Take a look at that picture carefully. Look at it. What do you see? Or more importantly, what do you NOT see? A lot of obese people. That’s a photograph taken at a beach in the 1970’s, before the low-fat diet was introduced to the world. At the time, people were still eating a normal diet consisting of fats, meats, and vegetables. Carbs came in more natural forms with the worst being bread or pasta. But in contrast to today’s high-carb diets, the eating of grains when the majority of your diet is meat, fats, and vegetables is mitigated by the benefits of the former.

We’ve been taught for decades that the key to health is a low-fat diet, yet our population continues to careen towards morbid obesity. Diet plan after diet plan has been developed around a low-fat diet, and the success rate is under 30%. The health industry continues to push low-fat diets for heart health (allegedly), yet heart disease continues to be a leading killer. Type 2 Diabetes, once thought to be a disease of middle-aged and old people is now being diagnosed in children as young as 8 years old (Type 2 Diabetes is almost always caused by obesity). In this glorious age of modern technology, how did we get here?

Bad science. Greed. A lack of understanding the most basic biological processes of the human body, or rather, a disregard for understanding them. Or all of the above in varying degrees. Regardless, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that whatever we are doing as a civilization isn’t working, and is in fact killing us slowly. More damning is that obesity is a Western Civilization issue. If you look at many developing countries, you’ll be hard pressed to find obese individuals. Sure, you can find them, but they are (as they were in our past) rare.

I was trapped in the obesity cycle. I had to break free, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, compared to all previous attempts at losing weight and getting healthy, doing my first Whole30 and then adopting the Paleo Diet have been the easiest health and weight loss experiences I’ve ever had (and I’d tried dozens of times in the past to lose weight, all with no lasting success). I’ve lost 150 lbs and kept off the weight for four years and I’m still enjoying the food and feeling satisfied between meals.

We don’t have to starve ourselves or become gym rats to be healthy. We just need to eat healthy food. Drop the fast-food and the low-fat trash and start eating meat and vegetables and fruit. Your body will reward you by being healthier and thinner.