by: Dr. Craig A. Maxwell
In June of 2013, the American Medical Association officially classified obesity as a disease. According to the 2009-2010 published reports from the Centers for Disease Control, a staggering 69.2% of adults over age 20 are overweight or obese. This is an increase of over 214 percent from the 1950s, when 33 percent of United States adults were overweight and only 9 percent were considered obese.
In a modern society obsessed with being thin, it can be tempting to use just about any method to fit this image of beauty. On the surface, low fat diets seem promising. After all, they claim you can eat all you want and lose weight. This is not the case. A low-fat diet is one of the best ways to stay heavy and keep gaining more.
Low-Fat Diets are a Scam Best Avoided
In 1961, the American Heart Association published a report that would change the way Americans ate for nearly 50 years. It stated that the fat found in fats like butter and lard were contributing to the development of heart disease and needed to be avoided.
By 1977, despite strong criticism, the United States Government advocated a low-fat diet for the general public. Americans have been gaining weight steadily ever since and it’s only been in the past 5 or 10 years that a new idea has emerged; low fat diets keep you fat!
Why?
Because low fat foods are loaded with chemicals, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and modified fats that fill your stomach but do nothing to actually nourish your body. These chemicals interfere with your metabolism, insulin function, and hormone production, causing you to store more fat and continued to pack on the pounds.
Let’s take a closer look at these additives in more detail:
- Trans Fats
Trans fats are man-made fats that have been shown to cause serious harm to your health. They are formed when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil (usually canola or soy – both genetically-modified) during processing to hydrogenate it, making it thicker and less likely to spoil. This hydrogenation process makes vegetable oil that’s already unhealthy for you even worse because it’s developed in such a way that your body can no longer process.
Trans fats are found in most processed foods (read: low-fat foods) under the names margarine, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and shortening.
These unnatural fats have been linked to:
- Cancer – According to published studies, both men and women who consumed a diet high in trans fats were at increased risk for the development of colon cancer. An interesting part of the study noted that men who did not take NSAID pain relievers and women who were not on HRT were 50% more likely to develop the disease.
- Obesity – If you’re having trouble losing belly fat no matter how much low-fat food you eat, it’s the low fat food you’re eating. Studies have shown that trans fats induce abdominal obesity by interfering with normal insulin sensitivity.
- Heart Disease – Epidemiologic evidence has linked trans fatty acids with and cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac disease, and sudden death from a cardiac event.
- Infertility – Trans fatty acids have been shown to decrease ovulatory fertility in women and cause testosterone decline in men.
- Autoimmune Disease – Whenever you ingest something your body does not recognize as food, your immune system attacks its own healthy tissue, which results in chronic inflammation.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup is a synthetic sweetener that has been clinically proven to contribute to the obesity epidemic. This dangerous sweetener interferes with insulin function and the hormones in your brain that tell you when you’ve had enough to eat.
- Aspartame
Aspartame is a synthetic sweetener 100 times sweeter than sugar and study after study has proven its debilitating neurotoxic effects. It has also been shown to cause weight gain because it disrupts normal insulin function.
- Vegetable Oil
85% of corn and soy is genetically modified. This means each time you consume a low-fat food containing either of one of them, you are eating gut-destroying BT toxins. Over time, genetically modified foods have been shown to cause leaky gut syndrome, diabetes, autoimmune disease, and even cancer.
- Food Dyes
Food dyes may not cause you to pack on the pounds but they’re terrible for your health. Food dyes such as Red #40 and Yellow #5 have been linked to the development of neurological disorders, immune system malfunction, and cancer.
Lose Weight without Depriving Yourself
When you’re trying to lose weight, stay away from highly-processed food of any kind. This includes anything labeled “low-fat” or “diet”. Instead, eat foods that are whole and natural.
For my patients, I recommend going back to basic foods such as organic produce, nuts, seeds, nut butters, beans, legumes, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and healthy fats like butter, avocado, dark chocolate, and coconut oil.
Eating eggs, chicken or turkey sausage, organic bacon, beans, cheese or other protein in the morning will help you stay fuller longer throughout the day. Also, consuming 5 smaller meals throughout the day can keep your metabolism running stronger than 3 large meals each day.
Improve Your Digestion – An Easier Way to Lose Weight
A sluggish digestive system is often overlooked as a cause of inability to lose weight. Poor diet and excessive antibiotic use often contributes to low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria) and low probiotic count. Improving your digestion is beneficial to your weight loss efforts because a healthy digestive system means your body is able to absorb more nutrients. The more nutrients you absorb, the less likely you are to overeat.
For my patients with troubled digestion, I recommend the following combination of supplements:
Diamond Nutritional’s Digestive Enzyme Formula
Though there are plenty of digestive enzymes on the market, they often contain only one enzyme. Diamond Nutritional’s Digestive Enzyme Formula goes many steps further with a proprietary blend of ingredients designed to not only provide acid balance but support your pancreas and blood sugar as well.
These ingredients include:
- Pancreatin – Supports a healthy pancreas and stable blood sugar levels.
- Betaine – Balances stomach acid pH.
- Ox Bile Extract – Improves breakdown of proteins and fats.
- Bromelain – Helps your body better break down protein and assimilate nutrients from food.
- Pepsin – Pepsin improves digestion by increasing bile production.
Diamond Nutritional’s Probiotic Formula
Diamond Nutritional’s Probiotic Formula will improve your overall digestive function while giving your immune system a boost. Unlike many store-bought probiotics which may contain as few as 1-3 billion single-strain bacteria, this probiotic formula contains 22 billion live, active colony forming units to repopulate your gut and build a strong defense against intestinal disease.
This complete formula contains lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus paracasei, bifidobacterium lactis, bifidobacterium bifidum, lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus rhamnosus, saccharomyces boulardii.
If you eat a diet primarily of processed food, it is advisable to wean off of it slowly instead of giving it up all at once. Highly processed foods contain chemicals that become addictive over time. If you suddenly stop eating them, you could go through a period of difficult and possibly dangerous withdrawal.
Start this process by becoming familiar with food labels. If it comes in a box or a bag, the general rule is if it has more than 5 ingredients, it’s not really food and is best left on the shelf.
Low fat food does not help you lose weight. It makes you gain it and it’s terrible for your health. Weaning off of highly-processed foods and eating an organic, whole-food diet will help you finally get rid of those stubborn pounds once and for all.
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