A whopping 22 million children under the age of 5 are obese. Professor Terry Wilken of the Peninsula Medical School tells us that by age 5, “the die is cast.” One million children are now showing signs of high blood pressure and heart disease, presenting a new era of extraordinary challenge to our nation’s pediatricians.
According to Dr. Tim Lobstein of the International Obesity Task Force, the scope of these numbers and their implication for mankind is unprecedented.
From smiling clowns at drive-up windows to a beckoning Chihuahua, and a kid whose bologna has a first name; the competition is fierce for market share of your child’s stomach. Drive-up counters have replaced the dinner bell and fast food is no longer fast enough. Not surprisingly, diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes has surged 90 percent, in the last decade alone.
Sugar races into your child’s bloodstream, signaling their pancreas to produce insulin. Trans fatty acids accelerate their risk for heart disease. Preservatives, artificial additives, man-made sugars, white carbohydrates and processed foods add fuel to this internal fire—the building blocks for cellular aberration, degeneration and stored body fat.
If we care about prevention… [click to continue reading…]
If you’ve read my blog before, you probably know that it’s not only my opinion but ever mounting research, that leads me to proclaim that one of the most important, yet most overlooked factors in losing weight is dependent upon the body’s ability to respond properly to the hormones that are largely responsible for maintaining your weight. The newest science shows that leptin resistance is the hallmark of obesity induced by a high-fat diet in rodents, and occurs naturally in obese humans. How do we put a stop to diet induced obesity?
Let’s talk about leptin and insulin…
The ensuing results that occur when attending to and normalizing the function of these two hormones can be accurately described as losing weight naturally. Leptin and insulin are two master hormones when it comes to controlling weight and body composition. When they’re allowed to work, weight management is a self-regulating system. In a recent study, very overweight mice actually doubled their amount of physical activity when the hormone leptin – which regulates appetite and energy expenditure (fat burning)- was switched on in their brain. In fact, when leptin signaling was ‘turned on’ in the brain, the study quotes, “remarkably, blood glucose levels are entirely normalized.”
Totally normalizing blood sugar? Doubling the amount of exercise one is capable of? It’s time the public was let in on this.
Diet induced, type 2 diabetes has risen in this country to levels never seen before.
It’s even infiltrated the future of the nation-our youth.
Insulin resistance…leptin resistance…. what to do? Who’s the chicken? Who’s the egg?
If the culprit of this ever growing obesity and overweight problem was a popularity contest, insulin resistance would win by a mile.
But some research is pointing to the fact that leptin resistance may be an underlying precursor to insulin resistance. We need to rethink weight loss in lieu of these observations. Of note, leptin can also be found in skeletal muscle. The increased risk of diabetes that comes with obesity ay be caused in part by increased lipid deposits in that skeletal muscle as well as the liver, creating insulin resistance. Here is a wonderful illustration showing the reversal of insulin resistance by leptin.
A new study In the June 2009 issue of the medical journal Cell Metabolism, shows the astounding possibilities of what can happen once leptin resistance is restored. Raise your hand if your overweight but just don’t have the energy to exercise. OK, more than a few hands went up. Now…read carefully… [click to continue reading…]
Visceral fat is fat that surrounds your organs inside your abdominal cavity. Visceral fat is thought to be more dangerous than fat in other locations of the body, such as the fat found in many women’s thighs that causes cellulite. Cellulite fat is not visceral fat, but rather is called subcutaneous fat.
The reason why visceral fat is so bad is that visceral fat increases your chances of developing metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and diabetes. And you already know that once you start down these unhealthy paths, it’s important to stop these processes from occurring, otherwise you’re on a fast track to heart disease, heart attacks, high blood pressure, aging fast, and even cancer.
Right now you can determine if you are suffering from visceral fat simply by looking in the mirror. If you see a large belly or that most of your weight is around the middle, you have packed on some serious poundage of visceral fat.
In one study reported in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found that those who did not exercise had a 8.6% increase in visceral fat in only 6 months. That’s amazing!
An exercise program that included a brisk 30-minute walk six days a week, prevented the accumulation of visceral fat. More exercise than the 30-minute walk reversed the visceral fat accumulation.
Sources: Cris A. Slentz, Lori B. Aiken, Joseph A. Houmard, Connie W. Bales, Johanna L. Johnson, Charles J. Tanner, Brian D. Duscha, and William E. Kraus Inactivity, exercise, and visceral fat. STRRIDE: a randomized, controlled study of exercise intensity and amount. J Appl Physiol, Oct 2005; 99: 1613-1618.
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