Bariatricians: The Myth Busters
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
The statistics are overwhelming. Something about our American diet is simply not working because more than 60% of the population is now considered overweight or obese, making obesity the foremost health problem facing our nation.
Physicians must lead in combating this trend. The first step is to dispel the myth that the major culprit in our diet is fats. In reality, the trend toward obesity has been fueled by carbs, not fats.
More specifically, the problem lies with any food that the body converts to sugar, thereby raising blood sugar and insulin levels. The body’s blood sugar/insulin response drives fat storage vs. fat loss. Much of the sugar Americans consume today comes from processed foods and can be in the form of added sugar, corn starch, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup or modified wheat starch, to name a few. Because the body converts these substances to glucose, eating them is equivalent to eating straight sugar. These substances show up on nutritional labels as carbohydrates. To calculate the sugar equivalent for foods, simply subtract the number of dietary fibers from the number of carbs, then divide that number by four. The result is the sugar equivalent for that food — the number of teaspoons of sugar you could eat for your body to experience the same result as eating the food in question. For example, the sugar equivalent for a plain bagel is 15. So a person can eat 15 teaspoons of sugar or one bagel with the same result.
Weight loss plans should contain only adequate carbs (fewer than 50 per day), which should be limited to vegetables and fruits. We can easily get all the carbs we need from vegetables and fruits. Grains have a very limited role in a weight loss plan. The myth that the body needs a certain amount of whole grains per day is just that — a myth. In fact, the recommended amount of whole grains for a maintenance plan (healthy weight with normal body fat percentage) is only 3 ounces per day.
Carbs have infected (or contaminated — substitute any stronger word you prefer) our food sources through media marketing efforts meant to convince the food-buying public of the healthy aspects of particular advertised processed foods. We have even been victimized by our own government through the recommended daily allowances and food pyramid published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As physicians, we face the monumental task of educating the public of the carb intake needed to lose weight and carb levels allowable for maintenance. We must be myth busters and fight the media blitz that has poisoned the minds of our patients.
Jeannine M. Cobb, M.D., FACOG, is a Diplomate, American Board of Bariatric Physicians. Kimberley Farrar, ARNP, is a Certified Bariatric Nurse Practictioner. They are directors of the Medi-Weightloss Clinic in Andover, KS.
MD News October/November 2011, Greater Kansas