With all our cutting-edge technology and powerful drugs, and despite the sharp decline in the death rate, half of all Americans still die of preventable disease, often before reaching age 30. Every year more than a million Americans suffer heart attacks, and almost as many more million suffer strokes—a life-changing, irreversible injury that may result in serious disabilities.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a board certified family physician and nutritional researcher who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. He is the author of several books including The New York Times bestsellers Eat to Live; Super Immunity; The End of Dieting; and The End of Diabetes. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and research director of The Nutritional Research Foundation. He is also on the science advisory board of Whole Foods Market.
Question: We’ve been told to stay away from red meat, dairy and cheese—foods high in saturated fats—because saturated fat is bad for the heart. But today some people are arguing that sugar is the real culprit. What is the skinny on fat? (more…)
Food cravings can be powerful and as irresistible as a bright orange bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos. Even the thought of such foods increases dopamine, a brain chemical that controls emotions, motivation, and feelings of pleasure.
Addictive foods like Doritos trigger the same chemicals and pleasure pathways in the brain as cocaine and heroin. The fat in Doritos is a mouthwatering sensation; the brain’s trigeminal nerve, which detects fat, conveys the signal straight to the brain’s reward center. Processed foods high in fat, salt, and sugar can be as addictive as drugs and alcohol.
Our brains adjust to the greater degree of fat, sugar and salt in the foods we eat—brain cells and brain chemicals change. Over time, we may develop signs of physical addiction to addictive foods such as an increasing tolerance to their pleasurable effects. We need to eat more to get the same effect. Food addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of food leads to changes in the structure and function of the brain. (more…)
Over the past decade, we’ve had a mind-boggling increase in what is fast emerging as the most serious and costly health problem in the U.S.: morbid obesity. About 35 percent or 72 million American adults are obese, and of that number, 7 million adults are morbidly obese, a health condition which substantially raises the risk of mortality (death) and morbidity (chronic disease).
The rate of obesity has increased by almost 25 percent but the rate of morbid obesity has grown even faster: people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 40 increased by 50 percent. Perhaps most alarmingly, people with a BMI over 50—extreme obesity—grew by 75 percent, three times faster than the rate of obesity. Our children are not immune from the epidemic; we’ve seen a 300 percent increase in overweight children. Obesity-conditions are the fastest growing cause of death, and the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.