healing process goes haywire when we bombard the body with unrecognizable substances in the form of a diet rich in processed foods, sugar, fat, salt, high-fructose corn syrup, and synthetic compounds. The body activates the inflammation response, essentially sensing a five-alarm fire, and it continues this every day, so the inflammation response goes on and on. In other words, the body sends a SWAT team on an endless mission, so that it never leaves!
By the way, stress works the same way. An acute stressor followed by a short-term inflammation response is natural. But chronic, unmanaged stress leading to long-term inflammation can be harmful. For more on this, see chapter 7.
Hormone Imbalances from Excess Belly Fat
As I’ve said, insulin resistance, cortisol, inflammation, and belly fat are a direct result of our modern, unhealthy diet. In addition, lack of regular physical activity, chronic stress, and lack of sleep are also major contributors.
Yet there is another serious issue with belly fat: It is an active hormone-signaling system that wreaks havoc on our appetite, our cravings, and even our endocrine system — the network of hormone signals that allows our body organs to act in harmony.
In men, belly fat contains aromatase, an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen, which is bad news for men because men need testosterone for energy, vitality, maintaining healthy metabolism, erections, and libido.6
In women, excess belly fat signals the ovaries to produce more testosterone, which contributes to acne, hair loss, cysts on the ovaries, and lack of ovulation (also known as polycystic ovary syndrome, to use fancy doctor words). This is an important factor behind infertility and menstrual irregularity in women. It is in fact very common for supposedly infertile women to be able to conceive after losing some of their excess weight.7
Yet another problem with a diet loaded with processed foods full of carbohydrates and fats is that it triggers resistance to leptin, a satiety hormone. This resistance to leptin helps create the perception that we are starving, even as we are being overloaded with calorie-dense fake foods.
The Difference between Real Hunger and Craving
Your goal should be to maintain satiety or satisfaction, to start thinking about food as a source of energy and wisdom from nature. However, to understand satiety, you must first understand hunger. What does hunger mean to you? Craving sugar, chocolate, cheese, or meat is less likely real hunger and more likely an addiction reaction, arising from the effect of these substances on the reward center of the brain. The same sensations of craving — jitteriness, headaches, fatigue, irritability — are present in drug withdrawal. True hunger is a mouth or throat sensation similar to thirst. We often mistake thirst, boredom, nutritional deficiency, or a low blood sugar for hunger.
Have you ever been truly hungry?
A good gauge of whether a meal is truly nourishing is the degree to which it keeps you satiated. A meal that is biochemically suited to your needs should keep you satisfied for three to five hours.
In the following chapters, we will come up with a “zero-belly strategy” to turbocharge your metabolism, by exploiting the healing power that each of us is blessed with the day we are born.
Shedding ugly belly fat can be the key to reversing diabetes, improving heart health and memory, increasing energy and vitality, improving erectile dysfunction, preventing cancer, and getting rid of sleep apnea and fatty liver disease, in addition to injecting you with more energy and zest for life.
When your body is given the right fuel, you gain energy and vitality, and there is no need for it to be hoarded as fat in places where it can cause harm.
Every time you eat or drink, you are either nourishing your body or feeding disease. You have two choices: You can either “try” — that is, make excuses and then fail — or you can succeed no matter what obstacles come your way.
In the words of Yoda in Star Wars: “Do or do not. . . .There is no try.”
Facts and Fallacies
• Fat is just inert excess energy.
We know now that fat is actually metabolically and normally active tissue that produces insulin resistance, inflammation, and cravings for unhealthy foods.
• You cannot grow new fat cells as an adult.
The reality is that you can grow new fat cells (and new muscle cells and brain cells) as an adult. New cell formation is called hyperplasia. Enlargement of existing cells is called hypertrophy.
• Being hungry all the time makes you fat.
It’s almost the reverse: Carrying unhealthy belly fat makes you hungry. Belly fat hoards energy (rather than releasing it for burning), leaving you feeling hungry all the time.
CASE STUDY: MARY
Mary, a fifty-three-year-old schoolteacher, had a long history of excessive weight gain. She had tried several weight-loss programs with little success. Entering the Turbo Metabolism program was a game changer for her. She began to think about food as energy and information. I emphasized that physical activity and emotional well-being were also very important, and so she incorporated strategies for both aspects in her daily routines.
In the process Mary dropped twelve pounds and three inches of fat from her waist in two months. She feels that these results are just the beginning, and she continues to feel better every day. By taking better care of herself, Mary has already had a positive impact on her students and colleagues.
RULES TO LIVE BY
Time for a reality check: Do you have extra pounds around your belly? Has your doctor advised you to lose weight, but you avoid tests, ignore test results, or prefer to pretend that you are not at risk?
Embrace a zero-belly strategy with these rules to live by:
• The battle is won or lost hand to mouth. What and how much you eat matters.
• Food is not the enemy. Substances disguised as food are the land mines to avoid.
• You can win this war. Once you recognize the problem, you can begin the fight against metabolic syndrome.
• The stakes are high. The food you put in your mouth today will determine the quality of the rest of your life.
