1 Healthy Eating

The food industry has successfully infiltrated our minds and stomachs with hyperpalatable food and “you deserve a break today” memes. Tobacco companies did the same thing in the 70’s and 80’s till the medical information was UNREFUTABLE about the associating between smoking and early death. Now regarding food you will hear it, that eating processed food is unhealthy or obesity is sweeping our adults and kids. But the information an average patient going in for an annual wellness exam is getting - try to lose weight this year, take this medicine for your pre-hypertention, eat more veggies and try to exercise….then “see you next year!”. Really motivating right? And if the average patient does a google search…about 1 million plus articles will populate…some popular and from apex journals…others from trainers or lifecoaches or social influencers re-interpreting and already biased author. For important stuff like should you get a stent…you should read information on pubmed that has been accepted as peer reviewed. There are things called hazard ratios, confidence intervals, mendelian randomizations that give more weight to the impact statement at the end but these are dry and usually have to be interpreted by a physician or scientist. Good luck getting your doctor to read anything while your 15 minute visit is counting down. (no offense to cardiologists but my daughter went to a heart doc and as soon as he walked in the room, he talked AT HER, said your heart looks fine on EKG (heart tracing) then walked out leaving the medical assistant in the room to answer questions. 3 minutes for 200$! (I picked the wrong specialty!)

My patients at herbal411 are different. I empower mine to read and ingest articles. I define new released studies as I put the theory to the test with self experimentation. I can act as the sage that translates sciency mumbojumbo and apply it to the individual.
Regarding eating and being overweight. Bottom line is there is something wrong with a fuel going in, the absorption process, partitioning the building blocks of food and utilizing the fuel as energy/or storing it. The curve ball is the way its processed, the anticipation we are poisoned with with visual and olfactory stimulation, the sleep deprivation most of American accept as normal and the lack of knowledge on how to cook from scratch. I am not a registered dietician (but am enrolling in a masters program in nutrition 2024!) but I can use my 30,000ft view of the problem and advise big changes to consider in pulsing a change to a stagnant body. I don’t like calling it a commitment as no one can keep a restrictive diet up forever and even if you have the durability to get through emotional, physical challenging times of life and maintain restriction….the metabolism is smart and we return you back to your weight set point. (the biggest loser phenomenon) As Jeff Goldblum’s line in Jurrasic Park...”Nature always finds a way”. So if you through adversity, your metabolism will adapt to the stressor and adjust. This could be bad for folks just deploying intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast. Very helpful at first but most folks will experience a plateau. Then soon after noticing that weight isn’t coming off anymore….the same restrictive diet of waiting till noon for your first meal, carb, calorie….will still make you gain weight back to where you started or a few pounds more! This is why I feel its better to pulse your changes….add a stressor…let the body react….embrace the success and ease up on the technique to allow a refrain.

SO how do I start my first article on healthy eating? I’ll talk about INTERMITTENT FASTING. Jason Fung wrote the Obesity Code and it allowed people to skip breakfast. The general public has been brain washed into eating grains/carbs for breakfast with the allure you need the energy for the day…(but what about the stored energy in my love handles triceps beer belly ot thunder thighs?) So eat a healthy breakfast…eat a sandwich for lunch with veggies and maybe fruit then a bid dinner and lie down to watch TV. Fung set off a frenzy of controversial intermittent starvation..which is all you are doing. You are taking a day and partitioning the times of an average working day to when you can eat and when you cannot. Brilliant as most of Americans graze all day into the night. If a culture is given rules…and we follow said rules….even a high schooler can be successful. So the genius is the hormone data that supported what essentially is a compressed feeding window. When you increase your time stomach is empty, the pancreas will sense starvation/food scarcity and will stop making insulin. (lower insulin=less diabetes…this is a metabolic adaptation) At first you will go through withdrawal of not having your carb, calorie, sugar but after about 4 days…the growling stomach (ghrelin) stops and you dont get as hangry. Watch the exploits of Chris Helsmworth on Netflix with Peter Attia and you can see what water only fasting does to a human. (granted Helsmworth is an actor and when the camera is on, there will be a hawthorn effect of muscle through the hunger and look tough)

Bottom line is I agree with building up to an 18 hour fast….say stop any fuel/food/beverage early evening and do not put anything through the lips till 18 hours later. BY DEFAULT…you may eat anything you want for the 6 hours of eating typically noon to 6pm…but eventually it will be so nauseating to push alot of food in a small window of time. when you can only eat 2 big meals…you hit satiety, you cut down total calories daily and you curb/train your craving. Watching TV can get you mindless eating…like what happens in a 2 hour movie theater with a large popcorn and coke…your done both before 1st act is finished. Or alcohol at a bar watching sports…2 hours of celebration or sorrow but either way…compressed liquid calories/sugar PLUS those damn snacks that seem to go so well. (then when the alcohol dis-inhibits your restraint centers of the brain….you really let go!)

At the end of the day if we can first funnel our eating to a schedule…this to me is the easiest lever to pull in taking back control of weight/guilt. Ozempic is so hot now if you are lucky enough to have it covered…it induces nausea, constipation, persistent fullness to the stomach and helps stop absorption of some carbohydrate. BUT if not combined with healthy eating advice you will find a way around the weekly injection or you will be addicted to it for weight maintenance (since you never addressed root cause) The newer injection called tirzepetide admits once you start it…you will need to maintain it for life.

Regarding food choices while initiating the prolonged fasted state….as a reward for my patients I say exactly what I typed above…eat what ever you want for the first 1-2 weeks during the feeding window (feeding frenzy) but after 2 weeks pull back the reigns and be smart…dont overeat to pain, no sugar, keep carbs complex and mixed with healthy protein and fat and no sweets. Boring but after 4 weeks reasses…get a libre on the arm to have fun with food, fasting, work outs..and move onto the next novel thing. If you are on diabetes medicine you should get medical clearance first. If you are my patient I already cleared you and put together a lifestyle plan.

Eat healthy, Move healthy, have a healthy Spirit. Tune in next week!