For many decades, the American public has been programmed to believe that we have to count calories. We are told that if we take in more calories than we use, it follows that we will gain weight. I think this is true only if we are eating manufactured foods. In pioneer days, before man began altering foods and adding additives, I believe that the only overweight people were those who ate too much fat and skin from animals. Some of these people also ate white potatoes too often, and fried them in this fat. They also rendered animal fat and put it in baked goods. For some people, this was all they had for most of their meals, and it caused obesity. Many people believe that obesity and bad teeth are inherited. But I think that being overweight is your own, just as the cavities are your own. I will agree that perhaps we can inherit a tendency for some things, but the choices we make can prevent them or make them worse.

What would we need to do so we wouldn't have to count calories? Well, let's think about this logically. I'm a big believer in common sense. Don't take as gospel everything we've always been told about food. Just because something is a commonly held belief, doesn't actually mean it's correct. Ask yourself if it makes sense. Logic tells me that eating food is the #1 instinct we have that we absolutely need in order to stay alive. It doesn't do any good to procreate if we don't eat and stay alive first. We have to eat.

Do you suppose cavemen counted calories? What do you think their lives were like? What did they eat? How active were they? I wonder if they had long periods of inactivity in caves during bad weather or to escape dangers. I've never heard of any archeologists indicating that cavemen were overweight. Reason tells me that they were not overweight they ate only the foods that nature provided. I've notice that in today's vernacular, people sometimes refer to a natural way of eating as a "caveman's diet". Cavemen didn't need to count calories and were probably not obese because they ate only foods in their natural state. It would be a different story if cavemen had eaten manufactured foods.

Counting calories only became fashionable when being overweight became unfashionable. I think overweight became more common at about the same rate as manufactured foods became more common. Yes, we need exercise, but not as much as we are led to believe. Staying active with your necessary daily life plus some regular exercise, is sufficient for most people. If lots of hard exercise really worked for the average person, we'd all be happily doing it with great results. And if results came only with great daily effort and significant amounts of our precious time, can this be right? Something is wrong somewhere, if by simply eating an extra piece of cake, we need to do some extra exercise. I think it's very clear that it's what we eat that has the biggest impact on our health and weight. I believe it's the calories in manufactured foods that are doing us harm, not the calories in natural foods in their natural state. I used myself as a guinea pig and found this to be true. By using natural foods, my body set its own limits.

If you eat natural, non-manufactured foods, in a variety of reasonable portions, you don't need to count calories. Nature's food has natural calories that our bodies need. There is a big difference in the quality of natural calories from the empty calories of manufactured foods. What a sad world we make for ourselves if we feel we must count calories every day. Aren't there enough stressers in life?

I discovered that my body used up the calories from natural, non-manufactured food and drinks. But if I ate foods containing bad fats, harmful additives, sugar, white flour, processed and refined ingredients, my body couldn't handle the calories correctly. Over 63% of Americans clearly have the same problem.

Some people will eat natural food and say they don't like it because it doesn't taste right. Well, actually it's the manufactured foods that don't taste right. We've become accustomed to the enhanced tastes from many additives including trans fatty acids. We also use sauces and gravies too much. Commercial ones are a chemical buffet. We've forgotten what natural foods and ingredients taste like. Once you get used to them, you'll realize that natural foods are actually delicious. We have 9000 taste buds to enjoy nature's foods. You will also feel better in a noticeable way, after eating natural foods.

Human beings weren't meant to count calories. Doesn't this make sense? In a perfect world of nature's foods, there are no Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Nachos, Big Macs, and fries. What has the family dog been eating when he gains weight? It hasn't been a steady diet of a good quality dog food, that's for sure. He's been eating manufactured human food. He's not been eating pure, natural human food.

If you eat manufactured foods as your main source of nutrition, you will have to count calories. If you restrict calories, you're restricting good health. If you eat foods in their natural state 90% of the time, you don't have to count calories. I say 90% because it's usually impossible to do anything 100% of the time, and 90% works just as well. The body's liver can handle harmful things some of the time, but not most of the time.

It is important to eat 3 meals a day plus snacks daily so you never get hungry. This will help maintain normal portions with a normal appetite. It is extremely important to eat a variety of natural foods every day in the following order. The largest portions should be vegetables, followed by fruits, and protein which includes eggs, cheese, meat, fish, and poultry. Whole grains should be eaten in the least amounts. My cookbooks offer recipes for a wide variety of all these natural food groups. The ingredients I use are familiar to everyone.

Fluids are also very necessary. Sugar should be avoided and caffeine should be kept to a minimum. Acceptable drinks are natural fruit juices, coffee in moderation, natural teas, and lots of purified water. I add club soda to my fruit juices for a refreshing drink with a kick. What? No soft drinks you ask? I think that junk food and soft drinks should only be used as a treat about 10% of the time. They were never meant to be our main source of nutrition. All other drinks, you drink at your own risk. 63% of 292 plus million Americans are overweight and have health problems. Clearly, their bodies can't handle manufactured foods and drinks. Who among us hasn't had traumatic events in our lives that affect us emotionally? We should be able to eat a little more once in a while without gaining weight. It's a rare person who actually eats truck loads of food.

Do you count calories? Does that sound like something normal a human being should have to do before eating? How can there be "food addicts" when eating food is the most important basic human need? I'll tell you how. There are only "manufactured food addicts", such as "sugar addicts". There are zero "natural food addicts". Whoever heard of "honey addicts", "fruit addicts", "vegetable addicts", "fish addicts" or "chicken and turkey addicts".

Sadly, some people think they have a chocolate addiction and must give up chocolate. I thought that too, but when I used unsweetened chocolate in my desserts, sweetened with honey, I learned something. I learned that without refined sugars in it, I ate chocolate less often and enjoyed it more. It's the refined sugar that's the unnatural trigger for addiction. Yes, there really are "sugar addicts". But it's the refined, manufactured simple carbohydrates that are addictive. The natural, complex good carbohydrates such as honey, are not addictive. A good rule of thumb is "If your body craves it, it's probably bad for you."

Jack LaLanne once said, "If man makes it, don't eat it." He is clearly correct. If you have to count calories, you are eating the wrong foods for you. I eat natural foods 90% of the time, and I never count calories. I can eat a fast food meal and have a soft drink every day for several days, and gain weight. I can eat the same amount of calories in natural food and not gain weight. Human beings were meant to eat food. So what went wrong? We strayed from natural foods and relied too heavily on manufactured foods. That's what went wrong. Experts continue to say that some people can't have certain foods or must restrict them. I've discovered this is true only if the manufactured form of that food is eaten or if someone is truly allergic.

Good food makes life worth living, mentally as well as physically. If we have to scale back the foods we're eating, then something is wrong with the foods, not with us. Use fast food and junk food or other "culinary land mines" only as a treat and not as a main source of nutrition. By using foods in their natural state, I have lost a great deal of weight, and turned my health problems around profoundly and dramatically, for the better. I rely on natural fuel for my body.

What kind of fuel are you putting in your body?