Why are we getting fatter?

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As a nation, we are getting fatter, rapidly catching up with the Americans for the title of the fattest nation. But why with all the knowledge we have now about food, what we should and shouldn't eat are we still putting on weight?

There are many reasons, psychological, physiological and dietary as to why we are getting fatter despite all the weight loss and diet information about.

Psychological reasons include more mental stress in our lives and also for some people, self esteem issues that are the cause of their weight gain rather than because of it. These self esteem issues can come from way back in childhood.

Physiological reasons are simply that we don't get enough exercise. We could most definitely do with less mental stress and more physical stress to redress the balance which would lead to natural weight loss.

Dietary reasons are much more complicated. There are many reasons directly related to the food we eat that lead us to put on weight. Firstly as a nation we do eat too much, that goes without saying and the reasons for this do often have a psychological element, but often we are encouraged eat too much because of misinformation by the food manufacturers. By knowing the truth about the food we eat and being able to detach it from the misinformation that the food industry uses to get you to buy it's products allowing us to make genuinely better choices about the food we put into our bodies. Some of what follows may feel intuitive and other things may need a little thinking about first.

1. Choice and availability. There is much more choice when it comes to fattening snack foods than there has ever been.

2. The marketing machine behind the big businesses that promotes these products has been refined over many years so that it has now become very efficient at ensuring we buy.

3. Big business doesn't care about how healthy the food is or the nutritional benefit. They simply want us to buy it. That sometimes means apportioning health benefits to foods that aren't that genuine.

Think about this: In a consumer led society, who is really leading? Us the consumers? Or the big business selling us what we think we want based on their misinformation?

The first thing I would like to look at is low fat products. Low fat versions of regular products have been around for well over a decade now. The variety of products has vastly increased, especially over the last few years as the obesity crisis hit the headlines more and more. So with this glut of low fat products around you would expect some positive results from changing to lower fat alternatives in your diet wouldn't you? Unfortunately all the evidence points to the opposite. We are still getting bigger! Here's why…………

Low fat hype.

A recent American study involved two groups of people both with free access to cookies. One group was given regular cookies the other were given low fat cookies. What happened? The people with the low fat cookies simply ate more of them. In fact they ate a whopping 40% more of the low fat version!

There are two explanations for this behaviour. One is that because they knew they were low fat they gave themselves 'permission' to eat more. The other explanation is that fat actually helps us recognise we have eaten enough. Either or more probably both of these reasons would be responsible for these findings.

So what does the low fat hype mean for the cookie manufacturer? It means bigger profits! The low fat version is probably sold for more since it is more desirable due to the low fat hype and we will consume more of that product! Every ones a winner! Except us that is because we are still piling on the pounds and spending more money helping to inflate shareholders wallets.

So what does this mean for you? Well why not enjoy the full fat cookie? It will probably taste better and quite possibly it is cheaper.

Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners have been around in one form or another for decades. We have now progressed from the old fashioned saccharin sweetener which was launched in 1958, to a multitude of new chemical sweeteners each claiming to be more like real sugar than the last.

Here are a few: 1. Acesulfame potassium 2. Alitame 3. Aspartame 4. Cyclamate 5. Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone 6. Neotame 7. Saccharin 8. Sucralose

Mmm, they sound yummy don't they? The problem with artificial sweeteners is that because they taste sweet, the stomach readies it's self to receive calories. Consuming these artificial sweeteners can mean that the bodies response to genuine sweet food is blunted making it harder for you to burn the calories off, therefore this results in weight gain. Recent experiments in the USA have confirmed this. There is also evidence from the US that consuming artificial sweeteners can lead to biological or behavioural changes that cause us to eat more. There are naturally sourced sweeteners that are available but unfortunately, they also have their share of side effects particularly diarhoea if you use too much. Fructose is the one you may commonly find in granulated form on the supermarket shelves. It is a naturally occuring fruit sugar (not to be confused with high fructose corn syrup). It is 1.73 times sweeter than sucrose so you need less of it. Because of the way it is metabolised by the body it is considered to have a low GI and does not form a sugar spike in the blood. The main advantage of fructose is that you need much less of it.

So why do we subscribe to all the hype?

Using the low fat products as an example:

1. Lets look at the first stage in the process of us subscribing to the hype.

2. The government release information that we are consuming too much fat in our diet. They push the links between fat and obesity, heart disease etc. All this information is true.

3. We as consumenrs subscribe to the idea and start to make changes in what we buy.

4. Big business starts to respond by offering more 'health conscious' alternatives, lower in fat. Products they know we will buy into and want. The product is more than likely more expensive. Because they know that the proportion of the market that are worried about their health will pay more. They follow consumer habits using statistics, conduct surveys and such like to ensure that the product is right for the market. Let's face it, in this era ofe being told we are consuming too much fat who wouldn't buy into the idea of being able to enjoy a treat in the knowledge it wasn't as bad for them because it's the low fat version?

Unfortunately low fat products simply replace the fat with carbohydrate either in the form of sugar or starch and various chemical compounds such as glycerol which offer moistness to the product in the absence of fat. As I already showed, the absence of fat and social conditioning mean you simply eat more! You give ourselves permission to eat more.

The really big problem with reduced fat biscuits, cakes etc are the refined carbohydrates which will give you a blood sugar spike. And since there is more of this carbohydrate in the low fat version because it is replacing some of the fat, you get more of a spike! So what happens to this glut of sugar in the blood? Your body release insulin to mop it up because if your blood sugar gets too high it's dangerous. Now that the insulin has come along to help your bodies process the sugar into energy that we can use there is a problem. Your body can only use a certain amount of energy at a time but it has now been given a whole load in the form of refined carbs that have hit the bloodstream straight away. It has more than it needs. So what happens to the energy it can't use straight away? It gets stored for later use………….as fat.

In fact, the lower fat content in a product like this is completely counter productive. Fat is metabolised differently by the body and as fuel, it will in fact last you far longer than the carbohydrate. The lack of fat causes us to eat more of the low fat product, the excessive refined carbohydrate causes a blood sugar spike which drops off rapidly as the carbohydrate is quickly mopped up from the bloodstream and turned into fat. This causes our blood sugar to plummet leaving us, tired depressed and sometimes shaky and weak, ready for your next sugar fix.

Do the manufacturers care? Of course not. Their task is to turn their product into money. They have an ideal product. It appeals to the health conscious consumer and they will end up buying more of it.

So where does responsibility lie?

That is the million dollar question. One only has to look at the media frenzy that surrounded MacDonald's to see that there are plenty of people out there who are ready to pin the responsibility for questionable food fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the manufacturers. But really we as consumers need to take responsibility for ourselves. These businesses do not have our interests at heart. To think so is naïve in the extreme. We can take back control simply by rejecting the hype and refusing to buy into it. But let's look at some of the subtle messages these products and product types send us. Let's look at their names and the messages they give us.

Go Ahead, Mcvities biscuit range. Go Ahead, is this giving you permission or what?

Lite, Generally applied to low fat products or sometimes low sugar products. A bit of a play on the idea that if you eat them you will be lighter.

Good for you. This one beggars belief. This is Asdas own range of low fat cakes, biscuits etc. At the very best you could (may be) argue that they weren't quite as bad for you as the full fat version. But as we have already argued even that doesn't make sense. So the trend to turn to low sugar, low fat lower calorie foods to control weight gain could actually be making you fatter.

If we want to avoid piling on the pounds we need to take responsibility for our selves. It really is that simple. Stop buying into the hype, get back to basics with what you eat and turn your nose up at over processed foods that are indirectly making unsubstantiated claims about what they can do for you.

Start enjoying food! Why settle for low fat often lower taste products now that you know what is really going on?

Im Cathy Blackburn (MIAPH, D.Hyp) and I am a weight loss specialist. I use hypnosis to help my clients get rid of the excess pounds easily and permanently.