Metabolic Slavery

A couple of months ago I got the news that a patient and someone I knew fairly well had died. We were not friends in the sense of socially doing things together, but I had adjusted him many times and for me that is quality time. Later that evening while I was eating dinner I wondered if I should get dessert or not. I was feeling sort of cynical about healthy eating. You see, this person seemed real healthy and ate the “right things” and still died at an early age with a health related issue. I thought about the scenes in the movies where they ask the person on death row “what do you want for your last meal?” Almost always their answer includes a big thick steak and …most definitely dessert.

Since about 1980, I have studied and explored different diets in an effort to be as healthy as possible and try to find that perfect diet that would guarantee perfect health. I even went to Chiropractic College to explore and find answers on being really healthy. Back then I searched in books and today it is on the Internet. In my search for a solution what I have found is that there are lots of answers and no guarantees. There is just a process of moment-to-moment discoveries of truth that last only as long as when the next truth comes along. Go to a bookstore and look at all the different books on diet and you will notice a wide array of opinions on the ‘right’ way to eat. The confusing thing is how can so many different views be right?

Everyone’s metabolism has his or her own biological individuality. This is why all the diet plans seem to work for a certain group of people some of the time. The question is what will work for you? You have to consider your specific biological individuality, your current state of metabolic health, your current level of stress in your environment and your objective. In other words, why do you want to change your diet, what is your concern? The factors at play are variables but there seems to be one common denominator. Are you a sugar burner or a fat burner?

If you are a sugar burner your chances of succeeding at a diet plan are very low. unless you address this issue first. In the Oct 99 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association it was reported that 300,000 people die each year due to obesity. This is 2nd only to smoking as a preventable cause of death. Over 90% of people who diet fail to lose weight or will gain the weight back within in 6 months. By one year, 95% of those people who lost weight will gain it back. The conclusion of these statistics would say that conventional dieting is a sure way to not lose weight. For certain it was a sugar burner that coined the phrase, ‘diets don’t work’. If you are a sugar burner then you are not in control of your actions. You are a drug addict. That may seem like a strong statement but let’s look at the definition of addiction. Addiction (ad’ ikt shen) compulsive, uncontrollable dependence on a substance, habit, or practice to such a degree that cessation causes severe emotional, mental, or physiological reactions. Try not eating sugar and not ingesting substances that support sugar metabolism for three days. I suspect you will experience significant emotional, mental and or physiological reactions. Oh yea did I mention that coffee, alcohol, tobacco and grain products directly or indirectly contribute to this sugar burner process. Keep reading. There is hope. To be a sugar burner is a socially accepted addiction supported by the food industries. Sugar burners are junkies needing junk food. The pimps are not only manufacturers of foods containing sugar, but also products containing starchy carbohydrates like wheat, corn, rice and most grains. They are disguised to appear healthy and are the ones that usually hook you. For example breakfast cereals marketed as a cholesterol lowering food actually contributes to the problem. October newsletter will go into more detail on this process.

If you are a sugar burner then your present state cannot be trusted any more than a drug addict. You are not in control of what you decide to eat. The desire you feel is not the real you but your hormones scrambling for stability. When an alcoholic reaches for a drink it is from hormonal imbalance not real thirst. They do not have the ability to make a healthy choice. When a sugar burner craves a refined carbohydrate snack like cookies, cake or candy it is from hormonal hunger, not legitimate physiological need. There is a way to eat that is natural. But to experience this natural state you have to be in your natural state rather then being pushed and pulled and in constant reaction. Once you convert to a fat burning metabolism, then and only then can you trust your body’s ability to make healthy food choices.

The manufacturers of these addicting foods play on your inability to trust your body’s intelligence anymore than a crack head needing their next fix. The way for a drug addict to get clean is to not allow the substance to enter their body until they stabilize. This is the same process required to shift your metabolism from relying on sugar to utilizing fat for energy. This metabolic shift can happen in seven days. The withdrawal phase will be the first 3 to 4 days while your body uses up all the stored sugar in the liver and muscles and is forced to convert fat to energy. Don’t be discouraged, you can have your cake and eat it too. Your body prefers to burn fat and will support this transition. It takes some effort but you can do it, it is your natural state. Once this addiction is broken you have true freedom to diet/LIVE in a way that will fulfill your desires. Call the office for more information on this process.