"The Men Who Made Us Fat" and Leptin

I watched the documentary. I couldn't get past how it blamed America for all of Britain's weight problems. The series has a low-carb angle, for sure. Robert Lustig and Gary Taubes are both interviewed, but no counterpoint voice to the idea that sugar and corn aren't the devil.

To be fair, you've exported some amazing stuff abroad. Krispy Kreme, McDonalds, Grape Fanta, Oreos, Burger King, that really good prawn chain place in HK. For heaven's sake bring it to Aus RIGHT NOW. I always say the reason I will never ever ever travel to the US is because I'd have to be flown back as cargo.

Downloaded the doco and basically it was a lot of "it's not your fault, you're a victim". Fair enough, maybe some people ate larger and larger meals and bought larger and larger trousers because of advertising and an incredible lack of self awareness of their rapidly expanding frame. Maybe. But you'd have to be a bit dull to be that sort of person. Still, entertaining in the style of most tabloid news shows.

Are you from Australia? Because you guys have something called Tim Tams over there, and I'm so jealous. Maybe we can work out a trade.

LOL. If you're in the U.S they sell TIm Tams here under another name at World Market. You should really try and peel yourself away from them, they are highly addictive!

I don't think anyone's saying you can't lose weight eating sugar - the issue being discussed is that sugar impairs the function of the leptin hormone (which is basically a fact).

Sorry, the bolded part makes it too easy.

Well it is as much a fact as facts can be in nutrition. It's hard to prove without any shred of doubt, but studies have shown it to be the case time and time again.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-facts-on-leptin-faq?page=1



Please read this!!! It may provide just a little insight into what has been proven to BE A FACT!!

I thought this was going to be a rant about exes...

Metabolically speaking, how is processed sugar different from natural sugar?

Would someone please answer this, I would love to hear the answers people come up with...

Oh... I guess I'll add one more thing for people to chew on.

Endocrinology is complicated. Our bodies are complicated. Any time someone (doctor or not) pin-points one single hormone signaling pathway as the 'broken' pathway responsible for all our problems.... well... I'm pretty damn sure they are wrong.

We can't blame leptin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame insulin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame <insert hormone of your choice here> for the obesity epidemic.

Occasionally, some RARE individuals might actually, honestly, have a malfunction of one or two pathways that cause uncontrolled weight gain. The average person, however, does not have a deficiency. Their bodies are behaving exactly the way they were programmed to behave by God and/or evolution.

We gain weight because we're eating a surplus of calories and our bodies are storing that surplus for the famine it's sure is just around the corner. To store these calories, to survive and thrive and function the way our bodies are made to function, we are activating a plethora (love that work >.>) of signaling pathways (aka hormones acting on the cells of our body).

In my opinion, it just doesn't do any good to obsess over which hormone is 'at fault' when we can solve the problem by reducing our calorie intake.

You are lovely and so are your posts.

I 100% agree with Sidesteal on both statements. Best post in this thread.

You are lovely and so are your posts.

Awww shucks :blushing:

Well thank you, sir. You are pretty awesome too. Always spot on with your advice.

Oh... I guess I'll add one more thing for people to chew on.

Endocrinology is complicated. Our bodies are complicated. Any time someone (doctor or not) pin-points one single hormone signaling pathway as the 'broken' pathway responsible for all our problems.... well... I'm pretty damn sure they are wrong.

We can't blame leptin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame insulin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame <insert hormone of your choice here> for the obesity epidemic.

Occasionally, some RARE individuals might actually, honestly, have a malfunction of one or two pathways that cause uncontrolled weight gain. The average person, however, does not have a deficiency. Their bodies are behaving exactly the way they were programmed to behave by God and/or evolution.

We gain weight because we're eating a surplus of calories and our bodies are storing that surplus for the famine it's sure is just around the corner. To store these calories, to survive and thrive and function the way our bodies are made to function, we are activating a plethora (love that work >.>) of signaling pathways (aka hormones acting on the cells of our body).

In my opinion, it just doesn't do any good to obsess over which hormone is 'at fault' when we can solve the problem by reducing our calorie intake.

We can only blame the roswell report for everything

:laugh:

And here I am losing weight eating a large cookie and a glass of wine every day.

My body must be weird.

(IIFYM)

I don't think anyone's saying you can't lose weight eating sugar - the issue being discussed is that sugar impairs the function of the leptin hormone (which is basically a fact).
If people count their calories and plan on doing that for the rest of their lives, they shouldn't have a problem.

The thing is that many people don't count calories and listen to their body to eat, so if their body is telling them they're hungry, they overeat.

It's easy to say the problem is overeating and people just need to have more willpower. It's also easy to do it for a few months and lose some weight, but if your body is telling you it's hungry when it really shouldn't be, then you run into maintenance issues in the long run because you can't just ignore hunger for the rest of your life.

EXACTLY!! I can become phobic about refined sugars in foods, and then become phobic about the naturally occurring sugars in foods such as bananas and Tropicana Pure Premium OJ...and then become maniacal about every single morsel that goes into my mouth...but all of that is not how I managed to KEEP MY WEIGHT OFF FOR OVER 20 YEARS...more and more I'm staying away from processed foods and have been going back to REAL food but I'm not maniacal about it either. I have MccyD's prolly once per month. I ate a hoagie roll with homemade soup the other night for dinner. Guess what? I'm still thin and I didn't die yet lol I eat well about 90% of the time but realistic enough to not overcomplicate the weight loss/maintenance issue and am realistic enough to allow "cheats" b/c I'm human. I've also slowed down my eating...what good is all of this knowledge if you eat so fast that you've eaten beyond the "full" point b/c you haven't registered the "satiated" feeling yet? The most important thing, because too much of anything is never a good thing, is get down to the root of why you're overeating and eating when not hungry. The overeating is just a symptom of a bigger underlying problem. And as for knowing what works for you? You will know when you've maintained your weight loss for a long period of time..

Processed food is crap.
If man makes it, we should look very carefully before eating.
That's reality.