

"Keep off the pounds or lose your mind more rapidly." - cwan
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006970.html

======
DarkShikari
_"We need great weight loss drugs that adjust the metabolism to keep weight
off without side effects."_

Talk about missing the point. As discussed in Good Calories, Bad Calories (aka
The Diet Delusion), there was a study done of mice in which a group of mice
was bred with knockout genes in order to be much more obese than normal mice.
However, they were given the exact same diet as a group of normal, healthy
mice. The obese mice had no higher rates of any of the illnesses commonly
associated with obesity (diabetes, heart attacks, etc).

But a group of mice that were fed with an unhealthy diet to become equally
obese had all of those problems.

Obesity and other health issues have a common cause. Obesity does not cause
(most) health issues it is commonly associated with. Solving obesity without
solving the common cause will do little more than make us feel better about
ourselves.

Being obese doesn't make you unhealthy--being unhealthy makes you obese.

~~~
reasonattlm
The above is misleading and wishful thinking. Compare with the papers and
disease mechanisms referenced in these posts:

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/03/lose-the-
visceral...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/03/lose-the-visceral-
fat.php)

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/01/how-excess-fat-
ti...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/01/how-excess-fat-tissue-
slowly-destroys-you.php)

It's the fat.

~~~
DarkShikari
It's "wishful thinking" to say that a "magical drug" won't solve all our
problems? Seriously?

I'm pretty sure the people proclaiming that all we need is a miracle drug to
eliminate fat are the ones involved in wishful thinking.

Read the facts: [http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-
ba...](http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-bad-
calories/). Being fat may have some health costs, but the primary impact is
caused by the diet that _made_ you fat. If you believe that simply removing
the fat caused by an unhealthy diet will make you healthy again, now _that_ is
wishful thinking.

If you don't eat healthy, you won't be healthy, no matter how many pills you
swallow and how much you exercise.

~~~
watmough
Based on my wife, who has lost a whole bunch of weight, some weight loss tips:

    
    
      * Other than say breakfast cereal and snack soups, eat mainly or only food cooked at home,
      * By implication, no fast food,
      * Lean toward simple minimally processed ingredients,
      * No soda,
      * Buy smaller plates, US standard dinner plates are way too big,
      * For any restaurant, only ever eat half the portion. Sack the rest and eat as leftovers later in the week,
      * Where possible, avoid foods such as bread, ready meals, cereal, jams and jellies that contain HFCS,
    

This ideas can be eased into over a period of months, and will lead to a much
healthier diet, and as a bonus, will teach you to cook.

As a further bonus, a diet like this cut our grocery bill for two down to
around $300 / month. And we still get dessert!

~~~
DarkShikari
I did something similar: near the end of January I dropped all soda, increased
the amount of meat, cheese, eggs, and vegetables in my diet, and removed
almost all rice, pasta, and bread from my diet. I added a large water bottle
to my desk and drank it all day.

I kept some desserts, but replaced all my snacks with cashews and other nuts
(high fat/protein content, low carbs).

I've lost almost 20 pounds since then. It's damn effective.

~~~
watmough
Yeah, we've been spreading the word.

I'm not a big guy, but I was getting kinda burly. I made one change, which was
eating only half a Chipotle burrito bowl for lunch, instead of the whole
thing. That ONE CHANGE dropped me 10 - 15 pounds.

No doubt about it, soda and processed food are poison. It not even like you
have to go full-on zealot, just a trip back 20 years to eating meatloaf, nuts,
vegetables, home-made bread.

------
lanerapp
Growth Hormone is stimulated by exercise. The simplified story is that GH puts
sugar into cells so that it can be used. Sure you can choose to buy that diet
drink if you don't stimulate much GH (don't yell at the food companies for
giving people what they buy) but if you ride your bike and take the stairs
having that coke will only leave you with a smile.

Excess sugar, on the other hand,is toxic as we just ain't used to it
(evolution). If too much sugar floats around the blood the immune system feels
the need to respond and the sugar related molecules collect and glom into more
antigenic moiety junk...blah,blah we then get chemical and physical reactions
and clogging of capillaries and membrane pores and all that other complicated
stuff. Bad for most systems in the body, it's only been recent that we figured
the brain was just as susceptible as the tiny nerves and the tiny arterioles
surrounding the nerves in the toe of a diabetic.

Bodies can make sugar out of other nutritive molecules. In general, eat less
sugar and stimulate more Growth Hormone by exercise. GH is a true fountain of
youth.

------
megaduck
From the article: _"We need great weight loss drugs that adjust the metabolism
to keep weight off without side effects."_

Or we could encourage healthier lifestyles. A good start would be introducing
requirements for pedestrian footpaths and bike lanes in new communities.
Trying to walk or ride a bike in many recently built communities is either
impossible or scary.

That's just one idea, there's a lot of others out there. The bottom line is
that if we sit on our butts all day and eat high-caloric sugary foods, then
we're going to get fat. That's simply the way our biology is wired. I have a
hard time imagining that any new wonder-drug is going to change those
fundamentals.

~~~
pyre
How about encouraging food producers to stop sticking sugar and/or high-
fructose corn syrup into _EVERYTHING_. I'm almost to the point that I feel I
could go to the store and look at the ingredients for a container of salt and
see sugar/HFCS in there instead of just 'salt.'

~~~
bootload
_"... food producers to stop sticking sugar and/or high-fructose corn syrup
into EVERYTHING. ..."_

That is a sign you are eating the wrong things. Just as I like my gasses
simple [0] so I like my food simple. In fact a Scot would recognise my
breakfast (Oats) and any Italian, Greek or Frenchman would recognise what I'm
having for lunch (vegetables celery tomato cabbage spring onion spices olive
oil soy sauce spices as the noodles & meat are gone) ~
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4383706461/> left over from last night.

As Jamie Oliver was quoted in TheAge, Good Weekend, p20: "There's a new type
of poverty and it's f...ing knowledge poverty".

[0] Obscure Zodiac reference: "...The simpler the molecule, the better the
drug. So the best drug is oxygen. Only two atoms. The second-best, nitrous
oxide—a mere three atoms. The third-best, ethanol—nine. Past that, you’re
talking lots of atoms ..." ~
[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson#Zodiac_.281988....](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson#Zodiac_.281988.29)

~~~
pyre
> _That is a sign you are eating the wrong things._

Really? Do I really need to have HFCS in my whole-grain bread? Or am I 'eating
the wrong things?' I'm not talking about removing sugar from donuts or
pastries in some attempt to eat junk food and still not get fat. I mean, I'm
sure that I could find HFCS in _mustard_ or all things.

This is also not to mention all of the fruit juices/cocktails that are on
supermarket shelves that are so _loaded_ with additional sugar or HFCS that I
can't even drink them. It would be nice to not have to pay twice the price to
get a bottle with 100% juice in it or at the very least have a larger
selection of juices that aren't loaded with sugar. It's not even that I'm a
huge juice drinker. It's just depressing to see some juice at the grocery
store that sounds like an interesting blend of fruit flavors only to realize
that the first ingredient on the list is sugar. I mean how many people are
actually reading those labels? They are probably buying those bottles of juice
thinking that it's somehow more 'healthy' than drinking soda, only to be
deceived by the juice companies.

~~~
bootload
_"... his is also not to mention all of the fruit juices/cocktails .."_

Squeeze your own so you know what's in it.

 _"... Do I really need to have HFCS in my whole-grain bread? ..."_

Harder, but find a better baker.

 _"... It's just depressing to see some juice at the grocery store that sounds
like an interesting blend of fruit flavors only to realize that the first
ingredient on the list is sugar. I mean how many people are actually reading
those labels? They are probably buying those bottles of juice thinking that
it's somehow more 'healthy' than drinking soda, only to be deceived by the
juice companies. ..."_

Look I agree. What's not happening is transparency in food processing. That's
why I try to remove the processing out of my food. Am I 100% successful, no.
But by buying the raw ingredients and cooking them up myself I can attempt to
avoid this problem.

Of course the next bit is knowing sovereignty of fruit and vegetables. But
that's another problem. I guess as a consumer _we_ can vote with our dollars
to make a difference here.

~~~
pyre
I really think that we need to bring this issue to the fore-front rather than
this 'vote with your dollar' stuff. I'm not in favor of government
intervention per-se, but eliminating any government subsidies that promote
usage of additives could be on the docket. "Vote with your dollar," doesn't
really work as a solution unless you reach a critical mass of people that are
willing to vote with their dollar. Raising awareness is also a crucial step.

------
reasonattlm
A couple more along those lines:

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/03/a-gentle-
reminder...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/03/a-gentle-reminder-
that-fat-will-eat-your-mind.php)

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/12/grow-fat-and-
lazy...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/12/grow-fat-and-lazy-and-
vascular-dementia-awaits.php)

There's a lot of research to link accumulated visceral fat tissue to aspects
of accelerated degenerative aging. Also, separately, a weight of research
linking the body's responses to the overeating and lack of exercise needed for
most people to build up that fat to aspects of accelerated degenerative aging.

------
gcheong
[http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/65A/1/57...](http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/65A/1/57.full)

------
DavidSJ
Correlation ≠ Causality

