Obesity: It’s Not What You Think It Is! by Richard Fast
Despite what we’ve been told, obesity is not a weight issue — it’s a health issue, and it’s resulting in the greatest health crises we’ve ever faced. In Obesity: It’s Not What You Think It Is, author Richard Fast dispels the myths, examines the culprit, the cause and the cure of this global epidemic, and provides a straightforward, easy-to-follow guide to eating healthy.
Fast recently spent some time elaborating on his key observations and solutions in this BookTrib interview.
Q: Obesity: It’s Not What You Think It Is. Ok, what do people think it is, and what actually is it?
A: We tend to think of obesity as being overweight. However, obesity is NOT a weight issue; it’s a health issue, and it may surprise you to know that so-called skinny people are just as likely to suffer from obesity as people who are so-called overweight.
According to the weight-loss industry the solution is all about dieting, counting calories and food restriction. Big Food says nonsense. We’re too sedentary. If we move more, we can eat whatever we want. The pharmaceutical people want in on the greatest cash cow in history, and they say obesity is a disease and we need to fight it with supplements and drugs.
Surprisingly, obesity is the result of malnutrition!
Q: You say “Our relationship with food is broken. Consequently, so is our health.” Please explain.
A: Food is no longer food. For many people, food has become both friend and foe. While we cherish it for sustenance, we resent it for making us fat. We find solace in chowing down “comfort food” after a long day and then silently berate ourselves for lacking willpower.
We don’t go to a supermarket and buy food; we buy brightly colored, cleverly designed packages, each heralding its healthful benefits. Food has become a product of clever marketing and manipulation.
This book is about understanding food and restoring our relationship to it. It’s NOT a book about dieting and weight loss (although it will show you how to lose weight in a surprisingly simple way); it’s a book about health, how we lose it and how we can get it back.
Q: What is the greatest cause, or reason, for people becoming obese?
A: Our obesity epidemic is the direct result of consuming our modern diet of high-calorie, low-fiber, chemically concocted, nutrient-void foods. In other words, a diet is predominately made up of ULTRA-processed foods because only a diet made of these chemical concoctions can result in the absurd paradox of being overfed and undernourished.
A body fighting starvation will increase hunger hormones, reduce satiety hormones, and leave us lethargic in its desperate attempt to reserve its precious fat reserves. These are the very results we’re seeing in our global obesity issues.
Q: Why did you become passionate about discussing obesity, breaking it down and trying to help people with it?
A: When I reached my mid-fifties, I began putting on weight. At one point, I was 30 pounds overweight. What? I used to be one of those people who could eat anything I wanted and never put on a pound. So, I tried dieting and exercising, and the scale didn’t budge. That’s when I began to understand the challenges of weight loss. I spent several years researching the actual cause of our obesity epidemic.
Seeing children as young as five suffering sugar addictions, fatty liver disease, kids who are facing a lifetime of obesity, and older adults debilitated with Alzheimer’s and dementia and unnecessary ailments breaks my heart.
This was a book I had to write.
Q: Where should people’s focus be in order to cure their obesity problem?
A: We need to feed our bodies, not starve them! Every cell in your body, including every cell in your brain, is made from what you eat. You are made from what you eat … it’s the very foundation upon which your health is built.
There’s something called the Protein Leverage Hypothesis. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. It simply states that we will be driven to continue eating until our protein needs are met. But if what we’re eating has been stripped of proteins, vitamins and nutrients, then clearly, those needs cannot be met. At the cellular level, where it really matters, we are virtually starving.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from your book?
A: Our health is our only tether to life on this planet, which pretty much makes it our most valuable possession. We all must remind ourselves that there’s no glory in being the oldest or wealthiest person in a long-term care facility.
Health is our natural state; it’s much easier to achieve than we’ve been led to believe. We don’t need any crazy diets, supplements, or drugs to overcome the cause of obesity.
If we live long enough, we’ll undoubtedly have some regrets, but the ones that will haunt us are when we had a choice. I hope this book will help us to choose health, while it’s still a choice we can make.
Q: The matter of overcoming obesity, as you’ve said, is all about choices. And you have devoted a second book entirely to that topic in The Challenge of Choice. Tell us about that book and how it can help readers’ quality of life.
A: Our lives are defined by the choices we make. We tend to think that our choices and decisions are made consciously, rationally, and objectively – and that they’re based on logic and reason. Not so!
Our decisions are invariably based on feelings, assumptions, and biases that cause us to feel right, even when we’re being wildly irrational.
After making a string of horrific decisions based on false certainty, hubris and wishful thinking, I was determined to know if we could make critical decisions with certainty or if they were determined by the vagaries and unpredictability of life.
The Challenge of Choice is the result of years of research and the answer to that question. It holds the key to transforming your decision-making process. Surprisingly, we really can make those “critical” decisions with 100% certainty, giving you the power to shape your life with confidence.
Q: What is the most difficult barrier to people making what seemingly would seem like simple good choices about their health and happiness?
A: The greatest barrier is us. At least 95% of all the decisions we make happen at a non-conscious level, and the truth is, it’s best that way – except when it’s not.
Making decisions in our modern world is very different from the decisions we make surviving in a physically hostile world. When we don’t recognize this distinction – because we’re driven by the hidden forces of survival – it leads to a catastrophic error because our decisions aren’t based on logic and reason.
Q: How does the research you’ve done support some of your ideas and solutions?
A: My research and writing are evidence-based. Beyond that, the ideas and solutions I offer, whether they be for health, weight loss, fitness, or simply understanding how to make “good” decisions, are not just theoretical concepts. They are practical and applicable for everyone, empowering you to make significant changes in your life.
About Richard Fast:
For more than 30 years, Richard Fast has pursued his passion for unraveling the riddle of human behaviors to learn how to take greater control of the hidden forces that shape our lives. As an entrepreneur, he is the creator of the best-selling board game “MindTrap®” and more than 20 other puzzles and games that have sold millions of copies worldwide. Both The Challenge of Choice and OBESITY … It’s NOT what YOU THINK it is! are the culmination of years of research to show that simple conscious choices — and how to make them — will largely determine a lifetime of health, happiness and success.
Richard is also an American Council of Exercise certified trainer, Weight Management Specialist and Health and Wellness coach. He and his wife Michele live in Ontario, Canada and share a mutual passion for health, fitness and food.
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