The quick answer: Forget about dieting or fussing over calories. Just eat a healthy diet of minimally processed (low G.I.) foods and you’ll find your natural weight.
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Resolutions
Each Holiday season we travel to my fancy sister’s home in San Francisco for dinner. I grew up in the middle of five sisters, though two are technically cousins. Their life’s journey has taken them to different paths, but I think they’re remarkable women.
Anyway, my oldest sister, the one I described as “fancy,” always hosts the dinner. How fancy is she? Check out her Christmas tree, shown below, with the 2000 or so ornaments she has collected. I should have had the BW stand beside it, to illustrate the size.
My sister’s a good cook and dinner always begins with crab salad. After the crab salad, as other courses arrive, we each report on our resolutions for the past year, and make some for the next year. We’re in our fourth decade of these dinners and despite what the critics say about resolutions, we always make a few.
Last year several resolved to lose weight. In reporting on those weight-loss promises, one pointed out that she had succeeded in losing 30 pounds by July but had gained it all back by December. We groaned in sympathy as she took a ‘zero’ for that resolution. When she made the same resolution for next year I wanted to shout, “Stop!” But I kept my peace—so let me explain to you, faithful reader.
Why We Get Fat
For Christmas I was given Gary Taubes’ book, Why We Get Fat. Like his previous book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, it’s carefully researched and makes sense with what we’ve been saying in Word of Wisdom Living.
We get fat, Taubes concludes, not because we eat fat, or eat too much in general, or move too little, but because the Glycemic Index (G.I.) of the modern American diet is too high. Basically, sugar and refined grains, including the cookies, crackers, chips, and candies made from them, have a high G.I. Real foods, minimally processed, have a lower G.I.
Here’s a basic picture of the vicious cycle that results from a high G.I. diet:
- The sugar in high G.I. foods is quickly metabolized and rushes into our blood.
- Because excessive blood sugar is toxic, our body secretes insulin to store that sugar in tissue cells in the form of fat (triglycerides).
- Insulin also insures that this fat stays in the cells—it’s not available for energy use as long as insulin is elevated.
- Then, when our blood sugar falls and insulin (which falls slower) keeps this energy locked away, we get crazy hungry for more of these high G.I. foods, especially liquid forms like soda drinks.
- Insulin is a potent hormone and after years of excessive insulin our cells try to protect themselves by becoming insulin resistant. This means the pancreas must secrete even more insulin to drive blood sugar levels down. Persistently high insulin makes it hard to shed that ugly excess fat.
More Wisdom; Less Guilt
This is the basic story behind the current obesity epidemic: High G.I. diet leads to high insulin levels in our blood, and to lots of fat stored in our cells. Because we’re all different, the tendency to add fat varies among us. One person can starve on the diet that makes another obese. The thin person may seem lucky, but we all have our challenges and one is to find the diet that works best for us.
Bottom line: There is no perfect diet—no one diet fits all. Rather, each person must gain the wisdom to know what foods are best for him or her. This actually is the promise of the Word of Wisdom, that by living it you will gain knowledge, including wisdom about how to eat and live. I recommend the book, Why We Get Fat to anyone who is unhappy with his, or her, weight and wants more information than this brief summary.
As you've likely heard, about 2/3 of Americans are overweighbt, and half of the overweight are termed obese. It's a hard thing to be overweight in a society that worships thinness. For the overweight, here's an important point: Get over the guilt. The modern American diet isn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. If you eat too much and move too little, it’s not gluttony or sloth on your part, it’s a problem with our food culture. To improve your diet, a good starting point is to lower the G.I. by following the Word of Wisdom.
How to lower the G.I. of your diet
In a single sentence, “Eat food as close as practical to the form in which it was first created.” We’ve addressed this in our Healthy Changes, including these four:
Healthy Change #1: If you consume sodas or other sugared drinks, limit yourself to one (12 oz.) serving per week.
Healthy Change #4: Cereal products must be made of whole grains, and have more grams of natural fiber than grams of sugar.
Healthy Change #10: Your daily bread must be whole grain, with more natural fiber than added sugar.
Healthy Change #27: Buy candy a piece at a time; never bring a box or bag of candy into the home.
A Wise New Year’s Resolution
If you wish to lose weight and improve your health, don’t go on a starvation diet. This rarely yields long-term results. Fasting has benefits but protracted starvation isn’t a good or even doable plan. In the end, hunger always ends.
Don't even make a resolution to lose weight, please. But do resolve to reduce the G.I. of what you and your family eat, according to your desire to lose weight.
Please comment: Share your weight loss trials. What works for you?