Weight Loss Myth #1: It's All About the Fat

This is a 3-minute excerpt from my DVD The Truth About Weight Loss which was filmed live at T. Harv Eker's Extreme Health event in Southern California. Normally $39.95, you can get it for just $24.95 in August when you use coupon code TRUTH25 during checkout. Watch more video clips »

The Truth About Exercise

This 5 minute video busts a lot of myths about exercising. There's a lot more where this came from inside of Diet Boot Camp.

Waist Size Predicts Heart Failure

The main reason people over 65 wind up in the hospital is heart failure, also known as "congestive heart failure". And the very best predictor of whether or not you're likely to get heart failure might surprise you.

It's waist size.

A new study published in the journal Circulation tracked data from two Swedish population based studies that together included 80,000 men and women aged 45-83. All participants filled in questionnaires about their height, weight, waist circumference and other vital statistics. They were then followed for seven years.

The researchers found- not surprisingly- that weight was linked to risk for heart failure. But they also found that even within the normal weight range (BMI 25 or less), those who had an extra 10cm (about 4 inches) on their waist had about 15% higher risk of heart failure. This went up to 18% for those who were heavier (BMI of 30 or more).

The researchers measured waist size, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ration and BMI (body mass index). All four measures were associated with heart disease, but waist circumference alone predicted heart disease risk regardless of other measures.

I've written before about the importance of waist size and of the waist-to-hip ratio. Nutritionists and smart doctors have long known that 35" for women and 40" for men represent a danger point for insulin resistance (which is the cornerstone of Metabolic Syndrome, also known as pre-diabetes). Metabolic Syndrome significantly increases the risk for heart disease.

If your waist is over 35" (women) or 40" (men) it's time to start doing something. I've found that a low-carb diet is one of the most effective ways to combat belly fat and reduce the size of your waist.

Are Hidden Food Allergies Making You Fat?

Patients unable to achieve goal weight loss just by cutting calories were significantly aided in their attempts when they avoided foods that had been shown by a unique lab test to excite their immune response, according to a new study from Dubai.

The authors, led by Dr. M. Akmal of the Dubai Specialized Medical Centre, pointed out that hidden food allergies, or food sensitivities, are unique to each individual and can cause inflammatory diseases, and an inability to lose weight.

Food sensitivities often provoke delayed and chronic symptoms, like IBS, migraine and arthritis that are not as obvious as the dramatic and immediate onset of "true" food allergies, such as peanut anaphylaxis, but, over the long term, can be just as devastating and are more difficult to detect.

The patients were all tested on a well known system called the ALCAT test which I've written about in "The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth". The ALCAT test shows which foods activate your immune system, even if you're not "technically" allergic. The only "treatment" the patients underwent during the 12 week study was to avoid all foods that showed up in the test as being problematic.

The results were pretty impressive.

By just eliminating the foods to which they were sensitive, the study participants dropped an average of 37 pounds in 12 weeks- a very impressive amount. They also dropped an average of 6 points on their BMI (body mass index) and a reduced their body fat by a stunning 30%.

My friend Fred Pescatore, MD, author of "The Hamptons Diet" (and former Medical Director of the Atkins Center) commented: "I'm not surprised by these results, dramatic as they may appear. I've used the ALCAT test with my difficult patients time and time again, and it always works".

Other studies based on the elimination of food sensitivities had previously been reported. In a Baylor Medical College study 98% of subjects also displayed significant improved body composition and/or scale weight following an ALCAT test-based food elimination diet within four weeks. A matched control group that followed calorie restriction alone actually became fatter.

Roger Deutsch, co-author of the excellent book, "Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat" had this to say: "Now we know that chronic inflammation, caused primarily by exposure to incompatible foods, is at the root of metabolic problems like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. The immune system chemicals block insulin receptors; so, guess what happens to the sugars we eat? - they get stored as fat. Cut the inflammation, cut the fat storage."

So if nothing's worked for you, perhaps it's time to try some experimentation. A rotation diet or an elimination diet is one low-tech way to see if certain foods are contributing to weight loss resistance (or even to vague symptoms like headaches, fogginess, aches and pains and low energy). I explain how to do it in "The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth".

And if you want to go all the way and actually take the ALCAT test yourself, you can find out more at www.alcat.com.

New Research: Vitamin D May Lower Heart Disease Risk

Medical researchers are discovering a greater relationship between heart disease and vitamin D -- a nutrient already linked to reducing certain cancers.

Studies announced Wednesday at an American Heart Association's conference on cardiovascular health showed an increased association between people with high levels of vitamin D and a lower risk of heart disease.

Adolescents in particular could face long-term implications if they don't get enough of the vitamin, which can be absorbed through exposure to the sun and is found in certain fishes and in popular fortified foods, including milk and cereal.

One study found that American teens with low levels of vitamin D in their blood were almost four times more likely to have metabolic syndrome, a cluster of heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and abdominal fat.

"If you have other risk factors like obesity, you should be hyper-vigilant," said Jared Reis, a post-doctoral research fellow at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore. His study, presented at the conference at the Innisbrook Resort, looked at health data of more than 3,500 American teens from 2001-2004.

Although cardiovascular research about the nutrient is still evolving, previous studies have linked vitamin D intake to lower risks of colon, prostate and breast cancers, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Together with calcium, it also has been historically used to supplement bone health.

This news comes at a time when Americans appear to be decreasing their vitamin D intake. The percentage of Americans deficient in the nutrient increased to 9.2 percent in 2005-06, from 2.6 percent in 1988-94, said researcher Sandy Saintonge of the New York Hospital Queens.

If you aren't taking vitamin D I recommend at least 1000 IUs daily, preferably 2000IUs. Carlson's Vitamin D is cheap ($5.50) and easy to take, so why wouldn't you?

(Acknowledgments: McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and Mary Shedden of the Tampa Tribune)

High Fat Diet Causes Cancer? Not so fast...

A recently published study in the journal BMC Cancer found some interesting associations between dietary fat and cancer. Unfortunately the way these findings were reported in the press were highly misleading.

First, the headlines. Science Daily, a generally reliable source of info for folks like me, reported this: "Excessive Dietary Fat Caused 300 Percent Increase in Metastasizing Tumor Cells in Animal Models".

Now- tell the truth- what immediately came to mind when you read that?

Let me guess: "Another study "confirming" how bad saturated fat is, and how low-fat eating can help prevent cancer".

Wrong, grasshopper.

The researchers didn't even investigate saturated fat.

Here's what they did: They implanted tumor cells in mice. Then they fed one group a "high-fat" diet and the other group a "lean" diet. Then, using a number of sophisticated measuring techniques, they looked to see how the diets impacted the ability of cancer cells to metastasize (spread from one part of the body to another).

Here's what they found: Oleic acid- the kind of (monounsaturated) fat found in olive oil- had precisely no effect on the spreading of the cancer. Linoleic acid, however, had a big effect- the rate of metastasis rose a dramatic 300 percent!

Linoleic acid is Omega-6: it's the fat found in all those vegetable oils that everyone tells you are so good for you. Corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, etc.

This information was buried in the 15^th paragraph (of a 19 paragraph article).

There's been mounting evidence that overconsumption of omega-6 fats may not be such a great thing. I've been saying for a long time that the balance between omega 6 and omega 3 fats in the diet is an extremely important one for human health. The ideal ratio is between 1:1 and 4:1. More typically, those consuming a Western diet get between 15:1 and 25:1.

You can shift this balance to a more healthy one by cutting back on high omega-6 vegetable oils (which are generally inferior to begin with) and increasing your intake of omega 3's.

You shouldn't cut omega-6's out of your diet completely- they're good for you in the right amounts. Be sure to get a high quality omega-6, like GLA found in evening primrose oil, and stay away from the commercial processed vegetable oils.

Save 10%: When you order this special EPA/DHA + GLA bundle (normally $52.94) for just $47.65

Another Great Reason to Eat Egg Yolks

I know most of you are not pregnant, but there's a lesson in this that can be useful to you anyway- and of course if you know someone who is pregnant (or planning to be), pass it on!

New research suggests that what a woman eats during pregnancy may offer her offspring protection against breast cancer. Researchers at Boston University studied female rats whose mothers were given different amounts of choline, a nutrient found in eggs, during pregnancy. The rats were given either no choline, normal amounts of choline, or extra choline during pregnancy, and, after birth, their female offspring were treated with a chemical that causes breast cancer.

Whilst all of the female offspring went on to develop breast cancer, the results showed that offspring of the rats that had received extra choline during pregnancy had slow growing tumors whereas the offspring of rats that consumed no choline during pregnancy had fast growing tumors.

Furthermore, the slow growing tumors in the offspring of rats fed extra choline had a genetic pattern similar to those seen in breast cancers of women who are considered to have a good prognosis, whereas the genetic changes that occurred in the fast growing tumors were similar to those seen in women with very aggressive forms of breast cancer that are associated with a poor prognosis.

So what's the lesson?

Well, first of all, guess where choline is found? In the yolks of eggs. The very part that the idiot wing of the American Dietetic Association has been cautioning against, leading to the epidemic of "healthy" egg-white omlettes our low-fat friends are so fond of. I've been preaching that this is a bad idea for so long now that my voice is getting hoarse! Stop with the egg-white omlettes already! The good stuff is in the yolks (not that there's not good stuff in the whites as well, but nature put them together for a reason!)

And that's the lesson for all of us, not just those who are pregnant. Low-fat (or no-fat) versions of whole foods are rarely an improvement over the way they were "designed". Fat is not what we need to fear in the American diet (sugar is, but that's another story)

This research comes on the heels of recent studies by Jeff Volek, PhD, RD showing that eggs can also lower inflammation, a silent killer if there ever was one.

Choline is an undiscovered superstar in the nutrient galaxy, and is truly a "brain food". The best food source of choline is (unfortunately) beef liver, but the second best is a whole egg. Beef, cauliflower and navy beans also have some as well.

Choline is in the B-vitamin family. A single capsule of B-Supreme contains 200mg of choline, more than an entire egg. I also recommend the Choline Punch created by my good friend and colleague Dr. Al Sears.

Triglycerides: What you Need to Know

As I get older, I find myself becoming scarily more like my parents, who were known to roll their eyes each time I would finally "discover" something that they had been telling me for years-- as if to silently say, "so you finally figured it out!"

Of course, in my version, it's me rolling my eyes every time the medical profession "discovers" something nutritionists have been saying for years. In this case, they're finally getting wise to the fact that triglycerides are an important risk factor for heart disease. Possibly- gasp- even more than cholesterol.

And the best news is, you can lower triglycerides without any expensive drugs.

Triglycerides are in the news a lot these days because recent 30-year analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) data by the National Lipid Association shows that the percentage of adults with high triglycerides has doubled. The study also showed an alarming increase among people over 60.

Why should we care? "Studies have shown that unhealthy levels of triglycerides and HDL can lead to heart attack and stroke", said Jerome Cohen, MD, professor emeritus of internal medicine and cardiology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine.

Increased risk of heart disease and stroke seems like a good reason to pay attention. (In my not-so-humble opinion, I'd worry way more about high triglycerides than I would high cholesterol.)

So if you've got high triglycerides, what can you do about it? Simple. Eat a low-carb diet.

Triglycerides are the most common l form of fat found in your both food and in your body. They're in your bloodstream, your diet and your tissues and organs. Most of what you don't like about the way you look in jeans is adipose tissue (fat cells) filled with, yup, triglycerides. When your doctor gives you a blood test, the test invariably measures triglycerides in the blood. (The National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines for normal triglycerides are under 150, though most cutting edge docs and nutritionists would prefer to see a more optimal level like under 100.)

High triglycerides are a strong independent risk factor for heart disease, and they also correlate with obesity, and with low levels of HDL (the so-called "good cholesterol"). High triglycerides are also one of the five signs of Metabolic Syndrome, (also called pre-diabetes), a major risk factor for heart disease.

A low-carb diet will bring triglycerides down 100 per cent of the time (and that's regardless of whether or not you lose much weight on the diet). You read that right. Not 90 percent, not 95%, but 100 percent of the time. There are very, very few strategies in nutrition that have 100 percent success rate, but when it comes to lowering triglycerides, low-carb diets do in fact have that enviable track record.

Conversely, when you replace fat in your diet with carbohydrates- especially the kind that do not come from vegetables and fruits- your triglycerides go up!(3,4,5) So a low-fat diet is not necessarily the answer to high triglycerides.

In fact, one particular form of fat- omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil and flaxseed- have been shown to help lower triglycerides, particularly in combination with vitamin C!
Obviously, you're going to get better overall results if you couple that low-carb diet with exercise and a few other healthy habits, but low-carb is a great beginning.

One reason low-carb works so well to lower triglycerides is that the liver manufactures triglycerides out of fat and excess sugar. The more sugar in your diet the more the liver converts that sugar into the little packages we call triglycerides. Give the body less sugar- (and less processed carbs that convert quickly to sugar in the body)- and guess what? Triglycerides return to a nice, healthy, (low) level.

The best prescription for high triglycerides is a very moderate calorie diet of whole foods with plenty of healthy protein and fat, no sugar, a ton of vegetables, some fruit and nuts and very limited starchy carbs (or not- you can leave out the starchy carbs if you like).

For reducing triglycerides, that diet will work as well as any drug, and has no side effects to boot-- (unless you call weight loss a side-effect).

And that's a very good reason to get the extraneous carbs- white bread, desserts, sugar, soda- out of your diet for good.

Dumbest idea of the Week: "Fat-Free Living"

According to the USDA, which has never been exactly a "thought leader" when it comes to food and nutrition, January is Fat Free Living Month.

This is probably the worst idea the USDA has ever come up with, with the possible exception of the 1992 Food Pyramid.

Virtually every health professional now understands that fat is vital for our health. But since apparently the USDA did not get the memo, let's repeat some of the many ways fat is essential in our diet:

1. Fat is an important part of cell membranes.


2. Fat is our main source of energy.


3. Fat cushions our organs and tissues and protects them from injury.

And that's just the beginning. Without fat, major vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K are not absorbed (which is why they're called the 'fat soluble' vitamins). Neither are important carotenoids- like the eye-protecting lutein and zeaxanthin. Even calcium needs some fat for maximum absorption!

Dietary fat helps us to feel full and to feel fuller longer, thus decreasing the likelihood of cravings and overeating. Unlike carbohydrates, dietary fat has virtually no impact on the fat-storage hormone insulin. In fact, adding fat to a meal lowers the overall glycemic impact of the meal-- and low-glycemic diets have been linked with lower rates of cancer, diabetes, obesity and even Alzheimers. To make matters worse, any fat-free diet foods typically replace fat with carbohydrates, usually of the worst kind. Research has shown that this substitution has significant negative consequences for our health.

Dietary fat is the starting material from which we make all sorts of important chemicals in the body called eicosanoids which, among other things, help regulate clotting and inflammation.

One particular type of fat- omega-3 fatty acids from fish and flax- bears special mention. Omega-3 fats lower blood pressure, improve mood, and- possibly most important of all- lower inflammation. Inflammation is now recognized as a major component of every degenerative disease we know of including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimers. And omega-3 fatty acids are one of the most anti-inflammatory compounds on the planet.

The "Fat-Free" month is an idea whose time should never have come in the first place. It's time to say good-bye to such idiocy for good.

Belly Fat Doubles Death Risk

Belly fat is in the news again, big time.

First some background: A ton of stuff has been written about the difference between "apples" and "pears", apples being folks who store their fat around the middle and "pears" being those who store it on the hips butt and thighs. Fact is, all fat is not created equal. The fat stored around the butt hips and thighs- also known as subcutaneous fat since it's right below the skin- might drive you crazy and make it hard to put on your jeans, but it's not nearly as dangerous as the other kind. The fat stored around the middle- also called VAT or visceral abdominal fat- is a metabolic nightmare. Stored deep inside the abdominal walls, it is metabolically active fat that directly increases the risk for all sorts of health problems from metabolic syndrome to diabetes.

OK, now on to the study.

Researchers looked at data from almost 360,000 Europeans who had been enrolled in a larger study called the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. They followed these folks for ten years, during which 14,723 of the participants died. What they found was that men and women with the largest waists had virtually twice the risk for premature death as those with the smallest ones.

According to Tobias Pischon, MD, MPH, the lead author of the study, the single most important finding in their study was that it the distribution of body fat affected the risk of premature death. Where you store your fat is even more important than what you weigh. And this was true even when weight is normal. "There aren't many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person's risk of premature death to this extent, independent of smoking and drinking" said Pischon.

For years we nutritionists have been using a "low-tech" shorthand for insulin resistance: a 40 inch (or greater) waist for men, a 35 inch (or greater) waist for women. Interestingly, that was exactly the number that correlated with a doubled risk for death when compared with smaller waists (less than 34 inches for men, less than 28 inches for women). Each 2 inch increase in waist circumference added about 17% increased risk for mortality in men and about 13% increased mortality in women.

Earlier this year I reported research showing that these numbers (40 inch waist for men, 35 for women) also indicated an increased risk for stroke.

Bottom line: reduce your belly fat. If you're an apple, chances are you're also insulin resistant, and would benefit from a diet low in carbohydrates. In my opinion, that's the absolute best "nutritional intervention" to reduce the most dangerous kind of fat on the body (as well as the plain old garden variety "unsightly" kind).

Just remember that low-carb doesn't mean unlimited calories. The absolute best way to go is lower calorie combined with controlled carb eating. For a good calorie goal take your target weight and multiply by 10. That's a great starting point.

And remember also that you'll not only be reducing your belly fat- you'll also be reducing the risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, some cancers and... oh yes, just plain dying.

Seems to me those are pretty good reasons to start eating differently!

Exercise for weight loss? Yes and no..

Exercise alone rarely helps people lose much weight.

This politically incorrect truth makes a lot of people very unhappy, but that doesn't mean it's not so.

Does that mean you shouldn't exercise? Hardly.

Exercise does three things that are absolutely vital to your health.

1) It completely, demonstrably, statistically, provably lowers your risk of dying from all causes including but not limited to heart disease- and as a bonus, may lower your risk for dementia and Alzheimers.

2) It insures that you will keep weight off once you lose it. Maintaining weight loss without exercise is virtually impossible- shown in study after study.

3) It has a profound effect on mood and well-being.

So it's not that exercise isn't important for weight loss- it's just that it's usually not enough by itself. It's also becoming increasingly clear that there are some people for whom a simple (dare I say simplistic) recommendation of diet and exercise alone may not be enough for weight loss, but that's a subject for another day.

Meanwhile, how do you stay "motivated" if you're exercising and not seeing an immediate fall in weight?

My good friend Gina Lombardi has written a terrific article on MSN on five alternative ways to measure progress (besides using the scale). The techniques are smart, easy, and highly motivating.

If you want the executive summary, it's this:

1. Measure your body fat

2. Keep a log (Gina explains how to do this in the article)

3. Use a pedometer (ditto)

4. Check and evaluate your sleep (is it better than it used to be?)

5. Use a heart rate monitor

I'll write more about the relationship between exercise and fitness (and about "smart exercising" in general) in the coming year.