Obesity and Food Addiction

As with other addictions, tolerance to the substance of abuse develops requiring more to achieve the same high. Withdrawal symptoms such as mood changes can also occur after discontinuing the substance of addiction whether that be drugs or chocolate. The UK comedian, Greg Davies, recently talking about his experience of following the Atkins diet said that after about 3 weeks, everywhere he turned he misheard people talking about bread and even dogs seemed to be barking "Bread, bread!" These cravings for the substance of addiction can be overwhelming, irresistible and relentless.

A subset of patients treated by gastric bypass surgery are also known to transfer their addictive behaviours onto other substances such as alcohol or drugs.  

The addictive Western diet

Research tells us daily to avoid tofu or to eat more tofu, or to be wary of this or that foodstuff or to eat more of some 'superfood'. But what if the problem is much bigger than that? What if there is a fundamental problem with our whole way of eating in the West?

The work of Dr Weston Price cataloguing the dramatic change from native diets to the modern Western diet nearly a century ago revealed a catalogue of health horrors which unfolded in rapid order in indigenous societies as the modern diet was introduced. These included gum disease, tooth decay, gall bladder disease, obesity, osteoporosis, digestive problems and cancer.

There was also a dramatic shrinking of the arch of the jaws with the development of a high vaulted palate in infants whose mother had been exposed during pregnancy to the Western diet. It is possible that all these symptoms evidence deficiency states which we have come to regard as normal. 

There are no obese people living on an indigenous diet - it is purely a symptom of our modern way of eating combined with levels of inactivity never before known to humanity.  

The vast majority of people in the developed world eat a wheat and dairy based breakfast of cereal and/or toast, then either catch public transport or drive to work. They then sit at a desk or work behind a till or on a production line before having sandwiches for lunch (possibly with potato chips, a bar of chocolate and a can of a carbonated sweetened beverage). There is then more sedentary work before returning home to sit slumped in front of the television whilst eating a ready meal which has often been heated in the microwave.

Even diseases like osteoporosis may mostly be related to lack of exercise especially as the elderly often become even less active. Bone is deposited dynamically in response to the stresses placed upon it and it is possible that the current epidemic of osteoporosis is largely related to our sedentary lifestyle rather than any dietary factors. 

Sadly, doctors are taught practically nothing about nutrition, which compared to some of the lifesaving measures that they can deploy seems rather dull, boring and irrelevant to them. As a consequence, they constantly counsel people to eat a normal, varied diet. Which sounds perfectly reasonable, until you realise that what we regard as a 'normal' diet probably caused the problem in the first place!

I eat a gluten and dairy-free diet and avoid sugar and refined foods where possible. I also actively try to incorporate as many fruit and vegetables into my diet as possible, to eat some high quality protein with most meals and to eat some raw fruit or a salad every day. However, I am very aware of addictive behaviour surrounding certain foods that once reintroduced my diet I find myself craving. And I know that wheat for me and many others is a prime offender. 

We also know from the archaeological record that the introduction of agriculture was a disaster for humanity in health terms. Men lost 7" in height and women lost 5" - stature we are only now regaining 10-12,000 years later. There is also evidence of a massive increase in infant mortality at the time of transition.

Then came the introduction of the nightshade family (belladonna) of fruits and vegetables from South America in the sixteenth century. This group includes potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum and chilli peppers, aubergines (eggplants) and tobacco - all of which were known by the native peoples to cause health problems and particularly arthritis. These too have been widely incorporated into our diet, but pose a problem for many people since they all contain low levels of the toxin, solanine.   

Some may regard excluding all grains, dairy and possibly nightshade fruits and vegetables from the diet as extreme, but the evidence that our current way of fuelling our bodies is causing disastrous results is plain for all to see. 

As always, if you follow the money you will find that there are profits to be made from surgery, pharmaceutical interventions for obesity, special 'diet' foods, and so on. However, there is little to no money to be made from encouraging people to alter their eating habits. Even being counselled to eat whole grains (as I did for many years) I believe is faulty thinking. For those with intolerances the husk of the grain often contains the most allergenic proteins and may promote a worse reaction than eating the processed version.

I don't think most people should be eating grains at all. Anything made with flour - any kind of flour - is highly processed and is not something indigenous people or Stone Age man would have eaten. Also, most grains contain the protein, gluten (in wheat, rye, barley and oats), and this acts as a glue retaining moisture in foods and giving bread its chewy texture. The problem being that it acts like glue in your intestines too!

Irritable bowel syndrome is now at epidemic proportions with 90% of American women experiencing symptoms at least occasionally and 70% daily. This is the body's way of objecting to the fuel it is being given. Typically, dairy products constipate and gluten-containing grains produce soft bowel movements or diarrhoea. And so people eating the Western diet alternate daily between the two extremes according the foods eaten that day.

Incidentally, and this is only something I have figured out lately after someone else suggested the association - eating wheat makes my shoulders and neck ache - which is one of the hallmarks of fibromyalgia. According to Dr George Goodheart, the founder of kinesiology all muscles are related to energy meridians within the body and hypertension (spasm) in the muscle can indicate an overload of the associated energy meridian. The muscles on the back of the neck and shoulders variously relate to the stomach meridian, central (brain) meridian, spleen (immune system), kidney and liver meridians which is what you would expect of a system stressed by foods to which it is intolerant.

Undiagnosed endocrine problems as a cause of obesity

Underlying undiagnosed endocrine issues relating to thyroid disorders can cause the metabolism to slow to the point where weight gain is inevitable and weight loss becomes impossible. Some natural health experts now think that these may affect up to half the population to some greater or lesser extent. And the general feeling is that they are massively under-diagnosed by allopathic medicine.

This seems to largely be due to a possible lack of training and an almost total reliance on blood test results which, for a variety of reasons, do not provide an accurate picture of what is taking place within the cells. Doctors rarely seem to examine such patients or to take a detailed symptom history which would clearly indicate an underactive thyroid gland or hypothyroidism, but are bound by the parameters that apply to thyroid function blood tests.

Adrenal insufficiency or fatigue can also account for the 'spare tyres' that accumulate around one's middle with age and this too is almost never recognised by allopathic medicine.

Another factor is poorly controlled blood sugar levels which many natural health practitioners also regard as practically epidemic due to the Western diet. This causes a see-saw of cravings and hunger often accompanied by low mood or depression and places an enormous stress on the pancreas (which produces insulin and glucagon in response to blood sugar levels) and on the adrenal glands (which respond to all kinds of stresses of which wildly fluctuating blood sugar is the most common).

Ultimately, in order for the cell to preserve its internal environment, the cell membranes down-regulate the number of insulin receptors and the tissues become unresponsive to insulin. This means that in spite of the fact that blood sugar levels may be normal or even elevated, the glucose is unable to enter the cell and the tissues are being deprived of the fuel they require to power all cellular processes.

The body sends out an alarm signal that fuel is required and so the cycle goes on as the individual eats more probably highly refined sugary food until the mechanism finally fails and Type II diabetes is diagnosed. This is almost exclusively a problem relating to the modern diet and is believed to affect a great many people who remain undiagnosed.

The only way to get off the blood sugar merry-go-round is to eat a low GI diet of whole, unrefined foods avoiding sugary foodstuffs ie: the diet nature intended and to support the struggling endocrine system using nutrients.  

Those people who appear to be able to maintain their weight effortlessly over a lifetime have been shown to be able to burn off excess calories as body heat as their body up-regulates whereas those who struggle with their weight have bodies that are unable to do this and any excess intake gets stored as fat. This ability may relate to the efficiency of thyroid function.

For more on this issue see Endocrine Gland Disorders.

Nutritional deficiencies and obesity

Many think that the cravings that compel people to eat are actually symptomatic of a body calling out for meaningful nutrition whilst eating a nutrient deficient diet. For example, the craving for chocolate that many women frequently experience may be associated with an underlying magnesium deficiency. 

For more on this issue see Special Diets for Fatigue Syndrome Sufferers or Modern Malnutrition.

Toxicity and excess weight

Fat soluble toxins are stored in the body fat and the body simply will not release them if they pose a threat to the body. The UK actor known internationally for his roles in the Harry Potter films, Stephen Fry, has recently lost 80-90 lbs in the space of a year by restricting his food intake and taking up a programme of walking. However, as the images below show he is now looking very frail and frankly, unwell. This may because his body is simply not getting the nutrients it needs to function combined with mobilising toxins from his fat stores.    

Prescription medications as a cause of weight gain 

Prescription medications are often overlooked as a cause of weight gain, in spite of the fact that it is a recognised side-effect of more than 50 common medications. Offenders include prescription drugs used to treat mood disorders (especially the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft), seizures (Depakote), migraines, diabetes (Diabeta and Diabinese), hypertension (Cardura and Inderal) and heartburn (Nexium and Prevacid).

Steroid drugs such as prednisone, older antidepressant drugs such as Elvail and Tofranil and second-generation antipsychotics such as and Prevacid are the worst offenders. But hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives can also cause stubborn weight to accrue.  

Some drugs have unpredictable effects on weight causing weight gain in some and weight loss in others.