The Plague of Obesity

Over 85 Percent of Americans Will Be Overweight or Obese by 2030.

A recent study from the John Hopkins Bloomburg School of Public Health is projecting that a steady increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity will reach 86.3 percent of adults in the American population by 2030. The prevalence for a child to be overweight will double and 1 of every 6 health care dollars will be used to pay for over weight and obesity related costs. If the trends continue with no response to the data collected over the past three decades, 100% of adults will be classified as overweight or obese by 2048. At the American Heart Association's conference last week, two studies, done independently in different countries, showed that obese children had a "vascular age about 30 years older than their actual age."

Smoking once ruled our world of disease provocation, but a new adversary has come along. Obesity is the new threat to take us over to the dark side. The newest of dangers we will face in our lifetimes. It's killing more people a month than terror and drugs have killed this decade.

You often think of fat cells as the burdensome accumulations on your waist, hips and thighs; however, did you know that fat cells have an endocrine action-creating a messaging protein called leptin?

In 1994, scientists discovered communication between fat cells and your brain. A messaging hormone called Leptin that is manufactured by every fat cell in your body tells your brain when you've had enough to eat. It also serves as a sort of "on-off switch" for fat cells-a switch that determines whether cells will store fat or burn fat. This messaging protein is a true weight loss weapon when in balance and an enemy when too much is created.
But, for this switch to work, your brain has to clearly hear leptin's message. When your body is sensitive and listens to the leptin message, it is easily satisfied with food, but the message can be drowned out as a result of overeating.
Fat cells keep churning out more and more leptin trying to make the message heard, and the brain and other body tissues only respond when leptin levels are low. Now the message is ignored. This is called leptin resistance and it is a major factor in weight gain.

The research has revealed something that works with your body's natural systems to lose weight safely and to allow you to maintain that weight loss! Leptin is what gives the signal to your brain that you are full and can stop eating. It also regulates weight by sending a message to either burn fat or store fat. When your body is sensitive and listens to leptin, it has an easy time being satisfied with food and will burn fat for energy.
Unfortunately, if we consistently overeat, the fat we have gained will send out too much leptin which causes the brain and body to stop listening to those important messages. This creates a vicious cycle: fat cells keep creating more and more leptin, so the body stores more fat. More fat creates even more leptin. This is commonly called, "leptin resistance" and it is a major factor in the weight gain cycle.
Another culprit sabotaging the leptin signal is the ubiquitous sweetener fructose.

Fructose, which is found in many foods, has been found to cause leptin resistance, thus directly linking it to weight gain and obesity. Here's one study that shows its effect on leptin and the link to leptin resistance.

Researchers injected leptin into two groups of animals studied over a period of six months. Both groups were fed the same diet, except one of the groups was also given fructose. Theoretically, both groups of rats should have responded by eating less. However, what they found was that the rats fed fructose had become leptin resistant, and therefore did not alter their food intake, whereas the rats who were not fed fructose began to eat less as expected. They then switched both groups of animals to a high calorie, high fat diet. Those fed fructose ate more and gained significantly more weight and fat than the animals fed a fructose free diet.

How we've become so unconcerned with our health isn't a mystery. We've simply followed marketing trends, which have seen junky foods and other easily consumable items become more and more a mainstay in our diets. Gas stations and convenience stores are filled with virtually nothing but junk food and drug-filled beverages. Supermarkets are only slightly better, placing their healthy items on the fringes and filling the middle aisles with pre-made medleys of genetically modified corn and soy. The companies that have become successful marketing this said, "Junk now dominate our airwaves to the point where a person dropped into an American city could easily assume that we, indeed, do live primarily on fast food, sports drinks, and mind-altering legal substances."

Unfit individuals have elevated white blood cells and significantly higher levels of fat deposits and increased leptin resistance. This has been shown to be a lead in to cirrhosis, liver failure, cancer and a heightened risk of diabetes related heart disease due to more inflammation in the artery walls, high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol levels.

Somehow, someway, we need to find a way to exercise more. Exercise levels have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years, and our health has gone along with it. Nothing has a greater effect on our health than exercise. It's only through exercise that our bodies produce hormones at healthy levels. And if we exercise enough, it even combats an unhealthy diet.

Eliminate soft drinks (including "energy" and sports drinks). It's estimated that American teenagers are getting around 15 percent of their total calories from soft drinks. Consider that this 15 percent contains nary a useful calorie, and you can see how these drinks can be problematic.
We don't need any sugar in our diets, but we get a lot of it. When we find sugars in nature, they're generally wrapped around other nutrients that minimize their negative effects and actuate their positive effects. In candy and, especially, beverages, sugar's negative effects are enhanced by the formulations because they are designed to perform more like drugs than nutrients.

Take nutrients specifically designed to reduce leptin levels and increase leptin sensitivity. A breakthrough came from research on balancing the leptin in the body and regaining control at the brain center by introducing simple and safe combinations of nutrients made up from a proprietary blend of polysaccharides and fatty acids.

The good news is that our bodies are capable of overcoming leptin resistance by implementing the lifestyle and nutritional recommendations suggested above. It takes about 2-3 weeks for your leptin sensitivity to re-balance. You will begin losing fat based on your own lifestyle. If you eat less, eat more balanced and exercise the results happen faster. Children can regain leptin sensitivity sooner than adults.

Back in the late 1960s, the United States sat among the top of the statistical world in education, health care, infant mortality rates, and life expectancy. We've been steadily declining. In all of those categories, we now rate near the bottom of what we refer to as "first-world" countries. This has happened while the top 1 percent of our country has become exceedingly rich and our middle class has all but disappeared. Our society became lazy and complacent about our world status. Now our statistical leadership among modern nations has been relegated to the obesity epidemic.

Because the obesity epidemic isn't a plague, it doesn't require doctors, politicians, or special education to change it. It only requires simple alterations that anyone can make to his or her everyday life. Anyone can eat better, exercise more, lose weight, and get healthy. And we all can inspire others to do the same. We can affect change across the world.