It's Not Your Fault

I used to live next to Disneyland. Several years ago, the famed theme park closed down the "Its a Small World Ride," for refurbishing. Why you ask? Well in the last 40 years, and Disneyland opened its gates  in 1955, Americans are on the average about 20 to 30 pounds heavier. Apparently the boats were getting stuck around the Dutch Tulip puppets, and the park decided to close the ride to make the water ways deeper to accommodate patrons widening girth. What I found particularly amusing was that free meal coupons were passed out to the evacuated guests as a compensation for actually a too small a world ride for the attendees. Disneyland of course reported it was to introduce new characters to the ride, but we all knew what was up.

For once, really, we can actually blame something other than our eating and exercise habits when it comes to obesity. Since 2002, there has been attention paid to the connection between exogenous chemicals and the onset of obesity. Basically it was noted that everyone,  pets, lab rats and, gasp, even urban rats, everyone was getting fatter. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/758210_2 And it seemed to not be related solely to diet and exercise.

Obesogens, the new villain of cellulite is now to blame. According to the definition in Wikipedia my favorite go to source for definitions: Obesogens are foreign chemical compounds that disrupt normal development and balance of lipidmetabolism, which in some cases, can lead to obesity.^[1][2][3] Obesogens may be functionally defined as chemicals that inappropriately alter lipid homeostasis and fat storage, change metabolic set points, disrupt energy balance or modify the regulation of appetite and satiety to promote fat accumulation and obesity.^[4]

I love that Wikipedia has an entire entry on Obesogens!

So what can you do? Simple actually, reduces your exposure to Obesogens. 

What do they look like?

See, I am sure you could recognise this anywhere. Just kidding, this is the chemical drawing for

Bisphenol A (BPA) found in food and beverage packaging is an obesogen showing up in the bodies of about 95% of the human population. Add to that pesticides, herbicides and all the icky things injected and fed to factory farmed animals. According to Steven Perrire's not so new book The New American Diet, by simply reducing your ingestion of plastic and petroleum based pesticides and herbicides, you will loose weight. Why, these chemicals disrupt your normal hormone regulation for sugar metabolism, actually programming you to enter into a pre-diabetic condition. These chemicals program your body to store fat.

Avoid Canned anything, switch to fresh or glass bottles for anything you would normally get in a can.

Eat as Organic as possible, especially meats, dairy and eggs. Look for this label

Here is the Dirty Dozen-These are the Produce that really need to be organic, they are found to have high levels of FAT CAUSING pesticides

1. Apples
2. Strawberries
3. Grapes
4. Celery
5. Peaches
6. Spinach
7. Sweet Bell Peppers
8. Nectarines- imported
9. Cucumbers
10. Potatoes
11. Cherry Tomatoes
12. Hot Peppers

These are the Clean 15 for 2013.  These are the items with the least amount of pesticide contamination found, and are OK for your fat cells.

1. Sweet Corn (non GMO which will be hard to find that is not organic)
2. Onions
3. Pineapple
4. Avocado
5. Cabbage
6. Sweet Peas- frozen
7. Papaya (non GMO)
8. Mango's
9. Asparagus
10. Eggplant
11. Kiwi
12. Grapefruit
13. Cantaloupe
14. Sweet Potato
15. Mushrooms

You can also try a non-inflammatory diet. When you eat foods that cause inflammation it puts stress on the body, with stress increases of the hormone cortisol enter the body which alters sugar metabolism to favor storing nutrition as fat.

For a Diet that will stop inflammation Avoid the Following:

Canned anything
Artificial sweeteners, preservatives, colors
Sugar (try coconut or date sugar or stevia)
Tomatoes
Citrus (Lemon or Lime Juice is OK)
Corn, even organic and non GMO
Soy
Gluten
Preserved meats, even the good kind
Dairy
Eggs
Red Meat
Coffee
Peanuts
Conventional industrially produced factory farm meats or fish

Fried anything
White Potatoes

What do you eat?

Beans, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds and Butter, All other fruits and vegetables, Fish, Chicken, Turkey, Coconut milk, Brown Rice, Quinoa, Buckwheat, Gluten Free Oats, Sweet Potatoes, Parsnips, Organic Beets, Herbal Teas, herbs and spices.

This is what a sample day would look like: 

Breakfast: Coconut Yogurt with Gluten Free Oatmeal, toasted Almonds and fresh blue berries, herbal tea.

Snack: Organic dried bananas, herbal tea, 1/8 cup toasted sun flower seeds.

Lunch: 4 oz baked chicken, 1/2 cup quinoa, steamed green beans with lemon juice garlic powder sea salt and olive oil. Cantaloupe slices, herbal tea

Snack: Green salad with carrots, cucumber, and 1/2 cup garbanzo beans, olive oil vinaigrette, gluten free crackers

Supper: Lettuce wraps with grilled turkey, steamed organic carrots and zucchini and brown rice, with a spicy sesame tahini dressing, (mix together in a blender 1/2 cup tahini, 1/4 cup organic canola oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 cloves garlic minced, 1/2 small jalapeno, seeded and diced, dash of Tabasco, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro and sea salt, add water by the tablespoon full until you get the consistency you desire) berries for dessert

Snack: 1/2 baked sweet potato with 1/2 cup organic unsweetened apple sauce, cinnamon to taste

If you need more help or want to know about supplements that can nourish your adrenals and even out your blood sugar, contact Stephanie at realfoodempire@gmail.com, we can set up a skype consultation and I can order you blood work to see how we can design a program that is right for you.

It's not entirely your fault that you are fat, but you can do something about it, 

eat organic, avoid cans and plastic packaging