Read more: 10 Take Home Lessons: Forget the Calories, Focus on the Quality of Your Diet
Dr. Ludwig proposes a novel, radical but scientifically true way to solve the obesity epidemic once and for all.
There are many studies showing just how different sugar and fat calories are. Most scientists still hold on to the dogma that fat makes you fat, that fat causes high cholesterol and that low fat is the way to go to live a long healthy life. Plenty of evidence proves otherwise. What if the fact that this conventional wisdom is completely wrong is what has actually caused our obesity epidemic?
Dr. Ludwig, for the first time, explains why. It’s not overeating that makes you fat. It’s being fat that makes you overeat. Once you start to consume refined carbs, such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and any form of sugar, you start making a certain kind of fat cells called VAT or visceral adipose tissue.
David Ludwig and Mark Epstein published the most important scientific paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association since the Watson and Cricks paper on DNA in 1953, which changed our whole way of thinking about genes. They also explained their findings in the New York Times piece, “Always Hungry? Here’s Why.”
What if everything you ever learned about weight loss was wrong? What if losing weight has nothing to do with calories—counting them or cutting them out by sheer willpower? What if, in fact, most health professionals (including doctors and dietitians), our own government and especially the food industry are giving us weight loss advice guaranteed to make us fat?
Read more: Why Are We Fat? Is It Gluttony, or Is Your Fat Actually Hungry?
Two of the most popular New Year's resolutions are to exercise more and get in better shape. Many people start January with high hopes of big success, yet by March find themselves struggling to get to the gym and watching their home treadmill collect dust. What happened in the intervening weeks?
A simple thing called, "exercise burnout," most likely. "Positive enthusiasm often turns into negative because the individual forgets another key component of success: moderation," says Erica Tuttolomondo, athletic director at Rush-Copley Healthplex, a fitness center in Aurora, Ill.
I did an interesting experiment over the week-end. I tried eating a lot of sugar on purpose to see how it would make me feel. Wow! What an experience! First, I ate three pieces of chocolate pastry at brunch – followed by chocolate covered almonds. That was o.k. No ill effects, but after dinner (healthy – a Cobb salad) I felt the urge for a frozen yogurt. So we went to a yogurt place and they didn’t have fat free/sugar free so I ate regular – with chocolate sprinkles. So far so good (sort of). The next morning I was unusually hungry for breakfast but I controlled myself. Lunch was also o.k. The cravings hit after dinner. I WANTED CHOCOLATE!!!
Laughter Really Is The Best MedicineYou expect doctors to dole out advice to lay off the doughnuts or take the stairs more often, but to watch a few "Seinfeld" reruns? That's a new one. Yet enlightened physicians are increasingly embracing the idea that a daily dose of hardy laughter is just as important to your mental and physical health as eating your vegetables and lacing up your workout shoes.
"The health benefits of laughter are really quite impressive," says Michael Miller, MD, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and author of "Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease." "Stress causes premature aging of blood vessels, it raises your heart rate and blood pressure, it negatively affects your immune system, it impacts cognitive functions. … But a really good belly laugh has protective effects on many body systems, including vascular."
As one of a number of researchers who've put laughter under the microscope, Dr. Miller has science on his side. In his first such study, he and his team found that individuals with heart disease are 40 percent less likely to respond to uncomfortable situations (like having a drink spilled on them in a restaurant) with humor, compared to peers with healthy hearts. Those with heart disease, in general, also laugh less—even in easygoing situations or settings. Day-to-day stress (aka chronic stress) that's not properly managed causes blood vessels to constrict and raises blood pressure, both of which raise the risk of having a heart attack.
It’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon and I’ve just made my fifth visit to the kitchen looking for something to eat. I shouldn’t be hungry. I ate lunch at 12:30. I had an iced decaf latte with skim milk at 2:30. So what’s the deal?
I’m bored.
It’s 98 degrees outside and it’s too hot to walk the dog or even go to the pool to walk in the water. I don’t feel like reading. I tried calling a couple of friends but no one answered. I could go shopping but I shouldn’t spend the money.
I’m just plain bored. Sigh.
