HERBSPHERE
|
|
|
NAVIGATE |
Eating yourself to Death? - Know your Fat! The subject of obesity has become a never ending saga that berates a large section of the public, rolls out the much repeated mantra of national obesity statistics and is in strict contrast to another major preoccupation of the population at large ‘youthful looks’ or ‘image’. Excess fat is not primarily about ‘image’ but ‘health’. There are, however, some riveting statistics in the United States now where obesity is only slightly behind smoking as a killer and moderately obese people live 2-5 years less than normal-size people, but severely obese persons may have a reduction in life-span between 5-10 years.1 Worldwide it would appear we are faced with the national problems of overweight and obesity, leading to sickness and death. In the West, it doesn’t help that since the 1950s how our food is produced, from freezing with colourants and additives to preservatives contributing to longevity of foodstuffs for shelf-life, mainly using methods employing chemicals, our food supplies have become increasingly unhealthy. What is more, the parents of the present generation of overweight and obese children if not already in that state themselves, live in the modern climate of a speedy ‘life-style’ – hence their penchant for and motivation to purchase Fast Foods and consume Junk Diets. It is a habit that is fostered by the commercial Food Industry and Agricultural policy. The public have become inured to eating and drinking habits that have drastically changed over the intervening years. The most difficult area to ‘change’, taking a generation to mean 30 years, is the public ‘palate’ that has gradually been artificially altered to accept artificiality. This post-war generation ‘likes’ and often prefers consumables that are too high in fats, salt and sugar, and it is their children’s inheritance. The ordinary and natural organic diet of the pre- and immediately post-WWII population, whose palates had not been submitted to such artificial adulterations, are the ones who have demonstrated hardy longevity, and it is dying with them. Certainly, a great many younger people who are as concerned with their health as were the Victorians, buy, grow and eat as much organic foodstuffs as they can find and/or afford. But that is not the allotted choice of the majority who cannot afford to do the best for themselves and their children – it’s a matter of lack of supply for the demand that is there governed by the purse and wallet - affordability. Unlike many of the other ills that beset us, such as being repositories for an overload of chemicals alien to the human body, from the household kitchen to the garden earth and in the air that pollutes our bodies, ‘fat’ is tangible and to be seen. So, what do you know about your ‘fat’? Scientists around the world are researching into the biology of fat and have come up with some surprising brand new information. We and they have known for decades that overweight/obese people die young, because it was obvious to all that carrying around excess weight generated a terrific strain on the heart alone. More recently, the physical burden has been said to contribute to arthritis and sleep apnea, but it is that’s the tip of the fat-berg. Recent discoveries suggest that all fat-storage cells emit a hotchpotch of “hormones and other chemical messengers that fine-tune the body’s energy balance. But when spewed in vast amounts by cells swollen to capacity with fat, they assault many organs in ways that are bad for health.”1 Scientists are on the hunt to find out what fat is and what is does. Starting with the first discovery a decade ago called ‘leptin’, a substance that regulates appetite, showing that fat was more than just inert blubber. There are at present around 25 different signalling compounds, including resistin and adiponectin, known to be made by fat cells. “When we look at fat tissue now, we see it’s not just a passive depot of fat. It’s an active manufacturer of signals to other parts of the body.”2 “It is a tremendously dynamic organ.”3 In fact, fat tissue is now recognized to be the body’s biggest endocrine organ.3 ‘Are you eating yourself to death?’ is not addressing those with eating problems, as you may have read that at ordinary levels of fat a typically slim woman has 30% and a man 15% fat. But, did you know that this fat produced enough fuel to keep someone alive without eating for 3 months! The fat cells function is to store excess calories, but when too much weight sets in the cells swell with fat up to three times their normal size and the overweight gain more fat and, it is said, they may also layer on many more fat cells. This leads to the problem of over-production of chemicals the oversize fat cells emit. The trouble is, according to Dr George Bray of Louisiana State University, USA, “The big cell secretes more of everything that is secreted when it was small.”3 Still the biggest threat of obesity is heart disease, and a person with a body mass index over 30 has triple the usual risk, but scientists now have a handle on some ways in which the fat cell’s ‘chemical flood’ contributes to heart attacks, heart failure and cardiac arrest. We know that overweight increases blood pressure, which was thought to be caused by the force required to push blood through the extended blood vessel system that nourishes the flesh. Moving on, we now learn that fat can ‘trigger’ high blood pressure by chemical force i.e. constricting blood vessels via the chemical substance called angiotensinogen that stimulates the sympathetic nerves to squeeze the circulatory system.4 Research also shows that one of the hazards of overfilled fat cells is their influence on the body’s production and use of insulin, the hormone that instructs the muscle to burn energy and the fat cells to store it.1 This is crucial stuff, apparently oversize fat cells ‘blunt the insulin message’, partly by leaking fat into the bloodstream which forces the liver to compensate, more insulin and other proteins are made. This forms part of a condition called ‘insulin resistance’. It is understood that increased insulin levels are particularly harmful because they can directly damage the walls of arteries, leading to clogging. However, it doesn’t stop there; ‘leaking fat’ may also infiltrate the heart muscle, which in turn contributes to congestive heart failure. It has also been found that misplaced deposits of fat can also ruin the liver. Stateside, after hepatitis B, it has become the second main reason for liver transplants.1 Various proteins issuing from ‘fat cells’ can cause inflammation, which may be destructive to the ‘silt’ build-up in the arteries and may cause them to burst and trigger heart attacks and strokes. It is only of late that obesity has been linked to cancer, but it is also suggested that these inflammatory proteins and other fat-driven chemicals, such as growth hormones, may also contribute to the disease.5 Such is the awareness of what obesity can cause that the cancer society estimates staying ‘slim’ could eliminate 90,000 U.S. cancer deaths per annum. Among those cancers most clearly linked to weight are cancers of the breast, uterus, colon, kidney, oesophagus, pancreas and gall bladder.1 The evidence of how obesity causes malignancy is in breast cancer in older women, where after menopause the ovaries shut down their function and fat tissue becomes the primary producer of oestrogen, which is known to fuel the growth of breast tumours.1 So much so, that it is believed that heavier women are more likely to die from the disease. “Presumably it’s because their cancers are dependent on oestrogen, and heavier women have more oestrogen.” 6 Although it is obvious that excess fat can cause heart disease and cancer, which are terminal diseases, obesity causes far more problems from depression to gallstones and, among others, a tendency to die in car accidents. COMMENT: Over many years practicing as a therapist one became conscious how the daily diet or Food Medicine, even before day one of a person’s life, is the corner stone of all health. We cannot turn the clock back or alter the pace of modern life, or the majority cannot, but we can heed the warnings and ‘change’ our attitudes towards what we eat and drink.
The British Govt. issuing dictats to people with corrupted palates that commerce has created and fostered to eat 5 portions of fruit and vet a day is not enough. We need a sea-change in the Govt. attitude to Agriculture, the way our food is grown and presented. Most don’t want GM crops. What if all the money that is poured into GM crops via Universities’ funding to promote GM crops was redirected into providing organically grown healthy foodstuffs at a price all could afford? The NHS bills would diminish considerably for a start, because sick feeding produces sick people. The British Govt. also needs to take a better view of issues such as Supplements. For example, with the humble potato providing most of the British daily Vitamin C intake, must we have them travelled so far as to lose at least 50% of their vitamin strength in transit to a centralized Supermarket depot before more de-vitamizing travel again to a region or area for distribution, where they may have been grown in the first place, and not have the benefit of ‘local produce’ in the country? Is it any wonder that people need to buy vitamin and mineral supplements to try to stay in good health! The Govt. may be issuing dictats about what we should eat to make us more healthy, but it’s pure rhetoric unless they begin via their Agricultural policy to provide decent healthy foodstuffs to eat at affordable prices, which can keep our farmers in business – monumental Big Business in the guise of Supermarkets are more inclined to strip Farm Gate prices beyond the bone. It may suit a handful of AgriIndustry moguls for the small caring farmers to go out of business, to buy up their land to produce more inferior chemicalized products. Though that might be profitable for the few, it is not ‘cost effective’ for the many. It will further accumulate the sad state of the Nation’s Immune Systems and general state of health – long-term it will cost far more in terms of the NHS. Endlessly it seems these days we hear about ‘rights’, but really ‘We are what we eat’ and it is our personal responsibility to look after our health firstly and foremost. Sadly, it is the lower income group who suffer when it comes to ‘choice’ of food in terms of finance, plus we now have the second generation of the adulterated ‘palate’ with which to contend. However, we may need supplements and for some time to come, but we can help ourselves at bedrock by choosing to eat really healthfully grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Encourage and support your local Farmer’s Markets and your good health simultaneously - Cities have Farmer’s Markets too. You can read about Farmer’s Markets on www.farmersmarkets.net and on their List find your nearest from Bedfordshire to Yorkshire, including listings for Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Don’t forget the little shops and stalls in Open Markets, and the small chain of Organic Supermarkets either if there is one near you. The equation is E for Effort = Health! If you’ve got an evil diet, get active about ‘eating for health’. Doing nothing about it isn’t an option. Remember “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (women) to do nothing.”8 References: 1. ‘Recent findings show how obesity kills’ by Daniel Q. Haney, Medical Editor A.P. 11.5.2004 2. Dr Rudolph Leibel of Columbia University, USA. 3. Dr Allen Spiegel, Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease USA. 4. Dr Xavier Pi-Sunyer, Head of Obesity Research, St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Centre, New York City. 5. Dr Michael Thun, Chief of Epidemiology, the American Cancer Society. 6. Dr Michelle Holmes, Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital U.S.A.. 7. The National Association of Farmer’s Markets, South Vaults, Green Park Station, Green Park Road, Bath, BA1 1JB, UK www.farmersmarkets.net 8. Anon quotation traditionally attributed to Edmund Burke (1729-1797), an Irish philosopher and statesman, but does not appear in his writings. |
LINKS
|
|
PLEASE NOTE: Disclaimers and Copyrights can and must be read by clicking here.
|
