140 THE (HINA STUDYas a whole foods, plant-based diet. Some people become vegetarian only
to replace meat with dairy foods, added oils and refined carbohydrates,
including pasta made with refined grains, sweets and pastries. I refer to
these people as "junk-food vegetarians" because they are not consum-
ing a nutritious diet.
The second reason weight loss may be elusive is if a person never en-
gages in any physical activity. A reasonable amount of physical activity,
sustained on a regular basis, can pay important dividends.
Thirdly, certain people have a family predisposition for overweight
bodies that may make their challenge more difficult. If you are one of
these people, I can only say that you probably need to be especially rig-
orous in your diet and exercise. In rural China, we noticed that obese
people simply did not exist, even though Chinese immigrants in West-
ern countries do succumb to obesity. Now, as the dietary and lifestyle
practices of people in China are becoming more like ours, so too have
their bodies become more like ours. For some of these people with ge-
netic predispositions, it doesn't take much bad food before their change
in diet starts to cause problems.
Keeping body weight off is a long-term lifestyle choice. Gimmicks
that produce impressively large, quick weight losses don't work in the
long term. Short-term gains should not come along with long-term pain,
like kidney problems, heart disease, cancer, bone and joint ailments
and other problems that may be brought on with popular diet fads. If
the weight was gained slowly, over a period of months and years, why
would you expect to take it off healthily in a matter of weeks? Treating
weight loss as a race doesn't work; it only makes the dieter more eager
to quit the diet and go back to the eating habits that put them in need
of lOSing weight in the first place. One very large study of 21,105 veg-
etarians and vegans^13 found that body mass index was" ... lower among
those who had adhered to their diet for five or more years" compared to
people who had been on the diet for less than five years.
WHY THIS WILL WORK FOR YOUSO there is a solution to the weight-gain problem. But how can you ap-
ply it to your own life?
First of all, throwaway ideas about counting calories. Generally speak-
ing, you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight-as long you
eat the right type of food. (See chapter twelve for details.) Secondly, stop
expecting sacrifice, deprivation or blandness; there's no need. Feeling