Obesity - 019

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized, professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. SPEAKER B Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. Most of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. What are the causes and what can we do about it? Stay tuned for practical, doable solutions. SPEAKER C Healthy Living is a 13 part production of 3ABN Australia television focusing on the health of the whole person body, mind, and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good health. SPEAKER B My guest today is Dr. Eddie Ramirez, who will be sharing research and practical solutions. He presented at the International Congress on Obesity in Vancouver, Canada. Welcome, Eddie. SPEAKER D Thank you. SPEAKER B Very lovely to have you on the program. Now, you've described obesity as an epidemic. Just how bad is it? SPEAKER D This is a huge public health problem, not only here in Australia, but in many areas around the world. In fact, the latest statistics for Australia tells us that two out of three people in Australia either are overweight or obese. And you know, the problem gets even more complicated. If in Australia there was only Caucasian people, white people, that wouldn't be I mean, still it's a problem, but that wouldn't be such an emergency. But the problem is that there are people from all over the world in Australia, and obesity affects certain minority groups worse than others. SPEAKER B Is that right? SPEAKER D So when I went to India, I was doing a series of conferences. In fact, I'm involved in a few research projects with them. SPEAKER B I don't know how you do all you do. It just seems we keep hearing about the research you do, and I'm really, really pleased. I want to say this, that we have you on our program because you do have really good cutting edge information to share on a lot of subjects, including this one. So tell us more. SPEAKER D That's right. So I learned there's something fascinating. See, in India, what we consider normal weight, we use a measurement called body mass index. If you're interested in getting yours, use Google. Body mass index. The little formula is there. You take into account your height and your weight. In the Western world, the normal body mass index, the top part, what is considered normal, is 25. That formula gives you a number, and you put it there, in there. In India, the top number is actually 23. Because somebody from Indian origin above 23 of body mass index, it's too much for him. And the doors for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and many other problems open up as you go above that 23. And that's not only unique for people from India, this guideline also is very applicable to people of Asia. Many of the Hispanic world also and people from Africa so many times, the measurement we may be using here may not necessarily be the optimum for. SPEAKER B You know, I once heard a doctor give or a dietitian, actually, and he gave a good way to find out whether you're overweight or obese because the body mass index, some people do that, and it's like, oh, a bit complicated. But he said, alcohol got a really, really simple way for you to know. He said, what you do is you take your clothes off, you stand in front of the mirror, and if you look fat, you probably are. That's really cruel. But it's a starting point anyway. SPEAKER D And that's exactly why you need some sort of measurement, because especially somebody that is 24 body mass index, it doesn't look too overweight. SPEAKER B Okay? SPEAKER D And it can be tricky. In fact, in Latin America, where I have done many clinical consultations, there are people that you would not suspect that they are overweight, yet their numbers indicate that and also the type of health problems and so forth that they have. SPEAKER B That's interesting. So we're setting ourselves up for health problems without that visible evidence that we talked about. SPEAKER D So it can be tricky. In fact, it's interesting. I don't know how many times mothers bring me their children to consultation, and they say, Doctor, I need you to check my child. I think my child has worms. Look at him, how thin he is. He doesn't look very healthy. So we go ahead. There's some standardized tables in which you take the height and the weight and you compare to the rest of the population. Everything is normal. Why does the mother think that? Because when he is being compared to the rest of his peers, he actually looks thin compared to the other ones that actually may be having some weight issues. In fact, statistics in Australia tells us that one out of four kids in Australia are overweight or obese. SPEAKER B One in four. SPEAKER D That's a big number. SPEAKER B Because it's so hard once weight has been gained, it's hard to get on top of that. SPEAKER D When I used to do yeah, what. SPEAKER B About the extent of this problem overseas and everything like that? It really spreads, doesn't it? SPEAKER D This is a worldwide crisis. In fact, just yesterday I was reading a research paper that came out in the literature. It was showing how around the world, metabolic problems are increasing, even in third World countries. SPEAKER B Oh, really? SPEAKER D So high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity are increasing dramatically when compared to just a few years. See, I used to go to Hawai to help there with a LASTAL program, and you see something fascinating there. There is a lot of Japanese people that like Hawaii, and even some signs in the roads are in Japanese and so forth. But when you go to a restaurant there, you see something interesting. You can quickly tell who is first and second generation, who is third and fourth generation. SPEAKER B You can tell that just by just. SPEAKER D By looking at the people, you see that the third and fourth generations, those tend to be obese or overweight, while the first and second generation tends to be thin and have their normal weight. And how do you actually know that they're third and fourth generation? By the language they speak. The first and second generation, they're not comfortable with the English, so they speak the Japanese, while the third and fourth generations, those are actually losing their Japanese and they're more comfortable talking in English. So as being somebody that is interested in languages, you can quickly see there how the genes didn't change, but the diet and the habits change. SPEAKER B Speaking of languages, I just have to put this in. I asked you how many languages you speak and you were very modest and you said, oh, don't speak very well, but was it six or seven languages somewhere there? That's very impressive. And it's actually inspired me. And I'm actually thinking about learning a language very good just on the basis of that, but go on. I just sort of so we have. SPEAKER D This pattern in which obesity is increasing in America. They did a fascinating study back in 1985. The public health organism of the country called the CDC realized that they were having a big crisis in their hand as obesity and overweight was increasing in the country. So what they decided to do, they decided to map the problem, to see in which areas of the world this problem was prevalent and common. And we can see in screen one of the graphics that they release. And you can see here that using color codes, the dark blue color, it means that from ten to 14% of the people living in that state, they had a problem with obesity in that state. So as you can see, what is called the south in America started to have an issue there. So let's walk through time so we can see how this advanced. 87, 80. We continue with the 91. And you can see that a new classification was put on. Now, that very dark blue color is where 15% to 19% of the people were overweight and obese. And we continue 96, 97, a new classification. Now more than 20% of the people in those states are obese. 20 00 20 01 20 01 a new classification. Now more than 25% of the people are obese. 20 04 20 05 20 06 and a new classification again in more than 30% of the people are obese 2009, and the latest one that we have is from 2010. Now I want you to see the pattern, the area in America where you find the most obesity, it has the name the Bible Belt because you find the highest amount of evangelical Christians in that area. Yet it is the most sick area of America. And the reason why I speak very frequently in evangelical circles and so forth. Unfortunately, some of the evangelical people have ignored the principles that the Bible teach about health. And you can quickly see the results in that area of America where you find that highest density, you find the most heart disease, the most diabetes, the most obesity and the list goes on and on and on. And the beauty of this is that in the Bible we find the solution to this problem from the very beginning. God gives a diet to human beings at the time of Noah. God introduces a new element, yet he puts some rules depending on which animals you're supposed to eat, which animals you're not supposed to eat. Before there were Jews and things. So people say oh, because in the cross these things were done away. Not necessarily. This was a principle for human beings. SPEAKER B Go ahead, just in case. Not everyone's familiar with what God recommended right there at creation. What foods did he recommend for human beings? Right at the beginning there that's right. SPEAKER D At the beginning God introduced the fruit type of foods with some nuts. Then after that, after sin comes to the picture, god allows people to eat the herb of the field. So you had a full plant vegetarian diet from the very beginning. That was the vision that God had for humans to eat. Not until the time of Noah when vegetation was destroyed. God gives permission to eat animals and with special rules that still if you are still eating animal products, it still applies for today. It's interesting, jewish people actually are the ethnic group in the world that has gotten the most novel prizes. See, because when you partake of those animals that are not in that list, actually your IQ decreases. We don't have time to talk about that. But actually it has a negative effect in the brain such as the part taking of pigs meat and so forth. SPEAKER B So there's a connection with brain health? SPEAKER D Absolutely. Now, females tend to have more of a problem with their weight and the reason why is because they tend to be small. Usually their type of work they do, they are less active. And also because of the biological purpose that God had for them, they need to have the baby developing inside of them. So the body tries to have enough reserves in order to help that baby grow properly. That's the reason why females tend to have a little bit more of a problem while males have muscle mass and muscle mass tends to burn more calories. SPEAKER B Quite a lot more calories. Muscle burns a lot more calories than fat, doesn't it? That's right, yes. SPEAKER D So concentrate on that if you want to have some help. In a minute we'll tell you the method. I also presented some research on the latest Obesity World Congress that happened in Vancouver, Canada. I presented three papers and we can see the first of them in screen. We were finding out that regularity in eating and sleeping was helping with weight control and was also improving mental health. So that was very good finding. You need to have order in your life. SPEAKER B That's interesting. So eating at regular times. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B Sleeping at regular times. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B Even on the weekend? SPEAKER D Even on the weekend. Then the second paper I presented there, it was about how plant based diets are one of the best ways. And please notice in the little graphic on the bottom right, it was showing that a full plant vegetarian nutrition will actually if you are normal weight or underweight, it won't affect your weight. But if you are overweight or obese, it will actually help you lose weight in a natural weight without suffering, which is something I'm against. SPEAKER B Isn't that incredible how it doesn't make you lose weight if you're underweight or normal, but it helps you if you're overweight. The body's a marvelous thing. And it does regulate a lot of these things. It's a bit like getting vitamin D from the sun. It will only produce as much as the body needs. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B Don't get an overdose that way. SPEAKER D Exactly. So it's better to work with physiological type of approaches. And then a third one that we presented showing that this also applies to pediatric participants. So young people that partake of this method are able to lose weight in a natural weight again without suffering and so forth. So let's go a little bit about how this method works. This is actually from what is called the New Start program. If you Google about the New Start program in Wimar, you can see if you're interested in even coming and being one of these patients in our place. So there is something that is called the Point theory. That's the name of it. SPEAKER B The Point. SPEAKER D The Point theory which says that you usually tend to maintain a certain equilibrium. If you are of a certain weight and you quickly lose weight, you're probably going to bounce back to that point. If you gain weight very fast, you will actually come down to try to approximate to that point. Now, there are two specific ways that you can use to lower the point so that you lose weight. SPEAKER B Like a set point? SPEAKER D Yes, like a set point. Number one is very and I'm talking about very intensive exercise. Let me tell you, just so you can picture it in your head. One half a kilo of fat in your body is approximately 3500 calories. That is a lot. See, if you go running at race speed, you will probably burn about 500 calories from that from that 45 minutes run or so. So that is just 600 calories. We said you need 3500 calories to lose just half a kilo. That means that you can lower the point with exercise, but you would have to invest four or 5 hours a day of exercise. Something that is not practical for most people and most people actually don't have the fitness to handle that. So a better strategy if you want to tackle this problem long term is to change the composition of your diet. In that way you don't suffer. Again, I am totally against those methods that say, oh, you just have to eat two portions of this and one portion of this, and the person is all hungry and suffering throughout the day. Look, you can do that for a week, you can do that for two weeks. But long term, that is just not acceptable. SPEAKER B No, it is just unsustainable, isn't it? SPEAKER D In the study that we were presenting, the way that our patients ate, it was buffett style. Patients just serve themselves what they wanted, of course, encouraged in moderation, and automatically their bodies start to lose that weight. Now, we need to understand that fats increase the point. So foods that have too much fat, like free oils, that one will increase the point, while starch and vegetables will decrease the point. So what you need to do, you need to change your plate and you need to make sure that you're eating one third of your whole plate needs to be raw fruits or vegetables. The rest of it needs to be cooked food. If you want this process to be even faster, switch it to half, half of your plate. It's going to be raw fruits or vegetables. And by doing that, you will see the advantage. And see, some people are afraid of starches and these type of foods, those foods are fabulous. See, as I travel around the world, I've seen this with my own eyes. What's the staple food in Japan, for example? It's rice. What's the staple food in Papua New Guinea? It is this roots, these yams, this type of foods. What's the staple food in Mexico? It's beans and rice. What's the staple food in Peru? It's potatoes. What was the staple food in Europe? It was bread. That was what they based their food on. So the problem is not these foods. The problem is what we put to them. SPEAKER B That's right, yes. Often bread is just a vehicle that's right. For things that would raise that set point. SPEAKER D And see, when you eat food in its most natural state, what it does, it fills your stomach. And there is sensors in your stomach that send a signal to your brain and said, okay, you had enough. Okay. But when you're eating concentrated foods such as animal products, they have a lot of calories and absolutely no fiber. Animal products are deficient of fiber. Fiber only comes from vegetable products. So you ate some cheese, you ate some milk, and still your stomach is not full enough. And he says, what else are you going to feed me? I'm still hungry. And you end up increasing the number of calories, and you end up moving that point towards the top. So let's review some of the most common mistakes people make while trying to lose weight. And I'm sharing with you this from my clinical experience, what my patients give me input on. Number one, they eat too much high fat foods. See, oil, that is not good for you. If you are a marathonist and you have to train 3 hours a day, please use oil in your food. You need it. But if the type of work that you do is just sitting down in front of a computer, low level of activity with just a 30 minutes, 45 minutes exercise per day, you don't need that excess oil. In fact, I would actually encourage you to eliminate it from your diet and use something like Pam, that spray so that your food doesn't stick to your plate. And I'm talking also about olive oil. Some people say, oh, it's olive oil, it must be healthy. And here comes on the salad, you're putting a bum of calories there. So oils, be careful. Number two, be careful with sugars. Sugars are concentrated food. Sugars increase a very important hormone in your body called insulin. And insulin helps you gain weight. And beware honey also has that effect. Even the Bible says a little bit of honey is good for you. Follow that counsel. Not because it's honey, it doesn't mean that it's not going to do that reaction when it's eaten in the excess. SPEAKER B I remember reading through the Book of Proverbs, which was written by the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, and he even wrote a couple of Proverbs about honey, which kind of surprised me the first time I actually saw it. And one of them says if you find honey, eat just enough, too much and you'll vomit. SPEAKER D That's right. Very true. SPEAKER B That's very graphic, very true. SPEAKER D So be careful with ingredients that end in oats, fructose, glucose, maltose, all those things are sugars. Next problem, blenders. Beware of blenders. People right now are very much into smoothies and juices. These things are concentrated calories. Once in a while you eat this, no problem. But as an everyday thing, if your goal is to gain weight, go for it. But if your goal is to lose weight, beware of blenders. As they destroy the fiber, increase the glycemic index of the food, increase the insulin response in your body and encourage gaining weight. Another problem, alcohol. Huge problem, alcohol. Alcohol by two problems affects you. Number one, empty calories. Number two, affects your frontal lobe. So just one glass of wine, you probably have determined, you know, I'm not going to overeat today, but when alcohol is on board, then those breaks don't work and studies show you're going to end up overeating. And next thing, very important, dry fruit. Beware of dry fruit. Dry fruit are bombs of calories. Once in a while you eat this, it's no problem. But I see people have this big bag of dry fruit, those things are just bombs of calories. And finally, exercise. You need to increase the amount of exercise so that it can help you have healthy appetite and it actually encourages self control. So put those vegetables to work for you and lose weight in a natural, non painful method. SPEAKER B Something that's sustainable, something that you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life. If it's something you can only do for a short term, whatever that term is that's not going to achieve what you want to do because you just can't sustain it. SPEAKER D That's right. And that's why I like the Chip programs that are taking place here. What does it mean? Chip? SPEAKER B Yes, we better straighten that out in case. Complete health improvement program. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B It's not the fried ones. SPEAKER D So go ahead and Google one of those programs in your locality and try to see where is one of those programs. They have cooking classes and so forth. They're nonprofit programs and I would definitely encourage you to participate on one of them. Make sure that you use all the food groups that will help you lose weight which are the fruits, the vegetables, the legumes and legumes. We're talking about the peas and the beans and the lentils, whole grains and a little bit of nuts in quite moderation. SPEAKER B Yes. Well that's really good. I actually was speaking to someone who did the Chip program. He needed a kidney transplant. They couldn't do it because until he lost weight and he wasn't able to. He went to Chip and in a short time, I just don't know how many weeks it was he had lost enough weight to have the operation but he didn't need it because his kidney function was normal. Incredible program. Absolutely incredible. He had a few other good outcomes too. And I could tell you many of the outcomes that people have when they do that complete Health Improvement Project as a community based thing. So really a brilliant way because often people do need support to make lifestyle changes and that does it because it's done over a period of time. Well, we want you to have the best that life has to offer. So keep tuning in for more encouragement and strategies for healthy living. And if you'd like to watch our programs on demand just go to our website 3abnaustralia.org.au and click on the watch button. We'll see you next time. SPEAKER C You’ve been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia television.