Like Dr. Michael Greger catch phrase: ‘Until We Put It To The Test’! Do not agree with ALL concepts…example: tend to regard Cholesterol as more of a marker than an absolute…a lot of ramifications from that remark! Also no where near absolutely adverse to fats generally, with a serious proviso that they must be good fats! a lot of ramifications from that remark…particularly exposure to risks from degradation of certain fats to high cooking temperatures! In article, written by Michael Greger M.D. FACLM on How to Lose Weight Eating More Food, many fundamentals rear their head…it goes in so many directions including ‘Microbiome Optimization’, ‘Net Carbs’, ‘Protein Counting’, ‘Sugars’…amazing, that what seems a simple prescription actually invokes so many dietary and metabolic functions! Eat More AND Lose Weight!
Let us analyse ‘How to Lose Weight by Eating More Food’! Seems to come down to Energy Density!..certain foods…good example fruit…that superficially one would think is full of fructose and therefore sugars!…would, if eaten to some excess, and take a similar example to comparative type of food, example: cookies that contain a similar amount of fiber…would either perform the same…or not at all on the energy density side. Interestingly the cookies comparison failed to measure with fruit, difference that the fiber contained did not perform as well. Effectively from personal perspective, did not provide fiber for the microbiome in the same manner as fiber from fruit…tends to show that it is the particular good gut bacteria that help bring down the weight…and the cookies on this basis produce bad gut bacteria! Not surprising! Dean Ornish has a best seller in this arena! It seems that subjects that ate three apples or pears a day on top of their regular diet actually lost weight! Personally believe comes down predominately to a validation of proper bacterial development, essential in the micorobiome; after all rhetorically: perhaps oats, or just sugars, in cookies, promotes the wrong bacteria! Remember that way back in our evolutionary tree we appear to be more fruit eaters than vegetable eaters! But let us not digress too much…With a big caveat that likely there IS a connection to our microbiome in that good fiber promotes good bacteria and inferior fiber the opposite…Now let us deal with the deployment of the concept of “energy density”, for argument as a subject uncomplicated by our microbiome! and take a merely physics approach.
As Greger states: “Energy density is a relatively new concept that has been identified as an important factor in body weight control in adults and in children and adolescents…Energy density is defined as the amount of energy [calories] per unit weight of a food or beverage….Eat More AND Lose Weight!” Water, for example, provides a significant amount of weight without adding calories. Fiber, too. “Thus, foods high in water and/or fiber are generally lower in energy density. On the other hand, because dietary fat provides the greatest amount of energy per gram [calories per unit weight], foods high in fat are generally high in energy density. He postulates hat happens if you add fruit to your regular diet, eating three apples or pears as between-meal-snacks every day? He explores this in his video Eating More to Weigh Less, which he titled as a nod to Dr. Dean Ornish’s smash bestseller. Fruit is low in calories, but isn’t calorie-free. So, if you add food—even healthy food—to people’s diets, he asks won’t they gain weight? No, subjects who ate three apples or pears every day added on top of their regular diet lost a couple of pounds. Was that reduction because of all that fiber since our gut bacteria can create anti-obesity compounds from fiber? Again back to the conundrum above...with the assumption that the cookie fiber is producing the right bacteria may be the confusing issue to Dr. Greger!!! Therefore the researchers including Dr. Greger thought the weight-reducing secret of fruit was its low energy density, meaning you get a lot of food for just a few calories, so it fills you up. Eat More AND Lose Weight!
the weight-reducing secret of fruit was its low energy density, meaning you get a lot of food for just a few calories, so it fills you up. Eat More AND Lose Weight!
So we now have this independent relatively new ‘scientific’ concept that has been identified as an important factor in body weight control in adults and in children and adolescents…Energy density is defined as the amount of energy [calories] per unit weight of a food or beverage…. Water…lot of weight no calories…same with fiber.…fat low volume high calories example bacon!…sodas devastating for sugars! The benefits based on physics!…because people tend to eat a consistent weight of food. So, when there are fewer calories per pound, caloric intake is reduced. This concept tried in Hawaii by putting people on a traditional Hawaiian diet with all the plant foods they could eat. The subjects lost an average of 17 pounds in just 21 days, resulting in better cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugars, and blood pressure. Caloric intake dropped 40 percent, but not by eating less food. In fact, they lost 17 pounds in 21 days while eating more food—four pounds of food a day. But, because plants tend to be so calorically dilutive, one can stuff oneself without seeing the same kind of weight gain. Well…well…again personally believe the traditional Hawaii diet will also naturally invoke an excellent traditional Hawaii microbiome…so anyway let`s call it a win win for both physics and biology! Eat More AND Lose Weight!
