Drugless Natural Methods for Reducing Weight

Drugless Natural Methods for Reducing Weight

Most of us are unaware of the various modes of natural treatment available to us to overcome obesity.

The article to follow will give an insight into these modes and make the process of reducing an enjoyable exercise.

Diet Therapy

Just as the causes for obesity are numerous, so also the natural means for reducing are many. Whatever mode of natural treatment one may choose, it is the diet which gets the pre-eminent position. Hence, it is best that we give diet precedence over other means in seeing how it can help in the control and cure of obesity.

Diet therapy is a scientific way of treating disorders, just by fasting, replacing wrong food with the right one, avoiding certain food items that increase weight, and including some valuable raw food, green and fresh natural food.

Lung diet and stomach diet

We breathe air through the nose which is the diet for the lungs. This needs to be free from pollution of any kind. The air we breathe in overcrowded cities is so highly polluted that people

seek for possible opportunities to get away to a cleaner environment, visit hill resorts, sea shores and open space in search of fresh unpolluted air. We do not appreciate polluted air and even the artificial air of fans for long. We can say that our lung diet on the whole has not degenerated as has our stomach diet. Purest air suits us best even today as a rule, whereas, purest form of food is not liked by most of us.

Just as our lung diet, our stomach diet (the food we eat) also needs to be pure and fresh to nourish our body. But unfortunately it is increasingly getting more polluted and artificial due to over­cooking, refining and processing. This is because we relish this type of diet and prefer it to fresh diet. Food, either raw or mildly cooked, which was acknowledged and considered a healthy diet and health diet by our forefathers, is rarely relished today.

For the sake of good health, the need has arisen to reintroduce these healthy foods in our daily life because we are susceptible to ill health and disease due to the practice of eating over-cooked, artificial and processed food which are tasty to our palate, no doubt, but are injurious to our health.

Obesity: A nutritional error

'Any disease enters through the mouth'- is a Chinese proverb. But most of us are reluctant to admit that food, to a great extent, contributes to the development of disease. Obesity is a nutritional error, a malady caused by over-nourishment and faulty nourishment. Obesity is known to be the result of the body getting the wrong balance of essential nutrients.

It is imperative that the essential nutrients the body requires must not be ignored, but regulated when you choose the diet in losing weight. Our body consumes more energy merely to maintain itself, leaving proportionally reduced energy for other activities. Dieting efforts often efforts often fail when the actual need of the body is ignored in the enthusiasm to reduce. Most of the people drastically reduce their intake of food or skip their meals in the assumption that quitting to eat is the surest way to reduce. In their initial enthusiasm, they do lose weight but once they start feeling extremely weak, they get back to eating more than what they used to before dieting and, as a result, gain weight rapidly.

An obese person does not always eat more. Some complain that they do not eat at all for days together or eat very little food or skip many meals in spite of which their weight increases alarmingly. This is due to a variety of other factors already discussed.

Fasting

When our limbs get tired, we rest them by lying down or by keeping them in an elevated position. When our eyes are tired, we simply close them and relax. When even our brain is tired, we sleep to give it rest. Once in every 24 hours, for at least 5 hours, we take recourse to sleeping. During sleep, as in wakefulness, all our physical actions are controlled by our will. In case of sleeplessness, we even induce sleep through different means, including, of course, by the intake of drugs. The activities of speech, sight, sound and smell are controlled and relaxed during our sleep. But our heart, lungs, kidneys and digestive organs do not rest even when we sleep.

Their functions cannot be controlled by will. Unless our night meals are light and consumed two to three hours before bed time, the load on the stomach and other digestive organs like liver, intestines etc. becomes too much. During sleep, the body is limp and inactive, whereas mobility and activity aid digestion to a greater extent.

Besides being the simplest method, fasting is also nature's complete remedy for losing weight. Whatever the cause for obesity, fasting provides the surest cure. Every community in our country, without exception, recommends fasting. This is because of the therapeutic value of fasting, which is the surest remedy in almost all conditions, especially obesity.

Fasting, however, is much misunderstood by one and alL We nurse in our minds a misconception about the value of fasting. To understand the value and effect of fasting, let us direct our attention towards its influence on the human organism.

Speaking of fasting, we must know that our body is designed for survival even in adverse conditions. One example is the way it adjusts itself during periods of scarcity. During the World War II, when severe famine occurred, many people found their long lasting chronic diseases cured automatically! Because it is only during such occasions that the accumulated dispensable storage of nutrition in the body, which otherwise poses a threat to a healthy life, gets the opportunity to be utilized in the absence of regular food.

Between fasting and starving

Before we proceed, let us understand the difference between fasting and starving because fasting is always confused with starving. In spite of having three meals a day, we may still starve if the food we take only fills the stomach but deprives our body of the required essential nutrients. This is partial starvation.

In some persons, fasting for more than two days may result in severe anemia and thus their health suffers setbacks. Other severe problems like low blood pressure and low blood sugar, extreme exhaustion, gout, severe headaches and nausea may accompany this, and the weight loss so achieved will not be actually fat reduction, but wasting of muscles. As already mentioned, unless undertaken under expert supervision, fasting is not advisable. A will-power to fast with special drinks is needed in order to avoid getting severe side-effects and health problems.

Fasting gives the much-needed rest to the organs for a better functioning subsequently. Fasting regenerates our body and puts us back in health. This is restoration. Fasting is the constructive way of gaining health. One can fast for even one full month when the body's reserve and stored nutrients feed the organs. So, next time when you come across persons announcing fast unto death, do not pity them or worry about them. Their body reserves will suffice even if they prolong the fast for upto one month !

Starvation occurs only when the storage is exhausted in the process of elimination of the toxic waste in the form of gas, solid and liquid through lungs, bowels and bladder. This will be obvious from the foul breath emanating from the mouth of one who fasts. Their urine and stools will also smell equally bad. You can imagine the consequences of allowing such highly decomposed matter within the body to remain inside. Starvation occurs only during very long fasts.