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PrintObesity is Not Inevitable
Dr. Martha Grout explains how small lifestyle changes can lead to healthy results
Martha M. Grout, MD, MD(H)
Ironically, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently banned the sale of a homeopathic version of human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG, used in conjunction with a 500-calorie diet for rapid weight loss, while medical journals are lamenting the development of a global epidemic of obesity. All we have to do is look around to see increasing numbers of adults with love handles and big bellies, and children with pudgy cheeks and rolls around their waists.
Part of the problem for the obese is hunger, 24/7. With thoughts fixed upon the next meal, it can seem like an addict seeking their next fix. There is evidence that sugar acts on the brain in much the same areas and by much the same mechanisms as addictive substances like alcohol, cocaine and heroin.
Many factors, however, drive us to eat. We know that a high sugar load causes increased absorption of tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin, through our gut into the bloodstream, so we can understand why, when we are depressed or anxious, we head for the sweets or the potatoes.
So what’s a body to do? We can’t live without food, so what if we changed our lifestyle? It is pretty clear that too much food results in too much fat deposited, but there are many steps between food intake and deposition of fat. As for the quality of food, is it natural or is it manufactured, with lots of chemicals? The quantity of food means more calories. This is the basis for some weight-loss techniques like the problematic non-absorbable fat, Olestra.
Then there is the character of food: are all carbohydrates really the same? Is eating a potato that has 150 calories just as good as eating an apple or some rutabaga that also has 150 calories? The addictive quality of the food is different for everyone, but a very real factor, nonetheless. This is where those of us that practice functional medicine diverge from our more allopathic (traditional) colleagues.
When we eat a potato, the starch is readily digested and absorbed, and gives us a rapid rise in blood sugar. In medical terminology, this is called a high glycemic index. Our bodies prefer our blood sugar to stay within a fairly narrow range of values, and that rapid rise in blood sugar triggers a rise in insulin production to transport the blood sugar into our muscles and get it out of the blood. Sometimes the insulin overshoots—it takes 20 minutes to eat a potato, but the half-life of insulin is about two hours. Then the blood sugar level begins to fall, because insulin is still hanging around with no extra glucose to transport. So we eat a piece of candy, and the cycle goes on.
If, on the other hand, we eat an apple or a rutabaga, there is so much fiber that the energy content is released much more slowly. The blood sugar rises more gradually, triggering much less of a spike in insulin production. And at the end of two hours, insulin is pretty much back to normal, our blood sugar remains steady, and we are not compelled to eat that piece of candy.
This kind of eating can easily become not just a diet, but also a way of life—low glycemic, high nutritional value. Let’s do something different this time. Let us actually change our lifestyle and not go back to the old one. We can choose our lifestyle. We can choose to eliminate whatever we are addicted to from our diet. We do not have to be victims of our stomachs or our brains or to the food industry.
There is a reason that alcoholics that have established 20 years of sobriety still go to AA meetings, because we do not lose the potential for addiction. But without the substance to which we are addicted, the potential remains just a potential, not an actuality. The same holds true for sugar, wheat and potatoes. We can choose.
Martha M. Grout, M.D., M.D.(H), is medical director of the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine, in Scottsdale. For more information call 480-240-2600 or visit ArizonaAdvancedMedicine.com.
