I often state bluntly in these blogs that we, as a society are surrounded by and immersed in the problem that is causing us to be increasingly fat and sick. Unfortunately, most of us have no idea just how deep, complex and pervasive the real roots of our problems really are. The vast majority of the public is not aware of exactly “why” this is happening to us. Thus, we are unable to stop it. I write this blog as an attempt to correct that.
Back in 2006, Wired magazine published a ground breaking article called “The Thin Pill”. This article strongly re-enforces and exposes our lack of understanding regarding the underlying reasons for our body fat and ill-health problems. It provides a rare glimpse at some of the perpetrators and mechanisms of our problems at work.
This article outlines the movement to have five common conditions recognized as one disease. These conditions are: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides (fats in the bloodstream), low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and last but not least, obesity. The name of the proposed disease embodying these 5 symptoms is now commonly known as “Metabolic Syndrome”. This collection of symptoms is also referred to as “Syndrome X”. You may have heard this term before because in the ensuing years it has definitely joined the growing lexicon of contemporary medical conditions that are increasing at alarming rates. This great piece of journalism exposed the motivation and ongoing progress to have “Metabolic Syndrome” accepted as a legitimate disease by the FDA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the medical community in general.
This is a dangerous notion to many. Here is why – there is overwhelming evidence that our modern diet, especially with the changes introduced in the last 30 or more years has created the huge rise in these co-related symptoms of disease, especially obesity. So, if our medical community gives their consent to this newly named malady that is actually a collection of preventable conditions – one has to wonder where this new method of diagnosing disease will end. One also has to wonder about the integrity of our medical establishment if this happens. This is especially true since there is overwhelming evidence that we know exactly how to prevent these conditions.
We have all noticed the proliferation in recent years of drug advertisements for all kinds of common issues many or all of us experience in life. You see them on television continually. There are drugs for sleeplessness, for low libido, low energy, depression and even the most common states everyone experiences on occasion, such as anxiety. The next condition in line is obesity along with the other four risk factors, all under the umbrella of “Metabolic Syndrome”.
To me and many others, this would be no different than naming a new disease after the practice of jumping off of 20 foot cliffs. We could call it “Acute Cliffitis” and the symptoms would be unmistakable; broken ankles, and shinbones among other specific leg and back injuries. The medical industry would then prescribe drugs to strengthen bones, drugs to make our tendons more elastic and perhaps special boots to cushion the fall – everything but the simple advice to stop jumping off of the damn cliffs!
If the medical establishment were to accept “Metabolic Syndrome” as a legitimate disease, they may just as well also accept any other such ridiculous idea as a disease. You may ask; how could they possibly consider this course of action? What would cause such a seemingly irrational decision? The answer is money – the root of all evil when it comes to this topic. There is an enormous amount of money to be made in the anticipated treatment of this new disease. It is no surprise that the biggest proponents of the acceptance of “Metabolic Syndrome” as a bona fide disease are those with the most money to gain – the pharmaceutical industry.
In the drug industry finding new disorders to treat with their products is known as “developing new disease markets” or “branding a condition” The pharmaceutical industry has spent millions of dollars developing an arsenal of drugs aimed at this new malady and are lobbying hard for the FDA to formally recognize Metabolic Syndrome as a disease. At the time Wired published this article the industry had over 350 obesity drugs under development, many under clinical trial. The market potential for these drugs in 2006 was over $18 billion – that’s quite a motivator. So, the drug companies have over 18 billion reasons to convince – lobbying, and enticements also work really well – medical institutions such as the American Heart Association and the National Institute of Health that we are dealing with a new and authentic disease here. Then they get the nod from the FDA; then the HMO’s and insurance companies fall in line and voila, a multi-billion dollar industry is born. Updating, in February of 2012 I called the FDA and received verification that thankfully, they have not yet granted “metabolic syndrome” official status as a disease.
Here is where this story gets really scary how it relates directly to the true originators of our problems of being so fat and sick. You see, they are pushing for a situation where there is a new and general acceptance of the idea that “You’re not fat – you’re sick”. People like me who don’t accept this condition as a legitimate disease worry that doing so constitutes “medicalizing” a lifestyle condition which we already know how to treat; with the correct diet and some exercise. Okay, in previous blogs I have strongly put forward that our obesity and health problems are pushed on us by industry and they are not entirely our fault – I wasn’t kidding. Stay with me here, I promise I am going somewhere really important with this.
Clarifying, those of us who don’t agree with defining obesity as a medical condition consider it to be a lifestyle issue. By that, we mean that prevention of this so-called disease involves nothing more than personal choices regarding diet and exercise. Now this seems to be a simple enough position and one which is relatively easy to defend, but here is where things truly go off the rails.
In the late 1990’s the CDC (center for disease control) initiated an experiment called the Diabetes Prevention Program in the hopes of proving that lifestyle changes, namely diet and exercise, can work as a weight loss strategy and prevent the obesity and health issues in question. Diet and exercise have always been standard, common sense approaches to these problems and should work just as fine now as they always have in the past, right?
In this experiment 3000 overweight participants received gym memberships and were given personal trainers. They were also provided with their food and were coached daily by nutritionists for 2 years or more. The net result was a 7% loss of body weight. With all of the time and attention the 3000 study subjects received it is very difficult to look upon this experiment as anything but an abject failure. Worse – especially for the sake of comparison to the general public – these test subjects were administered the anti-diabetes drug “Metformin” during this study. This is hardly something the public in general would self-administer.
The dire conclusion here: traditional diet and exercise simply don’t work anymore. Given the dismal results it would be impossible to think that our commonly accepted diet and exercise programs are going to help obese people in general. This is especially unlikely in that they would not get the personal attention and support that those on the study received. Allow me to re-iterate: our popular diet and exercise ideas for losing fat – even when the subjects have their own personal nutritionists and personal trainers – ARE ABYSMAL FAILURES!
Now this is exactly why I am constantly criticizing conventional advice on diet and nutrition along with popular fitness industry ideas for “getting into shape”:
THEY DON’T FREAKING WORK!
That is precisely why I promote the hell out of uncommon, iconoclastic diet and exercise ideas in this blog and in this book that in fact DO WORK! They are absolutely proven, effective ideas that are distinctly different alternatives.
Note: Because of my strong convictions on helping people lose fat and get healthy, I sometimes get asked by registered dieticians and trainers who defend our modern diet and fitness industries: “Hey Wise-guy, if you are so down on our government nutrition guidelines and our fitness industry, why don’t you prove that they don’t work? Where is your research?” Aside from the obvious answers of simply looking at rocketing obesity and disease statistics or witnessing the ballooning size of average people at your local grocery store, my answer is: “I don’t need to do any research, the American Center for Disease Control (CDC) did it for me!”
My point here is that our commonly accepted methods of diet and exercise have been proven to be useless. They are no match for our ubiquitous modern processed foods – addictive and hyper-dense with fats and sugars – even when consumed according to our government food guidelines. Consequently, our general population is becoming more and more overweight at astounding rates. That means most of the public are about to be caught in a trap where they are clinically diagnosed as untreatable with anything but drugs or perhaps surgery. Regarding losing fat, this is why the odds have been stacked against you right from the start. This is exactly why it seems so inescapably difficult to get lean, strong and healthy.
The food industry and our own government are making us fat and sick and now the pharmaceutical industry wants to make us pay for drugs and medication as the only real alternative to treat our condition. Why? Again, traditional diet and exercise programs have simply not been effective. This has been demonstrated clearly in studies like the one conducted by the CDC. It is also clearly shown in the statistics showing obesity rates rising simultaneously with our wildly desperate expenditures on diet and fitness products. The very governmental establishments and institutions we depend on for the truth are getting closer to officially approving this ugly, expensive and dangerous cycle which they have allowed to exist.
So, let me get this straight. We will ignore the overwhelming and demonstrated proof that our modern food industry’s food products are making us fat and sick. We will then admit that our common, popular methods of diet and exercise are now useless weapons against this cause of these problems – our modern foods. Instead, we will treat its consequences of obesity, chronic disease and often pre-mature death with expensive drugs. Worse still, these drugs will never be as effective as simply not eating the awful processed foods which are causing the problem. So, even though they may make some of us slimmer, we will still be stuck with ill-health caused by not completely removing the cause. We will pay for these new drugs and will also be exposed to all of these drugs’ side effects.
We will now be herded into the solutions provided by the pharmaceutical and medical industries – drugs, gastric bypass surgery, catheters for our failing hearts, more drugs for the drugs’ side effects and on and on. These are all imperfect and expensive treatments for symptoms of a problem we know exactly how to cure completely – but refuse to. By the way, these medical solutions pose some other statistically proven risks. Many people are unaware of the fact that physician error, medical error and adverse events from drugs or surgery kill well over 200,000 people per year in the United States. That makes the health care system the third leading cause of death behind only cancer and heart disease. This is hardly a confidence booster. If it’s any consolation, they are making an enormous amount of money from us.
Summarizing:
We know precisely what the problem is: Our modern food supply
We know who created the problem: Our modern food industry
We know who allowed this to happen and actually helped the problem and its perpetrators grow wildly out of control: Our governments, medical, and educational institutions
We know exactly why this happened: Money and power
Finally, we have a PROVEN solution to the problem – Stop eating dangerous processed food from our modern food industry, and instead eat primarily our original, unprocessed, evolutionary foods – naturally raised animals, fruits, vegetables and nuts & seeds. These foods are proven to keep us lean, strong, and exceedingly healthy
Hallelujah! Finally! NOW we know what happened to us! Great news! We also have a clear solution! Okay – all together now! …AND OUR OBVIOUS NEW COURSE OF ACTION WILL BE…?
Uhhhmmm….. we’ll keep eating more and more of our modern crappy foods and just take expensive new drugs and have surgery or whatever else we can think up as dismal attempts to deal with the dire consequences of our obesity, chronic illness and death.
WHAT THE &%!?
…..REALLY?
Yup! The vast majority of your friends and neighbors will do just that. Unfortunately for them, the “Paleolitic eating lobby” is very small…scratch that…it doesn’t exist. The power and influence and monetary, educational, and cultural hegemony of modern food will continue rolling right along. This will be assured by our own government. Further, the simple truth about exercises and muscle relating to fat loss will also be drowned out by overwhelming cacophony of useless misinformation from our modern diet and fitness industry. Why? Because the wonderfully simple and easy to apply solutions to get us slim and healthy…
….WON’T MAKE ANY OF THESE INDUSTRIES ANY $ MONEY!
On the contrary, the truth will in fact cause them to lose huge amounts of money. Therefore, it won’t be common public knowledge any time soon. Because money drives everything – even our collective chronic ill-health!
This is a classic case of treating the symptoms – ineffectively – instead of the cause. Worse still, we know the cause and we know the exactly how to stop it completely. What seems to be preventing these truths from becoming government sponsored is a grand compromise for the sake money and industry. To me, treating the public this way is insidious. For the folks making all the money it’s a little like shooting fish in a barrel.
I would love to suggest that this is some form of mass hypnosis or some kind of grand spell we have been cast under, but it really isn’t. Once you see all of the pieces of the puzzle come together and realize what the underlying force behind this really is (money) you begin to really understand our dilemma. You also understand that it really isn’t our fault for getting fatter and less healthy. Is it our fault for trusting our elected officials, our food guides, our registered dieticians? Is it our fault for trusting the large companies and huge industries that many of us work for and rely on?
While we were living in a faster and faster world; where food was concerned, we became asleep at the wheel. All the while these industries and our governments literally created this problem. Like some kind of a bad dream this dilemma has crept further and further into our lives especially over the last few decades. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse for the unenlightened.
It’s wonderful thing that the truth always seems to set you free. I believe the reason this information is so arcane and fractious is that to really figure out the scope of the problem one needs to read at a lot of clinical books and additional research. The truth about our chronic health and fitness problems is certainly not readily available nor is it common information. Nor is it exciting reading. Further, it is from completely different and often unrelated areas of study. Nonetheless, the facts bluntly lead to the inescapable conclusions and subsequent solutions to our problem. This blog and the book it represents are attempts to summarize those facts and solutions.