THE PROBLEMS OF WEIGHT LOSS: YOUR BODY MAY BE STORING TOXIC WASTE: FAT—THE TOXIC WASTE DEPOT

Food takes a simple route in our bodies: It is chewed, swallowed, digested into its elemental parts, received into the body, and used for thousands of metabolic functions and for building such key structures as muscles, blood, and skin. Unusable metabolic by-products and waste materials are filtered through the kidneys and liver and excreted from the body. It's an efficient system that has worked well since the creation of humankind.

But what happens when modern food products that bear little resemblance to real food are chewed, swallowed, and broken down into their elemental fragments? The body now has two problems to solve: It is left without the very elements it needs to fuel the body's metabolic processes and it is encumbered with stuff for which it has no use.

Think of a bicycle factory that orders wheels, chains, bars, screws, and seat cushions to stock the assembly line but instead receives packing crates stuffed with Styrofoam peanuts or wood shavings. Not only does the assembly line shut down because the raw materials are not available, but the workers have to get rid of the junk that's accumulating in the back room.

What does this analogy have to do with excess body weight? Fat performs an important function in the body by storing toxic waste. We don't like to think of ourselves as carrying around a load of biochemical poisons, but the fact is, we're not able to excrete all the endogenous (created by bodily processes) and exogenous (ingested from the outside) poisons to which we're exposed.

It's the kidney's and the liver's job to remove waste material from the body. When we eat foods our bodies can't use, or foods that contain artificial ingredients; when we breathe polluted air; when our digestive systems do not sufficiently break down the foods into usable parts, the liver is required to handle an excessive amount of toxic waste for which it is not prepared.

Most of us don't drink enough water or eat enough fiber for the colon and kidneys to perform their vital functions, and waste materials build up in the colon to be reabsorbed into the body.

Symptoms of inadequate waste disposal may include constipation (less than one to two easy bowel movements per day), bad breath, low energy, bloated abdomen, coated tongue, and skin eruptions, and may be a factor in many degenerative diseases. Constipation is an extremely common health problem. Many doctors disagree with our definition of constipation and tell patients that "normal" bowel evacuation can range from once or twice each day to once or twice each week.

"You feel so good when you're eating that chocolate cake or that ice cream, but then after you feel so bad. That's part of the addiction."

MONTE

Imagine sitting down to enjoy a meal and chewing each little bite, then spitting the food into an enamel pan instead of swallowing. After the meal, you place the pan in an oven at a temperature of about 98.6 degrees. You do this at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and one or two snacks throughout the day. You let the pan sit in the oven for one day, then two days, then three days… or however long is "normal" for you. Imagine the foul odor that would soon permeate your house.

Now replace the enamel pan in the oven with your colon and intestines. Unless you move your bowels every day at least once, and preferably twice, fecal material is rotting and fermenting in that warm, moist environment! Fortunately, you can't smell it (unless you have body odor or bad breath), but the damage it does to your body is incalculable. Frequent, regular bowel movements are a critical part of nurturing a healthy body and will help keep your weight in check as well.

Logic tells us that if we clean up our diets and eat pure foods, including thirty to forty grams of fiber a day, drink eight to ten glasses of water, and avoid synthetic chemicals as much as possible, our bodies will not have to build storage depots on our hips and bellies to handle an unnecessary load of toxic waste. While a moderate amount of stored fat protects the heart, kidneys, and other internal organs from shock, provides a rich source of energy, insulates the body against sudden changes in temperature, cushions the posterior when sitting for long periods of time, and in general, makes the body more attractive, fat should not be considered a dumping ground for the metabolic by-products of junk food. But that is, in fact, what excess body fat can be.

By the way, weight loss should be gradual. When you lose fat, the toxic materials stored in the tissue can be released into the bloodstream on their way out of the body. The release of too many toxins too quickly into the bloodstream can place undue stress on the body. One to two pounds of fat loss per week is just about perfect for everyone.

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