Lifestyle Choices

About 5 percent of overweight is considered to be the result of a metabolic disturbance. But most often the cortical or hypothalmic dysfunctions on which overweight is blamed are the results of overweight rather than the cause. Sometimes a tendency to be fat originates in infancy. Bottle feeding and the early introduction of solid foods often result in overfeeding, which probably sets up eating patterns that are carried over into childhood and adult life. Some authorities believe too that when a baby is fed too much, it develops an excessive number of fat cells and from then on will always have a tendency to be fat.

Epidemiological studies of primitive peoples in underdeveloped countries point to our consumption of refined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar and convenience foods, which tend to be high in hidden fats and sugar, as an important cause of obesity. It is interesting to note that in societies where the people eat a simple diet of unrefined grains, legumes, and fresh vegetables—such as the Lifestyle Diet—with or without meat and fish, obesity is rare. But when Western food technology comes into their countries they rapidly develop weight problems along with many of the illnesses that have come to be known as the diseases of Western civilization, such as diabetes, heart disease, peptic ulcers, arthritis, and cancer.

Let’s Look at the “Big Diets“

You probably know them all—the cider-vinegar, kelp, and B6 regimen, the Stillman Quick Weight Loss Diet, Dr. Atkins‘ Diet Revolution, the macrobiotic diet, the Drinking Man’s Diet, the protein sparing fast, and the Mayo Diet (which incidentally has nothing to do with the famous Mayo Clinic). There is a new one almost every year.

The Cider-vinegar, Kelp, and B, Diet

The cider-vinegar, kelp, and Be diet, popularized by Mary Ann Crenshaw, who claimed to have lost twelve pounds in two weeks on it, is unlikely to do you any harm providing, as Miss Crenshaw suggests, you ensure that along with the B6 supplements you take supplements of all the rest of the B complex too, and provided the 1,000 calories you are eating come from a wise choice of foods including whole-grain breads and cereals, raw fresh vegetables and fruits, and some of the special “Super Foods.” Vitamin B6 is known to help eliminate water retention so to this extent it can be helpful. It also plays a part in fat metabolism, as do many of the B group of vitamins. It is doubtful whether the cider-vinegar or kelp will do much, although kelp is a good source of important minerals for the health of hair and nails as well as overall fitness—provided, of course, you take enough of it. This usually means a small handful of dried tablets per day rather than three or four.

Mayo Diet

Grapefruit, which is one of the so-called keys to successful dieting in the Mayo Diet because of its supposed fat-dissolving abilities, will do nothing more than provide some good vitamin C with bioflavonoids (provided you eat some of the white pulp of the skin at the same time). It has no fat-burning abilities regardless of how many women believe otherwise.

Precocious Protein Diets

The high-protein, low-carbohydrate regimens such as the Atkins and Stillman diets work on the principle of inducing ketosis—the presence of excessive quantities of acetone or ketone bodies in the urine, which indicates that stored fats are being burned off as fuel. On the Stillman regimen you eat only lean meat, fish, poultry, and low-fat cheese and you take a vitamin supplement, plus eight glasses of water a day. You will get rapid initial loss of weight but in a test where one set of dieters was put on this regimen and the control group on a balanced low-calorie regimen, that was the only benefit, besides a decrease in appetite as a result of increased ketone bodies.

But the ketosis on which the diet depends induces a metabolic state which can result in permanent cell damage. Some carbohydrates are necessary in order for the body to regulate its protein and fat metabolism and to support the health of nerve cells and brain tissue. The diet can also be extremely hazardous to anyone with a hidden kidney or liver ailment. And research shows a 33 percent average rise in serum cholesterol levels in people kept on the Stillman diet for between three and seventeen days.

Less drastic, but formulated along the same lines, the Atkins diet puts you on a no-carbohydrate regimen at first to stimulate the use of stored fat as energy and allows you to eat all the fat and protein you want. The diet is very high in saturated fats and tends, when the body weight stabilizes, to increase B-lipoprotein and serum cholesterol levels, which may contribute to atherosclerosis and heart disease. Both regimens can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies unless the proper vitamin and mineral supplements are taken. It is true that both the Stillman and Atkins diets will help you lose weight, but at a cost in terms of long-term health and beauty. And because they are so eccentric, many dieters stay on them for only a short period of time before they are forced to revert to their usual habits of eating too much of the wrong kinds of foods.

Other Fad Diets

Other more esoteric regimens, such as the rice diet or macrobiotic diet and the protein-sparing fast, can be extremely dangerous leading to serious nutritional deficiencies, hypoproteinemia, hypocalcemia, and kidney and liver troubles. Long-term fasting (from two weeks to several months) can be an excellent way of reducing weight if you have a lot of weight to lose and if it is done wisely under the supervision of a doctor who knows about fasting. A doctor can advise you as to which nutritional supplements you need to take and also keep track of important physiological changes that indicate that your fast should be broken. On your own, you should never fast for more than a couple of days although, once your weight has been reduced to normal, a day’s fast every week can be an excellent tool in ensuring that it stays there. The other ways of weight reduction, such as bypass surgery, wiring the jaws together, and staying on foolishly long unbalanced diets, are best left alone.

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