Weight gain is a nutrition problem---weight loss is the nutrition solution.

People gain weight when they run low on certain nutrients.

How can the LACK of some nutrient cause you to gain weight?

Poor nutrition makes people gain weight by means of a very simple reaction process. That is, whenever they start to run low on any vital nutrient, their bodies naturally trigger hunger to try to stimulate them to eat food that will get them more of whatever nutrient they're getting low on.

But unless people know what to eat when this happens, they will often unknowingly eat food that has only small amounts of whatever they really need---together with large numbers of Calories. Those unneeded calories just get stored in their fat cells, which obviously makes them fatter.

But that's not the worst of it. Because then their bodies quickly run low again on that nutrient they didn't get much of. And the process repeats. And they put on weight. This goes on and on until they learn what to eat to stop it.

Of course, Calories themselves are a vital nutrient, but if you are overweight, a lack of Calories is never what triggers your hunger. By definition, your fat cells are stuffed full of Calories---you're not about to run low on them anytime soon. So the hunger you feel can only be caused by needing more of one of the other vital nutrients.

The way successful dieters easily eliminate hunger, reverse the weight gain process, and lose that weight is to deliberately eat certain concentrated natural foods and use supplements that give them lots of all the vital nutrients that prevent hunger, but not many Calories. Doing this allows their bodies to use up existing fat stores for energy, while giving their bodies good reasons to suppress the hunger that caused them to eat too many Calories in the first place.

Hunger-free dieting is always both easy and successful.

What are these vital nutrients that control hunger? And how can you handle them properly?

In theory, there are about 50 vital nutrients you need to manage. That may sound like a lot, but they all fall into just a few categories that are simple to work with. These are: vitamins and minerals, protein, essential fatty acids, carbohydrates, water, and fiber. (We'll discuss each of these separately in other articles.)

The food you eat must routinely provide each of these things---in the right amounts---because your body requires them to stay healthy. That's why it triggers hunger whenever it starts to run low on one or more or them. That's its signal that it wants you to go get it some more of whatever it's running low on.

Obviously, if you don't somehow get what your body needs, your health will deteriorate, then you'll start to get sick easily, and eventually you'll die. But first your body will probably stimulate you to eat too much food with too many calories and get fat.

It is not difficult to learn which concentrated natural foods and supplements will give you enough of all these vital nutrients without giving you many Calories. Modern societies make both the information and the foods you'll need readily and cheaply available.

For example, eating very lean beef, chicken, or fish provides all the protein you need with very few additional Calories. About 12 oz per day is usually about the right amount of lean meat when dieting to prevent the hunger caused by too little protein.

Safflower oil and flaxseed oil are concentrated sources of the two essential fatty acids (EFAs). About one tablespoon of safflower oil and one teaspoon of flaxseed oil per day provide about the right amounts of these two EFAs to keep your body from running low on them and triggering hunger because of this.

Vitamin and mineral supplements obviously provide no Calories at all so you can use these to make sure your body doesn't trigger hunger by running low on any of the vitamins or minerals. (However, megadoses of supplements are a very bad idea because overly large doses of some of them, particularly potassium, can quickly poison you.)

The right amounts of the right vegetables will provide both fiber and the small amount of dietary carbohydrate that are required to prevent hunger due to a lack of these nutrients.

And of course, liquids, especially plain water, are absolutely essential for your body to balance everything else. Eight to ten glasses per day are usually about the right amount.

It takes some learning to work out what you will eat and some thinking to fit this way of eating into your own personal situation. For example, an office worker would need to do things very differently than a parent caring for small children all day at home.

The main point is that when you eat the right amounts of the right foods, You can successfully restrict calories while still suppressing all the hunger, cravings, aches, pains, and low energy that normally make losing weight on ordinary diets so unpleasant and difficult.

Of course, the weight loss process still takes time, because your body can only get rid of fat by burning it for energy, and it can only burn so much fat in a day. But eating the right amounts of the right things always makes the process so easy, hunger-free, and successful that time hardly matters at all.

In my next article, we'll begin to discuss the specific nutrients you need to manage and some techniques for actually managing them effectively.

--Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.--

Copyright (c) 2002 Hamilton/Wolcott Publishing

Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D. is the author of The 2001 Multi-Diet: Taming The Beast! which is available from most neighborhood and online bookstores.

"Dr. A." is a nutrition researcher who has deliberately chosen to publish anonymously.

[Editor's Note: A special report --Powerful Tips for Simple Effective Weight Loss-- is available to our readers at the Hamilton/Wolcott website ( http://www.hamiltonwolcott.com ). This report explains how to use several especially-effective, high-nutrient, low-Calorie foods to minimize hunger while continuing to lose weight.]

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