How to Lose Weight with Florida Citrus

Even though eating is something all of us do every day, people are more confused than ever about their diets. According to a recent survey commissioned by the International Food Information Council Foundation, those polled said it was easier to figure out their taxes than it was to determine what they should eat on a daily basis. That’s really saying something considering the fact that the U.S. tax code is infamously anfractuous and that it contains more than four million words! So, what’s the problem?

Anyone with two eyes and two ears knows that Americans are getting fatter. Over the past thirty years, obesity rates more than doubled in the United States, making it the fattest developed nation on Earth. And things are only getting worse! Childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1980, proving that the older generation has passed it poor eating habits along to the younger ones.

How can we turn things around?

There are many reasons why Americans are gaining weight at an unprecedented pace. Some experts point to our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, while others blame the fast food industry. But the truth is that good eating habits are learned at home. So, as much as we might want to point fingers, parents must teach their children healthy eating habits at an early age. Only then with the have the knowledge they need to maintain a healthy weight.

There are many tricks and shortcuts people can use to drop a few pounds in a hurry. Most of them involve fad diets that do little more than drain our wallets, since most dieters end up gaining back all of their weight they lost. The explanation for this is simple-once they reach their goal weight, dieters go off these restrictive plans and go back to eating the foods that caused them to gain the weight in the first place. It would seem then that the only logical solution would be to alter your normal diet and exclude the foods that make you pack on the pounds. But what are they?

From pretzels to potato chips and ice cream, Americans are snacking more than they ever did before. Even worse, they are snacking on the unhealthiest foods they can find, foods that are high in calories, fats, sugar, and salt. These snacks are also bereft of vital nutrients, unlike the snacks earlier, healthier generations enjoyed.

Substitution is the answer

Nearly every doctor, nutritionist, and scientist agrees that fruits and vegetables are an essential part of any healthy diet. They also concur that Americans aren’t eating enough of them. Only about one in four of us eat fresh citrus fruits each and every day, as we should. Naturally fat and cholesterol free, oranges and grapefruit are far better for us than a package of cookies or a bag of corn chips. They are chockfull of vitamins and minerals and also contain a healthy serving of dietary fiber, which is woefully lacking in the American diet.

Fresh fruits are also low in calories, but because they are jam-packed with natural goodness, they actually fill us up more than greasy snack foods. Oranges, grapefruit, and other citrus fruits do this because they satisfy our bodies on a cellular level; they give them the fuel they need to produce the energy we need to get through the day.