Healthy For Life Newsletter January, 2006 Vol. 3 No. 1 Reset Your Life
By Dr. Ray Strand
Weight loss and dieting
Custom Search
In regard to lifestyles, perhaps you have gained a few extra pounds, or, perhaps you have not lost as much weight as planned over the previous year(s). Maybe the doctor informed you yourcholesterol is too high, or that you are developing some elevated blood pressure. You may have concerns that you are at high risk of developing
heart disease
or diabetes. All of these thoughts most likely bring you back to the fact that you have just not taken care of yourself as well as you had hoped or planned. Maybe this year will be different and you’ll do a better job. Or maybe as in years past, those New Year resolutions will quickly fail to materialize.
What diet it will be this year? Even though diets have never been effective in the past, most people gravitate back to some sort of fad
diet
or old diet for their solution. Many convince themselves that trying harder will produce better results this year. Well, the fact or truth of the matter is this ~ no matter which diet one chooses to follow, it will fail 98% of the time. Consider all the time, money, and energy spent adhering to a diet, in an attempt to lose some
weight
, and all you can expect is a meager 2% chance of success. Why don’t diets work?
Why Diets Don’t Work
The reason diets don’t work, no matter which one you contemplate, stems from the fact that diets are a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Anytime my patients informed me that they were going on a diet it implied that sometime in the future they would be going off that diet.
Often diets fail due to the tremendous amount of willpower required. Whenever you rely on willpower, you will generally not do very well. Diets also fail because many eliminate, or dramatically limit, a major macro-nutrient like carbohydrates or fats. Such diets are out of balance, and, sooner or later, our bodies begin craving the nutrients they have been denied. The most significant reason diets don’t work is because diets do not address the major underlying cause of weight gain, which is insulin resistance.
So what is the answer to this obesity epidemic that will allow us not only to lose weight but to lose it permanently?
AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. STRAND
Your Metabolism
The main reason we are in the midst of the current obesity and diabetes epidemic is the fact that our bodies are just not as sensitive to our own insulin as they once were.
Because of our inactivity and poor eating habits, we have become less and less sensitive to our own insulin.
The body responds to this problem by actually making more and more insulin. As insulin levels rise to compensate for this insulin insensitivity, or insulin resistance, blood pressure goes up, bad cholesterol goes up, and good cholesterol goes down. The body experiences significantly more and more inflammation and begins to gain a tremendous amount of weight around the middle. At this point an individual becomes a very high risk candidate for developing both heart disease and diabetes. As the body “tips over” into this abnormal metabolic state, it holds on to fat like a sponge holds on to water. The fat burning hormones are essentially turned off, and, regardless of effort weight cannot be lost effectively.
Over 25% of the adult population in the US, Canada, and Australia already has full-blown insulin resistance and another 25% is on the path to developing it. Many children have alsodeveloped insulin resistance, and many have already developed Type 2 Diabetes, or what used to be known as adult-onset diabetes. This is why I have seen so many patients in my office who have this problem. They are extremely frustrated because no matter what they try they cannot lose weight.
The answer to this diabetes and obesity epidemic is found by fully understanding and attacking the underlying problem insulin resistance ~ the result that, while living in the ‘land of plenty’, finds us literally growing addicted to certain carbohydrates that quickly spike blood sugar.
Carbohydrate Addiction
What most people call cravings or emotional eating is really a carbohydrate addiction and the result of spiking blood sugar by eating high glycemic carbohydrates. These are foods thatspike our blood sugar faster than spooning sugar on to our tongues. High-glycemic carbohydrates include common foods such as bread, bagels, cereals, chips, crackers, pretzels, potatoes, rice cakes, rice, sugar and white flour. Alarmingly, medical studies show that
over 85% of the carbohydrates consumed in the western world today are considered high-glycemic. Eating high-glycemic foods rapidly raises and over stimulates the release of insulin.
Insulin’s primary job is to transport blood sugar into the cell where it is utilized to create energy, or to be stored as fat or glycogen. This (process) drives the blood sugar level back down just as fast as it went up; however, it generally drops back into a low blood sugar range or hypoglycemic range. This state of low blood sugar then stimulates the release of our stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, to drive the lowered blood sugar back up to normal. Even though the blood sugar will eventually return to normal, these high levels of stress hormones in our blood stream now leaves us with an uncontrollable hunger, the need to eat again, and usually craving another high-glycemic meal or snack. The vicious cycle starts all over again leading to overeating and what I refer to as the carbohydrate addiction.
Insulin Resistance First Begins in the Muscle
Over time the muscle becomes insulin resistant and just can’t utilize all the calories from our meals and snacks. Therefore, many calories are diverted to the fat cells of the abdomen wherethey are stored as fat. Once a person “tips over” into this abnormal metabolic state known as insulin resistance, a calorie is no longer a calorie. The muscles are unable to utilize calories normally and many of the calories are diverted tothe fat cells of our abdomen and are converted into fat by these high insulin levels. Although eating habits and activity levels remained unchanged, an unusual amount of weight begins to settle around the abdomen. One of the hallmark signs marking the development of insulin resistance is the fact that you cannot lose weight no matter what you do.
The only hope is to RESET your body and reverse this underlying insulin resistance so that you can “tip back” into a normal metabolic state. When this happens, the body is then able torelease all its excessive fat that has been stored around the mid-section. The only way this can be accomplished is by developing permanent healthy lifestyles that improves sensitivity to one’s insulin. Over the past 10 years in my medical practice, I have been able to accomplish this goal through my Healthy for Life Program.
Reprinted with permission by Dr. Strand. Please do not reprint without permission from Dr. Strand.
Ray Strand, M.D. Quickly becoming one of the world's leading authorities in nutritional medicine, Dr. Ray Strand has been involved in a private family practice for over 30 years. During the past 12 years, he has focused his practice on preventive and nutritional medicine. He has lectured on this subject across the United States, Canada, and Australia. He is the author of Releasing Fat, What Your Doctor Doesn't Know about Nutritional Medicine, and Death by Prescription.
Dr. Ray Strand's Website
Information presented is of a general nature for educational and informational purposes only. Products and information presented herein are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. If you have any concerns about your own health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional.
