Is Obesity mainly caused by the amount of food we eat? Namely, is it all about KCalories-In:KCalories-Out
Point #1- There is “Nature’s Food” which is “Satiating”. Satiating Food satisfies us, the same amount, every time, no matter what. The same amount of food satisfies us when we are 20 or 40. Satiating food rarely makes us obese.
Then there is man made “Food” or “Processed Food”, most of which is “Addicting” (I am defining this as FUUD to differentiate it from Food). FUUD is addictive (we crave for more), makes us store visceral fat, and makes us obese.
Food never stresses our liver. Chronic use of FUUD drives up the ALT (Alanine Amino Transferase) and AST (Aspartate Amino Transferase), two liver enzymes that are produced when the liver gets stressed. In the beginning, when the visceral fat storage is low, ALT/AST levels rise briefly and subside (“acute”). In the long run, FUUD causes ALT/AST to rise high and it stays high (“chronic”)- a sure sign of live damage.
When people don’t drink alcohol, and are not on medication or recreational drugs, AST/ALT level rise is typically from FUUD consumption.
Point #2- It is not just about the amount of Calories, but the source it comes from that matters-
Take butter and heat it to get rid of the 15% of moisture in it. Then filter out the remain burnt protein residue, and you get a staple Indian dish called “Ghee”, or “clarified” butter- 99.5% unadulterated saturated, animal fat. The devout vegetarians, in Vedic times, shunned protein from animal sources, but refined the ultimate saturated fat concentration from animal source.
100 grams of Ghee is about 900 Kcal of energy, in the lab. The Kcal equivalent of this, in vegetables, is about 1.5 lbs (about 700 grams) of Kale or Cabbage. Or it is about 1-1.2 lbs (about 500 grams) of vegetables such as, Broccoli, Leeks, Carrots etc.
900 Kcal of Ghee (100 grams) is really bad for you. 900 Kcal of vegetables is very healthy for you.
Point #3- Saturated Fats, Triglycerides AND Minor ingredients can drive up AST/ALT levels
There is very little doubt that consumption of saturated fats and Triglycerides (three saturated fats linked up in a fork structure with a glycerol molecule) contributes to Obesity. I am giving one of more than hundred scientific references here- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2008.05.017 . I have a LDL of only 46 and a HDL of 92. I ate three fat chicken legs (the broiler type with about 24% fat) for dinner, three days in a row and my LDL rose to 90. In just 3 days I even noticed a rise in my AST/ALT levels. I switched back to “Koridofu”, a concentrated version of organic Tofu, and my LDL went back to 46 in 2 weeks. Fast rise, slow fall.
There is often a simple minded association between the volume of saturated fat eaten and the amount of visceral fat gained. Reality is worse. Our liver produces fat. The liver of an obese individual produces fat on overdrive and on overtime. The more obese an individual is, the more fat their liver produces. All their liver needs is a stimulation to produce fat. Triglycerides and saturated fats give it this trigger. In other words, consumption of 100 grams of saturated fat may produce 200 to 300 grams of liver fat, depending on the stage of obesity.
While there has been a lot of focus on major food ingredients, minor ingredients, even trace levels, can cause obesity. I get attacked often by lobbyists of the food industry on this point. They want me to publish or point them to “detailed” scientific studies. A lot of information already exists, but my stance is much more blunt. When I see the ALT/AST levels of patients increased by a food ingredient (a stressed out liver), and the removal of the ingredient drops their ALT/AST levels, I see the “cause and affect”. When I see it over and over again, I have seen enough.
Trace ingredient- BPA
BPA is not directly added as a food additive. It is added as a lining in the plastic containers that stores the food. For decades proponents have lobbied that BPA metabolites pass harmlessly through the body. Not. One of the metabolites of BPA is BPA-Glucuronide. BPA-Glucuronide, in trace amounts, massively stimulates the liver to produce fat and can be a major contributor to obesity. I picked this ingredient to make a point. A minor ingredient, in the liner of a plastic jar, leaches into the food in parts per million (ppm) and causes the liver to overproduce fat- in a major way. Chalk up another one against the Kcal-In:Kcal-Out model… (Reference for BPA- 10.1016/j.mce.2012.01.001)
"Splenda" (Sucralose)
Sucralose (“Splenda”) is an artificial sweetener 650 times sweeter than sugar. It has the normal benefits of an artificial sweetener (no calories etc) but people take that as a license to indulge. Without getting into the science (it is in the paper attached), Sucralose can be a trigger for the liver to produce fat in amounts far greater than the amount of Sucralose. (Reference for Sucralose http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uteb20)
I could do this for at least 14 food additives. And I am not even picking on the “Supplement” industry in the USA, which is far worse.
CAUTION:
While I espouse the benefits of “natural” foods, what is a “natural” food has shifted from under our feet. Examples-
Salmon- Much has been correctly written about the benefits of the Omega-3-Fatty-Acids in fish. A couple of years ago I baked wild caught Salmon and Farm raised Salmon. The farm raised Salmon was juicy, moist, but had a layer of fat at the bottom. The wild caught Salmon had a darker redder color and no fat at the bottom of the pan. I know wild Salmon eat smaller fish. I checked what the farm raised Salmon was fed. They were fed pellets made of- “Poultry Meal, Fish Meal, Poultry Fat, Fish Oil, Whole Wheat, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Feather Meal, Rapeseed Oil.” (Huh?). And, yes, farm raised Salmon has significantly more SATURATED fat than wild caught Salmon. My guess is that Farm raised Salmon will contribute to Obesity, just by its saturated fat content. No scientific papers needed, whats the bet I am correct?
Chicken- The scrawny chicken my grandmother had on her farm had 8% fat, were 3 years old, sinewy, and had stopped laying eggs. BTW, this chicken is what the FDA has measured in the 1950s and 1960s and documented as the nutritional content of a “chicken”. The fat broiler hens of today, are fed to be slaughtered as soon as possible, and have 22%-26% fat, most of it saturated fat.
Wheat- Wheat 40 years ago had 1.5% “glutenin” & “gliadin.” Wheat now has 8.5% glutenin/gliadin. Good for functionality, but I see many people, older than 40 years, wondering why they are having bloating, gas and indigestion when they eat the same “wheat” products. They attribute it to aging but thats not the problem. The food they are eating has the same name but different composition.
Corn- I don’t even know what corn is anymore. I gave up years ago trying to keep track of all the changes. It is called “corn” but it isn’t.
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