The Juice Master Juice Yourself Slim: The Healthy Way To Lose Weight Without Dieting

Let me give you an idea of what I am talking about here. If a drug company gets their ‘fat drug’ licensed it is worth well over $1 billion per year. That’s ONE BILLION DOLLARS. The advertising budget for drugs of this nature can be as much as $150 million (that’s apparently more than Pepsi Cola’s!). This type of drug is known in the industry as a ‘blockbuster’, and getting one appears to be the Holy Grail of drug companies. These companies can spend as much as £10,000 trying to convince their main distribution centres – doctors’ surgeries – that this new, all-singing, all-dancing drug will solve the world’s obesity problem. If they can convince the doctors, they have effectively struck gold, and the pills – no matter how potentially dangerous they are – will be taken by many desperate overweight people. And when you are overweight and it’s affecting every aspect of your life, you really can get desperate. We will seemingly try anything, regardless of whether it makes any rational sense or not. I mean, people even thought eggs and bacon swimming around in fat was better for healthy weight loss than fruit after reading the Atkin’s Diet. This just shows how our natural intuitive common sense can go out the window when weight loss is promised, and never more so than when weight-loss drugs are involved.

When you are overweight and it’s affecting every aspect of your life, you really can get desperate. We will seemingly try anything, regardless of whether it makes any rational sense or not.

There have been many blockbuster ‘weight-loss’ drugs over the years, each hailed as the new ‘wonder’ drug. Sometimes, though, I wonder why.

Dying to Lose Weight

Take the ‘amazing’ weight-loss drug known as phen-phen. So amazing that along with the weight loss came heart disease, hypertension and even death. A lawsuit against phen-phen manufacturer Wyeth found the company responsible for the death of a Texas woman diagnosed with PPH (primary pulmonary hypertension). The woman’s family was awarded $1.13 billion to compensate for her death due to PPH, caused by taking Pondimin, a phen-phen diet pill. Although this is a rare case, in that the woman actually died, Wyeth have set aside $22 billion to pay damages to over 600,000 people.

Collateral Damage

It has been reported that over 10,000 people in the UK are killed every year by ADRs (adverse drug reactions). To put this in some sort of perspective, there are just over 3,000 people a year killed on our roads in the UK. In the US this figure is estimated at near the 100,000 mark! However, the casualties of ADR are simply viewed as the result of ‘friendly fire’. After all, the only reason why ‘they’ produce such drugs is not to maim or kill but to provide genuine solutions to health problems, especially obesity – a health problem which, coincidentally, just happens to be worth billions for the right pill. What I find incredible is that despite the huge number of undisputed adverse side-effects caused by weight-loss drugs, the argument is always the same: ‘They do more good than harm’ and ‘In the fight against disease and obesity there will inevitably be some casualties until we find the cure.’

The cure, of course, is about as obvious as it gets when it comes to the disease (for that is how it is now classified) known as overweight or obesity. I don’t honestly think you need a Harvard degree or a masters in bioscience technology to realize that if someone who is overweight ate less and moved more on a regular basis, they would indeed have found the ‘cure’.

However, in reality the ‘cure’ for overweight and obesity is much more complicated. Genuine addiction to certain foods and drinks plays a major part in weight problems, as do a ‘diet mentality’ and a lack of inspiration. If it were as simple as just knowing what to do to lose weight and keep it off, obesity would be as rare as finding a free parking space in London. Luckily, once you understand how to shift from a ‘diet mentality’ to one of ‘food freedom’, as fully described in Chapter 10, then contrary to popular belief, getting slim and staying slim can be easy. A full understanding of a ‘food freedom’ mentality is essential before the brain will even accept that the words ‘easy’ and ‘slimming’ can ever go in the same sentence.

Luckily, once you understand how to shift from a ‘diet mentality’ to one of ‘food freedom,’ then contrary to popular belief, getting slim and staying slim can be easy.

Pharmageddon

It’s not just drug companies getting fatter off the fat crisis. There are a million ‘alternative’ weight-loss remedies out there also searching for their piece of the fat pie. The difference is that when an alternative ‘natural’ remedy suggests it can help aid weight loss in any way then it is immediately described as ‘worthless’ and sometimes even ‘dangerous’ by some of the medical profession. Even today as I write this page there is a headline in the national press which reads:

Herb Cures that Do More Harm than Good

The reason for this bold statement is due to the fact they claim there is ‘no scientific evidence’ that these therapies work or are safe to use. Dr Canter, who was reported in the Daily Mail on 3 October 2007 as saying he wants these treatments banned, said, ‘It seems to me if you look at a drug in mainstream medicine it doesn’t get used on a patient until its efficacy has been demonstrated.’ This same argument seems to be used against just about every type of ‘alternative’ treatment. But unless I am missing something – or again I’ve gone mental – haven’t there been hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of medical drugs pulled off shelves due to dangerous and sometimes death-causing side-effects? Drugs which were passed and ‘scientifically tested’ for ‘effectiveness and safety’? Haven’t I just talked about what happened with phen-phen?

Then we have the well-publicized Vioxx. This ‘scientifically tested drug’ was approved yet responsible for tens of thousands of deaths – yes, TENS OF THOUSANDS! The drug was designed simply for pain yet was no better than any over-the-counter drug for the same condition. How the hell did this get approval? The answer is simple – MONEY! A simple pain-reliever can make billions, so imagine when there’s a promise of no more fat – a licence to print money.

Isn’t it true that there have been several lawsuits filed against major ‘legal’ drug companies over fraudulent scientific data? Isn’t it also true that the scientific study into a drug’s ‘effectiveness’ and ‘safety’ is sometimes funded by the producer of the drug itself? Isn’t it also true that many of the companies who are responsible for the so-called ‘independent’ scientific study have a financial interest in the drug company for whom the study is being conducted? In case you didn’t know, the shocking answer is yes.

Please, if you get nothing else from this book, DON’T EVER TAKE A WEIGHT-LOSS PILL. I hope I can show you in this book that weight loss is within everyone’s power. The ‘cure’ is the same for all and – guess what – it’s NOT a flipping drug. What a shocker! If you are overweight the cause of your problem is not a ‘slimming pill deficiency’. Let’s get to the cause and quit simply trying to treat the symptom.

THE FIRST EVER NON-PRESCRIPTION WEIGHT-LOSS PILL

GlaxoSmithKline launched the ‘Alli’ pill in the US in 2007. Such is the desperate need for a quick-fix weight loss that 75 million of these drugs were sold in the first six months alone, proving once again that big people are big business for the pharmaceutical industry. By the time you read this book, Alli will probably be on sale in the UK, no prescription needed. Alli often causes oily anal leakage and flatulence if you eat more than their recommended 15g of fat a day.

A Touch of OCD

The main issue I have with any OCD (Over the Counter Drug) weight loss drug is the huge potential for abuse. For people desperate to lose weight, the temptation to take more than the recommended daily dose can be too great. There are many who will wrongly think the more they take the more weight they will lose, and there is no doubt that in some cases people will get obsessed with the drug. It’s worth knowing that in the USA Alli sold around $7 million worth of the drug every week (yes, week) at the start of 2008. Not only is there a problem with anal leakage, but Mayo Clinic specialist Donald Hensrud MD estimates Alli would only contribute to about three pounds a year of weight loss. Yes, a year! He also advises users to take a daily multivitamin to help make up for the drug’s other negative effect on absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, K and beta carotene.

However, unlike drugs for other diseases, in my view the science behind this drug is flawed for the following reasons, so it’s quite easy for people to see that pills are not the solution for fat, and that natural methods are the obvious and only way forward. Alli stops the body absorbing fat in food. This undigested fat, rather than being stored, is passed through the body. This sounds like a dream for most overweight people and no doubt is why millions are buying it. The problem is that these pills can do nothing about the excess refined sugar that is converted into fat. Not only that but WE NEED FAT! If these pills get misused (which could easily happen with a non-prescription drug), many could end up with an EFA deficiency. EFA stands for essential fatty acids, the clue here being the word essential. If we don’t get a regular supply of good fat we will suffer many adverse health symptoms, which ironically we would no doubt treat with more drugs, keeping the drug merry-go-round going nicely. On top of that, Alli interferes with the absorption of some vitamins, so people are advised to supplement their diet with a daily multivitamin – once again, you really can’t make this stuff up! Oh, and the severe diarrhoea which can occur with this drug can also cut the effectiveness of contraceptive pills – brilliant! Once again my advice is as clear as it gets: NEVER EVER TAKE A WEIGHT-LOSS PILL!

Fat Lies

There have been many cases of ‘foods’ that have passed every test in the book for human consumption which have proved years later to be extremely harmful. Take trans-fats for just one of hundreds of possible examples. A recent report from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said, ‘The trans-fats found in food containing hydrogenated vegetable oil are harmful and have no known nutritional benefits. They raise the type of cholesterol in the blood that increases the risk of coronary heart disease. Some evidence suggests that the effects of these trans-fats may be worse than saturated fats.’

The question I have is a simple one: how come this wasn’t known before this type of fat entered the food chain? Why, after all the ‘tests’ and ‘research’ which is required before any food is passed, weren’t the harmful effects spotted? One thing’s for sure: if this type of adverse reaction was ever seen with any type of juice therapy it would be banned immediately, and no doubt I would be up on some kind of charge for ‘endangering the health of others’ and possibly even ‘manslaughter’. What’s mental is that despite the fact these harmful effects of trans-fats are known and have been known for over 20 years, there is still (at the time of writing) no obligation for food manufacturers to display the amount of trans-fats on product labels.

EGG ON HER FACE

In 1988 a senior government scientist became convinced that a general rise in salmonella poisoning in the UK must be caused by the bacteria getting inside chickens’ eggs. The junior health minister at the time – Edwina Currie – took his comments on board and made a public announcement which led to complete panic. Millions of chickens were slaughtered and thousands of small egg producers were put out of business. Four years later the government reversed its policy, acknowledging that eggs had not been the problem after all. Just one scientist’s opinion gets taken as read and millions suffer.

The point I am making is that just because something has been ‘medically and/or scientifically tested’ for ‘effectiveness and safety’, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is effective or in any way safe. And, again, it isn’t true to say drugs are always fully tested for their safety and effectiveness before going into the public domain – just read Dr Richard Halvorsen’s superb book The Truth About Vaccines with regard to the short time the MMR jab was ‘tested’ before being made almost compulsory.

If all the medicines that were tested were super effective there wouldn’t be a multi-billion-dollar alternative market. After all, we all pay into the kitty and life would be much cheaper if most medical treatment had the ‘good and positive’ effect so often claimed. When I was covered from head to foot in psoriasis the only treatment I was offered at the time was either high-potency steroid cream or going to hospital and being covered in ‘tar’ and bandages for six weeks. Both treatments would have ‘thinned’ my skin and caused me to become sensitive to sunlight, which, ironically, is one of the best natural treatments for this skin condition. Both treatments would also have done nothing whatsoever to try to get to the cause of problem.

In countries such as Denmark, people with severe skin conditions such as psoriasis are flown to the Dead Sea in Israel for one month in order to treat their condition. The enlightened medical profession, along with those responsible for the best use of taxpayers’ money, realized that it actually costs less to send patients to the Dead Sea for a month than it does to keep them in hospital covered in bandages for six weeks. Not only is it better value for money but it is extremely effective as well. The Dead Sea is one of the most unique places on earth, highly dense in natural healing salts and minerals, as well as being the lowest place on earth – making it one of the safest places to get natural sunlight therapy. I was never offered this option, and despite what I put into the ‘kitty’, I always had to pay my own way to Israel, as well as for any alternative treatment for my condition. It is nice to know that we all pay for health care many times over, once in tax and once again in ‘alternative’ measures when, not so much if, any ‘tested’ medical treatment fails us.

PATENTLY Obvious

It seems odd to me that natural fruit and plant remedies (such as pure juice therapy), which have been responsible for zero direct deaths, are often hammered by the medical profession, yet medical weight-loss drugs which often do cause harm are all considered part of the ‘friendly fire’ syndrome. That isn’t to say that the medical profession doesn’t often have a very valid point. Some of the weight-loss products out there are about as effective as a cat flap in an elephant house and a total waste of time and money, and yes, there are unscrupulous characters in every business. But the same argument can often be levelled at medical drugs for weight loss.

In fact, I don’t know of one single weight-loss drug that has come even close to solving the obesity epidemic anywhere in the world. Despite this I can guarantee it won’t be long before you read about the next ‘amazing breakthrough in weight loss’ drug therapy (look in your newspaper today, it may be there). This drug will come with a clean bill of health and backed by studies of many who have lost X amount of weight because of the drug. Once again, if you do ever see the new answer to everyone’s fat problem wrapped up in a drug pill DON’T TAKE IT (just in case you missed that earlier!). All drugs have side-effects and all drugs are toxic to the body. If you are already taking a weight-loss pill, talk to your GP before you decide to stop taking it. I have to say that, but the same piece of advice would never apply to anything healthy. I doubt you’ll ever hear: ‘Before you stop eating avocados check with your GP first’ – why? Because fruit and vegetables aren’t dangerous and don’t cause withdrawal symptoms of any kind.

Fat People = Fat Profits

The reason for the apparent ‘new’ weight-loss drugs is not out of a genuine care for our health, which would be nice. In 1998, GPs in the UK spent just £20,000 on anti-obesity drugs yet in 2005 the annual cost had risen to more than £38 million. That’s one hell of a big fat jump. Why such a jump? Simple. Obesity has now been reclassified as a disease. Why does this make such a difference? Again, simple. As a disease it needs to be treated, and as a disease – in the minds of the ‘professionals’ and indeed aspects of the law – this means an increase in medical ‘help’. And medical help, of course, equals drugs! Drugs for weight loss in particular equal mega profits, more disease and more toxicity.

It’s worth knowing that in the US the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) passed a law stating, ‘only a drug can cure, prevent, or treat a disease’. The law is exactly the same in the UK. In 1996 a ruling was made that anyone making a claim that any food can cure, prevent or treat a disease is breaking the law and is subject to criminal prosecution. This effectively means that if someone were to say that fruit can help to prevent cancer or obesity, they could go to jail for it! This is why when a major UK supermarket stated that mangos could help in the prevention of certain cancers, they were brought to book and it made national news. The ‘offending’ sign was removed. But mangos do help with the prevention of disease, as do apples, pears, oranges, lemons, spinach and ALL other fruits and vegetables designed for human consumption. All contain antioxidants and all help to curb free radical damage, which even by the government’s own admission is one of the biggest causes of disease and premature aging.

Listen carefully to what I am saying here as it beggars belief on every level. There is a law that effectively says there will never be a natural remedy that can cure, prevent or treat a disease. No one will ever be able to make such a claim, even if it’s 100 per cent true. How mind-blowingly absurd is that? It means that if someone advertised that oranges or lemons could cure the killer disease ‘scurvy’ (which, of course, they do and this is not disputed by anyone), they could be thrown into jail. No, I am not joking, but I sincerely wish I were. For if oranges or lemons were deemed to cure, prevent or treat the disease scurvy, they would then be classed as ‘drugs’. However, before a ‘drug’ label can be given, these fruits would have to go through the £400,000 worth of testing required to approve a new drug. This would never happen. Why? Well, a natural remedy cannot be patented by anyone and so who on earth would ever pay that amount of money for testing if they couldn’t get that money back at least tenfold? You see, it’s not always about actually curing, preventing or genuinely treating disease; it’s all about what can be patented. If it can’t – forget it. If it can – bingo!

Let’s not forget that if fruit and vegetables were claimed to cure, treat or prevent a new disease like ‘obesity’, then anyone selling them without a licence to dispense medicine would be prosecuted. Yes, if someone were to state that a lemon was a cure for scurvy, or that avocados were a good treatment for obesity, the lemon suddenly stops being a lemon and the avocado stops being an avocado. They both now miraculously become drugs – yes, a lemon a drug. And unless you have a licensed practice or sell medicine, you could be nicked! Once again, you really can’t make this stuff up.

Obesity, now it’s a disease, is mega business for the medical drug industry. And the more people who are diagnosed with obesity, the fatter the nation looks and the fatter the profits. It’s worth knowing that obesity is diagnosed using a very antiquated system called the BMI index. BMI stands for body mass index. It is a measurement of fat which is worked out by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by your height in metres. What it doesn’t take into account is body muscle weight. This means that Brad Pitt, according to the BMI index, is obese – yes, Brad Pitt obese! This should illustrate perfectly what a stupid system this is. But if it means more people are diagnosed with obesity, even if in the real world they aren’t obese, all the better for the new drug on the block.

The Sicker We Get, the Healthier Their Profits

The fact of the matter is there will never be a drug that will enable the body to lose weight in a natural and healthy way. ALL drugs have negative side-effects, and these side-effects are very often treated with more drugs. Unless people get ill, drugs become worthless. Drugs often create the need simply for more drugs, and more drugs mean more profit. The big drug companies are PLCs, and as public limited companies they have to, BY LAW,increase profits for their shareholders. How can you have a situation where the people responsible for drug treatments being dispensed to the public are lawfully obliged to increase profits? How can this be when increased profits can only occur if more people take more drugs? Drugs which, let’s not forget, have adverse side-effects. Side-effects which, let’s not forget, are responsible for over 10,000 deaths in the UK alone each year. This is like putting traffic wardens on performance pay and giving them bonuses if they hand out more parking tickets, a system which would inevitably lead to corruption and the removal of common sense – oh sorry, this is the system!

Money Makes the Drug World Go Round and Round and Round

Weight-loss drugs are the new blockbusters on the pharmaceutical block. They will increasingly rear their ugly heads and all in the name of ‘help’. The problem is the only people these drugs tend to help are the shareholders and directors of the big pharmaceutical companies.

The reality is that the powerful nutritious liquid fuel trapped within the fibres of raw fruits and vegetables contains the perfect balance of vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and amino acids to maintain health during weight loss. There are some who will be arrogant enough to think they can create something more perfect than nature itself to deal with the obesity nightmare taking place in our world at this time, but I hope and feel that common sense and intuition will have the majority of people going in the right direction.

You Can’t Patent Fruit or Veg

Once again, the biggest problem is that you cannot patent a fruit or vegetable. No patent means no big blockbuster money-spinner. What I find most extraordinary is how no one seems to question what many scientists in this field are doing. They often do a study and find that a certain fruit or vegetable is highly effective for either the prevention or treatment of a particular disease. They then try to find exactly which ingredient contained within the fruit or vegetable makes it so effective. Their aim, I imagine, is to isolate the secret ingredient and add some other chemicals to it in order to make a patentable ‘drug’. A ‘drug’ which will once again be hailed as the new all-singing, all-dancing answer to whatever disease the fruit or vegetable helped with. Just a thought here, but why on earth don’t they simply suggest people eat the fruit or vegetable that made the difference? Is it really because you can’t patent it? Could the industry be that corrupt?

‘Lies, damn lies and statistics.’

— Mark Twain

You can make any study look and sound better than it actually is, especially when you are trying to get a licence for a blockbuster drug. Not all studies are worthless, clearly, and many are extremely valid. However, as far as I’m concerned there is only one study worth looking at and that is genuine people giving genuine testimonials. We live in a world where if people say a drug has helped them in any way it is taken as read by the medical profession, but if a load of people get spectacular results for their health or ailment using natural methods, the usual responses are: ‘it hasn’t been tested properly’ and ‘it might have worked for those people, but there is no evidence to suggest it will work for everyone’. But there’s no evidence to suggest any drug on earth will work for everyone either. There is also no evidence to suggest we are making any progress whatsoever with ‘drug therapy’ for weight loss in any part of the world, yet many millions are still being invested into finding the cure-all ‘anti-obesity pill’.

True Scientific Success