I Had a e- mail from Margaret Wilde asking if I would post her article on, my blog as I had reproduced one of her articles before it is a very interesting one. As was the last one I posted, which was called obesity and the salt connection. You can read that particular article on her site. Enjoy this one it raises some very interesting points.
Fat Retention
You will probably already have read my assertion that it is fluid retention that is the cause/initiator of obesity. You may have disagreed with me and wondered what is my explanation for the fat retention which is certainly present in many – possibly most – overweight and obese people. – Here it is: – but it is complicated and you will need to stick with me as I explain!
It had been clear to me for many years that the calorie explanation for obesity (eating too many calories and not taking much exercise – i.e. greed plus laziness) must be wrong because many – probably most – people can eat as much as they like and not become overweight, even if they take very little exercise. – They are what I call on my website ‘the lucky people’. – They are the slim people. – They are the people who have healthy veins and kidneys and are not sensitive to salt. They simply excrete in the urine any excess salt and its attendant water, so they do not gain weight by fluid retention.
I realised intuitively that the reason they do not put on excess weight when they overeat is that they simply excrete any excess fat/calories they eat. (Faeces tend to contain a lot of fat/calories, which is why animal dung is used as fuel in many countries.) But I did not know the mechanism that caused the fat excretion in slim people and the fat retention in fatter people, though I did guess that it probably involved minerals in the diet, because people with fluid retention tend to be deficient in calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Then BBC2 showed a series of programmes called “The Truth About Food” and I learnt about some Danish research which throws light, on this see.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/calcium.shtml where you will read: “a high calcium intake increases the excretion of fat in the faeces”. – There was the necessary information! – In fact, the researchers found that twice as much fat was excreted on a high calcium intake as on a low calcium intake – and this was independent of calorie intake. – They also found that dairy calcium (they suggest low fat yoghurt) is a particularly good source for this extra calcium.
Similarly, on http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/calcium.html you can read: “Calcium helps keep the weight off. Research suggests that if you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, you’re likely to be overweight.”
And on http://www.foodsolutions.eu.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=26677&issue=163 it says, “Although the contribution of the different mechanisms to the overall anti-obesity effect of calcium is not clear, there is much evidence from animal and human studies, that a high-calcium diet and/or calcium supplementation decreases body weight and fat.”
On one of the links – http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/calcium.html- from the BBC’s The Truth About Food site, it says: “Calcium is the mineral most likely to be deficient in the average diet. Let me repeat that. Calcium is the mineral most likely to be deficient in the average diet. Calcium deficiency is a condition in which we fail to receive or to metabolize an adequate supply of Calcium.”
There are a number of reasons that overweight people in particular tend to be deficient in calcium. The main reason is that sodium retention/salt sensitivity/fluid retention depletes the body of calcium.
Here are two other very simple reasons:
1. Most fat people are ‘dieting’ most of the time – i.e. they are eating insufficient food for their body’s needs.
2. Fat people are routinely advised to limit their intake of dairy food like milk because their advisors (wrongly) believe that milk is ‘fattening’.
So to reduce fat retention, if it is present, the most important thing is to alter the diet to reduce the fluid retention which is the initiating cause of excess weight and the primary reason for fat people being short of calcium and for fat people ‘dieting’. That means reducing sodium intake and ensuring plenty of fruit and vegetables in the diet (because their high potassium content helps to displace sodium from the body).
And specifically it also means having a higher intake of calcium, especially, if possible, from a dairy source like low fat yoghurt. – It is also necessary to ensure sufficient vitamin D intake, as this is needed to metabolise the calcium. Insufficiency of vitamin D is quite common, as is widely reported, e.g. here – http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
In my personal opinion it is neither necessary nor desirable to adopt a low fat diet. Low fat intake can be harmful, especially for small children.
Article By Margaret Wilde.
You can see more at her site http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
1. Processed food is all about time saving, millions of pounds are spent every year on the junk that manufacturers pump out every year. Such is the methods that are used the overall quality, of the finished product mostly tends to be very low nutritional wise. This is one of the reasons why when you are eating processed food, you tend to feel far more hungry than you would do if you are eating fresh prepared food, the reality of this time difference is marginal. Fresh food in comparison tastes a lot better, processed food tends to taste very bland some of it to me, I would say is like eating cardboard although that is a bit of a slight exaggeration on my part. A lot of food stores that sell pre-packaged frozen processed food have now jumped on the healthy craze in order to cash in on healthy eating. But then again this all tends to lead to misleading information on the packaging. Let’s not mess about here the people that sell this garbage are interested in one thing only money. Nothing more and nothing less, do you really in your wildest dreams think that the people that make this junk are concerned about your health I think not. One particular tactic that is used, is to focus on one healthy point ie for instance the packaging might contain contains 20% less fat, but what they will fail to tell you is what sort of fat it is, is it unsaturated fat or saturated fat which is the unhealthy type. It may be the case that the particular product is low in fat but it also may be the case that it might have tons of sugar in order to compensate for this. Another thing that is used on a lot of processed food especially in our country is the round nutritional pie chart where you have sections of a pie chart, in order to see the calories contained within the product etc. What a lot of manufacturers have been doing just recently is putting down the values of either half or a quarter, of what it has in it say for instance, it might give you the total fat value. This to me seems to be another misleading way of trying to trick people into thinking they are buying something that is lower in fat when in actual fact it isn’t. And if you think about it if we are taking notice of what we are eating how come as a nation we are still getting fatter, the something is wrong somewhere don’t you think ? Have more money in your pocket 2. Processed food tends to be a lot more expensive than it is healthy counterpart if you think about the logistics of this here is why, when you’re eating food that is full of artificial crap and no nutrition whatsoever you’re bound to eat more of it. Here’s something for you to do go, out and compare fresh food compared to processed food and see how much difference there is you might be surprised at what you find some processed food is quite cheap admittedly but that’s no reason to eat it Boxes that contain processed food are bigger than the food inside it this is another psychological trick that you may not have realised. You’re not necessarily getting more for your money probably less if you look carefully. its synthetic 3. When food is processed a lot of the nutritional value is lost in the process so added synthetic vitamins and minerals are added in order to make the shortfall, the only problem with this is that they are nowhere near as good as their regional counterparts so in a way you’re cheating yourself yet again. As we said previously when you don’t get the correct vitamins and minerals from your food you will tend to eat more and because of the very nature of the food, you’re eating your more likely to gain weight. You see manufacturers can say packed with fortified vitamins but as we know they are no good. Where is it ? 4. Where is it indeed everything that should be in processed food isn’t, on a scale of one to 10, I would say that the nutritional value of processed food is about one, and that is being generous to say the least. Have you ever noticed on the back of the packet all the preservatives e numbers etc. what on earth do they mean will they do you harm are they good for you what exactly are they for, the problem with this is no one knows except the manufacturer. Is it alive !!!! 5. I would say almost definitely not all the living enzymes and/or bacteria that can be good for you doesn’t tend to be in processed foods and I dare say that phytochemicals probably aren’t there as well, which are important factor when it comes to free radicals in your body for these like plants soak up free radicals in your body which prevent disease. Is it worth investing in ? 6. When you buy this food you’re encouraging more being spent on it so therefore keeping it alive if less people spend more money on fresh fruit and vegetables and more money would encourage the growth of this particular industry. Not needed additions 7. Processed food tend to have tons of chemical additives which are no use whatsoever to you or the food things like artificial colouring and preservatives, so the food will last longer no use to you whatsoever for all you know these could cause harm without you even knowing. Mystery guests !!! 8. This type of particular food can have all sorts of strange odds and ends added during processing one particular example of this is sausages say or hot dog sausages to be more specific they can contain something called edible offal, i.e. different parts of the animal like ears. Are you a crack addict 9. It’s a well-known fact that fat and sugar are as addictive as heroin and cocaine they stimulate the same receptors in your brain that make you feel good this is what’s known as a dopamine high, manufacturers all too well know that. These substances are highly addictive that is why processed food does have a lots of hidden sugar and fat, so as to make it addictive and also enhance the taste. Listen to old advice 10. Can you remember when you were younger and your parents told you to eat more vegetables well guess what they were right. if you have any suggestions about this feel free to join in the discussion please by leaving your opinion below.
Just recently I joined a 
We all know the relevance of doing exercise in relation to losing weight,what this often poses is a question as to which is best for any particular person, some recent research data that was published has found that doing resistance training is far more effective in the long run than probably say aerobics or walking.
There are lots of anti milk campaigns on line in various places on the web so when I was, browsing through one of our tabloid newspapers on the lookout for something that might create a post which sometimes If I’m lucky it does, but one the other day caught my eye so thought it would make a great post. To blog about.
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