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The health benefits of losing weight are well documented. The health costs of being overweight can be devastating. If you knew that losing weight could lower your risk of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure wouldn't you be interested?

Doctors will tell you that losing just 10 percent of your body weight can lower the risk of developing diseases commonly associated with being overweight or obese. They probably won't tell you that excess weight is a symptom, not a cause.

The real cause of obesity and diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure (to name just a few) are directly related to our eating habits. The standard American diet (SAD) is loaded with the wrong kinds of fat, high sugar content simple carbohydrates and other highly processed foods, all of them foods that will put on the pounds and sooner or later lead to debilitating disease. SAD is also seriously deficient in nutrient and fiber dense foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, a prescription for an obese, sick, drug dependent population.

Some health problems are caused by excess weight. The human body isn't designed to carry the heavy load of obesity. When you are overweight, all of your body organs must work harder. Have you ever watched an obese person try to walk up a flight of stairs? Can you imagine what that does to their knees and other joints?

Change your eating habits, and the symptoms, along with excess weight, will melt away, to be replaced with the gift of good health. Imagine springing instead of rolling out of bed each morning. Picture energetic instead of sluggish. There are real health benefits to losing weight and it's not that difficult once you commit to a healthier slimmer you.

It may be an over simplification, but reversing the standard American diet (we're not the only ones, but we are the worst) is a good way to begin.

Dieting doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to change your eating habits - permanently. It's not that hard, in fact, once you are accustomed to eating good foods you'll wonder why you ever ate the other stuff. All it takes is an eating plan with sensible amounts of quality protein, nutrient dense fresh fruits and vegetables (plenty of these) and modest amounts of good fats such as omega-3 (fish oil) and olive oil. The pounds will fall away, you'll feel much better and your risk of nasty diseases will plummet. You are worth it aren't you?

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Source:
http://www.nhl bi.nih.gov/health/public/heart /obesity/lose_wt/risk.htm#limi tations
http://www.plim.org/SAD .htm

Learn more about this author, John McDevitt.
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