excerpt from "Original Fast Foods - A Groundbreaking New Dietary Lifestyle Guide" by James & Colleen Simmons

Through the use of concentrated sugars, fats, proteins, and artificial colors and flavorings, food scientists have perfected the art of keeping us coming back for unhealthful foods of all kinds.  We become stimulated and enamored by the very foods known to most successfully promote heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so forth.

The many refined and processed foods of today each stimulate the pleasure center of the brain.  Nutrition is stripped during the processing and refining, and then harmful and disease promoting substances are added to foods which were once healthy in their nature and constitution. 

A full 51% of the foods eaten in America today are processed and refined.  As such, they are denatured foods lacking in real nutrition.  Choices are made for the quickest source of pleasure rather than for nourishment.  By including in foods substances such as sugar, fat, and animal-based products - that stimulate the pleasure center of the brain - food scientists can guarantee that we become addicted and that we are driven to consume more and more of what they produce.  We choose a physical response in the brain, a release of dopamine, followed by pleasure rather than choosing true health and vitality.  This cycle has led our nation to the highest rates of degenerative diseases in the world.

There are a few important steps that individuals must follow in their daily regimen in order to permanently overcome damaging food seductions.

1.      Start each day with a good breakfast [Dr. Christopher recommended starting the day with fruit or soaked grains].  Stabilizing blood sugars is the first step to controlling and eliminating cravings.

2.      Throughout the day include foods that steady your blood sugars.  Fruits, green vegetables, and legumes (beans) help prevent blood sugar dips that can lead to cravings.

3.      Eat at least 10 calories per pound of your ideal body weight.  If you eat too little food, your body stops making leptin, a natural appetite-controlling hormone.  Under normal circumstances, don't eat fewer than 1500 calories per day and never under 1200 calories per day, except when fasting.

4.      Eliminating the intake of animal proteins and fats helps significantly to reduce hormone swings, which lead to cravings.

5.      Exercise moderately six days a week to build physical resilience.  Include strength-building exercise such as lifting weights; include aerobic exercise such as bicycling, jogging, walking, and swimming; and include flexibility exercises to remain limber.

6.      Go to bed early and obtain an adequate quantity of restful, undisturbed sleep each night.

7.      Turn off the television and develop worthwhile hobbies and activities that take your mind away from food.  Television is known to be a powerful trigger for one's appetite.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has specifically associated childhood obesity with television viewing.

8.      Plan ahead if you will be travelling or eating out.  Most restaurants today accommodate a plant-based diet upon request.

9.      Fast periodically, up to 24 hours once each week or month, if possible.  Fasting from food helps to reset the body's natural preference for healthier foods.

10.  Ask for the help and support of friends and family and find motivations to succeed (love, children, to live life fully, and to fulfill your important purposes on earth).  Make it very powerful.

Red Potato Salad (serves 6)

INGREDIENTS

·         1 lb red potatoes, unpeeled and sliced

·         1 bundle asparagus spears

·         1 recipe Honey Mustard Dressing (below)

DIRECTIONS

Boil Potatoes until tender.  Add asparagus during last 5 minutes.  Drain, separate, place potatoes in bowl, remove asparagus tips, slice stalks and mix with potatoes.  Coat with dressing and garnish with asparagus tips.

Honey Mustard Dressing

INGREDIENTS

·         2 T. extra virgin olive oil

·         ¾ C distilled water

·         1 ½ t. dry mustard

·         ¼ small onion

·         ¼ C honey

·         10 almonds soaked and drained

·         2 T. apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.  This is exceptional over a potato salad, or over a rice and bean salad.