Article: Real Help for Obesity

by Linsey McLean

Real Help for Obesity

There is no group to be more pitied in this 20th Century than the genetically obese. What was once considered desirable in centuries past, is now considered grotesque. Even as recent in history as the Middle Ages, angels, virgins, cherubs, goddesses and even Buddha himself were depicted as decidedly more than just plump. They were downright obese by today's standards. The Mona Lisa in all her revered beauty is no Skinny Minnie either.
Fat people are now harpooned with jokes, and verbal as well as emotional abuse and assaults by society. They also suffer great pain in self directed guilt complexes, feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, despair, failure, and above all - the horrendous pain of the constant wars with their resistant bodies. With the gnawing, incessant, driving hunger so much a part of the traditional (and most often, unsuccessful) diets, some have even been driven to suicide.

Fat people are ridiculed for their obvious lack of motivation and laziness. No one came out of the concentration camps, they say, with a "blubberous" body. The fault must be in themselves. Just quit eating and watch the pounds melt away, they are told. Some of them actually do, and then some of them even die.

Twentieth Century society is awfully cruel, especially in the lack of understanding of the problem. Few population subgroups are as motivated as obese people who have tried every diet, every pill, every exercise and every gizmo, and even continue to do so until they find one that really works. This goes beyond motivation - this is DEDICATION.

So what happened? Why is fat not beautiful anymore? Where do the attitudes of society come from anyway? And, above all, why are some bodies prone to obesity and resistant to give it up? Is it really "all in the head?"

The History of Obesity

To answer the last question first is appropriate in understanding the propensity toward fatness. It's not all in the head, it's in the genes. You see, long ago, in fact, very long ago, pioneering groups of peoples migrated away from areas we call "Cradles of Civilization" where the climate was mostly stable and nice, and food was most often available. These are areas of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and India.

These strong spirits move Northward into more inhospitable lands that were frequently subjected to periods of more comfortable weather suitable for growing crops. Since no one knew when the next glaciation would come, the natural law of the land was, in a nutshell, - he or she who could "pack it on " in a short period of time had the best chances for survival.

The propensity for obesity was thereby selected, evolutionarily speaking, to insure the survival of humanity in these more unstable areas of the world. Higher body fat also provided more insulation from the cold. A lower body temperature and lower basal metabolism were as also more desirable to conserve energy further.

These problems persist today among the obese. Most selected for all these traits were, of course, the females, who bore the major responsibility for procreation. People with these traits survived longer and bore more children who also were prone to these traits. This is how obesity worked its way into the human genome, and consequently into your life, if you happen to be so described.

People with ancestors from Northern and Eastern Europe , where periods of glaciation occurred over thousands and thousands of years, appear to be most afflicted. But if you are one of these, take heart, for you still show that pioneering courage of your ancestors as you bounce from diet to diet, and gizmo to gizmo, looking for success in this 20th Century of food sources for which you were not designed.

This strength of motivation will spell success for you, once you completely understand yourself and your genes.

Why Common Diets Don't Work

Previously, professionals believed and (some still do) that obese people had essentially the same chemistry as more slimmer people. Their proof was that mildly overweight people would lose weight on most any restrictive program - the old concentration camp idea again.

These programs generally don't work for the severely or morbidly obese because they fail to consider the truly different chemistry of those individuals. Fasting simply lowers basal metabolism and keys in "ice age metabolism" of conserving to the hilt.

Well, we haven't had an ice age recently, and, in fact, food sources associated with an eternal summer have been quite plentiful. So the genetically obese just keep getting bigger and bigger in preparation for the next ice age. What was a beneficial adaptation for survival in centuries long past, has become the genetic disadvantage of the present.

Now, fat isn't beautiful anymore, because it serves no survival advantage, in fact, just the opposite. Nature tends to make beautiful to the eyes that which give Her greatest insurance for proliferation. This is why birds in the dense tropics are so brightly colored, to be able to spot mates.

Why Society Turns On You

Nature can also be very cruel in direction of procreation too. She fights to protect Her gene pools against undesirable, and hence, unsuitable body types and diseases. Societies of both animals and people are ingrained to ostracize and evict, or even kill individuals with non - desirable traits for environmental requirements, whatever that may be at the time. Individuals with the wrong coat color, body shape or disease may be killed by the mother in animals, or at least driven from the breeding population, lest they propagate their kind. Understanding the hostility towards fat people by society and from whence it comes, can help psychologically in these confusing times, and in our civilization today. We need no longer spurn otherwise productive people on the basis of what they are born with.

What Can We Do?

If nature has prepared these special people for an ice age, then following the diets of people during ice ages past makes perfect sense as a weight loss program - for Nature intended body fat not to be locked up forever, but to be triggered to be released in such times as to insure survival. No, we don't move to the South Pole, but yes, we certainly avoid those foods known to stimulate weight gain that are mostly available during the summer months. These include the bane of modern man, refined carbohydrates, as well as, carbohydrate loaded natural foods like peas and corn, flour products and cereals.

Certain factors such as climate, are different than in days of old, and we have also, through scientific research, been able to adapt, update and perfect a weight loss program that specifically caters to the most resistant of bodies. This Nutritional Restructuring Program is designed to enhance those chemical pathways in the body involved in mobilization and utilization of body fat, and to increase levels of energy, and virtually eliminating that horrible hunger so predominate in other programs you might have tried.

Feelings of health and well being can also be enhanced with a vitamin/mineral supplement specially designed for compatibility with the program. Exercise, of course, will always increase weight loss and provide toning to help prevent sagging skin. Exercise should be part of everyone's regimen for health. Fast walking will do. Wearing light weights on wrists and ankles can help greatly to increase "exercise" even when you don't have extra time.

What Foods Do In Your Body

Basically, there are two main biochemical pathways acting in your body at different times of the day. The first is the storage pathway, which acts in the daytime by allowing a rise and fall of blood sugar, triggering hunger and eating about every three hours during your waking time. The body is storing food for your long sleeping hours when you will go without food for some 8 - 12 hours.

During sleep your other pathway, the energy pathway, becomes active, using what you have stored during the day to fuel rebuilding processes during the night. In most bodies, these processes may not be equal. You may store more than you use at night and continue to gain weight.

Exercise helps to equalize these processes mathematically. However, some bodies may be resistant to the energy pathways and in need of help. This is where Adaptive Advantages® (our exclusive premium multi-vitamin)- along with the Nutritional Restructuring Program comes in. Utilizing all aspects of the program gives "pushes" from many directions on the energy pathway to continue in many ways, throughout the daytime hours, as well as, nighttime.

Certain foods, trigger the activity of one pathway or another - remembering the ancestral environments of our predecessors both between and during glaciations.

The Storage Pathway

Eating carbohydrates, we all know, elevates blood sugar to make you feel better, but only temporarily. After 20 minutes or so, you may feel worse than before you even ate the carbohydrate food. Initially, your blood sugar will go up, but this triggers an insulin release (a hormone produced in your pancreas to regulate blood sugar from getting too high). Some people produce more insulin than others, which can contribute to chronic hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Symptoms of this low blood sugar are constant fatigue, headaches, irritability, weakness, shakiness, or light headed feeling. Insulin lowers blood sugar by escorting it to storage tissues in your body as fat. In short, insulin can make you fat.

We want to avoid those foods that stimulate an insulin response in the body. We know that a low carbohydrate diet, calorie restriction and fasting will cause weight reduction in "normal" individuals with "normal" chemistry. This is, however, not true with morbidly obese individuals and persons with higher insulin response and concomitant hypoglycemia.

These latter two methods only serve to lower overall basal metabolism and can be dangerous. Glucagon, the fat mobilizing hormone, is a mortal enemy of insulin. High insulin depresses glucagon and vice versa. Unfortunately, in our "feel good society" of "feel good" carbohydrates, the storage pathway works with awesome efficiency at the great expense of the energy pathway, the one we are all interested in.

We have also found that there are some things we can do to push the energy pathway along. The most common of these is, of course, exercise, and we strongly recommend exercise to help you tone, as well as use stored fat. But, in addition to all this, the oils containing essential fatty acids and our Adaptive Advantages® supplements are invaluable in pushing the pathway along.

The oil must be used according to the program to be efficient. Corn, soy or any other polyunsaturated vegetable oils will not give you the desired results. We recommend canola and olive oils most because of flavor and wide availability.

What Can I Expect?

You can expect a sizable weight loss the first week or so generally in the 5-12 lb. range. Subsequent weeks usually average 2-6 lb. Men lose easier and faster than women, again because of the genetics of their chemistry. Plateaus are a part of every weight loss program and are normal. However, in this program, people continue to lose inches and may even drop a whole size during one lasting a couple of weeks. Pounds will begin to come off again as your body readjusts itself and you continue on your program. Generally, only the most severely obese encounter "plateau" problems, so it is not a common feature of the program.

Is This Program a Cure for Obesity?

This is a program for life. There is no cure for genetics, there is only control of the desired expression of the genes. This method of catering to your individual chemistry and genetics is not a transient or short term program. You cannot ever be "cured" from the "disease" of obesity.

Genes are a permanent part of your make up. If you go off the program and back to your old diet, you will immediately switch into high gear chemically, the body thinking this is only a short time between ice ages, and quickly pack all the pounds on again, plus even more if it can. This program must be maintained for life if you are to maintain that trim body that you worked so hard to achieve. Once you reach your desired weight, though, you may begin to carefully add small quantities of rice, potatoes or other vegetables several times a week as your body allows.

Breads, flour products, sugars and refined carbohydrates will always be dangerous because they produce such a strong weight gain chemistry in your body. If you watch yourself closely during this phase, you will know just how much is safe to keep the same weight and not begin gaining again. Everyone is different in their sensitivity.

Throwing The Baby Out With The Bath Water

We know that, ounce for ounce, fats and oils contain more calories than carbohydrates. But the news is that all calories don't appear to be created equal - at least in terms of their activities in the body and their ultimate destinations. Only the central nervous system requires carbohydrate for metabolism. All other tissues of the body can burn either for energy. Muscle tissue has even been found to prefer fatty substances over carbohydrate. They fuel different pathways. When muscles use fatty substances for fuel, there is usually much less soreness produced upon exercise - a boon to race horses and human athletes who don't want much down time.

Experiments with obese people on this program who were not used to exercise at all, and who suddenly began a 30 - 50 minute per day exercise program with our nutritional restructuring program, were surprised to feel no muscle soreness at all, even when they had complained of leg cramps and other such pains before they had begun. They reported that the companion supplements made a big difference here.

The current trend in today's diets is to throw the baby out with the bath water concerning fats. All fats were banned, even those including essential fatty acids required by the body. We used to think all fats were bad. We now know differently. Saturated fats such as those in meat are difficult to digest. But oils high in mono-saturates like olive and canola oil are different. They actually enhance fat metabolism in the body, mobilizing fat storage areas and facilitating their utilization. Whole societies have demonstrated the benefits of these oils. Peoples of the Mediterranean area actually eat more "fat" than the average American, but as a whole, demonstrate less heart disease and lower blood fats. We now refine our earlier definitions of categories as such: fats are still fats, but oils are now oils

Medical Tests

A thyroid profile including TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and an anti-thyroid antibody profile is very important in diagnosing hidden thyroid problems. Your conventional thyroid profile may be normal and yet you may be producing antibodies to your own thyroglobulin (storage form of thyroid hormone).

New tests are now very accurate in exposing this disease, in which the immune system attacks the thyroid cells of your own body, destroying, over time, the thyroid gland and replacing those cells with lymphocytes to make the thyroid appear normal to palpation. Supplemental thyroid hormone, of desiccated thyroid, is the treatment if you have this disease, and may be very beneficial to your weight loss program.

Thyroid is necessary to the cells to "burn" the fat and glucose that provide energy. It has been our experience that the vast majority of our clients do much better with the natural thyroid extracts containing both T3 and T4 rather than the synthetics like Synthroid® which contains only the storage form T4. There have been problems reported in the literature with the manufacture of the synthetics and their potencies as well as efficacy or effectiveness in the body.

You should also chart your body temperature, both oral and axial (under the arm) every morning before you get out of bed. If you sleep on a heated blanket or pad, take your temperature just before you go to bed after you sit or lie quietly for 20-30 minutes. These temperature readings can help diagnose thyroid resistance at the cell level by measuring basal metabolism. Women should notice their temperatures lowest in the first of their menstrual cycle and highest in the last half.

Almost everyone with hypothyroid problems of one or another kind shows lowered body temperatures almost all of the time. Consult a doctor experienced with the large quantity of newly published international research on various hypothyroid diseases and their treatment if you suspect that you may be affected. Take your "Nutritional Restructuring" documentation with you for case history.

Exercise levels and types should be documented as well, to see which levels of intensity, lengths of time and types of exercise your body responds to best. Always change exercise programs weekly, as your muscles will become conditioned on the same program and will begin to burn less energy to do the same program.

Additionally, diabetic obese individuals must monitor their blood sugar carefully while on the program. Glucose tolerance is often so improved as to necessitate changes in medication. The same is true for hypertension and high cholesterol medication.

Until now, there has not been a complete study of all known data and relevant research incorporating knowledge from many areas of science. Information from Anthropology, Geology, Archeology, Ecology as well as Biochemistry , and especially Environmental Biochemistry is crucial to the understanding of the development and treatment of obesity today.

Health and well being are very important to us. Suggestions for strategies that may help others, as well as success stories are always welcome. We hope that you too will be able to give yourself straight A's with Adaptive Advantages® and our Nutritional Restructuring Program.

What Exactly Do I Eat?

Our Basic Starter Kit provides the exact menu and foods selection is listed in our brochure information that comes with the supplements necessary to properly fuel normal body biochemistry pathways, opening the door to restoration of health. The kit includes these necessary nutritional supplements, an herbal parasite program (yes, we all have them) and a gallon of super ionized water to help fuel the detoxification of the environmental chemicals stored in the body. The recognition of the effects of environmental toxins is crucial today, because a significant portion of what we call "fat" really is not fat, but a storage depot in the body for these toxins that we cannot eliminate. Unfortunately, those genetically more prone to depositing true fat, will also be more prone to storage of these toxins. This program addresses this issue as well.

The Nutritional Restructuring Program was created for you. We want it to be successful for you, as much as you do. It is helpful for a variety of other 20th century problems including: chronic fatigue, stress, depression, mood swings, PMS, constipation, stomach distention, bloating, bronchitis, chronic sinus problems, all autoimmune diseases and other health problems.

Avoidance of exposure to as many chemicals as possible is also advisable. These are known to trigger or enhance many symptoms in an already nutritionally compromised body.