Intuitive eating is what has brought us here into the land of obesity in the first place, where most people are way too heavy. Relying on our own hunger signals worked fine when food was scarce and perhaps did not taste that great. But modern food is produced to be hyper palatable. Relying on the body's innate hunger signals in such a food environment is asking for trouble. What the intuitive eaters are really asking for is permission to surrender to our appetites today, sacrificing our health tomorrow.
Yeah, it's definitely a dangerous game to tell ourselves that we know when we have had enough when the foods we have now are intended to keep us wanting more. All so-called intuitive eating will do is just escalate the cravings and consumption even further. It's even scarier that this is being pushed by a mother onto her kids and other kids as well.
I sort of took intuitive eating to have been the idea that you don't need to constantly portion or calorie count because you can eventually gauge things for yourself, like what exactly "1 cup of X" generally looks like. That doesn't seem to be what it was devised as but that's how I tried viewing it. 🤷♂️
Modern Discontent sees the medicalized obesity scams. 👍🏼
My take is that these things are not being pushed for benevolent purposes.
One of the ways to solve the social security shortfall is to get people to die sooner.
Encouraging people to become obese is accomplishing this.
There is intense research in flavoring foods so that they become more irresistable and easier to pound down in huge quantities. The bag snacks and the MacDonalds' fries are deadly.
If more people know what's being purposely done to them, they'll get pi$$ed off enough to switch to real food.
We can all regulate our chunkiness without feeling horrible about it. Outdoor time is magical healing for most.
Get lost in the weeds 😎 It'll put a smile on your face.
I'm not sure if it will be intended to kill us all of sooner, but having people spend a ton of money on junk food which can then be "treated" through medications and surgeries seem to be a good racket to develop so you're always paying into some large corporation somehow.
Regardless definitely spend more time outdoors, especially as the weather is getting nice!
First comment. SIL and her hubby just back from almost 2 weeks in Japan, one of their first comments on return, “Americans are very fat”. My son, just back from almost 2 weeks in Germany and India, one of his first comments on return, “Americans are fat”. It may be a medical issue ultimately, but it is caused by the diet Americans consume.
I recall an article a few years back showing a shopping cart from various countries around the world. Most everyone except from the US was filled with fresh non-factory food. US basket all processed factory foods.
Second comment. I was overweight until I was in junior high school. My parents pretty much let me eat what I wanted. I wish they would have put their foot down and slapped those “9 Oreos” out of my hand and made me eat better. There was a weight limit on football players in elementary school at that time. My friend, nicknamed Pig (if that tells you anything) could play, but I was too heavy and couldn’t play until junior high. 🤷♂️
Third Comment. I came across this article recently while doing my own research on optimizing metabolism. Depending on which metrics are used this paper contends that barely 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy. Being obese and proud of it is a recipe for disaster as one ages.
It's not really surprising to consider that we have a serious obesity issue here. The food cart thing is definitely something that is really telling. Sometimes I may grab a snack or two but I generally try to get predominately whole foods and maybe some things that I can whip up quickly. But unfortunately most people even of my generation (millennials) are eating pre-packaged and instant foods. It's scary how many people I know who can't cook for themselves.
To the second comment what's worrying is that our relationship with food needs to be healthily shaped. As SomeUserName pointed out you didn't need a healthy relationship with food many years ago because you would just be lucky to get any food at all. But the surplus of food comes with a need to be able to balance whole foods and indulgences. Children need to learn better eating because poor eating habits are being pushed onto them. It then becomes important for parents to step in and make sure that they don't overdo it on the bad foods.
To the last point I've heard a lot of people talking about metabolic health but haven't looked too deeply into it aside from something that may appear in a study. That may be something I can consider covering in the future if I can get around to it.
The works of Dr Robert Lustig are a good starting point toward investigating metabolic health. I’ve been a fan of his since back around 2007 when I saw him give a talk on UCTV (Univ California) on a show called -Mini Medical School For The Public - on glucose metabolism vs fructose metabolism.
if we include the gut as being part of the head (when ppl think obesity is all in the head) then I could somewhat agree. Been reading more about GLP-1 (also a peptide you can get through compounding pharmacies), akkermansia (a anerobic gut bacteria involved in its production- choose wisely) and diet (fiber turns into food for gut bacteria so it can produce this) is INTEGRAL to weight loss (and general health). im back on the SAD diet soap box... (standard american diet) which is low in veggies, low in fiber, etc... and got us in this mess. As I learn more, I see how GLP-1s can help get people reach desired places, but it really depends on the 'soil' of the body (its overall nutrient, toxin and metabolic condition) which is shaped by lifestyle and diet. This helps sustain gains from these expensive meds (which don't come without risk). Yes pharma makes thier money hand over fist. I hope the general public understands their incentives. I also do see some meds as tools which can facilitate an integrative approach to health.
Well, it looks like you were doing some of your own research Dr. Lazarevic! You know that's not allowed! I'll report you to the CDC! 😉
Some of the comments you made were things I came across as well, most notably the relationship between dietary fiber and GLP-1. I think the research I've seen suggests that the short-chain fatty acids produced by gut bacteria help to activate the intestinal cells that produce GLP-1. I've wanted to write about that relationship but it keeps getting away from me, like with everything else I've wanted to write about. I may try to focus more on actually getting that article out than being constantly sidetracked!
But like you've outlined the GLP-1 paradigm is multifaceted. Are there reasons why people are not producing enough GLP-1, and what mechanisms help to dictate that production? If it is certainly fiber that's important then there's more to obesity than just calories, but also the fact that the right nutrients are being consumed.
I am cautiously excited to see what research comes out regarding GLP-1 and addiction. I think there's a deeper relationship between the two that researchers are now investigating, but I'm also concerned if this means that we will be medicalizing addiction as well. How will the addiction landscape look if any addict is pushed to be on GLP-1 RAs for a lifetime because they can't beat their addiction on their own, and that addiction is a lifetime disease? I have a growing concern that such research will just further incentivize getting as many people as possible onto these medications.
i was laughing outloud-reading your comment. i know, veering off course is a no-no, lol..... akkermansia may also be useful in autoimmune disorders.... it is VERY very interesting stuff.
im very excited to see what happens with GLP-1 and addiction, i started to hear about pts reducing or stopping alcohol use in my peptide course, other docs who run weight loss tracks in their pratice mentioned cases- i was like wha- whaaat?!?! which makes me wonder even moreso the reltionship with the gut biome and addiction. SO MUCH to unpack there. alcohol dependence is very very difficult to kick. id consider it lifelong analogous to diabetes- you can reverse the disease but have to remain on a maintenance prevention plan for life. Addiction asks for something similar.
I might have mentioned before Im an addiction psychiatrist, so yes it might broaden treatment population, but if its a tool that can work, why not use it. i do have several over weight people who drink excessively who might benefit. the side effects need to be weighed and the overall metabolic picture as well, I strongly encourage lifestyle changes and I find myself doing extra labs with pts who get GLP-1 from other docs. like my mentor says "seed, weed and feed" the body. (start methods to shift health, weed out toxic components, nourishi-nourish-nourish).
anyway, your work is great, keep it up. i hope your job is going well.
last words- this is unrelated to this topic, but have u noticed VASA 1 rolling out wth microsoft. pretty nutty stuff. there is AI creep into everything- ugh...
I'd like to read more into the microbiome, but there's so much to read that it all becomes overwhelming! It doesn't help that there's so much conflicting information that no one has time to slow down and try to piece things together for themselves.
Oh, alcohol and smoking reduction has been reported quite often. It makes the whole scenario rather intriguing to think about!
As it relates to addiction treatment I personally wouldn't see any problem IF it is up to the patient/physician to come to that decision. What I'm concerned about, and what COVID vaccine mandates has shown us, is that there's a dangerous, slippery slope from option to treat to mandating it. Imagine if someone is diagnosed with an addiction- that stays with them for the rest of their life. But then what if that diagnosis is paired with being forced to take GLP-1 RAs. Addiction is a disease, there's a treatment, and therefore YOU MUST take the treatment.
That's my main concern, and we're already seeing this language make its way into GLP-1 discussions when it comes to obesity where everyone says you have to stay on these medications for the rest of your life or else you will gain the weight back. There's no off-ramp allowed for people, and I won't put it past those in healthcare to push for some sort of mandate for addicts. Just something I'm hesitant about.
Thanks for the kind words! Work is work I suppose. I haven't been able to research and write as much as I had hoped so I feel like I'm falling behind. Anyways I hope all is well with you!
As to VASA 1 I just looked it up... yeah that's pretty scary... All the more reason to not lose touch with what's authentic and real.
I never fail to be amazed at the stupidity and gullibility of humanity. And this is just another in a long line of ill-informed medical decisions.
Look at any photo prior to the 80's and you rarely find anyone overweight.
Apart from that rather jarring refutation that being obese is now a "medical condition" - have people learnt nothing after the last 4 years of rushing headlong into a new medication??
These drugs work (apart from slowing stomach emptying) by reducing blood sugar which means less insulin needs to be released, yet they cause insulin to pour into your system.
Entire books have been written about the catastrophic impacts on every organ of excess insulin.
Now your pancreas is furiously pumping it out.
Expect to see a surge in pancreatic cancers in the coming years.
Well, what's interesting is that I don't have an issue of referring to obesity as a disease if we define disease as a detrimental state of one's health. The problem isn't necessarily a categorization of "disease" more than the idea that "if disease, then treatment", with treatment in this case being medications and other pharmaceutical interventions. These GLP-1 RAs have opened the door to pivot from lifestyle/behavioral changes to all-out medicalization.
I haven't looked into the insulin issue, but it is interesting to consider than pancreatitis/pancreatic cancer is one of the worries with these drugs. One thing I think about is the fact that the extremely long half-life of these medications will lead to constant activation of GLP-1 receptors as you mentioned, and this raises a question regarding if this will have an detrimental effects down the line as well.
Intuitive eating is what has brought us here into the land of obesity in the first place, where most people are way too heavy. Relying on our own hunger signals worked fine when food was scarce and perhaps did not taste that great. But modern food is produced to be hyper palatable. Relying on the body's innate hunger signals in such a food environment is asking for trouble. What the intuitive eaters are really asking for is permission to surrender to our appetites today, sacrificing our health tomorrow.
Yeah, it's definitely a dangerous game to tell ourselves that we know when we have had enough when the foods we have now are intended to keep us wanting more. All so-called intuitive eating will do is just escalate the cravings and consumption even further. It's even scarier that this is being pushed by a mother onto her kids and other kids as well.
I sort of took intuitive eating to have been the idea that you don't need to constantly portion or calorie count because you can eventually gauge things for yourself, like what exactly "1 cup of X" generally looks like. That doesn't seem to be what it was devised as but that's how I tried viewing it. 🤷♂️
Modern Discontent sees the medicalized obesity scams. 👍🏼
My take is that these things are not being pushed for benevolent purposes.
One of the ways to solve the social security shortfall is to get people to die sooner.
Encouraging people to become obese is accomplishing this.
There is intense research in flavoring foods so that they become more irresistable and easier to pound down in huge quantities. The bag snacks and the MacDonalds' fries are deadly.
If more people know what's being purposely done to them, they'll get pi$$ed off enough to switch to real food.
We can all regulate our chunkiness without feeling horrible about it. Outdoor time is magical healing for most.
Get lost in the weeds 😎 It'll put a smile on your face.
I'm not sure if it will be intended to kill us all of sooner, but having people spend a ton of money on junk food which can then be "treated" through medications and surgeries seem to be a good racket to develop so you're always paying into some large corporation somehow.
Regardless definitely spend more time outdoors, especially as the weather is getting nice!
First comment. SIL and her hubby just back from almost 2 weeks in Japan, one of their first comments on return, “Americans are very fat”. My son, just back from almost 2 weeks in Germany and India, one of his first comments on return, “Americans are fat”. It may be a medical issue ultimately, but it is caused by the diet Americans consume.
I recall an article a few years back showing a shopping cart from various countries around the world. Most everyone except from the US was filled with fresh non-factory food. US basket all processed factory foods.
Second comment. I was overweight until I was in junior high school. My parents pretty much let me eat what I wanted. I wish they would have put their foot down and slapped those “9 Oreos” out of my hand and made me eat better. There was a weight limit on football players in elementary school at that time. My friend, nicknamed Pig (if that tells you anything) could play, but I was too heavy and couldn’t play until junior high. 🤷♂️
Third Comment. I came across this article recently while doing my own research on optimizing metabolism. Depending on which metrics are used this paper contends that barely 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy. Being obese and proud of it is a recipe for disaster as one ages.
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/met.2018.0105
It's not really surprising to consider that we have a serious obesity issue here. The food cart thing is definitely something that is really telling. Sometimes I may grab a snack or two but I generally try to get predominately whole foods and maybe some things that I can whip up quickly. But unfortunately most people even of my generation (millennials) are eating pre-packaged and instant foods. It's scary how many people I know who can't cook for themselves.
To the second comment what's worrying is that our relationship with food needs to be healthily shaped. As SomeUserName pointed out you didn't need a healthy relationship with food many years ago because you would just be lucky to get any food at all. But the surplus of food comes with a need to be able to balance whole foods and indulgences. Children need to learn better eating because poor eating habits are being pushed onto them. It then becomes important for parents to step in and make sure that they don't overdo it on the bad foods.
To the last point I've heard a lot of people talking about metabolic health but haven't looked too deeply into it aside from something that may appear in a study. That may be something I can consider covering in the future if I can get around to it.
The works of Dr Robert Lustig are a good starting point toward investigating metabolic health. I’ve been a fan of his since back around 2007 when I saw him give a talk on UCTV (Univ California) on a show called -Mini Medical School For The Public - on glucose metabolism vs fructose metabolism.
if we include the gut as being part of the head (when ppl think obesity is all in the head) then I could somewhat agree. Been reading more about GLP-1 (also a peptide you can get through compounding pharmacies), akkermansia (a anerobic gut bacteria involved in its production- choose wisely) and diet (fiber turns into food for gut bacteria so it can produce this) is INTEGRAL to weight loss (and general health). im back on the SAD diet soap box... (standard american diet) which is low in veggies, low in fiber, etc... and got us in this mess. As I learn more, I see how GLP-1s can help get people reach desired places, but it really depends on the 'soil' of the body (its overall nutrient, toxin and metabolic condition) which is shaped by lifestyle and diet. This helps sustain gains from these expensive meds (which don't come without risk). Yes pharma makes thier money hand over fist. I hope the general public understands their incentives. I also do see some meds as tools which can facilitate an integrative approach to health.
Well, it looks like you were doing some of your own research Dr. Lazarevic! You know that's not allowed! I'll report you to the CDC! 😉
Some of the comments you made were things I came across as well, most notably the relationship between dietary fiber and GLP-1. I think the research I've seen suggests that the short-chain fatty acids produced by gut bacteria help to activate the intestinal cells that produce GLP-1. I've wanted to write about that relationship but it keeps getting away from me, like with everything else I've wanted to write about. I may try to focus more on actually getting that article out than being constantly sidetracked!
But like you've outlined the GLP-1 paradigm is multifaceted. Are there reasons why people are not producing enough GLP-1, and what mechanisms help to dictate that production? If it is certainly fiber that's important then there's more to obesity than just calories, but also the fact that the right nutrients are being consumed.
I am cautiously excited to see what research comes out regarding GLP-1 and addiction. I think there's a deeper relationship between the two that researchers are now investigating, but I'm also concerned if this means that we will be medicalizing addiction as well. How will the addiction landscape look if any addict is pushed to be on GLP-1 RAs for a lifetime because they can't beat their addiction on their own, and that addiction is a lifetime disease? I have a growing concern that such research will just further incentivize getting as many people as possible onto these medications.
i was laughing outloud-reading your comment. i know, veering off course is a no-no, lol..... akkermansia may also be useful in autoimmune disorders.... it is VERY very interesting stuff.
im very excited to see what happens with GLP-1 and addiction, i started to hear about pts reducing or stopping alcohol use in my peptide course, other docs who run weight loss tracks in their pratice mentioned cases- i was like wha- whaaat?!?! which makes me wonder even moreso the reltionship with the gut biome and addiction. SO MUCH to unpack there. alcohol dependence is very very difficult to kick. id consider it lifelong analogous to diabetes- you can reverse the disease but have to remain on a maintenance prevention plan for life. Addiction asks for something similar.
I might have mentioned before Im an addiction psychiatrist, so yes it might broaden treatment population, but if its a tool that can work, why not use it. i do have several over weight people who drink excessively who might benefit. the side effects need to be weighed and the overall metabolic picture as well, I strongly encourage lifestyle changes and I find myself doing extra labs with pts who get GLP-1 from other docs. like my mentor says "seed, weed and feed" the body. (start methods to shift health, weed out toxic components, nourishi-nourish-nourish).
anyway, your work is great, keep it up. i hope your job is going well.
last words- this is unrelated to this topic, but have u noticed VASA 1 rolling out wth microsoft. pretty nutty stuff. there is AI creep into everything- ugh...
I'd like to read more into the microbiome, but there's so much to read that it all becomes overwhelming! It doesn't help that there's so much conflicting information that no one has time to slow down and try to piece things together for themselves.
Oh, alcohol and smoking reduction has been reported quite often. It makes the whole scenario rather intriguing to think about!
As it relates to addiction treatment I personally wouldn't see any problem IF it is up to the patient/physician to come to that decision. What I'm concerned about, and what COVID vaccine mandates has shown us, is that there's a dangerous, slippery slope from option to treat to mandating it. Imagine if someone is diagnosed with an addiction- that stays with them for the rest of their life. But then what if that diagnosis is paired with being forced to take GLP-1 RAs. Addiction is a disease, there's a treatment, and therefore YOU MUST take the treatment.
That's my main concern, and we're already seeing this language make its way into GLP-1 discussions when it comes to obesity where everyone says you have to stay on these medications for the rest of your life or else you will gain the weight back. There's no off-ramp allowed for people, and I won't put it past those in healthcare to push for some sort of mandate for addicts. Just something I'm hesitant about.
Thanks for the kind words! Work is work I suppose. I haven't been able to research and write as much as I had hoped so I feel like I'm falling behind. Anyways I hope all is well with you!
As to VASA 1 I just looked it up... yeah that's pretty scary... All the more reason to not lose touch with what's authentic and real.
I never fail to be amazed at the stupidity and gullibility of humanity. And this is just another in a long line of ill-informed medical decisions.
Look at any photo prior to the 80's and you rarely find anyone overweight.
Apart from that rather jarring refutation that being obese is now a "medical condition" - have people learnt nothing after the last 4 years of rushing headlong into a new medication??
These drugs work (apart from slowing stomach emptying) by reducing blood sugar which means less insulin needs to be released, yet they cause insulin to pour into your system.
Entire books have been written about the catastrophic impacts on every organ of excess insulin.
Now your pancreas is furiously pumping it out.
Expect to see a surge in pancreatic cancers in the coming years.
Well, what's interesting is that I don't have an issue of referring to obesity as a disease if we define disease as a detrimental state of one's health. The problem isn't necessarily a categorization of "disease" more than the idea that "if disease, then treatment", with treatment in this case being medications and other pharmaceutical interventions. These GLP-1 RAs have opened the door to pivot from lifestyle/behavioral changes to all-out medicalization.
I haven't looked into the insulin issue, but it is interesting to consider than pancreatitis/pancreatic cancer is one of the worries with these drugs. One thing I think about is the fact that the extremely long half-life of these medications will lead to constant activation of GLP-1 receptors as you mentioned, and this raises a question regarding if this will have an detrimental effects down the line as well.