Hopefully you gleaned some decent information from the last article and more hopefully this started you on the road to thinking and possibly even doing something to change your genetic destiny. I’m not being dramatic here folks. When you overhaul your lifestyle, you ACTUALLY make changes on the DNA (cellular) level. Listen up, because this is interesting stuff…
Fat cells acquired in childhood actually differ genetically from those acquired in adulthood. They are HARDER to lose because of this difference. I will refrain from my “childhood obesity is child abuse” rant but allow me to elaborate on this fact a little. Early nutrition is FORMATIVE and absolutely a time when parents need to pay attention and do the right thing by their sweet little humans. We are talking cellular groundwork here (remember the fat cells ^^). Unfortunately, after the first year of life, nutrition for most folks tends to continue on the downward spiral increasing inflammation and disease predisposition.
After our last discussion what do you think all of this poor nutrition (HFCS, sugar, gluten and other processed foods) served up daily year after year accomplishes on the cellular level? Think it causes some inflammation? Leaky gut? Allergies? Perhaps lays the groundwork for asthma and other autoimmune issues? What about insulin sensitivity? I bet if we were to organize a study, we would see most of these folks go on to develop many of the autoimmune diseases/conditions (thyroid disorder, autoimmune arthridities, lupus, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, esophageal reflux (heartburn), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), migraines, colitis, crohn’s, constipation, hemorrhoids, eczema, obesity, lung disease (asthma, scleroderma), rosacea, fertility issues and polycystic ovarian syndrome…the list is ENDLESS) discussed in the last article UNLESS they educate themselves and change their habits prior to disease onset.
Not that the aforementioned maladies aren’t enough to make life miserable but this fat, especially that centered around all the major organs (think Mr./Mrs. Potato head) also predisposes them to the dreaded Metabolic Sydrome or Syndrome X. This is the medical term to describe the patient suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol (low HDL or “good cholesterol” and high triglycerides or “sugar cholesterol”), obesity (specifically central obesity), and insulin sensitivity or full blown type 2 diabetes mellitus. I promise to follow up with an in depth discussion on this next time. For now, please understand if you are overweight or obese, you are in for a whole host of suffering if you don’t do something about it RIGHT NOW.
What is a major factor that finally pulls the trigger or flips that switch to start the cascade of events leading directly to the aforementioned Metabolic Syndrome, other autoimmune disease or worse? STRESS. That’s right friends, so please, stop reading now if you enjoy a stress free life, because you are lucky, blessed and without a disease triggering worry in the world. For the rest of you, listen up! Ask anyone with celiac, colitis, crohn’s, IBS, autoimmune disease, diabetes, psoriasis, any of the above… what happened prior to the obvious onset of their disease. Like what basically forced them to seek medical care for it. They’ll tell you STRESS, physical or emotional: Divorce, pneumonia, other illness, car accident, tough semester in college, death of a loved one, etc, etc, etc… Unfortunately, in the medical field, providers sometimes falsely blame said stress as the SOLE cause of the problem. And guess what, though I am CERTAIN you know it already, you’re NOT getting rid of the stress in your life. It’s always something. And if it’s enough to make you a sick mess at a young age (like prior to 50), you are in for a LONG, MISERABLE haul.
Again, listen closely, THE STRESS SIMPLY FLIPS THE SWITCH we discussed earlier. If the underlying inflammation, leaky gut, autoimmune response (BAD DIET!), whatever the heck you want to call it did NOT exist in the first place, then there would be no problem. PERIOD. Do SSRIs (antidepressants/anti anxiety meds) help people manage the stress component of their disease? Absolutely; we cannot argue the same neurotransmitters in the brain operate on the gut and other organ systems . But guess what? If it was JUST the stress, then when we treated it these medications, people would NEVER have another exacerbation of their illness and/or it would completely go away.
So why do they continue to suffer despite ‘all-knowing’ medical intervention (aka prescription medications and/or plain bad advice, as was mentioned last post!)? It is because they continue to ingest and expose themselves to the offending agent(s). And if they choose to stop, i.e. choose their quality of life over their love of whatever food they continue to poison themselves with? It resolves. Or at least it becomes asymptomatic; they enjoy fewer exacerbations thus making the condition more tolerable. Can you imagine being diagnosed with a terrible disease and the answer to controlling it or making it go away was as simple as avoiding certain foods or simply eating a little less of everything? In many cases, it is. Think about it, why do patients undergoing weight loss surgeries come off most if not all of their medications and REVERSE the disease processes (pretend for a second most of these patients 2-3 years post operatively do NOT go on to regain all of their weight plus 10 percent and return to status quo disease wise or worse)? It can be that easy. And even if changing your lifestyle doesn’t fix everything, it can certainly improve quality of life a TON. Why wouldn’t you? Is food REALLY more important than having more time with loved ones or enjoying good health?
I know it isn’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. Stressors are always going to be present, even in a fantastic existence. I applaud you for opening your mind, doing your research and attempting to integrate these new ideas and suggestions that likely seem a little wacky to you. Speaking of implementing, more times than I can count members come to me frustrated because their “weight loss” is stalling. (As an aside, get off the EFFING scale! Repeat after me, body composition, general well being, clothes are fitting the same, symptoms are unchanged…tell us ANYTHING but PLEASE STOP referring to your scale.) Or they say they simply aren’t seeing any results despite their efforts. My response is always the same…have you changed your diet? Their response is also always with similar sentiment (EXCUSES), well…mostly, I have. I am almost completely paleo. I NEED my carbs! I’m STARVING! I only cheat a couple times a week. I just can’t drink my coffee without cream or splenda (insert favorite chemically concocted fake sugar which is worse for you than the real thing here.)
You get the picture. Not that we don’t want to help, but lawd, the coaches at CFR are some busy people. So if our eyes seem to glaze over and we tune out and attempt a quick exit stage left when you reply with aforementioned statements (ahem, EXCUSES), try not to be too offended. Because all of those “letting yourself off the hook words” like almost, mostly, only, can’t, but what about…?, don’t I need…?, I don’t have the time or money, do you know how hard that is…? Why yes, we really do. I had never tasted a green vegetable outside of green beans or ice berg lettuce before I was 26 years old (no offense mom, I LOVE YOU). So, I absolutely feel your pain. And as a mom of three young, vivacious boys (read kids that NEVER sleep), working part-time and owning a business, I cannot tell you how much easier our lives would be if we could pop in Marie Callendar lasagna in a box or mix up some Hamburger Helper for dinner (the non paleo kind. Fyi ask Jackie Englebrake for the paleo version of the world’s most DELICIOUS “hamburger helper”).
When Beau came home one day several years ago and suggested we try eating paleo, I fought him tooth and nail. I was seriously PISSED. I’m pretty sure I wept and there may have been some stomping and yelling involved. I PROMISE you I was as unwilling and unconvinced as a person could be in our situation. But begrudgingly, I did it. And I promise you, the more I cleaned up the food, the better I felt. (That pissed me off too!) Trust me; I wanted him to be so WRONG. But fortunately, he wasn’t. And I never would have dreamed how much food could affect how you feel and perform.
More surprisingly, I did it without PROOF. By this I mean, before my major overhaul, I didn’t run to the doctor and demand blood testing for autoimmune disorder, lactose or casein allergy or Celiac disease (obviously a sore point with me). Because remember how we discussed the allergies and intolerances as a SPECTRUM? The blood testing may only pick up only the most severe cases (far end of the spectrum). So what if you don’t have a full blown allergy, but simply sensitivity (as the majority of folks do)? You will test NEGATIVE.
Guess what else? Many of those tests, specifically the one for celiac disease and its accompanying auto-antibodies are VERY specific but not very sensitive. This means a positive result is definitely positive for the disease BUT (here’s the kicker), you could have the disease and it not be picked up because the test is only around 60-70% sensitive (missing THIRTY to FORTY percent of those who actually have the disease! Not to mention the whole host of others that falls elsewhere on the sensitivity spectrum.) These people get their missed diagnosis, and go back to their life of gluten, dairy, whatever else and chronic exposure to inflammation. So I beg you, stop with the doubt and need for medical evidence. The proof simply may not be in the laboratory finding OR intestinal/stomach biopsy which still doesn’t mean a damn thing for you. Do you really need to put yourself through the figurative and literal cost of someone sticking a scope in one or more of your orifices to convince you to put down the donuts and milk?
I realize the newer you are to the CFR family, the more hard-core weirdo we probably seem. But we are okay with that. Because even though you think we may be flippant about our recommendations or not so receptive to your excuses, we have been through the withdrawal and the meal planning and grocery shopping and all the other aggravation that goes with it ourselves. And we came out the other side better and healthier for it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be so passionate about what we do and share with this community. We love what we do and we love our members. We would never give you untested advice (unsolicited but not untested, ha!). We say it with authority because we can’t imagine why anyone WOULDN’T try it if they felt less than perfect. We say it with such conviction, not because we are egomaniacs or think we are omniscient but because of what strength training and paleo lifestyle has done to change our lives, our DNA and hopefully our genetic destiny. We want nothing less than this for all of you as well.
Do yourself a favor and join the upcoming Paleo Challenge at CFR; change your destiny! As always, please share your thoughts (or recipes!) in the comments section.
Until next time, check out this link regarding gluten sensitivity we caught on Fox news Sunday morning…thanks so much for reading.
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