David Oliver, PhD describes himself as a nutritional scientist. A very smart guy, he likes to say that he lost 80 pounds on the Atkins diet. Three times. He discovered getting rid of the dairy in his diet resulted in a permanent weight loss program. What he's learned over the years is incredibly complex...what about the human body isn't? And he's shared that information in a manner with much more clarity than I can ever hope to attain. This note from Dave was originally posted in the lowcarb-list circa '95 or thereabouts:
Begin quote:
"As a nutritional scientist, I have spent most of my career in weight and diabetes control research. Due to bias and special interest funding of many studies, I've had to initiate private research projects to probe for the real answers to weight management issues.
Being severely overweight and diabetic myself, I had a personal stake in finding these answers.
Over the past 11 years working with thousands of people with weight and blood sugar problems, I have developed an opinion on many issues that puts me on somewhat of an island in the main stream of popular belief. After monitoring some of the questions posted, I'm compelled to ante my 2 cents with the understanding that its value be in the eye of the beholder.
(1) If I was limited to only one message to deliver to a person with a weight problem it would be..."It's not your Fault". Our ability to control our weight, appetite or energy levels is not a personality issue. It's not a willpower or some mental shortcoming... it's chemical.
(2) "Losing weight has nothing to do with solving a weight problem". You can do one without the other. If we lose weight without solving something or at least learning something, the weight will not stay off long enough to enjoy it.
(3) "There are only two dietary modifications a person can make that can promote body fat loss". You can cut calories... or cut carbohydrates. You can't cut potassium, zinc, cow chips or any other substance from your diet (including dietary fats) and lose body fat, unless... you also cut calories or carbohydrates. Keep in mind, no matter which method you use to lose the weight, if we don't address the underlying cause of the weight problem, the weight will come back.
(4) It's my opinion that the underlying conditions that create weight problems are: (a) a reduced Glucose Tolerance Level, or (b) a slow metabolic rate.
(A) A reduced glucose Tolerance level (GTL)
The fuel our body runs on is a simple sugar, glucose. We obtain this fuel from our diet in two forms... simple sugars and complex sugars. The major difference in these sugars is in the rate in which they enter the bloodstream. Since the body operates on simple sugar, the simple sugars from our diet requires almost no processing or digestion and therefore will enter the bloodstream immediately. We can receive an immediate blood sugar rush from substances that provide simple sugars (sugar, white flour, milk, fruit juices). On the other hand, complex sugars from potatoes, peas, beans, rice or whole grains must be broken down into simple sugar to be utilized. This processing takes time. Therefore, the sugar will be slowly released into the bloodstream over the digestion period of the food. Complex sugars provide a more efficient fuel for the body.
The carbohydrate value represents the total sugar value of the substance.
Carohydrate = Simple Sugars + Complex Sugars
Unfortunately we have a limit to the amount of fuel (sugar) we can tolerate at any one instant. It's not how many carbohydrates we can tolerate in a day that is important, it's how much glucose (sugar) can we tolerate at any one moment in time. This is our Glucose Tolerance Level (GTL).
When we exceed this GTL, or if our blood sugar level is racing rapidly toward our GTL, the body produces insulin which will stop the rush and bring our blood sugar level back down. Insulin does not consume this sugar, it simply stores this excess fuel away for future use. This is where body fat comes from. Body fat is not stored calories or dietary fats or some other mysterious substance... it's stored sugar (glucose).
The higher our GTL, the more fuel we can tolerate at any given moment. If our GTL is normal, we could eat our appetite in the foods the way the earth provides them and seldom exceed this limit. However, once we begin refining these foods, we can create "food stuff" that can be toxic
to this system (table sugar, white flour). It doesn't always require much refinement to create a toxic substance. For example, you may love oranges. How many oranges would you normally eat at one sitting? One or maybe two? You would probably not eat eight or ten oranges. It's not that you hate oranges after one or two, it's just that you don't want anymore now. This is what I call "the YUK syndrome".
It's the body's natural way of stopping us from consuming too much.
Now let's refine these oranges slightly and see what we can create. The simple sugar is in the juice of the fruit, so let's squeeze the juice from the oranges and see what happens. Now how many oranges can we do? We can now consume several times more than what the body would normally allow. We have found a way of getting by this "YUK" thing. Yes, we are going to receive a healthy dose of vitamin C, but we are also going to get a toxic blast of simple sugar.
Carbohydrates are not the bad guys here, it's the abuse of simple carbohydrates that can reduce our GTL and cause serious problems. Did you water your pasta tree today? How many of us grew up thinking "macaroni & cheese" was a vegetable. Most pasta is made from enriched, bleached, no food value, white flour. Teaspoon for teaspoon, white flour produces a simple sugar rush almost equal to that of table sugar. So when we eat a bowl of pasta, we could be eating pie as far as our sugar system is concerned.
As a society we abuse simple sugars, therefore as a society we are going to suffer the consequences. Weight problems, appetite and eating disorders, hypoglycemia, and diabetes, to name a few.
The more we abuse simple sugars, the lower our GTL becomes. As our GTL lowers, the body begins to react quicker and more violently to rises in our blood sugar level. The body begins to over-react to blood sugar rises by producing too much insulin. This over-production of insulin causes our blood sugar to crash back down which creates cravings or other low blood sugar symptoms.
This is not something in your head... it's real. No matter who you are or how much willpower you think you have, if you have a blood sugar crash, you are going to crave something and it will not be broccoli. You are going to need something that can be quickly converted to glucose (sugar).
Can a person with a GTL problem lose weight? Certainly... if we restrict our diet enough we can lose weight, however if we don't rebuild our GTL, the weight will come back when we go back to eating normally. Some diets, especially low fat diets, can actually make the problem worse and cause us to gain back more weight than we lose. In my opinion, a modified low carbohydrate program is the best approach to lose weight and rebuild our tolerance for carbohydrates. However, most low carbohydrate diets address only the weight loss issue and not the reconditioning necessary to enable us to get the necessary carbohydrate foods back into our diet. Any weight loss diet should be a temporary means to accomplish a short-term goal (lose weight).
We need those potatoes, beans, rice and fruits back in our diet at some point.
(B) Our metabolic rate
Even if our fuel (glucose) system is operating perfectly, if we don't burn energy at a normal rate, we can't input energy at a normal rate. Metabolism problems are separate from GTL conditions discussed earlier. A person with a metabolism problem would typically not perform well on most diets. Where most people who cut calories or carbohydrates can lose weight, the person with a slow metabolism would not lose, or lose very slowly. If you burn energy at a slow rate, you would also burn body fat at a slow rate when dieting. Again, losing weight is not the ultimate solution here.
If you could wave a wand and the weight was gone, what good would this do?
Unless you solve the metabolism problem, the weight is going to come back.
The following are the most common root causes of our metabolism problems:
(1) Low calorie dieting. Most people who have been on many diets or read many diet books realize that if we cut calories, our metabolic rate slows. Calories represent the life energy value of a substance and the body needs calories to survive. We don't manufacture calories, the body does not store calories (body fat is not stored calories), therefore we must obtain these calories from our diet each day. If we reduce our input of calories, the body must counter by reducing the rate we burn this energy (our metabolic rate).
(2) Food intolerances. When we ingest a poison or a substance that we are sensitive to, the body tends to slow the entire machine down. Our metabolic rate can be effected for a few hours, up to several days, after consuming a substance that we are sensitive to. In the
past five years since I discovered this allergy connection to our metabolic rate, almost three of every four metabolism problems we found was related to some food, medication or other substance intolerance. It can be a seasoning, preservative, coloring, or even the most nutritious substance in our diet. No matter how nutritious a food or substance may be, if it slows your metabolic rate for any substantial length of time... it's fattening.
Other typical symptoms of food problems would be: fluid retention, bloating, sinus problems, headaches, insomnia, increased appetite or lack of energy.
(3) Hormone problems. Many hormones, especially female hormones, can directly effect your metabolic rate. Menopause begins at age 50? It's been my experience that some people may begin having problems at 25. The only noticeable symptom of this may be weight gain due to its effect to the metabolic rate. Birth control pills, steroids, hormone replacement therapy, and your thyroid function may also have an adverse effect to your metabolic rate.
SUMMARY
Weight management is a complex issue and there are no one-size-fits-all solution. However, we can be sure of one thing-- if we see a guy in the mall that is a hundred pounds overweight with a candy bar in each hand, we may not know what the problem is, but we do know-- "it's not his fault".
I apologize for this long winded answer to questions that you didn't even ask, but it's difficult for me to give my opinion of what to do without discussing why.
David Oliver
I will do my best to state my position on any question you may have.
RECENT QUESTIONS:
(1) WHY ADD BACK POTATOES, GRAINS AND FRUITS?
I believe that restricting the carbohydrate end of our diet is the safest and most efficient method of losing weight, for several reasons. However, we need to be working toward a time where those foods can be added back to the diet. Remember, carbohydrates are not the bad guys. It wasn't the potatoes, beans, or even the fruit that created our glucose tolerance problems. It was the abuse of simple sugars.
In the long range view, we need the nutrition and fuel that these foods provide. Yes, on paper you can supplement most of those nutrients, but in my opinion, technology has not developed to the point where we can discard these foods and get our nutrition from a formula or pill. We need to get back to the foods the way the earth intended them. This includes: the meat from animals, vegetables, grains, nuts and the fruit.
If we have a low glucose tolerance, we must recondition our sugar system to allow us to someday add back these foods. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all plan to accomplish this, it could be different for each of us based on the severity of the problem. However, the theory is simple.
"Build tolerance through association." Example: if you wanted to lift a hundred pounds with one arm and you cannot lift it now... odds are, you could not come back six months from now and lift it either. And, the more you abuse the arm by straining and struggling trying to lift more than you are conditioned for, the weaker the arm becomes. To condition the arm for the task, we must begin with five pounds and slowly increase the weight over time until we build our strength to the point we can lift the hundred pounds.
Our sugar system works the same way. If we abuse it, we reduce our tolerance. To build tolerance for carbohydrates, we must incorporate them into our diet systematically.
(2) DIZZY, WEAK, HEADACHES, CRAVINGS
Many people experience these problems especially when they first begin a diet. Most believe this is withdrawals from sugar or some other substance, in most cases its not withdrawals at all... it's blood sugar related. Most people with weight problems are having blood sugar problems, whether they realize it or not-- so when they drop the soft drinks, snacks and other substances that they were using to prop up their sugar level, they get the headaches, cravings or other low blood sugar symptoms.
The body needs sugar. It's not a "want" sugar thing... it "needs" sugar.
It doesn't need a dozen donuts, but it does need a little sugar lift.
You can either suffer, or fix it. The best cure for this is regular, store bought, creamy, PEANUT BUTTER. A good scoop (1 - 1 1/2 tbsp) will work magic without blowing your diet. It will help in three ways. (a) The sugar in it will elevate the blood sugar level in 10 min. or less which will knock out the cravings and other symptoms. (b) The calories will also help satisfy the appetite. (c) The monounsaturated fat from the peanuts are good to help offset some of the excess saturated fat in the diet. Peanut butter is any dieters best friend. Try it on your next headache,craving or anytime you are feeling out of gas.
(3) LOCATING FOOD INTOLERANCES (ALLERGIES)
In the past five years since I discovered the connection with food problems and our metabolic rate, three of every four metabolism problems we find are linked to something we are ingesting. It could be a chemical, preservative, coloring or the safest food in your diet. These food problems seldom produce direct symptoms that could be easily associated with the food.
This is such a huge weight control and quality of life concern that a large part of my program is centered around locating these bad guys. This is why 100 people can go on the exact same diet and have 95 different reactions. It would be simple if we could just go to the doctor and get an allergy test, but I have found this not to be effective in locating these problems. There are several methods that we use to help locate these problems--
one simple method you may try is watching your body fluids.
It seems that when we ingest something that the body is sensitive to, the body reacts by retaining fluids. Bloating, swelling, rings hard to get off and on, these would be a typical symptom of a food problem. So, by plotting our body fluids along with our diet, we can often isolate these problem foods.
The simplest method of monitoring our body fluids, is by weighing the body. Most of our body weight is fluids. Fluid, muscle, bone... body fat is the lightest part of the composition. Most of us use the bathroom scales to measure body fat loss or gain... this can be very frustrating and, in most cases, absolutely false information. It's nothing to gain or lose two, three, up to five or more pounds in a day. This is not body fat coming off and on, it's fluids. Body weight is a horrible method of monitoring body fat loss, use the tape measure. Body fat does not weight much, but a pound of it does take up some room. Use the mirror, how your close are fitting or the tape measure to watch for body fat. But if you want to watch your fluids, the scales can help. Plot your body weight along with your diet. If you keep good records and rotate your foods around, you have a good chance of finding the fluid problem, and possibly the source of a metabolism problem.
Many of you may have heard, "anything we are addicted to-- we are allergic to".
When we ingest a substance that we are sensitive to, the body can react in a couple of different ways.
(1) We can have a severe physical reaction and we will never want to touch the stuff again, or
(2) It can seem to give us a little lift, make us feel better--short term.
Unfortunately, the second example is the most common. It often gives us a little short term lift. However, because we are sensitive to the substance, it will cause us to crash back down, lower than we were to begin with.
In my opinion-- most emotional, nervous or stress related eating problems (as well as addictions) are centered around these food sensitivities. Milk, chocolate, MSG, sugar and seasonings are notorious for triggering these reactions-- but it could be your favorite food.
Caution: Some people with a high metabolic rate can burn body fat at a rate that can be dangerous. This is where ketones acquired such a bad name. Ketones being a carbon, can be toxic in high levels to the kidneys and well as to other systems. Add to this the possibility that the body may be burning at such a high rate that its needs may not be met from body fat alone and therefore begin breaking down muscle. I do not mention this to scare you. It is rare for a person to be metabolically fortunate enough for this to happen. But if it is only one out of ten thousand, it's always this one that people will remember and try to use to discourage you.
Keep in mind, most of the strips that are being used are only accurate up to 160. The strip will saturate at this level and will not get darker. Are you running 160 or 560... who knows? I use a modified low carbohydrate program for most of the people I work with, in my weight management practice, to enable us to use ketones as one of our tools to get to the root cause of the weight problem. It's my belief, that a diet that produces ketones, within reasonable levels, is safe and effective for most people.
However, in my opinion-- any program that does not involve the search for the underlying condition that created the weight problem to begin with, will produce only temporary results."
David Oliver
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