Is excess weight in your future?
Last Updated Aug 2007
According to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 90 percent
of adult males can be expected to become overweight as they age, whereas the number
is closer to 70 percent in females. Does this mean men are all going to die
shortly? Not necessarily.
In a recent publication from the Centers of Disease Control, it was suggested that
overweight individuals may actually sometimes live longer than their normal weight
counterparts. The reason appears to be that increased body fat accumulation may be
a defense mechanism to protect us from an even worse problem, increased silent
inflammation.
Silent inflammation can attack all of your vital organs without you ever knowing
about it. This constantinflammatory attack on diverse organs eventually manifests
itself as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or even Alzhemier's. However, silent
inflammation is only possible with the build-up of excess arachidonic acid in these
target organs.
The body protects itself from this excessive production of arachidonic acid by
causing the adipose tissue to expand like a toxic waste dump to sequester any
excess
arachidonic acid produced by the diet. By doing so, it keeps arachidonic acid out
of harm's way. In essence, you are fatter, but safer from silent inflammation. In
this situation, your excess weight is like a benign tumor. It grows, but it
protects you from an even greater harm (silent inflammation).
What causes the increased arachidonic acid in your body is the combination of cheap
refined carbohydrates coupled with cheap vegetable oils rich in omega-6 fatty
acids.
The real health problems start when this toxic waste dump begins to leak the stored
arachidonic acid. That is when your excess weight becomes a problem. Now the
stored
arachidonic acid is released into the bloodstream to carry silent inflammation
throughout the body. What causes this leakage? It is insulin resistance.
A proven dietary program to reverse this insulin resistance is
the Zone Diet. Couple this with high-dose fish oil to directly reduce the
production of arachidonic acid, and you have a one-two punch to make sure that
excess weight caused by excess arachidonic acid is not in your future.
This radical new understanding of obesity and how to treat it will be found in more
detail in my next book, "When Good Fat Turns Bad".