Food Revolution Day

Worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1980. For the first time in history, being overweight is killing more people than being underweight, and at least 2.8 million adults around the world die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. This has to change, and it’s down to us. We need to get back to basics and start thinking about where our food comes from. We need to become a conscious community and understand the food choices we make on a daily basis. We can do this by improving food education.

Encouraging people to cook from scratch at home is at the heart of this. We all have family and friends who could make better food choices. On Food Revolution Day we can work together to empower people with the skills to improve their diet. Making simple changes to our food choices will improve our quality of life and our children’s. Forty-two million children under five are already obese and we need to reverse this. Let’s make some noise, raise our voices together and have a lasting and positive impact on their lives and ours. Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on food issues and rally our efforts to bring food education back into schools.

Read Food Revolution Day

What about you? Are you ready to take a stand and fight obesity by reforming your own healthcare? With the projection that 42% of us will be obese by 2030 and the estimated health care cost of $147 Billion per year we cannot continue this madness. Obesity and its resulting diseases are preventable.

Eating real food such as a plant-based diet can improve your health and help you lose weight and keep it off. Cooking from scratch at home can be simple, easy, quick, affordable, healthy and taste great. At Slender For Life™ I have a collection of over 14,000 free healthy recipes. You can find great taste and health by clicking here.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!

Kudos to Dr. John McDougall for formally reporting to the State of Florida about our largest source of child abuse: Food. Today, for the first time since the Civil War, our children have a shorter life expectancy than my generation due to the preventable disease of childhood obesity. I am with Dr. McDougall in thinking that this is criminal that we allow this in the United States. Putting an end to childhood obesity should be something that every American cares about. We simply cannot afford the healthcare costs of the diseases that are resulting from our children who are fat. At Slender For Life™ hypnosis weight loss clients learn tools that can be taught to small children to help change unhealthy food behaviors for healthy food choices.

Dr. John McDougall’s Formal Report to the State of Florida about Our Largest Source of Child Abuse: Food

On Friday, April 27, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 1355 that establishes stricter criminal penalties for individuals who fail to report known or suspected child abuse; and especially involving victims of sexual abuse. Children are among the most defense-less victims of crime.

I (John McDougall, MD) am a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state of Florida (FL license #: ME 79850). In Florida, medical doctors are one of over 40 professionals who are identified as mandated reporters of child abuse. (Teachers, school professionals, counselors, nurses, doctors, dietitians, and mental health professionals are among those required to report child abuse in Florida, California, and many other states.)

In compliance with Florida state law, I am filing this report about widespread child abuse caused by various food industries working directly with branches of US government. These food organizations are actively involved in acts of commission and omission that result in harm, potential for harm, and/or the threat of harm to children. The health consequences of their various business activities amount to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children.

Epidemic obesity and sickness are often unseen because they are so common. These are “normal” conditions and the perpetrators include the “nicest people.” Teachers, bankers, ministers, doctors, and police feed the Western diet to their children thinking that the meat and cheese are good for their muscles and bones, and the junk is inconsequential. Ignorance of the cause does not diminish the suffering. If this kind of pain resulted from a large man swinging a wooden stick at a small child, then the perpetrator would be locked up in jail.

We live in a so-called “free society.” Terms such as “free speech,” “free enterprise,” and “free trade” are used to justify business behaviors that harm the weak and disadvantaged in our society. Under these rules the dairy industries’ right to advertise the purported benefits of calcium in their products, while hiding the seriousness of the artery-clogging fats, outweighs the rights of children to basic good health.

Civilized people, however, protect their children. Only after the age of consent (18 to 21 years) do adults have the right to drink and smoke themselves sick. The spigot of disease from the food industries could be turned off in the same ways our society legally limits the access to alcohol and tobacco to under-age children. However, ID is unlikely to be required for the purchase of a slice of pepperoni pizza and Dr. Pepper in the near future.

Read Dr. John McDougall’s Formal Report to the State of Florida about Our Largest Source of Child Abuse: Food

Weight loss for children must be a family affair. Families cannot support overweight and obese children with weight loss if the cupboards are filled with junk food. Parents cannot help their kids to lose weight when they feed them at McDonald’s. Parents themselves must get off the couch and be physically active and eat healthy foods.

Hypnosis for weight loss can help parents and their children to make dramatic lifestyle changes. Even if your kids have lived their life on junk food, then can change to an active life and discover that they actually like plant-based food.

Take a stand and protect our nation from childhood obesity.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!

It would only make sense that student fitness would improve with an anti-obesity program. Personally, and as the director of Slender For Life™ hypnosis weight loss I am passionate about ending childhood obesity. I have repeatedly said for years that I believe it to be criminal that we are abusing our children today with food and with the lack of physical activity. It is our responsibility as parents and grandparents to model healthy eating and living an active lifestyle. As adults, we can teach and model mental and emotional health for the younger generation with mindfulness tools like hypnosis. You and your children can easily learn self hypnosis.

Student Fitness Improves with
Anti-obesity Program

Reuters Health, March 26, 2012: Obesity rates continue to climb in California schools, but exercise and nutrition programs may be having a positive effect on student health, a new study suggests. Kids entered fifth grade more obese every year, but they did not gain more weight and their overall fitness improved as they moved to higher grades.

“We accomplished a significant first step and that is to slow obesity,” said Dr. William Bommer, a cardiologist at the University of California, Davis, who worked on the study. “But we importantly were not able to reverse it.”

Obesity is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments in children and adults. About 17 percent of children and teens in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They found some encouraging signs. Though the number of obese kids continued to increase (two percent more children were overweight or obese in 2008 than in 2003), the rate of increase seemed to be slowing.

Obesity rates rose an average of 0.3 percent per year during the study, compared with about 0.8 to 1.7 percent per year in previous national studies.

Students showed small improvements in body fat and weight as they progressed from fifth to seventh to ninth grade. They also got better — or at least did not get worse — in physical fitness areas such as abdominal strength, upper body strength and flexibility.

“If you become obese as a student or adolescent, it’s very difficult to reverse that obesity when you’re an adult,” he added.

“When we work with individual families or schools, if we don’t have the support of public policy, nothing can be done,” said Frank, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It’s a prerequisite for change on a population level.” ~ American Heart Journal, February 2012.

Read Student Fitness Improves with Anti-obesity Program

When I was in grade school, President Kennedy’s fitness program was an important part of each school day. Today, we have chosen to underfund our schools and fitness programs have been cut which makes even more critical that parents model healthy living by being physically active. Parents and grandparents, we owe it to our children to get the junk food out of the house and to stop abusing our kids with fast food and junk food. Hypnosis can help you and your family make the transition from unhealthy food and physical inactivity to living a healthy active plant-based lifestyle. Learn self hypnosis and become fitter and healthier.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!

It should be no surprise that overweight kids lose weight when their parents do. I have been writing and saying for years that weight loss must be a family affair. It simply does not work to tell your kid to eat healthy snacks like fruit while you are sneaking the Snickers bar or a spoonful of Ben & Jerry’s. In my Seattle weight loss and Bainbridge Island weight loss offices of Slender For Life™ I teach families hypnosis for weight loss. Even young children can easily learn self hypnosis.

Overweight Kids Lose Weight When Their Parents Do

Make Weight Loss A Family Affair

WebMD, April 6, 2012: Want to get your overweight child to lose weight, but don’t know how? Do the same thing yourself. This is the main finding from a new study of 80 overweight or obese children and their parents. When parents lost weight, their kids did, too. For each one unit decrease in the parent’s body mass index or BMI, children lost one quarter of a BMI unit.

Since 1970, the rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. has tripled. About 1 in 3 children in America are overweight or obese. As a result, obesity-related diseases and conditions normally only seen in adults are increasingly diagnosed in kids.

The average BMI of parents in the study was obese, but not all the parents in the study were overweight. The findings may have been even more dramatic if all the parents were overweight or obese.

Children look up to their parents. It is not fair to tell a child to lose weight if you don’t do it yourself. It has to be a team effort.

You must walk your own talk.

This study reaffirms the role of the parent and the fact that changes need to be made in the home environment to be sustainable.

Studies have shown that only targeting parents for weight loss has trickle-down effects on kids. The parents lose weight and the children do, too.

This makes perfect sense. Parents are the role models for the children; they buy the food for the household, and set activity levels. This is where the changes need to take place.

If the parents are overweight and not on board, these children won’t lose weight or make and maintain heart-healthy changes.

Read Overweight Kids Lose Weight When Their Parents Do

Obesity is preventable. It is unconscionable that children today have a shorter life expectancy than my generation – all due to obesity and its related diseases.  Seattle weight loss and Bainbridge Island weight loss clients learn self hypnosis so that they can be in control of their weight. Hypnosis for weight loss really can work for you and your family.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!

CDC Report: Kids Still Eat
Too Much Added Sugar

About 16% of Kids’ Total Calories Come From Added Sugars, New Report Finds

WebMD Health News, February 29, 2012: U.S. children and teens have cut down on added sugars but still eat too much, according to a new report. Added sugar consumption is high among children and teens. About 16% of total calories eaten by children and teens are from added sugars, Ogden found.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting intake of ”discretionary” calories, including added sugars and solid fats, to a total of 5% to 15% daily. Added sugars are defined as sweeteners added to processed and prepared foods. Eating too much added sugar has been linked to weight gain and an increase in cholesterol levels in teens that may raise the risk of heart disease.

Overall, the children and teens took in 16% of their total calories from added sugars. However, Ogden found that boys ate more than girls. Boys got 16.3% of calories from added sugars. Girls got an average of 15.5% of their calories from added sugars.

How might that translate to calories? “Boys 12 to 19 got 442 calories [a day] from [added] sugar,” Ogden tells WebMD. “A little over three regular sodas a day would give you that.”

Other findings:

• Preschool-aged children 2 to 5 ate the least amount of calories from added sugars.
• White children and teens ate a larger percent of calories from added sugar than those of Mexican-American descent.
• Income levels of families seemed to have no effects on the amount of added sugars eaten.
• Overall, more added sugars came from foods compared to beverages.
• About 40% of calories from added sugars came from beverages.
• More added-sugar calories are eaten at home than out.

Parents can help their kids cut down on added sugar intake. Limit processed foods, because that is mostly where it comes from. On this list are kids’ sugary cereals, granola bars, cookies, and candies. Jams and syrups can also have high amounts of added sugar. If you are shopping for canned fruit, look for ones that are canned in water and not syrup or juice. Also, cut down on juice and soda.

Read CDC Report: Kids Still Eat Too Much Added Sugar

I know that it can be frustrating to have your kids eat extra sugar at school and at the homes of their friends. I also understand the busy lives that families live today. But, childhood obesity is a preventable epidemic and being overweight can affect your child’s health for their lifetime. Make healthy eating a family affair.

When you are in the checkout line and your kids reach for the Snickers bars talk with them about it. Read the ingredients with them and discuss healthy snack choices. Be the parent and protect them from added sugars but make them part of the solution to ending childhood obesity. Involve your whole family in eating healthy. Look for fun ways of making healthy meals with your children. Healthy eating can taste great, be simple, quick and affordable!

Be sure to check out the recipes at Slender For Life™

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!

Family Involvement May Help Overweight Kids Change Habits

WebMD, January 23, 2012: Parents and grandparents can play a unique role in reversing obesity by encouraging healthy lifestyle changes in overweight children, suggests the American Heart Association. A new statement issued by the organization calls for more family involvement when treating childhood obesity. It describes specific ways parents and caregivers can be “agents of change” to support healthier behaviors in overweight and obese kids.

In many cases, the adults in a family may be the most effective change agents to help obese children attain and maintain a healthier weight. To do so, the adults may need to modify their own behavior and try some research-based strategies.

According to the AHA’s recommendations, some successful weight loss strategies that parents can use with children include:

• Identifying, as a family, specific behaviors that need change
• Setting goals and monitoring progress; clearly defining weight loss goals, such as limiting TV and computer screen time to no more than two hours a day
• Providing a home environment that encourages healthier food choices, such as having fewer tempting sweets in the home but having more fruit available
• Encouraging physical activity and being a positive role model for an active lifestyle
• Praising a child’s progress and avoiding food as a reward or punishment
• Treating “slips” as learning opportunities — a chance to make different choices the next time they happen

Read Family Involvement May Help Overweight Kids Change Habits

I love supporting families with weight loss hypnosis. My book, Becoming Slender For Life and its hypnosis CD set can help support you and your family in being agents of change. If someone in your family needs to lose weight, get the whole family involved.

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

Remember to sign up for your FREE 8-part audio course, Understanding Hypnosis, at the right side of this page NOW!