AFT: STARVATION & OBESITY

Question from Mark in Columbia, SC

Why does it seem the whole country has gained weight? Is it just our inability to say no to dessert?

No Mark, dessert has been around for a long time. Not many people link starvation to extreme obesity, but it’s often a big piece of the puzzle. When I say this to a crowd, someone usually raises their hand and asks me if I’m an idiot. I normally answer with a yes. People will often say to me, “The guy is standing right in front of me, he’s 400 pounds and he has a bucket of fried chicken in his hand right now! He’s not starving.” The reality is often that he may have food to eat, but his body is still starving because he’s not getting the nutrition he needs.

We often think that if we put food in one end, and poop comes out the other, that everything is going according to plan. That is often not the case. There are many scenarios that can create a severe nutrient deficiency resulting in a body that is screaming for more nutrition all day long. Our bodies have a lot of requirements when it comes to nutrients. We need vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fats, etc. When our bodies don’t get what they need to function properly, they let us know in the form of severe cravings. Society often views obesity as a lack of willpower, but in most cases, that’s a crock. Willpower can’t compete with a body that is desperate for more nutrients.

There are two different causes that are normally at the root of this starving obesity predicament:

1. The food being eaten is total garbage and contains very little actual nutrients and a whole crap-load of chemicals and nonfood ingredients. These foods are engineered to taste like they contain nutrients so our body will continue to scream for more. With the nutrients never showing up, do you see how a person can be forced to eat all day if these are the only foods on their daily menu?

2. The other major cause is a lack of proper digestion. In my experience, at least eight out of ten people don’t have their digestion working correctly and they don’t even know it. They think the symptoms that they deal with are common and that everyone deals with them, so it must be okay. It’s true that the symptoms are common, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Symptoms like burping, bloating, passing gas, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, etc., are all signs that you are not properly breaking down the foods you’re eating. Every one of my books covers the digestive process for at least two chapters. I go into great detail about how digestion should be working and what to do if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms.

Do you see how either of these scenarios can cause bad news? If you’re eating foods that are depleted of nutrients, we know that’s not good. However, what about the guy who eats all organic, whole foods but his digestive issues restrict his ability to pull nutrients out of those foods. If he can’t break those foods down into nutrients for his body to use, he’s going to be just as nutritionally starving as the guy who’s eating junk all day.

Therefore, if you think your problem is willpower, or that your whole family is fat so it must be your genetic predisposition to be fat too, you might want to figure out if the real cause of your excess fat could be a body that is starving. Yes, the first step is to try and eat foods that don’t have ingredients you can’t pronounce. However, once you’ve reduced your intake of spalechtamine (Just made that up, but it sounded like a food additive, right?), you might want to look at your digestive symptoms to see if you need help in that department. Giving your body what it really needs is a great way to turn down the screams for Nilla Wafers that might be echoing in your head.

When experts talk about digestion, they either bring up probiotics or fiber. Both of these can be a small factor in the digestive process, but the bulk of our digestive action comes from the acid that is created in the stomach, and the bile that is produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Both of these factors need to be functioning correctly in order to pull the needed nutrients out of the food we’re eating.

A lack of proper digestion may be reaching an epidemic level due to the wide variety of circumstances that can turn digestion off in one way or another. Many medications, over the counter remedies and imbalances created by lifestyle choices can all hamper the bodies’ ability to digest food.

Taking the steps to improve acid production and/or bile flow can be a life-changing step for many individuals. But how do we cure an epidemic? Where do you start? Do we need bulldoze all Krispy Kremes to the ground? What if eating real food and improving digestion were enough to change YOUR life? Then, at least the obesity epidemic would be defeated in your own house, right? Every person that can beat their cravings by giving their body what it really needs is one more person that will have won his own battle with obesity. If enough people set an example and pass that information on, who knows? It could be a huge step in overcoming this epidemic.