By Sarah A LoBisco, ND

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, I discussed the sad statistics of the American “healthcare” system and the disheartening trend of increasing obesity in our population, even in the midst of plenty of food. According to USA Today:

The projection, released Monday, warns that 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030 (up from 36% in 2010), and 11% could be severely obese, roughly 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight (vs. 6% in 2010).

“If nothing is done, it’s going to hinder efforts for health care cost containment,” says Justin Trogdon, a research economist with RTI International, a non-profit organization in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park

Our overfed yet malnourished society is not just affecting our health and long-term quality of life, but is also creating downstream ill effects on the financial future. According to a Report by the Worldwatch Institute:

Malnutrition also exacts a heavy social toll, slowing and sometimes partly reversing societies’ development. Treating the effects of obesity in the United States, for example, costs more than $100 billion annually—more than 10 percent of the nation’s bill for healthcare

…So whether the problem stems from hunger or from overeating, whether it occurs in poor countries or rich ones, malnutrition is bound to skew and slow a country’s development.7 ….

Therefore, the issue isn’t just losing weight for disease prevention, but a form of social accountability. People know this, they are trying. But we are living in a weight loss lie!

Every day, in my new patient population, I hear of the frustrations with weight loss resistance and how attempts at cutting calories, exercising, and self-deprecation results in hundreds of dollars spent on weight loss gadgets with no net weight loss.  The problem is we’ve been fed the biochemical baloney that weight = calories in –calories out. The truth is it is not the amount of calories, but the type of calories that matters.

All calories are not equal!  This is especially true when it comes to sugar and fructose. The fact is, the more our nation is consuming sweetness from sugar or artificial chemicals, in the form of low-fat diets, the fatter America is becoming.  Lowering calories by consuming sugar, replacing essential fats, creates metabolic dysfunction. Dr. Mercola explains the dangers of sugar:

Between 1985 and 2010, average daily caloric intake rose by eight percent, while diabetes rates rose by 727 percent. Clearly, total calorie consumption cannot explain the meteoric rise in obesity-related diseases.

Researchers discovered that it’s the increase in total fats and carbohydrates specifically that’s causing the massive weight gain in people around the world. It’s the combination of fat and carb that causes metabolic disruption. The only food on Earth that is both a fat and a carbohydrate, is sugar, which includes both sucrose (regular table sugar) and high fructose corn syrup—both of which contain both glucose and fructose.

Your body metabolizes glucose and fructose in two distinctly different ways. Fructose is metabolized much like alcohol, and damages your liver and causes mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way as ethanol and other toxins.

Dr. Hyman explains how the power of nutrigenomics can be used for good, and how this “new” medicine is not just less toxic, but can be as powerful as biochemical manipulation by a drug:

But there has been a new drug discovered – that can beneficially modulate thousands of genes and enhance the function of dozen of hormones and regulate tens of thousands of protein networks and can prevent cure and even reverse most chronic disease. And it works faster, better and is cheaper than any other drug discovered and it is available to almost everyone on the planet right now…

It is food – we now know that food is information, not just calories, and that it can upgrade your biologic software.  The majority of chronic disease is primarily a food borne illness.  We ate ourselves into this problem and we have to eat ourselves out of it.

High cholesterol is not a statin deficiency, and diabetes is not an Avandia deficiency. It is not doing the same things better. What we are doing is not really working.  It is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Statins increase the risk of diabetes by 48% in women. Avandia, the #1 blockbuster drug for diabetes, killed nearly 200,000 from heart attacks since it was introduced on the market in 1999.

Learn more in this 10 minute video with Dr. Hyman

Therefore, let’s stop the madness. Society needs to stop infesting our minds about weight-loss as a disease control strategy of caloric restriction or the panacea of finding a “perfect diet for everyone.” This strategy is missing the biochemical individuality boat.

Working with a doctor that practices functional medicine could be the missing piece needed to get your body humming and burning like a well-oiled machine. It may take time for you to implement the necessary changes, but the corresponding program will create lasting results.

Functional medicine incorporates all the factors involved in ideal weight maintenance. It maximizes the role of your blood and metabolic type, ethnicity, health status, genetic, and nutrient needs. This can provide an exit strategy off the merry-go-round called yo-yo diets!

MUST READ

Blood Sugar Solution By Mark Hyman is a good place to start with a step-by-step guide on how to balance your blood sugar and optimize ideal weight. It also contains a comprehensive cookbook! Don’t miss the latest from one of my mentors and an originator of functional medicine! Thanks to a few of my wonderful patients for bringing me this book and allowing me to tailor the suggestions just for you! J

Sources:

Nanci Hellmich, Obesity could affect 42% of Americans by 2030. USA TODAY. May 7. 2011. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-05-07/obesity-projections-adults/54791430/1

Jane A. Peterson, Editor. Worldwatch Institute. Overfed and Underfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition. March 2000. http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EWP150.pdf

Mark Hyman, MD. Sugar Babies: How to Stop the Genocide of Our Children. Drhyman.com. May 3rd, 2012. http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/05/03/sugar-babies-how-to-stop-the-genocide-of-our-children/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=drhyman+newsletter+issue+%2372&utm_content=Get+the+story

Mark Hyman, MD. Can Social Networks Cure Disease? Part I. drhyman.com.  April 20th, 2012. http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/04/20/can-social-networks-cure-disease-part-i/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=drhyman+newsletter+issue+%2370&utm_content=Get+the+story

Roxanne Nelson. Gene Sequencing Not a Crystal Ball, But Has Value for Some. Medscape Medical News from the:  American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 103rd Annual Meeting. April 3, 2012. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761425?src=ptalk

Mark Hyman, MD. How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life. Drhyman.com. January 7th, 2011. http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/01/07/how-eating-at-home-can-save-your-life/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=drhyman+newsletter+issue+%2370&utm_content=Read+more

Joseph Mercola, OD. Attacks Your Liver Like Alcohol – Is This What’s Making You Flabby and Sick? Mercola.com. May 7, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/07/the-sweetener-that-is-more-dangerous-than-alcohol.aspx?e_cid=20120507_DNL_art_1

Hammons AJ & Fiese BH. Is Frequency of Shared Family Meals Related to the Nutritional Health of Children and Adolescents? Pediatrics 2011; 127(6): e1565-e1574

NEWS!

  • On the left hand side of my website is a link to Dr. Oz’s Sharecare.  This little widget is a fun tool for information in an instant! Just types in your health-related question and viola, the answers appear. I am honored to be included amongst many of my mentors and other health experts.
  • My next Holistic Health Forum will be in Rexford, NY on May 18th
  • More on Weight Release on my Saratoga.com blog
  • Dr. Northrup’s weekly streamline show on Hayhouse radio is a not to miss in mind-body medicine. This week, she reviews the connection between a woman’s voice and thyroid health, adhesions and fertility, prolactin and hormonal connections to mothering, and even gets controversial about the after-life!
  • The Book is coming, the Book is coming!!! In a few  months, my book will be released….it has been accepted by Balboa Press and I’m in the process of sprucing up the manuscript and deciding on a cover…..watch for my new and revised FACEBOOK page for announcements.
    • I want to make my new Facebook page interactive with the whole international community… gather your friends and family and friend me and I’ll have some Facebook parties, answering your general wellness questions!