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As a result of my research which has spanned over 40 years, I am more and
more feeling that perhaps the reason for the widespread obesity in our
society, is not complex as some researchers attempt to make it but rather
something simple such as, in the presence of SUFFICIENT amounts of food,
the human body is designed to carry a certain amount of bodyfat, the
amount being determined by the bodytype and the genetics. Bodyfat is not
inactive storage tissue as once thought. It filters toxins out of the
bloodstream (so they don't get into other places in the body), stores
macrophages (which are the "big guns" of the immune system and might
explain why many very fat people seem to have a very strong immunity),
produces small amounts of estrogen which at least one study suggested may
explain the fact that there is less senility in fat people. Bodyfat
also protects and cushions the bones and organs. For example, when I
fall off my bicycle on my butt now that I have regained all my weight,
it's like falling on a cushion and I don't get hurt.
We do not have a precedent of any eras where people were both naturally
lean and healthy. At the turn of the 20th century where obesity was a non
problem (most folks were on the slim side), the average lifespan was also
only 45 years.
In the really early days sometimes given as the ideal for weight
control, the average lifespan was even shorter - i.e. like 35 years or
less.
In times of yore when people did NOT have ample food and either starved
or feasted, they apparently weight cycled which albeit DID keep them
slimmer, also may have shortened their lifespan and caused more illness,
since weight cycling has been suggested in several studies to be a risky
lifestyle.
What confuses the mix is that certain types of food ARE addictive and
do promote the release of endorphins, much like other addictive
substances. There are likely some, both fat and slim, who are
suffering food addiction and if so, that should be treated as such.
Finally, many studies (and personal experiences) suggest a strong link
between dieting and severe obesity since the damage from dieting
(metabolic damage) can last , states Dr Rudy Leibel, for as long as 10
years after the diet is stopped.
It would be rather ironic if the very thing we are so hysterically
afraid of, obesity, is in part, strongly linked to our affinity to
dieting!
Below are some of the theories of why there is so much widespread
obesity on a societal level in the United States today:
- The Thrifty gene: In people possessing the
'thrifty gene', the fact that the built in appetite suppressants (LEPTIN
et al) don't seem to work may be an indication of an adaptation to
former times when food was available a few times a year, and people who
were "leptin resistant" (i.e. their bodies ignored the hormonal messages
to stop storing fat and shut down the appetite) fared better because
they could eat to gain a lot of weight when food was available which
kept them alive in the lean times.
It's interesting to note that
the one rat study which "proved" that restricting caloric intake made
the rats live longer was very flawed in that those rats in the control
group which were allowed demand feeding were not set up like they are in
nature. For a rat to "catch" its food, it takes a whole lot of caloric
expenditure and the food is limited to the extent of the catch. In the
experiment, food was available all the time (unlimited) and the rats had
to expend NO calories to obtain it. A scientist who could not repeat the
results when he corrected that aspect of the study, remarked that the
study only showed that overfed, underexercised rats lived a slightly
shorter lifespan.
- Availability of fatty foods: This is
something which was not even true when I was a kid. With a fast food
restaurant on every corner, with microwaves and frozen foods, all of us
can obtain a warm delicious meal within seconds. The foods we have today
are chemically engineered to taste extremely delicious. But being very
high in fat content, they are not very dense, so after we eat them, they
fool our bodies into thinking we have not had enough because the stomach
isn't close to being filled. In days of yore, people ate simply. Food
was tasty but not chemically engineered for taste. People ate pretty
much the same thing daily - and food was not readily available... a warm
dinner took several hours to make. So if we had snacks, we were more
likely to snack on fruit rather than doughnuts, bagels or the plethora
of foods we have available to us today.
- Lack of exercise: Laboring jobs are being
increasingly done by machines - most of us have jobs in the 'information
society'. We sit at computers for 10-12 hours a day burning no calories,
compressing our spines in a not-so-good-manner. Many of us work without
breaks. In the morning we walk 3 steps to the john, another few steps to
the car, another few to work and that's about all we'll do. The Surgeon
General's Report of 1996 stated that Americans burn some 800
calories less than their parents did! Despite
this, fewer than 25 percent of the population exercises 3 times a week
or more
That being said, it appears that exercise does NOT stop obesity and many
daily exercisers are STILL obese. Exercise is, however, very
healthy and should be done daily whether it affects your weight or not.
- The American Attitudes - these call for no
exercise and for often centering social affairs around eating (and it's
never veggies that they serve either).
- Food addiction: The latest studies indicate
that people who tend to become addicted to various substances have less
dopamine receptors in the brain. There is also some evidence that eating
(or drinking or drugs or whatever) tends to cause some people to produce
endorphins, a natural form of heroine which is an excellent pain killer
among other things. With the ready availability of chemically
engineered, delicious food, food addiction is likely to be existent in
some people. In some of the very obese, it might be a factor.
- Endocrine problems: This is the most often
quoted reason for extreme obesity. Until recently, medical thought was
that endocrine deficiencies accounted for less than 1 percent of extreme
obesity. Current research however, has not only identified hormones
which CAUSE obesity in some folks but also that the muscle tissue of
people who tend to be fat, requires THREE TIMES the fat content required
as those who are not fat.
We have research on entire populations which suggests that the
environment and lifestyle is a strong factor in the incidence of morbidity
in the fat as well as in the slim people i.e. diabetes, heart disease and
stroke. In one society in Mexico where the people have no cars, run
everywhere, have active physical funtimes, have no labor saving devices
and eat a simple diet with very little meat and mostly complex carbs,
there is an extremely low incidence of heart disease in
addition little to no, extreme obesity. (although the
'average' Mexican PIMA would be considered a bit "pudgy" by our modern
standards).
And we have a diet industry which tickles our ears. Each diet or Weight
Loss Surgery website tells people what they want to hear. A one stop visit
to the surgeon or joining a diet organization will "cure" obesity.
Except we are getting fatter and fatter, BUT living longer than all the
other eras when we were not so obese. What is the no brainer which seems
apparent here? Obesity may not be "deadly" at all but just a natural
thing which perhaps would NOT be so pronounced if we would TOTALLY skip
the diets and go on a HEALTHY program without a focus on weight Control
(called HAES or "Health at Every Size").
It's a choice which few Americans make in full consent because the diet
industry and the popular media withhold the facts.
by Sue Widemark
Bibliography:
The following books have information on Obesity research
and some info on Weight Loss Surgery in them:
- Fraser, L., Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the
Industry that Feeds on it, 1997, Dutton (New York)
- Gaesser, Glenn, PhD:Big Fat Lies, Fawcett (NY, 1996) (updated
edition - CA,2002)
- Colles, Lisa: Fat, Exploding the Myths, Carlton (London,
1998)
- Pool, Robert: FAT - fighting the Obesity Epidemic (NY, 2001)
- Campos, Paul: THE DIET MYTH (NY, 2005)
The following books - a partial list over a 40 year period:
diet exercise
books
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