Demystifying Fats and the Truth about Sugars (Series) 5 of 6
Feb 12, 2019Demystifying Fats Series - Day 5
We created this series called ‘Demystifying Fats’ because we grew up thinking that fats are fat. Fats makes us fat, and fat gives us high cholesterol, which leads to heart attacks.
But that’s not entirely true.
In this series, we’ll go deeper into the history of how this ‘belief’ about fats came from, and what is the real truth. We talk about how fats can heal our bodies and what we should eat that will not only improve our health, but eating the right kinds of fats can actually makes us leaner, gives us more energy and vitality, and keep us feeling younger and stronger.
Hi. We are the Foolish Couple. My name is Minna, and this is my husband Andy. So far, in this video series ‘Demystifying Fats and the Truth about Sugars’, we have been talking about fats. Today we are going to switch to sugars. Do you ever wonder if you have metabolic issues? We’ve often heard of the older generation says that their metabolism is going down that's why they’re gaining weight. Is that really true? Well, today, we will talk about Metabolic Syndrome. And, for those skinny people out there, just because you are skinny does not mean that you are healthy. If you don't agree? Just keep watching.
In our first video, we talked about the history of how we came to believe that fats causes heart disease. And it was an eye opener for many of us.
In our second video, we’ve talked about the different types of fats. Some are good for you and but some of the most commonly used oils are slowly hurting our bodies from the inside our.
In our third video, we talked about how low fat diets are slowly destroying our health.
In our last episode we talked about carbohydrates and that our bodies do need carbohydrates for proper function. We learn about what are the good carbohydrates that feeds our bodies and which are the bad carbohydrates that we should avoid.
If you’ve missed these episodes, we have included their links here and we strongly encourage you to go back and watch them.
So the question is: what happens to your body when you eat too many bad carbohydrates?
When you're eating all of these excessive carbohydrates, the sugar gets absorbed into your body and your insulin level increases, which drive even more sugar into your cells. Overtime, you become insulin resistant and with the insulin resistance that you develop, you deposit more fat that aren't burned, which becomes inflammatory, and then you become hungry all the time.
Our hormone, ‘Leptin’, which usually tells us we are full, gets all whacked and we feel hungry all the time even though we are eating more and more. That, in a nutshell, is why 2/3 of our population is overweight or obese.
So we’re eating more carbs that is hidden in our foods, and because we don't feel full we keep on eating more carbs which turns into body fat that we store inside our bodies. I’ve certainly had experienced that. The more I eat, the more hungry I feel, and at the same time I feel guilty because I’m eating so much, and I feel slower, dumber, my self esteem goes down. It is really a downward spiral.
But back to the sugars. I heard that excess sugars actually makes us more fat. Can you explain a little more on that?
Our body normally uses insulin to carry carbohydrates into our cells to burn as our energy source. However, with all the excess carbs we are digesting, it is elevating our insulin levels which is converting the carbohydrates into fat. This fat is stored in our fat cells making us look fat, it also affects the inner structure of the blood vessels to our heart and to our brain, so we get strokes and heart attacks.
Very high levels of insulin are associated with Alzheimer's disease as well. In fact, Alzheimer's has been referred to as type three diabetes.
But what’s really scary is that all this excess fat is not always stored in the endothelial lining under your skin, for skinny people that may have faster metabolisms, the excess fat may be stored in your pancreas and in your liver, giving you fatty liver and fatty pancreas. These people are considered skinny fat, with lanky arms and legs but a muffin top around their waist. And because the skinny people think they are healthy, they are actually in greater risk for health problems.
Yup I’ve certainly heard some of my friends claim that they are skinny and underweight, but they are not healthy at all. They have no stamina, no energy, they are always sick. So just because the fat is not visible does not mean that you don’t have excess fat inside you. And these are the same people that keep on eating bad carbs because they think that they are not affected, which puts them at a greater health risk. I really wish that they would all watch this episode so that they are aware of their health risks, such as heart problems, Alzheimer’s or other chronic diseases.
So is there a checklist to see how healthy you are? I thought that only overweight people need to worry, that’s what doctors usually tell you. To lose weight, eat less and move more.
It doesn’t matter if you are skinny or slightly overweight, it’s about how metabolically efficient your body is. If your body does not know how to burn fat for energy and only relies on sugar, then you have metabolic syndrome.
As Functional Nutrition coaches, we teach you how to train your body to have better metabolic efficiency so that your body performs at it’s peak, regardless of your body shape and age.
As a matter of fact, like I said, just because your are skinny does not mean you don’t have metabolic syndrome and you can actually be slightly overweight and be metabolically efficient.
What are the signs that you have metabolic syndrome?
There are 5 elements that are part of the criteria for metabolic syndrome.
- High blood pressure, so anything over the normal is considered one criteria.
- To have low, good cholesterol or low HDL. You can look those numbers up. It's different for men and women
- To have high triglycerides, which most people get tested on any cholesterol panel. High Triglycerides is actually caused by sugars and not by fats!
- To have high fasting blood sugar, which is anything over 100, not quite diabetic, but anything over 100 is considered pre-diabetes
- Last one is your waist circumference. For men, over 40 inches and for women, over 35 inches. A more accurate measure that we like to use for everyone is your waist to hip ratio. You measure your fattest point around your waist which is usually where your belly button is and then your measure your widest point where your hip is. Then you divide the waist number by your hip number. For men any number less than .9 is good and any number greater than 1 is bad. For women any number less than 0.8 is good and any number greater than 0.85 maybe sign of metabolic syndrome.
If you have 2 to 3 of these conditions, then it is highly likely that you have metabolic syndrome. Over 55% of the American population are either type 2 diabetic or have pre-diabetes which means they are heading that way. I mentioned that you can be slightly overweight and not have metabolic syndrome. Both Minna and I aren’t at the weight we like to be but we are metabolically efficient and working every day to reach our target weights..
It’s all about metabolic efficiency and teaching your body how to use a new energy source Fat and it can be achieved by following a metabolic nutrition plan.
Wow most people would be just looking at blood pressure, weight and BMI to determine how healthy they are. At least that is what our doctors are concerned about every time you go for a check up. I don’t think they ever measured my waist or checked my waist to hip ratio!
And now it’s time for you to take action for your own health. Check out your 5 metrics for testing for metabolic syndrome now. If you haven’t got a blood test recently, it’s time to get one now to check you HDL, Triglycerides, and blood sugar. And then, get a tape measure and measure your waist or waist to hip ratio. It is important to know if you have metabolic syndrome or not, and if you have any potential health risks. After all, if you don’t know what problems you have and are at risk for, you can’t fix it and you can’t prevent it.
Alright. I hope you enjoyed this episode. In our next video, we are going to wrap up the series. So stay tuned!
And, of course, please share this video series with the people you love, your family, your friends. There are millions of people that are suffering from diabetes and other chronic diseases because they didn’t know what’s hurting their bodies. And our goal is to educate as many people as we can which is why we created these videos and put them out for free online. So use the links on this page to share these videos on Facebook or Twitter.
If you want to own our free 6-day course "Demystifying Fats & Truth about Sugars!", sign up here!
Until Next Time, Love what you Live and Live What you Love
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