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May 11 - July 6, 2020
The energy in alcohol is released because our body is trying to degrade this poisonous substance. Even in moderate drinkers some of this energy is lost to thermogenesis and heat dissipation. The rest of the energy produced while alcohol is being broken down can power the liver. This creates a moderate energy saving and the laying down of the fat that would normally have been used.
If you are an occasional or light drinker, and if you make good food choices when alcohol tells you to eat, then it is unlikely that it is having a significant effect on your weight set-point.
Summary
The result has been a 20 per cent increase in the amount of sugar consumed by the general population since 1980.
After US dietary guidelines
If foods were to be named for their effect on the body, then sugar should probably be given the name ‘fat’. Maybe fat could be called ‘strength’ or ‘vitality’.
Unfortunately, the advice that the nutritionists have given us has caused more harm than good.fn1
Explanation in foot note
The population of France consumes more saturated fat (and more wine) than neighbouring countries, yet it has somehow avoided the worst of both the heart disease epidemic and the obesity crisis. How can this be? The food scientists and nutritionists do not have an answer. They have called it the French Paradox because they cannot explain it. But this may be because their way of thinking about both obesity and saturated fat is flawed.
When you have savoured a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner – with fats that make you feel full, and no empty carbs – you do not feel the need to snack.
The French ignored the American nutritional advice to cut the cholesterol from their diets. They continued to enjoy cheese and steak and cream while the rest of the Western world switched to vegetable oils, refined wheat and sugar – and got fat.
Food culture is much more important to health than the individual constituents of the foods that are eaten.
Food culture provides a variety of healthy local food throughout the seasons. Fresh local produce, cooked traditionally and with love, and eaten with family and friends – that is true food culture and that is what we have started to ignore with our factory-produced, industry-marketed foods and nutritionalist ideology.
Weight loss by changing your habits and environment (e.g. walking to work, doing a sports class or going to the gym a couple of times a week), and therefore changing the signals that you are sending to your weight-control centre, is the only way to successful, sustained weight loss.
When trying to understand these two sources of our energy (fat and liver),
Analogy 4: ketogenic diet
Many followers of this diet say that this alternative brain fuel makes them feel more alert, and helps them think more clearly. Thinking fast and clearly would presumably have been an evolutionary survival advantage for our ancestors when they found themselves in an environment where food was scarce.
Changing the fueltype of brain to keton bodies
Intermittent Fasting
So how does this diet work? By decreasing the opportunities for eating, and at the same time by asking followers of the diet to avoid processed and junk foods, both the insulin profile and the omega ratio of the dieter will be improved and therefore the weight set-point will be reduced.
Cortisol, when given as a drug to treat inflammatory conditions, has the side effect of producing a voracious appetite and food-seeking behaviour
Both parents might need more energy reserves in the event of a pregnancy. In biological terms, this is so that the woman can carry the pregnancy safely through, even in times of food shortage, and the man has the ability to protect and feed his new family.
Gaining weight before baby: evolutionary perspective
The only sensible insurance against this would be a pre-emptive weight gain – a larger ‘fuel tank’ might be needed to protect and provide for your new family. The mechanisms that cause the weight set-point to increase are unclear; however, we do know that after marriage men’s testosterone levels decrease and women’s oestrogen levels increase.5 A man’s lower testosterone helps family stability, but also leads to weight gain; and a woman’s higher oestrogen increases fertility, but also signals an increase in fat storage, particularly in the hips and breasts.6
Gaining weight after marriage
The cause of the leptin drop was purely a disruption in their sleeping pattern. The lower leptin levels therefore worked not to regain any weight that had been lost – but to stimulate weight gain by elevating the set-point.
Night-shift work ➞ lower leptin ➞ higher insulin (leptin resistance) + higher cortisol ➞ HIGHER WEIGHT SET-POINT
How Disrupted sleeping pattern causes weight gain
It has long been known that the hormone melatonin, secreted in response to fading light and to darkness, is responsible for our day–night cycle and is the reason animals get sleepy at night and wake up at sunrise.fn2
Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland
How melatonin works
When a lack of ambient light is sensed by the gland, it will release melatonin. This is our sleepiness hormone, our ‘third eye’, which senses when the light is fading and readies our body for sleep.
There is growing evidence that melatonin not only acts to promote sleepiness, but also has important metabolic effects, including an increased sensitivity to leptin and a decrease in cortisol.
Moving to a different country clearly has an effect on the environmental clues that your brain is searching for in order to calculate the safest quantity of energy reserves for the future.
These changes can raise the weight set-point in those people who are genetically susceptible (the Labradors, not the greyhoundsfn3), leading to weight gain.
Example for genetic difference in tendency to obesity in dogs: same applies for humans
This usually takes several months as the dietary changes become embedded into cellular metabolism.
Time required for Omega ratio to affect weight set point
So why has so much scientific and media interest been focused on a possible link between the microbiome and obesity?
It is a big and growing market
The Only Way to Lose Weight: Lower Your Set-Point
The best way to be sure that you are eating food that is good for you is to buy fresh ingredients and cook them. This is a very important point. Success will only come when you understand which foods to eat. And it will only be sustained if that food tastes great and if you look forward to eating it – and cooking is the best way to achieve this.
Another option to improve your cooking skills is to try a food delivery company such as Gousto or HelloFresh.
If you are unduly stressed, then your metabolism acts like that of an injured animal – the cortisol message means you’re not going to let go of energy stores easily.
Stress-Cortisol-Weight Gain
Remember, if all else fails, sleep, exercise, music, massage, dancing and laughter all help to lower cortisol levels.
Lowering cortisol levels
As we have learned, sugar and highly refined carbohydrates (like flour) directly stimulate the reward pathways in your brain. This results in a surge of the brain hormone dopamine; it makes us feel good. It is naturally released after we consume foods containing sugar, and after sex. However, it uses the same pathway as drugs such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine or even heroin.
You need to be mentally prepared for these short-term side effects of your change of diet.
Resist to take Dopamine shots
There is also growing evidence that it can have a direct biological effect on stress hormones such as cortisol.
Mindfulness meditation
Professor Mark Williams, recently retired Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, has developed a series of resources under the blanket title of ‘Finding Peace in a Frantic World’. More information on this can be found at https://franticworld.com.
MINDFUL EATING EXERCISE
In the words of Jan Chozen Bays, American paediatrician and mindfulness expert, ‘Mindfulness is the best seasoning.’
There are a variety of ways that I suggest people manage cravings.
Instead of dieting, we are going to change the environmental signals that our body is picking up. These signals will reset your weight set-point at a lower level and then the hormonal and metabolic signals will drive your weight downwards (towards the lowered set-point). As a consequence, you will notice a natural decrease in your appetite and a natural increase in your metabolism – making you feel more energetic and alive.
The steps should be integrated into your daily routine, your normal way of living.
STEP 1 – EAT MORE
Changes about the type of food
particularly B vitamins that optimize metabolism),
The simple instructions of this step are: Eat three meals per day Have a high-fat/protein and low-carb breakfast Cook/prepare your own food Avoid sugar, wheat, corn, and fruit juices Snack if required.
Have healthy snacks in the fridge: meat, cheese, boiled eggs, yogurt, full-fat milk. Vegan options would include hummus or salsa dips; sliced vegetables, avocados, rice cakes, baked vegetable chips, and dried coconut or even dark (non-sugar) chocolate. Fresh fruit is OK, but try to limit yourself to a maximum of two pieces of fruit per day.
Other acceptable low-carb but high-fat protein breakfasts could include eggs (boiled, fried, poached or scrambled) on their own, a continental-type cold breakfast of meats, cheeses, yogurt and olives, any type of fish or full fat milk, oat porridge (with salt or a small amount of honey for flavour). It’s probably best to avoid fresh fruit for breakfast due to its natural sugar content – save this for later if you require a snack. You should drink water, milk, tea or coffee (a full-fat latte is also OK).
Foods that do not contain added sugar or wheat can be difficult to find; many of the food labels tell you ‘low fat’ (lots of sugar) or ‘no added sugar’ (lots of fruit sugar).
From an evolutionary perspective, sleep deprivation may have been a factor long ago during migrations to different hunting grounds. It would make sense for the body to become metabolically more efficient and for us to be driven to increased food-seeking behaviour during this period.
