Hormones rule, did you know that? I’m not talking just sex hormones though in teenaged boys and middle aged women they are certainly at the top of the pecking order most days.
Everything we eat has a hormonal consequence, some helpful, some down right harmful over the long term.
Insulin is a hormone and is responsible for getting blood sugar somewhere it can be used or stored. Grehlin and leptin are the push me-pull yous of the hunger and satiety dance. These three food related hormones are in direct communication with our other messengers such as glucagon–the fat-burning hormone. Called into action when food is scarce, glucagon converts stored fat into sugar and uses it for energy. These 4 hormones worked in perfect harmony before the introduction of grains and industrial food production when all hormonal hell broke loss. It’s been a steep slide towards disease and women on the verge ever since.
So what can be done? Keep an eye on this blog cause it’s one of missions to let women know about how to eat for hormonal balance, and grab this book if you want some science and some recipes.
Dr. Michael Aziz is an internist with a practice in Manhattan; Midtown Integrative Medicine. Frustrated early on in his medical career that so many young people were coming in with cancers, diabtetes, and allergies that he couldn’t heal as well as all ages of people who had weight issues, he went in search of some answers. What he found was this connection between key hormones and the foods we eat. The main culprits?
Sugar, grains, processed fake foods like margarine, and the endocrine disruptors found in the chemicals used to increase shelf life, texture, color, etc. One of his findings goes along with mine of late–low fat diets are partially at fault in the rise of diabetes, obesity, and hormonal chaos. “The results of the research is clear, eating fat does not make you fat. Rather it’s the lack of natural fats in your diet that makes you gain weight” writes Aziz. He continues, “Natural fats are essential for your cells to work properly. Fats slow down the absorption of food, stabilize blood sugar levels, decrease, cravings, and make you feel full.”
And blood sugar levels will make or break our health over the long haul. I’ve included a link to a 2.5 minute video of Dr. Aziz live, he explains his philosophy and his book a bit more. His solution is an easy, delicious way of eating, protein, fat and fresh fruits, veggies, beans and legumes pretty much.
It’s becoming harder and harder to hide from the latest message on food as medicine–eat what’s natural, eat foods you can recognize as such, don’t fear the fat, and eat organic (meats and dairy) and grass fed (meats) when you can. In case you don’t remember how delicious a dollop of half and half is in your coffee or whole egg poached or fried–it’s The Yumm Factor to the 10s. You may have to let go of some long held beliefs to take on these new ideas but if you find hormonal heaven vs a daily roller coaster from hell, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Dr. Michael Aziz
The more I read from some of the best researchers in the country who dare to look at things differently the more frustrated I get. One cause for concern is the conventional wisdom that a low fat diet is a panacea for all that ails us. (The cholesterol myths make me nuts too, you can read about that here.)
In Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, which one reviewer said is “Easily the most important book on diet and health to be published in the past one hundred years.” Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright Sided and Nickel and Dimed said, “Taubes tackles the subject with the seriousness and scientific insight it deserves, building a devastating case against the low-fat, high-carb way of life endorsed by so many nutrition experts in recent years.”
Look, I live by the idea that we are all biochemical individuals and there is no one prescription for eating that works across the board. But based on hours of research it is becoming more clear that loading our plates with grains–whole or otherwise–while at the same time lowering fat to torturous levels is having a deleterious effect on our health–and our waist line.
The seed for this idea was planted in 1976 at the “Diet and Killer Disease” hearings. By 1982 the proposition that dietary fat caused cancer was considered so likely true that a govt report encouraged Americans to lower fat consumption to 30% or less. In 1984 the American Cancer Society jumped on the band wagon and sealed the deal. Interesting though are the many observations from around the world that refuted the findings.
The National Cancer Institute and the NAS decided to make funding available to test the hypothesis. (Hypothesis is loosely used as the dietary fat/cancer link was being reported as fact)
Walter Willet, a Harvard epidemiologist, was called upon. He lead the Nurses Health Study which began tracking diet, lifestyle and disease in 89,000 nurses in 1982. The bottom line? After 4 years the nurses who reported the lowest fat intake had the highest rate of breast cancer!
The National Cancer Institute reviewed the study and said it was good study but not the only one and continued to recommend a low fat diet. 8 months later reports Taubes, NCI researchers themselves published a study albeit from a smaller group suggesting “that eating more fat and more saturated fat correlated with less breast cancer.”
After 14 years of observation by Harvard, the research still pointed to lower fat diets resulting in higher breast cancer rates. “The data still suggested” writes Taubes, “that eating fatty foods, (even those with copious saturated fat) might protect against cancer. For every 5% of saturated fat calories that replaced carbohydrates in the diet, the risk of breast cancer decreased by 9%.”
So what do we do with this information? Sweep it under the rug so we can continue as we are with thousands of women getting breast cancer while feeling deprived, not enjoying the full spectrum of flavors and nutrition in foods? I can’t do it.
I’ll be looking for more data to support this theory and there are plenty of posts here talking about the dangers of too little fat and too many grains. I’m not talking about doing a low carb diet. I’m suggesting that having a health amount of fat and a healthy amount of beans, whole grains–not processed into chips, cereals, and bread products–and a wide range of all lean proteins and vegetables is not only the way to eat for health and weight maintenance but for disease prevention.
