I am the proud new owner of a kindle – this was a surprise mother’s day present, although I’m sure that my husband had more to do with it than my teenage sons, who did, however, grudgingly agree to ‘dob’ some money towards it. Sadly, gone are the days when I get lovingly hand-made cards or gifts with lots of glitter and grubby finger marks on them, and my husband had to remind the grunty ones that it was actually mothers day on Sunday, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have noticed. Love them really.
Anyway, back to the kindle – as a confirmed non-techie person – I wasn’t really sure whether I could get used to reading a book from what is to all intents and purposes a mini-computer, but I have to say that it is surprisingly addictive and over the weekend I managed to download and read 3 books. It is so easy to use – even for me, and the very idea of having access to all these books (and magazines & newspapers) is really quite wonderful. However, I do have to keep reminding myself that I still have to pay for the books downloaded, even though they are considerably cheaper.
I am always keen to read the latest on the dieting industry/obesity crisis, as it is a subject that concerns me, and when flicking through the book list on my kindle, I came across
a title ‘Why we get fat and what to do about it’. Intrigued, I read the sample (you can do that with a kindle) and then downloaded the book in its entirety, and I have been glued to it ever since.
The book, by the american science journalist, Gary Taubes (the author of Good Calories, Bad Calories 2007) makes for fascinating reading. Basically, the main premise of the book is that conventional dietary guidelines which advise people that the only way to lose weight is to cut calories and exercise more is flawed. And it would seem that, with more people than ever going on diets, but actually ending up fatter, that Taubes could be right. His findings suggest that people should virtually eliminate carbohydrates from their diet and we all know that this is not a new idea, but it is the detail of his research which seems to make this a much more serious and thought-provoking piece of work.
Taubes argues that pre-WWII scientists actually got it right, and since then the scientific community have been, quite spectacularly, getting it wrong. The main message is that we get fat beause our fat cells have become disturbed by hormonal imbalance and they are taking nutrients that should be available to other tissues. The fat cells live for themselves rather than in balance with the rest of the body and because those nutrients are not available, we become hungry and lethargic. So we tend to eat more, and move less. It is a vicious cycle, perpetuated by continuing with low-calorie diets.
The problem is not one of people eating too much, but of hormone balance and it would seem that some people are more sensitive to the hormone effects of insulin and cortisol (the stress hormone). The more sensitive you are, the more you are likely to put on weight, and if you continue to follow a carb-filled diet (even if this is low calorie) you will make the problem even worse.
Taubes also argues that exercise is not the answer to weight loss – he admits that it is good for health benefits generally – but will not make you lose weight. This is another edict that seems to go entirely against the grain of accepted wisdom.
It has really made me think about the whole weight loss issue, and I really believe that Taubes has a point. It does seem that for decades we have been emphasising calorie-reduction and exercise as the cornerstones of weight loss, but with the result that we have far more millions of people overweight and obese. Many of the clients who come to see me for weight loss therapy tell me that they spend their lives dieting, but end up hungry and miserable, and certainly no slimmer.
Carb-dense foods are also a staple in our Western diet – even if we have a fairly healthy diet, there is usually a high proportion of pasta, bread and potatoes. For those who live on junk foods, these are usually loaded with carbs and sugar as well as fat.
I believe that the medical profession and governments should all take note of this book. At a time when we are offering gastric bands to obese youngsters, and it is predicted that we are all getting fatter, then perhaps we need a radical shift in the message that we put over to people.
My belief has always been that we get fat because we eat too much and exercise too little, but I have really had my eyes open to the fact that it is not quite as simple as this, and actually what we have been doing – with the intention of trying to get slim – has in fact been making us all fatter.
Perhaps you have read the book yourself, and have some of your own ideas about it – I would welcome your comments, you can email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.
I doubt that fat cells absorb nutrients. I doubt that it is biochemically possible for them to do so. I don't know of Taubes actually says this in his book. I doubt.
What I've found is that because there's been so much misinformation for so long, most of us know little about how our bodies function and it takes a lot of time and work to find out what's really going on.
For quite a bit more info:
Pretty much all the science can be found in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-Lifeplan-Michael-Eades/dp/0446678678/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312459600&sr=1-1
and here: http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/
Inflammation that can become widespread and cause such problems as arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and lots more is a prominent part of metabolic syndrome, aka insulin resistance (too many carbs at any meal cause insulin spike; insulin receptors on cells become insensitive to insulin, causing blood sugar to rise and more insulin release by pancreas which cell receptors still do not recognize, rising insulin shuttles excess glucose in the blood into fat cells, ad infinitum because that's part of what insulin is meant to do.
Controlling insulin release after meals (thus controlling the depositing of fat) by consuming limited amounts of carb at meals stimulates a hormone that burns fat, glucagon.
Read about it all at this informative website:
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com/
It's simple and elegant, and pretty easy, as long as one consumes saturated fat and protein. There's a good biochemical reason why this works; we're genetically programmed to use those nutrients — NOT CARBS — for creating healthy cells and all the tissues of our bodies. Without the right biochemical nutrients, we can't make healthy; when the cells we produce aren't healthy, we cannot BE healthy because our biochemistry cannot proceed.