Have you ever heard of an Obesogen?
It is a subclass of Endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals that might predispose individuals to become obese. I know most people think that you become obese over time by consuming more calories than you burn, but this is not the whole story. Other factors, like hormones can come into play. Check out this study.
A researcher exposed one of two groups of mice to a substance called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Low doses of exposure to this substance led to the exposed group having elevated serum leptin, insulin, and being overweight in mid-life when fed the same diet. If you think that a chemical like this is rare, you would be wrong. It has been commonly manufactured in the US since the 1940s and can be detected in the blood of 98% of the general U.S. population. It has been detected in carpet cleaners, microwave popcorn bags, water, food, and cookware (particularly Teflon). Check out this picture of two of the mice. The mouse on the right is clearly much slimmer than the exposed mouse on the left.
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I heard an analogy recently that I loved. It is about bugs on a windshield. Basically the gist of it was that if you have a windshield that is full dirt, grime, and dead bugs, and one more bug hits your windshield, you won't notice it. On the other hand, if your windshield is crystal clear, one new bug stands out.
How does this relate to your health?
As you know, I am all about eating REAL FOOD. If a person eats the Standard American Diet (SAD) full of pizza, cheeseburgers, fries and soda, it is like the dirty windshield. Making one more poor food choice doesn't change the way that you feel.
As I convince patients to shift the way they eat to a real food diet full of a variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and good quality meats, they are slowly cleaning their windshield. They often notice that suddenly, eating a candy bar or a few slices of pizza has a much greater impact on them than it used to. This is the windshield effect at work!
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Today is the one day of the year most known for excessive candy intake. If you have been following along with my weekly emails, you know that this goes against everything that I teach!! But what to do about it? Here are my healthier Halloween tips! You might not be able to follow all of them, but listening to just a few might keep you from going candy crazy!
- Read the Ingredients! Whenever I am temped by a piece of processed food, I look at the ingredient list. Reading about ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, and hydrogenated oils reminds me that it is NOT REAL FOOD after all, and that I really don't want to eat it.
Recently, a colleague told me that they now have changed their mindset about food to the point that reading poor ingredients allows them to view processed food (e.g. a Snickers Bar) more like an object (e.g. their spiral notebook) rather than food. I don't know if I am quite there yet, but I'm working on it.
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