Where Have We Gone Wrong?
- No single dietary culprit responsible for childhood obesity, but certain food in our grocery stores are causing kids and adults to unknowingly gain weight.
- "The shift from whole to refined and processed foods is definitely one of the biggest contributers to the problem."
- "Stripping a natural grain of its fiber, adding refined sugars, and adding chemicals such as MSG, which stimulate the brain to eat more and more, is a one-way ticket to weight gain for most."
The Top Five Foods Causing the Childhood Obesity Epidemic:
1. White, refined flour products: bread, bagels, cereals, muffins, crackers, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and granola bars.
2. White sugar: soda, candy, cookies, cakes, gum, and ketchup.
3. Hydrogentated and/or partially hydrogenated fat: margarine, refined vegetable oils, chips, most microwave popcorn, and cookies.
4. Processed fast foods: luncheon meats, french fries, burgers, and microwave pizza.
5. Saturated fat: cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, and luncheon meats.
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Why These Foods?
- White refined sugar will overtrigger the release of the hormone insulin, secreted by the pancreas. When excess insulin is secreted becuase of faulty food choices, it is stored as fat.
- With the intakeof highly refined foods, which are they mainstay of an average child's diet, cell receptors become insensitive to the amount of insulin released.
- In order to compensate for the insulin insensitivity, the body will secrete more and more insulin to deal with the glucose (sugar) from the food.
- As a rule, more insulin = more fat storage."
- An example illustrating the difference in insulin secretion on average is shown in the following quote from Dr. Michael Murray:
"It is estimated that healthy individuals secrete approximately 31 units of insulin daily, while the obese type II diabetic secretes an average of 114 units daily."
- The state of insulin insensitivity is the first step toward the development of obesity and Type II diabetes. Luckily, this process can be halted and even reversed in children when proper dietary guidlines are introduced."16
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