Hunger Is Not a Disease

Remember when Sally Struthers did those “Feed the Children” commercials? People joked about them. South Park parodied them. But you cannot look at a starving child and not feel pity. And, admit it, you watched those commercials. Plenty of people sent money. And if you didn’t send money, you still felt terrible for the children.

You may have even felt a twinge of guilt for not sending money. Those commercials tugged at your heartstrings. Then, there are commercial like this that make you feel terrible yourself.

Let me get this straight: Starving children in third world countries need food. But overweight, affluent Americans need lap bands so they won’t be ravenously hungry. I see RED when I watch the diet industry manipulating overweight people. Since when did hunger become something that needed to be “cured” by a lap band?

Please.

Save yourself a lot of money and anguish. Below is a clip that was edited out of Tom Naughton’s movie Fat Head. Dr. Mary Dan Eades and Dr. Michael Eades discuss why people get ravenously hungry. And they offer a wonderfully simple cure and inexpensive “cure.” Can you guess what it is?

Who knew? If you just eat an omelet instead of a bagel, you would not feel the need to raid the refrigerator all day. “Cure” hunger by eating something that curbs hunger. It’s as simple as choosing an ounce of cheese instead of a cup of Cheez-Its.

Think about that lion in the lap band commercial again. When a lion gets hungry it has a big chunk of meat. It starts on the fattiest part of the antelope, say, and leaves the stringy lean meat for the scavengers. Speaking of scavengers, I put the corporations that advertise lap bands as a solution to overeating in that category. If you have already bought the lap band or gastric bypass surgery, I hope you are happy with the results (I really am).

But think about how your life would be different had you made and appointment at the Eades clinic instead of lap band surgeon’s office. You would have been told to buy a dozen eggs, scramble and eat them instead of spend $15-20,000 on surgery.

If that doesn’t make you a tiny bit mad, then I have not done a very good job with this report.

When you’re on the ZReboot Phase of Plan Z, you will get to start eating more fat. You might have eggs for breakfast and a piece of cheese for a snack. Nobody binges on eggs and cheese because you feel full shortly after you eat them. You won’t be hungry. You won’t gain weight. Fat doesn’t make you fat.

“By stimulating insulin secretion, carbohydrates make us fat and ultimately cause obesity. By driving fat accumulation, carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity.” — Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories

You might be somewhat fearful of what is going to happen during Reboot. Don’t be. You may worry that you’ll put all of the weight right back on be “eating too much.” You won’t. You might be amazed you can eat 2000 or 2500 calories and not gain an ounce. But you shouldn’t be.

You are not an anomaly. You’re a human being who can’t handle a lot of carbohydrates. Once you understand that you will have something in common with Ms. Scarlett.

Eat some fat and you won’t be hungry either. Sally Struthers is right: Hungry people need to eat. You don’t give starving children lap bands. You feed them.

How did we get to a point in our affluent society where we need to tame hunger with lap band surgery? It’s a very sad commentary the diet industry, wouldn’t you say? If you want to “cure” hunger, go have a nice slice of Brie. Then, take the money you’re saving on lap band surgery and sugar-filled, low fat “diet” foods and send it to Sally Struthers’ kids.