5 Shocking Ways Doctors Caused the Diabesity Epidemic
There is a worldwide diabesity epidemic, and “experts” don’t know what to do about it.
Shocking diabetes and obesity statistics
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there are 415 million people in the world suffering from diabetes, which is more than the entire population of the United States. If this disease keeps growing at the same rate, the IDF estimates 629 million people worldwide will have diabetes.
Since diabetes + obesity (diabesity) are interdependent, however, the number of obese individuals has also grown at an alarming rate. According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion adults were overweight in 2016, 650 million of whom were obese. There were also over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 who were overweight or obese in 2016.
Though these statistics are startling, these rates have been steadily rising for the past four decades. Experts and doctors claim ignorance and say they are trying to figure things out, solve the problem, and save lives. But the sad fact is that doctors may have unknowingly caused diabesity.
The diabesity epidemic explained
Doctors and researchers have long known about the interconnection between diabetes and obesity. They are both symptoms of the same underlying problem, insulin resistance or inadequate insulin production.
Insulin is a hormone that your pancreas releases when you eat a snack or meal. It is the key that unlocks the doors of your cells, allowing them to accept the sugar (glucose) from the foods you eat. When the system works properly, your cells welcome the glucose, which gives you the energy you need for your daily life.
But for hundreds of millions of people, something has gone terribly wrong. Eating steady diets of inSANE foods, such as processed carbs and starches, has made their cells resistant to insulin. They are not letting in enough glucose; instead, too much glucose along with this insulin remains in the bloodstream.
Insulin is the regulator of the body’s metabolic thermostat. It tells the body how much fat you need. Insulin raises the setpoint weight, which is the key to obesity and to the diabesity epidemic. More about that later.
The diabesity epidemic and YOU
If you’ve struggled with your weight for years, you know how depressing it can be. Fad diets. Starvation diets. Yo-yo dieting. No matter what you tried, nothing worked for long. You gained all the weight back, plus a dozen or more pounds for good measure. None of the fad-diet gurus told you about that distressing side effect.
Now you have to worry about diabesity and its many serious and often deadly health complications. It’s just not fair.
Health complications of diabesity
There are many serious health complications of diabesity, including:
- Stroke
- Cardiovascular disease
- Neuropathy
- Kidney disease
- Glaucoma
- Blindness
- High blood pressure
- Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the coronary arteries)
- Osteoarthritis
- Alzheimer’s
- Gallbladder disease
The diabesity epidemic didn’t always exist.
There was a time, not too long ago, when the diabesity epidemic didn’t exist. Obesity and diabetes weren’t much of an issue, either.
Take a look at photos from the 1950s and 1960s – or earlier – and you will see a few overweight people. Then for some strange reason, people started packing on pounds in record numbers. Since 1976, rates of obesity have nearly tripled globally.
Obesity has always created serious health risks. At least 2.8 million adults worldwide die each year because of being overweight or obese; 44 percent of those deaths are diabetes related. It was only a matter of time until a diabesity epidemic swept the world.
What and how did it change?
What is the strange reason why people started gaining weight? In a word – doctors. Doctors swooped in and told us certain types of foods were good for us, and other foods were bad for us. They told us what foods would make us heavy and what foods would make us slim. Oh, and then the government and food companies chimed in with their unproven “facts,” too, which really didn’t help the situation and actually actively made it much worse.
We know now that they were wrong, but we believed them back then.
From that point on, roughly the mid-1970s through today, the obesity and diabetes rates steadily rose, becoming a diabesity epidemic. Though perhaps unwitting accomplices, doctors helped cause this runaway health crisis. Here’s how they did it.
1. Doctors supported the calorie restriction model of weight loss.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the calorie deficit model became the guiding principle of weight loss, despite the fact that there was no scientific evidence to support it. It was popular because it made intuitive sense. If you consume fewer calories than your body needs to function, based on a mathematical calculation, you have a calorie deficit that should cause you to lose weight.
The calorie deficit model treats calories in and calories out as separate processes with no connection. Calories are treated the same, no matter from what foods they come. The fact that there was absolutely no proof for this theory didn’t stop them from acting like it was scientific fact.
The government joined the calorie deficit fan club, as did schools – and your doctor. You knew, from your own experience, that it didn’t work like that. But you couldn’t convince your doctor, who gave you attitude every time you tried to get some real advice about losing weight. Your doctor acted as though it was your fault that you couldn’t lose weight. You weren’t trying hard enough, or you didn’t have enough willpower, or you were lying about how much food you ate.
Why it’s wrong.
Thousands of studies have shown the calorie deficit model of weight loss to be incorrect. Calories are important, but your body monitors them and adjusts the body’s calorie (energy) used to keep your weight within the range of your setpoint.
What is setpoint weight?
Setpoint is a range of body weight that your body strives to maintain. It is this setpoint weight that your body defends. If you gain too much above it, your body adjusts your metabolism to burn more calories to bring you back down to that weight. If you go on a starvation diet and start losing pounds, your body slows your metabolism to keep you from losing too much weight.
The only SANE way to lose weight permanently and end the diabesity epidemic is to eat more of the right types of foods and exercise less, but smarter.
2. Doctors told everyone to eat less fat.
In the 1960s and 1970s, eating saturated fat was linked to coronary artery disease, and many “experts” acted as if it was the only cause. This was no accident.
A researcher at the University of Southern California, San Francisco, recently discovered internal sugar industry documents that show how that industry deflected the blame of coronary artery disease away from consuming sugar and cast it onto fat. In 1967, the Sugar Research Foundation paid three Harvard scientists to publish a research review on sugar, fat, and heart disease. The studies they reviewed minimized the link between sugar and heart disease but were critical of saturated fat. The Sugar Research Foundation selected every study the researchers reviewed – but, of course, they did! – and the article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It didn’t take long for the American Heart Association to advise people to reduce their saturated fat intake. Then the federal government became involved. In 1977, the Senate Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs released Dietary Goals for the United States, a report advising Americans to reduce fat in their diets while increasing carbohydrates.
Though the report recommended eating more servings of healthy carbs, such as vegetables, most Americans thought any carb in any form was okay. This, too, was no accident. No-fat and low-fat became marketing buzzwords, especially in the 90s. Food companies produced a steady stream of low-fat and no-fat products, marketing them as heart-healthy and weight-friendly versions of their whole-fat counterparts. The sugar industry paid for the no-fat, low-fat media blitz, and they also paid to have extra sugar put in that same no-fat, low-fat products.
That’s right…when food companies took out the fat, they discovered it tasted awful. The solution? The sweet taste of sugar, of course. Not coincidentally, the beginnings of the obesity epidemic started soon after low-fat diets became the standard recommendation.
Putting an end to the lies and ending the diabesity epidemic
Here’s the ironic thing: no study ever linked high-fat diets to heart disease. In fact, numerous studies have since debunked that myth. There is no link between eating saturated fats and heart or coronary artery disease.
Yet, for over 50 years, Americans believed the government, the media, and their doctors that saturated fats cause heart disease, even though it has been proven wrong. This lie has been told and re-told so many times you probably still hesitate before you eat a piece of bacon.
3. Doctors praised high-carb diets.
Because fats were now so bad, doctors began praising high-carb diets because, really, what else was there? Fats and protein go together, so if doctors told their patients to cut back on fats, they would have to increase their carbohydrate intake.
There was a time when everyone knew sugar and starchy carbohydrates – such as pasta, rice, bread, and potatoes – caused weight gain. If you wanted to lose weight or stay slim, therefore, you needed to avoid fatty carbs. It was common “knowledge”.
In the 1860s, Dr. William Banting, a London undertaker, suffered from obesity, which was an uncommon condition at the time. He tried all the standard diets of the day, such as eating less and exercising more. Nothing worked. Finally, a doctor told him to cut out starches, sugars, and most fruits. He was instructed to eat meat, vegetables, and fats. Dr. Banting lost weight easily and effortlessly and kept it off.
Dr. Banting published a “Letter on Corpulence” in 1863 about this low-carb diet, and it is considered to be the first diet book ever written. Low-carb eating was the accepted diet from that time forward – and the obesity rates were low – until the low-fat diet revolution took over.
4. Doctors have been ignoring obesity and the diabesity epidemic.
Though obesity is a disease that, 90 percent of the time, leads to type 2 diabetes, doctors don’t seem to be advising their patients of this fact. In 2013, a survey by the Obesity Action Coalition indicates that doctors may be hesitant to broach this subject with their patients. Though doctors reported they spoke to their patients about managing their weight, only 40 percent of patients surveyed said their doctors actually advised them to lose weight. There is a big difference between discussing weight management with patients and telling them they are at risk for diabesity, heart disease, and a host of other health problems if they don’t lose weight.
This reticence could be because the doctor doesn’t want to hurt the patient’s feelings. Or it could be because of insufficient knowledge about and experience with nutrition and weight management. But whatever the reason, their hesitancy to discuss obesity with their patients may have inadvertently caused the diabesity epidemic.
5. Doctors promoted the Food Pyramid
In response to the eat less fat, eat more carbs movement of the 70s and 80s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created the Food Pyramid in 1992. The USDA Food Pyramid advised Americans to eat more servings of whole grains and starches than any other food group, 6-11 servings of bread, rice, pasta, and cereal a day!
When released, it was controversial because nutritional science didn’t support those recommendations. But that didn’t stop doctors, the government, schools, and the media from singing the praises of starchy carbs and demonizing fat. Research has shown that they were wrong, but not before hundreds of millions of Americans followed their advice and paid the price with their health; many paid with their lives.
Do you – and should you – really believe what the same people and entities have been telling you about the cause of obesity and the diabesity epidemic?
There is a SANEr approach
Though doctors may have helped cause the diabesity epidemic, there are signs people are waking up.
They’re making SANEr food choices in the form of non-starchy vegetables, high-density protein, and whole-food fats.
People are healing their hormones, lowering their setpoints, and losing weight quickly and effortlessly.
Without hunger and without counting calories
Isn’t it time you went SANE?
Next step: handling the diabesity epidemic with SANE
There is much more to the SANE lifestyle. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, reducing stress, and staying hydrated are three key SANE lifestyle components. These 3 key components, along with performing eccentric exercises, are important factors in lowering your setpoint.
Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster that can lead to diabesity? By balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s set-point weight, SANE is the solution you’ve been dreaming of.
Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat, and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?
Begin your exciting journey to lasting, healthy weight loss today. Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet, and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by
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