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Authors: Linda Bacon
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More precise research identifies the specific nutrients in foods that ramp up the setpoint. In the rest of this chapter, I’ll show you how your food choices may affect your setpoint. As you consider these ideas, be sure to keep them in the context of what you have already learned: Your body has a competent internal system that can guide you in choosing the types and quantities of food that will best nourish you. I want you to have the information from the field of food science that enables you to work with this internal knowing all the more easily.
Many people are already afraid of eating certain kinds or amounts of food. They often restrict their eating or feel guilty when they’re not following a detailed food plan. If this is true for you, the information in this chapter may fuel your fears, tempting you to create a new set of rules about what and what not to eat. Be careful. If you do, you’ll only be sabotaging yourself and your ability to learn how to truly satisfy your physical hunger.
For example, you will learn that high-fructose corn syrup doesn’t activate your weight regulation sensors to the degree that some other foods do. How are you going to apply that information? Will you use it to label soda and cookies as “bad,” to be avoided in your quest to lose weight? Or, can you use it to become more aware of how you feel as you consume them, noticing whether it takes more soda or sweets than you would expect to feel satiated?
I’ll say it now and I’ll be saying it again: Please do not use this information to create or justify self-punishing rules for demonizing food or restricting your intake. If you find yourself doing that, stop reading this chapter and skip ahead to the next one. You can come back to this chapter at a later time, if and when it’s appropriate. If a Health at Every Size professional suggests that you bypass this chapter and go on to the next, trust his or her advice.
Given the potential for misuse, why do I include nutritional information in this book? I do so because I believe that you have the right to accurate information as you make your food choices. Information—like food—is not dangerous in itself. The question is: How do you choose to use it? You can grab a knife to chop your garlic or to slit someone’s throat; it is
you
who gives the knife its character. If we wish to create a happy relationship with food and enjoy a well-nourished body, then clarifying the intention that informs your food choices is of the utmost importance. Let me provide an example that will make this more evident.
you
who gives the knife its character. If we wish to create a happy relationship with food and enjoy a well-nourished body, then clarifying the intention that informs your food choices is of the utmost importance. Let me provide an example that will make this more evident.
Later in this chapter you’ll learn about some benefits to a high-fiber diet. If a dieting mindset kicks in, eating high-fiber foods becomes one more “should.” And if your preferences run more to hot dogs and potato chips, that new rule will probably make you feel guilty. Feeling guilty won’t allow you to sustain good health habits.
What’s the alternative? Suppose your intention is to develop your ability to eat intuitively, a practice that I’ll encourage and describe in detail in later chapters. Instead of viewing food choices in terms of their potential effect on your weight, you’ll be tuning in to how various foods make you feel. With that purpose in mind, you can use the information in this chapter to help you connect what you eat with how you feel.
If your diet is low in fiber, for example, you’re probably all too accustomed to the discomforts of constipation. As you read this chapter, you may begin to suspect that your discomfort relates to getting insufficient fiber. With this new awareness, you begin to experiment with including more high-fiber foods in your meals and snacks. You notice that your stack of bathroom reading is gathering dust as you’re spending significantly less time in the bathroom. You continue to choose high-fiber foods, not because some diet plan is calling the shots, but because doing so results in feeling better. You’re learning through experimentation that your own body can guide you toward food choices that truly feel nourishing.
As you tune into your body’s wisdom, you may end up eating some of the same foods that one diet plan or another prescribes. But it’s coming from a different place. You’re no longer ignoring what you want and need in favor of some external authority’s dictates. Instead, you’re acting on your own desire to nurture yourself. You’re making your choices from the inside out, following the guidelines of your internal nutritionist. Because it helps you to feel good, it’s easy to sustain. Over time you’ll find that it becomes natural and effortless to make choices that leave you feeling good.
Bottom line? You don’t need food rules to guide your choices. You don’t need to fight your desires. All you need is to respect your body, by listening and responding to its signals. Information about how foods affect you can support your process of tuning in to your body and feeling ever more at home.
Before we jump into our discussion of specific nutrients, though, here’s another cautionary note to consider. People often have strong defense mechanisms that keep them rooted in their old habits. Defense mechanisms can operate below the level of conscious thought, allowing you to dismiss information before it threatens your world view.
Having taught nutrition for years, I’ve observed a very powerful defense mechanism that often gets in the way of positive change: black and white thinking, in particular, difficulty in tolerating and embracing ambiguity and contradiction.
Here’s an example of how it gets played out. Research suggests that substantial health benefits come from reducing consumption of conventional animal foods from the typically high consumption seen in industrialized countries. This proposition is not particularly radical. In fact, most nutritionists today accept this idea; Even following the USDA’s “food pyramid” recommendations will naturally lead to decreased consumption of animal foods. Still, a call for reducing consumption of conventional animal foods may seem threatening to many people. It frequently gets lost in translation, resurfacing as the assertion that “animal foods are bad” and that you need to be a vegan to be healthy (or thin), which in turn provokes resistance from many individuals.
But such a statement simply isn’t true! Many animal foods are loaded with beneficial nutrients. Many fish, for example, are rich in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient that is otherwise difficult to find in modern diets. Or consider hamburgers. The iron packed into that patty is particularly easy for your body to absorb, a boon to the many individuals who would otherwise suffer from iron deficiency.
Consuming moderate amounts of animal foods provide you with valuable nutrients that may otherwise be difficult to obtain. Yet the same fish that is rich in omega-3s often contains mercury, a toxin that poses a serious health risk when it accumulates in your tissues. And a diet primarily based on hamburgers and similar foods—and lacking variety—puts you at risk for a long list of health complications. Nonetheless, these foods might be just the ones that titillate your taste buds and give you some of the nutrients you need. I say, go for it!
We need to acknowledge and accept the contradictions and ambiguities that accompany our concerns for good nutrition these days. No particular food is out-of-bounds in the context of generally sound nutrition. Know that your body’s innate intelligence can help you make choices that support your well-being—and can help you appropriately moderate them. It’s also helpful to remember that many of the deleterious effects of certain compounds result from their accumulation, not from occasional or moderate consumption. That risk is minimized when you use your body’s signals to guide consumption.
Vegetarianism and veganism can be wholesome and admirable dietary styles when approached with the right intentions, but they can also be troubling restrictive behaviors, or markers for eating disorders.
What
you eat is less important than why you eat it.
What
you eat is less important than why you eat it.
Besides, we need and want food for many reasons. On the most basic level, food supplies us with energy. That means that even soft drinks provide nourishment. Of course, we need more than just energy from foods, and living on Cokes alone won’t fully nourish you. But you can’t subsist on a diet of only carrots and broccoli either: Variety is essential to ensure that you get the full range of nutrients your body needs.
As you learn about how foods affect you, always remember: As valuable as academic research may be, your intuition is much more effective in guiding you to feed yourself well. What’s “true” in the field of nutrition changes as research continues and our culture changes. Nutrition research is also severely hampered by scientific reductionism, as nutrients act very differently depending on the context in which they are consumed. A dictum we learn from one particular study may not hold true if you alter other aspects of your diet not considered in that study. And lastly, we can’t ignore individual differences: Your particular genetic make-up may result in certain nutrients affecting you differently than that “average person” that the research describes. I encourage you to take the advice of the external authorities with a grain of salt. Use it to help you experiment with different foods, and then reap the benefits of trusting your body’s wisdom.
With these cautions in mind, take a moment to reflect on what’s best for you. What’s your intent in learning about nutrition? Can you use your knowledge to help you tune in to your body, rather than creating food rules? Can you challenge yourself to be open-minded and accept the ambiguities? If you have any concerns about how you’re going to use the information that follows, again, I advise you to jump to the next chapter. You can always come back to this chapter another time.
Now, let’s begin our journey into understanding the possible impact of nutrients on your setpoint.
Some carbohydrates are more quickly digested and absorbed, contributing to a quick increase in blood sugar. Most of the increase in our calories over the past twenty years has come from those types of carbohydrates, called “high-glycemic carbohydrates.”
136
Simply put: We’re gobbling huge amounts of sugar and heaping plates of white rice, and we just can’t leave that bread plate alone.
136
Simply put: We’re gobbling huge amounts of sugar and heaping plates of white rice, and we just can’t leave that bread plate alone.
When consumed in excess, these foods cause a large spike in insulin production—the hormone that allows cells to use glucose for energy. Repeated large spikes can eventually overwhelm your cells, making them less sensitive to insulin. In scientific terms, this decreased sensitivity is called insulin resistance. (Genetic susceptibility also plays a large determining role.) Many scientists suspect that insulin resistance is the most important factor in determining susceptibility to weight gain.
137
137
Insulin also helps other energy nutrients—like fat—get into cells. But unfortunately, the muscle cells get insulin resistant, not the fat cells, making fat storage easy at the same time that your hungry muscles are crying out for energy.
Insulin resistance leads to weight gain as the glucose we can’t use gets converted into fat and stored. This extra fat tends to settle in the abdomen, where it is more volatile and more likely to contribute to diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses.
138
Type 2 diabetes, the name given to the severe form of insulin resistance, is more common among heavier people, in part because of this process: Insulin resistance drives weight gain. Many large people have at least a moderate degree of insulin resistance, even if it’s not severe enough to be labeled diabetes.
138
Type 2 diabetes, the name given to the severe form of insulin resistance, is more common among heavier people, in part because of this process: Insulin resistance drives weight gain. Many large people have at least a moderate degree of insulin resistance, even if it’s not severe enough to be labeled diabetes.
But insulin does much more than enable your cells to use glucose for energy or to store fat. It also signals your hypothalamus to send out less neuropeptide Y. Reducing the supply of this neurotransmitter turns
down
your appetite switch while
increasing
your metabolism. Insulin also stimulates the release of leptin, which amplifies this effect. That’s why normal insulin production and use is so important for weight regulation.
down
your appetite switch while
increasing
your metabolism. Insulin also stimulates the release of leptin, which amplifies this effect. That’s why normal insulin production and use is so important for weight regulation.
Avoiding insulin production isn’t helpful; it’s the insulin spikes that are disconcerting. While most people put the blame for insulin spikes on excess consumption of sugar, it turns out that refined grains, like those found in many breads, cereals, and rices, are equally at fault. Ironically, the U.S. government’s attempt to deal with obesity by encouraging people to build their diets on the old Food Guide Pyramid’s base of “bread, cereal, rice, and pasta,” seems to have backfired. (Note that the pyramid comes from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture
. A primary purpose of this agency is to promote agriculture—and its recommendations are designed, in part, to support agribusiness. More on the politics of food and weight in chapter 5.)
Agriculture
. A primary purpose of this agency is to promote agriculture—and its recommendations are designed, in part, to support agribusiness. More on the politics of food and weight in chapter 5.)
These refined products spill into your blood quickly: From your body’s perspective, there’s not much difference between a slice of refined bread (even if they call it “wheat bread”) and a tablespoon of white sugar. While the government insists that manufacturers “enrich” refined breads, grains, and pastas by adding back certain vitamins and minerals, this does nothing to slow the rate of glucose entering your bloodstream, nor does it completely restore valuable nutrients.
BOOK: Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
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