Diseases
Linked to Obesity and Insulin Resistance:
Diabetes,
Heart Disease and Asthma
Fred Pescatore, MD
The
diseases linked to obesity and insulin resistance now make up
4 of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States.
Before we discuss these diseases and what we can do about
them, it is necessary to first define what obesity really is. This is an important step because when you read statistics
and try to interpret studies, these are the definitions used.
In order to make judgments based on studies, the definitions
have to be understood first.
The measure used
to define obesity is the Body Mass Index, or BMI.
It is a measure of height, weight, and disease risk.
In order to calculate your BMI, simply take your weight
in pounds and multiply it by 703.
Then take your height in inches and square that number;
then, divide the two. A
person with a BMI greater than 25 is considered overweight and
one with a BMI greater than 30 is considered obese.
The number of overweight
and obese people is staggering and the numbers have been dramatically
rising in the past couple of decades.
According to the latest statistics, 80% of all Americans
over the age of 25 are overweight; and, 60% of all Americans when
you include children.
33% of all children are overweight too.
The percentages are bad enough, but when you look at raw
numbers, that translates into 145 million adults, and 18 million
kids. We are in the
midst of a true epidemic.
Despite Americans
being more health conscious than ever before and despite an increased
awareness of nutrition, this epidemic has flourished.
To see how that could have occurred, it is necessary to
examine some of the nutrition trends of the past twenty years.
The first one and
probably the most damaging is the low fat phenomenon.
Since this theory was espoused as gospel truth and thoroughly
embraced by the medical establishment, the statistics on overweight
and obesity have risen dramatically.
Either it wasn’t the correct message which is what I am
inclined to believe, or the message was just not heard correctly.
This trend encouraged people to eat all they wanted so
long as it was fat-free. The belief of not eating fat equating with not being fat was
incorrectly sold to the American public.
Fats are an important component of any diet. In another chapter in this ongoing series, the role of fats
in our diet will be thoroughly explored.
The only ones who benefited from our flirtation with a
low-fat lifestyle were the food manufacturers.
Every food that was not naturally low in fat had to be
artificially manufactured – leading to a booming industry.
The USDA food pyramid
was another disastrous attempt by the federal government to tell
us how we should be eating. It is not entirely the government’s
fault in this situation because; the USDA exists to serve the
agriculture industry. It
did a great job of promoting grain products and getting us to
eat more agricultural products – good for big agribusiness, but
not our waistlines.
The USDA food pyramid
has too much emphasis on grains and almost no emphasis placed
on the nutritional values of various types of foods.
All categories of foods, despite their nutritional value
are lumped together. The
recommendation of 6 to 11 servings of grains per day, without
taking into account that certain grains, such as brown rice and
whole grain cereals, have a much more positive impact on health
and blood sugar regulation, than do simple carbohydrates, such
as pretzels and bagels. The USDA food pyramid is the pyramid that food lobbyists built,
not science. It should
be treated as such and not taken as proper diet dictum.
The most recent
trend in dieting is the high fat, low carbohydrate approach.
This way of dieting has been with us since the mid to late
1800’s and was quite fashionable then.
It had another bout of popularity in the early 1970’s,
and again now. As
the author of a low carbohydrate diet book called Thin For Good, I am certainly a proponent of restricting carbohydrate
consumption. However,
I am not a proponent of severe carbohydrate restriction such as
the many popular diet programs currently on the best seller lists.
If severely restricting carbohydrates was the answer, this health
care epidemic could have been avoided, given that fact that these
programs have been popular for almost a decade now. Again, either
someone is not getting the message, or this message too is wrong.
All of these popular
programs allow the consumer to eat what they want, as long as
it isn’t fat, or carbohydrates. The programs never take into account the differences between
good fats vs. bad fats; good carbohydrates vs. bad carbohydrates;
sugars vs. fiber; etc. There
is so much good science to back a claim for eating a healthy diet
balanced with good fats, non-processed foods, whole grains and
no sugars that it is astonishing that we aren’t encouraged to
eat in such a way. This
is especially true in diabetics where a diet higher in monounsaturated
fats and moderate consumption of healthy whole grains was shown
to lower blood sugar. Yet,
according to official diet dictum, diabetics are encouraged to
eat as many carbohydrates and sugars as they want, but to only
watch the fat.
Luckily, there
has recently been an increase in an awareness of healthy fats,
healthy carbohydrates, and more and more people are becoming aware
of the dangers of sugar.
In fact, the American Heart Association just released a
statement on the connection between sugar and cardiovascular disease
– a big first step for them, considering they consider Pop Tarts
as Heart Healthy foods because of its low fat content.
It is vitally important
to come to terms with the fact that there are no black and whites
in the arena of nutrition. Everything we do and everything we
eat plays a significant role in our health.
Given the rise of diabetes and obesity, it is necessary
to question the role of processed foods and sugars in our diet.
This obesity and health crisis is not strictly the fault
of the fast food establishments.
There are many culprits.
Obesity and being
overweight are directly related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
certain cancers, asthma, and mortality.
In a recent study, men as young as 40 were shown to decrease
their life expectance by up to four years depending on how overweight
they were.
Being overweight
or obese exacerbates high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, gallstones,
cholesterol disorders, and musculo-skeletal problems.
There are many more than these, but these are probably
the most common and certainly some of the most deadly.
In fact, 4 of the top 10 leading causes of death are directly
attributable to being overweight.
In our next segment,
the link between sugar consumption and cardiovascular health and
diabetes will be more closely examined.
Stay tuned.
To read Dr.
Pescatore’s credentials
click here
