Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Photo by ????? ??????????? on Unsplash According to new research from Lund University in Sweden, there is a link between your gut bacteria and obesity; Certain amino acids in our blood can be connected to both obesity and the composition of the gut microbiome. Here’s …
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According to research from the University of Bonn in Germany, eating fast food is like giving your body a bacterial infection.
The obesity rate in the U.S. is a major health issue. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults have obesity. This is largely due to unhealthy diets and lifestyles; the Standard American Diet (SAD) is typically composed of heavy, highly-refined carbohydrates and sugar.
Numerous studies have shown that the rise in obesity rates could be attributed to an increase in calorie intake, coupled with a lack of adequate physical activity.
The Institute of Innate Immunity at the University of Bonn in Germany reports that the immune system reacts similarly to a high-fat and high-calorie diet as to bacterial infection. Unhealthy food seems to make the body’s defenses more aggressive in the long term; even after switching to a healthy diet, “inflammation towards innate immune stimulation is more pronounced.”
Scientists placed mice on a “western diet” for a month – high in fat, high in sugar, and low in fiber. The animals developed a strong inflammatory response throughout the body, almost like after an infection. Anette Christ posdoctoral lead in the study reports, “The unhealthy diet led to an unexpected increase in the number of certain immune cells in the blood of the mice. This was an indication for an involvement of immune cell progenitors in the bone marrow.” When researchers offered the rodents their typical cereal diet for another four weeks, the acute inflammation disappeared. What did not disappear was the genetic reprogramming of the immune cells and their precursors – “even after these four weeks, many of the genes that had been switched on during the fast food phase were still active.”
Director of the Institute, Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz, explains, “After an infection, the body’s defenses remain in a kind of alarm state, so they can respond more quickly to a new attack.”
Inflammatory responses can accelerate the development of vascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Researchers report that individuals born today will live on average, shorter lives than their parents – “Unhealthy diets and too little exercise likely play a decisive role in this.”
According to the Food Institute’s analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millennial’s alone spend 44% of their budget’s food dollars on eating out. In comparison to 40 years ago, the average American family now spend half their food budget on restaurant food.
While the occasional night out won’t hurt, a habit of eating fast food can do a number on your health, according to Healthline. –
Some studies have shown that you can reverse the damage brought on by too much fast food by changing your diet and getting more exercise. Make healthier substitutes slowly; think: sweet potato fries instead of french fries or having 2% milk instead of whole milk. Be sure to have your cholesterol checked by your doctor. If it is high, follow a high-fiber diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days of the week. You should also get your BMI checked. If it is above 25 and you’re overweight, speak with your doctor on your weight loss options. Joyce Lee, M.D., MPH, says losing even 5% of your body weight can lower your risk of diabetes.
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More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. With that number on the rise, the risk of developing obesity-related conditions like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes is on the rise, as well. Your doctor has told you to start following a healthy diet and to begin exercising. But what types of exercises can you do that are both moderate and effective?
The key to losing weight, according to Jun Wang, MS, of InVite® Health, is to create an energy imbalance – eating less and exercising more. Wang states that physical activity is a must for weight loss and weight management. Just thirty minutes of moderate-intensity activity is recommended to reduce chronic disease risk and 60 minutes is recommended to prevent weight gain in adulthood.
In order to gauge your personal moderate level of activity, the CDC recommends using the “Talk Test” – if you’re doing moderate-intensity activity you can talk, but not sing during the activity. If you are doing too vigorous an activity, you will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
Moderate Physical Intensity VS. Vigorous Physical Intensity
Moderate
Vigorous
Dietary Approach
The first step in getting control over your weight is to monitor your eating habits. You may want to begin to record your food intake from the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed. “This can help assess the calorie count and nutritional value of what you are eating,” reports Wang. Another method is using a calorie counter. If you’re using your phone during your lunch break at work, you have enough time to enter what you are eating into a calorie counter app. This can give you an idea of how many calories you are consuming daily and how many you should consume in order to lose or gain weight. But be careful! Wang warns cutting your calorie intake drastically will not be a quick fix. In order to lose weight, Wang suggests cutting calorie intake gradually and consistently.
Supplements for Weight Management
Here are Jun Wang, MS, recommendations on supplements that can support weight management –
White Kidney Beans: White kidney beans supply a carbohydrate blocker that inhibits the enzyme amylase from breaking starches down into sugar; absorbing less sugar from foods such as bread, potato, pasta or rice helps reduce your intake of calories.
Probiotics: Probiotics are live bacteria that support the activity of the body’s healthy bacterial population. They help burn calories by releasing the appetite-reducing hormone GLP-18,9 . They decrease body fat by increasing levels of the protein ANGPTL4.10 Probiotics can also reduce inflammation and may improve gut health. A meta-analysis of 17 randomized clinical trials in humans indicates that probiotics help treat obesity.11
CLA: Conjugated linoleic acid made from safflower oil helps reduce body fat by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase which normally would transfer fats from the bloodstream into fat cells. CLA also promotes carnitine palmitoyltransferase, which helps burn fat, improving energy. A meta-analysis of 18 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (the gold-standard of clinical trials) concluded that taking 3.2g/d of CLA effectively reduces body fat in humans.12
A dietary lifestyle change and combination of exercise and premium quality supplements can lead you on a journey to your best health and best weight, naturally.