Weight Maven

I can’t recall where I first read the suggestion that metabolic syndrome is essentially a liver problem, but I find the idea curiously compelling. Over at PaNu, Dr. Harris responds to a question (see Christy on Feb 6) about improving insulin resistance or reversing metabolic syndrome as follows:

The chance for healing is dependent on removing the things that damaged you in the first place.

First, understand that it is liver insulin resistance we are trying to restore. Insulin is the way the pancreas talks to liver (hat tip Peter for that)

The liver is the principal damaged organ, and the knock-on effects to other organs, including the brain, etc follows from that.

The liver may heal if you stop damaging it with things that screw it up and cause inflammation.

Like:

1) Excess PUFAs especially (but not only) excess n-6 linoleic acid. Eat zero plant based vegetable oils (not counting coconut) No more than 1g n-3s per day as well as fish oil or CLO.

2) The hepatoxin called fructose. I advocate a ZF (zero fructose) diet if you have Type II or metsyn.

3) The hepatotoxin called ethanol. Zero that out, too.

4) A fail-safe approach to leaky gut. Endotoxin that leaks into your blood stream through your gut causes inflammation. Eliminate all gluten grains like wheat and all wheat flour. Eliminate all excess PUFA (step one). Consider a casein free diet until you have healed.

Eat as low or high a fraction of carbs as you feel like, unless you feel like losing weight and then you can read “how to lose weight” – that post is free and works as well as any book you can read.

I think the whole issue is more about stopping metabolic damage and consequent inflammation than it is about “managing” your hormones.

Interestingly, Matt Metzgar has made a similar connection between inflammation and obesity:

As far as looking at the ultimate cause of obesity, I used to lean more towards insulin resistance. Now after learning more over time, I am much more convinced the core problem is inflammation.

He, however, looks at the gut rather than the liver as the chief area of concern:

I also believe that one of the main regulators of inflammation is the gut flora. Balancing the gut bacteria seems like the most logical place to start in reducing inflammation.

Which ties in nicely with Stephan’s suggestion for effective fat loss over at Whole Health Source. But that’s a post for another time!

Did you see this news item? Whole Foods is planning to give incentives — in their case, store discounts — to workers who meet certain health measures.

I am of very mixed mind on this issue. On the face of it, encouraging healthy behaviors seems like a great idea. Yet the deeper you look at it, the more that you see that there are questions about these kinds of incentives — especially when they are tied to the workplace. Unfortunately, the rising cost of health care (and our Congress’ inability to do anything about it) means that we’re very likely to see more of these programs.

Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth, is not a fan.

Continue Reading »

What Marian Nestle said re yesterday’s Supreme Court decision:

The decision to overturn limits on corporate campaign contributions will affect every aspect of society, food included. …

When corporations fund campaigns, representatives make decisions in the corporate interest. It’s that simple.

Just a week or so ago, Michael Pollan noted that:

Right now the food industry creates patients for the health care industry and they have a sympathetic relationship, but that might change.

Yeah, in the not-so-distant future, the food industry will be continuing to be creating patients, but the health care industry will be turning them away. And we’ll not be able to do anything, because our elected officials will point “personal responsibility” fingers at us, thus keeping their corporate taskmasters happy.

I’m really afraid that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

Courtesy of a mention by Matt Stone on Twitter (@180degreehealth) and the post on his blog, I went to the google to find out a little bit more about Thomas Latimer (Peter) Cleave, aka T. L Cleave.

Turns out Cleave is a very interesting guy. Born in 1906, he was a doctor in the Royal Navy who was convinced of the negative effects of refined carbs in the Western diet. While not paleo/primal wrt avoiding grains as a prescription, he identified the problems Westerners faced as a result of eating a diet we’re not yet adapted to.

It turns out that the full text of his book, The Saccharine Disease, is available online. It’s quite an interesting read in the context of the discussions many of us are having now!

Continue Reading »

Courtesy of Amazon, picked up my first textbook in nearly a decade for a class I’m taking at George Mason called Foundations of Health Education and Behavior.

I may regret taking a class without a posted syllabus (kinda like taking a job without interviewing the boss). But I couldn’t bring myself to stick with the other class I had registered for … an intro to biostatistics with wicked expensive books and weeks worth of SPSS.

If I apply for the MPH, I’ll have to take the latter, but for now, am gonna stick with the classes that interest me!

Back in late November, I brought IDblog back from Google Siberia (read: blacklist) and announced that my focus going forward was going to change.

My blog posts, like my tweets, were going to be less about information design (IDblog’s original focus) and politics (a recent focus) and more about my upcoming studies in public health and the question of the obesity “epidemic.”

Well, it’s now 6 weeks later, and I’m pretty happy with the transition. But one thing has been bothering me.

Continue Reading »

Prompted by Michael Pollan’s appearance on The Daily Show on Monday, I finally picked up the copy of Food Rules that I’d ordered right after the New Year (thank you Amazon Prime!).

Pollan’s website describes the book this way:

Eating doesn’t have to be so complicated. In this age of ever-more elaborate diets and conflicting health advice, Food Rules brings a welcome simplicity to our daily decisions about food. … [T]his indispensable handbook lays out a set of straightforward, memorable rules for eating wisely, one per page accompanied by a concise explanation.

It’s a very quick little read (on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart commented that he enjoys “any book that was fun sized”), since each rule is delivered one per page, sometimes with little to no accompanying text.

Continue Reading »

Well worth the watch! Some key points:

• Cheap food isn’t really cheap. Pollan: “I think we need to recognize that cheap food has a very high cost, in terms of health, in terms of the environment. That cost is getting paid by other people, by the public health system.”
• Health care reform could be a game changer. Pollan: “Suddenly the health insurers will have an interest in your health that they don’t have now. … Right now the food industry creates patients for the health care industry and they have a sympathetic relationship, but that might change.”

From there, Jon Stewart gets into the aye, there’s the rub challenge of all this: “how do you legislate deliciousness?”

BTW, could the ads being served up with this clip on The Daily Show website be more ironic?