Thirty years ago we declared a war against fat. Dietary guidelines for Americans was first published in 1980 and has been updated every five years. To prevent heart trouble, we are told to stay away from fats.
Obesity is no longer a sign of prosperity
Three times as many adults are now obese compared to 50 years ago and twice as many as 20 years ago. Being heavy was a sign of prosperity and being socially successful in the past. If one was not overweight it showed he could not make his way in life, nor obtain enough to eat. Today however the poorest and least educated American is very obese.
Obesity causes type II diabetes and over 10% of our medical costs. In the last 10 years the costs have risen from $74 billion-$147 billion. Being fat makes you less productive, you take more time off from work because of ailments. Perhaps you cannot walk more than a few yards without refreshing yourself with some fast food or sweet pop. Family meals you see are a thing of the past, is a great effort. Kids don’t eat meals with their parents, and many of them only have one parent.
We buy take-home meals and ready prepared foods. They are heated in the microwave and serve as constant snacks. Often there is a need for a decent table to eat at since the TV serves at the dining table. We overindulge, and each feeding makes your appetite grow. Your behavior determines the appetite of the moment. You eat independently of everyone else, and when you eat there is no self control. Your world is very dull and slow-moving compared to the TV excitement. There is no reason to get in the real world when you can satisfy your appetite, which are mined in a vacuum, and have constant entertainment on your coach.
All fats are not created equal
Yet as you may have noticed, we are not getting any thinner, and heart disease is still our big killer. We developed the logic that fat is bad, since saturated fat increases bad LDL cholesterol, and if you have high LDL cholesterol you are more likely to get heart disease.
The fallacy of this is the assumption that: “ All LDL cholesterol is the same and it is all bad”. LDL cholesterol comes in a range of sizes. Large LDL particles cause no harm. Research shows that avoiding fat is a miscalculation. it’s We have been replacing fat with process carbohydrates and this is far worse for our hearts.
As we switch from a low saturated fat diet to one high in saturated fat, there is an increase in total blood LDL cholesterol. The rise, however, is due to an increased concentration of the large LDL particles, not the small ones. In other words, saturated fat consumption boosts our harmless LDL particles. Because the tests ignore particle size, today’s cholesterol tests are not good indicators of heart disease risk, and only predict heart disease risk 70% of the time. (Since saturated fat has no double bonds, all of its carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen atoms and these are neutral for the heart.) Unsaturated fats that have one double bond ( mono unsaturated fats), as found in many nuts, are very good for the heart, Polyunsaturated fats that have multiple double bonds, as fatty fish, are also very good for the heart. By substituting mono saturated and polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats, heart disease risks dropped dramatically. New England Journal of Medicine May 2006
People who ate most of their daily calories from fat, including saturated fat, had no increase in heart disease later in life. Those who ate the highest amount of vegetable fat, from foods like nuts and olive oil, lowered their heart disease rate more than those on low-fat diets. New England Journal of Medicine March 2010
Glycemic index is the answer to our obesity problem
If saturated fat does not adversely affect your heart health, what does? Researchers find a high glycemic index may be the answer. The index reflects the influence blood sugar levels, based on how quickly sugare is digested and absorbed. That means, carbohydrates like cereal, bread, chips and cookies all increase heart risks.
People who ate the highest glycemic load, (which also measures portion size), had twice the risk of heart disease than those who ate food with the lowest glycemic load.
Mixing high glycemic index foods with low glycemic index foods, like a piece of white bread with peanut butter, is healthier than eating is the white bread alone. If you were on a high fat low carbohydrate diet for eight weeks, your blood concentration of small LDL particles would drop 50%. If you then went on a high carbohydrate and low-fat diet, you would see an increase spike of 36%. Also troubling is, that process carbohydrates lower good HDL cholesterol, while saturated fats increase good HDL cholesterol.
Sugars are not all created equal.
Despite having a lower glycemic index, fructose is less healthy than glucose, since it haa a different structure despite having the same chemical formula Table sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. High fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose.
Fructose makes you hungrier
Fructose results in a lower insulin response, which results in a lower circulating levels of leptin, (the appetite suppressing hormone), and a higher level of ghrelin, (the appetite boosting hormone), thus increasing your appetite and putting you at a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease.
Processed carbohydrates are the cause of obesity
Our war against fat has made us more addicted to carbohydrates. As we cut out fat, we typically eat diet foods high in carbohydrates that contain the same number of calories, however with more corn syrup solids. Transfatty acids and foods high in omega six, as corn oil and margarine, are very unhealthy, We must start replacing carbs with some fat in our diets. To get the right nutritional messages, our new guidelines should be simple, targeted, and consistent.
Other causes of obesity
People tell you that that is you eat too much and don’t exercise enough. There are however other explanations.
Birds of a feather flock together. You tend to mate with someone who has a very similar body type as you and thus pass along genes that contribute to obesity.
The normal activity of your hormones that regulate fat are disrupted by environmental toxins that lead to metabolic changes in your body and weight gain.
Since you lived in a temperature controlled environment, air conditioning and central heating, you need to burn fewer calories to regulate your thermostat. Instead of your body regulating her temperature by sweating and getting goosebumps, your temperature is always controlled and this causes you to burn less calories.
If you were a smoker and quit, you may still have oral fixations seeking food as a replacement for your cigarettes.
You can gain a lot of weight from certain drugs that cause water retention and slow your metabolism. Examples include: antidepressants, contraceptives, blood pressure pills, antihistamines, diabetes medicines, and mood stabilizers.
If you just had your baby in your late 30s, you find it more difficult to regain your pre-pregnancy weight.
Our population is aging, our ethnic mix is shuffled, and we are constantly in a group of obese people.
We all sit longer then we sleep. Our sedentary lives of watching TV, or surfing the Internet, all lead to disease. We are burning 100 less calories a day than our parents: and it all adds up. The fat burning lipase enzyme that burns fat stops working and drops 50%. Just walking around the computer desk for a couple hours would help a lot.
Removing your tonsils and adenoids results in a high percentage of kids suddenly becoming obese by eight years of age.
Pediatrics 2009: 123: 1095
Most of us are not getting enough sleep, and this increases our hunger and appetite and cause hormonal changes that lead to weight gain. Over half the people with sleep apnea are grossly overweight. Archives internal medicine September 28, 2010
Your ancestors may have environmentally caused weight gain and these genes are passed on to you and your children.
Skinny women are less fertile than overweight women. This gives our future generations a better chance to inherit overweight genes.
In the past, it was suggested that obese people who did not have any metabolic problems, did not have any increased risk of morbidity and mortality, and could safely live with their obesity. A recent study shows this not to be true.
30% of people or obese are insolent resistant, and 40% have two or more metabolic syndrome risk factors. Only 25% are free of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome factors. So it looks like, if you are obese, and have no medical problems, you are fooling yourself into thinking you are risk free of heart disease.
Diabetes Care, December 2009
Reducing diets do not work
We all know that weight loss diets are not sustainable. It is important to work on your eating patterns. Our diets are terrible and most of us eat high-energy foods as chocolates, and fast foods daily. After dieting, once you start changing your food choices again, you inevitably fail and regain most of the weight you lost. Most of us could lose weight on a diet with high energy foods as well as some restriction of foods along with some aerobic exercising.
As a medical physician for over 52 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.
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