The Obesity Fix: How to Beat Food Cravings, Lose Weight and Gain Energy

Book Preface

There are 1.9 billion overweight and 650 million obese people worldwide [1] , which equates to 52% of adults globally being overweight or obese (body mass index > 25 to < 30 and > 30, respectively). In the United States, approximately 42% of adults are obese [2] and 34% have metabolic syndrome [3] . Those numbers are quite mind-boggling, but now it’s more common to be overweight than in shape. However, this hasn’t always been the case.  Indeed, there has been a trend with obesity increasing with the rising affluence of developed countries.

“According to the surgeon general, obesity today is officially an epidemic; it is arguably the most pressing public health problem we face, costing the health care system an estimated $90 billion a year.

Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese. The disease formerly known as adult-onset diabetes has had to be renamed Type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes. (An African American child’s chances are two in five.) Because of diabetes and all the other health problems that accompany obesity, today’s children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents.

The problem is not limited to America: The United Nations reported that in 2000 the number of people suffering from overnutrition–a billion–had officially surpassed the number suffering from malnutrition–800 million.”

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

It’s estimated that since 1975, the worldwide incidence of obesity tripled [4] . Yet, it was only until 1997 that the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized obesity as a global epidemic [5] . By 2000, the number of adults with excess bodyweight surpassed the number of adults who were normal weight or underweight [6] . In 2013, an estimated 2.1 billion adults were overweight compared to the 857 million in 1980 [7] . The rate of obesity in the United Kingdom (UK) has risen 4-fold since 1980, now characterizing 22-24% of the population [8] . In the United States, obesity has doubled since 1960 [9] , [10] . More worrisome, the rate of overweight children has increased from 6% to 19% over the last 25 years [11] , [12] . According to 2019 Eurostat Statistics, the highest rates of obesity in the European Union (EU) can be found in Croatia (65%), Hungary (60%), Czech Republic (60%), Romania (59%), Slovakia (59%), Finland (59%) and Turkey (59%) [13] . Overall, 53% of people in the EU are considered overweight (BMI ≥ 25).

Obesity is linked to a higher risk of overall mortality [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] . A severely obese person can expect to live anywhere from 5-20 years less. Being obese increases the risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, cancer, and kidney disease [18] , [19] , [20] . Obese people are 3.5 times more likely to have hypertension and 60-70% of hypertensive cases in adults can be traced back to excess adiposity [21] . Bariatric surgery has been found to reduce overall mortality by 30.7% after a 15-year follow-up, compared to control subjects without surgery [22] . Furthermore, a 7.1-year retrospective cohort study saw a 40% mortality reduction in the bariatric surgery group compared to controls [23] . Mortality in the surgery group decreased by 56% for coronary artery disease, 60% for cancer and 92% for diabetes. Lastly, gastric bypass surgery patients have been found to have an 89% lower rate of death compared to control subjects with a mean follow-up of 2.6-years [24] . In other words, losing a significant amount of weight can lower the risk of death as well as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

Obesity and Risk of Chronic Disease and Mortality:

Obesity = very high risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease
Obesity = higher risk of cancer development
Obesity = higher risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance
Obesity = shorter life expectancy (5-20 years less)
Table of Contents

Table of Contents

About the Authors

Introduction: Consequences of the Obesity Epidemic

Chapter 1 – What Caused the Obesity Epidemic

Chapter 2 – The Calorie Conundrum

Chapter 3 – The Hormonal Mechanisms of Obesity

Chapter 4 – How Sugar Drives Obesity and Fat Gain Around the Stomach

Chapter 5 – Flour Enrichment: How Getting our B-Fix from Refined Flour Drove the Obesity Pandemic

Chapter 6 – Fats That Make You Fat, Fats That Make You Lean

Chapter 7 – Structuring a Diet for Sustainable Weight Loss

Chapter 8 – The Obesity Fix Diet

Concluding Remarks

References