Anyone Read "Food Is Not Medicine?"

(Bob M) #21

This is a picture from when I went in the military (1982), although I was in the Navy:

image

Not any that were fat.

I’ll have to see if I can find my bootcamp pics.

But I, for one, am hesitant to use pictures to mean much. For instance, this is from spring break, 2021. Not many fat people there.

image
image.jpg1000×442 250 KB

Does that mean that there weren’t fat people? No, just that people in that picture were lean.

Even when I go to my daughter’s high school, I see tons of kids who aren’t fat. Some are. Maybe many. But what is causing some to be thin?

I’m still confused, as I don’t know.

(Edith) #22

March Schatzker recently came out with a book called The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well. He points to fortification of unhealthy foods with vitamins and minerals and food additives as major contributors to the obesity epidemic.

His main point about fortification is that if we are getting the vitamins and minerals our bodies need from eating junk (think fortified all-purpose flour), we are less likely to eat the foods that provide those nutrients naturally. I guess it turns out that the best way to fatten livestock is to feed them fortified, low quality feed.

He points to artificial sweeteners and additives that make our senses think the food is fatty when it isn’t as chemicals that trick our brains and mess with their ability to know what nutrients are coming in and the calorie content.

It’s a well researched book and well written. I very much like his writing style. I do believe the cause of the obesity epidemic is multi-faceted. HIs theory could be another contributor to the very complicated causes of obesity.

(Michelle isaacson) #23

I have the thought that those who are overweight/obese especially in High School and College years may not be comfortable in the poolside spring break crowd.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #24

What I notice is that even the thin people today have more fat on them than thin people used to have, decades ago. Have you looked at pictures of the Woodstock concert, for example? Those kids were generally from solid middle-class families and were by no means starving. But you can see their ribs, in a way that’s much harder to do, today, even when the kid is thin. Compare that skinny naked guy and his girlfriend from the famous photo taken at Woodstock with the shirtless boy in this photo and the girl in aqua with her arms raised standing next to him, and what I’m talking about should be clear. The Woodstock kids look emaciated in comparison, and I promise you, they were not poorly fed. That’s just what people generally looked like, as I recall.

(Robin) #25

Exactly!

#26

Would be curious about obesity trends from 1960 - 1975. I feel like as a teenager of slightly above average height in 1980 at 115 I was a good weight. At 120 - 130 I felt heavy compared to my peers. As a 20 something adult at 140 I also felt overweight but the difference was minor, there was one week I lost about 7lbs because I was too busy to eat at work and suddenly I thought I looked much better (this triggered a rebound that I am still recovering from some 35 years later!)

My daughters weigh more than 130 and look fine, fit in with their peers well. I think the 60s was a time of transition, where people went from idolizing Marilyn to Twiggy.

@PaulL I was going to say the same about Woodstock. The most apt comparison is on your average college campus. I think one of the gurus we follow made that comparison, may have been Fung or not

genetics, lack of insulin resistance. Being on a team sport. Anorexia!

As to the comment about MHO, there was one 2Keto podcast where Carl and Richard talk about their weight histories. Carl was always on the heavier side, Richard was not IIRC.Richard became T2 much earlier age wise. Which is what happens with TOFIs or anyone without an abundance of fat cells. I have a friend who was 250 lbs and average female height with an A1C of 5 at age 50 or so. She has always been heavy. There is a theory that I read somewhere that if you have more fat cells than average because you were a heavy child, you are less likely to get IR than someone who did not gain until their 20s

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #27

There is also speculation that some people can respond to full adipocytes by making more adipocytes to put fat into, whereas other people get sick because they lack that capacity, and their existing adipocytes are stuffed to the gills. Also, it is becoming accepted that the mother’s diet and history of weight gain (or lack thereof) also have an effect on the obesity and insulin-resistance of her children. Some of that is of course the result of influences in utero, but apparently other parts of it result from epigenesis—in other words, whether a gene complex is turned on or off in the mother can be passed to the child in the ovum.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #28

So many of them were supplementing their diets with vitamins THC, PCP, and LSD, I can only wonder how it effed with their appetite, energy expenditure, and nutrition uptake.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #29

“Check out the breathing walls, man!” :grinning:

(Stickin' with mammoth) #30

Doesn’t science say something about exhaling the fat you burn through your breath?

(pant! pant! pant!)

image

(Okay, I’d stop long before I looked like that guy. Ew.)

#31

I find epigenesis fascinating but only to the extent I can do something about it. I have Cate Shanahan’s book and I stopped reading it at some point. When I hear about having kids too close together and the effects of that I wonder if there is anything to it and what does it matter for those already born. It did discourage me from getting a puppy from a litter of 11 (normal for the breed is 8 my current dog is from a litter of 4 and she is exceptionally bright but that could be random and is anecdotal)

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #32

I’m not sure I believe all that they say about the connexion between genotype and phenotype. A lot of their data are, of necessity, associational.

The best take I’ve heard is a lecture on the LCDU Youtube channel, in which a researcher, with the ApoE4 gene himself, says that the gene doesn’t automatically cause trouble, merely a predisposition for trouble. And having that variant as opposed to one of the others merely means having to be more careful to avoid the types of behaviour that will allow the gene to cause trouble.

I liked his analogy: he says the ApoE genes are like boulders near the edge of a cliff, with the ApoE4 being the closest to the edge. Anyone can do things that will push their boulder over the cliff, but he, with his variant, just needs to be a bit more careful to avoid boulder-pushing than other people.

(Michelle isaacson) #33

:rofl::sweat_smile:

(Joey) #34

Looks like an interesting read. Now on the list. Thanks.

#35

As am I. Pity me. Christ knows what my GP will say when I tell her I’ve ditched my BP meds and statin. I have over a month of normal(ish) BP readings to back up the former but once I get my cholesterol done I’ve a feeling pressure may be exerted….

(Jane) #38

Your choice to ignore the pressure or not!

#39

I shall. I just hate feeling I have to explain myself and there’s still a throwback to my innate fear of/bowing down to authority.

(Robin) #40

Been there. Stopped explaining myself. If my diet comes up, I merely say I cut out sugars and processed foods. No one blinks an eye at that.

(Omar) #41

People will not leave you alone

So if I use the this statement in front of some people, they will say :

don’t tell me you are on keto :smiley:

Mom tell all her relative visitors: Omar does not eat bread. She almost crying while saying it.

(Robin) #42

We just have to be okay with what others think about keto. If they ask if I am keto, I say I don’t care much about labels. I eat what works for me. I think that ignoring what others think or say about our diet is a big step for many of us. But it’s very freeing.
Also, I am quick to point out that there is nothing I CANNOT eat. I just decide what I WANT to eat.
Yea, I could have that slice of that bread, if that’s where I want to spend my carbs.