“Desserts” are “Stressed” spelled backward
by Dr. Cutting
Our genetic expression can actually help in maximizing our weight loss and happiness. How? Gene activity changes fluidly and quickly. Your genes are dynamic and respond to everything you think and do. Gene expression changes due to stress, diet, environment, thoughts and other factors. That’s why the everyday choices you make express themselves on a genetic level.
When stress, poor diet, etc. alters the gene expression, this also creates imbalances neurologically in the brain’s ability to properly regulate the body for health. Thus, one or more of 6 brain centers, the Zones, are dysfunctional. Therefore, poor lifestyle alters gene expression and brain-body communication/throws out the Zones. Ineffective brain output further alters gene expression. Worsened gene expression then keeps brain/Zones unbalanced, which creates declining health and symptoms in the body.
Unless the lifestyle choices are corrected and the Zones are balanced through chiropractic alignment, our bodies’ abilities to heal be will significantly reduced. It’s a negative cycle that needs to be broken! Fortunately, Active Chiropractic can help our patients break the cycle and get back to expressing their own innate healing potential. Let’s look at the 6 most common factors for excess fat gain:
1. Chronic Stress
“Stressed” is “desserts” spelled backward. Increased cortisol is associated with an increase in blood sugar level, and after this blood sugar spike comes a drop, then sugar cravings — cue the comfort foods. Think about the foods you reach for when you feel stressed. Are ice cream, chocolate, and pizza coming to mind? The foods we crave tend to be highly processed and high in fat, sugar, and salt — all of which are very easy to digest and absorb. Chronic stress causes an increase in cortisol, which turns on fat storage within the body.
2. A Sedentary Lifestyle
We’ve all heard exercise helps you live longer. But a new study goes one step further, finding that a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease.
Dr. Wael Jaber, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the study, called the results “extremely surprising.”
“Being unfit on a treadmill or in an exercise stress test has a worse prognosis, as far as death, than being hypertensive, being diabetic or being a current smoker.”
The good news? If you reduce the amount of time you spend sitting, you’ll also reduce your risk of gaining more weight and developing serious health issues, brain fog and even muscle loss.
3. Sugar Overload
In the early 1900s, the average American consumed less than 20 grams of sugar per day. Now we consume over 100 grams of sugar per day. Sugar is hidden in foods that we consider safe. When we consume too much sugar, this taxes the body’s organs and cells and can create systemic damage. It also has been shown to be as addictive as nicotine, alcohol and even recreational drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Sugar is easily converted into stored fat, with its over-consumption leading to a phenomenon called insulin resistance. When you eat a high-sugar or starch-containing meal or treat, your body doesn’t receive the proper signals to feel full and, before you know it, you overeat.
4. Allergenic Food
Your reaction to foods may be making you fat. It’s hard to believe—but very true. I want to explain the bugs in your digestive tract, why they upset your gut’s immune system, and how they just might be behind those extra pounds. First of all, many patients are craving the very foods they are allergic to due to coincidence. Sugar and high-glycemic foods, including common allergens such as wheat and corn, will initially stimulate the “feel good” neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin. This is familiar to anyone who “eats for comfort” and knows the temporary good feeling that comes from eating certain foods. The effect doesn’t last long however and leaves people craving again. Gluten, dairy and soy can trigger excess inflammation within the body, making it almost impossible to burn fat and to achieve real body transformation. In fact, many experts believe that wheat products are some of the biggest contributors to weight gain, fatigue and blood sugar imbalances.
5. Genetically Modified Foods
How do GMO’s affect the environment or human health? There have been over 100 research studies comparing the effects of traditional food to genetically modified food. Here are some of the biggest challenges with some of the so-called “foods” that we are eating:
Our consumption of grain-based oils, also known as “vegetable fats,” has skyrocketed. Surprisingly, these fats aren’t derived from vegetables at all; rather, they come in large part from genetically modified (GMO) canola, soy and corn oils. GMO-containing grain and seed oils can cause imbalances within our bodies, leading to weight gain.
6. Imbalanced Gut Bacteria
Did you know that 89% of all disease can be traced back to the health of your gut? So, it’s no surprise that one way to turn on your body’s fat-burning switch is by balancing your microbiome. Unhealthy microbes feed off of stress hormones, sugar and starches. Certain bacteria are also called “fat-promoting bacteria,” as they influence your body to gain weight and store fat. When the normal balance of bacteria shifts over to the negative, it’s called dysbiosis. Having more fat-promoting bacteria (unhealthy bacteria) than “skinny-gut bacteria” (healthy bacteria) isn’t just linked to obesity and weight gain, but many other systemic conditions as well. Your gut bacteria may affect your weight by influencing how different foods are digested in your body. Dietary fiber is digested by certain species of gut bacteria, which may aid weight loss.
Seeking solutions for your weight management? We can help…