A Funny TV Commercial

   The other day I came across a funny TV commercial and got a big chuckle. I figure I share this information with you. The commercial was for a product called Lipozene. You can watch the commercial and the product information on www.lipozene.com. I am not promoting this product and please do not go out and spend your hard earned thirty dollars on this products. There are no short cuts in life, we have to be able to break out of this mentality that a pill can fix everything. The TV commercial is obviously about losing body fat. The lady in the commercial is professionally dressed portraying her as a knowledgeable authoritative figure. The commercial's background voice continues to describe how body fat is accumulated over years due to bad diet, lack of exercise, and for women even after giving birth. The lady then continues to describe few features of the product:

• All natural.
• No need to change your diet.
• Clinically proven to be safe. 
• Double blind studies have been done on this product with excellent results. 
• Take Lipozene 3 times a day and the fat will literally melt away.
• Satisfaction guaranteed. Money back guarantee if not fully satisfied.
• And of course the deal maker, the first 30 day supply is free! Just pay the infamous S&H.

   According to their website, the product is made with konjac root. The konjac plant is native to Japan, China, and Indonesia, and in addition to its use in Asian cuisines, it is also used for medicinal purposes. Apparently konjac root pills are sold everywhere and promoted to cleanse digestive tract and cure for constipation. I learned that quickly as I Googled konjac root. So, how is Lipozene using konjac root to create a product that causes fat loss in a short amount of time? They recommend a Lipozene capsule to be taken 30 minutes before each meal. The konjac root has an ability to expand 17 times its size when water is added. Once in your stomach, the content of the capsule create a soft gel creating a feeling of fullness and satiety and you end up eating less. Once you reduce your caloric intake, the body burns the stored fat as energy to make up the caloric deficit from the meal and you end up losing fat. It is as simple as that. If your were to take no pill and reduce your caloric intake by a third, you will lose fat just as well. The commercial claims that individuals do not have to change their diets and continue eating whatever foods, that got them in this trouble to begin with. So basically with this technique you deprive your body with the nourishing foods and fill your stomach with fiber. The fiber that simply creates bulk in your gut, can not be digested, and has no nourishment, moves down the digestive tract where it becomes food for billions of bacteria living in your gut. If your eating habits are bad to begin with and the makers of Lipozene are not asking you to change your diet, then you are seriously creating nourishment deficiency in your system. 


   There are hundreds of products and diet programs out there. They all claim to contain a miracle root or drug that causes us to lose stored baggage that we have nurtured for several years. Things don't happen over night, it takes years for the body to gain fat, and it will take an effort, copious amount of pain, and plenty of self discipline to undo the damage done by the years. There are medical procedures out there fully approved by major governmental establishments to suck out the body fat. These procedures are common theme for many TV reality shows.The common theme in most diets is to restrict calories. For example, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers concentrate on portion control. Which is another name for restricting calories. Thousands of studies and scientific data clearly indicates that calorie restrictive diets simply do not work. You may check out these studies by perusing any of the bibliographies of Gary Taubes' books.  Most calorie restrictive diets are temporary and once stopped, the weight comes back with a vengeance. And also while the users are on the restrictive calorie diets, they are depriving their body of the necessary energy and nourishment. I also know few friends who were on the Weight Watchers, they become miserable. They ate wheat thins and going to lunch with them became a major misery. They were never in a good mood and ready to argue with you on every little thing. The things that make us fat are carbohydrates, and I am talking about simple carbs. Carbs that are in breads, pastas, and simple sugars. Once these elements are taken away the weight automatically comes off and believe it or not it stays off. The human body is designed to eat fat, proteins, and carbs from vegetables, nuts, fruits, and seeds. The refined flours, and sugars are the cause why there is an obesity epidemic. But wait.. if obesity epidemic went away then multi-trillion dollars, food, weight loss programs, pharmaceutical drugs, and not to mention a broken health care system will be rendered useless. 


   Recently Bill O'Reilly made news after he mentioned that he had given up grains and just by giving up grains his health greatly improved. You can watch the news clip here. Bill O'Reilly's success story aside, the news clip spun the story to show poor farmers going hungry and the American grain business falling apart. No one cared about the health and a major obesity epidemic, but the focus was immediately turned to great economic losses ahead, if grain industry were to go away. The experts failed to acknowledge and give credit for the weight loss due to absence of grains, but credited the weight loss to the lack of calories that Bill did not consume.


   Bottom line, Lipozene, liposuction, stomach stapling, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and many other thousands of natural and unnatural pills in the market simply do not work. You may be motivated for a while and the method may work for you on the short term basis, but these are not long term solutions and they will not make you thrive. There are no silver bullets out there that can solve problems, simply put there are no quick fixes in life. Until this paradigm is fully understood and adopted then and only then other pieces will fall in place. For my computer geeks, there is no simple CTRL+Z in life.:-)