Why the mainstream DOESN'T WANT you to get thinner... Believe it or not, the mainstream's multi-billion dollar diet and fitness industries in this country don't want you to know the right way to lose weight and keep it off... Why not? Because their livelihoods depend on your ongoing struggle with the bathroom scale. Think about it: If mainstream weight-loss plans really worked, people would pay for them once and then never need them again. Why would they? They'd already be thin, and if these diets actually performed as promised, they'd be staying that way. It's the same way with joining a gym: Once you've got a fit body (if you don't keel over from a heart attack in the process of getting it), why would you keep paying the $80-a-month membership fee? The brutal truth is that the modern American "weight loss" industry depends on our failure at controlling our girth for their long-term success. That's not exactly an incentive for them to tell us what REALLY WORKS in the "Battle of the Bulge," is it? Now, you may be wondering: Wouldn't a truly successful long-term weight-loss program be a lucrative business in the midst of our modern epidemic of obesity - even if people only needed it once? Maybe. But from a business standpoint, there's far more money to be made in KEEPING US FAT. In fact, there's a burgeoning new industry in this country (some might call it a movement) aimed not at helping Americans trim down...
But at accommodating and even nurturing their obesity! From a purely capitalistic perspective, this "fat acceptance" trend makes perfect sense: Nearly 65% of the population is considered by the medical mainstream to be either overweight or obese. This overwhelming majority (no wordplay intended) of Americans has plenty of money to
spend, too. Just to give you an idea of how much, last year alone, the plus-sized clothing industry alone raked in over $17 billion! Now, the frenzy to cash in on the "blubber boom" has generated fat-friendly products of all types - from overbuilt beds, sofas and lawn furniture to oversize towels and umbrellas to bathroom scales that read UP TO 1000 LBS. There is even a resort in Cancun, Mexico that's designed
exclusively for the too-big-for-Club-Med set! Some casket companies are starting to specialize in piano-case sized coffins, too... And with this new fat-acceptance mentality, we're going to need plenty of them.
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After you flush, pretend your Mom is watching you... Sometimes the simplest, most basic and obvious things are the best ways to prevent illness and disease. Take hand washing, for instance. As a doctor, it is absolutely inconceivable to me that everyone doesn't wash their hands after using the bathroom in their house - or for that matter, after sneezing, coughing, petting a cat, touching a railing in a public place, or any number of other
everyday scenarios... But DEFINITELY after using a PUBLIC RESTROOM! And yet, many of us don't. Lots of studies have been conducted on this over the years, and they all pretty much reveal the same thing: in the best case scenarios, a little more than 2 out of 3 of us wash our hands after using public restrooms - women at a slightly higher ratio than men. However, here's something interesting on the subject: When surveyed, 95% of us SAY we wash our hands after using the bathroom. And another body of research I once read showed that we're far more likely to wash up if someone else is in the bathroom with us - especially if that person is known to us. Hmmm. So we all know we SHOULD wash up in the bathroom, we just don't all DO it. And we don't want any of our friends to think we don't do it... Here's another interesting note: A Toronto-based hand-washing study conducted since the SARS outbreak showed that 96% of travelers through that city's major airport washed up in the restroom. Is having a deadly virus on the loose what it takes to get us to follow this "rule" of basic health and hygiene? Folks, washing your hands is an easy thing to do - and it's one of the very best things we can do to prevent illness and disease from infecting us or spreading to those we care about... So DO IT, if you don't already. It only takes a second, but it could save your life. Washing my hands of the "fat" business, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
