FAIRHOPE, Ala. — There seems a despairingly difficulty concept to understand … why do people gain weight so easily today? This one question is at the heart of the book “Why We Get Fat-and What to Do About It” by Gary Taubes. After all, public health authorities have been pushing this concept for the past 30 years: If you don't want to be fat, cut the fat from your diet. And in those 30 years, obesity rates have gone from 13 percent to 22 percent to, in the last national survey in 2009, 33 percent.

“If you consume about 2,700 calories per day, which is typical if you average men and women together, that's a million calories a year, or ten million a decade. Over the course of a decade, you're eating roughly ten tons of food. How accurately do you have to match calories-in to calories-out so that you won't gain more than 20 pounds over the course of a decade? Because if you gain 20 pounds every decade, you'll go from being lean in your 20's to obese in your 40's, which many have done. And the answer is: 20 calories a day. If you take in an extra 20 calories a day and put it into your fat tissue, you will gain 20 pounds every decade according to the book.

The point is, nobody can match calories-in and calories-out with that much precision. Twenty calories is like a single bite of a McDonald's burger. It's a couple sips of Coca-Cola or a few French fries. No matter how good you are at counting calories, you can't do it. So if practicing calorie balance is really the way to keep from getting fat, the question is, Why aren't we all fat?”

Will More Exercise Do It?

People in nutrition are so keen on you lose weight by exercising that they may have forgotten the fact that the more energy you expend, the hungrier you become. Imagine asking Mike Fitzgerald the great chef from Vermont, to my house to make a 12-course feast, and you're invited. Plus, I have a pastry chef coming and a gourmet butcher - in New York City they have gourmet butchers now. So bring your appetite!

The two things you are likely to do is one skip lunch or you might exercise more. You might even say, Look, Taubes lives three miles from my house - I'm going to walk there, that will burn some calories and pump up an appetite. The joke is that the two things we tell people to do to lose weight - eat less and exercise more - are the exact two things you would naturally do if you wanted to make yourself hungry.

When you look at the data from research on obesity and exercise, there's no compelling evidence that exercise has that much effect on weight gain. The American College of Sports Medicine says in its guidelines, which were issued jointly with the American Heart Association, that its reasonable to anticipate that if you exercise more, you'll be less likely to gain weight over a reasonable time. But in those same guidelines, it also says that so far, data to support this hypothesis is not correct.

The Correct Way To Lose Weight

Our mothers grew up believing refined carbohydrates and starches were fatting -pasta, potatoes, bread, sweets, rice, and corn. And they were right: These foods literally make you fat. Sweets are probably the worst, along with soda and sugar-water combinations, which can be anything from fruit juice to the latest fad drink. The reason, refined carbohydrates raise your insulin levels. Scientist had known since the early 1960s that insulin is the primary hormone that regulates your fat tissue. This is not controversial it's fact! If you look at any endocrinology textbook and look at the definition of what makes adipose (fat) cells fat, it will explain how it is done. At the same time, look up obesity, and it will say fat people eat too much and exercise too little. There is a vital difference between the fundamental science and the real cause of human obesity.

All that is being pointed out here is, pay attention to the hormonal and enzymatic regulation of adipose tissue. If that is done, you'll see a different answer as to what causes obesity and how to cure it.

Insulin Resistance

If you tend to think of your cells like a long-term bank account, where your body stores excess calories as fatty acids, which you don't use until you're starving. But the reality is that your fat tissue is more like your wallet, and your meals are like going to the ATM. You know how to use the ATM: You put the cash in your wallet and gradually spend it, and when you get to low on cash, you go back to the ATM. But insulin locks the money in your wallet, so you've got to keep going back to the ATM. Your fat cells are getting fatter and fatter, but you can't get the fatty acids (money) that are locked inside them. And as a result you get hungry and want to eat again.

Cut The Simple Carbohydrates

When first getting into this subject some 25 years ago my brother-in-n law went on the Atkins program to see if he got the results everyone looks for … weight loss. My approach is a little different because of being a former vegetarian. But watching my friends and patients go restaurants and order skinless chicken or to trim the fat off of their porterhouse steak didn't make sense to me. My approach, after living in Asia for such a long period of time, was a little different.

In Asia most (Japan, China and Korea) eat eggs, bacon, sausage, ham and other meats everyday. At lunch, it is sushi, tuna, albacore or some other dish that is popular. Dinner was fresh vegetables and a good cut of meat or fish. But in the years while in Asia (1980s) was there any bread, white pasta or milk in the meals that were served. They were never hungry after doing martial arts all day and none of the students were overweight, fat or obese. Oh, there was the Sumo wrestler, but they trained and ate to carry excessive weight.

You rarely ever get hungry when eating properly even after skipping a meal. Many of the students in Asia would practice straight through lunch in order to learn a technique and wait until that evening to eat. My brother-in-law will attest to not getting hungry and he lose 30 pounds very easily in the 4 months he was dieting.

The biggest study to date on low-carb programs was last year (2009). It compared a low-fat diet in which you got 1,200 to 1,800 calories per day with the low-carbohydrate diet where there was no limit on how much you ate. The researchers didn't bring to light right away that you could eat as much as you wanted on the low-carb diet and the low fat diet was very calorie restrictive. To my way of thinking it is a major point and observation when you can eat as much as you want on a diet or very restricted.

In most studies you will find that the low-carb is better than the low-fat diet.

Heart Health

The concept that dietary fat causes heart disease is extremely entrenched in the dietary ideas of Americans. But if you really get down to looking at the statistics and facts of the matter it is a somewhat different concept that American should be embracing. Over the last several decades many university studies have illustrated that the low-carb improves heart health more than the low-fat diet. The American Medical Association and the American Heart Association both endorse the diet that is the worst for the American consumer.

The HDL goes up, which is the most meaningful number in terms of heart health. Small, dense LDL - which is particularly dangerous - becomes large and fluffy when looking through a microscope. Plus, your cholesterol profile gets better, your insulin goes down, and your insulin resistance goes away and your blood pressure usually goes down.

The low-fat diet that most American have seen as the 'saving grace' of their heart health diet is actually bad for the heart, due to the carbohydrate misconception. The trans-fat debate is still being waged but if you eat natural fats like butter you won't have to worry about trans-fats.

Mark Bittman in his book “Food Matters” and the ——— explains how America was duped into thinking that simple carbs were good and fats were bad for everyone. As a result after 30 years of this smoke screen put up in every consumer's face, now it is found that the concepts are reversed, the low fat diet is not as good for your health as the low carb diet and now we have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes to contend with in public health.

The Hormonal Disorder Created

When you walk down the street and every third person is overweight or obese you can understand why there is concern about public health. But can the problem be a hormonal imbalance and not just a carbohydrate problem? The short answer is yes, but let's explain. Not everyone gets fat from eating to many carbs. It has to do with their sensitivity to insulin and more specifically how sensitive the fat cells are versus the muscles cells. But the majority of people do get obese from the carbs in their diet, they become carb junkies and if a person has been fat for a long time, getting rid of the carbohydrates might drop the excess weight. Yes, the leanest you can be is on the diet with the fewest carbohydrates.

Should there be pre-cautions? Of course, many will find that they feel low energy while their bodies are adjusting to this new dietary regime. There are those that find adding a little salt or a bullion cube to the meal will correct that. To me the fact that the low-carb diet can lower the blood pressure and allow you to have the doctor adjust your need for medication down instead of up is a great benefit. This is a drastic change for many people and you should consult with your health care provider especially if you have a medical condition before you change your eating habits. But my agreement with the low-carb camp is strong unless there is a good reason why you can't eat like humans evolved to eat. Highly refined grains and sugars is not our dietary background and history. We were hunter-gatherers, and ate unrefined meat as often as we could get a fresh catch, and when we ate plants they were not broken down, canned and processed. They were much higher in fiber and much lower in digestible carbs. Our forefathers ate “whole foods” and that is what you should be moving toward to get the excess weight off!

Webliography references

1. Medline National Institutes Of Health (NIH) February 2011 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/weightcontrol.html

2. Taubes G. Why We Get Fat -and What to Do About It. Knopf Publishing Group, 2010. http://www.amazon.com/why-getTaubes-Gary-Author/dp/B004

3. Davis L. Is This Any Way To Lose Weight? Readers Digest, February 2011 http://www.readerdigest.com/isthisanywaytoloseweight/Davis/Author.htlm

4. Wong C. Surprising Causes of Weight Gain. Updated February 2005. http://altmedicine.about.com/treatment/weightgain.htlm

5. US Department of Health and Human Services Weight Control Information Network http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/choosing.htm

6. Turpen A. How To Avoid Processed Food (Opinion) February 2011.

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