VeryGnawty
"I mean wouldnt the amount of breathing a person does in a day, no matter how much they eat, be able to counter act anything they eat?"
You could probably burn off everything in an entire meal...IF you were breathing perfectly. Even the Bible mentions that if the temple (body) is defiled, that it takes a day to make it holy (clean) again.
But people defile the body many times a day. They eat several meals, each larger than their stomache can handle. They have poor posture. They don't exercise. They don't have sunlight or clean air or water. Everything they do is a defamation of the body. It's no wonder so many people are diseased and in pain.
The reason it takes so long to heal is because people don't clean up their act in a day anymore. They consume much more food than the prana (energy) of the body can burn off. This waste matter accumulates over many years. In the worst cases, the person becomes so obese that they can hardly walk.
The normal person, hardly breathes at all. The breath is slow and shallow. When they try to exercise the breath is hyperventilated, and even more shallow. They can't run because they can't breathe, and they have disrupted circulation because there isn't enough air in the body. When the food is limited and the breathing restored, the body can better cleanse itself.
This is why, if someone tries to attack my knowledge, I challenge them to a race. Running is the quickest method to find out who is healthy, and who is not. An unhealthy person, has no endurance. I've seen strong men get winded in minutes because they don't know how to breathe.
Pranayama and yoga should be required courses in school. But all the education cares about is math and (dogmatic) science. Often, even those subjects aren't taught properly.