Hunger - The Final Frontier

Hunger is a primal instinct. It is amongst the first senses you feel when you are born. The satiety after feeding kicks off a lifelong cycle of longing followed by satisfaction! So basic is this need that one never stops to question it.

Obesity is a pandemic in its own right. If we hope to address the overweight problem, we must analyze hunger.

Ask a young child and he or she will tell you that hunger suggests a bodily need for food or fuel. While this is true some of the times, the more common reasons for hunger are surprisingly different.

To understand these reasons, we must have a basic knowledge of a hormone called insulin. Insulin is secreted by a gland called the pancreas (which is in the tummy). The food we eat is absorbed from the intestine and reaches the blood as a fuel (measured as blood sugar level). This is then transported into each living cell by insulin. When we eat food, the body will detect a rise in blood sugar and the pancreas will release insulin which in turn will drive the sugar into the cells and reduce the blood sugar level. The body likes to keep the blood sugar level under tight control with the help of insulin.

Now, if the insulin were to reduce the blood sugar more than necessary, then the body would normalize sugar by initiating hunger. This typically happens if insulin levels in the blood go very high which is called an insulin spike.

Different foods have a different effect on blood insulin. Certain foods like a sugary cola (simple carbohydrate) will increase blood sugar very quickly as there is no digestion. This will cause an insulin spike. The spike will reduce blood sugar more than necessary and that in turn will initiate hunger.

So hunger depends on blood insulin levels. If insulin is spiking too often, we will experience more hunger. And this hunger is not because our body needs food! What we eat will decide how hungry we will become in the next few hours. This is the more common reason for hunger.

If we eat foods that keep the insulin levels stable and avoid spikes, then we won't feel hungry for the wrong reasons. If we don't feel hungry, we wouldn't want to eat as much. In this situation, losing weight becomes easy and possible.

Losing weight is not only about calorie restriction. It is about eating the right type of food, which keeps the insulin levels stable and avoids hunger. Carbohydrates will spike insulin much more than fats or proteins. Simple carbohydrates are the worst. Sugary drinks, sugary deserts, sweets, chocolates, cakes and mithai are classic examples of simple carbohydrates.
So even if you eat a small portion of a sweet desert, not only is it calorie dense but it will ensure more hunger.

Vegetables (cooked or raw) are the best food to keep insulin stable.

This is also the reason why a heavy breakfast is not a good idea. I know this is against traditional teaching but it is time for a paradigm shift. A heavy breakfast (especially if it is carbohydrate rich) will ensure an insulin spike and you will be hungry throughout the day. With so much hunger, dieting or calorie restriction becomes difficult. It's the reason why so many people fail to lose weight.

If we want to lose weight we must first conquer hunger. We must eat the right types of food so that we are in control of hunger and not the other way around. The next time you have an urge to eat a small snack, think about how hungry it will make you!

 

Sarcopenia

We have all heard about osteoporosis or weakening of bones as we age. Many of us have done bone density tests and are taking supplements to prevent or treat osteoporosis. But what is sarcopenia? Sarcopenia is a loss of muscle mass that occurs as we age. As we mature into adults, hormonal changes ensure optimal muscle mass by the age of 25. But this muscle doesn’t remain constant with us throughout life. For those who lead a sedentary lifestyle, muscle loss starts as early as at the age of 30. Typically an inactive person loses up to 5% of muscle mass per decade.

What happens when we lose muscle? First and foremost a weak muscle offers poor protection to its neighbouring joint. Joints need strong muscles to function properly and durably for many years. When muscles are weak, the joints become vulnerable to damage. This damage can happen in any joint, but typically it is seen in the knee joint, the neck and the lower back. Initially patients complain of only occasional pain. Painful joints are instinctively rested by the patient. The rest worsens sarcopenia. This in turn predisposes the joint to even more damage. Thus the pain sets up a vicious cycle. This cycle ends in osteoarthritis of the knee or spondylitis of the neck or back, which in its last stages requires surgical treatment. 

Loss of muscle also results in a lower basal metabolic rate (BMR). In simple words, the body is unable to burn calories efficiently. Lower BMR combined with a modern high calorie diet leads to increase in body fat. Excess fat increases insulin resistance. The end result is central obesity or a pot belly with diabetes, coronary heart disease (heart attack) and hypertension (high blood pressure).

End stage sarcopenia which occurs in elderly patients results in frailty, loss of balance & frequent falls. Sarcopenia is thus responsible for not only musculo-skeletal problems like osteoarthritis and fractures but also life style illness' like diabetes.

Is sarcopenia preventable or treatable? The good news is that it is! We can slow down the loss of muscle that happens with age by making positive changes in our diet and lifestyle. If we work a muscle, it will respond by a tear - repair mechanism to become stronger and a stronger muscle means a reversal of sarcopenia. The best way to strengthen a muscle is by doing resistance training. This can be done by either lifting weights like dumbbells or by using our own body weight. Typical body weight exercises are squats, push ups and lunges. As sarcopenia affects all muscle groups, it is important to work out all muscle groups. We must exercise not only thigh and calf muscles but also chest, back, upper limb and abdominal muscles. Walking is not a good exercise for sarcopenia as it works out only leg muscles and it is not a resistance training exercise.

Diet is as important in the prevention of sarcopenia. For muscles to repair and become stronger they need protein as a raw material. Protein is essential in a healthy diet. We must ensure adequate protein intake. A normal adult requires 0•8 gm of protein per kilo of body weight per day. Meat, eggs and dairy products are rich sources of protein. Roasted, boiled or baked chicken or fish are the healthiest source of meat protein. Milk, cheese and yogurt are good dairy sources. Vegetarian sources of protein include beans, lentils, green peas, chickpeas, soy, spinach, asparagus and brocolli. Nuts like almonds and peanuts also contain protein. Fruits can also provide protein with the richest sources being guavas, berries and apricots. To be effective, a high protein diet must go hand in hand with a low carbohydrate, low sugar and low fat diet.

A lot of research is going on but there still is no medicine that can stop or reverse sarcopenia. Exercise and diet remain the key to prevention as well as cure. We must eat clean and exercise hard to remain healthy and keep illness at bay. We really have no choice!

Which exercise is best for weight loss?

We now know that obesity is a problem. The pot belly is a house of disease. Obesity and high blood pressure go hand in hand. So do obesity and diabetes and obesity and coronary heart disease (chest pain and heart attack). Losing weight is the need of the hour. Weight loss is no more a goal for mere good looks. It is essential if one wants to lead a healthy life.

Diet is the key to weight loss. I have written on diet and weight loss, the pot belly and the evils of sugar. For some people, diet alone may not be enough. Their basal metabolic rate (B.M.R) is so low that changes in food habits are not enough to bring about the weight loss. In simple words they are just not burning enough calories. The fat burning engines of their body have gone to sleep. Exercise is the only way to increase their metabolic rate.

All of us think of walking when we are considering exercise. We feel it is the best exercise to do the job. In fact it is the first exercise that comes to our mind. Many of us have taken up walking only to give it up after a few months or weeks. Many of us have stuck to walking for years. But how many have really succeeded in losing weight by walking alone? Probably very few. All our life we have been brain washed by health experts, doctors and dieticians into thinking that walking is the best exercise. Gyms spend crores on treadmills and have entire sections dedicated to cardio. Those who can walk are encouraged to jog and even run. Marathons have evolved from a sporting competition to the new health fashion! But alas, all this is far from the truth!

Walking is not the best exercise to lose weight. Walking falls in the category of what experts call 'steady state cardio'. Walking is a basic life function and the body has evolved over the years to make it very energy efficient. So not enough muscle groups get involved when we walk. If we walk for longer distances then the muscles quickly adapt and become more energy efficient. A similar process happens when one jogs or runs at a constant pace. That's why we feel tired or get palpitations (can feel our heart beating) only for a few of the initial walks. After a week or so of walking, we can walk the same distance with ease. An energy efficient muscle will conserve calories and not burn them! However for patients with existing heart problems, walking remains a good exercise. They require an exercise that will put less strain on the heart. Heart patients should not try any other exercise without consulting their physician.

Which are then the best exercises to lose weight? To lose weight we must increase our metabolic rate. That will happen when large groups of muscles work hard. To achieve this we must do the opposite of steady state cardio. It is called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). As the name suggests periods of high intensity workouts should alternate with short intervals of rest. If you choose to exercise on a treadmill, then short bursts of brisk walking should alternate with short periods of walking slowly. People who are more fit, can do bursts of sprinting alternating with intervals of slow jogging. A similar interval training can be done in cycling and swimming. These short bursts require the muscles to work hard. By pushing the muscles out of their comfort zone we can force them to become calorie hungry. Metabolic rate and calorie burn is thereby increased.

Another way to lose weight efficiently is by weight training. By lifting weights we can exercise large muscles of the body and the exercise is not restricted to only a few muscle groups. The entire body musculature gets involved. Furthermore by pushing the muscles to their limits, there is a tremendous increase in calorie burn which lasts throughout the day as the muscles recover. We can thus achieve a sustained rise in metabolic rate. Weight training is perhaps the most efficient way to increase metabolism. 

Boot Camp exercises or Body Weight training is an alternative for those who cannot join a gym. These are sets of exercises which make use of the body weight instead of dumbbells and machines. Examples of such exercises include squats, dips, lunges and burpees. Quick sets of such exercises performed with short breaks are effective in achieving a higher metabolic rate.

Losing weight is all about diet for most of us. Both quality and quantity is important. For some people changes in diet are not enough. They need to fire up their metabolic engines to burn up those calories. Age old beliefs of types of food which increase weight, have recently been proven to be wrong. Similarly its time for a paradigm shift in our ideas about exercise. The words cholesterol and walking have now been replaced by sugar and HIIT!

The Not So Sweet Reality

Lets introspect on how things were a half century ago. At that time people consumed lots of fat, butter and pure ghee. Sweets were eaten rarely and the sweetener used was honey. Ninety percent of the food that people ate was cooked at home. The fast food industry was nearly non existent and there were few available brands of biscuits, potato chips, cakes, mithai, chiwda, chocolates, colas or ice cream. Going out to eat ice cream would be nothing less than a family event which would be fondly remembered for days. A box of mithai would come home but once in months. All of these snacks were consumed rarely! Restaurants were few and going out to eat was infrequent. Also infrequent at the time were here heart attacks, blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.

Then cholesterol was identified as the substance which was found in blocked blood vessels. This lead to a diet revolution based on fear. We were told that dietary cholesterol is bad for our health. We started avoiding fatty foods like cheese and butter, oily food or deep fried food. We didn't eat the egg yolk and only preferred the egg white. At a restaurant we started to ask for normal roti and not 'butter-roti'. We would frown if we saw a dish with excessive oil. This movement against fats and oil tilted the diet towards carbohydrates. Slowly but surely diets around the world became carbohydrate rich.

Simultaneously there was a surge in the economy and people's spending power increased. The food industry expanded and packaged foods and fast food became affordable. Refined sugar and refined flour became the main ingredients of these snacks. What was a luxury enjoyed once in many months, could now be easily consumed every week or even every day. Today, the smallest event is celebrated by cutting a cake. Home refrigerators are loaded with ice creams and colas. They have become oft consumed midnight snacks. Historically sugar consumption has increased from barely 2kg per person per year in the eighteen century to a whopping 70kg per person per year in the twenty first century. Calorie intakes have increased but physical activity has reduced. People are enjoying a sedentary lifestyle. With elevators and cars there is no need to exert. What has also increased unfortunately are the rates of obesity. People are developing pot bellies more than ever before. Low fat and high carbohydrate diets are not having the desired effect that was hoped for. In fact the absolute opposite is happening. Along with obesity, rates of blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease are up.

Only recently, the veil has been lifted. It is not fat, butter or cholesterol that is the real devil. It is the carbohydrates, especially the simple ones like refined sugar and foods that contain large quantities of this sugar. To reduce the rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease we must re-adopt the lifestyle our ancestors. We have to change the way we think about food. It is time for a paradigm shift. We should not consume sugary drinks like colas, tang, rasna or sugary tea. They are directly linked to obesity and therefore many diseases. Biscuits are a strict no, at least not daily. We can eat a biscuit, or a piece of cake, or a few chips once in a while. Jam is full of sugar and we must stay away. Same is true with tomato ketchup. Snacks and mithai must be consumed only occasionally. On the same note, we must not eat out often. It is desirable to stick to home cooked food made with hand picked, quality ingredients. In addition to simple sugar, we must eat less quantities of starchy foods like potato, maida, rice and bread.

Sugar from a cola or an ice cream or a chocolate is easily digested and quickly absorbed in the blood stream. This puts a strain on the pancreas to produce a large quantity of insulin. This insulin in turn reduces the sugar in the blood by converting it into fat. Moreover it makes you hungry and you end up eating more food. Regular high sugar consumption literally burns out the pancreas and the end result is diabetes.

Along with diet we must re-adopt the physical activity of our ancestors. We must exercise by going to the gym, walking, cycling, swimming or similar activity. The best results are seen with weight training either in the gym or by using body weight (push ups, dips, squats etc).

In conclusion, sugar is the real problem. Lots of sugar indirectly enters our system through packaged foods. We must make it a habit to read the ingredients before we consume any foodstuff. Our food should come from our own kitchens and not from restaurants, bakeries or factories. Carbohydrates are the new enemy!

The Secrets to losing weight…

Many want to lose weight and many need to. Many try but few succeed. What is the secret of their success? Is there one secret or are there many? Do doctors know all the answers? Maybe, but aren't there lots of obese doctors around? 

In my practice I have had the opportunity to speak to both types of people; the ones who have lost weight and the ones who have failed. I myself have struggled for many years to lose weight only to find success recently. So what are these secrets? 

Secret 1: Sincerity. People who successfully lose weight have a deep commitment and sincerity in their effort. It is akin to a project that they have taken up and need to see it to completion. They work hard to lose weight, they have pride in their effort and they celebrate their achievements. Quite often the commitment comes due to a life altering mishap that they have suffered like a heart attack or a complication from diabetes. It is only after a major near death experience do they realise how fragile life is and how much they have taken for granted. I urge readers to take weight loss seriously and not wait for their wake up call!

Secret 2: Exercise or Diet? Is dieting enough to lose weight? or is exercising enough? or do we need both? the reality is that diet is far more crucial to reduce weight than exercise. Exercise helps but diet is the key. Those who exercise but continue their usual eating habits almost never lose weight. Of the weight one loses, 75% will be due to changes in diet and 25% will be due to exercise. 

Secret 3: Quality of food. Is it acceptable to buy petrol mixed with water? We are so particular about quality of the things we buy, however we stop thinking of quality when it comes to food. We are ruled by taste. What tastes good is good. Its time to stop and think about what we consume. We ought to eat only quality food. We should avoid deep fried foodstuff. We should also avoid artificial sugar. Avoiding sugar doesn't stop at adding Splenda to tea. One cannot imagine the extent to which artificial sugar has infiltrated our eating habits! Biscuits, chips, packaged snacks, cakes, chocolates, sweets, mithai, cold drinks, ice creams etc etc are all loaded withartificial sugar. This modern sugar stresses the body's mechanisms to control blood sugar. The body converts all this excess sugar to fat and stores it, resulting in a pot belly. The hotel industry, the biscuit manufacturer, the bakery, the chocolate industry, the Paani-Puri Wala or the Wada-Pav Center are not interested in your health. They thrive on our weakness for taste. So when I say avoid fried foods and artificial sugar, I really mean one must avoid eating packaged food (what is typically stocked at a Kiraana store) and one must avoid eating outdoors. Home cooked meals will always have the quality you are looking for! In addition to this we must reduce our consumption of the GREAT FOUR! They arerice, potatoes, pasta (and other maida products) and bread (bakery products). These products are similar to sugar and have high carbohydrate content which will be converted to fat. Once one learns to avoid these poor quality foods, what remains is all healthy. Wheat (or jowar, bajra) chapatis, dals, vegetables, meat (in limited quantity)  and nuts are healthy to eat. To this we can add cereals(without sugar), muesli, oats, milk and eggs. Milk products without sugar like dahi and chaas are good. The sugar in fruit is natural and far far superior to artificial sugar. One can safely consume all types of fruits unless diabetic. Raw vegetable salads (without unhealthy mayonnaise dressings) are a complete winner. Now with this knowledge lets assess the quality of some of our foodstuffs - first the seemingly harmless 'wada-pav'. It has got potato, maida and bread. Plus it is deep fried. Its a total disaster, isn't it? Lets see another scenario: a visit to MacDonald's. What do we end up eating? A fried patty in bread? Still not so bad one may feel. But lets see the accompaniments. A sugar filled cold drink and fried potato chips! Another disaster. What about the people who drink many cups of tea in the day? Not much harm done? Actually lots of harm done if the tea has sugar! All the sugar just ends up in one's belly. 

Secret 4: Portion control. Now we come to the most difficult part of weight reduction. We may be very motivated to lose weight and we may be willing to let go of our tasty snacks, but are we ready for portion control? What does one mean by portion control? It means that one has to control the quantity of food consumed at a particular time.  This is very critical for the major meals which are lunch and dinner. I have devised the 1 to 2 rule. For lunch or dinner one should not consume more than 2 chapati's or 1 chapati and 1 small helping of rice. Obviously this is hugely difficult as we will feel hungry. There are 2 secrets here to succeed. First is to reduce the speed of eating. It takes time for the stomach to send a signal to the brain that it is full. If we eat too fast, we have already over eaten by the time the signal reaches the brain. Vice versa if we eat very very slowly, we will feel full even with seemingly small quantities of food. One should chew slowly and swallow only after chewing the food completely. One should not put another morsel in the mouth till one has swallowed the previous morsel. The second secret is to eat healthy snacks in between meals. So one can have a fruit or a salad or some nuts at 11:00 am and in the evenings at 4pm and if required even at 7pm. If one feels hungry after dinner, one can have a healthy snack at 10pm. This way we can counter the hunger we will feel because of portion control. I must emphasise here that the snack must be healthy! People have a habit of skipping meals and then binge eating at dinner time. They feel proud of skipping a meal and think it will help reduce weight. Then they feel the need for a reward and feel justified in eating a heavy meal. Little do they realise that all the benefit from skipping a meal is not only lost in the binge eating, in fact more harm is done than good. Binge eating can never result in weight loss! The tough truth is that we can never have a heavy meal ever, if we are serious about weight loss! 

This is a sure shot way of losing weight! Many of us feel that we don't eat much food, we eat healthy and still we don't lose weight! But I request you all to introspect sincerely! You must take into account exact quantity of food consumed rather than your best estimate. You must look at the quality of food as well. Learn to pay attention while eating and actually count the chapatis and helpings of rice. Also every small unhealthy snack eaten in between, like a chocolate, a biscuit, a piece of cake or a few chips, matters! 

Armed with these secrets, I am confident that all of us can start losing weight and move towards a more healthy and happy life! 

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