What's Making us Fatter?

The animal data came from "studies of mammals, living with or around humans.." in other words, eating food products out of our food chain.

IMO the trans-fat issue is the obvious link to obesity. There is no natural pathway to break down trans fat, in humans or other animals. Where does it go then? Well look around. Not only you can't get rid of it, it doesn't satisfy your need for calories to burn.. so eat more while your body tucks away the stuff it can't consume.

A far more likely cause than "light pollution" or climate change epigenetics (pleeeze! ). This is grasping at straws!

As for AD36 virus, maybe it could cause obesity (a conjecture at this stage). Or maybe the obesity caused by something else (eg transfattathon) also makes the subject more susceptible to adenovirus. The reported correlation doesn't prove causality.

Hi Art,

Here we have to sit down for a moment. I agree that your transfats are helping people get fat. However, there is many other factors helping equally or more to become fatter and fatter.

First, the quantity we eat. It's too much for sure.

Second, we don't have the good choice of food when we eat. I explain, morning, get something, lunch, at a break, and dinner. I concider 5 meals are enough for a human being. The choice for the morning, eat fruits as soon as you get up. The breakfast or break-time a small sandwich, veggies and bread with nuts. Lunch must be copious but not excessive with veggies (1/2), meat or other protein (1/2), and no bread. Break again with bead and veggies or fruits. Dinner must be light with a soup with veggies.

Third, I suggest that fruits must be ingested alone in empty stomach. Also, bread must be whole wheat and never mixed with proteins, and eaten with veggies. These principles are essential for maintaining thin and healthy body.

Food like other things (clean or polluted air/spring or contaminated water) can be good for us or make us too fat and/or unhealthy.

I was favoured big meals, and I went to China and saw people eating small portions. The conclusion of that was the "loss of 48 pounds", and after more than 10 years, I never get back a pound. Also, I follow as closely as possible my suggestion to not mix bread and proteins.

Good luck and respect of my body get me older and healthier, Gil.

NB: In nature, a lion never get fat because the animal control the quantity of food get in their stomach. The carcass goes to other animals when the full lion get the rest, isn't it?

Hi Tech,

You're a lucky person to receive "good answer" qualification for your findings of: "it must be a virus that was triggered by global warming " for your fatness.

If you don't have any other question, and get good notes, you will explode. For some recommendations, read my previous comments how to loose your excess of pounds or kilograms.

It's the same as cigarette smokers. They respond to you when you tell them that smoking is unhealthy. I know, I know but they continues!

Forget global warming, you cannot stop it, and for sure nothing to do with your stoutness.

Wish you a happy New Year and think about what was said, Gil.

slightly cynical.... GA!

Hi Chris,

Nothing cynical there! How many billions of $ was made with anti-obesity pills? It's a good business to make people fat and take their money to correct their wieght! See all fitness centres and weight losing programs. It's better business than selling stains and sealers. One asks money in front and the other gets paid after 30 days.

In 1930, Newburg and Johnston from Michigan University declared that "obesity was the results of foods rich in calories, and not the human metabolism". This was the observation on a few person, and later they study on moreoindividuals, discovered that their original observation was erronous, they write a second publication but the first was already accepted by the scientific world and they don't like changes like we do. This theory still valid in the minds of doctors, nutritionists and other scientifics of food, and for sure the food industry stay on line.

Read the English versions of Michel Montignac's "Je mange donc je maigris" and "Rester jeune en mangeant mieux". These two small books are excellent to lose weight and stay slim, Gil.

Regards.

The problem is that nobody has time to look after their kids.

Not only foods habits are changed due to refrigerators full of fast food items;

and home over dumped with electronic gadgets.

The basic reason for most of the problems is lack of discipline in our life.

We don't have the time for our family but lot of time being consumed in using phones and like that.

Hi Jee,

So, conclusion, to get slim and healthy people for the future, we have to stop reproduction because we don't have any time for them. NO more people on Earth! Please, tell me that you don't want to take the risks to teach to the youngs what and how to do in life, isn't it?

I agree that prepared food we buy is not very good and healthy but we can buy some raw materials, veggies, meats, and carbohydrates and cook at home something better, isn't it?

Dislipline? We have discipline to do or not to do, isn't it? The problem is in our heads! We are not thinking just before we do thinks. We bhave to think, stop and reflect, and do what we want.

When the phone or your cellphone buzzes, you have the choice to answer or call back later or never, depending of your mood, or the person who disturb you.

I am not teaching, I just repeat what I do to be happy and make happy the few people around me, Gil.

NB: It was easy to get slim and healthy!

Hi Lenc,

Someone forget to make a difference between two carbohydrates. One with "GI=glycemic index" below 50 and above 50. Bigger is better! Americans and others made the mistake to get the bigger, above 50, because is better (for them, I talk about the obeses).

There is a huge difference between corn syrop GI more than 85 and fresh fruits GI around 30. Again, the winner is the bigger! The biggest human enemy is the POTATOES, GI around 90 or plus, as we eat in many forms and the most often!

Too much (GI higher than 50) carbohydrates conduct obesity and diabetic. If people eat excessively carbohydrates at GI less than 50, obesity and diabitic conditions never happen.

People have to ask the question: Why vegetarians are thin or never obese? The answer is that they never mix proteins with carbohydrates. That's the simple answer to a very complex question, Gil.

Why vegetarians are thin or never obese? The answer is that they never mix proteins with carbohydrates.

I've seen tons of vegetarians eat PB&J's... careful using "never"...

This reminds me... the one's I have known were also the people who tried to introduce me to deep fried twinkies. Point is, let's not assume that the label of "vegetarian" automatically puts one in the category of "healthy eater"

Hi Chaotic,

What's the % of 300 pounds vegetarians? Very small, isn't it?

You are absolutely right, and I am not a vegetarian! However. I respect what I said before. I don't want that other people use it because they don't want to change, they are not believer that somewhere is a method to loose weight and keep it, or they have a guru for them already.

I am sad and sorrowful when I see a 15 years old being over 250 lbs, and deeply annoyed if not laughing for a 50 years and older at over 300 lbs. What kind of life is carrying all those pounds around everywhere?

The government allocates money to potatoes producers who make people obese and diabetic. It's a shame!

New slogan: Stop to eat POTATOES in any form, Gil.

You bring up quite a few very valid points in your posts (I'm just trying to say temper it a bit, not ALL vegetarians eat healthy (such as my deep fried twinkie eating friends).

One of the your points I will agree with to some extent is the "food mixing." I remember back to my classes in bio that our body sets up certain conditions (pH, enzymes, etc) in order to digest certain foods, then changes those conditions for other foods. The "most efficient" method or the method that requires the least amount of energy for us to use it, is as you state not mixing different foods.

The argument I can see is that just because its most efficient for our bodies doesn't make it unhealthy to mix it up... it just makes it more difficult to digest.

Hi Chaotic,

I agree with your suggestion to mix food. However, we have to add: What foods to mix? After my opinion and understanding of metabolism, my metabolism, I recommend to everyone, man and woman to mix veggies with carbohydrates as bread or pasta but never eat together carbohydrates and meats as beef, pork or chicken... Our metabolism cannot handle this mix and we create reserves of fat as we do when we eat potatoes in any form. I eat and suggest to do to others veggies with proteins as meats without bread or pasta. Eat pasta with veggies. There are excellent combinations of vegetables and pasta, believe me.

Yes, when we have the difficulties to digest, our metabolism starts to think for the future and make some reserves. Important to say is: eat small quantities at the same time. We all eat too much! Reduce by X% for a week or two, and cut again another X%. It's simple, isn't it? No, it's not simple. It's hard to do it because we don't have discipline and understanding that our life depend of it, length or happiness...

See you later, I will have an expresso without sugar, Gil.

Have you ever seen how thin many Cooks are before and then big after theyve

worked over heat steam smoke and pilot light gas,

I have thought it was depletion in amino acids in the body,

any of the amino acids that make sense for different body types could stop it

and maybe a vitamin and mineral tablet if that isnt enough. If there was

Not enough ventilation where u got big , get plenty of fresh air as well.ds

Cooks become fat because they eat the food prepared in their restaurant.

To make the restaurant food appealing, more fat, salt, starch, and sugar is used than in a typical home cooked meal. The large portion size doesn't help either. Most of us have been trained by our mothers to finish our plates...

Also, to prepare your home meal and clean up afterward takes energy. It is like going to the gym in the kitchen.

Eating out is the best way to gain weight. Each time I go on a business trip, I gain weight. The only exception is when I traveled to Asia ~10 years ago. Restaurant food there were still relatively "healthy". I suspect that this is changing from the different reports I have read recently.

Hi Marcot,

I follow Michel Montignac's suggestions and still eat in Chinese or Japanese restaurants because their food is still good and healthy as quality but the quantity is our choice.

Your second sentence is the device of the food industry. They put the worst fat, use too much salt and sweets under form of sugar, corn syrop, and other maltose and glucose, with potatoes at GI=glycemic index at 85 and plus.

I was in China, and I approve MaoZeTung idea of supplying one bowl of rice per day. There bowl is small and I like the suggestion. It's enough carbohydrates for a day. However, at home I eat brown rice only.

TV and newspapers are showing fat cooks and food gurus. MetroNews13/12/2010 page27: ingredients for a sauce for succulent lamb: 30-45 ml port wine, 125 g frozen black currants, 2-3 teaspoons of sugar, and 75 g creamy blue cheese, crumbled.

The sugar kills the taste of fruit in the mix and get to fatness desired, Gil.

Hi DS,

Did you see the really obese person who follow the fat cook's recommendations? Not yet? Open your eyes and you get the answers! Ah, you are in your living room and alone? Don't take my words to seriously or critical but the only seen person can be obese too.

Sorry, I don't want to tell you that you are fat or obese because I cannot see it. However, 1 out of 3, in Norht-America, is obese and I talk about any age.

Take your vitamines every day as said by Linus Pauling.

All the best in the world of obesity, Gil.

The point about excess sugar (and fat) and not enough exercise is certainly a good one, and it could be applicable to pets and lab animals as well, but it doesn't explain the same phenomenon in "feral rats from the alleys of Baltimore".

The 'vegetarian fitness' could also be, in part, because they prepare their own meals from scratch instead of buying prepared or processed foods, for the most part. Trans fat is (or was) added to all sorts of prepared/processed foods to increase the shelf life. Candy is notorious for trans fat, just try finding a chocolate bar without any! And of course there are other additives, preservatives on which I can't comment but which could play a role if processed food is the source of the problem.

I do agree that lifestyle plays a big role in the human (and pet) obesity 'epidemic', but if the same effect is also seen in a feral rat population which is living on our food wastes, it seems to suggest the obesity cause may be something in the food, not just the lifestyle. If it's something in the food, trans fat seems to be the obvious explanation.

Unless of course the feral rats in Baltimore alleys really have a lifestyle that's more like ours than I am assuming.....

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your: "eat less and exercise more!"

Up to now, we talk about food we eat, metabolism, and consequences of good or bad foods. Yes, when we eat is to provide energy to our body to accomplish what we have to do. When we exercise daily or a few times a week, we maintain our muscles in good condition and burn off the some excesses we took with the last meal.

Thanks again, and wish that everyone follows your procedures. Also, eat together with the whole family at the same time, we can explain why we eat such way and what's the consequences. It opens possibilities of dialogue between sitting around people and can solve problems happening to someone or all, Gil.

That's a small study in how things work in your family. Extrapolating to all people is, as I think you already know, ridiculous. The simple fact is that everybody has a theory about what makes us fat and nobody has an answer.

Guess what? Some people can eat the right foods in the right amounts, exercise 5 days a week and still not lose weight. Some people can eat anything and never gain a pound. Both people can have normal thyroid and other tests.

Obesity researchers should be ashamed to admit what they do for a living. People who equate obesity and laziness should be ashamed too.

Hi Another Guest,

If you follow the principles: Eliminate food with GI above 50 and eat only carbohydrates with veggies and never with proteins. Also, put fruits into empty stomach. Do these suggestions for two weeks and let us know the results.

I am not joking, try it and let us know, Gil.

Hi Another Guest,

Happy New Year!

It's me again after 6, yes, SIX months later. Just to remember: "If you follow the principles: Eliminate food with GI above 50 and eat only carbohydrates with veggies and never with proteins. Also, put fruits into empty stomach. Do these suggestions for two weeks and let us know the results. I am not joking, try it and let us know, Gil."

Did you tried? How you feel? Did you lost a few lbs or kgs? Nothing? So, we understand that you did nothing for yourself? We give you another 30 days to get the answer.

Again, all the best for the New Year, Gil.

Animal products definetly contribute to obesity in part, the food animals are fed or graze on fields treated with pesticides, most pesticides (insect or weed) residues break down slowly or partially or not at all, the remains are near duplicates of ESTROGEN. Estrogen is the female hormone responsble for weight gain in mammals.

The hard part is that our bodies have no approriate enzyme to break down this phony estrogen so the estrogen freak is triggering the usual weight gain response over and over without relief. Thus excess weight is difficult to reduce.

Yet another opportunity for Chemical Engineers.

Hi Leo,

I would like that you read two books from Michel Montignac, in English for sure, as I suggested earlier.

I just repeat, why we are the way we are in the modern world, because:

"In 1930, Newburg and Johnston from Michigan University declared that "obesity was the results of foods rich in calories, and not the human metabolism". This was the observation on a few person, and later they study on more individuals, discovered that their original observation was erronous, they write a second publication but the first was already accepted by the scientific world, easy and simple, and they don't like change as we do. This theory still valid in the minds of doctors, nutritionists and other scientifics of food, and for sure the food industry stay on line."

Eating and food are the big industries of the last century to today because there is lots of money behjnd. Little advertising, little emotion, and the customers are ready to consume everything they put in front of our noses.

Don't worry about pesticides and other chemicals, wash everything with warm water and vinegar. Biologic or not, there is some chemicals somewhere hiding.

Good appetite for less than 50 GI=glycemic index meal, Gil.

"And yet there was no single thread running through all 24 data sets that would explain a gain in weight," says Allison. "

several candidates for the lineup:

• Light. Studies have shown that subtle changes in the amount of time spent in light or dark environments changes eating habits. Allison wonders if increased light pollution in our industrial society may play a role.
• Viruses. Infection with adenovirus-36 is associated with obesity, and the presence of antibodies to AD36 correlates to obesity in humans. Could AD36 or other infectious agents be contributing to obesity in populations?
• Epigenetics. Genetic modifications brought about by any number of environmental cues such as stress, resource availability, release from predation or climate change.

Boldness is mine. I think we have found the culprit. It's time Monsanto was put in their place.

Hi Guy,

What you say is exact and realistic but too complicated for people and they will not finish to read your comment.

Don't take my note as critical to your observations. They are realistic and true.

Saying to people: Eat 250 grams of steamed broccoli with 150 grams of whole wheat pasta. They accept more easier way than technical explanations.

I give you a "good andswer", Gil.

As my farmer mate keeps telling me I'm in a good paddock..

My partner (who is very concerned about my well being) prepares just about every meal I eat. Aside from breakfast which is usually a mug of coffee and small bowl of cereal de jour.

Dinner will be a Beef/Lamb/Pork/Chicken or Fish dish with salad or vegetables or occasionally home cooked fried rice. Alternating with Beef/Lamb/Chicken Curries with rice.

Lunch is usually a smaller portion of the night before's meal.

I eat well, I eat fresh food with lots of vegetables, salads and fruit. Yes I'm 110kg, and I'd like to get back to 90kg, now the weather is right to get back on the lake I'll be heading out in the dinghy for some fishing. I'll be rowing not motoring.

It's about being physically active, my work environment is essentially sedentary like many people these days. I can't get my head around going to the gym for a couple of hours a day as I haven't got that time to squander. So yes I'll carry a bit more beef around the middle. I'll have to make do with aerobic shopping on the weekends..

As for getting healthy by going completely vegan? The most unhealthy and miserable people I know are vegans, I'll pass thanks..

I do not know if this will help. Almost a year ago was diagnosed with the on set of diabetes 2. I chose to try to control it myself with diet instead of being medicated for it. By eliminating as much of the sugar as possible I have lost almost 60 pounds. So I would be an example that it is the large amounts of processed sugar that we use. It's put in everything.

Hi Ozz,

Congratulations!!! Fantastic!! It's a personal victory!

Ozz, tell us if you can remind what was your major food, the biggest part of a meal?

And, what kind of fruits you eat every day?

By knowing their GI=glycemic index, we can follow the path of good or bad eating habits. I am sure your sugar level was maintained low and your pancreas did not worked hard.

Again, congratulation for your action and keep it tight and close to it, Gil.

I have always eaten just about anything. Still do just in smaller portions of those foods high in complex carbohydrates. Foods high in protein or fat do not effect blood glucose levels. Other then that no sweets or anything that is prepared with a lot of sugar. Added a salad to just about every meal the bulk fills you up. Always enjoyed salads and ate one with many of meals before so that was no problem.

Sorry to say fruit has a lot of sugar. And that sucked, no banana on my cereal. Always used a banana instead of sugar since I was a kid. I'm just starting to introduce some fruit back into may diet with moderation. Now that the a1C test shows that my average glucose level have return close to normal.

There is many reason that one may get diabetes in their life time. One of which in the studies that I have read say that a lot of those that have diabetes 2 has nothing to do with the pancreas ability to produce insulin. It's a reaction of the cells in the body to the insulin. They have been bombarded with insulin over a long time. Due to the sugar in one's diet that they become intolerant to the insulin.

I do know that with the tests monitoring my own glucose levels. That the longer I removed the sweets from my diet. When I did eat something that had a lot of sugar in it. That my blood glucose levels would not peak as high as when I first started with the change in diet. Nor would it stay as high as long.

We will see. Will starving cells of glucose reverse their intolerance. It took 55 years to get to this point. Isn't going to happen over night.

Human nutrition is one of the biggest mysteries we are faced with. There will never be a good controlled study of the subject because there are a billion variables. With many of these variables built in to the study subjects there will never be one "best" diet for everyone.

I eat whatever I am hungry for. If I crave salt I eat something salty, if I have an urge for a burger I get one, or something else with meat in it. I am a strict carnivore but even I will crave a salad from time to time .....so I eat one. It has worked for me. Yes as I slow down later in life I am no longer at the "playing weight" I was in college but neither am I fat.

What really ticks me off though is someone else telling me what and what-not to eat. I'd give them a piece of my mind but it is rude to talk with my mouth full.

Hi Apothicus,

Not every unhealthy individual is obese. Many slim person has, at my regret, some terminal disease from food. From food because they don't eat healthy things. Many heart-attack and other coronarian troubles arrive to thin people. Heavy beef-eaters are going in that direction because the coagulated cow blood. Our metabolism cannot eliminate and the accumulation create problems.

In good relationship with the people around us we have to accept, only time-to-time that they are right and we are wrong. You use only the opposite. You are not open to some suggestions. Let us know when you are open to listen, not to me, to others.

Imagine the differences between Hungarian paprikas, Chinese Dim-Sum, French escargot, la Poutine Quebecoise, and a pork chop at Waffle House on the HWy 95. I eat all of them many times but today I limite the number of each.

I agree with you: say nothing when your mouth is full, Gil.