| Obesity and Sugar Consumption | | Print | |
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Fact of life, in 1900 the average person consumed 1.5 kg of sugar per year, today that has blown out to a massive 225kg on average per person per year! Have you noticed people are getting fatter, growing taller and generally becoming less muscle toned? By nature I am an avid people watcher and the one thing I am seeing more and more of is fat people! Young girls and boys weighing twice as much as kids did 15 - 20 years ago, and it's not only the kids its most of us - including me. A massive 60% of the population are now said to be obese. For the last couple of years I have battled with an ever increasing body mass, and like thousands of other people just have not been able to work out what I am doing to keep adding those darn kilos. I walk 5k a day and still no weight loss, I eat lettuce and no weight loss, I drink 8 glasses of water a day and no weight loss, so in frustration I gave up, well sort of. My metabolism just wouldn't kick in, no matter what I did, so last year for a few months I tried the Atkins diet, and the kilos just fell away. However, I got bored and after 3 months I went back to old habits and the kilos just went on again even more aggressively this time. I tried weight watchers, and everything else I could think of, but still the kilos kept slowly adding on, and my once trim waist line was now not so trim and I felt so uncomfortable and I felt like I was getting old! I had balloned from 64 kg to 80 kg. About the same time I became aware that not only was the weight going on, particularly around my middle, but I kept becoming vague and having a head full of cotton wool, in addition to feeling shaky and dizzy. It didn't take me long to work out that something was really out of whack, so I began testing my blood sugar each morning before eating. Sure enough my blood sugar readings were not over high, but they were round the 7-8 and sometimes higher so there was something going on and I needed to understand how to work with this and get my body back to normal. So I set out to solve the question, what was happening to my body and how could I correct it? The Modern Day Epidemic.Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and the questions it raises are; how is this happening, why is it happening and what can we do about it? So here we go I am going to pass on to you a series of snippets from articles I found while researching this topic. Included are web links which will take you directly to the source of the research so you can read more for yourself if you want. Personally I found it astonishing; the connection between Carbohydrates, Diabetes and Heart Disease & Metabolic Syndrome is certainly eye opening. To diet or not to diet Interesting Research to read is : by DR. M. Noakes. Jan, 2003. www.hsn.csiro.auSo - What's the right diet? Well each of us are different, however when we look at history predominantly man is a hunter gatherer. What does this mean? Well it means man throughout history existed on a diet of fatty meat, fish, nuts, and vegetables. Where modern society has to the contrary turned to carbohydrate saturated foods, such as breads, pastas, confectionaries as the main staple diet. Quick fix foods, give you a charge of energy absorbed fast and leaves you wanting more soon after. And what is the ideal ratio of protein to fat to carbohydrate? Studies indicate that a high in fat & protein & low in Carbohydrate will result in a loss of more abdominal fat and a lowering of triglycerides. Most of us are already aware that obesity is a high risk factor when it comes to type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and hypertension. (High blood pressure) How can you tell if were approaching obesity? Well an indicator of risk is if your BMI {Body Mass Index} is over 30kg/a. There are plenty of websites out there that will allow you for free to check your BMI, by entering your age, height and weight. http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm What Comes First the Chicken or the Egg?I found I was caught in a vicious circle. I love bread and pasta and fresh fruit, and trying to do the right thing to kick start my metabolism I eat 6 small meals a day. I decided to try a balance diet of grains, cereals, meat, fruit and vegetables and the kilos kept mounting. I tried eating less and I got the shakes and head spins, you name it I tried it until the penny dropped. I was actually suffering from Metabolic Syndrome! I had unwittingly trained my body to produce more insulin by consuming too much carbohydrate, and as a result I had become insulin resistant. Too much insulin results in carb's being stored in the body as fat, rather than the body burning fat for fuel, so my body was now storing fat at an incredible rate and wanting more sugar for energy. Somehow I had turned my body from a lean trim fat burning machine to a sugar burning machine, and the fat had no where to go but on my tummy and hips! So How Can We Reactivate the Metabolism. Well common sense is the first requirement, my metabolism didn't get messed up overnight and I surely had to realize it wouldn't be fixed overnight. But there had to be some basic changes made. First cut out or down the Carbohydrates: This means you have to be strong willed. No French fries, biscuits, cakes, fast foods, bread, pasta or confectionary. Second substitute Carbs with, meats, seafood, poultry, eggs, butter, full fat milk, nuts, avocados, vegetables, and a little seasonal fruit and citrus fruit each day. Ensure I eat breakfast every day. Remember to only intake moderate amounts of Carbohydrate before lunch. and if I do eat Carbohydrate always eat Protein with it - never consume carbs on their own! Eat 70% of my daily intake of calories before noon each day.Drink lots of filtered water, 8 glasses a day. Take Omega 3 (Salmon Oil. 4th mill) Omega 6 (Evening Primrose oil 2thousand mill) & Omega 9 (Oleic Acid) each day in addition to Broad range Amino Acids. And Exercise. Cholesterol in the equation:The benefits of raising your HDL & lowering your LDL {Cholesterol} HDL - clears off the walls of blood vessels removing excess LDL. Doctors are now saying it's not only important that we lower our LDL it's important to raise our HDL. So how do we do this? Regular exercise and lowering our Carb intake is the simplest way. By dropping 5kg we substantially increase our HDL. For every ½ kg we loose studies indicate a raise of 1% increase in HDL. This equates to a healthier heart and vascular system there by reducing the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease. www.postgradmed.com/issues/2000/12_00/safeer.htm Researchers had established that consuming a diet high in protein benefits anyone prone to Metabolic Syndrome by stabilizing glucose and insulin production. METABOLIC SYNDROME:REF: American Heart Society: Metabolic Syndrome. The metabolic syndrome is characterized by a group of metabolic risk factors in one person. They include:The underlying causes of this syndrome are overweight/obesity, physical inactivity and genetic factors. People with the metabolic syndrome are at increased risk of coronary heart disease, other diseases related to plaque buildups in artery walls (e.g., stroke and peripheral vascular disease) and type 2 Diabetes. For more info on Metabolic Syndrome go to http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4756 My question here is "Is this linked with Carbohydrate intake?"It would appear that Dr Atkins seems to have had it right when he introduced the No Carb diet back 30years ago, even though he was ahead of his time, today his books are selling better than ever. SOME INTERESTING SITES TO VISIT: Research by DR. M. Noakes. Jan, 2003. www.hsn.csiro.auwww.simplytoogood.com.auwww.aecl.orgwww.nutritionaustralia.orgwww.blackmores.com.auwww.newscientist.com Other related articles: Emotional Eating. |
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