I'm going to address all these issues in time, but first, I need to teach you how to stop polluting your body. In our modern society, the amazing amount of total toxic garbage that we put into our bodies is, quite frankly, destroying us. Its quite easy to see for yourself.

All you need to do is go to your local busy town center or mall, and look at the people walking by. You will notice a pattern. At one end of the spectrum, you will see young, active individuals that are running, jumping and skating around. These people are either eating healthy food or able to deal with the toxins in their food, because it will take years to “catch up” with them. You will also notice that they are thin and strong, because their physical activity causes them to build muscle mass and burn off excess calories.

You will also see young people that are obviously overweight, and even more older people that are overweight. Depending on the area that you live in, you will notice that up to (or even exceeding) 30% of the people are frankly obese http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/. They will have big tummies, big rear ends, or big legs. They will be walking slower and with more difficulty. They don't look very healthy. You may or may not look like them, but in any case, we don't want to look like them.

These people are so overweight and look so unhealthy for one simple reason: they consume more food calories than they use. But why? The vast majority of them are eating highly processed foods, with few of the most important nutrients, as well as massive amounts of fats and sugars that are being stored as body fat. They are slowly, but surely, killing themselves. Many of them have tried dieting before. Some of them have lost a lot of weight. The majority of them have gained it all back. This is the pattern that repeats itself year after year. My father calls it the “yo-yo” behavior of dieting: lose weight, gain more weight, lose some weight, gain even more weight.

The reason why they (and maybe you) are eating this highly processed garbage called “food” may not be obvious. In addition there are certain characteristics of this “food” that make almost everyone gain weight and become unhealthy which will all be explained in other chapters.

Table 1

I don't' know about you, but I find this totally shocking and completely unacceptable. Heart disease kills more people every year than live in many major U.S. Cities (see data here). Plenty of evidence exists that proves that the vast majority of these deaths would have been preventable with the right diet. Even though we all know we should eat a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and avoid foods like red meat and refined sugar, the fact remains that most everyone continues to eat these terrible foods. (In my opinion these high fat, high refined carbohydrate foods should not be called foods since they are more destructive to our bodies than anything else.) So, why is it that everyone keeps eating, and dying? The reason is both simple and complex at the same time. The simple side of the story is that the protective mechanisms that our bodies would normally use to prevent us from eating something toxic, are basically broken. In addition, we have been programmed, mentally and physically, to seek out these toxic foods at all costs; to actually become addicted to them. The result is a never ending cycle of indulging in high fat, high sugar foods such that blood levels of cholesterol, fat, and sugar, as well as blood pressure, all sky rocket. This deadly combination then causes the arteries that nourish the heart and brain with life giving oxygen and nutrients to completely clog up with fatty residue resulting in a heart attack or stroke.

I left something out, didn't I? That 23.1 % cancer rate. Thats a lot of people. Is it diet related?Lets break it down a little by percentages. There are many different types of cancer. The most common types are prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. High intakes of fruits and vegetables have been shown to lead to lower rates of these types of cancers. The next most common type of cancer varies between lung/bronchus and colorectal, depending on geographic area and race. Of course you already know that smoking is the major risk factor for lung/bronchus cancer. What you may not know is that colorectal cancer rates are higher in groups of people that eat a lot of red meat and lower in dietary fiber. Obviously, cancer is related to diet as well.

Fear not, for all is not lost. In these pages the long, slow process of “redemption” can be yours. It is actually not difficult though. You will not need an iron will. Actually, we are going to cater to your addictions, and slowly but surely make them go away until all you are left eating is an enjoyable, healthy, nutritious diet while losing weight and keeping it off forever. I have to warn you though, if you're a serious food addict (especially junk food) like me, then you're going to be eating a lot of really good but unhealthy food at the start. It will be fun in the beginning, but that will change with time. Before you start this diet, you must obtain a licensed medical doctor's clearance to follow it.