How to get healthy, lose weight and keep it off.

America is in trouble.

In a society filled with processed foods, sugar-laden beverages, and "low fat" variations on unhealthy snacks constantly being marketed as "healthy," is it a little wonder that an entire industry has grown up around weight loss?

Wherever you go, people will talk about wanting lose weight, cure symptoms related to weight gain, or manage their Type II diabetes. And since dieting often proves to be a failure, expensive surgery has become the next-best choice, stapling stomachs or mechanically sucking fat out of the body. Long-term weight management seems to have joined Bigfoot and el Chupacabra as one of the elusive goals of human existence.

But does it really need to be so difficult?

Should it be difficult at all?

The answer is a resounding no.

Before reading any further, I would like to make it clear that I do not have a degree in medicine, neither am I a med student pursuing one. However, in the past six months I have effortless lost sixty pounds through the information I will prescribe below. I have lost weight, built strength through calisthenic exercise, and eliminated my seasonal allergies. This article is me sharing viewpoints to which I personally subscribe, and the sources for which I will share in a link box at the end of the article.

With that said, I hope this article is enjoyable.

The first step to effectively managing body weight is to look at your situation as a matter of overall health, not just fat reduction.

First, look at what you are eating. How much of it is processed food, how much of it is soda? Do you drink coffee, or do you drink milkshakes disguised as coffee under names like "macchiato" or "frappucino?"

This might sound like a harsh way of viewing life, but only at first glance.

If one steps back and thinks critically about just how much food in America is not really food, but a processed derivative of actual food, it becomes apparent that most of the nationwide (soon to be worldwide) obesity problem is a the consequence of a reliance on processed, overly-sweetened and artificial foods in daily caloric intake.

And this brings us to the problem of diets. Diets that simply restrict calories or cut out certain foods for the sole purpose of weight loss do not solve the problem of long-term weight management. A certain kind of diet might help someone drop ten pounds, but when the goal is met and the dieter returns to his or her "fun" foods out of a sense of reward, the weight will return, sometimes worse than before.

The USDA Food Pyramid was recently re-shaped into MyPlate. While credit is due to First Lady Obama for her efforts to help Americans, especially children, get healthy, the science behind MyPlate is really no different than the food pyramid, the plate diagram is simply easier to read.

What the USDA fails to acknowledge, in either the pyramid or the plate, is that it is not simply a matter of "everything in moderation." Not all calories are created equal. Not all vegetables are created equal. Not all meats are created equal.

The Pyramid and the Plate are both based on the science of forty years ago. Science which is continually being either contested or shown irrelevant by new studies. The history of science is one of continual re-evaluation, and it is only due to the staggering number of government farm subsidies and public policy built on this outdated information that the USDA has been criminally remiss in providing information that would actually make it easier for Americans to be healthy.

Continuing the theme of a problematic Western culture, the person who is serious about losing weight must first step back from the herd and carefully examine just where they are getting their information.

For some easy examples, look at snack boxes. They all bear some sort of slogan that seeks to establish their place as being somehow "healthy."

"Low fat!"

"High in fiber!"

"Rich in calcium!"

Are these phrases indicative of true nutritional value? Of course not.

Something might be rich in calcium, but also thickened with partially-hydrogenated, inflammatory transfats. If an item is high in fiber, that still says nothing about sugar content. Low fat foods have long been erroneously considered essential to weight loss, but just what unnatural or chemical processes were inflicted upon your milk or yogurt to make it so? And is all fat really bad?

These are things of which Americans need not to educate themselves. The power of corporate influence and government subsidies of the farming industries have created a cultural environment where the slogans on brightly-packaged convenience foods are taken at face value as a valid replacement for true nutritional awareness.

Misinformation has abounded since the beginnings of the USDA Pyramid in the 1970s. Americans are told that a diet low in fat and high in whole grains is important to maintain good health. Whole grains are touted as being "heart healthy" because they contain fiber and little to no fat. But is this really all that there is to it?

Your body is made of fats and proteins. Fat is natural to your body and fuels your brain. Grains, on the other hand, are not native to your body. And instead of providing nourishment for what is already there, they introduce foreign substances like gluten into your system.

Grains, whole or otherwise, also bring with them the problem of blood sugar. Why? Because carbohydrates convert to blood sugar when ingested, and even if one subscribes to the idea of "net carbs" (subtracting fiber from carbohydrate content, an iffy practice at best), a diet high in grains and sugars, even if low in fat, will cause a high volume of sugar to remain in the bloodstream.

Only so much sugar can be converted to glucose and absorbed by the body for energy, and what is left over is stored as fat. That's right. Your low-fat cookies contribute to fat retention as much as regular ones. Your body knows what to do with natural fats, but unless you are consistently running half-marathons, the only thing it can do with excess sugar is to keep storing it.

This returns us to the idea of viewing weight loss in the context of health, rather than simple weight loss. A calorie-restricted diet that is low in fats and proteins and high in grains and sugars might cause the numbers on the scale to go down, but at the expense of muscle mass.

On the flip side, a diet that goes to the outside extremes of low-carb eating can leave the dieter fed up with their meals because systems like Atkins seem to recommend nothing but meat and eggs. Diets like these purport the growth of lean mass and an amazingly low level of blood sugar, but a lack of variety is not healthy either.

So what is the magic key? Is there any simple solution to help someone become healthy and maintain their natural, healthy weight?

There is an answer!

Are you ready? Here's the answer.

Eat whole foods!

Buy ingredients and make healthy, nutritionally-rich foods. Eat meat and vegetables in abundance, eat fruit or low-sugar dark chocolate for dessert, and make that your lifestyle.

Diets are useless unless you adopt a lifestyle of diet and exercise that you can stick to without thinking about it. If you are forever logging Weight Watchers points or looking to Atkins-brand snack bars to stay sustained, the very nature of the diet dooms you to only short-term results before you even begin.

Make changes in increments. Start by avoiding pre-packaged snacks and sugary beverages. Try a two-week fast from bread and all forms of grains including pasta, corn and rice. This automatically includes processed foods as well. Abstinence from processed foods and beverages will give your palate and body time to cleanse themselves. Your tastes will change and you will find the true deliciousness of whole foods to be far more desirable than any pre-packaged snacks or fast food meals.

Get your exercise naturally. Take frequent walks. Do some pushups and planks a few times a week. Extremes aren't necessary, some movement is better than none, especially in the beginning.

On top of this, your energy levels will improve, and you will begin to see what the human body is truly capable of accomplishing when it is fueled properly.

Hippocrates, the titan of ancient medicine, is quoted as saying "let thy food be thy medicine." Two thousand years later, these words still ring true. Will you give your body the healthy, natural fuel that it needs to express itself properly, or will you allow cultural trends or a busy schedule to be an excuse for eating non-foods that will make you fat and destroy your health?

It's your choice.