There are countless tens of thousands of books, tens of thousands of millions of articles written about weight loss and obesity, and a billion people on the planet Earth meeting these criteria. In addition, there are at least 600 million people who are morbidly obese.

Whales are big, as are elephants, hippos, manatees, walruses, and even penguins look like they have tipped a few scales, but only man is considered “fat.” Perhaps I just offended a portion of the population with their liberal attitudes about “fat shaming.” How could we possibly have any value in our following words if we begin by “fat shaming.” If that is what is occupying your mental capacity and ability at this moment, then please close this book and move on. Behaviorally, you are part of the problem. You have made up your mind and closed your eyes to any possible solutions that require people to work to overcome their lifestyle choice. Now let’s move on to those who, like the rest of who would like to do more than protest.

Ing. Eva Kocurkova and this author have known each other for more than two decades. Ms. Kocurkova is a highly regarded European nutritionist with more than 15,000 patients following her expertise related to food and consumption (portravinovealergie.cz, and nutriclinics.eu). In addition, she is a student and practitioner of applied behavioral science. There is a difference between applied and cognitive behavioral science. We will explore the differences later in this book. In short, applied behaviorists look at the things people do and how they are reinforced. Cognitive behaviorists are more interested in the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and working through the areas of precontemplation, contemplation, and so forth.

As for this writer, I learned about cultural differences, and the need to work within them without violating cultural norms as a young Green Beret Medic during the Vietnam era, People are defined by their cultures, and like every other creature on our planet, we require the same primary reinforcers to sustain life. Maslow described them as food, water, air, sleep, and sex. For millions of years every creature and living thing required some portion of each of these to move ahead to the next generation. For this text, we will limit our discussion to the first two, food and water. 

When it comes to food, anything that is consumed by mouth and adds calories is considered a food source. That includes all liquids except water. Wine, beer, and the various alcoholic beverages, milk shakes, sodas, frappes, and the endless supply of consumable liquids are all “food” sources.

With few exceptions, people are the only creatures that add flavors, spices, chemicals, and preservatives to our food. Over the generations, we have gone from hunter-gatherers who burned almost as many calories searching for things to eat, to “super users” or people who eat for the pleasure of eating. We have two categories of “eaters.” Those who eat to live, and those who live to eat. From a morbidity and mortality perspective, the first group wins to longevity lotto.  

Say something interesting about your business here.

Say something interesting about your business here.