We need to think differently about the approach to losing weight.
 Forget old-fashioned diets.  There are  very  good reasons why they
 do not work well.  Your body was not designed recently.  The human
 body took shape millions of years ago, long before diets were
 invented.  At the time, the lack of food meant only one thing,
 starvation; and if the body could not cope with the lack of food,
 the results was life-threatening.  So we have built-in mechanisms
 to preserve ourselves in the face of low food intake.  These
 defenses are automatically put to work.  When you go on a low-
 calorie  diet, you know that you are doing so to lose weight.  But
 your body does not know that.  As far as your body is concerned you
 are starving, and it will trigger a number of biological mechanisms
 to try and stop you.
 
 To see how to avoid this problem, let’s first look at how your body
 burns calories.  The speed at which your body burns  calories is
 call (the metabolic rate.) Some people have a “fast metabolism” and
 burn lots of calories in a short time.  They are likely to stay
 slim. Other people have a slower metabolic rate and have a harder
 time staying slim.
 
 Another part of the “negative calorie effect” of carbohydrates is
 that they are the part of the diet that tells the body when it has
 had enough food.  Your body does not just pay attention to how much
 you have eaten.  It actually has a way to monitor how much
 carbohydrate is coming in.  When it has had enough, it reduces the
 feeling of hunger.  Carbohydrates are the cue the body needs.  So,
 if there is a lot of carbohydrates on your plate, you will tend to
 eat to feel satisfied and to  turn down the drive to fill your
 plate.  The natural sugar in fruits, called fructose, also has an
 appetite-reducing effect.
 
 What this means is that if you have included generous amounts of
 rice, potatoes, beans, fruits, and other carbohydrate-rich foods on
 your meals, the calories in pork chops, salad oil, and other
 fattening foods are less likely to find their way onto your fork.
 
 How do you get these “negative calorie effects?”  You will not get
 them from steak or fried chicken, because there is virtually no
 complex carbohydrate in fish, chicken, beef, milk, eggs, or any
 other animal product.  Complex carbohydrates are found only in
 plants.  Grains, vegetables, and beans are loaded with them.  That
 is why vegetarian foods are such powerful foods for permanent
 weight control.
 
 If you like, you can forget technical terms like carbohydrate.  As
 long as your diet is made from grains, beans, vegetables, and
 fruits rather than animal products, it will be naturally rich in
 carbohydrate.
 
       20 Foods You Can Eat in Virtually Unlimited Portions
 
 Listed below are 20 foods that you should feel free to eat in very
 generous portions.  Unless you are really stuffing yourself, you
 can eat as much of these as you want.  In fact, there are many more
 than 20, as you have learned.  One caveat:  Enjoy these with no
 butter, margarine or oily toppings - fats are fattening!
 
 Corn                          Celery
 Rice                          Peas
 Potatoes                      Cauliflower
 Lettuce (all varieties)       Tomatoes
 Broccoli                      Cabbage
 Carrots                       Oranges
 Black beans                   Apples
 Kidney Beans                  Grapefruit
 Spinach                       Bananas
 
                    The Negative Calorie Effect
 
 Many people still believe that the number of calories in any given
 food ells you just how fattening that food is likely to be.  For
 example, a cup of rice has about  220 calories.  Three slices of
 bologna also have 220 calories.  So some people assume that these
 two foods have exactly  the same effect on the waistline.
 
 They don't.  The very same number of calories coming from bologna
 and from rice have very different effects.  The bologna tends to be
 fattening, as a general rule, while the rice does not.
 
 Rice does provide calories to run the body’s functions.  And
 theoretically it is possible for unused calories from rice to be
 stored as fat.  But it turns out that rice is much less fattening
 than the same number of calories from bologna, other meats, or
 other fatty foods.  Rice  - like other carbohydrate-rich foods- has
 a way of naturally reducing the calories that are available for fat
 storage.
 
 You might think of this as a “negative calorie effect.”  One of the
 most exciting concepts in the science of weight control in many
 years is the fact that certain foods can actually assist in the
 loss of fat.
 
 By now, it will come as no surprise to you that carbohydrate-rich
 foods are power foods for weight control.  But let’s see what the
 'negative calorie effect“ really means.  Then, we'll look at 20
 foods that encourage this effect and which you  can eat freely.  In
 reality there are far more than 20 and by the time you are done
 with this book, I hope you will have gone far beyond the old-
 fashioned notion of counting calories and limiting portion size.
 The key is not how much you eat, but, instead, the types of foods
 you eat.
 
 When you think of carbohydrate, think, for example, of rice.  A
 rice grain is a seed, designed by nature to start a new rice plant.
 The starchy white interior of a rice grain consists mainly  of
 complex carbohydrates that nourish the seed as it sprouts and
 grows.  The same is true of beans, potatoes, apples, and many
 other plants.  The starchy carbohydrate interior provides
 nourishment for the tiny growing plant.
 
 For millions of years, humans and other primates have plucked
 fruits from tees and roots from the ground and have taken advantage
 of carbohydrate’s capacity to nourish us.  What is remarkable is
 that these foods provide energy with relatively little tendency to
 cause overweight.  In many Asian countries, for example, where rice
 is still the center of the diet and huge amounts of rice are
 consumed, people tend to remain slim.
 
 While carbohydrates provide calories for the body, they also have
 ways of counteracting the storage of some of these calories as fat,
 and also encourage the burning of stored calories.
 
 First, as we saw earlier, a substantial number of the calories in
 carbohydrates are used up as carbohydrates are turned to fat.  Let
 me give you some numbers: For every 100 calories of carbohydrate
 that your body tries to store as fat, 23 are lost in the process of
 breaking down carbohydrate molecules and building fat molecules
 from them.  That means that, of the 220 calories in a cup of rice,
 about 50 calories are used up just in the chemical processing.
 Leaving grains whole, like rice, cereals, or corn, rather than
 grinding them into flour to make bread or pasta, also causes them
 to release fewer calories.
 
 But that is just the beginning.  In addition, because carbohydrate
 increases the body’s metabolism, more calories are burned off as
 the metabolism increases.  The metabolism-boosting effect causes
 more of the calories in all the foods you eat to be burned.  When
 that happens, they cannot be turned into fat.
 
 It is similar to the effect of turning up a car’s idle.  More gas
 is used up; there is less in the tank, less to spill on the ground,
 and less to  use in the future, because it has been burned.
 
 Animal products contain no fiber at all.  To the extent that animal
 products are added to the diet, the fiber content is reduced.
 Americans now consume only 10-20 grams of fiber per day, on
 average, which is about half of what we should have.  The reason,
 of course, is the penchant for animal products and refined plant
 foods, which unfortunately displace the fiber-rich foods.  But do
 not feel that you  must calculate your fiber intake.  When you
 center your diet on high-carbohydrate foods, such as whole grains,
 beans, and vegetables, the fiber content of your diet will increase
 naturally.  As you will see in Part II, the result will be meals
 that are satisfying and filling.  When we discuss the value of
 carbohydrate-rich foods and fiber, you can simplify this by
 thinking in terms of foods from plants versus animal products.  A
 plant-based diet is rich in carbohydrate and fiber.  Animal
 products are devoid of them.  The result is that plant-based diets
 promote slimness, while Animal products promote overweight.
 
                          Avoiding Binges
 
 There is another problem with skimpy eating.  Not only does the
 body lower its metabolic flame to conserve energy; it also gets
 ready to take maximal advantage of any food source it  finds.  When
 food becomes available, there is a tremendous tendency to binge, in
 what is known as the ”restrained-eater“ phenomenon.  You know the
 pattern.  You have been dieting for  several days, and suddenly
 someone brings home a cartoon of ice cream. A little bit won't
 hurt, you  decide, and before you know it you are scraping the
 bottom of the carton and digging around the cracks for every last
 bit.  You then scold yourself for your ”lack of will power“ The
 truth is that the problem was not will power at all, but, rather,
 the innate biological programming of the human body.  The diet
 turned on the ”anti-starvation“ plan that is built into every human
 being.  Your body assumed that any food in front of you might be
 the only calorie source you might have for a while, so it demanded
 a binge.
 
 It is not a question of weak will or gluttony.  The human body has
 as built-in tendency to binge after periods of starvation.
 
 For a similar reason, it is best not to skip meals.  Skipping
 breakfast and lunch leads to overeating later in the day.  So, eat
 regular meals and avoid very-low-calorie diets.
 
 Bulimia - binge-eating often followed by purging - almost always
 begins with a diet.  And as the binging begins, shame and secrecy
 often   follow.  If this has happened to you, remember that binging
 is not a moral failing.  It is a natural biological consequence of
 dieting.
 
 Dieting is now a nearly universal pastime in America, and bulimia
 is a ever-growing epidemic.  Unfortunately, children are raised on
 a menu that is almost certain to make many of them gain weight.
 The cultural trend in Western countries in the past several decades
 has emphasized meat, dairy products and fried; chicken, french
 fries and other high-fat foods.  Combing with an increasingly
 sedentary lifestyle, the predictable results is that many people
 will become overweight.  They mistakening believe that the problem
 is the quantity of food they are eating rather than the type of
 food.  Rather than abandon the offending foods, they simply eat
 less.  A restrictive diet begins.  The natural result is lowered
 metabolic rates, cravings and binging.  Many binges would probably
 never occur if dieting were replaced with better food choices which
 would promote a slow, steady drop in weight, rather than an overly
 rapid weight loss.
 
 Skipped meals and skimpy portions are not effective as a permanent
 weight control and are not a part of this program.
 
 Your  metabolism is like the rate at which an automobile uses up
 gas.  An idling car uses up some fuel.  When the car is moving it
 uses more, and when it accelerates up a hill it will use a lot more
 gas.
 
 Our bodies work the same way.  We burn some calories even when we
 are relaxing or asleep because it takes energy to maintain our
 normal body temperature and to keep our lungs, heart, brain and
 other organs, working.  When we engage in activities, the more
 strenuous they are, the more calories we burn.
 
                   Dieting Slows Your Metabolism
 
 The point to remember is that your  metabolic rate can be changed.
 In a period of starvation or dieting, the body slows down the
 metabolism.  The body does not understand the concept of dieting.
 Remember, as far as your body is concerned, a diet is starvation,
 and it does not know how long the starvation period will last.  So
 it clings to its fat like a motorist who is running out of gas
 preserves fuel.  Remember the last time you were driving along the
 highway and suddenly noticed that the gas gauge was below empty?
 You tried to remember how far below ”E" your gauge will go.  You
 went easy on the accelerator, driving very smoothly, and turned off
 the engine at stop lights to conserve gas until you got to a
 station.
 
 Your body does the same sort of thing when food is in short supply.
 It turns down the metabolic flame to  save as much of the fat on
 your body as possible until the starvation period is over, because
 fat is the body’s fuel reserve.  This is very frustrating to
 dieters.  They often find that, even though they are eating very
 little, their bodies do not easily shed the pounds.  Even worse,
 the slowed metabolism can continue beyond the dieting period,
 sometimes for weeks, according to studies at the University of
 Pennsylvania and elsewhere.  For the reason, fat is easily and
 rapidly accumulated again after the dieting period.  This causes
 the familiar yo-yo phenomenon, in which dieters lose some weight,
 then rebound to a higher weight than they started with.
 
 Here is the first step to keeping your metabolic rate up.  Make
 sure that your diet contains at least 10 calories per pound of your
 ideal body weight.  This means that if you are aiming for a weight
 of 150 pounds, your daily menu should contain at least 1500
 calories.  Weight loss will be gradual, but you will not slow  your
 metabolism and so, you will be able to retain your progress.

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