What’s the Number One Cause of Aging?

From: Nancy Desjardins

This is huge, but it’s actually really simple. Overeating is the number one thing that ages you more than anything. Don’t believe it? Check this out.

For example, take your typical holiday meal. We’ve all done it. I seldom do this anymore, but we all know that when you overeat, you feel tired and lethargic and you’ve just got to go lie down. This is because your body is working overtime trying to digest all that food.

But here’s an interesting statistic; it’s rare to see somebody 60 to 100 pounds overweight much past the age of 55, and you know why? It’s because your body can’t handle it. It’s working overtime all the time to digest food. That’s the number one thing that will make you tired and fatigued and will literally wear your body out. You’re going to live a shorter life, and you’re for sure not going to make it very long if you’re very, very overweight.

We all know how hard it is to lose weight, but we all start at the same spot. Even when I was 18 years old and started this program, it took a month or two. After that, I felt great, but then I wanted to try different foods and more recipes. So it’s very important to get some great recipes. Variety is the spice of life, and it helps reduce cravings for the bad stuff.

In the beginning, carry your own food with you wherever you go. This will help take the edge of your new eating habit lifestyle, and will also help you resist the “foods” available on just about every street corner.

I never leave my house or my car without at least some apples and nuts and seeds or something stashed in my purse. I can always at least snack on that so I don’t crave the bad stuff. So it’s twofold – take stuff with you and be responsible for your own food. Take some nuts and seeds and make your own trail mix. Some fruit, some greens, even take some sprouts with you! Remember, it will take time, but my healthy recipes will help to cut the cravings. And again, as you get healthier you’ll crave less of the junk food and you’ll find the healthier version of it.

When I first started changing my diet years ago, overeating was a daily habit. I couldn’t help myself – I just felt hungry all the time. That really had me puzzled. Here I was, eating a healthy diet, supposedly getting all the nutrients my body needed, yet I was still feeling hungry. What gives?

Back then, two things were happening:

First, my body wasn’t actually absorbing as many vitamins and minerals as it could – like it does now – because nutritionally, it was building its reserves and exuding toxins.

Second, and this is a major cause of overeating – was what I call the “psychology factor”. Basically, I was just used to my stomach feeling “full” the way it felt after eating highly processed cooked meals. My brain had no experience with the raw foods I had started feeding my body, so it kept sending out signals that I must be hungry, simply because my stomach just didn’t feel the same!

The psychology factor is the reason why we reach for ice cream, or chocolate or apple pie or whatever when we’re stressed or sad – or even happy. They don’t call them comfort foods for nothing!

The fact is, most people don’t eat and drink for the vitamins and nutrients they’ll be taking in. If we ate only for nourishment, we wouldn’t have such rampant obesity problems. Most people look on food as a pleasure – too often a guilty pleasure – and end up turning an occasional indulgence into a daily overeating binge.

Overeating literally steals our body’s energy, and when we’re short on energy, our body doesn’t have what it needs to keep us in balance. Our organs stop functioning the way they should, toxins seep into our bloodstream and our immune defenses go down, leaving us open to serious illness and disease.

If you’re having problems with your digestion or don’t have regular bowel movements, that’s a signal you’re overeating. When the large intestine retains food longer than it should, harmful bacterial action occurs. That’s when gases and toxins are formed. They’ll soon poison your entire bloodstream. Officially, it’s called autointoxication – when the vessels in the walls of the bowel absorb them.

It seems crazy to poison our bodies for the sake of another bag of cookies or a plate of French fries with gravy. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. Whether we need it or not, we reach for the foods we crave because we’ve been programmed to do so. The people who market processed foods in those commercials during our favorite TV shows know exactly how we’re wired, and know we crave what we see dangled under our noses.

Once we realize that we eat for pleasure and not simply for nourishment, then we can begin to add some controls to our food habits. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with finding pleasure in eating – in our culture, that’s what food is all about – just don’t overdo it. Because overdoing it turns into overeating, and overeating wreaks havoc on our body.

Most people will see their health improve simply by reducing their meals to half their current servings. By cutting back on the amount of food you eat, you’ll also be cutting back on the calories we don’t think about – like the condiments and stimulants we use to jazz up our food and drinks.

Changing your diet in such a drastic way requires some preparation, and the first step is to breaking the overeating habit. Give your digestive system a break. In other words, stop eating and go on a fast.

Besides moderation, a major health secret when it comes to eating is occasional abstinence. Going one day a week without food is something I recommend for everyone. This “body rest” can be achieved with water or green vegetable juices.