Knowledge IS Power (II)

Knowledge IS Power (II) - Hi everyone and welcome back to my weekly blog! - Remember those famous words, "Everything in moderation"? Well, I certainly do since mum still reminds my dad and I in particular about the importance of that statement as neither one appears to quite know yet when enough is actually really enough. I keep jokingly pushing it onto one or possibly multiple past lives in which the two of us must have succumbed to food starvation. On this continent, though moderation, nutritionally speaking, is naturally anything but easy to come by which again rather logically results from all that culinary abundance beyond compare. Because moderation or temperance is just not a personal forte of mine, once fully unbridled on my arrival here, I would soon over- indulge like a true American and consequently pack on the pounds in decadal increments. In only 8 or 9 years, I had gradually grown from a US pant size 10 into a solid 16 ultimately weighing a staggering 200 lbs. I am fairly convinced that by now I would have settled into a size 18 or 20 even had I not slammed on the breaks two and a half years ago, turned my entire diet around and consequently shaved off 70 pounds. Okay, what did I do or rather change around that dramatically that it got me to where I am presently and feeling fantastic, by the way? Well, with a most significant key piece of knowledge in the back of my mind, I rather easily and above all instantly decided to finally let go off certain hard- die habits that are pretty common here. Sure, steering and ultimately staying away from all processed, prepared and junk foods undoubtedly sounds like plain old news à la groundhog, but more than ever, the actual issue irrefutably lies hidden behind quite a large number of different chemicals utilized to cook the meat faster, tenderize it, add both flavor and color to it as to improve its appeal to the customer and, of course, keep it fresh for an extended period of time past its natural shelf- life. The buns usually served along with the meat patties are mostly made of white bleached flour and therefore contain nothing but crap. Besides, this type of baked goods is often enriched with a set of particular enhancers to complete the zero- health carbohydrate bomb which sneaks right into your brain and triggers a recurring flood of all too misleading signals whereupon of all areas in your walnut the addiction ones will flare up. Go figure! Thus, the more you eat of it, the more you will crave exactly that, which means soon there is just no more realistic chance left for any serious rescue attempts for moderation's sake. - I vividly recall a fairly short and yet persistently manipulative phase in my life dating back some 20 years. In no time, I would just no longer delight in one regular meal consisting of one burger, small fries and a diet coke, but in fact, I would order a second full round of the same. Thanks to my full- fledged greed, I managed to finally break away from that awful ritual because it had already begun to considerably effect my budget. Do you people have a clue what a "small" average meal at one of those fast- food eateries lastly sums up to? Don't feel all too bad if the answer is no because I, too, needed to first educate myself in this regard. Okay, just for a change, let that truly mind- blowing number melt on your tongue rather than the actual food behind it. We are seriously talking about a whopping caloric intake between 1000 and 1600 on average for nothing truly satisfactory considering the scientifically proven fact that two hours later the same hunger pangs are back. Hefty, right?! Please, allow me to continue being the bearer of bad - or should I say, much worse - news. Agreed, quite likely there is again nothing new here with the entire range of commonly available artificial sweeteners being mentioned in this context. However, as a matter of fact, NO exception whatsoever applies with respect to the ingestion of ANY sweeteners. Regardless of what they may all be labeled as, at the end of the day, not one single fake sugar turns out to be calorically beneficial, much less safe or healthy. Understand that over time any chemically produced sugar leaves a most negative impact on the "satiety" hormone Leptin made by adipose cells which help regulate our energy balance by inhibiting hunger. Alright, by throwing off that all too sensitive balance that I mentioned last week and by constantly disabling Leptin's natural function, its opposite, the so- called "hunger" hormone, Ghrelin is just poised to also go overboard ultimately spinning out of control entirely. Now, you can actually say that you have got the perfect excuse at hand for all your binging. After all, as much as you might not want to, you will end up shoving more of that garbage into your mouth simply because your brain tells you so. Imagine that, you are no longer your own boss in terms of willpower as your brain just sabotages you stone- cold. Don't you worry, once you start moving onto a higher level of awareness, breaking this vicious circle is actually a walk in the park. - To be continued.