Killer Fat

When we hear the word "diet" we often think about regimens, group meetings, and paying money. What we know is that eating is part of living every day for all of us. Why are those two pictures so different?

For the last two weeks we have been discussing ways of eating so as not to spike blood sugar. We used a glycemic index chart to begin to make sense of it. One of the comments on the film was that foods that are white and mushy create white and mushy around our middle. Biochemically, storing fat in the tummy is most often a symptom of insulin resistance. Lisa's story illustrated the point in our filmed discussion (found in the greatpilatesnow.com library) two weeks ago.

     " I was in my thirties and the fat-free craze was in. Up to that, my weight was fine but I thought 'maybe I should'. Then I quickly gained probably about 10 or 15 pounds, and for me that was a lot of weight. It probably took be about five or six years to loose that weight."

Why did this happen? When we reduce a food group in our diet, we naturally need to compensate for that. Taking away fat often means eating more carbohydrate. Consuming more carbohydrate without the fat which buffers its effect on our blood sugar, means we need more insulin to handle the eating pattern. The result is not just weight gain.

What Dr. Ray Strand calls "killer fat" is symptomatic of impending cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus (adult onset), and lots of inflammation in the body. What many scientists are agreeing on now is that insulin resistance is the true underlying cause of high blood pressure and rising levels of bad fat in the blood.

It's so much more than looking good ladies. Its about extending our healthy days on this planet. More days to tell people we love them. More days to write that book, feel sunshine and wet feet; to read, to create, to snuggle.

More days to feel good.