What is Diabesity?

Diabesity is the combination of obesity and diabetes. Diabesity currently effects 1 out of 3 Americans, and is the single leading cause of death. The cause is insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia ( Chronically elevated insulin). This is what causes both diabetes and obesity, which is why 90% of people with one condition will get the other.

Psychology of Diabesity

I want to preface by saying it’s not your fault that you have diabesity. When we get a diagnosis of obesity or diabesity, the feeling is usually shame and you did this to your self. This is the furtherest thing from the truth. Obesity and diabetes should be treated with compassion just like any other disease. Food manufactures work very hard to make you addicted to their product. A term that they through around in the industry is a heavy user. This refers to a smaller amount of people that use a ton of their product, rather than a lot of people using a little of their product. This is why a lot of marketing is aimed at kids so they can start early. Also, they use a tool called a gas chromatograph, which mimics flavor sensations you find in real food. This is why you can have something that tastes like a strawberry with out actually having any strawberries. They create flavor sensations and hyper craveable that makes it very hard for the brain to resist. Of course, we have to take responsibility for the condition. Being responsible is the ability to respond. Even know it’s not our fault, we have the power to change.

What Causes Diabesity?

Set point-

The set point refers to the bodies internal thermostat that manages weight. It’s a series of feedback loops that your body uses to reach homeostasis. Just like your body regulates blood glucose and blood pressure, it also regulates body weight. Your body manages hunger hormones via the hypothalamus in the brain. If you are over weight, and go on a low calorie diet to lose weight, something interesting will happen. You may loose weight in the short term, but because your body is designed to survive, what will happen is the metabolism will slow down and turn more and more calories in to fat because it thinks it’s starving, and it is. Eventually, when you go back to what you used to eat, you will probably be heavier than before you started the diet. This is the body trying to reach its set point, and going beyond that to make sure that you don’t starve again.

Hypothalamic Inflammation-

This is essential inflammation of the brain in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the master gland, and regulates countless process in the body. It is also a huge regulator of the set point and metabolism. When your brain is inflamed, it can’t hear the messages your body is sending. A lot of people who have diabesity also have leptin resistance. This is the bodies number one satiety hormone, so it tells your body when you have enough and you are full. When the feedback loops are not working properly, what happens is something very similar to insulin resistance. Your body produces so much leptin to send the message you are full, but your body can’t hear it and the receptors become resistant. So you have all of this leptin floating around, but you can’t use it, thus always hungry.

Toxic fat-

Most of us are carrying around 30% polyunsaturated fat on our bodies when it should be about 5% because of these oils. When this happens, you will have a lot of oxidation (aging) in your body and have depleted antioxidants. When your body fat gets burned with all this extra polyunsaturated fat, it damages the mitochondria. One study showed that just inhaling these oils in restaurant workers is enough to damage DNA. Fat cells also store fat soluble toxicants from the environment. There are chemicals in the environment that cause obesity known as obesogens. These chemicals disrupt our endocrine system, which is our hormonal system to cause fat gain. Also, Fat cells secrete inflammatory compounds, such as inflammatory cytokines.

How to Reverse Diabesity

Avoid these foods-

Vegetable oil-

This is the number one culprit we need to avoid nutritionally when it comes to are over all wellness. Vegetable oil is really a marketing term, none of them are actually oils from a vegetable. The oils are corn, canola, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, and sunflower. Also, grape seed and oat bran oil are sometimes used. These are actually seed oils. Eating the foods themselves is fine, but when we make a highly industrialized seed oil from them, it’s another story. These oils contain a substantial amount of polyunsaturated fat, which makes it very susceptible to oxidation in the following steps. Vegetable oil requires 40-100 steps just in order to process it. This is considered ultra processed food. Olive oil just requires that you crush the olives in contrast. Some of the steps include bleaching, deodorizing, hexane, degumming, and high heat. The process creates many toxins in the oil such as acrolein, acrylamide, and aldehydes. Acrolein is the same toxin found in cigarettes, but it’s in higher amounts in vegetable oil. These oils are considered more toxic than sugar because you can metabolize sugar rather quickly, but these oils make up your cell membranes and can stick around for months. Consuming these oils creates many free radicals, most notably one called peroxynitrite. This is the most powerful free radical that exists. Most of us are carrying around 30% polyunsaturated fat on our bodies when it should be about 5% because of these oils. When this happens, you will have a lot of oxidation (aging) in your body and have depleted antioxidants. When your body fat gets burned with all this extra polyunsaturated fat, it damages the mitochondria. One study showed that just inhaling these oils in restaurant workers is enough to damage DNA. Another thing that happens is an imbalance of omega 3-6 ratio. Seed oils are very high in omega 6 fatty acid, which is pro-inflammatory. We need some omega 6, but most of us have too much. Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory. The ideal ratio of omega 3-6 is a 1-1, all the way to a 1-4 ratio. Today, some people have a 1-20 ratio, or even higher. This is creating a massive amount of inflammation, setting the stage for chronic disease.

Sugar-

The consumption of sugar has sky rocketed in the recent decades. Today, the average American consumes about 150 pounds of added sugar each year. This is not including sugar that’s naturally occurring in food. Sugar has many deleterious effects on the body. How does sugar make you fat? It’s all about the hormonal impact that food has on our body. Insulin is our bodies major fat storing hormone. Fat does not raise insulin, protein does a little, but carbs do a lot. When you consume sugar, your insulin spikes, causing fat storage. Also, the more natural carbs can cause them as well if over done. These should be avoided if you already have diabesity. The glycemic index is the degree that a particular food spikes your blood sugar. All carbs turn in to sugar in the bloodstream. The higher the number on the glycemic index, the more your blood sugar spikes. This is also a general thing because everyone responds differently to different foods. An example is a slice of whole wheat bread is very high because they contain fast absorbing carbs like amylopectin A. Sugar also causes advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which is when sugar binds to protein and damages it. Lastly, sugar disrupts the microbiome because it feeds opportunist bacteria, which have the potential o cause disease if the environmental terrain gets disrupted in your body.

Foods to add-

2. Ceylon cinnamon

Ceylon cinnamon has also been shown to regulate blood sugar.

3. Dihydroberberine

Lastly, dihydroberberine has been shown to improve blood sugar and insulin levels.

Hydrate-

Hydration is key for diabesity. Water helps remove the metabolic waste products and toxins from fat. Dehydration also leads to higher concentrations of blood glucose. To learn more about high quality water, click here.

Exercise-

Building muscle is very important because muscle is a glucose sink. This means that it’s the number one place where glycogen is stored. The more muscle you have, the better you will be able to tolerate glucose. Walking has also been shown to be potent at blood glucose control. Going for a daily walk can be very beneficial.