Did your great grandparents struggle with dieting and the inability to lose weight? Mine sure didn't. A stark comparison to the millions struggling with weight loss today... So why did your great grandparents NOT struggle with dieting and weight loss? It's REALLY quite simple-- they never encountered these dietary demons that are so common today sabotaging health and the ability to achieve a healthy weight:
1) They Moved. A lot.
Your great grandparents weren't sedentary humans. Less technology, conveniences, and luxuries forced them to get more movement from daily activities and errands, whereas today, leaving the house at all is completely optional.
2) Low calorie foods
Count CHEMICALS (#5 on the list), not calories. We need calories in order to stimulate the metabolism! When calories fall too low and create a calorie deficit, it's a clue for your body to SLOW the metabolism, and that is quite possibly weight loss's worst nightmare. Cutting your calories too low is actually one of the best ways to add pounds to your waistline. I mean, why would your body trim down when it thinks there is a serious food famine going on?
At the end of the day, survival is the #1 priority of the body. Therefore — eating a low-calorie diet is the best way to self-induce a slow metabolism.
3) Excess Nutrients Slowing Down your Liver (think vitamin A, copper and iron)
Did you know that getting too much of certain nutrients can push your body towards weight gain? I'm specifically talking about vitamin A here (think overdoing dairy products for decades, butter, eggs, liver, multivitamins, cod liver oil, and drugs like Accutane), but getting too much iron and copper is not good either. When the liver has too much of certain nutrients and gives your liver too much work to do and can slow down your whole detox system. Nutrient excess is often coined with nutritional deficiencies of things like potassium, zinc and taurine further preventing your body from doing the detoxification work it needs to do.
Want to find out if this is relevant to you? Get tested here (select HTMA - international clients and blood labs - US clients only).
4) Artificial Sweeteners
Mainstream wisdom likes to portray real sugar as this devilish creature, but I actually disagree and think the real enemy here is the FAKE sweeteners. I'm sure you've heard of aspartame, a popular sweetener you might recognize as NutraSweet and Equal, but it's also in many diet sodas. This artificial sweetener has over 10,000 documented cases of adverse reactions and over 900 published studies demonstrating it as a health hazard! According to Dr. Mercola, it's also a real threat to your weight loss goals: "Would it surprise you to learn aspartame may cause you to gain weight? It’s true -- products marketed as “reduced calorie,” “sugar-free,” and “diet” can actually sabotage your weight control efforts. The two main ingredients of aspartame, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, stimulate the release of insulin and leptin -- hormones which instruct your body to store fat." Dr. Mercola (source)
5) Chemical loaded foods
Oh chemicals, you keep food fresh forever, maintain that perfect processed food texture and prevent spoilage. But at what cost? Chemicals in your food produces a chemical burden in your body. Processed foods laced with chemicals often don't provide the needed nutrients to actually detoxify the chemicals out of your body. Poor detoxification is actually a huge enemy of weight loss, because your liver is the most important fat burning organ in the body! Keep it healthy!
6) Frankenfoods (Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs)
We have Monsanto to thank for this one. True story: A friend of a friend was at a local farmer's market in Seattle talking to an awesome meat vendor and local farmer. The farmer was telling her that they can no longer use intestines from US animals to make sausages because of all the GMO feed! The intestines of US animals that are used as the casing of the sausage disintegrates! This local farm now has to import intestines from New Zealand to use as the casing for their sausages. So answer this question for me before you buy your next GMO food: If GMO's are causing the intestines of US animals to disintegrate, what the heck are they doing to your insides? #veryscary
Need Help?
Get clarity on what is influence your liver-weight axis with the following testing:
- vitamin A (testing here)
- copper (testing here)
- iron (testing here)
- hair tissue mineral analysis (testing here)
This is why I always do a hair tissue mineral analysis test (tests for 35 different minerals and available to clients all over the world) on my clients along with some nutrient blood labs (zinc, copper, iron, vitamin A and whole blood histamine, available to clients in the US only) to identify any weak spots in their own body that could be slowing down the liver's detox work and influencing your waistline.
I hope this empowers you to reach your health goals by getting to the root of the problem (hint: your liver) and always giving your body what it needs.
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Photo Credit: Depositphotos.com/mikle15
Dannie
Awesome article and so true. All these things not only make us gain weight but they also make us sicker.
Erika
Ack!! That part about all the GMO feed/intestine story is the scariest. I'll definitely be paying a higher price for organic meats now.
Great article!
Barrie
It seems to me that our grandparents still died of heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, etc. I agree with the post but I don't know as our grandparents were necessarily healthier than this generation.
Terri
They died of heart disease due to the very high rates of smoking. Diabetes was virtually not known about for our great grandparents.
SunnySky
Article CLEARLY says.
"...YOUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS..."
Jeff D.
Excellent article Catherine. I do have an issue on one of the things you brought up though where I would like some clarifcation. In the PUFA fats section, you write: "And so what’s wrong with PUFA fats? They are harmful to all systems of the body, accelerate aging, slow thyroid function (metabolism), slow hormone synthesis, disrupt the immune system, and cause oxidative damage. According to my favorite endocrinologist Ray Peat, PhD, “Unsaturated fats cause aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer, & weight gain.”
I thought PUFA fats are only harmful if they came in the form of the processed vegetable oils due to the super high amounts of Omega 6 fats in nearly all those oils, the processing involved and the rancidity that happens to these oils overtime, in many cases toxic solvents used to extract the oils from the seeds/crops, and very often in the cases of canola, cottonseed, soybean, and corn; GMO's. From what I've learned, we need a small amount of Omega 3 and Omega 6 PUFA's as these are essential fatty acids that our bodies can't make on their own. But I think we can get the right amount of these fats from whole unprocessed (or minimally processed) things like wild fish/seafood, raw nuts, (or dry roasted with nothing added other than salt), flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. Plus I believe that most foods with saturated fat will contain small amounts of unsaturated fats as well including PUFA. It's the vegetable oils we have to stay away from. Plus in addition to the other problems, these oils will also cause our Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratios to go out of whack. Why does Dr. Peat have an issue with monosaturated fats that aren't heated (he said "unsaturated fats cause aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer, & weight gain", implying that MUFA's are a problem too).
But otherwise, you did a perfect job on this piece. Keep up the good work.
Josh
The amount of omega 6 you need is so negligible that you don't need any extra from single sources Jeff. Its pretty much in all our food. Most grains and other foods have omega 6 in them already naturally. Food with Omega3 naturally have omega 6 usually. If your eating any extra omega 6 its going to be too much already. Polyunsaturated fat is unstable already also so heating any of those oils make them more toxic than they already are. Most unsaturated vegetable oils are also in clear bottles which subjects them to bio-photons which damage the oil. Any unsaturated oil that has a clear bottle is already damaged oil. Saturated fats are better because they are chemically stable. Resistant to heat. Much more stable under heat and light. Our bodies fat are mainly saturated fat. When it comes time to replace a cell in the body it is much better to get the source of fat from a stable source like saturated fat than unsaturated. A lot of skin cancer could be reduced just by increasing a persons saturated fat intake. We are naturally suppose to eat saturated fat. Unsaturated fats require extreme processing with high pressure and high heat. Squeezing and crunching down seeds. Using hexane and other chemical compounds to get every last drop of oil out of the seeds. Not really natural or healthy.
Jessica
I was thinking the same thing!!
Dave
Cause like, I’ve been searching my whole life to find my own place.
misty
The population was also much smaller, farming was a way of life and people used animal lard in their cooking to give flavor. Animal fat is arguably just as bad as vegetable oil. I don't disagree with the article but it's not a clear cut issue.
phyllis
And they weren't trying to prance half naked in front of the world. They had real hips and curves and some meat on their bones without being stick thin. The criminal fashion industry has been a plague on women for a hundred years.
1915 started the shaving of women's legs and armpits and now today moved into private parts in order to show the world your fake nakedness.
Michelle
What about the fact that this generation was on its feet from sunup till sundown, never flopping on the couch to watch TV, staring at a computer screen all day or otherwise vegging out? Nutrition is a part, but activity levels are also huge. You can't maintain a couch potato lifestyle and eat all the full fat natural foods you want and lose weight...not a single cause issue here folks.
Marie Doe
no wonder my meat vendor at the local farmers market uses lamb casings for his beef italian sausage. Makes sense!
Our Freedom World
Thank you Catherine for sharing a informative article.
Rebecca
My family annals written in 1865 indicate that nearly every family member since the 1600 ' s was enormous. A 60 inch circumference waistcoat or a comment that she outweighed the horse was in most generations. They farmed and hunted all their own food. They were fat because food was plentiful, just like it is now. They consumed a lot of dairy and corn year round, both known factors in obesity. The 20th century relatives were chubby, and my mom's generation is slim. None of the things you listed are great for health, but neither are they solely responsible for obesity.
Julie
Our great-grandparents didn't have the FDA, the USDA or the EPA, either.
Susan
I totally agree with everything written about eating healthy. I do it every day.
But, I don't agree about the grandparent's comment. My grandparents were farmers and grew/canned all their own food and had a huge root cellar. And they were both overweight and heart disease played a big part of their deaths. I think a lot of heart disease is genetic and predisposed...and you can't always blame diet,
Kristin
How about STevia, Erithritol, and Monkfruit for a sugar alternative? Some of us can't afford to eat real sugar with some issues now surfacing.