Forget the conventional wisdom of why and how people get fat. Ignore the medical and scientific mouthpieces who have set the stage for the monumental rise in the rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Cancer. And run from the Food Pyramids, the Food Plates, and all those Nutritional Guidelines put out by such bureaucracies as the USDA, the
CDC, the NIH, and all other establishment entities hell-bent on perpetuating the Fat Is Evil Fallacy. Why? Because simply put, it ain’t the FAT, people, it ain’t the FAT. The obesity culprit has always been lurking in plain sight, but perversely, this demon of lifestyle disease has been given pride of place in the nutritional graphs of heart-healthy hedonists and weight loss fanatics who have arrogantly declared for decades that the bulk of our carefully calculated daily calories should come from carbohydrates. Whether the political science pontifications issue forth from our federal overlords or from the interfering local loonies who would legislate against the cherry-picked eating peccadilloes of a long-suffering population, the wilted wisdom these medical politicos are fabricating is nothing more than half-baked science fiction.
Big FAT Lies
So what causes Obesity? Well, the following two popular hypotheses put forward as fact by the medical establishment point the finger at FAT and Overeating. But I dare to declare that:
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It ain’t the Toxic Environment of Affluence where fast food and couch potato non-activity dominate the lifestyle habits of the average American. Overeating and High Fat intake are singled out as the villains in this theory.
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It ain’t Caloric Balance which is based on the Law of Thermodynamics and proclaims that weight gain results when calorie intake exceeds calorie expenditure. In other words, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie and it doesn’t matter where those calories come from. If you consume more calories than you burn, you get Fat, so this theory states.
It’s the INSULIN, Stupid!
But there’s an alternative theory of Obesity that has gotten a lot of play and press, but unfortunately, not among the medical aficionados. This theory is called the Lipophilia Hypothesis and turns our understanding of weight gain on its head. The Lipophilia Hypothesis states that all calories are not equal and that Overeating is the CONSEQUENCE of getting Fat, not the CAUSE. Following is an excellent point-by-point comparison of the Caloric Balance explanation of weight gain with the Lipophilia Theory.
Phenomenon | Caloric Balance Explanation | Lipophilia Explanation |
1. Weight Gain | Over eating and inactivity–i.e.failed calorie counting–cause us to get fat. | Overeating and inactivity are consequences of getting fat. |
2. Weight Loss | Appetite control and increased activity–i.e. being a good calorie calculator–cause us to lose fat. | Appetite control and increased activity are consequences of losing fat. |
3. Weight Maintenance | To maintain a constant weight over time, one must consciously regulate calories in/calories out. | Unconscious homeostatic mechanisms maintain our weight over time, just like they maintain other aspects of the interior milieu, like body temperature. |
4. Calorie is a Calorie? | The body is a simple machine: a calorie is a calorie. | All calories are not equal. The second law of thermodynamics suggests that the body is a complex machine. |
5. Obesity Epidemic | An epidemic of overeating and inactivity has caused the obesity epidemic. | The switch to a low fat/high carb diet has caused the obesity epidemic. |
6. Diseases of Civilization | Says nothing about why obesity associates with diseases of civilization like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, malnutrition and gout. | Obesity associates with diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, malnutrition, and gout because they all stem from a common cause: chronic hyperinsulinemia. |
7. Low Carb Diets | Carb restricted diets and other measures taken to improve blood insulin levels only lead to weight loss if calorie counting leads to calorie restriction. | The low carb diet and other measures taken to improve blood insulin levels can lead to weight loss even when calories are unrestricted. |
8. Role of Behavior vs. Role of Physiology in Obesity | Obesity is a psychological problem that can be fixed by being a better calorie calculator. | Obesity is a physiological problem that can often be fixed simply by a low carb diet. |
9. What is Our Fat Tissue | The calorie calculator theory says absolutely nothing about how, why, when, and where excess calories ‘turn into’ fat and nothing about why some people get fat while others don’t. | Provides a very specific explanation of how, why, when, and where fat accumulates as well as why some people get fat and others don’t. |
10. Unexplained Weight Changes | People who gain/lose fat as the result of drugs, genetics, diseases, brain injuries, natural body development, hormonal or metabolic shifts or other biochemical activity only do so because these factors somehow change their calorie intake/expenditure. | Weight changes resulting from medications, genetics, hormonal changes, and so forth must be caused by indirect changes to fat tissue metabolism. |
11. Public Conviction that Calories Count | Health authorities almost unanimously support the calorie calculator theory because the evidence supports it and/or because competing hypotheses, like Lipophilia, have been disproven. It is the only correct way to interpret the first law of thermodynamics. | Health authorities almost unanimously support the calorie calculator theory only because they are unaware that the Lipophilia Hypothesis even exists and because they have, by and large, ignored the science supporting the low carb diet and ignored the possibility that the first law of thermodynamics could support an alternative theory. |
I cured my Type 2 diabetes by following a low carb way of eating so I knew all this but it is great to see the word getting out to more people. I really enjoy the Fat Head Facebook Group – a lot of info and recipes etc. go up every day. I think you’d enjoy it.