Given the staggering growth of obesity in America...couldn't the answer go beyond individual to the context...ie epidemilogical answers? Given the presence of hormones in packaging, hidden sugar and salt laden foods, and cuts in physical Ed for kids and notice for workers. Thanks

Weight control is about what you eat and the amount you eat, combined with physical activity. The concept, as described by the guest, of sitting in front of a TV and finding comfort in consuming 1/2 a pint of ice cream is obscene. That is the classic example of the consumption of empty calories.

The simplest way to begin controlling weight is by developing guidelines for eating. Examples of this are: when serving a plate of food leave a 1" gap between the edge of the food and brim of the plate, instead of drinking soda, combine natural juices with seltzer water and limit consumption to 1 glass, and deserts (pie, cakes, etc.) should be no wider than the width of two fingers combined; ice cream should be no more than a tablespoon when eaten with other deserts and no more than a scoop when eaten alone.

While the guidelines above are simple, they are the hardest part for most because it calls for a radical shift in they approach to food.

With a culture so engrained in the super-sizing of food, most people today have conditioned the brain to accept a threshold that is above the natural point for satisfaction or the sense of fullness.

Without the shift back to eating smaller portions, the obese will constantly struggle to reduce their weight, even with increased physical activity.

My experience with my own weight. Two months in to not eating glutten and I lost 40 pounds. This odd situation goes beyond any thing that that seems possible from the current thinking of the diet industry. without excercising(though i had more energy and thus an easier time being active) and without stopping eating any thing other than wheat, rye and barley the pounds just came off. My typical diet during this period was meat,dairy, breads made form rice, butter, eggs, whole milk, and lots of vegetables and salad and even occassionally ice cream. essentially the same food as before the diet. I will say that convenience foods many of which have glutten were reduced. I still eat hotdogs and sausages, steak, bacon, pork roast ham, all of the foods considered vegetables in many parts of the country. I miss beer which I cant drink because of barley malt. Celiac disease blunts the villi the hairs that absorb nutrients, so they do not absorb essential nutrients.the leads to a lot of inflamation and acid which further harms digestion and absorbtion of nutrients Simply i had to pound food through in almost panic, in order to get things like b12, d, and other nutrients. So without the panic I simply ate what i enjoyed and became unreconizable on the streets of brooklyn. THe best part of this was that my mental health was greatly improved. It turns out that making sure we get the proper nutrition from what we eat effects our mental health. It is estimated that as much as a third of people with any portion of eurropean descent could have some level of celiac. This should be considered in the statistic of the discussion of obesity.