Don't Just Diet— Get Weight Management for Life
It is a staggering fact that over 70 percent of adult Americans are now overweight, with nearly 40 percent being considered clinically obese. With a booming weight management industry worth over $66 billion, these numbers seem almost incomprehensible, sending a warning sign to struggling individuals and the medical community alike.
The currently accepted dietary methods — based on the idea of "calories in and calories out" — simply does not tell the whole story and often fails to work. When it comes to successful weight management strategies, integrative medicine emphasizes the need for a nutrient-dense diet with an overall, holistic sense of health, as opposed to quick fad diets, strict caloric restrictions, and physical overexertion.
Chronic inflammation is the #1 cause for most people having difficulty losing weight.
Inflammation is the body’s immune response to certain triggers. Small amounts of inflammation protects the body from foreign pathogens, and also preserves normal tissue repair. However, when unchecked, inflammation results in abnormal cellular responses. The result: interruption of normal blood circulation, poor digestion, loss of mental clarity, thyroid and adrenal hormone imbalances, and decreased reproductive capacity.
Inflammation results from a variety of internal and external factors. Infection, toxin exposure, stress, and radiation all result in increased inflammation. The stealthiest cause of chronic inflammation, however, is diet.
There are certain foods that promote inflammation in nearly all people. Modern farming practices and modifications to foods are increasingly to blame. But apart from this, the human body evolved consuming different foods than what is readily available in modern grocery stores, and therefore, it is simply not equipped to eat certain foods in the volumes that have become normalized in the Standard American Diet. When consumed in excess, the body views these foods as foreign and cannot assimilate them appropriately, so an immune response is triggered.
Top pro-inflammatory foods include:
Animal protein, including red meat, poultry, eggs, fish, and dairy products
GMO grains such as wheat, corn, and soy
Sugar
Processed foods that include trans fats or hydrogenated oil
Artificial food additives
Caffeine
Alcohol
Anti-inflammatory foods, on the other hand, provide the body with the nutrients it needs for optimal functioning. People on anti-inflammatory diets generally experience improved energy, improved mood and digestion, and healing from any number of inflammatory conditions. As a bonus, they also more easily drop lingering weight, which can result from low level inflammation.
As a rule of thumb, anti-inflammatory foods are as close to whole plant-based and unprocessed as possible. Ideally they are organically sourced so they contain less environmental toxins. When we consider animal protein healthy, we need to recognize that based on industrial farming standards today, it is near impossible for animals to be raised in truly healthy environments where they have space to move, are fed only a vegetarian diet their entire lifespan, and not given additional medications to enhance growth. Farmers cannot sell animal products and make an income if they actually did what was best for animals and not for humans.
Top anti-inflammatory foods include:
Leafy green vegetables (and most vegetables)
Berries (and most fruit)
Seeds, including quinoa, chia, sesame, and flax seeds
Good fats such as olive oil and coconut oil
Spices, including turmeric and nutritional yeast
High-fiber unrefined gluten-free grains such as buckwheat, amaranth, and farro
Fad Diets vs. Healthy Weight Management: Why Should You Aim for a Sustainable Lifestyle Plan?
The popularity of scientifically unproven and often quite dangerous fad diet plans is not decreasing. Millions of struggling individuals reach for these as a last resort, hoping for rapid weight loss and easy-to-maintain results, usually without having to make permanent sacrifices. Unfortunately, none of these efforts work in the long run, and they often lead to even more complex weight- and health-related problems.
Unhealthy lifestyle choices — whether in the past or the future — often lead to weight gain, along with the likelihood of developing chronic diseases. It is not a sensible idea to follow overly restrictive diets for a temporary period, as once the allotted time is up, the weight is most assuredly going to rebound, leaving you in a far worse place than before. Sticking with such a plan as a permanent dietary habit is not a solution either, since these diets are not sustainable. Instead, the mindset of temporary dieting should be altogether replaced with building lifelong, sustainable, and custom-tailored lifestyle habits — none of which can be supported by fad diets.
Unfortunately, while there are many beneficial foods, vitamins, and other supplements that can boost your already practiced and sustainable weight management efforts, miracle solutions don't exist. From healthy cooking skills to portion control, to finding an enjoyable physical exercise and thinking long-term, a holistic approach to weight management can never be replaced with rapid diets. This is especially true when one is moderate to severely overweight, which likely goes hand-in-hand with hormonal imbalances, ineffective organ functions, and various other, often undetected diseases.
Instead of struggling alone, trying out one diet trend after another, it is crucial to find an integrative primary care physician who thinks holistically and views the presence of excess weight as a symptom of more significant underlying problems. Integrative medicine offers just that: moving away from rapid and restrictive diets towards long-term weight management success, grounded in developing lifelong healthy habits.
How Can Integrative Medicine Help in Reaching and Maintaining Healthy Weight?
An integrative primary care physician focuses on finding the root cause of weight problems. Tests such as blood work are important steps in determining your overall health. Depending on the results from your exams and tests, a persistent weight problem may be easily corrected with allopathic medicinal methods.
While nothing can replace the value of a nutrient-rich diet that is devoid of sugar, processed foods, and harmful toxins, it is essential that your primary care physician helps you design a meal plan that is not overly complicated and enjoyable to the taste buds. Afterall, depriving yourself of things you love is not likely going to work for the long-term. Learning to prepare old favorites in alternative ways, however, can result in a slow, yet sustainable weight loss.
Even more importantly, integrative medicine aims to teach you how to listen to your body better. Become more aware of how certain foods make you feel. Learn about what you truly crave and how to effectively control impulses, stress, and emotions so you do not overeat. Pay attention to your body’s signals. It will ensure your success in maintaining healthy dietary habits, regular physical exercise, and giving your body much-needed downtime and relaxation.
Your integrative primary care physician aims to create a personalized weight management plan that you can follow throughout your life. By doing so, you can experience gradual and healthy weight loss, ensuring that you will never need to turn to a fad diet again.
AUTHOR
Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.