Optimal Weight

Firstly, no diets. We are losing one quarter to one half pound of muscle a year. When we diet, we are losing more than fat. Biochemically, we can lose approximately one pound of fat per week. So we are losing water and MUSCLE when we diet. Then, our bodies think we are starving, so the rate at which we burn calories, the BMR (basal metabolic rate) goes down. Now we have a fine mess.

In 7/9/02 New York Times Magazine cover article "What if Fat Doesn't Make You Fat?" (with a cover sidebar stating influential researchers are beginning to embrace the medical heresy that maybe Dr. Atkins was right.) a number of compelling issues are brought to light. Before you embark on Dr. Atkin's diet, it is unnecessarily restrictive but on the right track. Also, and I quote GQ magazine article about the Diet Gurus, "he looks every second of his 71 years."

Please know there are good fats and bad fats (see list at the end of page). We have been eating low fat for decades, and getting heavier as a result. The following are my highlighted notes from the New York Times article:

Atkins was by no means the first to push high-fat diets that restrict carbohydrates. The AMA actually had Dr. Atkins defend his diet in Congressional hearings. We have been told with religious certainty from the surgeon general that obesity is caused by excessive consumption of fat, and if we eat less we will lose weight. Our cholesterol levels have been declining, and we have been smoking less, and the incidence of heart disease has not declined. Endocrinology 101 requires an understanding of how carbohydrates affect insulin and blood sugar and in turn fat metabolism and appetite. Carbohydrates (bread, pasta, low fat foods where the fat is replaced by sugar, potatoes, cake, crackers, pies, candy, cookies...) make our blood sugar go on a roller coaster ride, and WE ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY. Overweight children have tripled in number. Type 2 diabetes, which was formerly called adult-onset diabetes, is being diagnosed in adolescents. We have a "toxic food environment" of cheap fast fatty foods, gargantuan portions, seductive food advertising, and sedentary lives. Grain products and concentrated sugars were essentially absent from human nutrition until the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Until the late 70's the accepted wisdom was that fat and protein protected against overeating by making you sated (not hungry). Then fat was removed from foods and replaced with sugar. We knew from studies that olive oil raised the good cholesterol (HDL) and lowered the bad cholesterol (LDL). By the late 60s researchers were showing that high triglyceride levels (caused by high carbohydrates) were at least as common in heart disease patients as high LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol).

So we have heard that high protein levels can be bad for the kidneys and high fat is bad for your heart. We have to eat something. Join the club, everyone is confused.

Allow me to attempt clarification. We are simply hungrier due to the physiological effects of carbohydrates. We eat carbohydrates because they are readily available, we have been told to eat low fat, and we produce the mood stabilizing brain chemical known as Serotonin secondary to ingesting carbohydrates. And yes, Dr. Phil is right, we have emotional triggers with eating. When we are upset, we do not eat three hard boiled eggs, six oranges (found in a glass of OJ), or four pieces of chicken.

When we eat refined carbohydrates, our pancreas sends out a bunch of insulin (more, if one is fat). Our body cannot store fat without insulin. Eventually our pancreas is pumping out so much insulin that we develop insulin resistance. Since insulin lowers blood sugar, we are hungrier than we were when we started. In case you never thought about it, it is not normal to have fast food establishments and delicatessens around every corner. Twenty years of low fat advice has failed in clinical trials and in real life to lower the incidence of heart disease or obesity.

Right about now, if you are still with me, you are wondering what to eat. The following list are some have to know things for something we are going to do at least twenty one times a week:

• No diets ever, just learning
• Your pancreas cannot tell the difference between the fake sugar in the little blue packets and real sugar - your pancreas still sends out lots of insulin
• Your brain is 60% fat
• Your 100 trillions cells contain a fatty phospholipid membrane which requires the good fats
• The good fats increase BMR - basal metabolic rate - the rate at which you burn calories
• The good fats tell your brain you are no longer hungry
• A bagel is approximately seven slices of bread
• The croutons on your restaurant salad is equivalent to two slices of bread
• Pasta portions in restaurants are six times what a real portion should be (real portion - one half cup)
• Eggs are a perfect food - think about it - it is the only food that if you let it keep going, becomes a complete animal with a beating heart
• Some people are sensitive to certain foods with the response being edema (water retention) - could this be those last 10 lbs.
• Food processing removes fiber, Vitamin E, the B vitamins...
• For more information read Ann Louise Gittleman's books and Julia Ross' book on my reading list.

And now, a partial primer on the good fats and the bad fats.

The Bad Fats

• margarine (just one molecule short of plastic)
  
• fats used in most restaurants, and all fast foods
  
• fats in most packaged foods, prepared foods, crackers, cakes, pies, candy, cookies...
  
• vegetable oils (Dr. Weil is right)

The Good Fats

• olive oil, the greener the better, glass jars
  
• fish oils (EPA/DHA) - omega 3 fatty acids
  
• flaxseed oil (60% omega 3, 20% omega 6)
  
• evenining primrose oil-omega six fatty acids
  
• GLA (gamma linoleic acid)
  
• CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)
  
• organic butter, eggs, milk, cream (not low fat)