I frequently receive requests from people asking me to explain some of the health-scare claims made by Joseph Mercola, the overwrought professional alarmist, in his regular e-mails. Usually this involves sorting out the wheat (eg, the possible health advantages of food items from grass-fed animals) from the chaff (eg, Mercola’s resultant conclusion that we all should eat only raw eggs from chickens that we raise in our back yards). Occasionally all I have to do is explain the obvious error in a Mercola headline—“Sunlight Can Cut Your Risk of Death in Half” was one such proclamation.
“What is the single most important thing that I could do to lose fat?”
I am asked this question frequently by clients, students, and acquaintances. It doesn’t matter if the person has 100 pounds to lose or only ten, he or she poses the question because of a belief that, essentially, there must be a single ‘secret’ that accounts for the majority of lost bodyfat.
Such people will acknowledge that, yes, they really should pay attention to all of the diet and exercise principles that govern improved body composition, but hey, come on, isn’t there something that stands out as the most important? Isn’t there one thing that could be utilized successfully even if everything else is ignored? Is it early-morning ærobics on an empty stomach? A particular fat-burning supplement? An ultralow-carb diet?
