HCG Diet. What's the hype about losing weight?

Weight loss is a hotly followed topic amongst the population worldwide.

Recently, I was speaking to my mum and she asked me about what I thought about the HCG diet. To be honest, I am not interested in calorie counting or encouraging people to starve themselves to be thin. I think most people look great if they are within a natural weight range for their body type and height. 

When I looked into the details of the HCG diet, I was mortified to hear that people were eating 500 calories a day, weren't allowed to exercise, and took drops under their tongue of a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy to suppress their appetite. I'm not sure as to whether the hormone given is a synthetic 'mimic' of human chorionic hormone (HCG), or if they source it from actual placentas, but I cannot believe the lengths people are going to trying to lose weight! Apparently the HCG drops (or injections) induce the morning sickness feeling, less the nausea, so you don't feel hungry. The 500 calories is made up of mainly protein, and is very low carbohydrate. 

So what does your body live off? Your fat stores, in a process called ketosis. A couple of problems could arise here. The brain requires glucose to function efficiently. Although the body can convert glucose to fat quite easily, the reverse conversion is a lot more difficult to perform. So your body might be burning fat, and you might be losing weight, but you can't remember what you did with that thing-a-me-jig. What was I saying again? Yep, you turn into an airhead, because your brain doesn't have enough fuel.

With such high rates of body dis-morphia (people who think they are fatter than they are) and eating disorders around, I spend my time encouraging people to have a better relationship with food. It is here to nourish us, make us healthy and live long, quality lives, not to make us fat. We need to bring the culture of food back to life and celebrate our love and joy for good quality, tasty meals, eaten in the company of good friends and family. 

In our house, we eat local grown organic food (where possible) and cook everything at home from scratch using wholefoods. Wholefoods are those we eat as they are found in nature, with no, or very little processing (E.g. Fruits and vegetables). We eat a moderate amount of fat, complex carbohydrates, and quality sources of protein. We eat seasonally, and in touch with what our bodies need. E.g. Some days I need more protein than Matt. He feels like he's had enough meat for the week, or it might be a hot day, so we opt for a raw salad.

So rather than looking to get skinny, let's look at getting healthy. 
Eat organic wholefoods that are local and in season.
Learn to cook from scratch (it takes a few trial and errors, but you'll get the hang of it)
And learn to accept & love the way you look.
Focus on what you DO like about yourself. 
The better relationship you have with your food and yourself, the better relationship you'll have with life.