By Channing King
America is getting fatter and more and more unhealthy every day. We see it on the news and read it in the headlines. We may even be experiencing it ourselves or in our families. What is the answer?
If you’re like many Americans, the dreaded “d” word pops into your head — diet. You know you need to, but the thought of another dreadful, bland diet is too much to take. You know that if you “diet,” it will be less about eating healthy and more about starvation. If you feel this way, you have bought into some diet myths. In Ben Lerner’s book, “Body by God,” he shares some “diet myths” and “undiet truths.”
The first diet myth so many of us believe is that diet equals deprivation. Think about most diets you’ve read about or have done. Don’t they usually deprive your body of something? The “undiet truth” is you don’t have to restrict portions, cut calories, or eat bland, tasteless food. Rather, you need to make sure you’re eating your foods at the right times of day. For instance, you don’t want to eat carbohydrates before bed because carbs are used for energy, and if not burned, they’re stored as fat. While it’s definitely true that the healthier you eat, the better your body will function, if you just eat your foods at the right times of day, you will see better health benefits.
The second “diet myth” is if you eat like an elephant, you’ll look like an elephant. The truth is if you eat the foods that God created and eat them the way He designed, you will never look like an elephant. If you’re eating the way God intended, your body will be able to process, use and eliminate food the way it’s intended. This will help you not only get the vitamins, minerals and enzymes you need, but also to lose unnecessary weight.
Do you ever feel like your diet is over if you cheated during a moment of weakness? That is “diet myth” No. 3, once you crave, you cave. It may come as a surprise, but it’s all right to have, at times, the foods you love. Lerner calls these times short vacations. Short vacations fall into another “undiet truth.” This truth is that if you don’t have these small treats or “vacations,” you will continue to crave them so much that you may sabotage your whole plan to get healthy.
