The adverse effects of excess weight on overall health are indisputable. Obesity increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, mood disorders, several types of cancer, liver disease and even serious COVID-19 infections. The CDC reports that obesity triples the risk of COVID-related hospitalization!

This does not bode well for our country. Nearly 72% of Americans are overweight and 42.4% are obese. If there is one thing you can do to protect and improve your health, it is to control your weight.   

Easier said than done, I know. Weight loss isn’t simply a matter of calories in-calories out or a question of willpower and discipline. Obesity is a complex disorder with multiple underlying causes, including hormone imbalances, allergies, toxin exposure—and, of course, food intake, which is what we are going to focus on.

Are Carbohydrates Undermining Your Weight Loss Efforts? 

Everybody knows that food is central to weight gain and loss, but it isn’t just about how much you eat. What you eat also matters, and one of the biggest culprits is an excessive intake of carbohydrates. 

When you eat sugars, refined carbohydrates or starches—which are chains of sugar molecules that are broken down into sugars—they are rapidly converted to glucose and released into the bloodstream. This rise in blood sugar signals your pancreas to secrete insulin, which allows glucose into the cells where it is burned for a quick burst of energy. A few hours later, your blood sugar is low again, you’re ravenously hungry, so you eat more carbs, and it starts all over again. 

The tremendous load of glucose resulting from a high-carb diet and the ramped-up cycle of sharp rises and falls in blood sugar do more than increase appetite. Once your cells have all the glucose they can handle, excesses are stored in the liver and muscles in the form of glycogen for later energy needs. 

When those storage spaces are full, guess what? Glucose is converted into fat and stored in your fat cells. 

High-Carb Diet Stresses Your Body

A high-carb diet stresses your body in other ways as well. Your pancreas has to work overtime to produce more and more insulin to keep up with all that glucose. Over time, the cells themselves become insensitive to the onslaught of insulin, and both blood sugar and insulin remain elevated. 

This condition, called insulin resistance, is the primary feature of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that include abdominal obesity, elevated blood sugar and blood pressure, and cholesterol and triglyceride abnormalities.

Overweight and obesity rates have tripled in the past 50 years. More than 10% of Americans have diabetes, and another 88 million have prediabetes. Nearly half of adults have hypertension, and one in three have metabolic syndrome. And overindulgence in carbohydrates bears much of the responsibility.

Yeast Overgrowth Compounds Problems

Yet another problem with an excessive intake of sugars and other carbohydrates is yeast overgrowth. Yeast is among the many fungi and bacteria that inhabit your gut, skin and other areas of your body. Under normal circumstances, these microorganisms are harmless, and some are actually beneficial. Unfortunately, when they get out of balance, problems arise. 

One of the most common problems is an overgrowth of yeast, which often occurs after taking a course of antibiotics. That’s because these drugs kill both the disease-causing bacteria as well as health-enhancing bacteria, which opens the doors for yeast overpopulation. Once yeast gains the upper hand, it grows out of control.

Yeast overgrowth causes not only bloating, gas, belching, heartburn and other digestive complaints but also less obvious symptoms such as headaches, rashes, chronic infections, brain fog, fatigue and weight gain. Because yeast thrives on sugars, the typical American diet amplifies and perpetuates the problem.

Yeast-Free With Me

The solution is obvious: Reduce your intake of carbohydrates that promote weight gain, insulin resistance and yeast overgrowth. This is the food plan that has helped thousands of our guests at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center lose weight and regain their health.

Cutting out sugars, starches, grain products and refined carbohydrates is a dramatic change for most people, so we make it as easy as possible by breaking it into one-month chunks and providing step-by-step guidance.

Let us help you get back on the path to optimal wellness by joining our 2021 Yeast-Free With Me Challenge. This month-long program gives you everything you’ll need for successful weight loss and better health. We provide shopping lists, menus, recipes and encouraging emails to help you stay on track. You will also receive a FREE copy of Dr. Hotze’s Optimal Eating Program Cookbook. 

It may be challenging at first, but you will be surprised by how quickly results become evident. This may sound crazy to chronic dieters, but it is not unusual to lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more in a matter of weeks and keep them off for years.

Julie’s Story

This was certainly the case for Julie, who first came to us after reading Suzanne Somers’ book Breakthrough, which featured a chapter on Hotze Health & Wellness Center. The symptoms described in the book (low energy, digestive problems, carb cravings, frequent illnesses and depression) fit her to a T. So, we corrected her hormone imbalances and started her on our yeast-free eating plan. 

Julie said it was initially hard to break her years-long dependence on grain products and fast food. But after three or four days, her energy returned, and at the end of the month she had lost 35–40 pounds. That was nine years ago. Julie is still slim and trim and so full of energy that she can run circles around her kids.

Join Us!

For more information and to sign up for Yeast-Free with Me, visit www.hotzehwc.com/yeast-free-with-me. This program is free of charge, but we encourage you to use My HotzePak Yeast-Free Starter Kit, which includes probiotics for gut health, botanicals that curb yeast overgrowth and other supportive nutrients. To order, visit  hotzevitamins.com or call 281-646-1659. 

Antifungal drugs such as Nystatin may also be indicated. If you are a guest at Hotze Health & Wellness Center, contact Physicians Preference Pharmacy to get prescriptions filled. If you are not a guest, talk to your doctor about these drugs. 

To learn more or schedule a Free Wellness Consultation—via telemedicine or at the Hotze Health & Wellness Center—call us at 281-698-8698 or visit hotzehwc.com.