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Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine project that by 2030 some 86% of American adults will be overweight or obese . They project that healthcare spending resulting from obesity will double every decade and will top nearly $1 trillion by 2030. This is the cost of eating cheap food. This is the pain and suffering that results when people eat for pleasure. Obesity isn't possible on the Spartan Diet. No matter how much you weigh, you'll lose weight on the Spartan Diet until you're the right weight, then it will level off. This process is built into the diet. There's a lot more to it, but here's an oversimplied look at how the Spartan Diet achieves this: * Only the healthiest foods allowed -- with only healthy olive and flax oils, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and other super healthy foods, your body's metabolism works as it ...

The headline sounds like a pitch for some bullshit fad diet. But the truth is weight changes have more to do with simply the number of calories consumed compared with calories burned through exercise. Most Americans gain some of their excess weight as the result of poorly functioning metabolism that results from factors other than calorie math. Here's how to lose weight by giving your body what it needs for optimum health: 1. Get more sunshine You eat when you're hungry and stop eating when you're full, right? Well that whole system -- where your brain talks to your stomach and visa versa -- needs the hormone vitamin D (it's called a vitamin, but it's a hormone), which your body makes when sunshine strikes your skin. People who don't get enough sun get the "stop eating!" message from the brain slower than people who do get plenty of sun exposure. Just catching some rays makes you lose weight. 2. Get more sleep In addition to sunshine, your metabolism ...

If you're a lab mouse, that is, and probably if you're a human, too. Researchers have shown that hunger causes the body to increase the production of a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin helps give you that hungry feeling, but also induces a clear-headed, relaxed state of mind that helps you cope and gives you motivation. It acts as a natural anti-depressant. It's also mildly addictive. That explains why the very minor calorie restriction built into the Spartan Diet boosts energy, makes you feel better and why you end up enjoying hunger. The secret is that the food you do eat is the healthiest possible food, so you're getting complete nutrition. The Spartan Diet is governed by something we call the Doctrine of Hunger, which is the 1) a little hunger every day is good for you; 2) perfect nutrition makes Spartan Diet hunger less intense than hunger felt by people on industrialized or, especially, junk food diets; and 3) you achieve it by tailoring your eating and exercise ...

Two ancient grains, untouched by centuries of health-compromising tinkering by humans, as are modern wheat and other grains, may soon go on sale. The grains, called devediti and harmani, grow in southeastern Turkey and are used by local villagers as winter foods and animal feed. The company, oddly unidentified on an English-laungage Turkish news site , hopes to reproduce the market success of an ancient Egyptian grain called Kamut . Most grains eaten today -- including whole grains -- are the product of food science intervention, and tend to be lower in protein, fiber and nutrients in general -- plus, they're far more likely to cause alergies than ancient grains. We'll keep an eye on devediti and harmani, and let you know when and where you can buy them. (Note that the photograph shows two varieties of wheat, and does not show devediti or harmani.)

A new study published in the British Medical Journal reports that the Mediterranean diet "helps reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 83 percent." The research uses a flawed "Mediterranean Diet Scale" developed a few years ago to determine just how "Mediterranean" a person's diet is. It's a nine-point scale, and test subjects get a point for each aspect of their diet that falls within range. For example, a male who eats a certain quantity of fruit per week gets a fruit point. If he eats an amount of whole grains above a certain amount he gets a whole grain point. Falling outside the scale results in a zero. Getting a nine means someone has a perfectly "Mediterranean" diet. The scale is horribly flawed for four reasons: First of all, it concerns itself only with quantities of specific things, not quality. So nutrient-poor industrialized, toxin-compromised foods are given the same score as organic and nutrient-rich foods fr...

Step 1: Find a partner you can lift in a squat. Step 2. You get on the Spartan Diet. Step 3. Put your partner on a conventional American industrialized diet. Step 4. Squat with your partner twice a week. As the partner gets fatter, you'll get leaner and stronger.

The primary definition of "diet," according to one online dictionary, is "The usual food and drink of a person or animal" and the secondary definition: "A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss." However, the third and final definition isn't restricted to food: "Something used, enjoyed, or provided regularly." That's why it makes sense that sunshine is a required part of the Spartan Diet. Diets are normally restricted to food. However, many health foods require sunshine in order to be fully activated. So from a health perspective, you can't separate some food from the sunshine necessary to complete them. Studies showing links between the Mediterranean diet and health and longevity tend to assume that food and exercise are the only factors. In fact, Mediterranean peoples get more sunshine, too, which turns out to also boost health. Now researcher is proving all this. A new study at Aberdeen Univer...

The Spartan Sandwich is a Spartan Diet take on an American classic: The peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The typical American version is a ticket to muscle weakness, obesity and ill health: white bread, junk peanut butter with trans fats and sugar added, and jelly consisting mostly of corn syrup and other garbage. The Spartan Sandwich isn't really a variation on the traditional version -- it's the opposite. It's loaded with protein, fiber and good carbs, and is ideal energy food before workouts, hikes, runs or other training. OK, you know how to build a sandwich. All you need are the Spartan ingredients: Ezekiel English muffins Ezekiel breads , made by a company called Food for Life , are among the most Spartan store-bought breads you can find. Like the Spartan Diet itself, Ezekiel bread recipes are inspired by, and improvements upon, ancient food culture. They have four kinds of English muffins, and several types of bread (they're also one of the few sources of whole-...

Yet another article came out today on the longevity benefits of calorie restriction , augmenting a mountain of press on the subject. These articles will tell you about the research, but they won't tell you how to realistically integrate calorie restriction into your life. The Spartan Diet is the only system we're aware of for building lifelong calorie restriction into your daily routine. Best of all, you don't have to count calories. Just let your body do the math. Here's the Spartan way to achieve lifelong calorie restriction. First of all, follow the Spartan Diet, which will give you complete nutrition (restricting calories while eating average industrialized foods can compromise health -- when you're cutting calories, every calorie counts.) All you have to do is stick to the following Spartan Diet rules: 1. Eat three meals a day; snack only on fresh, whole, raw fruit. 2. Stop eating before you feel "full" -- learn to find that place between "satis...

Ancient Spartans ate 100% organic foods. So did other ancient Greeks. So did all ancient people, pre-historic people, medeaval people all the way up to the industrial revolution. Nevertheless, industrialized farming is called "conventional" by the people who want to sell you industrialized foods. Organic foods are superior to "conventional" foods for the same reason that Spartans were superior soldiers: In order to become a Spartan soldier, one had to survive grueling hardships. Pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers, ripening agents, genetically modified grain, the use of radiation and other modern innovations definitely improve yields -- they benefit the growers, transporters and sellers. And they bring down the cost of food. Garbage has always been cheap. However, these methods weaken the food, and that weakness is passed on to the person who eats them. Organic foods are strong, and this strength is passed on to the eater. Science is now proving how this ...

UCLA scientists have developed additional information about what we already knew: dark-colored fruit juices, such as grape, blueberry, black cherry and cranberry are healthiest. They discovered also that the dark-colored fruit enjoyed by ancient Greeks, including Spartans, is the healthiest of all. Pomegranate juice was found by the researchers to be the number-one healthiest fruit juice. The main reason dark fruits are healthier, according to the study, is their high antioxidant levels. In our view, however, there are three things wrong with the study, or at least how it's being reported in the mainstream press: 1. As is often the case, foods are discussed as "drugs" that help fight various diseases and other health problems. In fact, it's not natural, ancient foods that cure or prevent diseases, but the absence of those foods that cause disease and other health problems. Our bodies expect and need them in order to function properly. 2. Why juice? The Spartan Diet c...

Forbes.com published this week a review of the incredibly well-researched book, " The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest ." The book profiles people in communities where an unusually large percentage of the population lives well past 100. Those locations are: Barbagia region of Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the community of Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, Calif.; and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Unsurprisingly, all these communities eat diets that are nearly as healthful as the Spartan Diet. From the Forbes article: " In Okinawa, Buettner met a woman in her 70s who whispers "hara hachi bu" before she eats, a reminder to consume only 80% of what's on her plate. While scientists have known for decades that animals can live longer when they eat less, researchers are just beginning to determine the extent of the impact caloric restriction can have on humans. A study published in 2006 in the Journa...

Italy, Spain, Greece and Morocco want UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to list the "Mediterranean Diet" as an element of world heritage and " endangered ." Meanwhile, the Mediterranean is in the news as the solution to a wide range of food-caused lifestyle diseases, including allergies , asthma , diabetes , cancer , osteoporosis and even death from all causes . However, this "Mediterranean Diet" that Mediterranean countries want to preserve and that doctors want to prescribe is a shadow of its former self. The "original Mediterranean" of centuries or millennia ago was superior to the standard modern bastardization, and included: * wine watered down, not drunk straight (the Spartans avoided ever getting drunk) * whole-grains, rather than processed "white" pasta * organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, legumes, seeds and meats * non-industrialized meats * wild fish only, never farmed So if...