Sustainable Conversations - Healthy Weight & BMI - Part 2

 

Photo Credit: Microsoft Design Creations

Friend: Nice to catch up Kamesh, it’s been a year since we spoke, time flies!

Me: Yes, time is counted for us IT folk in weeks, and we just have 52 of them, Good to see you again buddy!

Friend: How is life treating you, what are you up to these days?

Me: Life is good especially in second half after 40s, more to focus on health and wellbeing, what are you up to ?

Friend: Getting busy these days running against time at work, family responsibilities with old parents to take care of, not looking after myself well, put on some weight. Keen to keep myself in shape, you didn’t change much since last year in fact for good couple of years, I remember our last conversation you spoke about eat more to keep weight in check. I am interested in learning more about it.

Me: Yeah sure, we can chat. How about Tea?

Friend: Badly need one, with Ginger and Cardamom, do you have milk, or should I try black tea?

Me: I have Oat and hemp milk, which is light, you can give it a try!

Friend: Sure, why not, let’s chat drinking healthy tea!

Me: Here is your tea, so where do we start ?

Friend: Let’s start with weight how do you keep it in check ?

Me: Well, I don’t call myself an expert but what I have learnt from my 4 years of vegan lifestyle and more from the experts in my Plant based Nutritional Certification from Prof T Colin Campbell and other lifestyle medical practitioners like Dr Micheal Greger is, what you eat and quality of the food you eat is more important.

Friend: Expand a little bit on quality of food.

Me: Before I went vegan, I used to have belly fat while on vegetarian diet, but later I found I am not including enough of fruit and vegetables which provides quality in terms of micronutrients: vitamins and minerals, also helps naturally reduce weight. Also moving away from dairy helped reduce saturated fat.

Friend: How does eating more fruit and veg reduce weight?

Me: Fruit & veg are basically 80-90% water and helps us control the caloric intake. Dr Greger in his book “How Not to Die” explained for 100 calories of food we need 285 grams of steamed broccoli or 555 grams of tomatoes or 310 grams of Strawberries, whereas only just 70 grams of grilled chicken breast or 25 grams of cheddar cheese or 105 grams of baked white fish. Because we eat same amount of food regardless of calorie count, our stretch receptors in stomach send signals to our brain saying I had enough. When we eat more Fruit and veg, their water and fibre content make us feel full without adding too many calories helps regulate the weight. Whereas saturated fat from meat, eggs & dairy is calorie dense food, keep us half empty unlike plant food which fills up the stomach.

Friend: You mentioned saturated fat including dairy should be reduced, where do we get enough fat required from plants and how is it different from saturated fat?

Me: Dr Greger said that, not all fats affect our muscle cell in same way. Saturated fat in animal products: meat, eggs, and dairy causes insulin resistance, whereas monosaturated fat found in nuts, olives, and avocados, may protect against the negative effects of the saturated fat.  

Friend: I know about insulin injections that I used to give it to my uncle for his diabetes, what is this insulin resistance, and should I be worried?

Me: Insulin produced in pancreas essentially acts as a key to allow glucose produced by digesting carbs to enter each cell of our body. But as we build up the fat in our cells, they stick up as gums at entrance of cells not allowing insulin receptors to activate enzymes for glucose to enter inside the cell to provide energy. This is called insulin resistance. In Type 1 diabetes, the beta cells in pancreas are damaged so much that insulin production is very little, requiring insulin shots externally. Whereas in Type 2 diabetes, insulin production is not a problem, we have the key but the saturated fat not allowing insulin to open the door of the cells  to absorb glucose. As we go from overweight to obese to prediabetic to diabetic stage, it is advisable to check BMI regularly although it is not accurate measure of concentration of fat in the body, gives good indication and right alarm bell and useful measure at population level.

Friend: What’s the role of sugar then as we are mostly told to reduce our sugar intake if we are diabetic, whereas you are saying it is saturated fat especially from animal products that we should control?

Me: When the glucose in blood stream not able to enter the cells due to insulin resistance, the sugar levels in the blood shoot up results in diabetes. Unfortunately, popular medical practice treats the symptom that is sugar but not the root cause saturated fat. Even what I heard from colleagues, friends and family with diabetic condition is on sugar control by reducing carbohydrate intake like rice, bread, fruits, and sweets etc., not the saturated fat in meat, eggs & dairy. When we eat saturated fat, both insulin action and insulin secretion are impacted within hours. Dr Greger explained that a study conducted as early as 1927 on medical students, where one group was given fat rich diet like olive oil, egg yolk, butter, ice cream etc., other group with sugary diet like rice, white bread, sweet, banana, baked potatoes and syrup. Surprisingly, in fat rich diets, the insulin resistance skyrocketed, and blood sugar level doubled in matter of days compared to sugary diets.

Friend: I am learning some interesting things today, if we consciously do calorie cutting will that help with weight reduction ?

Me: I have seen many friends and colleagues gaining weight with no meal at night, counting calories and cutting it purposely.  Many studies have shown that people eating significant amounts of legumes: beans, chickpeas, split peas, and lentils weigh less, all the centenary people in blue zones had legumes as their major component with 95% plant based diets lived happier and longer even with no major exercises but constant movement of the body through out the day. Dr Greger talked about an interesting study on overweight where subjects divided into 2 groups: one group was asked to eat 1 kg a week of lentils, chickpeas, split peas without changing their diet and second group were asked to simply cut 500 calories a day from their diets. With in 8 weeks the group asked to eat more centred around lentils got healthier.

Friend: What about starvation and various diets available in market today on weight reduction ?

Me: Starvation seems to show effects initially but don’t work in long run, people eventually regain weight. In 1944, Minesota Hunger Project was designed with (i) 3 months controlled feeding: 3200 calories / day, exercise regularly and weekly fitness test (ii) 6 month Starvation: 1500 calories / day thin food with no meat, 22 miles walk /week , weekly treadmill test (iii) 3 months Rehabilitation: gradually increased food but back to normal what they wish to eat. In the Starvation phase the subjects were observed with visible physical difference with significant weight loss but after final stage, on an average, increased 10% above the pre-starvation weight.

In his book “RAVENOUS” author Henry Dimbleby explained about starvation “metabolism and appetite work hand in hand to adapt to the calorific environment. If food supply reduces, we reduce energy expenditure and obsess about food. When food is plentiful again, our appetite increases to ensure we have sufficient fat reserves to survive the next famine”. People on weight reduce journey go on this vicious circle, where they follow a diet and effects are good first few days, body taking energy from fat reserves but after few days body adjusts with increasing hunger hormone and reducing resting metabolism, progress slowdowns. Within a year they not only regain weight but added more, they go on another diet and the cycle continues. This has helped diet markets to release more products as there is always a demand with people trying different things every year.

Friend: So, what you are saying is don’t count calories, don’t starve, don’t try fancy diets but eat more fruit and veg especially legumes and reduce or eliminate saturated fat from animal products to control weight?

Me: Yes, when I was vegetarian, I was not overweight but with no physical activities I gradually gained weight with visible abdominal fat. When I cut animal fat from dairy and went Vegan 4 years ago, I maintained healthy weight and BMI with more energy to do my half marathons. Moreover, removing dairy helped with my metabolism and bloating problems along with more variety of fruit and veg. Dr Greger mentioned in his book that people eating meat-free diets consumed on an average 364 fewer calories daily and those eating plant based diets may even have 11% higher resting metabolic rate, meaning burning fat even during sleep due to higher gene expression of fat burning enzyme. Remember calorie is not a calorie depending on what you eat!

Friend: I saw some of your posts on your running, it is inspiring. I might take bit time to reach there but this is useful information on weight loss, is there anything else apart from food that we should consider?

Me: Along with quality food, what time we eat and how we eat also important. I learnt that we should drink our food and chew our water, 50% of digestion can happen in mouth with right amount of chewing which requires less energy to digest in stomach. We should also eat peacefully with gratitude towards our food and eat at least 2-3 hours before sleep at night otherwise digestion process might interrupt the sleep. Healthy restorative sleep of 7-8 hours, stress management with some physical activities like walking, jogging, running, swimming etc., will help in maintaining healthy lifestyle.  

Friend: What is one message that you can give for me to start working on myself ?

Me: Not just for you, every one of us should do selfcare daily be it food, physical or mental activity to reflect and improve progressively towards health & wellbeing. If we don’t love ourselves, nobody else would. Prevention is better than cure, we shouldn’t wait for a health event to occur to start working on ourselves. Everyday care of at least 20-30 minutes can go long way in preventing most of the chronic illnesses by learning about better nutrition, mental & physical health and taking active steps towards healthy lifestyle. 

Friend: Buddy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences, let me take some steps to work on weight control. We will catch up again soon. One last thing what about my protein if I cut animal products ?

Me: It is nice to see you being open and honest, I enjoyed our chat. Protein is a conversation for another day, it needs more time to discuss. Let me know how you get along and I am buzz away if you need any help. Take care, see you soon!