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Projection: 86% Overweight By 2030

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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 ...

How to Lose Weight Without Dieting Or Doing More Exercise

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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 ...

Hunger Makes You Happy, Relaxed and Focused

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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 Coming Soon to Market

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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.)

Mediterranean Diet Research Deeply Flawed

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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...

How to Get Really Strong

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.

Why Sunshine is On the Spartan Diet

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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...