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Jan4

How Losing Weight Helps Your Heart. Are You Actually Overweight?

Posted in: High Cholesterol, Hypertension, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

The first big JAMA study of the new year (Happy New Year!) implied that you can be overweight or barely obese, and not die early because of it.

In between the lines: yes….in that population. Why?

Because they get medical care right away!. Because they get sicker sooner! Because their pre-diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol gets screened for and picked up and treated! And because being sick–like with cancer, immune disease, and heart disease–can make you less fat, because you feel sick!

Plus, looked at internationally (as this study did), people of lower weight were often malnourished and sickly, and in some cases, starving.

So much for “spinning the data.”

Here is what you need to know about who is actually overweight, and why weight loss treats heart disease.

74% of men and 68% of women in the U.S are overweight or obese, and the rest of the world is rapidly catching up. Most men and women don’t know where they fall. You can measure your body mass index (BMI), measure your kid’s BMI, or just look below: for both men and women:

If you’re 5-foot-10-inches, normal is 132 -167 pounds; an overweight is 172- 202 pounds, obese is 209- 236 pounds; severely obese starts at 243; morbidly obese starts at 278.

If you’re 5-foot-5-inches, normal 114-144; overweight 150-174; obese is 180-204; severely obese starts at 210; morbidly obese starts at 240.

Weight loss helps your heart because it lowers your blood pressure and your blood lipids including triglycerides and LDL cholesterol; it helps you metabolize sugar more efficiently; it improves insulin sensitivity; and it reduces inflammation. And inflammation probably causes heart disease.

Not to mention makes it easier for the heart to pump blood where it needs to go!

No one said it was easy to lose weight and keep it off: crappy, cheap, alluring high-calorie low-nutrient foods are everywhere. Produce is not as cheap or accessible as highly processed food. People often don’t have sit down meals, and motivation is a very weak leg on which to stand. What you need is a plan, accountability, self-monitoring and the right foods for you.
Feb6

Overweight but Malnourished: How? What to Do?

Posted in: Common Conditions, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375 TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285 TOTAL COST: $86.47

My patients eat a lot of calories, but are actually malnourished.

Your brain doesn’t count calories–it counts nutrients. But there are few (worth absorbing), and it’s hungry for more.

Your stomach is empty and growling but you just ate. Too many calories, too few nutrients. Brain poop. (Conversely, a low starch, higher healthy fat Mediterranean diet seems to fight brain damage).

Belly fat is toxic, and sugar and starch cause its accumulation, not fat.

Belly fat lies adjacent to the liver, mainlines fat there and you end up with foie gras as a liver. Which is still illegal in my sweet home Chicago, a true paradox.

The kidneys get squeezed, and you get high blood pressure. The number one hormonal organ in your body, if you’re overweight, may well be your belly fat.

80 million Americans are diabetic, or pre-diabetic. That epidemic is going to destroy our health as a country.

Doctors treat with medicine, because those are the weapons that we were trained to offer. But they’re only band-aids, and as effective as French Fries on a heart patient’s hospital menu.

Diabetes medicines often cause more weight gain. So do some common high blood pressure medicine–beta blockers, for example, slow down your pulse and with that, y0ur metabolism.

But there is hope. Nearly 90 percent of type II diabetes are reversible. Having high cholesterol is often reversible, without statins. Controlling high blood pressure with your lifestyle and healthy self is within your reach.

The environment takes decades to change. But you can change your own habits tomorrow. One small step at a time.
Jan17

100 Years Ago, JAMA Thought that a Liter of Water at Meals Was Too Much

Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Common Conditions, Obesity and Weight Loss, Vitamins and Supplements, Wellness and Health

JAMA has a section called “100 years ago” in which the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) quotes a column from its archives, verbatim.

Last week, it was

January 13, 1912

WATER-DRINKING WITH MEALS

”…While the ingestion of moderate quantities of water with meals may be harmless in persons with good gastric motility, since the excess of water is rapidly expelled into the intestine, it is likely to be harmful in persons whose motor power is below par: and it is probable that there are many such who do not consider themselves ill enough to consult a physician.

Furthermore, nothing that has been said is intended to lend any support in the American custom of drinking water that is ice-cold…”

I do think we’ve made progress since them. There’s Vitamin Water, Noah’s Spring Water (pH 8.4, sparkling and delicious), cold water to help you use lose weight, and water to hydrate athletes.

But it just goes to show: doctors, in all our wisdom, come to conclusions slowly. And that’s what most of us get paid for: slow conclusions and caution.

I get paid for something different: trusting patients own experiences with medication, supplements, food and beverage; and their own observations of what works (and doesn’t work) for them.

Informed by the best modern science, and that’s what it is, people can actually lower cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, obesity, overweight; eat an optimally anti-aging diet and the best foods, beverages and dietary supplements and minimize interactions between them; and wipe out back pain, allergies and much more.
Sep3

Helping Men Lose Weight: 10 Year Review

Posted in: Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

I’ve been looking at my patient records from Chef Clinic over the last 10 years (yes, I’ve kept them all, in all their manila folder glory). Especially interesting are the men.

In a weight loss practice, most patients are women. Women have more societal pressure to achieve a healthy weight than men, often have tried many different diet programs, and want to work through why they’re overweight.

But few diet programs exist for men. Those that do seem to rely either on powerful physical programs (P90X, Insanity) where the food is not the focus; or hormone prescriptions (testosterone and growth hormone help men build muscle, especially supplemental hormones, but they can have nasty side effects if men are not truly deficient…i.e., 97% of men).

But what does appeal to men, at least in my practice, are simple, clear rules; specific planning and cooking skills; environmental control; hormonal enhancement with diet and food timing not drugs; and a minimum of discussion and process.

I think this sort of approach may also appeal to some women. In fact, I know it does. But for men who are ready to lose the gut, it rings true in a whole new way.

Last night told a female colleague I was working on this idea, and she said: “About time.” I hope so. It seems like it to me.
Jun30

F as in Fat…and Finances

Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Obesity and Weight Loss

Fat and broke, and getting fatter: the Healthy Americans new study showing that no state dropped in obesity rate last year and 38 states are over 25% obese.

But undiscussed is income: it’s a major driver of the obesity epidemic, because calorie-rich food is cheap and getting cheaper. Over 35 percent of adults who earn under $15,000 a year are obese, but only 24.5 percent in the over-$50,000 per year.

Yes, this is also education, and ethnicity: poor urban neighborhoods too often are unsafe places to play, and have too few fruits and vegetables for sale.

Several people have made this connection already: Suze Orman has dedicated this CNBC season to “health and wealth”, and has linked out-of-control finances and out-of-control weight, and though I’m not a FICO score expert, I do know that people who have less money to spend (i.e., nearly everyone) are more mindful about what their dollars can buy.

And it’s no secret that calories are cheap: when you can buy 800 calories for $1 (2 liter soda) and the graph below shows cheap fast food, it’s no wonder. As fast food has gotten cheaper, healthier foods have gotten more expensive.

But there is a cure: it’s learning to cook (even wealthy and famous people are doing it: Kristen Stewart makes her own 6 hour marinara); and it’s eating SOUL (sustainable, organic, unprocessed, local…grown yourself) food.